The hologram then changed to show them the most straightforward and shortest route towards their target. Most of the cultivators immediately understood the meaning of the various flaring red dots in between themselves and the big X representing their goal. It only made sense that the instance would throw more obstacles in their way if they pushed back hard.
“So, it’s like escorting our King Panda to checkmate their King?” Bombardier Beetle Cultivator Bin Yong summarised the entire ‘activity’ laid out to them.
“I don’t think you can checkmate a King with a King in chess. Also, King Panda sounds rather …” Jin wanted to continue, but the Pandawans were not giving him any chance to recover after Bin Yong’s comment.
“By the way, Boss, what’s the black …eh liquid above us?” Breathtaking Bellflower Cultivator Jia Le questioned.
“Hahaha. That is a magic trick by itself.” Jin laughed as he raised his hands up once more, and the Black Sludge started to whirl around each of the cultivators. Without touching them, Jin requested all of them to distance themselves apart until each black sludge only surrounded themselves without touching anyone else.
“Now, please emit your cultivation aura.” Jin gave the next set of instructions, and the rest followed. Soon enough, the black sludge absorbed their chi from the cultivation aura the group had emitted and created a mount based on each of their animals.
The Pandawans were genuinely impressed by it as they familiarised themselves with their own animal mounts. For those Pandawans who did not have animals as their cultivation, the black sludge created item based mounts related to their cultivation. So, Jia Le received a floating Bellflower, Yue Wen got a winged angel looking maiden statue while San Sun’s was a flying wok.
To Jin’s surprise, the Black Sludge actually accommodated the colours and perception of the Pandawans, unlike his own totally Black Panda with varying shades of grey. It was a discovery that even the System started to take note of it. However, the reason for the differing results was a question for another time since time was limited, and they still had to take down the Big Boss of this particular dungeon instance.
“Say, since you are the creator of this instance, then can’t you just teleport to the boss and fight him directly? Or better yet teleport all of us?” Man Tang slowly got up on her upsized cat mount, but Xiong Da answered her in the form of a question of his own.
“Where is the fun in that?”
The rest of the group nodded solemnly as they all saddled up on their mounts.
In the meantime, Jin briefly checked the situation concerning the Lion Mantises. They were currently further back on the defensive platform to prepare the group. “I need to dash out of the defensive platform without any of the Lion Mantises catching up to us. Do you think you two can do that?”
“I have a skill that should be able to stop them in their tracks for ten seconds. However, that is all the time I can buy, despite System’s promise to give me unlimited souls. I am sorry, Master, for not being more capable.” Dread Reaver apologised as he parried another Lion Mantis.
“You sure you can catch all of them?” Flame Ripper could not help doubting the ability of his sworn brother since he knew it would be a challenge to do so.
“No worries, Bro. I can do it. Trust me.” Dread Reaver replied as his black sword glimmered with a bit of blue aura, preparing for the skill.
“Master! I… will power up my …music.” It took a bit for the Zither Mistress the speak out, but it was evident from her tone and voice that she was already panting and could possibly be reaching her limits.
“I will assist you with the restrain! You just need to catch them Dread, Reaver.” Sandy encouraged the Death Knight, as she could not stand around doing anything when Ke Mi was playing so violently and yet meticulously on her zither to slow down the corrupted Lion Mantis.
“Hmph, I need to pick up the slack as well. Ifrit, I implore you to share with me your powers to burn these insects to a crisp!” Flame Ripper thought to himself, and the only reply he got was a deep ancient voice which apparently smirked at his resolve.
“Alright, everyone! Get ready!” Jin said simultaneously to his monsters as well as Pandapolis first-ever ‘Militia Cavalry’. Some of the Pandarens on-site who witnessed the next scene could not believe the unison between Jin’s monsters and his cultivator cavalry.
Suddenly the sound of a war horn was heard blowing out loudly, and that was the System’s prompt to start the counterattack assault as Dread Reaver revealed his skill.
“This time around, all of you are not getting from me! Death’s Grasp!” Dread Reaver shouted as he swung his sword to parry a blade and kicked the Lion Mantis away as far as he could. Then, the Death Knight plunged his sword into the ground, and a small void domain appeared with shadowy black arms emerging to target the Lion Mantises with the assistance of the System.
Although the arms were moving relatively fast, the Lion Mantises were certain that those would not be able to pinpoint and catch them.
However, they were dead wrong.
It had been Dread Reaver’s intention to catch all of them ever since the evolved goblin consumed one of their souls. It was not his primary objective but eating just a speck of their soul had allowed Dread Reaver to keep track of all of them with his eyes imbued by the power of death.
He could clearly trace the souls of the Lion Mantises, and this extended to his ability Death’s Grasp. No matter how they tried to evade, the shadowy arms were all chasing after them. Just as the cocky Lion Mantises tried to escape Death’s Grasp at the very last moment, they suddenly realised their speed had further decreased.
This was solely Ke Mi’s contribution. The Zither Mistress had summoned out a second zither on the stage, and she played both simultaneously. Using her magic to control the strings’ pitch and tone, her fingers were the only thing left to play the musical instrument. Her multi-tasking ended up further amplifying the slow debuff magic by two-fold and helped those Lion Mantises to be caught.
“Not as fancy as Dread Reaver’s but taste this ‘Sandy’s Grasp’.” Sandy invoked her magic as she looked at a hologram presented to her by the System since the sand dome blocked all vision. With Death’s Grasp inhibiting any movements on their part, the System was able to share the specific coordinates for Sandy to project her magic and further solidify the restraint created by the Death Knight.
“A little something special since my cute Ke Mi is working so hard,” Shu spoke out of place as root spikes appeared and impaled straight through each and every Lion Mantises’ mouth.
“That’s a bit unnecessary, but we’re grateful for the assist, Grandpa Shu!” Flame Ripper shouted as he brandished his red-hot flaming daggers towards the restrained Lion Mantises.
“Destruction Dagger Dash!!”
