Dawn at the Wild Rift (Book IV)

Chapter 25

Zilong, who is all by himself just like Freya, finds himself in a vast desert. The sun is shining at its brightest in the middle of the clear, blue sky, making it hard to just wander around carelessly.

No one else is around, well, except for a couple of scorpions walking gracefully on the hot sands and some snake gliding over, creating a lot of S shapes over the sand they pass by.

At first, there is nothing out of the ordinary but after walking for a kilometer, hoping to find something that would help him get out from that place, Zilong senses a strange presence.

He covers half of his face—from his nose down to his mouth—when a strong gust of wind blows towards him. It is not a sandstorm but the sands suddenly start to rise. Clunking of metals catches his attention and when he tries to see what it is, not only metals appeared before him.

Hundreds of dead men with rotting flesh face him with their weapons drawn. Zilong, however, finds them familiar. The different emblems carved in each of the dead warriors' armor reminds him of the previous wars he fought in.

In front of him were the generals of the armies he defeated. It seems like they rose from the dead to get their revenge themselves.

"The dragon warrior must be killed."

"The killer of men shall perish."

Those are the words that they chanted as they march forward. Whatever is going on, Zilong must find his way out of this situation. Fighting hundreds of dead men seems incomprehensible but that goes the same way as running away from them. The dessert itself has cornered him and makes sure that it won't be easy for him to escape.

Zilong turned on his heels and tightens his grip on his spear. Never did he even imagine that one of his greatest fear would come true. And there is only one thing he could do... face them.

Running towards the undead enemies, Zilong's spear glows in faint gold.

"Spear flip!"

He jabs the very first undead and continues to push through, running over a number of his enemies. With his strength gathered, he jabs and throws them one after the other. With the risk of getting surrounded, he swirls in place and cuts through the guts of anyone coming towards him.

One soldier, however, manages to scathe him behind. The wound is quite serious that it made Zilong kneel on one knee.

"Because of you, my people, my daughters, and precious wife suffered in slavery!" he yells. With both hands clutching a short sword, the undead strikes straight at him.

Zilong rolls to his left and thrusts his spear straight into the chest of his attacker.

"You have my condolences but I fought for the right thing. If your empire did not fall, the cruelty you've always had would have killed more people!"

That is Zilong's rebuttal. He, too, knows too well what will happen to a kingdom that's defeated but as a warrior who fights for what is right, he is willing to sacrifice a few lives for the greater good of the present and the future.

As he fights his way to survive, Lylia, on the other hand, is in a different predicament. However, she is still ignorant of it.

Unaware that she is separated from every member of their group, she still continues to venture into the woods.

"Lylia, wait." Harley grabs her arm which immediately made her follow his demand. Though she has always been transparent about her feelings towards him, such a simple gesture still gives her high hopes that her affection would be reciprocated.