A shield wall of metal, made out of the breastplates from fallen demons, moved towards the village. The wall moved slowly but steadily to the tread of heavy steel-shod bear feet, seeming to promise an inexorable doom to all who were at the receiving end. It was powered by the determination and confidence of the shield-bearing bear demons, backed by the faith they had in their powerful leader, Shi Hu. That faith was about to be tested.

Trip waited until the shield wall had travelled almost a quarter of the way down the corridor, before she let off two shots.

BOOM! Pang!

BOOM! Pang!

The shield wall remained completely unaffected, not a single bear demon missed a step. It seemed her newly developed bullet enhancing skill was no match for multiple layers of armour.

No matter. She stuffed her torso holsters and pants full of pistols, then climbed up Bajie to stand on his shoulders to face the shield wall. As she steadied herself, she noticed that not only were his eyes closed, he had his hands over his ears and was softly singing to himself. Something about flowers and fruits.

Refocusing on the shield wall, she was relieved to find that she could now see the top halves of the bear demons’ heads.

BOOM! BOOM!

The tops of two bear demons’ heads exploded. As they collapsed, so did their shields, causing a hole in the shield wall.

BOOM! BOOM!

Before the bear demons could even react, another two shots rang out, another two bear demons collapsed. The gap in the shield wall was now even wider.

“Tortoise formation! Skirmishers, deploy!”

Looking like it had been rehearsed countless times, the shield wall compressed to about half its original width, but now a layer of shields covered the top of the formation to form a box. From the back, high-pitched cries could be heard as pairs of the larger demons began forming muscle-powered trampolines with their interlaced arms, catapulting the smaller demons towards Wukong and Trip.

***

Can’t-Change-Me-Spots, Spotsie to his friends, considered himself a simple leopard demon. All he wanted was three meals a day, some tender human meat once in a while, and lots of fights so he could prove that he was the fastest knife fighter ever. Which was why he volunteered to be the first demon to be catapulted towards the defenders, the first in the group of skirmishers to distract and occupy the enemy, long enough so the rest of their slower brethren could catch up and demolish the defenders. Then it would be time for fun and feasting.

Gripping his twin daggers tight, he sailed through the air, trying to adjust his body and trajectory so that he would land right on top of the stupid-looking monkey demon who had been absolutely useless in the battle thus far. He grinned in exhilaration as he got closer, anticipating the ripping and tearing of his daggers into that monkey’s flesh.

Which was when a grey blur came out of nowhere, smashing him out of the sky and off to one side. Everything faded to black.

Spotsie came to with a snort and a start, trying to get his bearings. He found himself on the ground, daggers still in his hands. Pain lanced through his side, feeling like he’d cracked a few ribs. He was surrounded by bamboo stakes, one of which had gone right through the meaty part of his thigh. Looking around, he saw the monkey demon holding one end of his quarterstaff in a two-handed grip, smashing the skirmishers to each side of the battlefield. One of his brothers landed close to him, but was unlucky enough to be impaled in the gut and throat.

Gritting his teeth, Spotsie got one leg under him, before pulling his other leg from the bamboo stake. As he tied a torn-off piece of his tunic around the wound, he wondered what he and his brothers were supposed to do, now that their plan was in tatters.

***

Seeing that Wukong had the skirmishers well in hand, Trip jumped down from Bajie to lie prone on the ground.

In creating the tortoise formation, the bear demons in front had raised their shields a little higher, trying to protect their heads from getting exploded. Just a little higher, but it was enough.

BOOM! BOOM!

Two bear demons fell, ankles disappearing in a spray of red meat chunks and bone chips. As they roared and thrashed around, they tripped up the other shield-bearers, opening up a big gap in the tortoise formation. Which was when Trip jumped back to her feet and began firing as fast as she could, prioritizing shield bearers and taking down multiple targets with one shot when possible. Bear demons fell in ones and twos, sometimes together with the demon marching behind them.

The other bear demons around the gap tried to move closer together, but they were hindered by their fallen, thrashing brethren. The demons behind tried to reestablish the shield wall by snatching up the shields from their fallen comrades, but most of those injured comrades held on to those shields, instinctively identifying it as their only lifeline. Other demons had fallen directly onto the shields, making them equally as difficult to retrieve. Everything combined to form a chaotic, thrashing mass of demons, full of openings for Trip to shoot at.

Looking at how Trip was mowing down demons, Wukong grew anxious. Would there even be any left for him? Was he going to be left standing here for the entire battle?

How could he, the Handsome Monkey King, the Great Sage Equalling Heaven, be left on the sidelines? Was he no better than Bajie?

-- Chapter 41, End --