10: Chapter 10 A makeshift troupe guarding the mountain gate

The moment the dew drops splashed into the mud, Sect Master Di Kun tightened his fingers around the wooden stake, and the taut rope emitted a faint creaking sound at the base of the stake.

Within the black mist, the Demon Rat that had peeked out first suddenly raised its head, its red eyes turning toward the mountain gate.

The tumor on its spine expanded and contracted; it sniffed the wind with its nose twice, then dug its four claws into the ground and scrambled up along the gravel at the valley entrance.

Behind it, the dark shadows suddenly exploded outward.

Over a dozen Demon Rats emerged from the mist, their low bodies pressing over the withered grass, their claws scratching noisily against the stone surface.

Further back, three Split-Tooth Wolves trampled over the tails of the Demon Rats as they rushed out of the tree line.

Their fangs protruded, white foam hung from their maws, and as their wolf paws hit the ground, they left deep craters in the mud.

"The numbers are wrong!" Speedrun Youth lay on the high slope, red cloth wrapped around his wrist, his voice tight with urgency.

"The estimated limit was eight Demon Rats and two Split-Tooth Wolves, but it's doubled now!"

The shovel in the Sect Protection Elder's hand tilted, the tip striking against a stone.

Sect Master Di Kun scanned the valley entrance.

The Demon Rats were fast, and the Split-Tooth Wolves were bringing up the rear—they didn't look like a disorganized pack of beasts, but rather like there were blades mixed into the vanguard.

He pressed his tongue against his teeth, released the wooden stake with his right hand, and turned to climb onto the ruined wall beside the mountain gate.

The cold wind whipped up the hem of his black-and-gold robe, and the blood-stained cloth on his left arm was blown tight against his wound.

"Dark Souls Youth, two zhang behind the white stone line on the front line. Don't stand in a fixed position; just pull aggro, don't kill."

Dark Souls Youth slung his wooden sword over his shoulder and ground his foot half a turn into the mud: "Got it. Like practicing on mobs before the boss; I'll test the aggro range first."

"Speedrun Youth, get to the high point. Report the routes and pounces."

"Received." Speedrun Youth scrambled up the broken pine tree using his hands and feet, the red cloth flashing between the branches.

"I'll watch the Split-Tooth Wolves; leave the Demon Rats to the traps."

"Tower Defense Youth, don't rush the master control. Let them eat the first layer of ropes, spikes, and falling rocks in order. Save the scrap crossbows for the Split-Tooth Wolves."

Tower Defense Youth stood beneath the stone wall, where the lines carved by his knife blade were still damp.

He grabbed the wooden handle beside the winch and roared at the two servants nearby: "Without my order, whoever touches the lever, I'll shove their hand into the crossbow slot!"

The two servants turned pale and nodded repeatedly.

Sect Master Di Kun's gaze swept toward the Martial Arts Arena: "Chuunibyou Youth, take the servants and distribute the kerosene. If you can throw it, throw it; if you can't, pass it to someone who can. Shout whatever you want, just don't let your hands shake."

Chuunibyou Youth had the cloth strip on his right arm wrapped tight; hearing this, his eyes lit up.

He grabbed a kerosene bag, turned, and raised his arm to the dozen or so servants: "Everyone, today, follow me as I unleash the Heaven-Burning Meteor Technique!"

A servant's lips trembled: "What kind of technique is that?"

"It means throwing this bag accurately!"

"Life-Skill Player, backfield. Stop bleeding, replenish water, move medicine, collect corpse Materials—dismantle whatever you can first. Don't use up all the Beast-Attracting Powder at once."

Life-Skill Player squatted beside the earthenware jar, laying out the small packets of medicinal powder in rows, gray-brown powder still staining his fingernails: "Living people first, Yao Beasts in line, understood."

Sect Master Di Kun finally looked at the Sect Protection Elder: "Elder, guard the second layer. Whoever retreats past the defensive barricades, whip them back. Today, the Taichu Sect has no retreat."

The Sect Protection Elder's jaw tightened, his shovel held horizontally across his chest: "This old man's bones can still plug a gap."

The first Demon Rat had already rushed into the valley entrance.

The moment it stepped onto the wet mud, the thin rope buried beneath the ground snapped upward, snaring its front claws.

The Demon Rat rolled forward, its thick back slamming into the slanted, poisoned wooden spikes.

The spikes pierced in from its flank, the green residue on the tips washed away by blood, and a foul, fishy stench erupted along with the heat.

The Demon Rats behind couldn't stop their momentum and crashed into them one after another.

"First section on the left triggered!" Speedrun Youth shouted from the tree.

"The back row is going to skirt around the rock pile—Tower Defense Youth, prepare the second falling rock!"

Tower Defense Youth kept his eyes fixed on the valley entrance, looking at no one, and slammed his arm downward.

"Release!"

Above the cliff wall, two servants cut the vine ropes.

Three pre-positioned boulders came crashing down, bouncing off the cliff face and smashing into the middle of the flanking Demon Rats.

The first stone crushed the skull of a Demon Rat, the second smashed the edge of the rock pile, and flying debris sent two more in the rear rolling and squealing.

In the narrow path of the valley entrance, the front row of the Demon Rat pack was in chaos.

Sect Master Di Kun stood on the ruined wall, watching them hit the ropes, step into pits, and get skewered by the spikes, but his furrowed brows did not relax.

The Split-Tooth Wolves hadn't entered yet.

The three wolves stopped outside the trap zone, pacing back and forth with their heads lowered, saliva dripping from their fangs, waiting for the Demon Rats to clear a path.

"The wolves aren't taking the bait." Tower Defense Youth gritted his teeth. "They're smarter than the ones in the trials."

Dark Souls Youth, however, took two steps forward.

He tapped his wooden sword against the white stone line, making a faint sound.

"Hey, big dog." He raised his hand and pointed his wooden sword at the middle Split-Tooth Wolf. "Come on, bite me."

Sect Master Di Kun's eyes twitched slightly: "Don't cross the line."

Dark Souls Youth hooked his heels against the white stone line and leaned his body forward, his words spilling out as fast as a menu recitation: "Forward pressure to test, ears pulled back, right shoulder sinking first—this is a pounce. Not a straight pounce; it's going for a diagonal bite to the neck. Three, two—"

The Split-Tooth Wolf charged.

A gray-black shadow lunged close to the ground, crossing over the corpse of a twitching Demon Rat, its fangs aiming straight for Dark Souls Youth's left neck.

Dark Souls Youth bent his knees and rolled out to the right into the mud.

The wolf's fangs missed, grazing his hair, and the moment its wolf paws hit the ground, it stepped into a patch of seemingly level, wet soil.

The soil layer collapsed.

The Split-Tooth Wolf's front half sank into the shallow pit; the spikes at the bottom failed to pierce its thick sternum but stabbed into its front leg.

It let out a furious, low growl, its hind paws clawing and shattering the edge of the pit as it struggled desperately to get out.

"Don't get greedy with your strikes!" Sect Master Di Kun's voice dropped low. "Pull it into the dead end."

Dark Souls Youth had already raised his wooden sword, but hearing this, he deflected the tip, tapping it against the stone in front of the wolf's nose.

"Alright, the Sect Master has spoken, no greed."

The Split-Tooth Wolf was thoroughly enraged by the tap; it lunged out of the shallow pit and chased him toward the right side of the valley entrance.

That was a dead end formed by two cliff walls, the ground covered in broken branches, with hooked ropes hidden beneath them.

Dark Souls Youth rolled continuously against the stone wall, his back scraping against the rough rock surface, tearing several holes in his clothes.

"Right claw sweep! Duck! Roll!"

Speedrun Youth was screaming from the high point, his voice nearly breaking.

Dark Souls Youth rolled along the ground; the wolf's claw swept against the cliff wall, and stone chips exploded past his face, leaving a spray of blood droplets.

Yet he laughed aloud: "Yes, yes, that's the wind-up! Do it again!"

"The center route, rats leaked through!" Life-Skill Player suddenly shouted.

Two Demon Rats crawled beneath the pile of corpses, skirting the falling rocks, and lunged straight at the servant carrying the kerosene.

The servant's legs went weak, and the kerosene bag slipped from his hands, falling toward the ground.

Sect Master Di Kun leaped down from the ruined wall.

His old sword unsheathed, the blade notched and dull.

As he landed, his toes tapped onto the defensive barricade, using the momentum to surge forward, his blade slicing diagonally into the neck of the first Demon Rat.

The Demon Rat's head flew up, while its body ran forward another half-step before colliding at the servant's feet.

The second Demon Rat opened its mouth to bite at his boot; Sect Master Di Kun pinned its spine with his left foot and, gripping the sword hilt in reverse, stabbed down with his right hand.

The tip of the sword drove into the muddy ground.

The Demon Rat's four claws twitched, and blood droplets from its tail splattered onto the kerosene bag.

The servant stared blankly at Sect Master Di Kun's boot sole, his hand still suspended in mid-air.

Sect Master Di Kun didn't look at him, only kicked the kerosene bag back into his arms.

"Hold it steady."

The servant clutched the oil bag with both hands, his teeth chattering, then turned and rushed back to the formation.

"Heaven-Burning Meteor Technique, First Form: Don't hit your own people!" Chuunibyou Youth roared until his face was red.

He swung his arm and smashed the kerosene bag into the pack of Demon Rats on the left side of the valley entrance; the bag burst, splashing black oil all over the spikes and the Demon Rats' fur. "Ignite!"

A torch flew out and landed on the oil.

Tongues of fire leaped along the ground; the Demon Rats shrieked and rammed around blindly, breaking two rope stakes before getting stuck by the rolling logs behind them.

Chuunibyou Youth stood behind the firelight, the cloth strip on his right arm blown flat against his arm by the heat wave, his voice growing steadier as he shouted: "Second Form: Wherever it's red, throw it there!"

Several servants shouted along with him; their voices were shaky, but they threw the kerosene bags with increasing accuracy.

Tower Defense Youth saw that both Split-Tooth Wolves had been lured into the valley entrance and pressed his palm heavily onto the master control lever.

"Cross-log gate, drop!"

On the cliff walls on both sides, thick logs attached to rusty chains slammed down, sealing the retreat of the Split-Tooth Wolves.

The winches of the scrap crossbows screeched, and three old crossbow bolts shot out from different angles.

The first missed, embedding into a wolf's shoulder.

The second pierced through the fire and smoke, stabbing into the flank of the other wolf.

The third was swatted aside by a wolf's claw, the broken bolt spinning away and embedding into the nearby defensive barricade.

"Rolling rocks, follow up!"

Rolling logs and stones fell together from the cliff walls, and the kerosene flowed along the stone crevices, forming a crude, intersecting line of fire.

The Split-Tooth Wolves rammed back and forth inside, and every time they turned, they were forced back into the center of the valley entrance by ropes, spikes, and crossbow bolts.

Sect Master Di Kun watched for the moment the alpha Split-Tooth Wolf struggled free from the dead end and surged forward.

The alpha wolf had just raised its head from the edge of the pit, its fangs biting down with bloody foam.

Sect Master Di Kun sidestepped the wolf's maw, a sharp pain in his left arm wound pulled by the force of the wind.

He did not retreat; his old sword sliced in beneath the wolf's jaw, and when the blade got stuck on the bone, he pressed his wrist down and drove his knee into the wolf's throat.

Crack.

The Split-Tooth Wolf's throat bone collapsed, and its massive body lunged forward, crushing a patch of spikes.

"Sect Master, you're awesome!" Dark Souls Youth rolled up from the side through the mud, his face a mess of blood and ash. "Can you teach me that execution move?"

Sect Master Di Kun withdrew his old sword, blood dripping down the tip: "Survive this wave first."

The last Split-Tooth Wolf tried to break through the cross-log gate.

It pressed its shoulders and back against the logs, its four claws gouging deep trenches into the mud, the chains pulled taut.

The Sect Protection Elder rushed up with two servants, his shovel smashing onto the wolf's paw, the wooden handle splitting on the spot.

Sect Master Di Kun turned and lunged, his old sword piercing into the wolf's eye.

The Split-Tooth Wolf tilted its head back and howled in agony; Speedrun Youth threw a stone tied with a rope from the high slope, hitting its injured hind leg squarely.

Dark Souls Youth followed up with a strike; his wooden sword failed to pierce the wolf's hide, but it pushed the wolf's head an inch into the kerosene zone.

Chuunibyou Youth seized the opportunity and smashed the last kerosene bag against the wolf's neck.

The flames engulfed it.

The Split-Tooth Wolf smashed through half of the wooden fence and collapsed at the valley entrance, the stench of burning flesh overpowering the smell of blood, and black smoke crept up along the cliff wall.

The battlefield fell briefly silent.

Only the Demon Rats remained twitching in the pits, the ropes soaked through with blood, fur hanging from the poisoned wooden spikes.

Layers of Yao Beast corpses piled up at the valley entrance, broken bones littered the area beside the rolling stones, and the white stone line was washed away by mud and blood, leaving only a few white traces.

Life-Skill Player dragged his medical kit through the crowd, his hands moving with fierce speed: "Expose the wound, don't cover it. You, hold his arm down. Demon Rat teeth are poisonous, don't skimp on the hemostatic ointment."

After treating a servant's wrist, he squatted beside a Demon Rat corpse, using a small knife to dissect the gland sac.

He poured gray-brown powder into an earthenware jar, mixing it with the newly extracted Demon Rat blood and a few shreds of grass.

He stirred it with a wooden stick, frowned after smelling it, and turned the jar's mouth toward the downwind side.

At the edge of the black mist, several Yao Beasts that had been lingering suddenly raised their heads and approached the trap area.

Life-Skill Player raised his blood-stained hand: "The new powder is stable; we can keep luring them into the pits."

Sect Master Di Kun glanced at him: "Keep thirty percent; don't drive the big ones crazy too."

Life-Skill Player's fingers paused, and he immediately sealed half of the jar's mouth.

The people of the Taichu Sect were all gasping for breath, their shoulders, faces, and legs covered in wounds.

Some were kneeling on the ground vomiting, some were covering their ears and trembling, but not a single one had fallen into the pile of corpses, unable to rise again.

The Sect Protection Elder, leaning on the broken half of his shovel, looked up toward the mountain gate, his lips moving, but he couldn't speak.

Sect Master Di Kun stood back atop the dilapidated mountain gate, behind him the Blue Star Disciples and servants who had only recently guided Qi into their bodies, and beneath his feet lay the valley entrance piled high with Yao Beast corpses.

Broken crossbow bolts were stuck beside him, the firelight illuminated the hem of his black-and-gold robe, and the blood-stained cloth on his left arm seeped fresh red again.

This small sect, which was about to be sold off by others, had finally drawn its first breath of resistance against the beast tide.

Dark Souls Youth stepped onto the charred corpse of a Split-Tooth Wolf, wiped the blood from his face with his sleeve, and pointed his wooden sword toward the black mist outside the mountain gate.

"Hurry up with the next wave."

There was no immediate response from deep within the black mist.

The tree line down the mountain sank for a moment, and then heavier footsteps approached.

With every step that fell, gravel on the edge of the valley entrance danced lightly.

The mist was pushed aside from the center, and a pair of giant scarlet eyes opened in the gray morning light, pressing coldly toward the corpse-strewn ground and the dilapidated mountain gate.