Hardcore: Qi Worlds Chapter 37: Spawn 4

 With twelve overgrown hell puppies charging them down Benzhi resisted the urge to hightail it back to the dwarves for assistance. The last thing he would want was to lose someone in the chaos, and the Vanguard was supposed to be dealing with this sort of thing.

 It had been a good run while it lasted. He had come close to dying once with the Troll, a couple of other close shaves, but the odds were certainly not in their favour right now. Gauging by their size, speed and apparent strength Benzhi estimated they could easily deal with three. Six would be an extremely close call. Twelve was suicide. He very much doubted Gisael, or even Reyas, would be able to outrun these beasts. He turned to the warrior women in the few seconds they had left. 

 "You two run back to the Dwarves, I will lead them away," he ordered. 

 Gisael and Reyas had learned a few phrases from Benzhi and they both appropriately called,  "Hell no," to his departing form.

  Benzhi wasn't listening, he had already charged towards the Hellhounds. Benzhi engaged qi body, every trick he had been practising, speed in his legs, enabling better twitch in his muscle fibres. He engaged shunpo without even thinking increasing to his maximum speed. Over the past months, since the troll fight, his shunpo combined with the Gael's qi body technique had improved his speed by almost twofold. Two months ago, he would close a gap, in terrain like this, of two hundred paces in less than fifteen seconds, today he closed the gap in eight seconds, leaving his spear embedded in the skull of the first Hellhound, Benzhi veered to the right, attempting to lead the pack away.

 Gisael and Reyas were left in his wake. Fighting as a unit had one drawback, it had stopped Benzhi doing exactly what he was doing now, speed demon attack style. Reyas and Gisael decided in an instant since they couldn't keep up with Benzhi, they would stay together as Gisael fired her bow from range. Gisael only had fourteen arrows left, she fired the first, aiming for the brain of the Hellhound. The brain was an easier target to hit than the heart, due to the impediments in the line of fire. The main drawback with targeting the skull was, it was thick and would need one hell of a force to penetrate. Fortunately, Gisael was a master archer and a master at qi arrow, her two primary skills. Unfortunately, because she was so deadly, as soon as the second Hellhound fell, to one of her arrows, the pack veered away from the disappearing Benzhi and whirled to run down the women.

  Benzhi sensed the change, the sudden spike of fear emanating from the women was palpable. He turned knowing what had happened and ran back towards the disobedient Gisael and Reyas picking up his spear on the way. There were nine Hellhounds remaining. The odds were slowly swinging in their favour, but it was all about to go to shit.

 Reyas stood her ground, it was extremely difficult not to turn tail and run. Its what Benzhi and Gisael wanted, hell, it was what she wanted. But she would not outrun the Hellhounds for long and she would not abandon Benzhi or Gisael. Gisael kept firing at the Hellhounds, but even if she took down two more, seven was more than enough to overrun them. These were massive beasts, their shoulders were as tall as Gisael, their jaws would be difficult enough to deal with and if one got a hold of you, it would probably be fatal. This was before even considering the damage the claws and the tail could do.

 Her two picks felt inadequate against such a foe. Steeling herself, she started swinging them in tight circles, the Hellhound would have to penetrate the deathly pick whirlwind before getting their fangs into her. She engaged qi body, full body strength and speed, trashing her qi reserves. The first Hellhound bore down on her, ten paces away, an arrow penetrated its skull as it lept.

  Reyas turned, facing the next incoming Hellhound to the right and brought her pick down on its head splitting its skull before it could rip into her, it crashed into her anyway, knocking her to the ground. She momentarily lay underneath its carcass. She struggled to push it off, Gisael would need her help, even with her strength it still weighed as much as a boulder, she pushed it off into the air, throwing it backwards and jumped to her feet.

 Gisael had darted around the corpse and continued to fire, arrow after arrow as she circled. The corpse she was using for cover was now gone thanks to Reyas' throw. Four Hellhounds growled, salivated and charged. Coming from different positions it was impossible to dodge or attack them all.

 Benzhi! she knew he would take at least one on the right, he would go for two. Gisael would shoot the one on the far left. The connection was a godsend at a time like this. Reyas attacked the third Hellhound, trusting her companions, piercing its skull moments before it ate her face off.

 Gisael bent low, held her bow on its side and threaded an arrow through the incoming mass of legs, torsos and fangs, piercing her chosen target through the eye and into the brain. Gisael would waste no time drawing the next arrow, but even with her skill this still took seconds, seconds that they did not have. Benzhi approached from the rear slicing yet another, from its rear cutting a swathe through the flesh up its side all the way to its shoulder, the Hellhound screamed in pain, it was dead, but it didn't know it yet. It turned its head to snap at him as he streamed passed, Benzhi merely pushed it away to roll on its side to bleed to death with its guts spread across the ground.

 He had taken the other two down as they closed in on the women, in all the turmoil they had not noticed. The Hellhounds were now focused on Reyas and Gisael, so Benzhi caught them with his exceptional speed and he passed the Hellhounds from behind. Benzhi was able to impale the spear through one, pinning it to the ground and sliced the hindquaters of the other, forcing it to crash to the earth, before leaving it Benzhi cut its neck. He did this as the Hellhounds closed the final fifty paces to the warrior women. 

 But there was one final Hellhound.

 The last Hellhound bit down on Reyas, before Benzhi could reach it, its fangs penetrating her chest and back, moments later Benzhi brought his sword down in an almighty blow, severing its head from its body, but it was too late. The damage was done. 

 Reyas fell to the ground, mortally wounded. Her heart and lungs were pierced by the fangs. It was all right, she was content, she had saved her connected companions, her love and her friend. She could die knowing they would live and all the Hellhounds were dead.

 Reyas was collapsed on the ground, Benzhi approached and screamed, "I will kill you! You stupid woman, I told you to run, I led them away." He cried kneeling down encircling her broken body. Gisael put a hand on his shoulder and looked up at the sky.

  Moments later, Benzhi stood. Angry. He shook his head. "No," he said vehemently. "No, I will not lose her. I can do something."

 Inconsolable.  Desperate. He dropped his sword and laid his hands on her chest, keeping his shield on his arm. Benzhi attempted to qi heal Reyas. Benzhi engaged qi sight and tried to send his qi into Reyas to stitch. Try as he might, the qi patterns would not leave his body. He pushed them out his palms, but as soon as they left they were undirected, useless.

 He screamed at the sky.

 "The connection," Gisael whispered.

 Benzhi stared at her for a moment. Of course. Benzhi sent qi up the connection he had with Reyas, pushed it into her body and began to create the qi healing patterns with it. Stitch and bubble. He began to work furiously, it was working, it was fucking working. But had too much time passed. Would she survive? Could he revive her?

 'Why did I wait for a circumstance like this to try and heal someone. We should have trained this, any cut would do. Of course, this would happen one day. I am such a fucking idiot.' Benzhi thought rapidly as he stitched and bubbled. 

 Her heart had stopped, her qi circulation had stopped. In desperation he had an idea, he pumped her qi with his, forcing it to circulate again, massaging her core and forcing her streams to move. Benzhi's qi reserves were running dangerously low, he began to pull qi from his shield, 'thank god for small favours' he thought as the qi flowed from his shield into her body. After he was satisfied that every major artery was stitched he began to massage her heart, to start it to pump again.

 After an eternity of tension and the gamut of feelings, Benzhi sat back on his heels. "She's breathing," he said.

Gisael nodded and stroked Benzhi's face. "You are amazing Benzhi. This is why we follow you. This is why we love you."

 It was rare, no, it was unheard of for Gisael to speak this way. She kissed him briefly.

 Without another word, Gisael ran to the Dwarves to get help. Benzhi sat amongst the corpses of the Hellhounds cradling Reyas head. He would not lose her again.

Chapter end