The Vermillion Bird has finally landed to the ground after being struck by Hosuke’s Trident of The Sea God. The four of us begins to surround the bird. Mei summons a bunch of floating swords next to her afterwards. To be quite honest, I wasn’t sure of what was her ability. I tried asking her about it,

“Hey is that your magic ability, Mei? What is it supposed to be?”

“This right here? It was known as an ancient ability called, Hall of Swords. It’s a part of the many different types of weapon hall that I can use as well.”

“Hall of Swords?” Hosuke scratches his head, “What do you mean by that?”

Mei replies, “It means that I can summon a bunch of swords that was kept from the Hall of Swords. At the Hall of Swords, thousands upon thousands of different swords that existed since the dawn of time can be found here. And most importantly, I can use them.” She finishes her word as she grab onto one of the swords that was floating around her.

“Interesting.” Haz nodded.

“In any case, we should focus back on this bird. Because it looks like it’s about to open its wing.” I said so as soon as I noticed Zhuque starting to move.

The four of us stood in a defensive state awaiting for any pre-emptive attack that Zhuque might have. We have this kind of knowledge because as Hosuke said, this battle was almost like a boss raid from an MMORPG. And during a boss raid, there will be some gimmicks to them. All of them will be different from each other. Time was off the essence and it was only during the chaos was where we will be able to discern on what to do with the boss while we observed its attack pattern.

“Seven!” Haz called for his robot.

Seven then begins to pile up a bunch of dirt and started to absorb it, creating a machine and earth hybrid of its self. Seven probably does this because the dirt acts as an additional protective skin layer for its armour.

Zhuque started to spread its wing and begins making its screeching noise. It started to imbue a hot aura around itself and anything near it. If only Rider was with us…He could transform himself wearing one of his fire resistant armour. He probably has a bunch of it. But now that Zhuque was imbuing a hot aura, we only had a little time to hold on to the heat until we start to exhaust ourselves.

“Let’s finish this quick, everyone!” I ordered everyone to strike.

Hosuke started adding an additional layer to the water shield that he already casted on us during the first phase of the fight. After that, he clasped both of his hand in its place turning into a fist. Water sprouts rapidly moved around his fist as he tightly closed his hands. Water rope started to form as Hosuke touched both of his hand together. He begins to spin it around and tries to lasso the bird.

While he was doing that, Mei started to throw a bunch of swords to Zhuque. Most of the sword ended up broken or melted as soon as it hits the skin of the bird. Even so, it does some kind of damage to it. She also tried to swing some of the swords to the bird but the same thing happened to all of her wielded swords. Mei then started to cast 100 different swords in the sky and begins raining it down toward Zhuque. Some of it missed, some of it scratches the bird, and some of it also broke or melted. Zhuque kept increasing its heat every time we deal some damage to it.

Haz then used his earth elemental magic and created a group of Stone Warrior. All of the warriors were holding a stone spear. With a quick flick of a hand, the Stone Warrior charged to Zhuque and stabbed it right at its body. The warrior successfully damaged the bird but they slowly begin to melt as time went on. The heat was too much for the stone, apparently.

“Guess I have no choice…” I said so in a reluctant voice.

Dark aura started to exudes my whole body. In just a few moments my vision slowly becoming deluded. In the darkness, I heard a voice.

“So you’ve come back…” it was the voice of The Black Berserker.

“Indeed I am back, Black Berserker.”

“Let me guess…You need me, right now…”

“No. Just give me your blade and that’s enough.” I didn’t stutter.

The Black Berserker was heard, sighing, “You will need my power very soon, Blax Tank. I promise you that. But for now…” the Black Berserker summons his blade in front of me.

I grabbed it and said, “Thank you very much, BB”

“Go, and let the fires of justice reign down upon the divine feathered beast. Fight fire…with fire! We will meet again, Blax Tank!”

“I’ll see you soon, buddy.”

With that, my vision started clear up once again. Hosuke successfully lassoed Zhuque by its neck through sheer luck. He then tried to pin down the bird by rooting down his water rope to the ground. Zhuque was still standing tall however. Hosuke then sends his rooted rope to force itself to dig down as deep as it could in order to pin down Zhuque. Seconds later, the bird has been pinned. Its head was on the ground.

Mei and I swung our swords as much as possible to the bird while it was desperately struggling. The battle was not over yet as Zhuque imbues out an extreme heat wave all over the area. All four of us were on our knees and slowly losing our strength as the temperature kept rising to its boiling point.

“We’re going to die!” screamed Haz.

“Not today, Haz!” Hosuke stood proudly after he said that.

He ran toward the bird and pulled out the trident that was still stuck to its heart area. Royal velvet red blood spewed out from the bird as Hosuke pulls out his trident. Hosuke spins his trident around like a baton and spiked it to the ground. A huge geyser started to implode beneath Zhuque. The water rope begins to fade out as it was mixed with the geyser’s water.

Zhuque tried to escape from the geyser but walls of metal and earth started to form around the geyser. Blocking off any escape route for the bird. Then in the sky, a bunch of swords appears from a magic circle. It begins to rain down on the bird as the bird was still brought up by the extreme geyser. We finally managed to deal a high amount of damage to Zhuque. Additionally, we somehow made a temporary huge fountain. It was kind of beautiful from our point of view down here compared to what the bird was feeling.

As the water finally recedes, swords were downed on the floor and the walls started to crumble apart, Zhuque was left exhausted on the ground. Somehow, it was still alive after going through all of that. That just proves that the divine beast was a force to be reckoned with.

“I think it’s over. It doesn’t seem to be able to fight on right now” said Mei as she approached Zhuque.

“Glad that’s over. We would be melted if it wasn’t for the effects of The Black Berserker’s blade. It can absorb heat.” I returned the blade back to where it came from.

“So what now?” asked Hosuke.

Mei turned to us and said “Now we secure Zhuque by keeping it inside an artefact.”

“And what is this artefact?” questioned Haz.

She pulls out something from her pocket and replied, “This. A locket. Not just any locket. It’s called The Bird Cage.”

Haz chuckled, “Profoundly funny. We’re keeping a legendary bird inside a ‘cage’. Are we the bad guys, now?”

“Shut it, Haz.” I stopped Haz.

Mei placed the locket on top of the bird and slowly, the bird started to fall into pieces and went into the locket.

“With this, we are one step closer to defeating the Undead Army of Shihuangdi.” Mei lets out a sigh of relief.

“Now is not the time to get relaxed.” I changed my tone.

“What’s happening, Blax? Are you alright?” Hosuke was confused.

“I’m not going to allow you to hold on to that locket on your own. We’re still in suspicion of you. Give me that thing. I’ll keep it safe for now.”

Mei obliged and gave to me. I wore the locket around my neck.

“Good. What’s our next move?” I asked.

Mei answered, “We’re heading to the other pillar. In the meantime, you guys deserve some rest. Gather your strength and prepare for the next one. Perhaps, bring in a few more allies. And make sure not to do anything to that locket.”

“Very well.”

Mei bowed down and left the area along with her people.

“Did she really just give The Vermillion Bird to you?” Hosuke was a little surprised.

“It’s the only way for us to cooperate with her without being backstabbed. I have trust issues…”

“Something wrong?”asked Haz.

“I remembered something that happened at high school. It has something to do with White and that girl. And now…I don’t think that girl is even called Mei…I need to make sure and ask White about this first…”

TO BE CONTINUED