Chapter 12: Cleaning up Bandits, Cooperation, and Finishing the Mission

Chapter 12: Cleaning up Bandits, Cooperation, and Finishing the Mission (untouched)

In fact, he is so friendly that when one of the bandits tried to push Xue Tie back to the carriage. He was delivered the most gracious gift he could be given. A quick Death via a trident through his eye pierced his brain.

With his body collapsing, the remaining 11 are startled and one of them yells out "GET HIM". They all charge at Xue Tie.

With absolutely no training or talent and working together, they charge at Xue Tie like a moshpit. Xue Tie throws a normal rock at the leading bandits' heads, knocking them over into their friends. With 3 of them, Xue Tie then wields his spear at the ones who are still organized. A simple swing and they lose their weapons, immediately panicking. The 7 is now indisposed. The remaining 4 still fine and charging are mid-swing when Xue Tie jumps onto their fallen comrades, trident piercing 2 of them at once, Both dead.

Unsummoning and summoning his trident again to dislodge it from their bodies. he hops off. The 4 still fine to come forward again but are more nervous. The other 3 who lost their weapons pick them up and they are on the ground vomiting from their allies' dead bodies on them.

Xue Tie is more used to killing after the first time and the adrenaline prevents him from throwing up this time around.

"Alright boys, I believe this song and dance has gone on long enough." Xue Tie says to the approaching band of bandits.

"You think this is a game you little twat. You kill 2 of us and suddenly declare that we should stop. Not happenin'." They respond with anger and one of them.

Suddenly, a figure appears beside Xue Tie with a halberd in hand. Swinging it at Xue Tie's head. Yet the blade is blocked by a hand, specifically a hand covered in leather-like gloves with veins on it. The hand after all belongs to Xue Tie himself. He has unleashed his 2nd martial spirit while dissipating the trident in the process. The person with a halberd who was one of the figures knocked down in the initial scuttle and acting as if he was throwing up had snuck around and attacked Xue Tie. He has 2 yellow spirit rings and a stunned expression on his face as if it was a child that blocked his attack. His eyes go wide and almost pop out of their sockets once he lays eyes on Xue Tie's spirit rings.

"What, how, what type of blazin' devil are you?" The man says in shock and quickly activates his 1st and 2nd spirit rings. This allows him to create an afterimage that follows the path of his blade while the other ability creates a blue aura around his blade as he swings once more at Xue Tie

Xue Tie can only fully dodge the attack. And he does that by a fully vertical jump. The bandit thrusts his halberd blade at Xue Tie yet he fails to realize the activation of Xue Tie's 2nd spirit ring. A vat of burning blood engulfs him via the skill blood boon, screams erupt but even those are drowned out as the burning blood gets into the man's throat. He collapses as his body is covered in burns and just as Xue Tie deactivates his spirit ring. The man's body explodes into a gore of blood due to the blood loss effect of his skill. The other 8 bandits who are still there are shell-shocked by the sight of what they just saw. All wide-eyed and shaking. Xue Tie looks at them

"Boo", he says and they trip and fall while others get to running away. Xue Tie takes out another pebble and with his blood flame talons, he tosses it at the group that fell. Blowing them to bits as they are just normal people, incomparable to a 2 ring spirit master like himself.

It seems that his actions regarding his lack of remorse were his undoing as he goes over off the road and empties his stomach at the sight of intestines and other gore spread out on the floor.

Shi Yu approaches Xue Tie and rubs his back. "Not too shabby kid played around a bit too much but for your first real fight, you were resolute and that's good. You can't let yourself fall short in matters like these."

He provides the most minimal comfort that Xue Tie needs but it's enough as Xue Tie finishes throwing up and cleans himself up of bile. He then returns to the carriage while Shi Yu scavenges around for any bit of money or information. He collects a few things that weren't burned or covered in organs. He stores it away for later and hops back on the carriage, leading it away.

Bibi Dong who was inside the carriage and simply watching the show has a worried expression. During the fight she almost yelled out for Xue Tie to be careful when the bandit with a halberd showed up but became pale once she saw the effect that Xue Tie's spirit skills did on people, as while she was able to make him activate the skill against her, he only aimed it at her martial spirit, minimizing the effect on her except the feel of heat and the ever so slight burning sensation if it splashes on her possessed legs. She now sees the true power of the skill when Xue Tie isn't holding back and how it killed someone so quickly. She became quite nauseous as a result and so they both sat in the carriage in silence as their journey soon ended. They arrive at a small village roughly 2 days from the Great Star Dou Forest. The two had already been told that a wild spirit beast had escaped the forest and had been terrorizing the village. The local Spirit Hall members were too weak as the beast has been reported to be a 17 thousand-year-old Nighting Squirrel. Far too much for bibi dong to absorb but just enough for their team with the hidden support of Shi Yu to handle.

Shi Yu gets the kids out. "Alright you two, it's time to start the mission. The reward will be collected from the local Spirit Hall building once the beast is turned in. You two will take point, I better see some damn coordination or harsher training will be given once we return." He says with no argument. Both kids nod, a gloomy atmosphere still surrounding them.

Shi Yu shakes his head as he walks away from the duo. Bibi Dong and Xue Tie stand there for a bit before he finally shakes his head too and slaps both his cheeks. Bibi Dong looks at him weirdly.

"Let's get going, can't stay moping around here all day." Bibi Dong only stares at him.

"What? Has my junior sister finally fallen for her Big brother? Alright, I permit you to call me Brother Xue or Brother Tie if you wish to be so personal." His words cause Bibi Dong to blush and then storm off.

"Let's go, I wish to return home as fast as possible. After all, I find your company boring, Senior Brother Tie." She says as she walks off to begin searching for the beast. Papers were given to her about the investigation done on the beast.

'Oh, you are just a treat. Is this what it means to be tsundere?' Xue Tie thinks to himself as he observes Bibi Dong.

Xue Tie quickly runs over to catch up to Bibi Dong. "So what do we know about the beast?"

"Humph, it's a 17,000-year-old Grove Squirrel-type beast. It's 7ft tall and has a moss-like tail and 5 inch-long nails and 7-inch front teeth capable of piercing steel. It's considered an agility-type beast. So we will have a bit of a struggle ahead of us. I'll do my best to counter. You will have to be the main damage dealer." Bibi Dong gets her groove back and explains the plan.

"While also defending you, you mean? We already have an abysmally low chance of winning. So we are likely bait for the teacher but it's also a test to see how far we have come as spirit masters."

Bibi Dong gives no response to his words but Xue Tie can see her body tense up as they make their way to the nearby forest. After a few minutes, they arrive at the center of the forest where multiple trees have been demolished to make a giant nest unless there are giant trees in Great Star Dou Forest. It's unlikely a beast like this had a home inside of a tree.

The nest is empty except for some low-quality Plants and remains of the humans it has killed. Necrosis has already set it so it smells foul. The duo begins looking around for the beast's signature moss-like tail. But they find nothing until Xue Tie activates his gloves while pushing Bibi Dong away.

She looks back and is about to say something except there is an explosion of dust where she just was. She activates her martial spirit as a precaution when she sees a pair of beady red eyes inside the cloud of dust and a second explosion that emanates a red aura due to it being Xue Ties' spirit ring ability. A figure escapes the dust and it's A giant Squirrel. It has blood around its claws and from the settled dust, Xue Tie is standing with his left arm limp due to being half pierced by the claws and strain from using his spirit ring with the same arm to blow the beast away.

His glove provided quite a bit of protection to not completely lose the arm but he is now impaired. But the Squirrel also has a bit of its Tail burnt from the explosion. It's looking at Xue Tie in anger as it charges forth.

Bibi Dong uses her first spirit skill to shoot out the web of highly acidic fibers. But the beast just cuts it up. Only to get a rock to the face. Naturally followed by an explosion. It roars out from the pain of it.

The beast retreats once more and begins climbing trees and going from tree to tree in various patterns. Both the duo lose track of the beast since they can't keep up when they find their feet have been locked by nearby grass. It seems to be a unique ability that it uses very rarely. Bibi Dong struggles less since she has multiple legs and they are sharp too. But Xue Tie can't spare his last arm to distract himself until he does it anyway.

The beast lunges towards Xue Tie who notices this and smirks. His 2nd ring activates and he unleashes the continuous vat of burning blood at the beast head-on. It can't change direction as it's still in midair and its speed makes it collide faster with the impending pain.

Its roar echoes through the forest as it gets badly burned but a second yell follows from Xue Tie as he gets his other arm pierced and slashed by the flailing arms of the squirrel. The beast's anger is visible but Xue Tie can only power through the pain as he unleashes his 1st skill twice. The Squirrel wants to bite off his head. So he will feed it something nice and juicy. He shoves both his hands into its Open mouth and scratches its tongue. His hands get crushed by the force of the bite. But he also won, as a moment later. 2 explosions occur and a fountain of blood erupts from its Mouth. He gets slapped away by the mossy tail. Falling unconscious on impact while Bibi Dong can only send out more webs.

The Squirrel moves to finish off her as well when a powerful impact rocks its Skull, a powerful staff collides straight against its head, crushing a bit of skull. A second follow-up staff strike ensures the creature's death.

Naturally, the wielder of the towering bronze gold staff is Shi Yu who had come out of hiding just as Xue Tie was knocked out.

Time passes

Xue Tie awakens in a comfy bed with his arms covered in many bandages. Pain assaults his body and he can only stays still to avoid any bit of pain. The only thing that doesn't hurt I'd his neck, so he looks around and finds Bibi Dong lying beside his bed. His bandaged left hand is resting in both of hers.

He can only sit tight until a nurse comes by to change his bandages. She notices he is awake.

"Oh goodness, you've awoken. The scary man had us tending you until he and the girl here came back a few hours ago."

"How long was I out?" Xue Tie questions softly

"About half a day" she says to the shock of Xue Tie.

Their conversation awoke Bibi Dong. She looks around confused until she realizes that Xue Tie has awoken.

'Please don't hug me, I'm already broken' Xue Tie pleads internally but his prayers are for naught as he is essentially crushed by her jumping on top of Xue Tie. She is immediately crying into his chest.

Xue Tie groans while Bibi Dong speaks, "I was so worried about you. We could have just defended until the beast had enough or until Teacher arrived". She rants her eyes out about various things that could have been done better.

"Shooooo, it's alright. We made it through, it's just some minor injuries. No biggie" Xue Tie says as he strains himself to put his other hand on her head.

It takes a few minutes for her to calm down though she still has some tears on her face.

"Oh, look at what you've done. Your pretty face is all covered In tears." Bibi Dong nods her head and cleans herself up. And looks at Xue Tie with a smile.