"Come on, fuemigos! We got a lot of work to do. Let's start...oh! Over here!"~ Milio, The Gentle Flame
I love adding easter eggs into my fights. There was one in the previous chapter and one in this. Can you spot them?
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The unbearable itch in his ear had very quickly become extremely painful. Painful enough that he had stopped defending himself from the attacking thralls and bent over, grabbed his ear, sticking a finger into it trying to stop the itch.
The thralls had now completely surrounding him. Some swung their weapons while some leapt to take a bite out of him.
Unfortunately, his attention was focused elsewhere, leaving his body open to any attack.
CLICK
His nail hooked onto something in his ear. In one swift motion, he pulled it out stopping the pain and the itch.
CRACK
CRACK
CRACK
Sounds of weapons and teeth hitting something extremely hard rang out.
Wukong frowned as he looked at the thing he had pulled out from his ear, his entire attention on the thing.
A small ornamental staff no longer than the width of his nail stared back at him. The little staff was red with its ends covered with a golden metal. Carvings of dragons ran the length of the little thing.
"What...?" He muttered as he stared at it confused.
He flicked it off his nail and turned his attention back to the thralls.
CLANG
CLANG
CLANG
Only to realize that they were already upon him, swinging their weapons. But he felt nothing.
How?
He straightened himself and the thralls atop him just fell while the rest kept attacking.
Inspecting his body, he realized something.
His skin had turned to stone.
His entire body had. Not just his hands. Everything.
But somehow he was still able to move.
He reached for his staff and gripped it tight.
BREAK
The staff shattered at the center. His grip had broken his only weapon.
"I need another weapon." He slurred his words as his mind began to feel heavy.
But the thralls did not stop.
Swinging his arms wildly, he sent a bunch of thralls flying.
His eyes returned to focus as a staff appeared in front of him. In an almost drunken stupor, he reached for it. As his hand closed around the staff, an unbridled sense of comfort erupted from within.
The tiny ornamental staff that he had just flicked away had grown larger and perfectly fit within his hands.
"Ugh!"
He grunted grabbing his head as a jolted of pain went through it.
Memories of a life he had never had rushed through him. Of a fighting style incredibly different from the Wuju style he currently practiced.
All of a sudden his mind was clear. Everything slowed down. The frustration faded away. In the distance, he caught the sight of Xolaani swinging her sword toward his master.
He pointed his staff in her direction.
ZWOOOOOM
A sudden whistling noise forced Xolaani to turn her head.
From Yi's perspective, one moment Xolaani stood over him.... the next? She was gone, replaced by a staff.
A staff his vision followed toward his disciple.
The staff shortened back toward a completely overwhelmed Wukong. Thralls piled over him trying to bury him under their combined weight.
"Insects."
Wukong's words were like a knife penetrating the strange silence that had engulfed the battlefield.
"Begone.... with the thunderclap."
The dark cloudy sky that had given way to rain had lit up as if the sun had moved back to its position high in the sky.
Endless bolts of lightning rained from the above decimating the thralls atop him.
Wukong slowly rose to full height, the burnt bodies of the thralls sliding off of him. He placed one end of the staff on the ground and willed it to grow as he held onto the other end.
His body shot up to the clouds. With one hand holding his body up and the rest of his body leaning on the side of the now massive staff, he coldly observed his surroundings for his enemy. Lighting danced above him in the clouds.
"And here he is!" Xolaani's voice echoed through the canyons. "The return of the mortal Celestial!"
She flew back toward them, her body growing larger in response to Wukong's awakening.
"A Celestial?" Yi breathed out, not believing that his disciple had been a godlike being all along. But his eyes did not deceive him. From where he lay, Wukong did look like a god wreathed in lighting. His skin had become grey with a stone like texture to it.
Xolaani chuckled as she raised her hand. The destroyed thralls underneath turned to pure blood and bone. The blood formed a river than flowed toward her and the bones turned into a seemingly endless amount of chakrams that raced toward Wukong.
Wukong tilted his head as he looked at the incoming chakrams. His attention then shifted toward the river of blood. Xolaani's arm reached for the blood, welcoming it into herself.
KRA-KOOOM
A giant bolt of lighting hit the river of blood just as it made contact with Xolaani. The current traveled up the river and into the Darkin, burning her.
She did not even grunt but continued to absorb the blood.
More bolts of lighting rained down onto the river effectively stopping her from absorbing more blood as the amount she absorbed wouldnt be worth the healing she would have to do. The river of blood broke apart and like a puppet without its strings crashed to the ground.
Meanwhile Wukong pushed his body off of the staff and placed his other hand firmly on the red bar, putting himself in a flag position. Then he swung his body to the side while willing the staff to shorten to a normal length. With the staff suddenly without support, he began to fall to the ground. But it did not faze him, instead with the momentum generated from swinging his body, he swung the staff under his body and willed it to grow larger once more creating a solid platform for him which doubled as a shield for the chakrams. The chakrams flew into the falling staff, most of them breaking into pieces upon impact not even leaving a scratch on the staff itself. Wuking sprinted across the rapidly descending staff and leaped for the edge. In one motion he cleared the edge and both his hands grabbed onto the edge and he swung the gigantic staff over his head. It cut into the clouds and at the zenith of the arc, it grew bigger as a storm of lightning began to gather at the tip, racing across the gold metallic edge.
"Die."
Yi's eyes widened as he watched the sky get engulfed by the staff, clouds being blown away by its sheer size as Wukong swung his weapon at the Darkin.
A swing that would kill him on impact as well.
He closed his eyes as he welcomed the sweet release of death. The falling staff becoming a gigantic arrow in response.
But once again, nothing happened as his body was wicked away. He opened his eyes, weakly looking at Xolaani being buried by the end of the enormous weapon, stuggling to fight against the force pushing her down. His hand failed for the ground, instead grabbing a fluffy dark cloud.
It flew him up above the staff as the weapon slammed into the ground.
His ears popped as the ability to hear sounds left him. Due to the sudden change in altitude or from the impact of the weapon he could not know.
The rainbowed canyons crumbled under the attack, countless rock formations instantly disappearing under the immense weight of the staff. A devastating crater created by an attack no mortal could have made. The ground underneath, or whatever leftover burnt black.
The cloud brought Yi to Wukong, who hung off the other end of the staff with one arm.
"Is she dead?" Yi whispered to his disciple.
Wukong shook his head.
"Can you finish it?" He asked, his voice dropping.
Wukong stared at his master's mutilated body and then toward the now destroyed canyons.
"No." Wuking said as desperation flowed into his voice hearing the voice of his fading master
More cloud flew underneath Yi enlarging the platform. Wukong fell onto it, the staff of his shortening into its initial nail sized state and he placed it in his ear.
"What.... are you doing....?" Yi let out weakly as he slowly lost consciousness.
The cloud shot off into the distance as Wukong replied, "Saving your life."