hidden self shows up

the sliding took a tool on my feet, not only did I miss my foot landing many times but I also had to apply a lot of force, the impact is clear on my legs, they are swollen, inflamed and in pain.

thank goodness I had healing pills, it might look like I'm wasting the pills because I am, it is not my fault that I can't tolerate pain, I was born with a golden fork.

"finally, flat ground !", I breathe in and out

"are you ok?", says Li

"I'm fine"

looking around using the spotlight hand lamp we spotted 6 tunnels surrounding us

"Which one should we go in?"

"We don't have time, just pick one at random "

patterns started appearing once we walked deeper, drawings of a horse, people with long ears kowtowing, and a one-eyed giant, we kept walking forward, during that time we could hear screeching giving the scene scary aftereffects.

"GRRrrlll"

"shaaa..."

suddenly we hear sounds of crashing, slashing we figured from it that there is a fight in front of us, we look at each other nod then separated, I go right, he goes left, we turned lights off

I can see the clearest so I learned to take a peek to monitor the situation

the view wasn't clear but I can still outline the situation, only 2 individuals are participating in this fight, the key point is both are not human plus they're different species, one is like an insect and the other does have a human figure but his legs sold him out, they are shaped closer to a gazelle leg with sharp edges.

the fight is intense making me confused, the two are fighting for something I just can't get why I can't see the thing they're fighting for, the object is invisible can only be seen by them.

Li signal to me that we need to breakthrough

'Finally, time to practice the new martial arts I got ', who can suppress the enthusiasm of martial arts, that's the romance of man!! if I can practice more in the future I'll even get to have muscles far better than Li Xiang's

the darkness is a good cover but not good enough these monsters obviously fight with no hindrance, so I dispersed ink clouds first on the battlefield, Li Xian went in with his long blood-red spear. he shoots himself ahead like an arrow towards the human-like figure, the other evaded his spear next moment his shoulder got stabbed by an axe stroke, the axe came out from nowhere into Li's hand, the creature was confused but it didn't last long, he distinctly retreated away, of course, my strings were already placed behind him tripping and inflicting some injury on left leg.

the huge insect creature on the side also jumped to attack Li Xiang so I quickly used my strings to restrain it.

I was too happy and I made a mistake, I exposed my position by accidentally hitting a small rock, the insect had good hearing and directly used its tail towards me.

'BAAM', the roof of the tunnel fell

"Erha!!!", Li left his position and stood in front of the rubble

"I'm ok ", I obviously dodged that, it just my dodging wasn't professional cause I just throw myself with no plan to the side inflicting some minor injuries.

"behind you!!", I yell with my eyes wide open, the man-creature foot is 5 inches away from Li's face, my eyes react on their own and shut themself refusing to see the gruesome scene.

I did not hear any impact sound so I open my eyes to see Li Xiang holding the monster's leg using only his hand

"handsome", I blurted out

purple flame burst out from Li's hand enveloping the creature, screeching voices came out from the monster as it slowly withered.

the air around Li Xiang was gloomy, full of killing intent and heavy pressure, furthermore, the other monster also felt the threat so it started shaking and retreating slowly, it looked to the right then rushed with all of its power to escape.

too bad, her opponent is no one other than the protagonist of this world.

a blurry gradually appeared on its way, deeming her escape route worthless it decided to fight till her last breath.

the poor insect didn't even get to ready its fighting posture before it got its face annihilated

'Bam'

'Bam'

'BAMM'

I lean on the wall to stand up then go towards where the crashing sounds are coming from to see the back of Li Xiang with a heavy breath surrounding him keeps hitting the corpse over and over to mush.

"Liii...!", I stutter when I call him, to be honest, his state kinda intimidates me though worries me, Li who heard the call turned his face showing one of his eyes bright red that got me frozen; that's when I knew he wasn't being himself.

"Li!!", I call him again but he still did not snap out of it, rather he stood and went toward me

"Li!!!", I call again frustrated, he's being so weird and his eyes scare me so I closed my eyes

Li footsteps has long reached me and stood facing me but nothing happened and when I was about to open my eyes, Li embraced me, "it's ok, don't be afraid"

I immediately soften, "good, let's continue"

"do you want to ask me something ?", Li looks ate my eyes then says

" if you wanna tell me, then tell just leave till we leave here", I say

I'll be lying if I say I don't want to know but I'll be rude and insensitive if I force him to tell me , even I have secrets; I know I'm not good at hiding them but Li never asked me about them, he just straight trusted me

I look up at Li Xiang's eyes and with determination, I open my mouth,

"I trust you "

next chapter: "stealthy stealing (something)"

author: you try guessing what they're gonna steal in the next chapter