Chapter 9 Escape

"THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!"

"SWOOSH! SWOOSH!"

A multitude of beasts could be heard stampeding throughout the forest. This immediately sent the trio into high alert. In but a moment Right Blade jumped up climbing a nearby tree to try get a better view.

Looking towards the center of the forest from above the canopy of the trees, Right Blade's eyes widened in shock. He could see a being, a being possibly 10s of kilometers of tall with bright red fur and fiery eyes.

Out of sheer fear Right Blade averted his gaze and dropped down the tree. "We have to go now! There's a beast that would make the Aqua Rhino look like an ant!" He urged, these were the first words he had said since they entered the 10,000 Beast Forest.

Hearing this even Left Blade's expression twisted. The Aqua Rhino was previously thought to be an overlord of the 10,000 Beast Forest, but from Right Blade's description it seemed that they were previously naive.

 Without a moment of delay Left Blade grabbed Xuan Jin and the two Blades immediately fled at their fastest speed. While it may have seemed that the previous exchange was rather long, the whole matter was settled in 3 seconds.

"THUMP! THUMP!! THUMP!!!"

The noise of the stampeding beasts only grew louder and louder as they fled, which was an extremely bad sign. "Fuck! At this rate they're going to catch up to us." Left Blade cursed before an idea crossed his mind. The man slashed towards a nearby tree felling it.

Seeing this Right Blade nodded his head before felling a tree next to him. The idea was simple in theory. If they blocked the path behind them, hopefully it would either delay the beasts directly behind them or divert them away.

After felling about 10 trees along the way, the two sheathed their blades preferring to conserve their energy. Unfortunately despite their best efforts it was all for naught.

"OINK!!! OINK!!!"

A number of large boars had arrived behind the group of 3. Without any concern for what was in front of them, the boars continued charging. Immediately Right Blade jumped, performing a flip and landing atop one of the boars.

Left Blade was a bit more restricted due to carry Xuan Jin on him, but he managed to jump towards a nearby tree in time and pierced it with his blade allowing him to hang on it.

"Steel-Furred Boars....this is worse than I thought." Left Blade muttered. Any one of these boars was comparable to Xuan Jin in strength, some even comparable to the Foundation Building Realm.

A few seconds later the boars finished passing by, and Right Blade reappeared having dismounted the boar. "We have to continue moving." Left Blade said, pulling his blade out of the tree before continuing their escape.

"RUMBLE!!!"

But the trio couldn't get far before swaths of flame descended from the sky. The trees around them burning to ash in milliseconds. This was merely the beginning of their troubles.

Now able to look up into the sky from the forest floor below, they could see a large flock of birds flying away in panic, and flaming meteors shooting across the sky. One such meteor streaked above them, landing ahead of them.

"BOOM!"

The shockwave slammed into them, sending them flying back. What made matters worse was they could hear the wailing of the boars. Clearly the meteor had hit their group directly, and it was now likely they'd be running back towards them in fear.

And predictably they did just that. Faster than ever, the boars furiously charged towards them, and this time there were no trees to hang onto. Immediately Left and Right Blade shot into the air landing atop the nearest boar.

Due to their panic and fear the boars were heading back into the 10,000 Beast Forest, and they could only ride along unable to direct the hoard of boars.

"At this rate we'll end up in the inner region." Left Blade sighed. A number of different animals were rushing beside the boars now. Some out of the forest, others in disordered panic. It was safe to say that the outer region was pure chaos at this moment.

All of a sudden an eagle-like bird descended from the sky, its claws slashing towards the group of humans. Right Blade immediately parried the blow, causing him to be thrown off the boar.

"Fuck!" Left Blade cursed before unsheathing his blade. Xuan Jin then got off his back and found his balance atop the boar. Right Blade who had just been flung away was no where to be seen, and the bird swiftly chased after the two remaining humans.

Manifesting his Qi, a dark blade apparition appeared behind him. As the bird approached, Left Blade closed his eyes and the apparition grew more and more real, before almost turning solid.

"SCHINK!"

In an instant the apparition shot forth bisecting the bird. Before they could catch their breath another meteor streaked across the sky, and this time they were so lucky.

"BOOM!!! BOOM!!! BOOM!!!"

The large mass of rock and flame plummeted, hitting the center of the boar horde merely 10 meters from the duo. The shockwave alone ripped through the boars, and shot them 10s of meters away.

Xuan Jin who had now gone flying, spat out a mouthful of blood. He was now separated from both his aides and found himself crashing down into a rare patch of open grass.

But as luck would have it, another eagle-like bird seemingly out for revenge swooped down its claws glinting. Seeing this Xuan Jin was not of the mind to die without a fight.

His Xuan Qi erupted before he unsheathed his blade as quickly as he could. The boy then rolled to the side narrowly dodging the bird's attack. This gave him just enough time to swiftly regain his footing.

The bird was obviously rather enraged at this and swooped down again, but this time Xuan Jin was prepared. 'Its worth a shot.' 

Channeling his Xuan Qi into his feet, Jin jumped up into the air timing it perfectly so that he'd land atop the bird. Immediately the bird rapidly rolled around in the air trying to throw the boy off, but he merely stabbed his blade into the bird and held on for dear life.

Seeing that it was getting no where, and now with a blade jammed into its back. The bird flew erratically attempting to slam Jin into anything but to no avail. All the trees had been destroyed and only fellow Demonic Beasts were around, and provoking them at this point would spell a death sentence.

On instinct the bird ascended into the air, but it barely got 100 meters up before it felt its life force corrode and began plummeting back down to the ground. Seeing this Xuan Jin almost felt like slapping himself.

His Xuan Qi had been channeling through his blade and thus killing the bird slowly but surely. Normally this would be great, but they were now 100 meters in the air.

Looking below, swaths of destroyed forest and numerous beasts remained, but out of the corner of his eye he saw something, a river. Channeling every ounce of Xuan Qi he could, Xuan Jin pulled his blade out of the corpse while simultaneously pushing off it directing his body towards the river.

After which he sheathed his blade before focusing the rest of his Xuan Qi as defensive armour around his body. 'If I don't survive this I am sorry, mother, father.' 

"SPLASH!"