Xia Mao and Zi Dan not only made decent progress against the incoming Valgs, but they had also finally connected through to Jing Yu via the team speak module.
Apparently, Jing Yu was previously in a bind with Gaeru as the Valgs were explicitly targeting the frog swordsman, which was why she did not accept the gift when it first went through. Jing Yu did her best to protect the main objective of the raid, and that was evident through the number of points she was gaining.
Eventually, the young male elders had made it to the first floor of the castle and met up with an exhausted Jing Yu while the Froggie was still pumping full of adrenaline. “This stupid frog is way too much of a hassle to take care in tight spaces. The length of his sword made it hard for him to fight in narrow corridors.” Jing Yu complaint while she dragged the frog with her cloth, acting as a leash to make sure he was not out of her sight.
“My condolences. But hey! From what you describe, those valgs were the slow moving ones. We have a shit ton of speedy Valgs itching to have our heads removed if we ever place our guards down.” Xia Mao said as he could feel his money being drained from all the ammunition that he used.
Even though the Cat Head arrow was a customised item he made from scratch, Xiao Mao did not know that his design could be stored within the Pit Stop and be replicated from within. He believed that it was a nifty feature, but because it was reproduced for him without Xia Mao personally crafting them, it cost nearly two times more.
For this, he did not grumble because he remembered how much time and effort to create those Cat Head Arrows and the ones he used were of acceptable quality as well. Xia Mao even wondered if Jin could allow customised made items to be sold in his shop instances in the future. That way, he could earn a minor commission to further supplement his retirement activities.
While Xia Mao was actually glad to pay double the price for an instant duplication of those arrows for him to use, that was not the only item he created when he attended the Blacksmith NPC workshop.
As he was a cat cultivator and a lover of cats himself, Xia Mao had his weapons adorned with cat designs to the point that Zi Dan felt it was absurd. His crossbow had an ornate head of a Sphynx cat, and his crossbow stock was crafted with a silhouette of Persian cats lazing at the corner.
Nonetheless, his fellow Cheetah Cultivator could not deny the effectiveness of his items despite the absurdity of it such as the Cat Head Arrows. Xia Mao also declared that if there was a Cat Suit Cosmetic Inscription, he would definitely wear it for every battle.
Separately, Jing Yu had no knowledge about the Pit Stop feature as she was too busy fending for her life, nor did she read the updates to the raid. Thus, they decided to move to a corner of a giant room where the other two cultivators kept guard while she tried to restock her items.
“Oh and DO NOT let that frog out of your side. He is always impatient, like a child so fixated on his path and ignored almost everything around him.” Jing Yu said as she grabbed on to wrapped up Gaeru and told Zi Dan to hold it tightly. The Cheetah Cultivator was somewhat surprised that Gaeru’s skin was rather smooth instead of it being slimy and rough to touch.
“Honourable Gentlemen! We should head for the throne hall as soon as possible! Our nemesis is there!” Gaeru not knowing that the Salamander King was dead, continued to struggle in Zi Dan’s arm.
“Easy there Froggie, as soon as our teammate finished restocking, we will head in there! I know you are dying to exterminate the king who killed your tribe, but it’s better to be fully prepared.” Zi Dan replied as he struggled to keep the frog still. Now he understood why Jing Yu warned about this feisty swordsman.
“No! Every second wasted means more time for him to grow stronger. We must reach there, posthaste!” Gaeru expressed his concerns of the Salamander King getting stronger with the aid of Maeve, but he had also promised Jin not to leak any of the raid details to the cultivators unless they pressed really hard for it.
“How about this? You tell us one good reason why you should rush in there along without us?” Xia Mao questioned, and suddenly the frog became motionless, he did not continue to put up a struggle against Zi Dan’s grab.
“Because I did not want to think about it. I feel that fighting was the only way to divert my attention from the truth that I had abandoned my village when they needed me most… While they would never have expected me to aid them in their time of desperate need, it’s still my responsibility…my solemn duty. And I had failed to protect them.” The frog whispered slowly as if he spoke it out from the depths of his heart.
Zi Dan did not know why but if this was seriously part of the raid’s backstory, the frog emotions was almost too real to be true. Xia Mao who was standing guard with his pal could not fathom such an emotional response from a dungeon instance as well and wondered if this emergency raid was a story long-planned by Jin.
The only qualms that the duo had were the giant sized environment they were in. There had to be some sort of background history with regards to the place’s culture or giant size buildings, but for now, Xia Mao would not waste his brain cells to relate any of those. He was not the kind who search for lore in a dungeon instance as compared to those nerds in the Pandamonium Forum, so it did not matter too much to him.
Ever since Gaeru gave his reasons, the whole group remained silent until Jing Yu was well restocked. Instantly, the very same Panda Postman appeared and passed her the items as well as a parting gift too – a pack of incendiary grenades.
And as they were about to depart, the team heard a series of horrid screams echoing from the hallway down from where they were hiding. A quick zoom via the Mask UI had revealed that four other cultivators were attempting to disengaged in a fight against an enormous looking Valg which the team had never encountered. That could only mean that they were getting closer to the Salamander Lord.
Without hesitation, Gaeru quickly broke free from Zi Dan’s grapple and sped towards the Giant Valg to save the team of escaping cultivators (It was more like he was dying to get into battle.)
Upon closer inspection by the older cultivators, they noticed that the Valg had distinct features similar to a Salamander. The only differences were its haunted expression, giant size and fists that were half the size of the pillars in the castle.
It was not something a handful of cultivators and a frog could attempt to fight against. They were akin to ants when facing this particular giant Salamander Valg.
“Shit! Even the RPG launcher and grenades that Jin gave us as gifts would not be sufficient to bring this monster down!” Zi Dan said as he held on to his ball chain mace with creeping dread.
“But it is in our way, and I don’t think we can outrun it no matter how fast we go! I think even that Giant Salamander Valg will outpace Zi Dan running at his top speed .” Xia Mao commented as he checked the number of Cat Head Arrows he left.
“Either we fight to the death against this or we last until the reinforcements enter the fray. Surely, we can use our team speak module to send an SOS, right?” Jing Yu queried as she opened her storage ring and placed an additional ten swords on the floor. Out from her Hanfu outfit, ten pieces of cloth flew out to attach themselves to the swords.
Yet when the cultivators were thinking of ways to defeat the Giant Valg, the little frog charged forth recklessly with his heart steeled with nothing but absolute determination.
From the shop instance’s screens, it was indeed similar to a reenactment of David versus Goliath.
