'Don't run,' Wen Dao said immediately. 'It's faster than us.'
The Iron Face Crusher moved toward them. Its steps shook the ground.
Cai Rong grabbed a chunk of fallen stone. Li Meng pressed against the wall, scroll case held to his chest.
'What do we do?' Cai Rong said.
Wen Dao looked at the beast. It was large. It was strong. It was significantly more powerful than any of them.
It was also predictable.
The beast had seen them and was moving in a straight line. Straight lines were for things that didn't expect resistance.
'When it reaches the entrance, Cai Rong throws the stone hard at its face from the right. Li Meng throws one of those glass vials from the left — aim for the base of the neck. I go underneath from the center.'
'Underneath?' Li Meng said.
'The belly. Every quadruped has a soft underbelly. If the hide there is weaker—'
'That's a lot of if,' Cai Rong said.
'Yes,' Wen Dao said.
The beast reached the entrance. It was too large to enter directly — it had to lower its massive head to push through the gap.
Cai Rong threw. The stone cracked against the flat face. Two dozen tiny eyes blinked.
Li Meng's vial hit the neck. The glass broke. The liquid inside was whatever it was — corrosive, perhaps, because the beast made a deep grinding sound and recoiled.
Wen Dao went low and forward. He went under the creature's chin as it pulled back, rolled under the descended head, and was underneath the body in the space between the four legs.
He could feel the body heat from above. The belly hide was close.
He drove both fists upward. Hard. Hardened Level Five Body Tempering behind it. The Iron Question Fist's second form — a rising interrogation.
The hide was tough. But not as tough as the outer hide. He felt it compress.
The beast lurched. Its legs spread. One massive foot came down inches from Wen Dao's head.
He hit again. Twice. Three times. The same spot.
The beast made that grinding sound again. Louder this time.
It moved backward rapidly — trying to get away from the thing hitting its belly. It dragged Wen Dao with it for a second before he rolled clear.
He came up in the open ruins.
The beast stared at him with its hundred tiny eyes. Something in its expression — if that flat face had an expression — shifted. It had been hit in a vulnerable place by something much smaller.
It decided to leave.
It turned and moved away through the ruins. Each step slower than the last, a sign of pain or confusion. It disappeared between two fallen walls.
Wen Dao looked at his hands. His knuckles were bleeding. The belly hide had been tough enough to cut them.
He walked back to the shelter.
Li Meng and Cai Rong stared at him.
'Did you just scare off a Level Seven equivalent beast?' Cai Rong said.
'I found a weak point and hit it repeatedly,' Wen Dao said. 'Calling that bravery would be inaccurate. It was more like aggressive questioning.'
Li Meng sat down heavily on a stone. Then he started laughing. It was a slightly unhinged laugh — the kind that comes after genuine terror.
Cai Rong joined in.
Wen Dao sat down and looked at his bleeding hands. He wrapped them with cloth torn from his inner robe.
'We should keep moving,' he said, when they had settled. 'This area will attract attention. Other beasts come to investigate disturbance sounds.'
They gathered Li Meng's collected items and moved deeper.
The jade pendant warmed against his chest as they went.
He pressed one hand against it briefly. The warmth felt like acknowledgment.
Something important was ahead.