Chapter 123 - Clash!

The moment Long Ma unleashed his water serpents, all hell broke loose. The first of the serpents charged directly for the boat holding Wan Yue, Ao Yang, and Aesthete Qing, bearing down on them and their guards like a tsunami. The second serpent plunged through the water, surging toward Feng Xi, Zhang Bai, and the dozens of hunters and Soldiers of the City Lord's manor as though to capsize their boats. The final serpent reared high into the air before all but falling toward Ao Wen, seeking to smash her against the trunk of the massive tree she currently stood on! 

"Sister Wen," Zhang Bai shouted, pulling a well-muscled arm back before snapping it forward and hurling the heavy-bladed 'back up' saber that Ao Wen had claimed from Aesthete Qing as a punishment for the insulting way in which he'd fought her. The blade still had no name but at the moment, that hardly mattered as the heavy blade sank into the trunk of a nearby tree with a 'thunk', sticking high enough above the surface of the water to be easily retrieved if Ao Wen could overcome her current crisis. Following his toss, Zhang Bai drew his own long sword and poured his jade green energy into the six jewels set in the pommel, rapidly building a multi-layered barrier between the hunters and soldiers on boats and the incoming water serpent. 

Opposite them, Wan Yue said a silent prayer to the mighty True Dragon Medical Saintess Cong Houzi before illusory wings flapped behind her, lifting her shapely figure even higher into the air. Cong Houzi would never allow such a trivial energy manifestation to overwhelm her Dragon Flames. The proud True Dragon would never be inferior in any way to a mere Flood Dragon. She believed this, but more importantly, everything she knew about the powerful Saintess told her this was pure truth. Armed with that truth, Wan Yue drew deep on her own energy to unleash a powerful jet of orange-crimson dragon flames! 

Fire met water in a billowing cloud of steam but Wan Yue refused to relent in her assault. Her benefactor's father lay wounded behind her and she refused to let the innocent mortal come to harm! Wings flapped, blowing the steam away as she continued her rain of fire, weakening and shrinking the water serpent with each meter it progressed forward, shrinking until barely a dozen centimeters of wave reached the boat, the last of Long Ma's energy long since evaporated along with the steam. 

Sinking from the sky, Wan Yue's phantom wings faded from view and the aura of the mighty dragon left her. Never in her life had she felt so drained of energy and at the same time felt so proud of what she'd done with it. "We have to retreat," she managed to tell one of the guards on the boat weakly. "If we stay here, we're only in the way." 

Among the soldiers, Feng Xi set a hand on Zhang Bai's shoulder, lending her own energy to his barrier and the protection of the hunters and soldiers. The water serpent, as though enraged by the barrier blocking it, hurled its body at the barrier, crashing into it with enough force to shatter the ancient trees that dominated Four Sunken Corners. Cracks spread through the barrier as the first layer shattered and the second layer took up the burden of resisting the enraged serpent. Zhang Bai held off on taking damage in the barrier's place, wanting to understand the enemy before he committed everything to resist the opening move and indeed it seemed that the serpent hadn't come away from the collision unscathed, its body having lost nearly a quarter of its mass! 

"Lady Teng," Tang Jin said, handing over the pole for pushing the boat and drawing Blinding Light. "Push from the side of the boat, I'll protect you all," he added, stepping to the bow of the boat and preparing to receive the charging form of Long Ma. Clearly, the older Soldier hadn't lost all rationality, moving to capture Teng Shien and her children as soon as he'd unleashed his water serpents on everyone else. 

Eyes blazing with red and gold light, Tang Jin swung his sword twice rapidly, unleashing two waves of bloody red light like a Mountain Lion's clawed slash. Long Ma batted the first wave of energy aside without much thought only to skid to a stunned stop when the second set of four slashes tore through his refined robes leaving four long scratches along the length of his torso from shoulder to hips! This upstart Soldier less than twenty winters old, not even old enough to properly shave the scruff from his jaw, had managed to injure HIM? 

"Jin, get out of here," Ao Wen called, charging up at Long Ma from behind, heavy saber descending in a heavy overhand strike that Long Ma barely managed to block on the haft of his spear. Ao Wen wasted no energy, using the rebound of the deflected strike to pivot into an upward cut that threatened to split Long Ma from groin to chin if he failed to block! That her heavy follow-up would go undeflected was too much to ask but still, the impact of Long Ma's River's Bite sent shivers up his arms and knocked him skidding along the water's surface for several meters. 

To Ao Wen, both strikes had been probes and the results gave her considerable hope. The aura of an Azure Dragon faintly cloaked her as she stimulated the essence blood within her inner world, effectively suppressing Long Ma's cultivation to the level of a middle-stage Soldier rather than a late-stage one. Her second attack, however, burning away the connections between his own power and Long Ming's stolen power, had succeeded enough to further reduce his actual cultivation, bringing him down effectively to the level of an early-stage Soldier like Tang Jin or Zhang Bai. 

He still overmatched her in body cultivation as an early-stage Soldier to her late-stage Brawler but she wasn't just a body cultivator. Using the moment of separation between them, Ao Wen reached into a belt pouch and swallowed down an elixir. If Long Ma truly wanted to fight her, he would learn just how terrifying an Alchemy Novice and Drifting Fire Dancer could be. 

"Long Ma!" Ao Wen called, flames flickering from her mouth as she spoke. "It's time you learn what it's like to fight someone with a real dragon legacy!"