Dragon's Soul Chapter 103: Living Vs. Undead

Still No Editors/ Proofers so if you spot anything please help me point it out lol. My neck has been killing me today and yesterday like extreme pain but ehhh I managed to get a chapter done. Ascending the Heavens has 5 chapters done, once I have 50 done I'll post. Hope you all have a great day.

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“Prepare to engage the undead!” Zhang yelled out toward the men behind him. The people watching the scenes happening below were horrifying as they could clearly see the Jiangs.h.i.+ and the horde of lesser Jiangs.h.i.+.
 
For most of these people this would be said to be one of the most terrifying experiences of their lives. Had it not been for the fact that Zhang had rea.s.sured them if they ran away tonight they would surely die, then most of these people would have fled. As for the four thousand and five hundred men down in the streets, they had not caught sight of the Jiangs.h.i.+ yet due to the miniature maze obstructing their vision.
 
“The-they’re here!” A shriek came from one of the women standing behind a window inside the Silver Swan Hotel.
 
“You lot, fan out! I don’t care what is coming but if it makes it through my maze then you best prepare to fight it!” Ran Kaitou yelled as he could sense the horde of lesser Jiangs.h.i.+ swarming into his maze.
 
Fully focusing on manipulating the maze, Ran Kaitou closed his eyes. Although it was called a maze, there wasn’t really an exit to the series of walls that Ran Kaitou has rose from the ground. Of course such a strong technique required a lot of concentration and essence to pull off or else it could not be maintained.
 
Once the parade of undead made its way into the maze, spikes would shoot out of the wall and impale them or walls would begin moving and crush the lesser Jiangs.h.i.+ to paste. As for the Jiangs.h.i.+ themselves they were many times more powerful than their minions and would move through the maze undamaged. They would try to jump over walls of the maze but thanks to
Yuying’s runes being on some of the walls, they would simply get repealed. The same went for the lesser Jiangs.h.i.+ but instead of being knocked back they would turn into dust.
 
However, Yuying’s runes only managed to deal some damage before expending their power and fading away. Unlike what she had used on the chicken cage the other night, these runes were somewhat ma.s.s produced and less powerful. While he full strength talismans and runes were placed on the hotel and the buildings surrounding it. But the ma.s.s production runes made up for their lack of strength in numbers.
 
“Thankfully we have an earth mage on our side.” Zhang thought with a grin while standing beside his four wives. He could tell that if Ran Kaitou not been here then he and the beauties would of had to face the horde head on with only five hundred men to aid them. Had it been that way then perhaps Zhang wouldn't have been confident enough to lure the Jiangs.h.i.+ toward them and would have waited or come up with a different plan.
 
From their encounter at the casino Zhang could tell that Ran Kaitou was a fairly high level mage, perhaps a level seven. Thus when he decided to lure the Jiangs.h.i.+ toward the hotel he had accounted for Ran’s earth magic, which usually specialize in defense or earth manipulation.
Sadly, what he could not account for was the number of lesser Jiangs.h.i.+ that showed up. What Zhang didn’t know was the horde had increased to roughly four times the numbers that it had possessed a few days ago. This meant that there weren’t enough of Yuying’s runes to annihilate them.
 
As the undead horde continued through the maze it finally reached the end. They could sense the breath of the living on the other side of this last barrier and one of the Jiangs.h.i.+ hopped to the front of the horde in preparation for the feast of souls that would soon begin.
 
With a terrifying roar the Jiangs.h.i.+’s had smashed against the earthen wall that Ran Kaitou had raised not too long ago.
 
“Ran use your earth magic and make trenches and barriers for the men!” Zhang yelled out as he saw the wall in front of them crumble.
 
“You think I have an unlimited supply of essence here or something?” Ran Kaitou complained as he opened his eyes. The maze had taken quite a bit of power to maintain and manipulate and he didn't have too much left in the tank. But thanks to the maze about one fourth of the lesser Jiangs.h.i.+ had been turned to dust.
 
“Drink this and quit complaining I didn’t pay you to complain.” Zhang said jokingly as he tossed a bottle full of essence water toward Ran Kaitou.
 
“You didn’t pay me at all! Rather you robbed me…” Ran complained as he drank the contents of the bottle without questioning what was inside of it. Moments later he could feel that the essence that he had used was replenished, rather he felt he had a bit more than he did when the battle began.
 
“For him to toss around such medicines without a care, obviously means he’s very powerful or his backer is, so if we make it out of this alive I should be making a big harvest.” Ran Kaitou thought to himself as he looked at Zhang from the corner of his eye before turning toward the incoming horde of undead. Although it took a moment to describe all of this happened in only a few breathes.
 
Not long after drinking the essence water, Ran Kaitou made dozens of earthen walls that were as tall as a person's waist rise from the ground and pits that were roughly ten feet deep were soon made.
 
“Let's do what we had talked about earlier.” Zhang said to the four beauties before a pair of twin swords appeared in his hand and he charged toward the three incoming Jiangs.h.i.+.
Without saying a word, the four beauties quickly dispersed and began enacting the plan that they had come up earlier.
 
“Sis hop on.” Ai said to Ling as the Queen of the Night whip in her hand shot into the ground and turned into vines, lifting her up into the air.
 
Grabbing Ai’s hand, Ling quickly arrived at the top of the Silver Swan Hotel. Zhang had arranged for hundreds of barrels filled with water to be placed at the top of the buildings that he had rented out. These were all placed here for Ling’s use.
 
While Ling and Ai were at the roof top, Yuying pulled out dozens of talismans and quickly began sticking them to the earthen barriers that Ran Kaitou had risen from the ground. These talismans would help give the barriers the power to repel and turn a few lesser Jiangs.h.i.+ to ash. Once these talismans were stuck on the barriers, Yuying ran back into the hotel to prepare in case the people outside had to fall back.
 
“Darling take this.” Lingqi yelled as she tossed Zhang a clear vial. This was the poison that she had concocted to use against the Jiangs.h.i.+. Although it hasn’t been tested before, Lingqi a.s.sured Zhang that at the least it would cause some damage to the Jiangs.h.i.+. Of course he had to promise to keep his promise to her regardless if the poison worked out not.
 
Zhang spun, mid dash and grabbed the vial in his hand despite already holding a sword in it. Then he quickly tore off the paper sealing on the vial and sprinkled its contents on his swords.
 
The undead had swarmed out of the hole in the maze that the Jiangs.h.i.+ had made and were ama.s.sing in huge numbers. But as long as the three Jiangs.h.i.+ don’t join the battle right away then, Zhang felt a.s.sured that he could help dwindle the number of undead a bit.
 
While Zhang charged toward the horde, Ran Kaitou and the rest of his men stayed behind the barriers and pitfalls. Their jobs were to fortify their position and confront all of the undead that make it past Zhang. Of course, Zhang being only one person meant that the vast majority of undead would just move past him so in the end they would face almost the entire horde.
 
With his poison soaked twin swords, Zhang dashed into the horde of undead and began slas.h.i.+ng away. Fighting large groups while brandis.h.i.+ng twin swords was his forte and what he had be taught by his teacher as a child. Like a formless river, he flowed through the enemy ranks and used their numbers to his advantage.
 
If he could extinguish the lesser Jiangs.h.i.+ army than fifty percent of the threat to the city would be gone. The most terrifying thing about a Jiangs.h.i.+ was its undead horde that can grow to astronomical numbers. Unlike zombies, Jiangs.h.i.+ drained essence and did not eat flesh so most of its victims turn into lesser Jiangs.h.i.+, instead of being torn to pieces.
 
“Fighting undead is way easier then fighting live soldiers, they don’t have formations nor do they wield weapons.” Zhang thought as he cut away at the lesser Jiangs.h.i.+. Thanks to Lingqi’s poison whenever he slashed into a lesser Jiangs.h.i.+ it would scatter and turn into dust. Like a fighting G.o.d, wherever his blade went death followed or rather salvation.
 
Although some of the undead tried to swarm him, Zhang spun and like a tornado of blades everything around him was cut to pieces and turned to dust. While he was occupied, the bulk of the horde of undead that walked pa.s.sed Zhang made their way toward the hotel.
 
Ai and Ling sat on the roof of the hotel watching the battle below since it was not time for them to act yet, not long ago Yuying and Lingqi had joined them.
 
“You think brother had us all come up here because he doesn’t want us to fight?” Ai asked the other three beauties.
 
“You think so? That would mean he cares about us and doesn’t want us to get hurt.” Lingqi said with a big grin on her face.
 
“If you want to fight then wait until the three Jiangs.h.i.+ join the fight.” Ling said with a laugh as she looked at Ai.
 
“I almost forgot! You guys take these.” Yuying said as she withdrew a dozen or so talismans from her interspatial ring.
 
“Each talisman will allow you to block a single attack from the Jiangs.h.i.+.” She added as she handed her sisters each a few talismans.
 
“With these I can s.h.i.+eld darling from an attack from the Jiangs.h.i.+ and make him love me more.” Lingqi thought as a devious grin crept on her face. One could say she was a true schemer and can use any situation to her gain.
 
Lingqi was the sort of person who would see a dying rich man and use the fact that he was dying to her advantage. If she was also the kind of person to help save a dying poor person without asking for a thing in return, which was somewhat contradictory but that was just how she was.
 
Down below fierce fighting had broken out between the living and the undead. Thanks to the pitfalls and barriers that Ran Kaitou had erected the four thousand and five hundred men were able to hold the undead at bay. Perhaps the horde tripled or even quadrupled their numbers, but with the barriers up only a small number of undead were able to squeeze through and engage in battle.
 
“Follow the boss’s lead! Send these f.u.c.kers back into the ground!” One of Ran Kaitou’s men yelled as he sword slid into the body of a lesser Jiangs.h.i.+. However, his confident face soon became filled with despair because the lesser Jiangs.h.i.+ continued moving toward him despite the fact that it was ran through by his sword. He could smell the monster’s breath as it tried to sink its teeth into him and drain him of his essence. Fear filled this man’s heart as his life flashed in front of his eyes.
 
Unlike when Zhang attacked, the lesser Jiangs.h.i.+ did not turn into dust. This was of course because none of these men had the poison that Lingqi had concocted, so the only way they could kill a lesser Jiangs.h.i.+ was to slash off its head.
 
“Idiot! Slash off its head! Don’t even try stabbing them!” Ran Kaitou yelled as an earthen spike shot out of the ground and impaled the lesser Jiangs.h.i.+, lifting it into the air.
 
“Th-thanks boss…” The man said in a shaken voice.
 
The rest of the men gulped as they saw their comrade almost join the ranks of the undead.
 
Dozens of the undead had fallen into the pitfalls as they pushed forward toward the hotel, however this did not make that much of an impact on their numbers at all. But thanks to the barriers the undead were not able to overwhelm the living while the living was not able to overpower the undead. The two sides were temporarily locked in a deadlock without any progress being made, but of course the living would soon run out of stamina while the undead had an unlimited supply of it.
 
Meaning soon enough the undead would slowly start gaining an advantage and eventually overwhelm the living.
 
Zhang was in the middle of a sea of undead as he made his way toward the three Jiangs.h.i.+ that were standing at the back of the horde. He knew there was no way for him to fight all three of them alone but for his plan to work he needed them to join the rest of their horde in the a.s.sault against the hotel.
 
“Man I can’t imagine how someone would be able to beat back a Jiangs.h.i.+ horde if it managed to convert an entire city or worse yet a province.” He thought as his ten dragon talon throwing knives were withdrawn from his interspatial ring along with his two chained daggers, his halberd and a variety of other weapons.
 
These weapons floated into the war while being enveloped by a layer of purple essence and pierced through the sky and cut into the undead. Then a thick black shadow appeared behind Zhang and dozens of abyssal beasts crawled out from the darkness and joined the fray.
 
Thanks to the abyssal beasts he was able to steadily make his way through the horde and get closer and closer to the three Jiangs.h.i.+. Soon a large abyssal beast slithered out from Zhang’s shadow and towered over the undead. This shadow turned out to be a twin headed mirage viper.

The viper swooped his head down and sank its fang’s into the lesser Jiangs.h.i.+ in a blink of an eye. As the viper neared him, Zhang jumped into the air and landed atop its head. While atop the viper’s head, dressed in head to toe in nearly transparent white armor, a long pitch black cape draped over his shoulders while wielding a pair of twin swords, while looking down upon the undead below, Zhang looked more like a heavenly king looking down on those beneath his feet.
 
One could say it was a sight to behold as our young hero attempts to purge the evil that is terrorizing the New Moon Province.