Flower Dance

"Watch out!" Li Ming Hao saw a dagger fly from behind Su Xin Yu's side and he grabbed her neck, pulling it downwards to avoid the rod while he jumped from above her in air, doing a cartwheel with her body's support.

The calamity was not over yet and the poisonous metal rods were still being spit out from the walls. They had already been at it for five minutes but the rain was just not stopping.

"Do you… think… we made a wrong decision?" Su Xin Yu was tried with such intense excursion. But it was the matter of life and death at this point. She was even contemplating her telling Li Ming Hao to take shelter under the roots. Would she have been able to be here like this without him?

The more Su Xin Yu was with Li Ming Hao, the more reliable he looked. Now it felt like she could entrust him with her life. But would it just be till they get out of here?

She almost felt disappointed at her own thought. It could very well be that he might prove to be a good partner for expeditions but might not truly become her good friend.

But again, she was not supposed to think all this and focus on those bloody rods. What if this was the easier traps and the coming ones were even more difficult? It was all so confusing.

"I don't… think we had… another choice. We are just… not knowledgeable enough…" Li Ming Hao answered her in between his panting as well. This was way worse than a high intensity workout. Not only did they need to fight physically, but they also had to keep full focus on their half of the areas with their eyes. This was indeed very tiring.

After about five minutes and several near skin grazing experiences, the intensity lowered and now, only one or two rods were coming out every few seconds. The two people sighed with relief.

"Where did you learn those moves?" Su Xin Yu, tired out of her wits, just sat down on the floor but did not fail to ask the question that had been burning in her mind.

Li Ming Hao explained her the source and Su Xin Yu suddenly started having doubts. Was she really a part of her tribe or was this the one? It seemed like his master really had too much knowledge and was willing to teach an outsider. Did he not believe in anyone in the tribe? She was very curious about the identity of his master.

"Never mind then. But can you show me those notes? I would like to learn a thing or two too," Su Xin Yu's changes in expressions were very drastic. She was upset at first and then her eyes sparkled like all the stars in the universe had found a home in there.

How could Li Ming Hao say no to such curious and adorable face? Weren't these rare occasions when she showed a crack in her cold expression?

"I will show you when we go back. I don't have them with me right now," he said, scratching the back of his head out of shyness. This girl did not know her charm at all. He also sat down beside her to take some more rest.

Earlier, she looked like an ancient goddess doing a flower dance with her moves. Her movements were so elegant and clean, he could never learn them just from the notebooks. He was so envious of her, she got the instructions face to face. Someone was there to help her correct her forms. He would ask her to teach him in the future.

"Shall we try next one?" Li Ming Hao asked.

"Yeah, I think I have taken enough rest," Su Xin Yu replied as she gulped down almost half the bottle of water. They had to conserve their energy and ration for they did not know how much time it would take them before they saw clean water anywhere.

"Let's see, if the first one was a trap, it should either mean it was west or south direction. Then, the one exactly opposite to it should either be north or east. I am hoping that the next one should not be very dangerous. It could very well be an exit," she continued further. She was dearly hoping this one to be an easy one. If they exhausted themselves here, it was going to be a disaster for them.

"Okay boss, whatever you say goes," Li Ming Hao saluted. Suddenly his eyes drooped a bit, and his focus became blurry. He shook his head to get rid of the feeling.

In the end he found himself in an empty space.

"Eh? I was with Xin Yu just now. What happened?" he muttered to himself. "Did she already pull the lever? That's not right, the first one took force from both of us to move."

He looked around frantically. Even the skull pillar was gone. There was just an empty room with long corridors on both the sides. There was yellow lighting coming from somewhere, just like under the roots. But these were solid rock walls. Were there more traps in here?

"Wait, where am I? Am I finally into an illusion?" He tried running around but he always ended up at the place where he had started.

"What do I do now?"

In front of him, popped a green colored monster with a lizard head.

"Hey, this is an illusion. You can't hurt me, can you?" he asked the monster. Unfortunately, the hideous lizard with scales all over his head did not respond, but directly attacked over him. It was using exact same moves as him and Su Xin Yu.

"Wait, wait. You can't know these moves!" Li Ming Hao could not make any sense out of the current situation at all. Why was this happening to him? Did she not say that these were her tribe's moves? Then why was this weird lizard, oh, wait what? Why did it suddenly change to Chen Chen?

"Rocky, did you not do your work prope…," he was about to call for his dog when Chen Chen in front of him attacked him with a punch. It was hard to let his guard down here. The punch was actually powerful, Li Ming Hao felt intense pain in his stomach. A streak of blood had come out of his mouth as well. When did this fatty become so strong?

He had not wanted to fight this guy for that lass Su Xin Yu would be sad. But right now, he had no choice. He got up and dusted his clothes, before taking a deep breath. He gathered whatever strength he could and threw a punch at his face.

Of course, this was the time to take out all the anger he had towards this guy. Since the beginning, he was not contributing to the journey at all, rather creating problems for Xin Yu. And then he had the audacity to whine about how their journey was being slowed down.

His strong punch landed on his face, taking a tooth or two out. Chen Chen did not wince even once and charged right back in retaliation. Li Ming Hao found it inhumane. How could he just get up and start fighting again, like a Zombie?

Li Ming Hao, in his defense, blocked the madly charging person in front of him with his arms and locked him with his legs. He wanted to render this person's arms useless by breaking a bone but Su Xin Yu's face flashed in front of him once again.

If only! If only he had a tranquilizer in his hands right now. It would have been so much easier. When he wished for it, he noticed that now his bag was at the side, near the wall.

"So, if I imagine the person in front of me to be Xin Yu, will that happen?"

When he looked in front of him, indeed, the girl was standing there, with a smile on her face.