Black Wind

"Dad, is Mom having a baby?" Bao'er asked, with a surprisingly serious tone.

"Yes, you will become a big sister," Han Sen said, with a reassuring smile.

"Dad, when you have another baby... will you still want me?" Bao'er looked visibly upset when she spoke, as if she was on the brink of letting tears flow.

Han Sen stroked her head, suspecting such a question might arise. He assured her, "Of course I will want you. You're my baby daughter, and nothing will ever replace you."

Bao'er responded by asking, "Mom can love the new baby, and Dad can love me?"

"Okay, if that's how you want it." Han Sen paused to think of how he might best explain such a situation to her, and when he decided, he told her, "But there's enough room in all of our hearts to love each other equally. And what's more, you'll be a big sister. That means you'll have the responsibility of looking out for the new baby, as they grow up."

"I'll jam my gourd up the *ss of anyone who tries to mess with my future sibling!" Bao'er proclaimed, clenching her fist and making an upward motion.

Han Sen smiled hearing this. But then, he suddenly caught the sight of a big white lizard climbing up the rock wall.

It was a three-meter-long, scaled creature. It really was just like an oversized, albino lizard, save for the strange adornment on its head.

It looked like a cauldron of sorts, and Han Sen thought it was the most peculiar thing to see atop the head of a creature that was now scaling a cliff-face, in the adversity of the winds that rushed through the Hellmouth.

When it reached the top, it faced the moonlight. It seemed extra bright on this night, and it obviously enamored the creature. The lizard stood up, soaking and bathing in its silver glow. Then, after a while of this, the creature released a mist. Soon after, an orb emerged out of the lizard, and that too hovered in its proximity, admiring the moonlight. Strangely, however, it looked as if the orb was actually absorbing the celestial light.

"It's absorbing the moonlight?" Han Sen questioned if that was indeed what he was seeing. It looked likely, but regardless of that, he wagered that regardless of what that orb did, it was the lizard's geno core.

The geno core's power was likely associated with the element of moonlight, and if that was truly so, then it explained the lizard's nocturnal outings.

Han Sen wished to approach the creature, but all of a sudden, he heard a noise.

He then saw the wild wind of the mountain, literally. The wind was black, like the assault of demonic wisps.

Fortunately, Han Sen was in a sheltered area that protected him from the wind that now gusted all about. Problematically, however, the black wind carried a dreadful sound that deafened all else in the surrounding area. Nothing could be heard atop its howling.

"What sort of wind is this?" Han Sen frowned, watching the lizard and its orb remain motionless, despite the black wind that seemed to ravage it and pass up and over the mountain.

"Can the orb inhibit and repel wind elemental attacks?" Han Sen wondered, gauging the threat this foe could pose. He needed such intel to know what he could and could not do, once he stepped forward to hunt it, if he tried to at all.

Pang! Pang!

From within this black wind, Han Sen heard a number of loud footsteps. Something was hidden inside, beyond the dark streaks Han Sen's vision could not pierce.

Han Sen ultimately decided he should not try to kill the lizard. He thought to himself, "There's no rush. I definitely need to learn more about it and where I am, too. All of this is too strange."

The lizard continued to remain where it was, still as stone. The footsteps, however, were getting closer and closer. Before long, Han Sen's eyes were able to make out the faint outline of a shadow, lurking in the black wind.

He initially believed it to be a horse, and with the strangeness of the current events, it looked like a horse of the apocalypse. But as it came closer and became easier to distinguish, Han Sen was able to see that it was actually a camel.

It was a white camel, and fairly large. It stood at ten meters tall, with two humps on its back. Saddled between them was a spirit.

The spirit had a beaked mouth, and Han Sen could immediately tell it was a royal-class spirit. The camel it rode upon was also mutant-class, he wagered.

After cresting a hill, they stopped where they were. They too watched the lizard, that had yet to move.

Han Sen frowned, seeing this sight, and he thought to himself, "This has to be a joke. Am I going to have to compete against that spirit for the lizard? A competition over something as measly as a mutant class creature? Oh, please..."

The spirit's forehead began to glow softly, and after a while, this light traveled in a beam towards the lizard's orb.

Han Sen used his Dongxuan Aura to see that the light was a Black Iron Wind Bell.

The light-birthed bell tried to land on top of the orb, but in one swift movement, the orb pulled away and evaded the attempted cupping.

The spirit seemed visibly angry after this one little failure, and so he chimed the bell and brought a stop to the fierce winds that had blanketed the mountain. Clearly, the black wind had been manufactured by him.

And while the wind calmed, the simple chiming of that bell seemed to have an effect. The lizard's orb was now moving much slower than it had been.

The lizard spat out a thick, mucus-like cloud of juices to repel the bell which now approached it. Then, the cauldron on its head recalled the orb in a retreat.

While the bell was knocked back by the spit, the orb was given the opportunity to return. This just angered the spirit even further, prompting it to ring the bell with a greater craze.

The black wind then restarted. It assaulted the lizard with a greater ferocity than before, and so thick and fast were the streaks of black, the moonlight was completely lost to sight. They might as well have been fighting in an alternate realm, one devoid of light.

And as the wind battered the mountain, it showed no sign of maintaining the status quo. It kept on accelerating, until its ferocity gave birth to a black tornado that ravaged the mountainside and sent rocks and trees spiraling off into the dark.

Han Sen and Bao'er had previously been hidden quite well, and given a good view of the battle to boot. But now, the rocks that shielded them had been blasted away, exposing them. There was nowhere for them to hide now.

Han Sen, with Bao'er in his arms, thought of only one place he could retreat to for shelter, lest the two be blown away: the lizard's cave.

While the lizard was up-top, dealing with the crazed wind, the cave should have been empty. Or at least that was the hope, for Han Sen was fast approaching it.