All The Gods We Can Touch - Book : Under this Iron Sky

四 Before There Was Made a God

The scent of death did not get easier to withstand with exposure. Its sirupy aroma stuck to the throat and refused to let go for weeks, and when you were someone like Bái Jiānwēi that danced with death on the regular, its smell stayed. It took residence in your clothing, in your hair, settling behind your eyelids and between your ears, heavy.

As he cleaved through the dark, bell-adorned foot singing on the cobblestone street and dark hair whipping through the air, Bái Jiānwēi despaired. His call for help to neighbouring Sects was sent three shíchén ago and the closest settlement of the Zhènhù Sect was barely half of the time away. Why weren't they here already?

Perhaps he could survive this night alone, but the number of victims was already much too high.

His Qi-enhanced vision could barely pierce through the darkness of the moonless night. Perhaps it was a good thing after all: the shredded wet shapes littering the streets barely resembled bodies anymore, and he had to continuously make an effort not to heave when stepping around them, averting his eyes from the gruesome sight. The sheer amount of blood and resentment hanging in the air was making his head spin.

A roar made him spin on his feet, and he severed a Nether Hound's head clean of its body. The distorted shape sank silently to the dust, and he turned to face off against another of the beast, sweat gleaming on his brow.

He swung Xuánwǔ on an upward arc toward the monster's distorted maw, missing it by a hair and making it back off. Its vicious eyes were tracking the sword's glow. While it was distracted, he shot his other hand forward with a huff, pushing a burst of Qi out of the tip of his tense fingers and piercing through the creature's jaw. The force propelled it violently into a wall, kicking up a cloud of dust and falling to the ground, stunned. Bái Jiānwēi quickly followed it. He made quick work of cutting it in half, Xuánwǔ's spiritual iron cutting through its meridians and instantly killing it.

A breeze warned him of an nth Hound pouncing toward him and he twirled on his feet, swiping his arm and slashing a deep gash across its flank, which didn't slow down the creature. It tackled him brutally to the ground, growling. As he struggled to get a grip on its massive face to keep it from mauling him, he lost the grip on his sword. The beast was snapping his jaw with great force, snarling and flinging black drool around.

He managed to get a one handed grip of its neck, and freed his hand enough to plaster his hand against its abdomen, right above the demonic core pulsing malevolently within. He sent a pure blast of golden energy through his palm, blinding them both and effectively sending it flying through the air with a canine yelp. Bái Jiānwēi grabbed around for his sword and jumped to his feet, leaping toward the Hound and fighting off its next assault.

He desperately hoped Yún Huìmíng had managed to get to safety. When they both had reached Yōu Quán a few shíchén earlier, they didn't have the time to plan out their strategy, as Bái Jiānwēi had jumped straight to action at seeing an injured civilian cornered by two beasts in an alleyway. "Take him to Qiánkūn Shénzhǔ's!" Bái Jiānwēi had grunted, kicking away one of the Hound in the face and sending it flying a great distance away.

Yún Huìmíng had flung one of the man's arms around his shoulder before disappearing through the streets.

Bái Jiānwēi was soon caught up in the battles, fighting off an unrelenting invasion of Nether Hound next to the torn-up bodies of the common people he was meant to protect. He fought with relentless despair, each swing of his sword a desperate attempt to stem the tide of darkness. The screams and growls of the Nether Hounds mingled with the weak cries of the wounded and dying he could not evacuate, creating a cacophony he had to heartlessly ignore. Alone, the weight of his duty pulled on his heart.