Chapter 56: The Death in Life and Death

Wang Zen kept running at full speed, sometimes risking a few glances back at the entrenching herd of lizard beasts. The biggest one of them was catching up fast. Zen scrambled up at a tree before it could catch up to him. he sat on a sturdy branch and looked down at the lizard beasts. In his desperation to get away, he had lost his bearings, meaning he had also lost sight of the corpse of the beast he had killed. Cursing as he thought about the precious beast core that would be wasted.

“Go away, you dumb beasts!” Zen spat at the lizards circling his tree.

The biggest one of the four had dark green scales and Zen guessed that it was male while the other smaller lighter green scales were female.

“A male and its harem,” Zen said to himself before he laughed humourlessly. “Perhaps I’m a villain in a wuxia story where the lizard is the hero.”

The lizards began attacking the trees like charging bulls, their heads shrouded in ki as they did so. Zen hugged the tree in hopes of not falling off. However, even if he was able to hold on it seemed the tree would not be able to do the same as it began to crack at the base with each attack.

“This looks bad,” Zen said to himself. Then he heard a familiar sound. He looked across of him and in the next tree saw the red ape jumping up and down on a branch. “Shibi? What are you doing here?”

Zen had to hold on tighter as the tree began shaking even more. He looked at the ape as it jumped up and down. That was when Zen knew what Shibi was trying to tell him. He gingerly rose to his feet and as the tree tipped over, he jumped for the tree Shibi was on!

He reached out as he sailed between the spaces of the two trees and grabbed a hold of a branch. It snapped! Zen was sent falling down, snapping more branches along the way until his outstretched arm snagged one branch which bent heavily thanks to his weight.

Shibi looked down at him in worry, for below Zen were the green lizards, leaping up and snapping at his feet like sharks reaching for bait.

Zen ignored the pain his whole body was feeling and tried to pull himself up but the more he did that, the more the branch would break, threatening to spill him into the angry predators below. He looked up helplessly at his ape companion. Zen was unsure if it was because of the injuries he had sustained but to him, it looked like Shibi was shining brighter.

The ape jumped off the tree, slowing its descent by swinging down the few remaining branches in its path. The Scorch Ape landed on the face of the biggest lizard and smashed its little fists into its elongated nose. This seemed to irritate the beast more than hurt it and it angrily shook its head to get Shibi off. Shibi landed on the floor and scrambled around, dodging the three lizards as they angrily tried to catch the nimble beast.

Zen looked down, realising that Shibi was leading the beasts away from him. Zen landed safely o the floor now that the beasts were thoroughly distracted. He was impressed at how Shibi was frustrating the beasts by running between their legs, causing them to crash into each other and in their frustration even attack each other for their mistakes.

As Zen hid behind a tree, he thought that maybe he had been going about this all wrong. He had been so obsessed in obtaining more power to defeat all his opponents but here was Shibi, who had hardly thrown a punch but was still doing well.

He wanted to call out to the ape to retreat but feared giving away his position to the beasts. The big beats got lucky and stamped one of its muscular hind legs on Shibi’s tail. The Scorch Ape tried to escape but it was no use.

“Shibi,” Zen said in concern. He withdrew his blade and came rushing out, shouting in anger as he charged at the beasts.

The two females turned around to face him but, learning from Shibi, declined fighting them and instead vaulted over their heads to the lead beast. He landed on its back as if it were a horse before stabbing his blade into its back. The beast screamed and threw him off.

“Shibi!” Zen covered the ape in his arms before his back was hit by the beast’s tail. Zen flipped around and landed on his back to protect Shibi from the fall.

Shibi looked down at him in worry as it stood on his rapidly rising and falling chest.

“Shibi, get away!” he said as he sat up.

He and Shibi had to leap in different directions as the lizard beast charged past them. Rolling out of the way, he dodged another beasts stomp but the resultant shockwave blasted him away. He got up in time to take a ki charging attack from the third lizard which sent him hurtling into a tree. Blood splattered out of his mouth when he landed and he slid down to his rear.

He rose to his feet but then collapsed again, coughing out blood. Looking at the approaching beasts he could not help thinking if these were his last moments. When he did this, he had thought only of the benefits his life would reap from participating in a life and death battle but he had never considered the death possibility. Now, at this critical moment, it was all he could think of.

The began running for him, impatient to end his life. It got closer until it had to detour as it was slashes to the side of its face by a hunting knife. Jiahai stood between Zen and the beasts as the biggest skulked in the corner, blood gushing from its neck.

“Zen,” Jiahai said with panic in his voice, “Are you still alive?”