Bin Yong rushed out of the Grand Terminal Station while cutting down any fish men that were in the midst of transforming. If not for his ‘sacrifice’, the entire mob of Deep Ones would have chased after his friends through the subway exit.
At the very least, the menacing crowd of Deep Ones had their attention divided into two but Bin Yong had to deal with the situation carefully and yet aggressively fast before all the Deep Ones had taken on their final form.
“You made the right choice splitting yourself away from the group. Come join us.” Suddenly the whispering was louder than before. But beyond that sentence, a series of mutters were overheard by Jin and he could barely hear the fish men talking to each other.
“Join us… !” Join us brrrrrotherrr!” “Kneel before the great Lord and be saved!” “You will gain powers you never have before!” “Be one with us!” The Deep Ones babbled all around him as they approached him slowly as Bin Yong finally reckoned they were in deep shit considering the situation where all the passers-by were indeed Deep Ones too.
He took a quick peek on his phone to confirm the location of the other entry to the subway station that was outside of the Grand Central Terminal. “5 minutes walk?! Make that a 1 minute run!” Bin Yong gritted his teeth to prevent himself from being influenced by the fishes’ nonsenses as he kept his sword at the back of his waist and placed his buckler in the front while holding it with two hands.
“Intermediate Shield Art, Defending Wall of the Bombardier Beetle!” Bin Yong shouted as he inserted his chi into his shield. The buckler instantly energised by his chi, created a blue floating orb right in front of him, which expanded into the silhouette of a large blue triangular kite shield.
Acting like a secondary chi barrier, the blue triangle shield barrier bashed through the Deep Ones that were blocking his way, causing Bin Yong’s enemies to be knocked to the side or even toppling over from the direct shield charge. This enabled Bin Yong to charge through the horde of Fish Men in a straight line without much difficulty.
However, the barrier still had its limits, which became apparent with the Deep one’s overwhelming numbers. Whenever it hit a Deep One, a part of the barrier seemed to be chipped away by the attack. It was even more significant when knocking over the transforming Deep Ones, but it was entirely another issue when faced with a Deep One who was prepared to counter the Bombardier Beetle Cultivator.
As the Deep One in front of him charged with two spears pointing forward towards Bin Yong, it smashed into him with tremendous impact and nearly managed to slow him down significantly to the point that the other Deep Ones could pile on him.
“Intermediate Bombardier Beetle Style, Bombardment Counterattack!” Bin Yong shouted as he shook the spears away by slamming his shield to the ground, causing a blast of gas made from his chi to spread outwards from the shield impact. The gas irritated the Deep Ones’ eyes and lungs so badly that they staggered. The ones closest to him suffered the worst, with their eyes melting and their fins and lungs dissolving upon absorbing the gas.
Naturally, his own attack did not affect Bin Yong in any way, but he rarely used this particular technique as it had the risk of injuring his own teammates. However, he developed it since he felt that it might be useful in certain situations, and this particular scenario proved him right. With the Deep Ones immobilised by the hot toxic gas, Bin Yong reused his Defending Wall of the Bombardier Beetle to shield himself and charged his way to the entrance to the Grand Terminal Subway Station.
Instead of climbing down the stairs, he decided to jump across it since he still had the Defending Wall technique activated. “Woohooo!!! This is why I adore Boss Jin’s dungeons, I can do crazy stuff like this!” Bin Yong shouted as he felt elated, especially when he fell on an unsuspecting Deep One.
The energised barrier incidentally became a secondary barrier against other threats Bin Yong was facing with the Deep One stuck to the barrier, blocking most of the other hits he could potentially encounter. The moment he reached the bottom of the stairs, he thanked the splattered Deep One who had acted as a buffer and jumped over the ticketing gate machine. Within a minute, he saw the rest of his team on the opposite side of the platform with the train arriving on scene at the nick of time.
“Come! You need to hurry!” Shi Zuo called to his friend as the train towards Penn Station seemed to be ready to leave slightly earlier than planned and without the cultivators despite stopping at the station’s platform. Therefore, Shi Zuo did not wait for the door to open as he smashed the side windows with his axe and entered via it, proceeding to kill a few Deep Ones that were initially in the train waiting to assault them. (How courteous of them to be this patient even though they were such savage beasts.)
It escalated into a slaughter inside the train carriage as the Deep Ones holding their spears stood no chance defeating the Mad Monkey Cultivator who skillfully dodged their attacks and slashed (and electrocuted) his way through the crowd. By the time he was done, Jia Le and Luo Bo had forced the doors opened. Shi Zuo then bowed and greeted the two ladies who were coming aboard. “Welcome to the Polar Express. Today’s menu; there is a selection of the finest fish for you to choose from.”
“If the North Pole has any Deep Ones lurking, I will be removing that from my bucket list.” Luo Bo said jokingly as she stabbed the ground with her arrow along with Jia Le’s kunai further in front. They both smirked at each other as they quickly boarded the starting train while Bin Yong used his buckler to smash through a set of doors and rolled into the train carriage. He tried to wave at his friends but a Deep One took that as an opportunity to strike when his guard was down.
Fortunately, Bin Yong’s reflexes were swift enough to block a direct claw strike, and his shield was definitely holding out better than the one he had in the previous dungeon run. Nevertheless, the Deep One was not stopping as it kept clawing in rage, attempting to destroy the shield that Bin Yong was holding on to his dear life without the chance to retaliate. Jia Le assisted him by throwing a Kunai at it, but the Deep One saw that coming metres away, allowing it to deflect the attack.
However, this was all that was required as the Kunai released a spell on contact which caused vines to wrap the Deep One all over, keeping him in a bind as the vines slowly absorbed the Deep One’s essence until it turned into a shrivelled fish. (There were even signs of an after struggle )
The vines eventually bloomed into a beautiful white bellflower that released a sweet scent of fresh flowers, which also helped rejuvenate the entire party while the train started to pick up speed. “It’s a kind of chi transfer spell technique. By using the life of a living being, it absorbs and transforms it into chi to be released to the surroundings.” Jia Le grinned as she felt refreshed.
“That is pure wicked.” Bin Yong was amazed that Jia Le had this kind of technique under her sleeves.
“Well, if you just let me fight more by myself, I could prove to you that I am more than just a supporter or sub attacker.” Jia Le laughed as she flicked Bin Yong’s forehead hard. “That is for doing things so selfishly even though it was for the sake of the group. Don’t you know how worried I was? And don’t you dare tell me that this is just a dungeon instance. I do not want you to develop such a habit if something like this really happens in real life.” Jia Le reprimanded Bin Yong and he quickly apologised.
“If you still do not get it, she wants you to take her along when you do such dangerous things. Stupid. She really cares about you.” Shi Zuo released a heavy sigh as he relaxed back at the corner of the train bench while the train moved.
“D’awww. But Bin Bin did a good job, right? Without him, we would have been swarmed by many fish heads and perhaps become part of them. Bloop~! Bloop~!” Luo Bo commented while she refilled her arrow belt from her new storage ring. Suddenly, they felt a series of rumbles emitting from behind them. Jia Le and Luo Bo looked at one another, each with a knowing grin on their faces.
Their previous kunai and arrow placement had been part of a combination spell they created together. Jia Le, who specialised in Earth chi techniques, enabled her kunais to release a massive load of razor sharp spiky vines that would protrude out of the ground to grab the Deep Ones who tried to chase after the train. To enhance her slow moving from the kunai release, they were propelled by Luo Bo’s wind chi infused arrow. Upon grabbing an enemy, the vines would not just strangle and hurled the Deep around, but cause them to be more than just a simple projectile, damaging the basement integrity of the area as well as the masses of Deep Ones who tried to squeeze through the tunnel to chase after the train.
Soon enough, the vines were cut down by the amassing horde of Deep Ones, but that combination attack resulted in dozens of dead Deep Ones. (Or Dead Ones as Bin Yong punned them to be.) Though they tried to catch them, the train was undoubtedly faster than them… until a Deep Mage decided to summon a tidal wave to assist the Deep Ones on the ground to even up the disadvantage.
The wave wiped the entire station clean as it carried the numerous Deep Ones through the tunnel. Bin Yong, who was at the lookout from behind the train, noticed that the rumbling had stopped and instead, an increasingly loud sound of water gushing to catch up to them. Luo Bo who had perceptive hearing immediately rushed to Shi Zuo, who had gone to the front, as fast as she could. (Meanwhile, Shi Zuo was slightly baffled to learn that the train was driver-less because he’d assumed a Deep One was piloting it.)
“DO NOT STOP! Do not stop at the next station! Push the train to our destination forward!” Luo Bo screamed as Jia Le immediately went to the back to check on the situation too.
“There is no escape…” Bin Yong’s legs turned to jelly upon seeing a glimpse of the incoming Tidal Wave through the tunnel.
“Not when I am around.” Jia Le drank two chi potions consecutively as she held onto a bunch of Kunais. “You are owing me more than just a work shift replacement.” Jia Le smiled at Bin Yong before she prepared her kunais to throw towards the impending doom of Deep Ones.
