Chapter 89: The Same Quest… with bandits

Cho threw the storage stone that Xi had liberated from Zen in front of the boy.

“Open it up, kid.” He said.

Zen looked around at his captured comrades. Cong and Geyi Kun had already given the bandits access to their storage stones. They found a wealth of clothes, provisions, scrolls and books from Jao Cong and the same from Geyi Kun with more weapons, mainly knives of variable sizes and a few jars of herbs. Xue Shaonu’s storage stone, much like the storage stones located in their academy badges, was of a higher quality, so she could not give the bandits access to it as easily. Now it was Zen’s turn.

The boy looked up hatefully at Cho. “Do it, boy! Or else…”

Zen took a deep breath, looking at the helpless Jao Cong who was being guarded by the big Yang. He knew he could not start a fight with them and protect any of his companions, so for now, he had no choice but to cooperate.

He cradled the storage stone and sent out a sliver of his ki into it, allowing it to connect to the stored imprint of his ki in the stone. This was how he would gain access to the stone and also how he would remove his signature from it, allowing anyone, even the bandits, access to it. His ki wrapped around the imprint and forcefully pulled it out, removing the lock to the storage stone.

As soon as it was done, Cho snatched it from Zen’s hands. He then emptied all of the contents on the forest floor, sad to see the few valuables there. “What kind of academy brats are you people? Clothes, survival supplies and only a handful of weapons. Where is the jewellery, the coin?”

“Sorry, we did not know that we had to look good in the forest!” Zen spat.

Cho laughed before he suddenly lashed out with a kick to Zen’s face. His smile was gone, as if it had never been there. “Yang, bind this punk.” Cho saw the short sword amongst Zen’s valuables.

Zen’s wrists were tied close to the rope around his waist. He led the way through the forest, with Xi following close behind him, while Cho walked with the girls and Yang with the meek Jao Cong. Zen had figured that the bandits hadn’t figured out that of their group, he was the most useless. All he was really doing was leading them west where the blue grass grew. If they figured that out, they would just kill him and continue west alone. He needed to make the way as complex as he could, so he would sometimes veer off track before going back onto the path.

He would sometimes glance up with his eyes, seeing a red blur moving across the foliage of the trees, sometimes sending dead, colourful leaves raining down on them. The thought that Shibi was safe did comfort him a little.

The sun had begun to sink low into the horizon, taking its light with it. Zen kept heading west. The pain in his leg had been steadily growing because of the walk but he did not let on that he was suffering, lest their captors decided he was more trouble than he was worth, which he was. He kept walking on, which was becoming increasingly harder as there were patches of the forest that was devoid of any grass, only having sinking soil and a few times, Zen stumbled over piles of soil. He noticed that the piles of soils were of different sizes, some at knee height and others as tall as a man.

“It’s getting dark.” Cho observed. “We’ll need to make camp.”

Zen and the group stopped at that had patches of naked soil amongst the grass and other vegetation. It was here that they decided to make camp. The bandits made them sleep at four separate corners, while they slept at the centre, ensuring that they would be safe while the Academy students were at a bigger risk.

The ground would occasionally tremble beneath Zen’s ear as he laid by his side, pretending to be asleep but the whole time he kept his eye on the bandits. They had decided to stay guard and sleep in turns, with two bandits being awake at a time to watch the prisoners while one of them slept. He watched the bandits out of one eye, tempted to launch a surprise attack but he knew that as long as he was bound by the strong ropes, he would not be able to defeat them.

The trembling got stronger… then Zen could feel it. A killing Intent! Cho leapt to his feet, feeling the same thing before something burst out of the ground and grabbed him as he was leaping away. The creature was able to grasp part of him before the bandit was able to pull away to gaze in surprise at the beast that had attacked him.

It had dark grey fur around its body and a brown head with tiny black beady eyes with dagger sized claws at the end of its hands. The creature dug into the ground once more in the blink of an eye. At this point everyone was on their feet, running around while Cho tried to calm them down.

The creature leapt from the ground once again, aiming its claws at Cho, who, by this time, had already summoned the short sword he had received from Zen. He used the blade to ward off the creature’s dagger-like claws, only have him being blasted away and the sword ripped from his grasp.

Zen ran to his sword and used the blade to cut himself free as he looked around from his comrades. He saw Kun running ahead for the bushes, with Xue Shaonu and Jao Cong following behind her. She disappeared into the shrubs and screamed, causing Xue Shaonu and Cong to halt. Moments later three large brown hounds with black spots swaggered out of the bush.

Jao stepped back, trying to add distance from himself to the hound but he stumbled back, falling onto his butt as the hounds came in closer, their teeth bared and a growl from the back of their throat.

They sprinted forward and Jao closed his eyes for the inevitable but to his surprise, the hounds went around and over him as they attacked Xue Shaonu. She tried to get into a fighting stance but the ropes stopped her, leaving her to watch as the hounds bore down on her…!