Rise of The Demon General

"What are you doing out here? You should be taking a rest inside," Amon reprimanded Di Ying.

"I want to help my mom," she replied while observing the situation. She spotted her mother immediately, but she also saw her uncle. They were fighting at two different locations against different opponents. She didn’t know who she should support.

"Stay out of those fights," Amon warned. "You will only complicate things if you interfere."

Di Ying made up her mind soon. She decided to help her mother.

"Tch!" Amon uttered when he saw Di Ying ignoring his warning and rushing forward.

She didn’t get far. A terrible pain from within paralyzed her. She wriggled in the air from the pain. "Stop it...!" She pleaded.

The pain stopped. Amon put himself before her. "Listen, you child! Your mother is currently facing a dangerous opponent. If you blindly charge over, you will disturb her focus. Mo Wang can easily use you to create an opening to wound your mother. If that happens, it will be too late for you to regret your folly. Do you understand my words?"

Di Ying grimaced. She was still unnerved by the residual pain in her soul. He stubbornly exclaimed, "But I must help my mom...!!"

Krassazh came beside Amon. He said, "I can see that you don’t have much experience speaking with children, do you?"

Lin Li approached Di Ying. She put one of her paws on Di Ying’s shoulder and said gently, "We will. That’s why Brother asked me to come out. It is to help your mother win the fight. However, we must not act until the time is right."

"When will that be?" Di Ying demanded.

"When Brother gives the signal, this Hyanid and I will act. You can join us too, but we must wait for his signal. Before that, we must stay put. Otherwise, we will jeopardize everything."

"We are on the same side, youngling," Krassazh added. "We want your mother and uncle to win."

After being persuaded by the two, Di Ying calmed down a little. She decided to heed their advice and wait. Amon lightly nodded at Lin Li, whom he knew to have used her Mesmerizing Voice to calm Di Ying down.

*

Di Yu, in his awakened form, turned out to be more troublesome than Mo Wang had expected. She was faster and could stop his lightning attacks before they hit her. He was sure she was much stronger as well. He didn’t dare to go into a melee bout with her to find out how strong she had become. He kept teleporting away whenever she approached.

Every time he teleported, he left behind several lightning sparks. These sparks hung in the air and didn’t disperse. They erupted into a powerful electrical blast when something came close. If it were before, these lightning mines would have hurt Di Yu, but the energy shielding from her awakened form rendered these blasts ineffective.

Regardless, Mo Wang continued to plant these lightning mines every time he teleported. Di Yu didn’t heedlessly crash into every lightning mine Mo Wang left behind. Before long, the sky where they fought was filled with these lightning sparks.

Mo Wang finally stopped teleporting. He was panting. Performing nonstop teleportation for a long period consumed much stamina.

Di Yu was frustrated by Mo Wang’s constant teleportation. She bellowed while charging at him, "Be a man and face me, you coward! Stop fleeing!"

Mo Wang grinned. He pointed his palm in her direction. "Heh, mindless animal. Do you think I will sink to a brutish brawl with you?"

He balled his palm into a fist. As he did, all the lightning mines surrounding Di Yu exploded simultaneously.

The lightning mines didn’t just explode. Lightning ropes emerged from each of the mines. These ropes connected with the other mines, forming a colossal lightning net. Di Yu was trapped right at the center.

Seeing this net around her, Di Yu’s rage went off the charts. "Are you trying to imprison me again, you loathsome demon? I will never let it happen again!"

Di Yu rammed her body into the lightning net. The black flames around her prevented the lightning net from directly touching her, but the lightning net was persistent. It didn’t break from her push. It kept her from reaching Mo Wang.

"Get here, you coward!" Di Yu yelled.

"Please. Does any of your opponents ever comply with that request?" Mo Wang asked condescendingly. "I’m going to hit you from out here while you are trapped in there. Be a dear and die, will you?"

He pointed his arm up. A lightning spear was formed above that arm. His arcane art was not yet done with the emergence of the spear, though. Lightning strikes came from everywhere. They converged upon the spear. As they did, the spear grew in size.

It grew so big that the lightning spear soon dwarfed Mo Wang. He was as if lifting a massive pillar made of lightning. The space around this giant lightning spear was so distorted that it created a void.

"This is my art with the strongest penetrative power," Mo Wang informed. "Adding the power from my Law of Space, I don’t believe that I can’t pierce that draconic body of yours. Taste my Calamity Lightning Spear!!"

Mo Wang threw the lightning spear in Di Yu’s direction.

Di Yu could sense the power of the giant lightning spear even from afar. She didn’t dare to be careless. She moved away from the lightning net. She took a deep breath while doing a backflip. Black fogs gathered around her mouth as a dense black light shone in her chest. The black light travelled to her mouth and was released into a massive black beam.

The Calamity Lightning Spear didn’t break the lightning prison when they met. Instead, they fused. The electricity from the lightning net flowed into the lightning spear, further empowering it.

The black beam and the lightning spear collided, causing a massive explosion. The space itself crumbled at the point of impact. A powerful shockwave radiated out. Despite the explosion, the collision between the two immense energies didn’t end. Both the black beam and the lightning spear persisted. They continued to push at each other, vying for dominance. Explosive shock continued to radiate out of the point of impact.

"Now!" Amon exclaimed. Both Di Yu and Mo Wang continued to channel their energies into their attacks. Whoever let go first would lose the contest. This meant both were occupied. This was the perfect time to interfere!

Everyone advanced upon receiving Amon’s signal. Despite her eagerness, Di Ying was the last to react. She was too amazed by the energy reading from the collision between her mother’s and Mo Wang’s energies. She had realized Amon was correct. If she got in between those two powers, she could be easily obliterated by that level of energy. She only broke out of her trance when the others had left. She hurriedly rushed over.

Amon didn’t advance too far ahead. He left the risk to others, but he gave them instructions. "Krassazh, use your Gravity Zone and Polar Gravity."

Mo Wang, who had been focused on Di Yu, suddenly felt his body grow heavy. He noticed Amon’s group then.

"Pesky pests!" He cursed.

The heaviness from Krassazh’s Gravity Zone didn’t only affect his physical body, but he also felt that his aether had become abnormally heavy. His energy channeling became slower. Di Yu’s black beam slowly began to push back his lightning spear.

His predicament wasn’t over yet because two large gravity spheres appeared on his opposite sides. These spheres came at him, attempting to crush him.

"Not so fast!" Mo Wang exclaimed. Something glowed on his robe. It was a concealed talisman. Upon activating, it warped the space around him. The two spheres became significantly slowed upon entering the area affected by the space warp.

"Lin, your turn!" Amon exclaimed.

Lin Li was ready. She zoomed till she was in range. Her sudden appearance drew Mo Wang’s attention, who inadvertently looked at her. When their eyes met, hers shone.

"Fuck!" Mo Wang exclaimed. His defensive space warp was useless against a mental attack because it directly hit his mind without needing to travel through space. The vision before him changed.

The nightmare from his distant past returned. It was that day when he was with his college friends, trying to flee the mysterious village. They were in an open field with broken military vehicles covered in vines and shrubs. That was when he saw it.

It resembled a human, but the resemblance was all it had. It had a deformed body and was floating. Its feet didn’t touch the ground. Its face was covered by long hair, which blew all over the place. It had four long arms. Each arm had two elbows, which separated it into three segments: forearm, midarm, and upper arm. It was slowly approaching.

"No. Not you! Anything but you...!" Mo Wang exclaimed. He knew it was all but an illusion. Nevertheless, he couldn’t prevent the horror from rising in his heart.