Forge of Destiny(Xianxia Quest)

"We should keep moving forward," Ling Qi said decisively, ending her pause and striding forward toward the mist.

"Wh-," Su Ling gave her an incredulous look. "Why?" She asked, giving Ling Qi a bewildered look. "We an at least find a way around or something, we don't even know if this is the way we need to go yet."

"You don't really believe that," Ling Qi shot back. "No way is this just a coincidence, given what we're looking into. C'mon, we knew we were going to have to deal with something dangerous."

"You're crazy," Su Ling grumbled, but she didn't allow herself to fall further behind, hurrying to catch up with Ling Qi.

Ling Qi slipped her plain and unadorned flute into her hand, feeling a stab of irritation at the unfamiliar tool before brushing it aside. The two of them proceeded forward as the mist gathered around them in silence.

Trespassers

Murdererers

Thieves

Ling Qi stiffened as she began to hear whispering accusatory voices on the wind, mixing and mingling with each other until the individual words could no longer be made out. Up ahead, she could see a break in the treeline where a wide shallow river flowed. The air grew cold and wet around them as the mist grew deeper, and Ling Qi felt the creeping sensation of being stared at intensifying.

The eerie atmosphere culminated with a low, angry wail as they reached the riverbank, and the mist came alive. Ghostly hands erupted from the muddy banks grasping and snatching at the hems of Ling Qi's gown even as burnt, half skeletal faces followed, twisted into unnatural expressions of fury and hate.

"Oh fuck no," she caught Su Ling mutter under her breath as the animalistic girls ears flattened against her head and her amber eyes widened in alarm. "Trail goes downstream," she snapped more loudly as she drew her saber. "Do we have a plan or what?"

Ling Qi danced back from the riverbank alongside her, easily escaping the apparitions grasping hands, and eyed their increasing numbers. "I'll start playing, if you can screw up their senses too, we should be fine," she called as she raised the flute to her lips and began to play, filling the space around them with her own mist.


The spirits rising from the riverbanks shrieked as her mist constructs tore into them, the broken and rotted spirits of men, women and children alike wailing as shadowy claws tore misty wounds in ghostly flesh. Ling Qi shuddered at the terrible sound, all too similar to actual people crying out in pain.

"Pretty sure we just put our foot in something a hell of a lot bigger than a couple of disappearances," Su Ling said even as blue white fires formed over her head. "Dammit, this had better work on ghosts," foxfire burned between her clasped hands, stretching out in a long chain as she threw her hands out wide.

The flickering flame then exploded outward, Ling Qi saw for a moment bright lights, and heard the sound of soothing music and the scent of delicious food, but it was gone in an instant, the technique passing over her. It made her wonder just what the technique was, but it seemed to increase the confusion in the enemy's ranks. Some stiffened and froze, faintly luminescent tears leaking the black pits where their eyes should have been, while other only wailed more loudly in despair, or spun about flailing at the misty talons that still clawed at them.

40/44 Qi

One thing was certain though, as hateful red sparks danced in the eyes of the spirits rising from the ground, and the whole screaming, sobbing mass surged forward, like a tidal wave of mist and river water, it wasn't enough to stop them all.


36/44 Qi

The two of them bolted, Ling Qi continuing to desperatly play as Su Ling ducked and dodged the grasping, clawing hands of the mass of spirits, slashing away ghostly limbs only to have them replaced moments later.

Well behind them, Ling Qi caught a glimpse of a gleaming aquamarine figure clad in ancient armor, seemingly formed entirely of river water, face visible only by the glowing green sparks in the eye sockets under it's helmet.


Ling Qi's fingers danced over her flute, as she felt the intense concentration of deathly water qi cross the threshold of her technique, hoping to cloud the things senses even as she ran to avoid the wailing mob of spirits at her heels, streamers of shadow trailing in the wake of her limbs as she flickered from position to the next under the influence of crescent grace. At her side, she could feel Su Ling's qi flaring, her legs blurring with motion as she did… something that sped her own movements.

She felt her qi fail to take hold on the more powerful spirit though. Thankfully Su Ling had more success, ducking low and spinning around to slash outward with her saber at waist level, summoning a a burning half ring of blue white fire behind them that blazed two meters into the air. Spirits shrieked and sobbed as they drove through it, seemingly unheeding of the pain, but some dispersed, and it was enough to keep the mob from growing even larger.


[X][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]


Nonetheless, Ling Qi felt the unnatural, biting cold as tiny hands scraped through her ankle, forcing her to kick away a ghostly child with two arrows protruding from it's back, it's other features obscured by the terrible burns covering its body. She heard Su Ling cry out in pain as well, but the girl didn't fall behind, so Ling Qi kept running.

She was beginning to think this hadn't been the best idea.


The thought was reinforced, when she felt a powerful surge of qi from behind her, and felt her own energy crushed from the mist, her control of it seized and her constructs dispersed. Su Ling cursed loudly, shouting something unintelligible as a noise like firecrackers going off in rapid succession popped through the mob behind them, briefly sending it into disarray.

Ling Qi felt dread pooling in her stomach as the mob of ghosts quickly recovered, though, now unimpeded. Her eyes caught on something ahead though, and it gave her hope. "Su Ling! Up ahead, I can see a warding totem. Make the run for it!"

"Got it. I dunno what you're doing but you better damn well be right behind me," her companion responding, redoubling her speed even as Ling Qi spun around, her new bow appearing in her hands as she flickered from the ground to atop a sturdy tree branch, leveling her arrow at the armored water spirit at the mobs core


33/44 Qi

She let her fears fade, and her concerns disappear, lining up the shot with absolute precision as the wind kicked up around her, blowing away mist as sheets of crackling static erupted from her hands and bow. For just a fraction of a second, her own blue eyes met the glowing green ones of the spirit… and she loosed her arrow, the glowing bolt slicing through the air with a crackling boom before striking the spirit dead in the helm.

There was a muffled boom and the spirit's head snapped back as the spirits around it let out an ear splitting wail, seeming to collapse into confusion at the injury of their leader. She briefly glimpsed the things mummified face, and pulsing veins of sickly green and red qi throbbing through it's desiccated flesh before she turned tail and ran herself, dashing for the warding stone she had spied before her Crescent's Grace could expire.
She passed the faintly glowing moss covered stone bare moments before the creeping mist reached the edge, splashing against the invisible edge of the warding and flowing outward. Ling Qi did her best to ignore the distorted faces and clawing hands in the mist and instead look to her surroundings.

Su Ling leaned against a tree nearby, peering warily out into the haunted mist. The trees were more sparse here, and Ling Qi could see a few crumbling walls and patches of paved stone among the tree roots. Higher structures loomed further in the distance, and the river they had followed flowed sluggishly off to her right, burbling over the crumbled stones of a long broken bridge.

"What is something like this doing so close to the sect?" Ling Qi asked, clutching her bow tightly, as she eyed the churning faces in the mist, and the way the invisible barrier bulged inward worryingly in places.

"Little villages die all the time, no matter where you are," Su Ling replied, sounding slightly out of breath as she straightened up, peering deeper into the ruins. Ling Qi thought she caught a hint of bitterness in the other girls tone. "It's not really surprising. I'm thinking the trail we followed might have just been folks making offerings now," she added thoughtfully, casting a wary glance back at the mist. "Then again... this place seems kinda old for that."

Ling Qi winced, rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly. Had she been too reckless in pushing ahead? "Might be so," she admitted. "I hadn't thought of that. Still, it can't hurt to check it out now that we're here, right?" Her instincts told her they were on the right track.

"Yeah, might as well," Su Ling replied with a shrug, edging away from the mist. "I can still sense some human qi around here, so we might still be on track. Maybe we can find the places temple and find something to placate the spirits with too."

Ling Qi nodded, carefully following the girl through the ruined village and away from the plaintive wails of the spirits outside. There was very little left intact, these ruins seemed very old, and it seemed like the buildings had not exactly been made to last for centuries. In the end though, they had a few choices to focus on.

[] Investigate the temple in the ruins, leaving the spirits outside straining at the weak wards might be a bad idea
[] Focus on the trail of human qi Su Ling can sense. It seems suspicious that someone would be out here in this old ruin.
[] Try to drive off the spirits with force, while the wards last
[] Find a place where the mists are not so heavy and make an escape. There isn't any point in risking yourself when you don't even know if this has anything to do with your target.