The Skirmish

The Champion's Ring- Chapter 9

Noon

The chief was lost in thought when he started to hear some noises outside. He peeked out of the window and saw a rowdy group of armed people. They looked ready to fight, especially the leader of the rebellion, a burly man with a wooden mask.

The leader spoke, "I have your wife. If you wish to see her alive, I suggest you abdicate your position as patriarch of the Chen Clan to me. So, what is your choice? Do you wish to hand over your authority or shall we battle?"

"Give me my wife back, you heinous criminal!" As he spoke these words he held up his Yanmaodao high.

"But are you willing to trade your position for her?"

"I will give everything I have to get my wife back safe and sound!"

"Don't think I don't know of your wife's glorious past when she was in her prime. If I were to give her to you, you would endanger the entire functionality of the plan. So say goodbye to your wife. This will probably be the last time you will see her." After he clarified this, he clicked his fingers and Li Mei appeared, in a cage. She was in a bedraggled state with sweat pouring down her face. Her mouth was taped but you could tell the expression of sadness from her eyes. She struggled to try and say something but nothing came out. Her throat was so dry, that not even a sound came out. Then the leader clicked his fingers, teleporting Li Mei away.

The patriarch summoned the warriors of the clan, clearly showing his stand for he could not stand it anymore after seeing how his Li Mei was being treated. After the man finished speaking, Chen Hao yelled for the soldiers in the training grounds. Soon, a garrison of combat-ready soldiers appeared out of nowhere, wearing their shiny armour and sharp swords.

"I see that you are unwilling to give me your position. Oh well, I gave you a chance to save your skin, but you didn't take it. So it is time for us to decide in combat, who is better. Everyone note that we are fighting because of your very own patriarch's decisions to not surrender! The winner becomes the leader and the patriarch. Come on you old dogs! Fight us like men. But where are your two precious sons? Are they cowardly hiding in their pavilions? Go and find Chen Yi!

Chen Yi came out, and exclaimed, "who is the one hiding in the Pavillon? I will make sure to exterminate you from the face of the earth." The reason for his late appearance was not because he was not confident about his ability but because he had just received a fresh mission, and the reward was the hatching of the egg, and 10,000 justice points for invaluable participation in battle by killing 100 people in the opposing army.

A few moments later, after the appearance of Chen Yi, the place erupted into chaos. The rebellion had started, one that would change the history of the clan forever.

The battle had begun!

Swords clashed and bloodshed. People died all over the place, closing their eyes forever. Stepping over the corpses everywhere, people still continued to battle during the noise destruction and chaos. Chen Yi himself was faced with his fair share of opponents, which he could barely fend of with his mediocre strength. Scrambling for survival, he parried, dodged, and defended.

With luck, he managed to kill one unlucky victim. "Right, 999 more to go," he said. Roaring, he pierced another person with an undefended back. But he began to find something strange about the battle. His own people were dying far quicker. It wasn't due to low morale. Before he could postulate about this, he felt weary and dizzy and collapsed on the battlefield.

But before he fell unconscious, he imitated the abilities of a dragon to try and defend himself. He got a warning from the system that the abilities of mythical or extinct creatures could not be imitated. So instead he borrowed the abilities of the armadillo. Its shell to be exact, was one of the toughest humans had ever found. Not even bullets could penetrate its shell. What would a sword and spear do to him?

Suddenly, he got a message from the system. "Congratulations host! Your high usage rate of the skill has upgraded the functionality of the skill to Imitate: 2. You can now combine the features of 2 animals and change the size of the feature applied to your body. You can get the ability to combine the abilities of more animals by using the skill more times. The skill duration has also increased to 2 hours. A backlash is still possible with this upgrade."

Chen Yi began to combine the armadillo shell and large hedgehog spikes to protect his body. Right after he had done so, Chen Yi fainted, his body unable to take anymore.

When Chen Yi awoke, he found a large force pressing on top of him. To him, it seemed like a large lion was sleeping on his back. That was when he smelled the stench of death. He pushed away from the weight above him and found people sharing at him, shocked. "What… Did I do something wrong?"

"You...Didn't you… Didn't you die?"Chen Hao asked. Chen Yi responded with, "I fell unconscious….did you find out who the masked man was?"

Chen Hao responded, "No… Right after the tide of the battle started to turn in our favor, the leader and their army started to flee from the battlefield. They will be back, I can just feel it in my bones. We must make ample preparations for their return"

"I shall cultivate to improve my prowess and to help us defeat them"

"Although the secret skill you used was amazing, the other side will not have preparations against it."

"Thank you for the compliment father. I will put it to good use and use it when we are at a critical junction, taking the enemy by surprise."

"Where was Chen Wei during the battle?" asked Chen Hao. Just as that had left his mouth, Chen Wei appeared. "I was sleeping. I am also sorry for what had happened and that I could not battle against the enemy."

Chen Hao said "It's alright, but now you have to wake up as it is our time of need. if we had lost you would have died probably you know!" Chen Wei said," Yes father."

As night began to fall, there was something going on behind the scenes.