THE LEGEND OF SHENLI

CHAPTER 37

Shěn Lí coolly eyed her adversaries. The men exuded murderous intent with their open mouths and fang-like teeth. Pooled saliva trailed down their lips and left wet spots on the floor.

Shěn Lí glanced at the man that grabbed the blade of her spear earlier. The gash on his hand was already healed to the point the wound was no longer visible. He was monstrous, like the scorpion-tailed fox she beheaded near the Ruins.

Shěn Lí knew the men would attack soon when she sensed the change in the air. Her red-tasseled silver spear shook and suddenly flew and attacked the man in the middle.

He gave a cry of alarm, but it was no use; the attack was impossible to dodge and he was stabbed square in the face. He reached up to grab the spear.

Shěn Lí wasn’t about to let him grab it like before. She was mentally prepared this time, so when he reached for it, she immediately somersaulted forward and twisted her body around to slam into him. This caught him off guard and allowed her to easily attack. She grabbed her spear and thrust it forward intending to chop his legs out from under him.

Although she used all her strength to strike, she failed to slice through his legs. All she heard was a solid metallic dhoom as her spear vibrated from the impact. The vibrations were so strong it nearly broke the skin on her hand.

It was unimaginable to Shěn Lí that, despite using all her strength, her spear failed to cut through. It had accompanied her through scores of battles, across oceans and lands, and never failed before. In shock, she flipped backwards, retreating a safe distance with the spear in front covering half her face.

To be fair, the spear was originally made for stabbing, and not so much for cutting and slicing, however, Shěn Lí had used it for so long that it had become imbued with her qi and become freakishly strong, capable of more than just stabbing. In fact, the shaft of the spear could even be used in place of the blade to behead a person.

But now she could see a see a small nick at the edge of the blade.

The other two didn’t wait for Shěn Lí to get her thoughts together. They flanked her on both sides before rushing her like ravenous wild dogs.

She wanted to buy some time to think of a strategy to defeat the men, so she jumped up and perched on a beam out of their reach. She hadn’t thought of a plan yet when a silhouette jumped up even higher. He had his hand out to hit her head, but she dodged it with a minor tilt of her neck. She grabbed his hand and poured qi into her grip. A loud cracking sound came from his hand as every bone broke.

He raised his head and gave a loud shout, leaving his center unguarded. Shěn Lí grabbed the opening and thrust her spear into his gut, but hard muscle prevented her from stabbing deeply. At this, Shěn Lí shouted as well and rays of light glowed from her spear. It increased in intensity, until with a crack and a ploosh, her opponent’s chest exploded and rained flesh and blood down onto the floor.

She shoved the rest of his body down, yanking her spear out as she did so. He fell like a boulder, crashing into the wall before falling to the floor and leaving a crater in his wake, finally dead.

Shěn Lí was gasping for air, but she had managed to take one man out. Before she could catch her breath, the two men below jumped up to her perch, with one on either side. She raised her spear in time to block an attack from one, but was smacked by the other. The force behind the hit was so powerful that she was knocked off the beam and into the dead man’s crater below.

The two jumped down and landed with a thud on the ground, raising a tremendous amount of dust and debris into the air. They couldn’t see Shěn Lí since her body was completely obscured, so they had to walk to the side to peer in.