Chapter 39 (Part A) – Capitulation

Another important note, there was a bit of running around in RL, as I was moving cities again. Done with that now, and settled, for hopefully a decent length of time now, which means, the release frequency and consistency shall see a significant improvement; starting next week, I will be able to take on sponsored releases as well.)

The Chimera’s tail swung one more time and forcefully twisted itself around the neck of the man. The noise of his crackling neck was audible to a fair length of distance as the man breathed his last breath and passed away, shutting his begrudging, hateful eyes for the last time.

The remaining five people, who were running haphazardly in every direction, trying to escape the Chimera’s wrath, decided to quicken up their pace.

“ARGHHH!………” The Chimera issued another deafening roar; loud enough to put that of a lion’s to shame.

The remaining five people, who were trying to escape at thunderous speeds, came to an instant halt, as the fear of the Chimera’s roar ran chills down their spines. Bi Fan was well aware that when this Chimera roared with so much intensity, then, its next strikes would be even fiercer, but he didn’t seem to care much about it anyway.

The Chimera had already launched itself after the remaining five humans, fully intending to deliver them to the same end as their last two comrades.

The five remaining humans realized that facing the Chimera, was their only option and attempting to flee would be the equivalent of courting death.

Bi Fan quickly found his way to the back of the fight, ready to cause all sorts of trouble for them.

Bi Fan sneakily watched from his hiding place, and observed that they were all from the ‘rising sun’ school, even though only a teenager, surprisingly, one of them was as strong as ‘spiritual intelligence’ layer.

‘Spiritual intelligence’ layer practitioners usually prefer going into the second layer of the devil’s territory. So it was rather obvious to him that he had entered this part of the region to search for him.

Bi Fan’s eyes, brimming with murderous intentions were concentrated on the battle ahead of him.

Bi Fan thus far, had only seen relatively weaker ‘rising sun’ students, who were mostly around the ‘inner organs’ layer, so he was very attentively watching some of their more experienced disciples while they displayed their skills, as the grave battle ensued.

Jiang Sheng, Jiang Wen, these two names had been encrypted into Bi Fan psyche, and he wanted to leave the two of them for the last.

A teenager wearing a purple jacket seemed to be leading this group, they advanced and retreated at his command and were able to hold the Chimera off, for now.

In fact, since they were fighting in the woods, the Chimera’s movements had been greatly restricted and he was unable to use his body to its full extent. Plus, the Chimera had been injured earlier, in the battle with Bi Fan and hadn’t fully recovered from it, which meant that the Chimera was actually leaning towards a defeat at the moment.

The man with the purple jacket couldn’t help but contain his joy as he realized: “The Chimera seems to be showing some weaknesses, if we work harder, we can kill it and we have already established the upper hand.”

The Chimera was covered in fur and flesh from head to toe, both of which were very precious, its tail, in particular, would fetch a very high price.

The man in the purple jacket kept shouting encouragements at his comrades as they attacked the Chimera with elated spirits, suppressing the beast.

The Chimera had been fighting non-stop for a long time now, and things were getting even worse for him. With every passing second, his hatred for Bi Fan only grew stronger and stronger; if it hadn’t been for the amount of energy that he had consumed in fighting Bi Fan, he had been able to make an easy game out of the humans in front of him.

“Harder! We almost have him now!” The man in the purple jacked roared.

“Chimera, it seems that you are going to require my help to finish this job after all.” Bi Fan said; ready to intervene in yet another fight.

He popped up a few stones into the air and launched them straight at the five humans with the aid of ‘the immortal finger’. Bi Fan had decided to name this attack, ‘a snap of the fingers’, a rather appropriate name.

As he heard the sounds of the stones piercing through the air, the Chimera was certain that Bi Fan had returned and had already launched an attack. As he realized that he would also have to deal with Bi Fan along with these five, he couldn’t contain the fear that hit his heart and it reflected on his face.

He was just preparing to try and make a run for it, when one of the stones whooshed past him and it dawned upon him that this hail of bullet stones was directed at the humans and not him.

The Chimera was visibly confused; he had no idea why Bi Fan was doing this and simply couldn’t understand the sudden change of course this fight had taken.

‘A snap of the fingers’ was a very dangerous attack, as the stones were pelted at very high speeds with incredible accuracy, making it very difficult to dodge, or even thwart the attack.

The man in the purple jacket easily crushed the stone that was directed at him, but the others weren’t strong enough and fell prey to Bi Fan’s strike.

“Ah! Ah!…..”

Blood-curling shrieks filled the atmosphere as the four of the five humans were hit by the stones and sustained injuries. In fact, two of the four had even lost grip of their weapons, leaving them with no way to retaliate the incoming attacks.

The man in the purple jacket was furious: “You scumbag! Attacking us sneakily!”

“Putt-putt…..” were the only sounds he heard in response as more stones found their way into the battle field.

Bi Fan launched several successive attacks, as he reproduced the stunt.

The man in the purple jacket decided to quit cursing and started concentrating on dodging the attacks.

The four others were finding it harder to dodge the attacks with every passing minute, as they had already sustained injuries. This forced the man in the purple jacket to combine forces with them and aid them in shooting down the stones, rather than fighting off the Chimera.

The Chimera was a little slow to react, but once it realized that he had been gifted with an opportunity, he brazenly launched a brutal attack at the humans, exposing its ominous nature.

“Ah…. ” another screech echoed, as another one of the injured teenagers met his fate.

The looks on the faces of the remaining teenagers had changed drastically; they were all looking for means to escape.

Even the youngster in the purple jacket, who had thus far been helping his comrades, seemed to be searching for an avenue of escape, willing to abandon his comrades, ready save himself at the cost of their impending deaths.

Although these teenagers were all from the same school, they obviously had no profound emotional connections; they were more than willing to abandon their friends in dire situations, if it meant that they could live to see another morning’s sun.

Bi Fan had seen enough in this world, but even then he couldn’t help but shun such a behavior on their part.

His hands hadn’t slowed down at all, in fact, his fingers had been snapping all the while, and stones were being launched at the humans unceasingly.

Since, the last time, when Bi Fan had used this technique, by the river, he had been picking up the appropriately sized stones and had been collecting them in the Yin Yang bag, making it very easy for him to get access to them when needed.

Bi Fan’s hands were doing the job of a machine gun, hailing bullets of stones at his enemies.

Bi Fan had been prioritizing the youngster in the purple jacket with his attacks, forcing him to focus his attention on dodging the stones rather than trying to escape.

The Chimera had managed to deliver the other three youngsters to their final destinations in quick successions, which meant that the youngster in purple now stood there, facing the Chimera, alone.