DC 72

Weiwu De had no way of knowing that Spiky had, in fact, pushed Curly over. He’d been too busy running for his life and hadn’t turned back until Spiky had already resumed his forward momentum. Had he known that, Weiwu De would have had to face a decision of weather or not to knock Spiky on his butt in response as well.

Instead, the opportunistic friend that was temporarily known as Spiky just breezed by Weiwu De, thanking his lucky stars. The only reason he’d accepted to help was that he was confident in his ability to escape from most beasts that he could see. He’d spent much of his time on footwork and reading enemy movements, neglecting his raw speed and stamina. In fights this generally gave him the edge up, but against the unknown subterranean terror, no amount of fancy footwork was going to help him escape the hole opening under him.

An insane sounding cackle escaped from Spiky’s hair as his pupils dilated and he found his second wind. For a long second, the only noise over the field was his deranked laugh and the sound of shoes slapping against the dirt. Then, a fleshy thump sounding noise followed by a fall. 

Although Weiwu De had no way of seeing Spiky’s betrayal, that did not hold true for the rest of the group. Although Feng Jiao and his friends did not know Curly and company well, seeing anybody so gleeful after betraying their friend put a sick taste in all of their mouths. As such, Xin Lee took it upon himself to release an arrow just as Spiky prepared himself to vault over one of the pitfall traps they’d created. 

The arrow caught him right in the knee as he prepared to jump, quickly bringing an end to his adventure. Due to the numbing effect of the tranquilizer the arrow was treated with, Spiky was unable to even stop his forward momentum and tipped forward directly into the hole. Unfortunately, Xin Lee’s non-lethal measures meant nothing before an eight foot pit filled with sharpened stakes.

Whatever the beast was, it elected to leave Weiwu De and Curly in one piece in favor of gathering the free prey from the pitfall. Were it not for the fact that the holes stopped appearing, alongside the sudden silent from what was previously a screaming hole in the ground. Although the screaming of Spiky within the fit was unnerving, the sudden absence of sound was somehow much more disturbing for the children. 

It was around this time than Tan Sai’s alchemical bait really started to show its worth. Although they’d prepared traps and sharpened weapons to the best of their ability, it never escaped their thoughts that their enemy could be an ambush predator. Lucky for Feng Jiao, Tan Sai had managed to think up a solution quickly. In all honesty, she’d already had a remedy prepared that she only needed to adapt for a larger animal.

After she’d gotten her own mountain and refused to bend the knee to the Radiant Gardens Alliance, she’d had difficulty securing supply lines for the herbs and catalysts she needed to continue her experiments. After attempting to grow her own to alleviate the problem, she quickly discovered how different farming was at the sect was compared to back home.
In this essence rich environment, one which disciples had been growing herbs and crops for generations, the pests had adapted and evolved. Traditional pesticides and pest control techniques were useless against these super-pests, forcing Tan Sai to develop her own method.

Mixed in with Tan Sai’s animal attracting torches was her custom formula that slowly forced rats, hedgehogs, and other pests to the surface of her gardens. It leached into the ground and slowly poisoned the pest to the point that they didn’t even realize that it was toxic. The underground environment would slowly petrify and repelled animals after getting to a certain depth, something she was able to customise as she saw fit. It was the reason there were so many torches and, even after the beast had arrived, Feng Jiao did not stop lighting them even as he evaded the beast.

The silence in the gathering was eventually broken by a shuffling noise. Somehow, even amongst all the lit torches, a blurry form started to surface. The torches had three primary functions, baiting the beast to attack, forcing a potential underground pest out of its nest, and lighting the gathering so that the disciples would have visibility during their fight. Although the gathering was now well lit, Feng Jiao couldn’t make out the same of the beast. It was almost as if some sort of dark mist collected around the creature, continuously obstructing their vision. 

From what they could see, the creature walked on at least four legs and was around the size of a medium sized dog. Apart from that, it was just a dark blog with two pristine ivory fangs that seemed to repel the mist while still leaving its face disguised. Its movements were disjointed, as if it hadn’t walked for years and was relearning how to use its legs. After sniffing the air for a few moments, it locked its eyes on Weiwu De, who was currently helping Curly back to his feet.

“To the center, now!” Feng Lou called for them to retreat to their contingency plan, a circle of torches in the center of the field with a different composition than those that had been lit thus far. As much as he would have loved to call off the operation, there was no way to know if the shack was safe for them after having enraged the creature. Nobody had ever lived to see the beast and the only structure anywhere near them was the wooden shack that seemed ready to collapse at the first sign of a strong wind.

The creature had surfaced fairly close to the shack, putting it between Feng Jiao, Jixian Yun, Feng Lou, Curly, Weiwu De and the relative safety of the wooden building anyways. Their only choice was to fall back to the final line of torches. Luckily, now that the creature had surfaced, Xin Lee could pester it with his arrows while the others ran to safety. 

Naturally, plans are only perfect up until the point they make contact with the enemy. Between Weiwu De being slowed down by Curly’s sprained ankle, Feng Jiao and companies’ dedication to lighting the rest of the torches that led them farther and farther from the center ring, and Xin Lee’s inability to actually hit the creature that seemed to have eyes in the back of its head, the group wasn’t likely to make it to their safety net.

Their only solace was in the fact that the creature seemed more inclined to stretch and refamiliarize itself with the area than to chase them down right away. It was almost as if  it were mocking them, saying it could catch them whenever it wanted so there was no reason to rush. Naturally, none of the children felt the need to correct the beast’s arrogant view. Hell, they were too afraid to even be thankful for its momentary disinterest for fear of jinxing their luck.

With his mind racing a mile a minute, Feng Jiao had never stopped looking at the battle from every conceivable point of view he could. His mind constantly created new scenarios, ran them to their end, and started over when it led to his seemingly inevitable death. He continued to try and employ all of the trump cards he’d built up since arriving at the sect and everything he’d learned hunting while they traveled to the sect from Willow Mountain City.

Namely, he’d adapted the plant grown essence technique that the sect had provided them in their introduction manual. By combining the technique itself with his retained knowledge from when he was a tree, such as the way different parts of the plant functioned and the specific criteria needed for explosive flora growth, he’d managed to raise the potency of the technique at the cost of making it more essence intensive. He’d even started moulding it with the Wood cultivation technique that he was in the middle of working on. Feng Jiao still called the technique a work in progress because it focused on explosive growth, causing a loss in spiritual properties. It was no good for farm work. But for the current situation, it was fairly perfect.

After he’d realized the day before that he was unable to use his spiritual sense without a network of plants underfoot, Feng Jiao had spent a portion of the day working on his solution. With the groundwork in place with the technique he was already designing.Luckily, typical grass seeds could survive up to three years without being planted, and that was without taking into account that the ‘grass seeds’ he went looking for were some of the toughest and most annoying weeds that grew in the area. He concentrated on those that naturally grew fast and had extensive root systems upon maturation in order to save himself some essence. 

With every step, he poured a little more of the seeds and nutrient dense dirt he’d collected from his inventory ring while at the same time channeling the technique. To an outsider, Feng Jiao looked like an elf who left vegetation growing in a barren land with his every movement. Were it not for the fact that his wood cultivation method were based on the yin qualities of moonlight, and that he had been working to tailor fit the essence technique with his own essence for maximum output, he’d have long run out of fuel in his tank. Instead, the weeds grew ravenously and exponentially, taking from the moonlight and evolving to a new type of weed that would grow better in darker conditions and sucking out the natural essence of the field that made it such a good herbal garden in the past.

Feng Jiao knew just how obnoxious the weeds would be to remove later, and would likely turn into a recurring annoyance, but for the time being he couldn’t care. The lives of his friends and himself were at stake, and he knew that they couldn’t win this battle blind.