Chapter 380 - Caught between the rock and a hard place(Part-1)

It had been a few days since that day and as rest of the cultivators had arrived back at their home base a meeting was held discussing the ordeal of the entire day, and it was decided that their group would be divided into three, the bigger part of the groups would be dedicated on searching for dangerous beasts like that of 'One-Eyed Sword Raksasha' and possibly try retrieving another piece if possible otherwise they would keep track of it until the rest of them would gather and then they would kill it.

All the cultivators agreed upon the plan as it was the safest, they cannot risk their dwindling numbers very much not to mention because of idiocy of some amongst them their number has already been decreased by 12, as such they were not in the rush to make it even lower by taking unnecessary risk.

Talking about unnecessary risk Ryuu knew it was something unavoidable when they stepped inside this place but the lure of precious treasures in the form of herbs, techniques, weapons amongst many things was too great for cultivators to not pay attention to, he himself stepped in for glory did he absolutely have to enter the place, no but he did so because he wanted to overcome the legends created by his predecessors.

The rest of the cultivators who were not actively searching for the beast would break into two groups with one of them staying inside the strong hold and always ready in case of some emergency comes up and the last their duty was forging, hunting and gathering food, water and if possible medicinal herbs.

Even if many of them did not want to they still decided to press forward after all even if they were in the Fourth level their harvest of precious treasures and what not was nothing note worthy, the first level almost all of them had to pay beast nucleus as a toll to move to the second level, and second level the thought of it was nightmare to many, the third was another disappointment though the collection of beast nucleus and essence meant that it could help in cultivation for some and may be earn some money after they leave here nothing more and fourth was another disappointment it was true that they had ventured into a place full of medicinal herbs and plants and what not it was nothing spectacular in fact it was a disappointment when compared to the stories of Eden, most if not all the herbs and plants they found here could be very easily found and were in abundance outside even the rare few good herbs they got their hand on were only good for selling them for some pocket change.

Ryuu was navigating through the swamp along with Frost Flames for few hours, they had been assigned on hunting duty, and now they were making their way to one of the areas where they had laid traps a few hours ago.

It has been a few days since Ryuu found Frost Flames to be an extremely pleasant company not to mention she was skilled as she well managed to get along with him extremely well whether they were on battlefield or not.

As they moved Frost Flames was regaling him with an incident during one of her travels making Ryuu laugh hard as he wiped out the tears that seemed to form as he wheezed out some words, "That was so hilarious please if all of your journeys are like that then please allow me to accompany you next time."

Frost Flames let out a small giggle as well which Ryuu found extremely refreshing and preferably better than the cold and detach look she usually had on her face as she spoke, "And Maia was like…..", whatever she was going to say did not get passed her lips as she tensed, only for Ryuu to tap on her shoulder as he whispered lowly to her, "Do not stop act as if it that thing is not following us but at the same time stay on your guard."

Frost Flames gave a small but all most unnoticeable nod as she spoke, "Brother Ryuu , after we get out of Eden you will have to accompany me to that place it seemed to be interesting."

Ryuu nodded as he spoke with a smile, "Of course why not sister I would love to.", they bantered with each other before Ryuu spoke with alarm, "Frost it seems we have already fallen into a trap."

Frost Flames was taken aback before she spoke with slight tremor in her voice, "You are kidding right?"

Ryuu had already drawn his sword as he spoke, "No we are not we already had been ensnared in an illusion as such we are going on in circles for quite some time now, that tree over there we have passed it at the very least thrice and it can be mere coincidence we are feeling something is following us but do we hear anything, smell nothing except the KI of the being but most importantly why are we walking when we could easily fly."

Frost Flames opened her mouth to retort only for her to acquiesce to Ryuu as she spoke, "How do we get out of the trap."

Ryuu frowned as he spoke, "Well it seemed like an illusion so hold my hand we would synchronize our Ki before disrupting it, I hope it would be enough."

They both held their hand as they tried to synchronize with each other's KI, to Ryuu Frost Flames KI felt a bit spicy with a sweet underlining a complex taste whereas to Frost Flames it was simply euphoric, they pushed their KI into each other mixing it before stopping the process and then withdrawing the mixture into themselves before letting out a huge blast, and the entire reality seemed to be torn apart, as they looked around they were greeted completely destroyed forest area as if a hurricane had just passed by that place.

Ryuu and Frost Flames stood side by side as they watched chattering and screeching of insects as what stepped out was a horrid creature from nightmare, a spider look alike with dozens of long legs, and its flesh seemed to party cover its legs which ended into bony structure, but what seemed to be most bizarre was a humanoid headless torso attached to where its head should be, the belly of the torso had its mouth with numerous teeth in it and the chest was full of eyes dozens of eyes, to the two cultivators it looked as if it had torn off and worn clothes made up of human flesh, making them recoil.

Then it happened the screeching and screaming increased by many times as more and more similar creature stepped out from behind the trees making Frost Flames look at them with disgust with a hint of fear as she spoke, "Ryuu do you know what kind of creatures are these."

Ryuu was stunned into silence for a moment, 'What is wrong? Why can I not understand anything this creature is saying, all I am hearing is screeching and screaming, why is this happening my ability was working a few minutes prior so why is it not working.', he gritted his teeth as he replied to her question, "I do not know, I have never heard or read about such creatures."

Frost Flames greeted her teeth as she spoke, "We are calling in reinforcement.", she eyes the creatures with a caution as they seemed to be jeering at them, laughing at them, mocking them the duo feel unease because of it.

Ryuu nodded at her as he spoke, "I agree with you but the flare and the emergency tag would be like pulling the trigger and they would begin attacking."

Frost Flames bit her lips as she spoke, "I know but what to do, I now wish we had not destroyed the illusion."

Ryuu nodded as he spoke, "Me too now your Dao name has the word flames in it are good with fire."

Frozen Flames huffed in indignation as she spoke, "Dare to try my flames."

Ryuu smirked as he spoke, "Well most swamp creatures are susceptible to flames as such on count of three we would let lose the most powerful flames that we can make and as well as the same time we let out the distress signal."

By then they were completely surrounded by at least a hundred such creatures and Ryuu new if push came to shove he would have to go all out and expose his trump cards and secrets in front of his companion and for some reason he did not mind if it means saving her.

Ryuu took a deep breath as he pushed such thoughts deep in the recess of his mind as he spoke, "On the count of three ok."

Frost Flames nodded as Ryuu counted, "One…Two …..and Three.", a signal was let lose as the creatures jumped towards them only for the swamp to be bathed in extremely hot flames with the duo as its architect.