Chapter 37: Trying

"What would you have done if they blocked your attack?" Hu Shunzhi asked Feng Biao.

"Run," Feng Biao replied.

"Really? Not even try a second attack?" Hu Shunzhi pressed.

"No, though judging by how long the cave has been I doubt I would have gotten away. Maybe I would have tried to collapse the section between them and me as a last resort. Not sure if I'm strong enough to attempt that," Feng Biao responded candidly.

"Hey you see that?" Cui Meizhu said cutting off the two's time-wasting conversation. She turned off her Divine Ability and two could see distant light in front of them.

"Finally," Hu Shunzhi exaggeratedly said.

Light up ahead meant one thing, an exit.

"Can you walk now?" Cui Meizhu questioned Hu Shunzhi.

"Yeah. I'm still pretty tired though," he responded sliding off her back.

"Should we go back into the cave and rest? Now that we know where the exit is we should be fine, right?" Cui Meizhu said looking back to Feng Biao.

"That sounds like a good idea," Feng Biao said turning around.

And in that utter pitch-black darkness behind them, he saw nothing.

"Turn on your Divine Ability," Hu Shunzhi complained, "the dark gives me the creeps."

"I'm not a flashlight," Cui Meizhu said acting mad.

"Just do it," Hu Shunzhi said, ready to sleep and finally move on from today's ordeal.

"Fine," Cui Meizhu said too tired to continue a routine with Hu Shunzhi herself. Activating her Divine Ability and allowing the three to finally see in the cave clearly again.

For a second, the briefest, Feng Biao saw it. A creature that was twice as tall as him. Incredibly thin and completely jet black. It had jumped back into the darkness without a sound the moment the light illuminated it.

But in that brief second, he had seen it. And in less than a second he screamed.

"RUN!"

Feng Biao, the first to see the creature was naturally the quickest, he could instantly tell what it was. A Black Oni, a creature far beyond any of their capabilities to deal with.

Thoughts of collapsing the cave behind him did not even bother to enter his mind. The only thought was survival born purely from instinct. That instinct in creatures which compels them to run when confronted with death.

Seeing Feng Biao was clearly not joking but still unsure what he had seen Cui Meizhu and Hu Shunzhi ran after him at top speed, but without the extra adrenaline that coursed through Feng Biao's veins.

Turning around to see what Feng Biao had spotted Hu Shunzhi was mortified to see it right behind him. Its face was completely expressionless. It was not smiling at him, nor did it seem angry. It was the face worn by a creature that had no great emotions, not because it was evil, but because it had simply not been created with the capacity to feel them.

It had a mission, one it intended to complete, and to do so it would kill them. Raising its arm it struck down trying to cut off Hu Shunzhi's legs. Its plan was to have him bleed out while it chased after the other two while ensuring he could escape.

Cui Meizhu saw this and quickly grabbed Hu Shunzhi pulling him towards her. It was too late though, even with Hu Shunzhi himself trying to dodge the attack it was simply too swift. The Black Oni's hand cut into Hu Shunzhi's left leg like butter severing a part of it.

This is not what it had intended, it would have preferred to have bisected Hu Shunzhi or chop off both his legs, but this was good enough to ensure his demise.

Feng Biao had already reached the exit and saw Cui Meizhu sobbing within the cave still feet away from the exit. In a fit of pure desperation, she turned her Divine Ability onto the Black Oni who recoiled.

Unsure of the properties of direct contact with the light the Black Oni wearily watched and let Cui Meizhu drag Hu Shunzhi outside the cave. It sat and began to think about how it would deal with Divine Abilities like this in the future. It couldn't always play it safe, but it couldn't also just rush headlong into something.

Preferably it would have like to have stalked the three and waited for a perfect opportunity to strike, but that was gone. Now it had to end this quickly. Sticking its hands into the cave's walls it tore off a piece of rock.

Aimed at the girl, and released. A rock with speed great enough to severely harm any of the three on impact headed straight towards Cui Meizhu's head.

The Black Oni then observed a strange thing, the rock simply stopped. Right at the exit of the cave. A property of the light? It tested this again and another rock simply stopped at the exit, as if an invisible wall had stopped it.

Outside the cave, the three watched the Black Oni slowly approach. It tentatively poked the invisible wall it had deduced now existed. Confirming its existence it unleashed a barrage of attacks that made it move so fast Feng Biao couldn't even guess the exact number.

"I can only hold it back for a minute, run!" Hu Shunzhi screamed to the two beside him.

When the Black Oni damaged Hu Shunzhi they had both touched, that was the first condition for his Divine Ability, the second was knowing the name of the being.

In this case, "Black Oni" sufficed. The creature gave itself no particular name so the same term it used to refer to its kind worked. And the third condition, an area where there was both a clear entrance and exit. If all three of these were met Hu Shunzhi could seal the entrance of such an area to anybody who met the first two conditions.

Normally Hu Shunzhi used this to lock people out of an area, but for this final time, he was locking something within it. Feng Biao and Cui Meizhu were in full sprint, in separate directions. Leaving Hu Shunzhi alone.

Hu Shunzhi had only a few seconds left of life. When he Overdrew more Divinity than he possessed his Divine Ability would end, and when that happened the Black Oni would kill him.

Still, he smiled. To be honest with himself he had only joined the exam because Cui Meizhu had. He hadn't planned to sacrifice himself to save her, but he couldn't spite himself for doing so. It was the perfect circumstances for it after all, if he had chosen not to use his Divine Ability all three of them would have died. At least this way maybe she would get away.

Hu Shunzhi with seconds left of life chose to think now about his family. About his unfulfilled hopes, about the what-ifs in his life, and his questions about the afterlife. In those final seconds, he chose to ignore the Black Oni. With his eyes closed he did not register the swift chop the Black Oni made that created a valley in his head.