945 Volcanic Cavern - Part 2

The boss monster was sitting in the middle of a rather particular circle surrounded by hot burning lava. The Pandarens felt that the moment they stepped outside of the caves and into that stone circle, they would be trapped in a do or die battle. But for the time being the beast was licking her hind legs and even looked bored from waiting so long for for the Pandarens to appear.

They would have arrived sooner, but with the frightening amount of 'explosives' on the wagon, Heala and Yiming had taken it slowly, ensuring there were not many hiccups while pushing the wagon. Thankfully, Zi Dan and Xia Mao were always there to help support the wagon from the sides and assured them that as long as nobody played around with fire, they were perfectly safe.

"Guess, this is it. The point of no return." Zi Dan said as he wiped his sweat away. He felt the temperature of the cavern rising higher and the lava seeping around the circle was definitely not a good sign.

"You think we should have brought Tanke for this instead?" Xia Mao questioned if it was wise to rush in like that.

"Zi Dan did purchase some rather expensive inscription charms. Let's trust in the quality of Boss Jin's items." Bu Dong chuckled slowly and bitterly.

"Well, no use regretting anything now. Let's just go and hope for the best. Though, got to say, it was fun to see you use that gatling gun. I remembered you used for the Christmas Event too, right?" Jing Yu said as she walked towards the front of the wagon and held onto the Firecracker Spear. As long as the fuse was not lit, it acted as a normal spear and without any quick activation storage rings, it was best to carry it around. Meanwhile, Bu Dong did not say a word as it was precisely because of the Christmas event that he adored the gatling gun. That expensive piece of heavy equipment was not worth the price but the kick to kill those Nian Underlings was god damn satisfying.

"Alright, then. Let us succeed for the safety of the villagers of this island!" Head Hunter Yiming gave the wagon a good push from behind moving towards the edge of the stone circle, and the rest followed suit. Ironically, before he could follow behind the group, a magical barrier appeared barring him entrance.

"Guess this is as far as I could go!" Yi Ming said as he tried to force himself through the barrier once more but to no avail. "All the best then I will go back to the caverns to make sure that no Nian Underlings venture into this area!!" The Head Hunter encouraged them once more and disappeared from they come from. 

"No wonder Chief Erming said this was her hunting ground. She could do whatever she likes, and it also looks like there's absolutely no way Nian is going to stop until all of us become her dinner. Too bad we're already down a man before the fight even started." Zi Dan sighed as he repeatedly banged on the wagon, signalling Bu Dong to fire off the opening volley.

The Nian was not so stupid to stay idle and hurled herself towards the wagon. Meeting her advance was Xia Mao who had already lit up a piece of firecracker which was tied to his dragon-slaying scimitar.

He dashed forward to intercept Nian so that he could buy Bu Dong some time for the gatling gun to warm up and shoot the lion abomination. It was a dangerous move since Xia Mao ran the risk of getting caught in the crossfire, but the Blind Cat Cultivator was willing to take the risk. He was confident that Bu Dong had the finesse to aim at the monster instead of him.

Thankfully, Bu Dong aimed at where Xia Mao would slam himself onto Nian and had overcompensated the gatling gun's aim so that when it released the rain of bullets, it would definitely shot the Monster Boss. (Nevertheless, there was some luck in play too, and he could only hope the best.

In addition, the firecracker on Xia Mao's scimitar was effective in startling the Nian, causing her to move to the side, giving the Blind Cat Cultivator some extra space from the hail of bullets. 

Yet, the Nian was confident in her armoured scales, so she did not really care about the bullets and focused her attention back on the Blind Cat Cultivator who had startled her. However, she was wrong to face Xia Mao as the bullets aimed at her torso and began to tear through her armoured dragon-like scales.

The sudden unexpected pain caused her to fall back, and Bu Dong did not stop the gatling gun at her, keeping it in the same position as much as possible. Xia Mao also took the chance to slash at Nian's face as she tried to squirm herself away from the bullets. Her armoured scales were sturdy but face with continuous impact from pieces of fast penetrating metal, there was little she could do too. 

"No use! No use! We've spent our time preparing, and we will be sure to defeat you as fast as possible!' Bu Dong shouted confidently as he continued to hold the gatling gun steady. They all could see Nian's hit points drop sharply on their visor closing in on the half way point.

There were only a few vital points on Nian that could give her a critical wound but instead of using finesse or the 'proper' way to handle the beast, the Pandawan had chosen to go with this brute force method. It continued to shatter the armoured scales and exposed much of Nian's flesh.

Bu Dong was over the moon with this change of development. After having spent over half of his current medal amount on this weapon and ammo needed to make it work, it was indeed an exclusive item to a select few. They wholeheartedly believed that if this method did not work, Boss Jin must have purposely created an unkillable event and in that case, Bu Dong would have every right to complain.

Unfortunately, the entire party knew that this method would not guarantee their victory, especially with the gatling gun overheating and the bullets being limited in number. Once they either ran out of ammunition or when the gatling gun had to cool down, that was the Elder Pandarens' cue to start the battle proper. 

The moment they heard the gatling gun sizzle from afar, indicating that it was about to overheat, Zi Dan and Jing Yu who had been preparing their chi went forth flanking the Nian, as Bu Dong pushed the weapon even further. He could see the barrels getting red orange hot, and smoke started to come out from the chambers of the gun barrels. What was worse was that he was standing on the wagon full of explosives and the situation he was in, clearly warrants immediate death.

Yet, he still kept his nerves steady by activating his chi. Because…How can you be scared if you are angry? And by being constantly angry with his Angry Ape cultivation style, his fear disappeared, and his nerves remained hard as steel.

However, they seemingly forgot that according to legends the Nian was not just a monster of strength but a monster of magic as well. The moment her hit points had been reduced to half, a wave of psychic energy burst out from her. That sudden aftershock caused the wagon to flip around, including everything they had packed within. (And Bu Dong on top)

"Do not worry!" Heala shouted as she banged her staff on the ground and immediately, an energy capsule enveloped the entire wagon with Bu Dong in it, and the items within it remained mostly intact with only a few firecrackers getting thrown outside. 

On the other hand, Bu Dong felt the piping hot gatling gun on his torso as it was burning him. "HOT, HOT, HOT" He shouted, yet refused to let go of it. He even raised it upwards since he knew that that overheated piece of weaponry could potentially set off a chain reaction within the energy capsule if it touched the firecrackers and bombs he prepared. 

(Fortunately, his heat resistance inscription charms were working and the energy barrier also seemed to numb the pain.)

"Great job Heala, without you we might have been blown to smithereens!" Bu Dong thanked their Panda Mercenaries as he watched the two Elder Pandarens attack the beast. 

"A pleasure! Now hold still and let me tend to your wound. We will need you soon enough!" Heala ordered as she quickly went forth to make sure the other party members were also within her healing range.