Guardian: The Broken World

The Time Challenge

-Shen Wei-

They keep running for the first ten minutes, turning only in the direction which take them closer to the pagoda of the ruined city, but just as expected, they were intercepted by more than crows soon enough. Shen Wei halted in his dash, to severely blasting a stone golem that came out of nowhere, blocking his advance with a wave of his dark energy, that make the big mount of stones piled together by dark magic, explode in hundreds of pieces that bounced over the barrier he still have over the group.

However, the dust caused by the explosion hid the thick vines that followed them closely, in their mad run and one of them, manage to cross the barrier and entangled itself over Zhu's leg, pulling her backward with force, making her fall and scream, as she disappear under the murky water of a nerby pool at one side of where they stood.

"Zhu Hong!" Yunlan yelled, but he didn't have time to go dive after her, nor anyone else because dozens of vines came at them from all angles.

"Oh, no you won't!" Shen yelled as he extended his scythe and cut them all in a swift turn, but dozen more took their place at the same time.

"Chu! Get Hong!" Shen yelled as he keep slashing the vines and so did the others. Chu moved to send his treads under the water of the dark pool that have formed in one of those big holes, but as his treads were over the water, suddenly something big emerged to the surface.

To their astonishment, a huge scaled brownish leaf viper quite menacing, detangle itself from the multicolored vines, ripping them off, with its fangs and releasing a cloud of greenish poisoning mist from its mouth, making the all vines in the vicinity dry up almost instantly and fall still to the ground. No one moved for a few seconds, watching the dangerous viper of at least twelve meters large, transform back into a woman, with horizontal elongated light green eyes.

"What are you all so surprise? I am a familiar of the Order and Nuwa's descendant, you can't possible believe I will go down that easily..." Zhu said to the bunch of men, with shocked expression. Then, Zhao came at her and hug her, laughing over her shoulders.

"You are indeed one of my Guardians and you were awesome just now..." Zhao said, letting go of her.

"I always knew you were scary, but damn, you are quite the snake..." Lin said sighing. He was relieved to see her back and unharmed and so was Da Qing.

"Of course I am, now let's keep up. Guo is waiting for us." Zhu said, and Shen Wei smiled.

"Let's go up now... Lady Yue, can you please carry the humans? I hope you don't mind." Shen asked with respect.

"My little one, I'm here to help you. Whatever you need of me, it will be done." She said, transforming herself into a fox big enough to carried two humans on her back and then, they jumped to the still standing roofs. That way, their journey to the pagoda was faster, but a new treat emerged.

"You have to be kidding me, are those gargoyles?" Lin asked, as hundreds of flying 'gargoyles' came down from the top of the cave.

"Not gargoyles, but small wyverns." Renshu, the dragon correct him, giving the coming wyverns a nasty look, full of distaste.

"Aren't wyverns dragons too?" Lin asked again, a bit confused, as they keep jumping roofs, not stopping to wait for the new coming challenge.

"Not all types of dragons signed the treaty. Wyverns in particular had always keep away from the main dragons, wanting supremacy of their own. The King of dragons forbid them from coming closer to our mountains centuries ago. With all honesty, it doesn't surprise me they fall this low, helping crows to try make this world come to an end." Renshu explained.