“Are you alright?” Ma Yue Han, the Blind Bat Cultivator asked as he managed to catch a few of them in mid air.
“Wow, When did you learn how to fly? Even with qing gong, this is no easy feat.” Xu Jia Le, the Breathtaking Bellflower Cultivator and also the partner of Bin Yong said as she managed to grab Yue Han’s hand and use her cultivation powers by creating flowers in midair for them to step.
“I managed to break through to Grade 9 and learnt one of the intermediate techniques that allowed me to float. You should thank Bu Dong and this guy here for forcing me to learn stuff when I could have been lazier.” Yue Han pointed with whatever fingers he had left grabbing the cultivators towards Deng Long.
“Then I guess, it had paid off well. Told you this raid is a crazy one.” Deng Long replied with a sigh of relief. He thought that he would meet the same fate as the rest of the other cultivators who had dropped into the abyssal hole when the earthquake happened. Thankfully, with Yue Han’s floating technique, Jia Le, Deng Long and one more particular Pandawan were able to survive the fall.
“Do you mind stepping on those floating flowers? My leg is not really the best place for you to grab.” Yue Han exclaimed as he could feel the intense grip that Shi Zuo was placing on both of his legs. If not for Yue Han’s familiarity with the floating technique, the four of them might have already fallen through the abyss.
Jia Le knows that Shi Zuo had a tad of Acrophobia and purposely conjured a floating bellflower which was larger than the rest right beneath his feet, allowing him to let go of Yue Han and allowed the Blind Bat Cultivator to balance himself once more. He quietly thanked Jia Le as they witnessed the Great Demon Rat’s main capital, the Undercity, in its full greatness.
When gravity pulls them down further, they already saw that there were multiple projectiles coming toward them and hordes of Demon Rats were already rushing into their landing area to not only await their descent but also decimate any surviving Pandarens that managed to live through the fall from the ground above.
It was a complete massacre as the injured Pandarens could barely put up a fight against them. The Royal Zodiac Soldiers on the other hand were banding up together as much as they could so that they heal themselves while preventing the situation from overwhelming them.
Yet, it was pretty apparent that they could not hold the fort since they were in unknown territory and most of them were low grade combatants since the Monkeys and Sheeps were mainly supporters. The Battle Alchemists from the Monkey Clan were able to do some emergency healing as well as create a defensive array, allowing only cultivators to enter but the onslaught of Demon Rats became a problem when they were the centre of ‘attraction’ to the incoming horde of Demon Rats.
And that implied Jia Le and the rest of the Pandawans who were descending to the ground. The bellflowers were bright enough as a signal for the Demon Rat Archers and Sharpshooters to aim for them. Shi Zuo managed to use an item he bought from the Hidden Gem Night Market to provide a temporary magic barrier around him, providing cover for all four of them but its powers were tremendously weakened with the barrage of attacks, forcing the group to jump together as one so that they could reach the ground soon enough for the magic barrier to enough power to break their fall as well.
Once that was done, Jia Le quickly used her kunais to erect a defensive wall of roots to not only stop the incoming projectiles but also be used as a deterrent against the incoming horde. She managed to get the Royal Zodiac Monkey Battle Alchemists to imbue some of her kunais with a chi boost inscription, allowing them to perform a higher level of chi techniques without straining the cultivator. The wall of roots was created by one of such kunais and it subsequently became a wave of roots, which crept on any of the Demon Rats that was in its path, the moment Jia Le inserted more chi into the kunai.
This gave them some breathing space to run towards the defensive formation array which the Royal Zodiac Monkeys had created since it acted as a gathering point for all the Pandarens who managed to escape the attacks of the Demon Rats. As more cultivators started to gather around it, the Royal Zodiac Soldiers who were purely combatants like the Snakes and Tigers had begun to extend their reach outside of the defensive array so that they could rescue more people into the formation and at the same time provide some breathing space for the battle alchemists to expand their array formation so that it could hold more people as they continued to treat the wounded. It was a fight for their lives every single second even as the medics tried to save as many as they could so that they would at least be an able body to fend off threats should the array begin to fail.
At that point, they knew that no reinforcements were coming soon enough to rescue them especially when the Pandarens realised there was no communication going to any other teams that were still above ground. One of the Royal Zodiac Snakes believed that there was some barrier that stopped the communications to go through so he decided to shoot upwards with all the chi imbued in that one arrow.
True enough, they found a multitude of magical barriers barring the surface and to make matters worse, there was even a magic barrier which seemed to darken the entire hole, and made it as if they would be entrapped in this Undercity forever.
Yet they did not give up hope.
Even though it is merely just a raid instance, they know that this was an obstacle they had to overcome Each and every one of the Pandarens in there might panic and even fear for their lives but the rallying cries of the Royal Zodiacs gave them hope, knowing that if they come together, they might be able to survive this intensely realistic and yet horrific experience.
