Chapter 137 - Let the Show Begin

Victoria’s world suddenly rushed back into existence as she snapped out of her shocked daze.

Her friends were gathered on the other side of the room, tears in their eyes as they yelled at Victoria to get away from the lizard.

The monstrous lizard was on the table, its eyes bulging out as it coiled back on its haunches. Its claws gripped into the table as it prepared to launch itself at her.

With urgency, the incorporeal voice repeated once more, “The crystals- Tear them off your dress!”

Reacting instinctively to the voice, Victoria reached down and grabbed at the largest clear crystal that was sewn into the bosom of her dress. The thin threads securing the crystal to the fabric snapped as she jerked it off. An entire line of crystals fell to the floor as Victoria threw the crystal in her hand into the corner of the room.

The lizard’s gaze turned away from Victoria as it launched itself off the table, crashing into a dressing table as it chased after the crystal.

At once, Victoria heard an order in her mind, “Run!”

A trembling energy filled Victoria’s limbs as she finally started moving. Even as she rushed to the door she continued to tear at the crystals on her dress, snapping them off their delicate strings.

Ella shoved the door open and all four girls rushed out into the hallway. They ran down the hall, crying out for help. Several doors opened as a few heads poked out of the other dressing rooms.

“What’s all this?” A moustached man in a suit stepped out into the corridor, intercepting the girls.

Mia collapsed onto him, crying furiously as Diana pointed frantically down the hall, mumbling incoherently. Sounds of crashing furniture and bestial grunts echoed down the hallway from their dressing room.

“A monster- a monster tried to eat us!” Ella exclaimed.

“Monster? What in Lord Noga’s name?” The man looked over to the room, “Girls, explain yourselves.”

“No need, Mr. Stanford.” A confident voice said. “I’ll handle it.”

Corbin Nao rounded the corner with a serious expression. He looked around at the girls and other guests who had poked their heads out into the hallway, “Please, everyone, go back into your rooms and close the door. Mr. Stanford, could you please shelter the girls in your room?”

“Certainly, Mr. Nao.” Stanford stammered, still confused as to what was happening. He gently ushered the terrified girls into his room and closed the door.

Corbin’s footsteps echoed off the walls as he strode down the empty hallway towards the Shu’s sitting room. He calmly pulled off the white dress gloves on each hand, folding them individually and tucking them into his coat pocket.

The snarling and clattering sounds drifted out of the dressing room, though the door was only barely ajar, preventing Corbin from seeing what was happening within.

As Corbin reached out to the door handle the noises within the room suddenly stopped. He paused, peeking through the slit in the doorway as the hallway fell into silence. Smashed furniture littered the room with chunks of rock and debris strewn about. Streaks of blood and mucousy film glittered off the flickering light of a lantern.

He steeled his jaw, pulling the brim of his hat over his eyes while gently pushing open the door with his right hand.

He stepped into the deathly silent room, nerves on alert as he scanned the room. It was in complete disarray, with giant claw marks gouged into the plaster walls and tiled floor. The remains of numerous stone egg shells lay around a smashed table in the center of the room, with several scraps of bloodied meat strewn about. However there was no monster in sight.

Several oil lanterns lay smashed and extinguished around the room. Only the weak light from a single lantern in the corner remained, casting long shadows across the ravaged room.

Corbin took another step into the room, his pointed shoes crunching on the debris on the ground. Looking down he saw that a great deal of dirt was strewn about, the origin of which was a large hole in the floor in the corner of the room.

With measured steps Corbin walked over to the hole. The beast had smashed through the wooden floor, digging straight into the earth. The hole lead to a dark tunnel that descended into the earth.

It was too dark to look down the tunnel, but Corbin had already seen enough. Whatever was down there was large, aggressive and dangerous. He was not a fighter, he had only been conveniently nearby when he heard the screams of the girls. He quickly made up his mind to head back to the main hall for help when he suddenly saw two yellow eyes suddenly open in the dirt at the mouth of the tunnel.

Move! His spiritual intuition went into alarm as he dove out of the way of the beast’s surprise attack.

It had been lying in wait with its body concealed at the entrance to the tunnel, buried in the dirt with only its eyes poking up. Chunks of dirt and rock exploded from the floor as a huge brown lizard launched itself at him with a roar.

A rush of wind blew past him as he just barely dodged the snapping jaws, rolling across the floor. He recovered in a kneeling position with one hand pressed against his hat to keep it from falling off. Almost immediately he had to launch himself away again as the lizard swung its tail at him. It collided with a dresser, smashing it to bits.

“Not good!” He exclaimed, his face stinging from the splinters flying through the air.

He scanned his surroundings quickly, grabbing an iron fire poker off the ground. He’d managed to dodge the first two attacks, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to take even a single hit from the lizard. He needed to end the fight quickly!

His shoes scraped against the floor as he rushed at the lizard that had turned around to face him. It was bulky and didn’t seem particularly agile, but it had enormous front digging claws and its skin was coarse and pebbled as if it were made of rock. The only weakness the beast seemed to have were the large, bulbous eyes on top of its head.

Seeing Corbin rushing at it, the lizard opened its jaw wide and roared, digging its giant claws into the ground as it launched itself across the room with terrifying momentum.

Just as it was about to reach Corbin he threw his left hand out, activating his Exalted powers in an instant.

The lizard and the debris flying around it suddenly froze in the mid-air. With a light, dextrous leap Corbin grabbed onto the suspended claw of the beast and swung himself up above onto the lizard’s head. He stabbed the fire poker three times into each of the lizard’s eyes, then launched himself off backwards, landing gracefully behind the lizard.

Corbin released the stasis and the frozen scene came back to life. The lizard’s bulbous eyes exploded in a burst of blood and ocular fluid as the force of the poker strikes transferred in the instant that the power was released. It crashed into the wall, bursting through into the next room, howling in rage.

Blinded, it began thrashing at everything around it. The whole mansion began to shake as it took out an entire wall in a single swipe.

“Time to get help!” Corbin took one look at the beast’s whirlwind rampage and decided to retreat. He wasn’t a fighter, after all. Fighting crazed beasts was not part of his job description. At the very least it couldn’t chase him now that he’d blinded it.

He turned away from the lizard and ran for the hallway. However as he crossed the middle of the room, a deep voice suddenly chuckled.

“Where are you going?”

Corbin’s spiritual intuition rang out as he ducked a sudden slash that materialized out of the ceiling. At the same time a hand emerged from the ground and gripped onto his leg, dragging him to the floor.

The hand disappeared into the pool of blood that it had emerged from as Corbin scrambled backward, eyes wide with terror as he looked up at a splotch of blood on the ceiling.

A monk descended from the ceiling, arms crossed as he looked down at Corbin. His face was obscured by the darkness within the deep hood of his blood red robes.

In the Exalted world, a second’s hesitation was the razor thin line between life and death. As soon as the enemy presented himself to Corbin he threw his hand out, activating his stasis power on the monk as he scrambled to his feet to run.

The monk froze mid-air, but a pair of bloody arms rose out of the ground and pulled Corbin back down to the floor, violently smashing his skull against the cracked tile. The stasis effect broke as he lost focus.

“No, I’m not falling for that trick again.” The monk chuckled. His voice was not coming from his mouth, but seemed to reverberate off the blood on the walls and floor.

“What do you want from me?” Corbin choked as the arms prevented him from escaping.

“You? Nothing. Nothing at all.” The monk looked around, “But I would like to speak to your benefactor.”

“Benefactor..? You mean Sansen Zhao?”

“No, no, of course not.” The monk said, turning away from Corbin dismissively.

He bowed deeply, addressing an unseen entity as he his voice reverberated off the walls.

“White Maiden, who art watching from afar. I am delighted to make your acquaintance.”