The Lost Tomb : Sea Of Sands

Chapter 178: Fight

The hairless humanoid fox stood outside the ring of fire, and I could see it staring at me coldly in the light of the fire.

There was a strange animal on its back that looked like a "bei" [1], but unlike the legends, this bei had a face. Its body was very long, and it was coiled around the humanoid fox.

Bei were legendary wolf-like animals that were very intelligent. Wolves were pack animals, so they would let the bei lie on their back and guide their actions. But no one had ever caught a bei in real life. Legend had it that one was shot in Daxing'anling Mountains once. But it was later discovered that it was a pregnant female wolf whose foreleg had been clipped by a trap. At that time, the male wolf was escaping with the female wolf on his back, but she fell off. The male wolf gave up the chance to run for his life and waited to be killed alongside the female wolf.

If wolves weren't on a different level of the food chain, this kind of humanized behavior would be worth eulogizing. Even the hunters at that time were moved by this scene, and mercifully killed both wolves.

But there were a lot of people who claimed to have seen bei, so the legend had continued on uninterrupted since Duan Chengshi's "The Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang Guangdongzhi." [2] (Of course, even wolves would become legends now) But it was obvious that there were far more ancient legends about bei than there were modern ones.

As a result, it could be inferred that this bei creature was basically extinct. In all the records that had been handed down— especially in modern legends— the bei was seen from a distance, with the head wolf of the pack carrying something on its back. These people never got close enough to verify, but such a sight was still very abnormal. Although it was hard to believe, it was impossible to observe something like a bei up close.

These were my thoughts at that time, and I couldn't help but wonder, shouldn't the bei be lying on a wolf? Why was it eking out a living with a fox-spirit right now?

I also couldn't get a clear look, so I held up my dagger and said to myself, I'll kill you and study what you are later.

The hay fire in front of me slowly began to die out, but I didn't add any more hay to it. As I watched the flames in front of me dim, I lit more fire hammers and threw them behind the humanoid creature. The flaming stars lit up the whole area behind it little by little, so I didn't have to worry about it suddenly retreating back into the darkness.

Then, I changed my Kukri from a reverse grip to a forward grip, lit the last fire hammer, and charged over with a loud roar.

After half a lifetime of being cautiously defensive, I became addicted to making offensive attacks, especially after knowing that most of the dangers were caused by strong external forces.

I stepped over the ashes that still hadn't been completely extinguished, and immediately rushed towards the humanoid creature that was illuminated by the scattered sparks. The wind created by my headlong rush caused the fire to flare up around me, and when it dimmed, I noticed that the thing had disappeared. Its speed was extremely fast, but I knew its disappearance was just an illusion. It was most likely still by me, and had just run into my blind spot. I slashed backwards with the dagger and the hammer, but met nothing but air.

Then, I heard the sound of footsteps to my left.

In the scattered light of the fire hammers I had thrown before, I saw a black shadow crawling rapidly on the ground.

This really wasn't a person. That crawling was too fucking creepy.

I didn't have time to waste on this thing, so I rushed over and kicked up the ash on the ground with my heels.

I covered my nose and squinted as a large cloud of ash rose up and flew everywhere. I'm ashamed to say that when Black Glasses checked my joints and muscles while I was studying mixed martial arts with him, I had hoped he would say, "Oh my god, you're a rare martial arts genius that hasn't been seen for eight hundred years." But after checking, all he said to me was, "The only part of your body suitable for fighting is your long eyelashes. It's impossible for you to learn the basic skills now. I can only teach you some special, practical skills to deal with ordinary people."

At that time, when I asked him if he had any magical eyelash skills, Black Glasses said that he had some skills for the eyes, and the eyelashes were part of the eyes.

I thought he would teach me how to sweep people over with a fluttering eyelashes skill [3]. Instead, he taught me how to overcome the conditioned reflex of closing my eyes when something rushed at me, and how to protect my eyes so that I could see in extreme environments.

This was the kind of training I couldn't underestimate. After Black Glasses hit me in the face with a water gun for more than ten days, I initially felt cheated. But that day, he allowed me to hide for the first time, and I managed to dodge the water gun attack.

Even though the water gun fired very rapidly, the water's speed was still within a range that people could dodge. The reason why normal people couldn't avoid it was because they would naturally close their eyes when they saw the water droplets coming. This was a conditioned reflex meant to protect the retina, but it would leave them at a disadvantage when they were fighting.

People in this line of work all knew that a person who didn't have this kind of conditioned reflex would train their whole body to mobilize and evade if something came at them. The same thing would happen if something came flying towards their eyes; their first reaction would be to move their head and neck back. But ordinary people would close their eyes, which was also one of the reasons why women were taught to aim for a molester's eyes when they were learning self defense.

So, I finally learned how to use my eyes in extreme environments. We used plant ash during the final period of training, because the burning fields meant there was a large supply of it every day. I chose to use it this time because I was familiar with it.

I couldn't lift my eyes, because the ash would get in and cause swelling, redness, and tears, so all I could rely on was my weak vision and any movements I saw out of the corner of my eye. The other party wasn't so lucky, and I saw it crawling around on the ground in confusion.

I rushed over, but the thing instinctively pounced at me. I bent down to avoid it and hit the thing on its back with one of the hammers. It gave a sharp cry. I gave a loud roar and jumped up, but it grabbed my ankle from behind, and gave me three very deep, bloody scratches.

I jumped up and wrapped my legs around its neck, but it suddenly stood up. My center of gravity became unstable, and I couldn't twist my waist like I had seen Little Brother do before.

It was only when I was in that position that I realized what kind of physical abilities were needed for such an action.

But when I rolled over and fell down, the dagger poked out from underneath my armpit and stabbed its back.

The thing was in complete and utter pain, and started to go wild. When I released my legs from their stranglehold on its neck, it threw me to the ground. I got up and ran after it, shouting and waving a fireball I had picked up.

But it had completely disappeared. It must have run straight into the area I had set up for myself earlier, where there was less plant ash at the top of the slope.

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Notes:

[1] I used the pinyin. It's a wolf-like animal in Chinese mythology with very short forelegs and long hind legs. It needs to mount a wolf in order to walk, so the two animals would always hunt together.

[2] Written in the 9th century. It focuses on miscellany of Chinese and foreign legends and hearsay, reports on natural phenomena, short anecdotes, and tales of the wondrous and mundane, as well as notes on such topics as medicinal herbs and tattoos.

[3] He was not, in fact, trying to seduce people with his eyes (Lol!). He just hoped that his enemies would drop dead in front of him once he fluttered his eyelashes.