Nikola hadn’t had another option but to take the girl with them. Fortunately, she didn’t cry. Having exhausted herself in the last three days. They made stops to feed her and Nikola gave her tea from time to time. There was no point in overfeeding her. Soon they found bones stacked together near a tree. Nikola had left the baby with the manticore and had buried them too, small lights appeared near the grave and he heard thanks. One of the ghosts told him his attack happened three hundred years ago. Which was a problem for Nikola.

It meant that the Gudiao was long lived. There was nothing stopping it from running deeper into the canyon and waiting for them to leave. It had already marked them as predators and was giving them a wide berth. They had heard wailing in the night just one more time the previous night, and it had been very muted.

They pressed on, Nikola created a pack of wolfs he sent to scout deeper into the canyon. They could barely understand him, but he was sure they would fight for him if need be. On the third day of his journey a single wolf returned to them and Nikola thought from how crazed it looked that it must not be one of his. But it did an awkward bow before him and Nikola saw that it was wounded.

“Take me to the Gudiao.” He commanded the wolf and, even though it looked like it didn’t want to go back the way it came from, it rushed deeper into the canyon.

There was water and a trail following it. And it was leading straight into a cave. Nikola saw how scared the wolf was and soon he saw why. Limbs were scattered everywhere. His wolves were dead. But there was a tail, a beige rat like one, near the corpse of the largest wolf of the pack. The Gudiao was wounded! Nikola could jump with joy. He placed the girl in his arms down on the rocky ground and pointed at the wolf.

“Sit and protect! If you run, take her with you.” He commanded and the wolf bowed again. They heard wailing coming from the cave and the wolf’s fur stood on end. But there was something wrong about the sound. It sounded as if it was made by more than one animal.

Nikola got out a rope and tied the girl to the wolf, slapping it’s haunch he spoke.

“Run to where you found me. Keep the girl warm.” The wolf looked relieved as it took off. Nikola drew out his sword and the manticore fell into step with him.

“This is it, granny. Time for you to meet your lady.”

“And tear it a new one!” Said the manticore as it charged into the cave. It was met half way by the Gudiao which smashed it’s body into her and tried to topple her down to try and crush her human head in it’s maul. The manticore dug her feet in and gave out a roar. It moved it’s tail and managed to inject it’s poison into the Gudiao and yet the beast didn’t fall down as it should have.

It was a sorry sight. It’s tail was missing and it was full of bite marks. The wolves must have fought to the best of their abilities. And yet the Gudiao didn’t retreat to the caves. It seemed to be trying to keep the manticore out of them and the wailing coming from them continued.

Nikola rushed and pulled out a dagger which was coated in magic that prevented blood from coating. He jumped on the manticore’s back and then dug the dagger into the Gudiao’s right eye. The Gudiao roared and pushed it’s massive five-meter-tall body against the manticore, trying to get at Nikola and crush his head. But Nikola jumped down from the manticore’s back and circled the Gudiao.

“Hold it just like that, granny! And don’t fear the fire!”

“Fire…?” Was the manticore’s response as the Gudiao suddenly burst into flames. All of the manticore’s instincts screamed at her to let go and run, yet her creator had told her not to be afraid. The fires tried to lick at her fur but there was an invisible barrier holding them at bay. Then she saw her creator climb on the Gudiao and plunge his sword into it’s neck. She heard a crunch of bone and then a thud and suddenly she was holding a twitching headless corpse. The fires went out immediately and the manticore let out a roar as it began to feast on it’s fallen enemy.

Nikola left the manticore to her well-deserved feast and went inside the cave to see…little Gudiaos. There were so many of them. He counted six and they were all hissing at him. If there were young then there must be a mate somewhere too, thought to himself Nikola with dread pooling in his stomach. And maybe there were more. Did the Gudiao mate for life? They were territorial, or else why bother to leave markers? But what if there were more than one mate? What if…

His thoughts were interrupted when one of the small Gudiaos, no bigger than a meter tall, lunged at him. It ended with Nikola’s sword in it’s belly. Nikola tried to get his sword out but it was stuck in the thing’s ribcage. The other Gudiaos saw that and too lunged.

A fireball to the face beheaded one and he snapped the neck of another. That left three little terrors. One of them managed to bite his leg as he was holding another above his head trying to snap it’s spine. He heard a crunch and he wasn’t sure if it was because of his leg bone or the Gudiao he was holding but when it stopped fighting him and went limply in his arms he got his answer.

He kicked at the Gudiao which was longed in his leg and the other one, perhaps the smartest in the bunch, tried to run pass him.

“Granny, catch the young Gudiao!” Yelled Nikola as he grabbed the Gudiao which was at his leg. Placing his fingers over it’s reptilian eyes and squeezing until he heard a pop and the teeth were finally out of his leg. He heard a lion’s roar from the entrance and then some stomping and then the sick sound of something being thrown at the cave’s walls. He looked towards the entrance to see the manticore standing victorious in front of the last Gudiao.

Nikola limped towards the first Gudiao which he had killed and began to move the sword in it’s stomach this way and that, trying to get it free.

“I can smell more of them further in.” Said the manticore and Nikola nodded.

“How many?” He asked and the manticore closed her eyes to concentrate.

“Many, at least a hundred. Younglings included.”

“A nest?” Asked Nikola. If it had been so hard to kill a single Gudiao and it’s younglings then how hard would it be to kill a hundred more?

“Smells like it. But I can smell something else inside. Humans and animals. They are still alive.”

Nikola sucked in a breath. He had hoped he could use poison gas to kill off all of the Gudiaos but now that was off the tables. He touched the inside of his robe and felt the paper there. It was a reassuring weight. He sat down and began folding dragons into existence. Real ones, large and winged and fire breathing. He soon had twenty of them and they all bowed to him.

“Go inside, get the humans and animals to safety. Then burn the whole nest down and everything in it.”

There were going to be casualties. Fire would spread as it was a dragon’s main weapon. But a dragon was far larger than a Gudiao. They could stomp on them, if they got them down. Nikola added this to their orders as the last one left. Soon the first person ran out of the deeper parts of the cave. Nikola stopped the woman and made her stand behind him. She was carrying a baby in her arms. More and more people and animals started to get out. Nikola couldn’t do anything about the animals but he got the people out in an orderly group. He turned towards the manticore.

“Any more humans inside?” He asked and the manticore sniffed the air.

“Just dead ones are left.” She said and Nikola gave the mental command to the dragons to scourge the nest. One dragon moved towards the humans with a Gudiao in his maul. Then it turned towards the cave and roared. Nikola could see Gudiaos trying to get pass the dragon’s gait but it didn’t let them. Sending fire towards them as they wailed.

Nikola sat down and watched the carnage. More and more dragons began to move towards the exit. Nikola gave them the command to hold the line.

“Three more.” Said the manticore as a Gudiao rushed between a dragon’s legs only for it’s neck to be speared by a spiked tail.

“Two.” A Gudiao was thrown in the air and then a sickening crunch was heard.

“One.” And a Gudiao was thrown towards them, headless. The crowd behind Nikola cheered at that as the dragons exited the cave and lined up before them. Nikola snapped his fingers and they turned into paper figurines.

“Ok, everyone. We need to go pick a little girl up but then we can get you all to Danyang.” Nikola said and the crowd cheered again.

“Who are you, honored cultivator?” Asked an old man, tugging at Nikola’s sleeve.

“I am not a cultivator. But a simple warrior.” Said Nikola, standing up and then climbing on top of the manticore’s back.

“Granny, do you think you can find the wolf and the girl?” He asked and the manticore snorted.

“You doubt my nose now? It will be a child’s play.” She prepared to run and then saw all the people near her. Well, it seems that she would be walking.

As they moved towards the wolf Nikola kept asking the survivors questions.

“They kept you all as livestock?” He asked. There was no other explanation as to why this many humans and animals were in the nest, but he still couldn’t wrap his mind around it. The Gudiaos couldn’t be this intelligent, could they?

“Yes, Gege. Those who didn’t follow the beasts were torn at the spot. Those who did had to watch others be torn in the holding pens. But the babies had it worst. The Gudiaos kept them alive until they died of hunger, so that they could produce even more heart wrenching wails.”

“Or because when they wailed the beasts couldn’t tell them apart from their own.” Butted in a young woman. Nikola thought about it. But there was a part that irked him.

“Holding pens? The Gudiao’s didn’t seem like they could construct something like this.”

“Yes, but their minders could.” Called someone to the left. Wait, someone has been domesticating these things?

“Tell me everything about these minders. How did they look? Did they say something near you?” Asked Nikola. If these Gudiao were domesticated, then maybe there were more caves such as this one out there. He couldn’t leave until he was sure that the people of Danyang were safe.

“They were hairy, had white heads and black bodies. Monkey demons, Wuzhiqi!”

“Tell me more of them.” Said Nikola, he really should have paid more attention to China’s flora and fauna, especially it’s supernatural one, when he conquered each nation. He would have known about the Gudiao and this Wuzhiqi and gotten rid of them long ago if he had.

“They came from the Yangtze, they did. They cause the river to overflow and they command the Gudiao and the water ghouls. But your fire breathing beasts burned a lot of them, Gege. Now they would surely back away!”

Chorus of agreement was heard all around the canyon. But Nikola couldn’t help the feeling that these Wuzhiqi will pay him back in full. And there was only one answer he had to that. A preemptive strike.