(Author: Hello all. Been on a chapter release spree with my other story The Necromancer King as the trail of thought seemed to never end. Zhuang and his party arrive in the opening of the rock formation, only to find fifteen rabid ebony snake magical beasts at the fifth level of qi condensation strength with the leader being a rocky star hydra at the eight level like Zhuang. The horde stands between them and any potential treasure they can find. Shorter chapter than usual, but it was fun to write. Enjoy.)

Chapter 14: Horde Leader

Rabid ebony snakes were no threat unless they were a part of a horde. A horde of magical beasts had a hive like mentality. What one saw, the others saw. They moved as if they were one body, controlled by the hive leader. Rabid ebony snakes were black scaled serpents twenty feet long with fangs with paralytic venom. Rabid ebony snakes bit their prey to inject the venom and coiled around them, crushing their prey while their body paralyzed. However, the variant had two heads. Zhuang did not believe it killed its prey the same way.

The rocky star hydra only looked at them once before sleeping in the opening of the rock formation. Nine snake heads were connected to a four-legged body with a twenty foot long neck. The hydra scales were the color of sand, but rocky star hydras were one of the most lethal due to its many traits. Each of its heads were able to shoot a beam of light element qi capable of melting through steel. Steel swords couldn't even scratch the scales of the rocky star hydra. Each head was capable of regenerating and contained paralytic venom so powerful, anyone below the fourth level of qi condensation who was bit would die from a heart attack.

"Be careful of the variant," Zhuang warned as he stored his zither in his storage bag and brandished Nightmare. "Due to having two-heads, there's no way it kills and eats its prey the same way. I'll try to distract the leader so it can't coordinate the rabid ebony snakes."

"Be careful," Lingqi warned as Zhuang rushed into the horde, easily killing two of them before the variant attacked him in rage. Zhuang tossed sleeping powder around him, slowing the rabid ebony snakes as they slithered toward Zhao who took the lead and bashed one of the snake's head with his shield. While Lingqi and the others fought the big snakes, Zhuang fought the variant. He had to kill it fast before the rocky star hydra decided to attack.

He used Astral Steps to teleport behind the variant, his halberd raised high. He was about to behead one snake head, but the other head turned back and breathed a river of sand and rock. Zhuang was blasted back and dropped the halberd as it took him by surprise. Since he was at the eighth level of qi condensation, he wasn't harmed and the nsake only pissed him off. Enraged, Zhuang grabbed vials of poison powder and threw five of them at the snake. The snake weakened as it breathed the poison. Taking advantage, Zhuang grabbed his halberd and mercilessly cut the snake, taking out his embarrassment out on the snake.

Five minutes later, Lingqi and the others finished killing the snakes. They suffered little injuries as they were above the qi condensation levels of the snakes and the snakes were uncoordinated. Luckily the hoard was small and the second-in-command was distracted while the leader slept. They looked ahead and their heart skipped a beat as they saw the baleful aura once again emanate around Zhuang, awe and fear in their eyes as they saw him covered in blood.

"Mei, guard Zhao as he absorbs the spirit energy and tries to obtain a spirit ability. Lingqi and Chang, we're killing the hydra," Zhuang said as Shuang quickly bit some flesh from the snakes around him as he flew to Zhuang's side.

The rocky star hydra awoke to the smell of blood. All nine heads roared in fury as it saw its minions dead, their blood staining the earth crimson. All it saw was Zhuang as the heads saw him covered in the variant's blood. It immediately roared and nine columns of light element qi blasted forth, burning the air as it soared toward Zhuang.

Zhuang laughed as he used Astral Steps to teleport ahead of him, his hair standing on its end as the columns of light soared above him. Lingqi and Chang were only at the sixth level and knew they couldn't do much damage to the rocky star hydra. Lingqi, wielding Yu's swords, made many small scratches as she blurred around the heads. Chang knew he couldn't hurt the hydra and smashed the ground in front of the heads, hitting it hard enough that a small explosion of rock and sand would block and annoy the heads.

Zhuang roared as he cut head after head, dampening his robes with more blood as the heads flew off and regenerated. He tried assaulting the body where the heart of the hydra was but the magical beast kept sacrificing its heads while it used them as a barrier.

"Get back to Mei and Zhao," Zhuang roared, knowing that there were too many heads and that his friends would get surrounded and injured. Chang, the furthest from the hydra, easily ran out of range and began breaking large chunks of rock from the ground to form a barricade in front of Mei and Zhao. Even though they were out of range, the hydra could hurt them with its light beams if it moved closer.

"LINGQI!" Zhuang roared and the world slowed as Lingqi tried to block a beam of light element qi while crossing her swords. The difference too great, Lingqi was sent flying back and coughed blood as she crashed on the floor, alive only because the swords were made of holy metal.

"YOU BASTARD!" Zhuang roared, going berserk once more. He and Lingqi had gotten close ever since they joined the Venomous Serpent faction together and grew even closer while they were in isolation to stabilize their body of the abundant spirit energy due to receiving the Rebirth Tears. If gaining a body gave Zhuang emotions, killing the mage girl and her Spirit guardian and seeing Lingqi hurt intensified them.

The baleful aura became colder and more violent as Zhuang went berserk. Shuang also breathed columns of ice whenever Zhuang cut off a head, preventing the head from regenerating. Its eyes wide with shock, Shuang continued used its ice element qi and collapsed from exhaustion after spewing five more rivers of ice. Zhuang laughed maniacally as he cut head after head as he moved toward the heart. Only three heads were not frozen and desperately tried to protect its body.

"F*CK OFF" Zhuang roared and used his fire element qi technique, Fire Serpent Strike, burning all three heads at once. He saw an opening and immediately channeled all the spirit energy he had left. Chang and Mei shouted in alarm, shocked to see so much spirit energy condensed into Nightmare's blade.

"Disappear," Zhuang said in a cold tone and used his halberd technique, Sundering Dragon Slash, ripping space as the blade slashed into the body. The ground shook as a spatial crack appeared where Zhuang cut, sucking in the body and killing the hydra as its body ripped to shreds. Zhuang wasn't sucked in as he used Astral Steps and teleported away from the rip which soon closed. It wasn't big enough to suck in the whole body so the spirit energy and demonic core remained.

"Lingqi," Zhuang said, dropping his halberd and running to her. He saw her chest exposed, blood all over her chest and immediately began using his healing water qi technique, Water Dragon's Pulse. As he used so much qi earlier, it barely healed Lingqi's injuries. Mei, seeing the hydra die, ran over to Lingqi and began using her healing magic. Zhuang panted heavily from exhaustion and fell on his knees. Sweat poured down his face but he shook his head and refused to lose consciousness.

"Zhuang," Lingqi said weakly as she looked at him. "Are you okay?"

"Am, am I okay? You're the one bleeding on the ground," Zhuang laughed. "Why didn't you dodge the column of light?"

"I thought it was heading in your direction and knew you didn't see it," Lingqi answered.

Zhuang didn't know what to say and felt his emotions stir. He had never felt this way before. All he wanted was power. He never thought on anything else. Yet, here he was having mixed feelings as he stared into a human girl's eyes. His eyes widened in shock as she grabbed his hand. He had never felt such a warm feeling before.

Mei, tactful, quickly left after finishing her magic and giving Lingqi a jacket from her storage bag. Silence continued as Lingqi put on her jacket, her eyes never leaving ZHuang's.

"Are you going to keep staring at me?" she teased as she looked down at her chest and slowly released his hands. "Thanks for worrying about me. You should go refine the spirit energy of the hydra now."

Zhuang cleared his throat and quickly stepped back, cursing himself silently for not understanding what happened as he walked over to the body. Even though they didn't say it, they knew they had feelings for one another. Lingqi felt a small victory as she could finally say that he felt the same way at last. If only he could just say it already.

"What happened?" Chang asked as he saw Mei quickly run to him and Zhao, blushing.

"You're just not there yet," Mei sighed and pat his shoulders while shaking her head. "To think you're older than them and don't even know. You're just not there huh?"

"Huh? What do you mean? Not there where?" Chang asked, confused.

"Spring time for the master," Shuang chuckled as it began gnawing on the ebony serpent snakes. "If only the master could see his face."

Chapter 13: Spirit Abilities Main Page Chapter 15: Discovering Power