Path Of The Dragon (A Dark Fantasy Cultivation Wuxia Xianxia Progression Series)

Chapter 99 The Treasure Golem

"What are you doing? Hit it, Jie!" Pan Tian yelled as she lashed out with arcs of bright white qi that cut shallow gouges in the liquid metal. Only for the metal to ooze back together almost immediately. The monster didn't even seem to notice.

"I can't!" Jie said as she ducked under a flaming slash that trailed embers in the air and continued running from the now much faster monster, "my attacks just supercharge it!"

Jie ran around the room with the creature slithering behind her, unleashing a flurry of devastating attacks that ripped apart anything they touched and left deep, molten gouges in the marble floor. She was still faster than it, and she scrambled to think of some way to deal with the creature. The heat radiating from it had grown in intensity until it felt like physical waves that slammed into her and made it hard to think.

The creature stopped chasing her and Jie glanced over her shoulder. Its featureless face melted inward, forming a hollowed-out space like a mouth that took up its entire face. Its body swelled and its aura flared as violet fire swirled inside its hollow head.

Jie leapt to one side with all her speed as a beam of violet plasma shot out of the creature's 'mouth'. It missed her and blasted a bookcase filled with scrolls into a flaming, ruined mess.

"Oh, come on!" Jie yelled.

It continued channeling the beam and swept its burning gaze toward Jie.

Jie ran, using lightning step to its fullest as the beam chased her around the room, incinerating anything it touched and leaving a trail of smoke, molten marble, metal, and ruined scrolls.

Pan Tian and Ithilix came out from behind their pillars, unleashing a barrage of attacks on the monster. But, their abilities only created ripples and cuts in the liquid metal that rapidly reformed good as new. Xue gave a ferocious roar but didn't attack and the monster ignored him too as it chased Jie with the beam.

It seemed to be accelerating and Jie was struggling to stay ahead of it. She dived behind the red statue of the woman and hid behind it. The beam struck the statue and violet fire spilled around her edges, adding to the oppressive heat in the room as the liquid metal monster channeled its attack. But the red statue seemed to be holding.

Finally, the treasure monster's attack sputtered out. Jie jumped out from behind the statue, moving quickly to make herself a harder target. The red statue seemed utterly unharmed, though the marble floor at its base was a gurgling, molten mess.

The monster closed its 'mouth' and paused. Its featureless face reflected Jie as it regarded her while Pan Tian and Ithilix attacked it to no effect. It then turned its gaze from Jie and looked over Xue, Pan Tian, and Ithilix in turn.

Its liquid form shifted like a coiling spring as its blank face fixated on Ithilix. Jie's eyes widened as she sensed its intentions.

The treasure monster lunged at Ithilix. Its massive, burning blades of liquid metal reared back to cut her down with powerful slashes she had no hope of stopping.

Ithilix cycled a martial skill, but she was far too slow and would never escape in time.

Jie gritted her teeth and launched herself off a lightning step platform. She rocketed across the room and slipped between Ithilix and the liquid metal monstrosity.

Jie activated her storage ring and pulled out the pair of blood swords her friends had insisted on gifting her earlier and parried the treasure monster's enormous blades with her blood crystal ones.

The power of the strike cracked the ground beneath Jie's feet as the monster brought its full weight and power to bear, its burning blades sizzling against Jie's crystal ones.

Jie reinforced her muscles with qi, resisting the monster's attempt to overpower her as Ithilix vanished with poison step, reappearing some distance away as she resumed peppering the treasure monster with poison qi darts.

Jie stared into her own defiant reflection in the creature's featureless face. Its face peeled back to reveal the hollow interior once more as it swelled with violet fire.

Jie sidestepped, her meridians protesting as she pumped as much qi into her lightning step ability as she could, forcing her body to move with impossible speed.

The burning beam incinerated the space where Jie had been standing as the monster slashed furiously at her while trying to focus its violet fire gaze upon her.

Jie danced around the beam as her blood swords clashed with burning liquid metal in a staccato of ringing strikes. She had no experience using swords and relied purely on her raw speed to keep her alive as she danced on the edge of death, her mind furiously working on how to defeat the creature.

Despite her inexperience, Jie soon gained enough familiarity with her blades to not only parry but counter strike, her blood blades cutting deep rents in the monster's liquid metal.

But, as before, the creature seemed impossible to truly harm as the deep wounds flowed back together as quickly as she caused them.

The blades did, however, drain violet fire qi from the monster with every strike, pouring it into Jie who cultivated and broke it down into lightning dragon qi even as she fought. The amount was small, but it was perhaps the only true harm she'd inflicted upon the monster since their fight began.

The monster continued to press her, however, heedless of the feeble drain her blades had on it as its serpentine bulk flowed toward her, constantly forcing her back between trying to incinerate her with its burning beam.

Each of its attacks contained impossible force and the marble beneath Jie's feet cracked with every impact even as it began to glow from the heat. Jie stepped back, one grudging step at a time as it pushed her under the floor above.

Jie sliced through the creature's sword arms, severing the liquid members with brute force and speed. But, they merely flowed back into the creature and re-emerged.

Jie panted as sweat ran down her body, stinging her eyes and dripping from her nose and chin as her hair stuck to her skin.

Each second was like an eternity, locked in a deadly battle where the smallest mistake would mean her end.

I take back everything negative I ever thought about weapons... she thought bitterly as she desperately fended the monster off. Thankfully, the blood weapons seemed impressively resistant to the creature's heat and its strange magnetic ability.

This isn't working. Damn it! Think! How do I stop a liquid electrum treasure monster?

Her electric blue eyes flicked up to the lip of the floor above.

Oh... of course!

Jie parried several more strikes and stepped back just a little more until the creature was right under the edge of the floor above. Then, she threw one of her swords into its chest, lifted her free hand up, and blasted a finger of light attack into the floor above.

The marble exploded in a cloud of dust, marble chunks, and a torrent of blood from the deep troughs. The blood rained like a waterfall through the hole Jie had created and splashed onto the liquid electrum monster.

The treasure monster screeched as blood steamed into a red mist and the metal hissed. It slowed down as its molten metal body rapidly cooled and it began to freeze up as an endless deluge of blood rained down upon it.

Finally, the monster slowed to a stop. Its screeching died to an echo as the room fell silent apart from the splatter of blood falling upon its unmoving, hardened body.

Jie let out a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding.

Her friends stopped their attacks, looking as relieved as she felt.

"Thank you, Princess," Ithilix said, "if not for you, this one would surely have died."

"What are friends for?" Jie said between panting breaths.

The creature shuddered and the solid metal cracked like the top of a crème brûlée, exposing the glowing hot liquid metal underneath.