Chapter 30 - Ambush!

That night we camped on the riverbank, making a fire and hunting some game to cook.

I had never had a trip like this in my past life. I had gone out with friends, sure. But we always visited hotels or rented apartments online. Even if most people here treated me like the second coming of Jesus Christ (or is it first coming? I get the feeling that I was reborn quite a ways before His coming) I was still part of the ‘group’.

The only ‘odd-man-out’ was the captain, who mostly kept to himself.

We were eating our part when I felt as if someone had walked over to my grave. I immediately stood up and watched our surroundings. “Everyone back to the boat.”

They all looked at me as if I were crazy, but one glare from me was enough for them to grudgingly begin moving.

Suddenly another chill came over me and I launched myself toward Ling, dragging her with me to the ground. They heard her scream and turned only to see an arrow on the ground where she had been before.

“Run!” I shouted, pulling her up with me as I rose to my feet.

I had only taken a step toward the boat when a ball of fire impacted on it, blowing it to pieces and tossing everyone on their backs.

“Assassins!” I heard someone shout but couldn’t figure out who. All I could think of was getting Ling to safety.

“I’m an idiot.” I cursed and conjured my water dragon in time for it to eat another of the fireballs. Which burned for a little while even inside the body of water.

“Stay close to me!” I hissed at Ling taking her hand in my left, while I controlled the dragon with my right. I sent it in front of us, knowing that it was likely to be targeted by whoever was using Chi magic if they couldn’t see us.

With Ling’s hand in mine, I dove into the tall grass surrounding our encampment, moving as silently as we could.

All around us I could hear sounds of carnage. I’d say battle, but truth be told, it was rather unlikely that the sailors would survive against whoever had attacked us. They didn’t even have weapons.

My problem was Fa Min. I knew he was a good warrior, but I was unsure if he stood a chance against someone wielding fire-chi magic.

“Ma-Master where are we-?”

I placed my hand over Ling’s mouth, noticing how quiet things were.

“We need to find the person behind the fire magic” I whispered urgently and kept on moving.

My dragon moved silently as a cat through the grass, a couple of steps in front of us until I made it stop when I began hearing voices.

“Has anyone found them?”

“No. Could they have jumped into the river?”

“Impossible, we have elements on both sides and they haven’t reported anything.”

In the silence, I could hear people walking around us. I concentrated and allowed myself to see their auras.

With hand gestures, I indicated that Ling should stay put while I moved forward. I squatted lower and used the wood-breathing technique to mask my movements among the plants. If the people looking for us were normal, I could have probably danced in the tall grass and they wouldn’t have spotted me, but I wasn’t going to chance it… plus, I was a horrible dancer.

I followed the brightest red aura and soon found myself near a clearing. It is hidden behind a man-made mount covered in grass. It was so close to our encampment that it must have been all but invisible from the other side.

There were five men behind a make-shift barricade. Among them was someone under a heavy cape, but from their fiery-red and pitch-black aura, I figured it must have been the caster from before.

“What shall we do Zhu Lin?” a man asked, looking warily at the person under the hood.

“They must have escaped your scouts. Send them again.”

One of the men scoffed, “Are you sure they didn’t burn with the boat?”

“I told you!” the person under the cape hissed venomously “I saw him conjure a water-”

“Serpent, right.” I heard him scoff unbelievingly.

“It was a Dragon!” one of the men hissed urgently, but the previous man cuffed him on the head.

“You see dragons everywhere in this cursed land.” The man spits on the ground “That’s why they don’t hire ignorant farmers like you. To you everything is mythical. Well, I shite on your myths.”

There was a scuffle among the men, while the magician tip-toed to look over the barricade. The hood caught on something and it came off for a moment before the figure pulled it angrily up again.

But it had been enough.

The Chi-magician was a woman with fire-red hair.