The first pair of Sui Lions rushed through the cave tunnels, but the rumbling of the cave felt fairly abnormal. Apart from being able to tell his team that they were coming from the front, even Yue Han’s senses were unable to pinpoint their exact location.
Only thanks to the light lamps Tanke was holding at the side of his waist did they manage to realise that the incoming Sui Lion on the ground was purposely creating a distraction so that the Pandawans would not pay attention to the second one above him who was actually using the surrounding walls to try and attack them from above.
“Holy shit, they can run upside down as well?! What kind of monster are we facing?! Are we sure they’re the same ones as outside and not some kind of Sui Spiders?!” Yue Han complained even as Tanke held on to his shield and prepared to intercept both of them.
However, Bu Dong doubted that both Sui Lions would clash with their Panda Guardian upfront. Given their intelligence, it was far more likely that the one above was aiming at the backlines and even if it wasn’t, it would at least backstab Tanke while he would be busy dealing with the one on the ground.
Yue Han was still shocked by the abomination running upside, and Bu Dong’s contemplation caused the young Pandawan to act slowly. The only person who reacted in time to this shocking development in their fight was Yue Wen. The young woman aimed her pistol at the charging beasts and started to shoot.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The sound of the shots reverberated throughout the entire cave, and it caused a slight reaction delay to Tanke’s actions. Yue Han, with his enhanced senses, was severely harmed by it as he knelt down covering his ears. Bu Dong was also affected, and the eerie ringing within his ears made it hard to fight.
“Sis! What the fuck are you doing?! Shooting so close to us without any warning?!” Yue Han shouted since his ears seemed to have been temporarily crippled by the loud sounds.
To make things worse, none of the shots actually connected and the Sui Lions, although slightly agitated by it, did not stop in their charge. In fact, they further increased their speed after their prey had noticed their failed ambush. This caused Yue Wen to continue shooting, now with two hands, hoping to get a lucky headshot.
However, only the final bullet scrapped the ear of the ground Sui Lion, barely reducing its health bar. Unlike the Elder Pandarens, Bu Dong and the others had not realised that the Sui Lions, and in fact all of the Nian variants were susceptible to loud sound and flashes of light.
The pistols they used were coincidentally doing a great job providing both, especially when in a tunnel cave where the sound reverberation was enhanced, and the relative darkness of the cave caused the flashes to be more poignant.
However, the occasional flashes and bangs of sounds were still not as deadly as a firecracker which had successive loud booming sounds and bright lights, so the Sui Lions were not badly affected. Nevertheless, amidst Yue Wen’s unsuccessful attempts, Archy had used the opportunity to fire a crossbow bolt and hit the front paw of the Sui Lion running on the ceiling.
The pain caused the Sui Lion to lost not only it’s footing but momentum, forcing the Lion to fall off from its position. Archy did not hesitate to fire yet another bolt as he utilised his skill to reload quickly to fire another shot in succession. By releasing another stun arrow and able to hit with such accuracy on the falling Sui Lion ensured that it would not be able to recover when it touched the ground.
And with some luck on their side, the Sui Lion dropped on its brethren’s back, causing them to collide. Tanke took the chance to move a step forward and slammed its Warhammer on both of them. A direct hit on the head caused the Sui Lion to concuss. Thankfully, the Panda Guardian AI was smart enough to hit the Sui Lion that was on the top, causing the one at the bottom to struggle continuously from the dead weight of his fellow stunned brother.
Bu Dong who managed to shake himself off from the shock of the gunfire quickly went forth to slash the struggling Sui Lion’s neck. Obviously, the Sui Lion did not allow itself to die like that, and thus, it managed to gather its strength to throw its concussed brother into the Angry Ape cultivator’s path as it thought that it had already been killed. Bu Dong was surprised by the Sui Lion’s willingness to sacrifice its comrade as the ones outside the cave had not showcased such a behaviour.
“Careful! They could be veteran versions of the Sui Lions we fought!” Tanke warned as he quickly stepped to the side and tried to flank the still active Sui Lion. The Sui Lion did not bother escaping and decided to go for the smaller human since Tanke was blocking their back.
However, with a taunting screech from Tanke, the Sui Lion somehow stopped its track and turned towards the Panda Guardian. “Woah! So an enmity meter really does exist! No wonder Boss Jin insisted on a Tank party member!” Bu Dong relaxed from a defensive stance and quickly switched to the offensive.
“I’m starting to understand a little more about this new dungeon format! Now, this is more interesting!” Bu Dong thought to himself as he lit up his sword with chi.
Fire from his chi started to envelop his sword as he too threatens the provoked Sui Lion. With the darkness of the cave and the support of just some measly lantern light, Bu Dong also believed it would be best to light up the cave a little so that Archy or Yue Wen could be able to see him further and aid with the long range attacks.
However, to Yue Wen’s surprise, she saw Archy retract his crossbow and take the time to wrap a few bolts with linen. She now vaguely understood why Archy liked to sit and shoot upon seeing a mini-workshop right in front of her.
The Panda Archer had a small table right in front of him with tools that allowed him to rework his arrows. Upon wrapping the linen, he doused it with some oil and lit it up with a lighter on his mini table. After which he placed a bolt on his crossbow and aimed at the Sui Lion his party members were fighting against.
While waiting for a good shot, Archy passed Yue Wen a few arrows doused with oil in a quiver too. “You need to be a bit careful with those. Longbows are not really suited to be used inside caves. Use them when you’re sure it’s safe.” Archy advised as his eyes never left the target in front of him. Yue Wen thanked him, and she carried the quiver.
She decided not to interfere as her aim was not as good as Archy’s and she was worried that her carelessness could result in a case of literal friendly fire after the frantic firing of her pistol.
Unfortunately, the party appeared to have forgotten about the remaining Sui Lion, which Yue Han had detected previously. With Yue Han still recovering from, the party had placed all its attention on the Sui Lion in front of them, allowing the third Sui Lion to silently stalk the party from the shadows awaiting the right time to strike.
