118 Chapter 116: Fighting The Flame King Hippopotamus!
"Hahaha you fucking retards! You didn't even think of how the hell you were going to fight this stupid thing!" Hu Tao laughed at them without restraint, embarrassing and annoying them at the same time.
"Get behind me!" Bing yelled as he brought his shield forward.
Lei Zhi and Ying hurried behind him. Lei already unhooked his fishing hook from the hippo's thick hide. The bloody mark left by Lei's hook sent the animal into a rage. It spit a bubble of lava towards the group which Bing hoped his shield would be able to deal with. Bing used the Art of Deflection in his shield art manual to handle the lava bubble instead of trying to block it head on like he was thinking of doing earlier. He did this in case his shield wouldn't be enough to handle the dangerously hot temperatures of the qi attack along with if he couldn't handle the temperatures either. If his shield got coated in lava, it would almost be the same as him holding lava in his hands! The shield strap was attached to his arm as well, you know!
The bubble of lava was harmlessly deflected away from their group and everyone's mind started racing to figure out how to fight this thing while its submerged in lava.
"Can you fish it over here?" Ying asked.
"I can try." Lei responded as he sent his fishing hook in a long arc towards the Flame King Hippo.
The 1st stage Qi Consolidation beast nimbly swam out of the way of his hook, remembering that it was that thing that forcefully dragged it to the surface. Lei never tried fishing for something that wanted to avoid his rod. Seeing the huge creature dodge his hook inspired the fisherman pride dwelling within him. He had to capture this creature with his fishing pole or he wouldn't be satisfied!
Lei Zhi removed himself from under Bing's protection and added a curve to his throw this time around. The sharp metal hook swung through the air towards the hippo who decided to sink down below the surface of the magma lake. With a skilled shake of his wrist, Lei's hook change directions and headed straight down into the lava for the flame king. Ying could be seen crouched over the lava pool attempting to used her body martial art, Physique of the Inferno, to strengthen her body. Physique of the Inferno allowed Ying to bring foreign fire qi into her body to strengthen it. By strengthening her body with this lava, she should be able to withstand it. Or at least that's what she was thinking should happen.
"Son of a—!" Ying's shrill scream after burning the hell out of her hand was overpowered by the sound of the Flame King Hippo's roar.
Lei Zhi managed to hook it in the behind and was now dragging it onto the rocky land. Everyone quickly moved out of the way of the behemoth so that they didn't get crushed by its enormous weight and size. Hu Tao stared at his allies' battle while hanging upside down on the cave's wall. Ever since Jing gave him that gift in the Treasured Plains, he's been able to do this along with a couple of other unexplainable things. Something like this could be explained with a special bloodline but you couldn't gift people bloodlines. As far as Hu Tao knew anyway. You were born with it or you just didn't have one.
"Watch out Hu Tao!" Bing warned.
Hu Tao unconsciously swayed his head out of the way of the soaring hippopotamus. It landed with a heavy crash onto the rocky caverns and Bing and Ying moved in together to deal a blow to the momentarily incapacitated spirit beast. Ying rose her blade overhead and swung down with a mighty swing, splitting the air as Hao Gang came down. Bing leapt into the air with his shield and aimed to crash straight on top of the mammal's head with his heavy weight and powerful physique. Both of their attacks landed but only one did any significant damage.
Ying's greatsword slashed a deep gash into the side of the beast. One could even see its insides from the wound but just this single slash wasn't enough to take out the flame king who erupted in magnificent flames after being wounded by Ying. Bing was blown away by the force of the fire while Ying contested with her mystic flames, the Frost Flames. Lei Zhi hooked Bing's shirt before he could take a dip in the lava lake for himself, saving the round boy from a terrible agonizing slow and painful death.
"Thanks Lei..." Sweat dripped from all of his pores.
"Don't forget it's a Qi Consolidation beast. It can project its qi at a range at that realm." He warned.
"Yeah, no kidding..." Bing had no way of hurting this beast at his current stage.
A 6th stage Qi Gatherer attempting to take on a 1st stage Qi Consolidator in any form would be seen as insane! Bing didn't understand why Ying thought they would be able to take on this spirit beast with their pitiful strength. A 6th stage, 7th stage, and an 8th stage Qi Gather going against someone in a higher realm would only be subjecting themselves to death. She must have had a plan, right?
It was at this point that Bing felt like curling up into a ball and rocking back and forth. It was Ying he was talking about. Of course, she didn't have some plan for if they couldn't take down this hippo. The thought of failure must have never across her mind. He should've been smarter than to leave the planning of this task all to Ying. Just trusting her blindly like that was going to get them killed eventually.
'Let's calm down for a second Bing... That injury Ying gave it looks pretty bad. If she could do that a couple more times, there's a chance that it could die. As long as I protect her, we should be able to slowly kill this thing.' Bing slapped his cheeks hard, causing them to jiggle. It was do or die time.
Ying's Frost Flames didn't do as well as she thought they'd do against the flame king's fire. It was taking most of her qi just to resist being blown away just like Bing. The remaining portion was used to try and freeze the hippo's huge body to no avail. It was better than her in both qi quantity and strength.
While this situation was bad for her, it was also great for her at the same time! Ying stopped trying to cover the spirit beast in her Frost Flames and instead attempted to try and channel her auxiliary art. Her entire goal for accepting this task was to try and understand the nature of fire better. What better way of understanding fire was there than to directly taste the flames of the Flame King Hippopotamus?!
"Your fire is mine!" Ying yelled proudly.
The bright red aura covering every inch of her body lapped, slurped, and tasted the flames coming towards her. If there was some secret inside these flames or in the way that they were used, then Ying was definitely going to find out! Her skin heated up and started to burn from the contact with the Flame King's fire but she didn't stop her auxiliary art. She saw Bing about to come towards her but stopped him with a wave of her hand and a glare.
'Just wait a couple more seconds!' The flames started to consume her as she devoured the knowledge hidden within the flames.
"Sorry about this Ying!" Bing used Swift Devil and grabbed Ying before all of her was burnt to a crisp.
The two of them traveled across the other side of the cavern and managed to avoid being burned alive. A tuft of Bing's blue hair caught fire but the damage to Ying's body was more important than that little flame. It looked like whatever she was doing distracted her from the pain her body was going through because she still hasn't processed the burns going up and down her body. Ah, she just looked down and realized the extent of her injuries.
Bing's ears were momentarily blown out from Ying's scream of realization. With his face scrunched up in pain, he fed Ying an excellent grade recovery pill as she was screaming. This stopped her screaming for a moment and then Bing looked into her eyes. She looked back and he only had one thing to tell her.
"Please heal up before I die, alright? Me and Lei can't kill this thing without you. I'll try my best to distract it and stay alive but you have to kill it." Bing was too distracted to see the blush on Ying's face. This isn't the first time he had to stall a spirit beast after Ying was injured from it.
He laid her down before she could say anything and headed straight towards the Flame King Hippopotamus. Leaving her unable to protest or complain about anything. Ying wanted to tell him that she was fine and could still fight but after feeling the injuries to her body, she'd only get in the way. The recovery pills numbed the pain quite a bit but it wasn't enough to allow her to get back into the fight.
"Damn you suck ass Princess." Hu Tao suddenly dropped down next to her.
She groaned loudly before telling him to go away as loud as possible.
"You only landed one blow on the fat shit before almost dying. That's kind of fucking sad, don't you think?" He continued despite her protests.
"If it was me out there, I would've kicked its ass before it even knew what was happening. Hell, in the lava or out of the lava. It would only be able to die against me. Even if I restrained my qi to the 8th stage like you." He didn't let up, forcing Ying into concentrating all her power into recovering so that she could get away from Hu Tao who only wanted to rile her up and mock her.
"I wish the worst for you..." She cursed.
