Chapter 178: Taken Away

Upon her warning, Anqing and Xukun looked back and sprinted even faster.

The Luminous Ink Crow flew towards the ground before turning up. It spread its wings apart revealing the obsidian black talons, wide open and ready to grab any one of them.

Everyone jumped in different directions, nearly avoiding the claws.

But the crow was swift and moved quickly. It ignored the others and turned towards Ming Yue. It grabbed forward, attempting to snatch her but she twisted around with her sword drawn out.

Using the flat side of the sword, she pressed it against the claws with both of her hands. However, this attempt seemed to be in vain as she could not stop it or even slow it down. But she was not planning on stopping it.

With her blade caught between the ink covered talons, she leaped up and grabbed ahold of the crow's thin legs.

Her hands were shaking from what she had just done. That moment of impact felt like someone had thrown a mountain for her to catch. Although she managed to use most of that force to propel herself onto the crow, it took a toll on her.

The leg that she grabbed into began to shake violently as the crow tried to get rid of her. Having distracted it, the others recovered quickly and continued to run away. Then with Ming Yue on it, the crow began to fly off, taking her away.

"Wait, Ming Yue! Jump off! Quickly!"

Anqing yelled out but it was too late.

Ming Yue could not escape for the crow had already reached a height where falling equated death.

Rather than run away, they began to chase after her but the crow was much quicker than them. Hei Yue and Xiao Yin were the last to give up on following them as they could not match the crow's speed. Even though Xiao Yin had the edge as a fellow bird, she could not reach the same heights as the Luminous Ink Crow.

"What should we do now, Xukun?" Anqing asked.

"We need to call the elder, we should send a message with our badges. Then, I suppose we wait at the pavilion. We can't do anything now."

They stared towards the direction where the crow left. The both of them were incredibly worried, they did not think that Ming Yue would act rashly to save them. It was just like the Diving Dragonfly, sacrificing herself for them. They now owed her their lives twice now, perhaps even more than that.

Meanwhile, Ming Yue clung tightly to the crow's leg and noticed the ink liquefying.

The ink on its body surrounded her, trying to cover her hands and imprison her.

It crept towards her and she knew that if she were to be caught by that ink, she was as good as dead. Ming Yue quickly climbed up the crow, grabbing the feathers of its underbelly. As if it had its own mind, the ink followed her. It might be extremely powerful as armor but it took a second or two to solidify. That was enough time for her to move. Time and time again it would manage to touch her but before it could take form, she would escape its grasp. Each time she did, she would attack the crow but she could only produce light scratches. Even with her sword, she could not cut into the crow's skin. The feathers acted like a second layer of armor.

The crow continued to control to ink separated it into four pieces. Those individual ink blots attacked her from different directions, each one aimed at taking her hands or legs. Still underneath the crow, she used her sword and stabbed into the belly, managing to pierce at least an inch of its skin. It was enough for her and Ming Yue swung up from the belly.

She propelled herself with a gust of wind and landed on top of the crow's body. Standing upright, she glanced at the land beneath her, not realizing just how high the crow had flown. She could see the entirety of the Ninth Flower Garden, all one thousand square kilometres of it.

She saw the four pavilions that separated the five zones and with a bit of focus, she could even spot the Elder's Ship.

Looking back at the crow, Ming Yue scanned the creature, trying to find any sort of weak spot but to no avail. Wielding her sword with both hands, she attacked the crow's skin furiously, focusing on one point. With her on its back, the crow had to rely on the ink to deal with her. If capture was not possible then it was time to kill.

It transformed the black ink into spikes aimed towards her. There seemed to be an impossible amount of spikes that attacked. Black obsidian spears shot out from the ink, ready to fill her body with holes. She jumped off to the side, grabbing ahold of the feather's of it left wing. Even with her agility, she could not evade all of them and one rather sharp and thin spike pierced the side of her stomach.

"Urgh!" she winced in pain but did not falter.

It was neither a shallow or deep wound, piercing her skin but not her internal organs.

She attacked as much as she could, trying to cripple its wing. She was a little bug to the Luminous Ink Crow, annoying and hard to kill. She was tenacious.

It was then that the crow, knowing Ming Yue was riding on top, dove down. If she could not be shaken off then she would be thrown off. The crow pulled back its wings and the glowing black ink covered its head and neck. Sharpening and its beak and smoothing out the feathers, the crow flew down at twice the speed. Then the beast slowly spun and it turned quicker and quicker.

She held onto the feathers and tightened her grip. Wind pushed down on her, forcing her hands to slip on quills. She inched away from the crow's wings before nearly reach the end of the feathers.

Using Quintessence Energy to strengthen her body, Ming Yue pulled against the wind, grabbing onto the other feathers. Slowly, she climbed back to the top of the wing and onto the back. She left bloodstains wherever she moved. Clinging to the crow's body, she braced herself and even went as far as to stab into a previous wound she made just to have better footholds.

Seconds passed before the crow was within several feet of the ground and the beast pulled up, spreading its wings with an explosive power. That pent up energy burst forth like a shockwave as the crow suddenly broke its descent. The grass beneath it flattened and even the trees swayed from the the power.

Despite all that she did to cling to the crow, the outburst of power blew of off and sent her flying to wherever. She flew through bushes and grass before skidding on the soil. Luckily for her, the soil was soft enough to weaken the impact and she managed to get away with nothing more than one or two broken bones.

With her nowhere to be seen, the crow searched around before examining its own flower. After searching with its spiritual senses, the crow no longer felt her presence and believed her to be dead. While it was peeved that this weak human had stolen from it, the crow flew off in search of another treasure to find.

If Ming Yue wasn't dead from the impact then she would most certainly have died from the blood-loss. However, that crow underestimated the abilities of this "weak" human.

Still alive, she limped away while quickly bandaging the hole that was in her stomach. She had to move away or the blood would attract some unwanted newcomers.

She did not know where she was and did not recognize her surroundings.

However, half a kilometre away, Ming Yue saw a grand building and started limping towards it. Whatever it was, going there would be better than staying out here.