Chapter 348 Dark Beast
Up front was emptiness all around, but a few pillars extending to the unknown. Between each pillar was a large bridge that would allow safe passage.
"Don't make a peep or sound, this is a dangerous area where flight is forbidden" the Man in the Mask said.
He didn't even need to explain that flight was forbidden here, I could already see spatial law lines here, they're too complex to work around if one wasn't at the origin of these law lines. And by tracing the source of these law lines they all seemed to be coming from down below. No thank you. I'd rather walk.
Our group nodded and we rode on the carriage that slowly walked forward.
As we were crossing the chasm I took a peak and couldn't see anything but emptiness, I didn't dare extend my divine sense to inspect what was going on in there, because as the saying goes if you stare long enough into the abyss, it might stare back.
No one spoke as we rode on, not even the bull made a single sound as it was moving. The carriage for all its rumbling and thunder booms that it released as it moved outside, was as silent as the dead as it now moved in this dark place.
The Sect Master seemed alerted so did the other three, they know that something was in here and they never wanted to have the ill-fated luck of meeting it.
I sent a divine sense message to the sect master asking, "Why are we moving slowly?"
"There is something here, that the Imperial placed, a warden of sorts, we don't want to deal with it. If we keep quiet it won't notice us," the Sect Master said.
I nodded my head and kept my eyes peeled. Though it's hard to see anything in this darkness, at least it would give me a better shot at reacting if something ever does come up.
We crossed several pillars without anything going awry until we were able to see the other side of the chasm.
there was another door far away, which we were not able to see before but after crossing a large distance, we were able to spot it thanks to two braziers that seemed to be lit there.
Just as our destination was confirmed and the sight of 'safety' from the unknown below seemed close, the bull stepped on a pillar that seemed too brittle for some reason.
Suddenly a large portion of the pillar cracked and fell to the deep.
Everyone on the carriage looked at each other in sudden stupefaction, before the Masked man howled with all he got, "MOVE!"
The bull didn't dare hesitate as it shot forward at extreme speed.
The slow pacing of before was a joke to how fast the bull was moving as it crossed pillar after pillar in seconds.
But it was too late as some sort of creature seemed to emerge from in front of us.
It was something that I'd never seen before, the creature was feline-like, only its torso was so far bigger than the rest of its body that it looked like a 20-year worth of bodybuilding only the upper half of the body.
However, that was only relative to the rest of its own body, not that its lower back was skinny it was still scary to look at.
The creature was as dark as the abyss from where it came from, and we were only able to see it as it stood at the other side of 'safety' due to the braziers lighting some of its features.
It had eyes redder than hot coal and not only two but three sets of them, two on its head and the other four, larger ones on the side of its massive neck.
The creature opened its mouth revealing razor-sharp fangs and it hissed, loud enough that the area we were in seemed to shake as if it was afraid.
The sect master shot forward, and dropped to the ground, "I'll slow it down! don't stop moving head to safety!"
He then started a full sprint causing the killer instinct of the feline creature to perk up and then charge the Sect Master.
The sect master's body began growing rapidly enough to match the beast, and just as the sect master's transformation seemed to finish, the two collided in the middle with bone-rattling echoes as they started a wrestling match of sorts.
The Masked Man whipped the bull hard taking the opportunity to escape to safety while the sect master and the beast were occupied.
However, the creature didn't seem too worried about us escaping.
The side of its neck opened what seemed to be gills. They vibrated so rapidly that they made a loud distinct clicking noise.
Theis was enough to cause the blood on both Elder Wei and Elder Fu Tian's faces to drain.
This wasn't an attack, but apparently a call for assistance.
Two more creatures of the same size jumped up from the depth of the chasm and lunged at the carriage.
There was no time for me to react as I saw the claws of these beasts approaching me rapidly.
'Fuck,' I cursed.
But the Masked Man seemed to be a cold decisive man.
He wrenched up the reins and forced the Thunderbull to rise up on its hind legs.
The two hunters seemed to be easily lured by the size of the 'prey' as they dug their claws into the beast and pushed it over the edge with us included.
However, the Masked Man's gambit had paid off.
Since the two beasts' claws were firmly dug into the bull, Elder Wei and Elder Fu Tian both understood what they had to do.
While we were falling, it was Elder Wei who jumped out of the carriage first and stuck like a gecko against the pillar.
The second Was Elder Fu Tian, who grabbed me from the bag of my robes and threw me towards elder Wei who grabbed me with one hand.
The two, Elder Fu Tian and the Masked Man both jumped out of the carriage and stuck close to the pillar.
"Go up! Hurry!" Elder Wei said.
I didn't hesitate to climb up, there was no need for me to check if there was a good hand grab, since my body was empowered with the Stone Aged Milk, I literally punched into the pillar to climb up as fast and as rapidly as I could.
Elder Wei and Elder Fu Tian seemed proficient and they followed after us.
We arrived to the top of the pillar in seconds and looking back the sect master had its arms clenched tight in a chokehold around the neck of the creature. Plenty of scars were visible on the Sect Master as his foe didn't seem too simple.
I turned to the brasiers and ran as fast as I could across the few remaining pillars and bridges that were left.
The elders followed after me soon after and so did the man in the mask.
Just as we arrived at the other side the Masked Man pulled up a key and slammed it against the doorway in front of us. Causing the area to shake once again.
"Don't kill it, Titan!" The man in the Mask said, which was surprising, why not?
The creature squirmed under the chokehold of the sect master and realized it was unable to free itself so it began by vibrating its gills again.
"Not this time!" said the sect master and forcefully slammed the creature's head against the pillar.
There didn't seem to be any damage on the beast from the impact as it continued to rattle its gills.
"Damn it," the sect master cursed then literally kicked the creature as if it was a football across the whole area.
The beast that was flung could do nothing but whine in pain as it was being flung.
"Come! Fast!" the Man in the Mask said and the sect master obliged.
He ran as fast as he could but it seems that it was too late as the two beasts that went down with the bull were back up on the pillars. Or perhaps these were newer beasts.
The sect master began channeling Saint Qi into his arms, he was readying up to use the Fists of the Eternal God, but the Man In mask seemed too worried about the outcome so he moved first.
He pulled an umbrella from his holding bag and opened it.
This caused a blast of powerful wind gales to shoot outwards, slamming into the two creatures causing them to stumble away from the platform and allowing the Sect Master a breather to escape.
He rushed up ahead until he arrived to our side and it was in that moment that the gate behind us opened.
We all rushed inside as the Man in the mask removed the key for the gate to close up.
The creatures on the other side all rushed up and came towards us while the gate was closing. But they couldn't do much than slam against the now closed door.
"God damn, that was scary," Elder Wei said.
But not before long, we all seemed to have a strong sensation of danger washing all over us.
Constant slow-paced and highly pitched rattling seemed to echo from within the new area that we were now inside.
Slowly turning, I was literally, face to fang with one of the very same creatures that we just escaped.
And it was drooling.