947 Volcanic Cavern - Part 4

"That was close! If not for those Panda silhouettes, we would have ended up as charcoaled Pandarens!" Bu Dong breathed out a sigh of relief. He thought he would be done for after his barrier suddenly disappeared in the midst of him sorting the explosives out.

However, this had heightened his concentration, allowing him to have a clearer picture of the overall fight. Nian was getting agitated, and she started to use her newfound powers more frequently and more destructively. There was not much time to be flustered by the lava attack.

The Elder Pandarens had been momentarily stunned by the dangerous use of lava magic by Nian, but thanks to Heala's interference, they made it out in one piece and decided to match a tit for tat. After charging their chi, the Pandarens continued to take turns to face Nian.

Yet, Nian had also similarly changed up her tactic. She no longer relied on using just her paws and jaws, but she focused on using the ample amount of lava around her. Bolts of molten lava shot out of the surrounding stream and headed towards Jing Yu.

"Watch out!" Zi Dan cried out as he ran to the Hungry Condor Cultivator and pulled her a step away, making her narrowly escape the bolts of lava at the last moment. It merely scrapped her clothes, and the fire-resistant inscription charm prevented any damage to her body. Still, they understood that luck could only last that long and the burning lava was starting to melt the stone floor, leaving a crevice in the middle of it all.

"Shit, I really wouldn't mind having Tanke to distract her!" Zi Dan grumbled as he used his chi once again to extend the chains on his mace ball and swung it towards Nian.

However, Nian pulled another fast trick on them, revealing a lava barrier that negated the mace ball. The attack bounced off its wall like a basketball. That was when it became clear to the Elder Pandarens that they had to utilise her weakness to get over her strengths in this second phase.

Since it was better to use the secret weapon the village gave to them on a later timing, all three Pandarens took out the firecracker that was hanging on their waist and lit them up. Xia Mao quickly threw his towards the barrier while Nian was not looking at him.

The lava barrier dissipated momentarily as the firecracker exploded, breaking Nian's concentration in conjuring it. That was also the cue for Jing Yu and Zi Dan to rush forward with their firecracker fused lit up. They wrapped the firecrackers unsafely on their weapons and used it as part of the attack, causing Nian to step backwards.

"Do not give her any time to stabilise herself!" Xia Mao ordered over the visors as he took out a firework starter from his storage ring and started to light it up. With the fuses lit, he also placed some of his chi into the projectiles so that they would travel further and hit the target faster.

Xia Mao was also surprised by this discovery and quickly let out another shot to test the theory that was on his and everyone else's mind. By inserting another bout of chi into the firework starter, the subsequent fireworks flew, aiming for Nian's upper torso. 

Meanwhile, Zi Dan turned his chain mace ball into a large metal ball and kept his attacks on the Nian to divert her attention. This allowed the firework bolt to collide with the Nian's dragon looking scales once more and true enough, the scales exploded in an instant with a loud bang and flashy colours.

"Looks like we found your weakness you little –" Zi Dan was swinging his enlarged mace ball onto the exposed region where Nian's scales were broken, but he was interrupted by a large giant paw emerging out of the pool.

It was made entirely out of lava, and Nian sent the paw flying towards the metal ball, slamming it hard to the other side of the cavern. With the initial magical barrier that Nian had erected to prevent the cultivators from running away still in place, Zi Dan was slammed into it and eventually fell straight down after impact.

"Zi Dan!!! Shit! He is dropping into the stream of lava!" Jing Yu watched the whole scene unfold, but she had her hands full evading Nian's aggressive style as it pounced straight towards her. The firecracker spear that she had was beginning to dissipate, but she still had her blades as her backup to defend herself when she was slammed into the ground because of Nian's pounce.

Yet, instead of a struggling expression, she yelled angrily at Nian and activated her chi which she stored for this moment. "Intermediate Sword Arts! Flying Condor Blade Barrage!" Jing Yu shouted, and her blades vibrated instantly, causing mirror images of her sword to emerge from the sword itself and soon, those chi blades started to pierce Nian at her underbelly. 

She knew it would not do much damage compared to the firecracker spear that the Hungry Condor Cultivator was holding on, but she hoped it would force the great beast to move away. Sadly, her attack was rather underwhelming, and the Mother Lion continued to attempt to bite her head off despite her desperate struggles defending. If not for the spear, Jing Yu believed the Nian would have been more aggressive in her offence.

*SLAM!!!*

Suddenly Nian disappeared from her line of sight as Jing Yu saw a large metal ball zooming past her face. "You might be some mythical lion! But I am a freaking Cheetah that matches the speed of a bullet!" Zi Dan shouted as he tried to catch his breath.

Jing Yu turned her head to see it was coming from, and she saw Xia Mao waving at her. "Can you believe him? Doesn't even mention that he needed a blind cat to save his ass from that fiery pit of hell!" Xia Mao pointed out as he thanked Heala for coming forth to heal them.

"Then I am not wasting the chance for that stupid lion to stand up!" Jing Yu said as she took her portion of firecrackers and placed it on the cloth wrapped blades. Lighting it up with her chi, she immediately sent her blades to pierce the Mother Lion. At the same time, Jing Yu attempted to stand up using the Firecracker spear as her support. 

Nian conjured out whips of lava to prevent the blades from attacking her, especially since the cultivators knew her exact weakness. However, the monster had forgotten that they were fighting as a team and Zi Dan had already taken the spear from Jing Yu, dashing to strike Nian with a decisive stab. 

The Mother Lion tried to counterattack with another loud deafening roar, but Xia Mao was pressuring her not to stay in one place with his firework starter shooting out fireworks at her direction. This bought time for Zi Dan to dash forth as he tried to stab her. But being the boss, Nian was not going to go down that easily.

However, the audience who had learned something new and Nian who was busy handling the Elder Trio seemingly forgot that the fight was merely a distraction. With another 10% of her health gone, Nian stopped paying attention to the real threat from the party.

Bu Dong.