Shapeshifters

"A god? I'd like to see that!" The black flood dragon roared with laughter. "It has been far too long since I fought to my heart's content!" Before the words had even faded, hundreds of massive fireballs plummeted from the sky, crashing down upon the ground where the two men stood. These fireballs glowed white within their golden-red cores, a testament to their terrifying heat. Enclosed within each was an obsidian meteorite more than ten feet across. The force of their impact and the violence of the roar seemed poised to punch clean through the surface of the earth. Each one that slammed into the ground triggered a tremendous explosion, gouging deep craters and melting the earth's surface into a glaze of glass. All these impacts were concentrated within a hundred-foot radius; even the golden-armored soldiers were blasted into molten bronze. Could those two still be alive? Not far away, He Lingchuan plugged his ears tightly to keep his eardrums from rupturing. The more powerful a divine ability, the longer it took to prepare. The black flood dragon had called down a shower of meteorites with a mere flick of its tail, seemingly effortless. Yet aside from this realm being its home turf, its prior banter with the two men had likely served as cover to channel the power in secret. The only thing more troublesome than an artifact spirit was one as cunning as a human. The black flood dragon seemed to know the situation below down to the last detail. With a low hum, silhouette after silhouette emerged from the dense black smoke blanketing the ground. The demonic apes had risen once more. Recharged by the celestial fire, they appeared larger, burlier, and faster than before. Magma even dripped from their bodies, hissing loudly each time a droplet hit the ground. As soon as they took shape, they charged toward another direction. It was a pile of rubble; the vast mound of earth and stone that had collapsed from the southern city wall served as perfect cover. Unfortunately, this tactic was useless against the black flood dragon. It needed no sight to pinpoint its two enemies' positions with absolute precision. They were not at the meteorite impact site at all. Sun Fuping had evidently used an escape art, hauling them both over two hundred feet away in the nick of time. Yet no sooner had they emerged than the ten siege engines on the city wall swung around out of thin air, aiming right at them. The black flood dragon spoke at its leisure: "Blowing up my houses earlier felt great, didn't it?" Crossbow bolts, firestones, and nail bombs fired at once, raining down upon the two men. However thrilled Nian Songyu had been when using the nail bombs before, he was just as miserable now. The turtle shield was studded with tiny nail fragments, and two had even struck his legs. Hazy cyan light radiated from all over him as he weathered two volleys of bolts and a barrage of firestones. Unfortunately, Sun Fuping was completely right: not only was the power of the State Token drastically suppressed here, but the true power he expended in battle multiplied twofold. Fortunately, he still bought a bit of time for Sun Fuping. The earth escape art was deployed once more, shifting the pair a hundred feet away. The black flood dragon rubbed its head against the gate tower. "No rush. That was just a warm-up. The real fun is yet to come." No sooner had the words fallen than bat after bat flew out from the embrasures along the city wall. A single wheeling circle above the southern wall was enough to blot out the sky. There had to be at least ten thousand of them. Then, half the bats swooped toward the ground, transforming into five lithe sand leopards, while the rest split into flocks midair, morphing into monstrous birds with sharp beaks and bat-like wings. The demonic apes possessed immense strength but sluggish agility, leaving Nian Songyu room to maneuver. The black flood dragon saw this, so it summoned the nimble sand leopards to cover its offensive weakness, while the monstrous birds launched aerial strikes. With this coordinated assault from above and below, it would see whether these two could still pull off any miracles. Yet at this moment, Nian Songyu proved he truly had skills. Once the sand leopards joined the fray, holding a shield in one hand became cumbersome. He simply stowed the turtle shield and drew another long saber. Watching from afar, He Lingchuan saw two ribbons of cyan light dancing up and down like soaring dragons—swift, accurate, and lethal—keeping both sand leopards and demonic apes at bay. Yet in the black flood dragon's world, how could he emerge without paying a price? In this short span, Nian Songyu had suffered at least a dozen wounds of varying severity, the flowing blood soaking his clothes. The gravest blow had come from a diving monster bird. Though he had cleaved the beast in two, its sharp beak had disfigured his face with a wound stretching from temple to jaw, nearly gouging his eyeball out in the process. Seeing this, He Lingchuan muttered, "What nonsense... Monster beasts can transform like that?" Though the original host was uneducated, he still knew one iron rule of this world: neither humans nor monster beasts could completely turn into another creature unless they inherently possessed mimicry or metamorphosis abilities. Simply put, humans could not turn into monsters, and monsters could not turn into humans. A bat was a bat; it could not become a leopard or a bird. A toad demon, on the other hand, could still develop from a tadpole, for that was its natural lifecycle. Humans could use certain divine abilities or techniques to mutate parts of themselves, but it never lasted long, and the toll and side effects were immense. An iron rule was an absolute universal law. For these bats to shift forms at will—wasn't that playing completely outside the rules? Maotao gave a wry smile. "In a place like this, can anything truly be called strange?" He Lingchuan suddenly caught the sound of wind tearing above. He quickly gestured for silence, but it was already too late. A monstrous bird landed upon the rubble less than ten feet from them. The two sides stared at each other, wide-eyed. Only when it landed did its true size become apparent; its standing height alone was nearly equal to He Lingchuan's. The creature possessed bat-like wings with thin membranes and a sternum that jutted out like a ship's keel. When folded, the tips of its wings bore hooked talons, their sharp black claws longer than a man's fingers. Its long, sharp beak curved like a scythe, capable of puncturing a victim's skull in a single strike. Terrified, Maotao drew his waist saber. He Lingchuan gave a slight wave of his hand, his voice as faint as a mosquito's hum: "Don't move!" Fixed beneath those dull-yellow eyes, he felt his scalp tingle with dread. The thing was an amalgamation of horrors; besides a sand leopard and a monstrous bird, who knew what else it could become? Besides, these things were unkillable. No amount of effort would do any good. As He Lingchuan pondered a way out, the monstrous bird tilted its head, seemingly lost in thought as well. Naturally, neither man dared twitch a muscle. After a few breaths, the monstrous bird lost interest in them, turned around, flapped its wings, and flew away. Sweat dripping from his brow, Maotao let out a long, shuddering breath. "If I make it out of here alive, I'm burning a mountain of incense and having my wife cook up a feast of meat dishes. Damn it all, our ancestors really watched over us!" Those were monsters that neither the National Preceptor nor Commandant Nian could handle. "It has nothing to do with your ancestors. It bore no hostility toward us. But why?" He Lingchuan glanced at the black flood dragon atop the city gate. All these monsters had been summoned by it; they served as both its eyes and its enforcers, their actions controlled by its will. For the bird to see He Lingchuan and not react could only mean the dragon had no desire to attack them. Like Nian Songyu, they had set fires everywhere in the illusion. Why had the black flood dragon chosen to spare them?