Dragon's Soul Chapter 66: Demon Child

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As the rain continued pounding on the stone bricks that were used to build the prison, thousands of undead began emerging from beneath the water's surface. Soon they swarmed around the walls of the fortress.

"Captain! What are we going to do!" A soldier yelled out to Zhang Liao who was looking down from atop the walls.

"I don't know. We have to wait for the general's commands. But for now have the men reinforce the gates. That's the only thing we have to worry about right now." Zhang Liao said.

The prison walls were built especially high and extremely sturdy which meant there was no way the undead could break through them. This meant the only way they could possibly get in was if the fortress gates unhinged and toppled over.

"Toss the illuminating crystals over the walls!!" Zhang Liao commanded. Soon after dozens of soldiers came running out of the prison while hugging arm fulls of faintly glowing crystals.

Once these soldiers carrying the illuminating crystals reached the top of the walls the other soldiers began gathering around them and taking the crystals. Faint trails of essence then could be seen traveling from the tips of their fingers into the crystals. Moments later the faintly glowing crystals became extremely bright.

"Sadly after we use these can only be used once." Leng Zai said as he tossed the crystal over the wall.

Once the crystals landed below they shine brightly and illuminated the ground below. 

As the light shone down below the sight of thousands of rotting corpses with missing limbs could be seen making their way toward the Black Wind Prison.

Soon loud banging could be heard coming from the two iron gates. 

Bang! bang! bang! The deafening sound continued on almost endlessly without a moment's rest. Each time the undead struck the gates the hearts of each and every soldier present clenched. The constant barrage against the iron gates echoed throughout the prison served to remind everyone of the monsters on the other side of the walls.

Suddenly a erratic laughter echoed atop of the walls. One of the soldiers began laughing uncontrollably as he watched the undead swarm below.

"Ahahaha we are all going to die. We're all going back to rot in here ahahaha." The soldier with long unkempt hair laughed as he drew his sword and put it against his neck. 

"If we are all going to die I might as well die on my own terms." He said as raindrops fell splashed on his blade as they fell from the sky.  The raindrops pitter-pattered against the cold hard surface of the man's sword as he continued laughing.

Slowly the blade moved and left a trail of fresh blood. However before he could take his own life a large fist came smashing into his head knocking him out cold.

"Leng Zai carry him inside and lock him inside a cell before he hurts himself and others!!" Zhang Liao yelled after knocking out the man.

"Ye-yes brother Liao." Leng Zai said as he and another soldier picked the man up and brought him inside the prison.

After Leng Zai disappeared into the prison, all eyes were once more focused onto the undead below. By now tens of thousands of not hundreds of thousands of undead had gathered.

The rain continued pouring and thunder began ringing while lightning streaked across the sky.  

As if the heavens were helping the soldiers the Lightning snaked down and coiled around the undead turning some of them into char.

Suddenly a scream sounded out from atop of the walls.

"What now…" Zhang Liao cursed as he looked toward where the screaming was coming from. 

Off in the distance a soldier could be seen being lifted into the air with his feet dangling just inches from the ground. 

"The demon child! The demon child is here!!!" A few others yelled out. 

A silhouette of a small child with bright Crimson eyes with abnormally long arms could be seen lifting up the screaming soldier. But due to the lack of light no one was able to make out any features on the small silhouette. This was because they had tossed all of the illuminating crystals over the walls and only kept a few to illuminate the tops of the walls.

"Unhand him!!" A few brave souls yelled as they charged with swords drawn. 

As the soldiers rushed to save their comrade the demon flicked its hand and tossed it's victim down onto the horde of undead below. A defying scream soon followed as the poor man was ripped apart by the undead. Soon after only a pile of mangled flesh and a pool of blood was left.

The soldiers who watched as their comrade was ripped apart winced as they imaged the pain the poor man had to go through.

"Archers! Shoot him full of arrows!!" Zhang Liao screamed as he picked up a spear and began moving to where the demon child was.

Moments later many barrages of arrows cut through the rain and headed toward the demon child. However with a flick of its long arms the demon child brushed away many of the incoming arrows and then dodged the rest.

But as it was dodging the arrows two daggers attached to chains could be seen shooting out inside the prison and dancing through the air. After the two daggers many flashes of light also flew out from the inside of the prison. If one looked closely they'd see that these flashes of light were actual lying rowing knives cutting through the air. 

Each time the lightning flashed the daggers and knives could be seen flying toward the demon child.

"Die!!!" A loud shout sounded out as Zhang could be seen running out from the inside of the prison with Yuying by his side.

The daggers and knives finally arrived at their destination and were about to embed themselves into the demon child when it extended its arm and grabbed a soldier near it and used his body to shield itself.

But the ten throwing knives pierced through the soldier's armor and body like paper and made their embedded themselves into the demon child's arm which it used to lift up soldier.

With a thought from Zhang the Dragon Talon throwing knives began to drill into the demon child's arm. As knives continued drilling deeper and deeper the demon child severed its arm. Once the arm was severed dozens of tentacles sprang out from its body.

But before Zhang could launch another attack the demon child jumped over the walls into the horde of undead outside of the prison walls while pulling a few soldiers down along with it and disappeared. 

"Damn it…" Zhang cursed as his target slipped away.

"Brother let's go quickly!" Yuying yelled as she grabbed Zhang's arm and began running back into the prison.

They were now headed to the room where Shen Shi was residing in. 

Yuying and Zhang sped their way through the prison as they made their way to the room. Moments later the lavish looking door that led into Shen Shi's room could be seen with a few hulking guards standing in front of it.

"Halt!" The hulking guards yelled as they crossed their spears in front of the door.

"We are here to see if the young lord is okay. The demon child showed up just now." Zhang said trying to come up with an excuse to get inside the room. 

However before the guards said a word the door slowly creaked open and  General Chanming Hai walked out from the room and closed the door behind him.

"Ah it's you two I was wondering who it was." He said with a smile on his face.

"General Chanming we wanted to see if the young lord was safe." Zhang repeated.

"The young lord is perfectly safe I've been with him all night. He's currently sleeping right now so it's best not to disturb him. I will be heading outside to take command of the soldiers in a bit." General Chanming said as he smiled to Zhang and Yuying.

"If that's the case then we will head back outside and see if we could help the soldiers." Zhang said while holding Yuying's hand and began walking back the way they came from.

After walking a while and making sure no one was around Zhang and Yuying began conversing.

"Brother does that mean that we were wrong and Shen Shi wasn't the one infected by the queen heart burrower?" Yuying asked while looking at Zhang as the two headed back outside.

"Perhaps we were wrong or perhaps we were right and  General Chanming is trying to cover for Shen Shi." Zhang replied.

"But why would he if Shen Shi is being controlled by the queen heart burrower." Yuying questioned with a perplexed look on her face.

"Who knows? But we will find out soon." Zhang said as they exited the prison and walked into the rain. 

Surprisingly although the two of them walked out into the rain which had gone from a down pour to a light drizzle neither of them became wet. If someone observed closely they would notice that wherever Zhang walked there seemed to be a invisible force pushing the rain water back. 

"Brother I'm glad that you figured out how to do this with the Underworld Heart or else we would have gotten wet from the rain." Yuying said as she linked her arms with Zhang. Not too wise to get wet while wearing white cloths she thought.

If someone learned that Zhang was using a legendary treasure to keep himself dry in the rain they most likely would puke blood. 

As the two lovebirds walked outside of the prison the banging against the iron gates were even louder than before.

Suddenly loud rumble sounded out on the other side of the gate. Many of the soldiers who were above the wall had faces filled with fear.

"Wha-what is that thing." One of them murmured as his feet buckled.

A hulking undead roughly three times the size of a regular person could be seen pounding away at the iron gates. After each of its powerful strikes the a small dent could be seen where it had struck.

Seeing this the soldiers fell into true despair. Before although the undead were constantly attacking the iron gates they wouldn't even make a scratch on it but now the small dents continued to increase and soon the gates may fall. 

"It's only a matter of time before they get in…." A soldier said as he fell toward his knees and kneeled in the rain while looking up in despair.

"Kill it!!" Zhang Liao yelled as he held up his spear into the air and threw it toward the huge undead pounding at the prison gates.

His spear shot through the air and landed between it's neck and right shoulder. The spear dug deep into the undead but did not seem to hinder it very much as all. 

But this did not make Zhang Liao falter because soon enough he picked up another spear and threw it. Thanks to his deadly accuracy and the size of his target the second spear landed right beside the first spear. 

Once the second spear lodged itself inside the huge undead it could no longer move its right arm but continued pounding at the gate with its left arm. 

"Follow the captain's lead!!!" Leng Zai yelled as he made his way up the walls. He had just returned from carrying the unconscious soldier who was trying to commit suicide to a cell.

Soon dozens if not hundreds of spears made their way through the air and into the huge undead. But unlike Zhang Liao's spears many of these spears did not hit their mark and landed on the ground or struck the smaller undead.

"Bring out all of the lamp oil in the prison! Now!!" Zhang yelled as he noticed the light drizzle of rain had stopped and no more water was falling from the skies anymore.

But of course since none of these men were his soldiers they did not respond to his command.

"What are you doing! Do as he says!" Zhang Liao yelled.

"Where's the general at a time like this.." He cursed to himself.

Hundreds of barrels of oil were soon tossed over the walls as a bow and arrow appeared in Zhang's hands. Yuying who was standing right beside Zhang also had a bow and arrow in her hands. 

The two dipped their arrows into a barrel of oil and then used their essence to ignite a fire. Once the arrows were lit they were shot through the air in into the horde of undead. Shortly after a sea of flames ignited and smoke plumes rose into the air. 

Despite the fact that it was raining just moments ago the lamp oil almost instantly ignited and set many of the undead on fire. But of course since the undead had been soaked with water they did not instantly turn into puffs of fire. Instead their feet slowly melted say and their bodies would topple over and fall into the sea of flames.

"Since the walls here are made of stone and the gates of iron we can safely light them on fire." Zhang thought as he remembered how the undead overran the fort his men had constructed out of logs.

"Ahahahahaha burn! Burn!!!" One soldier laughed manically in joy as he watched the undead burn.

Until a long whip like tentacle shot out from below and latched onto him and pulled him into the sea of fire.

"The demon child!!! It's the demon child!!" Some soldiers yelled.

After the soldier was pulled down into the fire and figure jumped up over the walls. Now that a huge fire was raging below everyone was able to clearly see the features of the demon child.

"Yo-young lord?" Once they saw the facial features of the demon child they instantly recognized him. It was Shen Shi but unlike his regular appearance he had many tentacles growing out from his small body and his arms were horrifically elongated.

But before the soldiers could say anything general Chanming could be seen walking up to the top of the walls. But unlike the regularly kind looking general that everyone knew and loved he looked terrifying. Countless tentacles could be seen poking out from underneath his armor and long cape.

Chapter end