Dragon's Soul Chapter 76: Unexpected Outcome

Thanks Alec/Hyou for proofing
==================================================================
Chapter 76: Unexpected Outcome
Written by: IEndWorlds

As the soldiers of the Heavenly Sword Army continued firing barrage after barrage of arrows at the soldiers of Aurora approaching the walls, they spotted hundreds of green flags with white clovers sewn onto them off in the distance. These were the standard flags of the Green Clover Army.

Thousands of men donning green armor  were steadily marching toward Green Clover City on foot. At the forefront was a man sitting atop a red horse with a guandao in hand. Any citizen of Green Clover City would instantly recognize this man as Guan Yu, the general in charge of protecting the northern region of the Green Clover Province.

"For Lord Lu Gong!" Guan Yu roared as he lead his men toward Green Clover City.

Seeing the green flags and thousands of soldiers in green armor, creases appeared on Zhuge Dan's forehead.

"What are they doing here…That woman should have already suppressed any general against us in the province." He muttered.

"Hmph whatever the more that come, the more I will kill." He thought as wind began spiraling around his body.

Moments later a miniature tornado formed in Zhuge Dan's palm and swirled down onto the ground where it exponentially grew in size. This tornado spun toward the Green Clover Army at high speeds threatening to shred everything in its path.

A short distance from Zhuge Dan, a glint appeared in Ling's eyes as she saw the opportunity to strike. Zhuge Dan had held the advantage throughout her entire fight with him due to the volume of water that was available for her use. But now that his attention was focused elsewhere, Ling could possibly overwhelm him with a surprise attack.

"Dark Nimbus." Ling mumbled and moments later all of the water on the battlefield rose to the sky and formed ominous black clouds. Soon a heavy rain began to descend upon a small section of the battlefield.

"You've ran out of tricks?" Zhuge Dan mocked as countless water droplets trickled down from the sky.

"Eternal Frost!" Ling yelled as the entire area where Zhuge Dan was became covered in a thin layer of ice.

The rain beside Zhuge Dan turned into hundreds of small ice needles as a layer of ice covered his body. After being completely covered  by ice, Zhuge Dan's body began to fall from the sky.

"Die!" Ling yelled as the hundreds of ice needles shot toward Zhuge Dan's icy body.

But before the ice needles could  strike their target, cracks began forming on the layer of ice that coated Zhuge Dan's body and a burst of wind sent shards of ice flying everywhere.

"Had I not clad myself in wind perhaps that would have been my end." Zhuge Dan murmured as he shot a glare at Ling.

While Ling and Zhuge Dan faced off in the air the soldiers of Aurora had made their way into the city after riding passed Zhang who was engaged in battle with Chao Chang. Once inside they engaged in battle with  the soldiers of the Heavenly Sword Army.

"Brat you're pretty good as dodging." Chao Chang snickered at Zhang as blood dripped from the saber in his hand.

The two had been in deadlock without either of them gaining the upper hand but Chao Chang's strikes clearly contained much more power than Zhang's. Meaning as the battle raged on it was more likely Chao Chang would gain the upper hand.

To make things worse, the black blade in Chao Chang's hands was able to barely slice through the scales of the Lightning Eater armor Zhang was wearing. After every exchange of blows faint trails of blood appeared on both men.

"Luckily, wars are not won by a single men but by armies." Zhang chuckled as he dodged one of Chap Chang's slashes.

"Perhaps, but a dragon without a head is a dragon without a purpose!" Chao Chang roared as he continued wildly swinging his sword.

While Zhang and Chao Chang battled on, yelling could be heard coming from the tops of the city walls.

"Quickly bring out the ballistas!" Some soldiers of the Heavenly Sword Army yelled.

The reason why Chao Chang had to go through all of the trouble of sending his concubine Guo Meiyan to infiltrate Green Clover city was due to these ballista. The Green Clover province did not have a strong army nor natural defense but they had hundreds of ballista stored away to defend their capital city. Of course, this information was not widely known. Even the majority of the citizens who lived in the province themselves didn't know.

Had the Heavenly Sword Province not sent hundreds of spies into the Green Clover Province, they most likely would have not known either.

Each and every ballista used large bolts the size of spears tipped with mythril which could punch through just about any kind of armor.

Soon, rumbling sounded out as hundreds of ballista were rolled out onto the top of the city walls. Luckily Zhang had launched a surprise attack or else his army could have been wiped out before reaching the walls of the city.

Moments later hundreds of bolts were shot downward from the city walls striking indiscriminately  impaling  friend and foe. A few unlucky commoners were even caught in the crossfire as the bolts shot through the walls of their homes.

"Ride into the alleyways!" Sima Yi ordered as a spear sized bolt nearly pierced into the side of his horse.

"Shit... I need to get out of here." Zhang thought as dozens of bolts flew past him.

"Where do you think your going?" Chao Chang laughed as he pursued Zhang.

"Chase after someone who isn't the same gender!" A voice belonging to a woman rang out as a black whip lashed out at Chao Chang.

Using his saber Chao Chang hacked away at the onslaught of whip lashes directed toward him. Soon bits and pieces of the black whip littered the ground underneath where Chao Chang stood.

"Bind!" Ai yelled as the pieces of whip on the ground extended and shot out at Chao Chang.

"What is this!?" Chao Chang yelled as black vines coiled around his body.

"Get him brother!" Ai yelled cheerfully as her whip bound Chao Chang to the ground.

Zhang turned toward Ai to shoot her a smile but soon a face full of fear appeared. It was as if time slowed down as he ran toward her. Seconds became minutes, minutes became hours as he inched toward her.

Ai watched as Zhang franticly made his way toward her. Turning her head toward the side she could see a large green tipped ballista bolt speeding toward her. But sadly the bolt was moving too fast and was already too close for her to dodge.

In an instant her world turned upside down as she felt gentle hands shove her out of the bolt's path.

Boom!

Ai sat on the ground in a daze as a cloud of dust blocked her vision. Moments later she could see the shaft of bolt sticking out of Zhang's back where his heart should be through his pitch black cape as he pinned to the ground.

"Nooo!" Ai wailed as two streams of tears formed on her delicate face.

"Guess I'll be seeing father in law a bit sooner.." Zhang said with his face facing the ground as he coughed up mouthfuls of blood. After his last words Zhang's head dropped to the ground lifelessly.

Yuying who was commanding soldiers with Sima Yi stood lifeless as she saw the events that had transpired unfold. Soon her legs gave out from under her as if she did not possess an ounce of power left in her entire body causing her to fall to the ground onto her knees.

Outside of the city Ling and Zhuge Dan were still at each other's necks using technique after technique trying to obliterate their opponent. But as long as Ling had water she could cancel out Zhuge Dan's attacks and the same went for Zhuge Dan who could repel Ling's attacks as long as he had wind at his disposal.

As Ling was channeling essence in her hand preparing to unleash another technique against her enemy she a felt a slight tug on her pinky finger. The red thread that was only visible to her and connected her to Zhang, blew loosely in the wind as if it's other end was no longer connected to anything and turned black and colorless.

"It can't be…." Ling murmured, she felt as if a hard lump was blocking her throat while tears began gathering at the corner of her eyes. Ling abandoned her battle with Zhuge Dan and the column of water she was standing on sped toward Green Clover City.

"Where do you think your going!?" Zhuge Dan roared as blades of wind formed around him, ready to be fired at Ling. However that instant when he gathered his essence Zhuge Dan coughed up a mouth full of blood.

"Damn… That damage from the lightning still hasn't completely healed and this fight has been taking it's toll on me." He muttered as he lowered himself to the ground.

Moments later the column of water Ling rode out splashed over the tops of Green Clover City's walls. Looking down Ling saw a terrifying scene below.

"Brother!!" She screamed as she descended to the ground to where Zhang was laying lifeless. Ai was still sitting on the ground as if she was a puppet with cut strings as two trails of tears stained her face. Yuying was also at the same spot she had been while kneeling on the ground lifelessly.

"Wake up! Wake up! You promised you'd never leave me again!" Ling yelled as she pushed and tugged at Zhang's lifeless body that was nailed to the ground by the large ballista bolt.

"Young lord!" Many soldiers yelled as they realized that their master was lying on the ground lifeless.

"Protect the madams! Kill those bastard and avenge the young lord!" Sima Yi roared in rage. As he looked at where Zhang laid, Sima Yi could not help but remember back to when he and Zhang had met in Red Mist City and how if it was not for Zhang he would most likely still be a beggar or dead on the streets in Red Mist City.

"Kill them! Kill them all!!" He continued yelling as he withdrew his sword from it's scabbard and madly charged that the soldiers of the Heavenly Sword Army.

Many of Zhang's soldiers also fell into a frenzy and began slash wildly at their foes. If their swords broke they used their fists, if their fists failed they would use their teeth. This caused the soldiers of the Heavenly Sword Army to be stricken with fear.

"Retreat! Retreat! They've gone mad!" A few of the soldiers of the Heavenly Sword Army screamed as they dropped their weapons and ran away.

But as madness filled the battlefield a painful laugh sounded out. Ai could be seen laughing madly as she got to her feet. "If brother is dead then you'll all accompany him." Ai said in a shrill and pained voice as a long thin sword appeared in her delicate hand.

The moments later the area was filled with screams as Ai as if possessed by death itself charged at soldiers of the Heavenly Sword Army and hacked them limb from limb. Despite pleading and begging none were spared as Ai rampaged.

Chao Chang could be seen fighting his way up to the top of the city walls after he witnessed Zhang being impaled by the ballista bolt. This was because he had deemed that since Zhang was gone his biggest priority was to secure the top of the walls and use the ballista to annihilate as many of Zhang's soldiers as possible before the remnants of the Green Clover Army reached the city.

Suddenly a mixture of screeching and howling filled the air for an instant. As everyone's gazes focused on where the sounds were coming from they could see a terrifying dark aura enveloping Zhang's lifeless body. Following this a purple colored crystal shaped like a heart flew out from beneath Zhang's armor and into the air. Once in the air the one item that Zhang took from the Underworld emitted a dazzling light as a purple aura overlapped with the black aura and enveloped his body.

Then something miraculous occurred when the purple crystal shaped heart began spinning in the air and then shot down at Zhang's lifeless body and drilled into his body. Afterward the purple aura faded away leaving only the terrifying black aura.

Ling was dumbfounded while she sat on the ground beside Zhang's corpse once they events had begun. But then to her amazement the black and colorless loose strand of thread tied to her finger regained it's beautiful red color and then as if it had a mind of it's own coiled around Zhang's finger.

After this Zhang's body began pushing himself up from the ground and onto it's feet. Then his hands gripped the bolt that had pinned him to the ground and inch by inch pulled it out of his body. A pond of blood formed beneath Zhang's feet once the spear sized bolt was pulled loose from his body leaving a gaping hole in Zhang and his armor. Once the spear was taken out Zhang tossed it onto the ground as he fell to his knees and began coughing up mouthfuls of blood. Moments later a purple light appeared and in an instant the gaping hole in Zhang's chest was no more.

While looking a Zhang with a tear stained face, Ling felt a gentle hand hands wipe away her tears.

"I didn't lie, did I?" She heard as she felt the warm hands caress her petite face.

By now silence had filled the entire battlefield as all eyes were focused on the miracle that had occurred. Well of course besides a few screams and pleas for mercy from those unfortunate people who were being hacked to death by Ai.

After wiping off the tears from Ling's face Zhang stood up as his pitch black cape was draped over his shoulders its ends fluttered in the air. Each and every gaze was soon drawn to Zhang's cape as everyone felt something was looking back at them from within his cape. Moments later dozens of eyes that did not belong to humans appeared on the black cape staring back at the onlookers from the darkness.

The black aura enveloping Zhang's body then shot forth encompassing a large area around him creating a black mist which blocked everything from sight. It was as if an endless abyss had been formed right in front of everyone's eyes. Once more the howling and screeching was audible as pitch black colored beasts of all shapes and sized walked out from the black mist.

Lightning Eater snakes crawled out from the darkness and towered over the city walls, Voracious Eater Lions jumped out from the black mist and pounced on soldiers of the Heavenly Sword Army, while packs of One Eyed Hell Hounds tore their victims limb from limb as they charged out from the mist.

Chapter end