The Jade Shadows Must Die [Cultivation LitRPG]

The fade's body was covered in pale and vaguely iridescent scales, a close facsimile of the cave's crystal, though it hadn't tried to ambush them. Instead, it lowered itself down directly into their path and let out a guttural hiss. Without realising it, Rix and Luna had followed the cave into a kind of cavern, a more circular room maybe eighty feet across, with another passageway at the far end.

With their other escape blocked, they had no choice but to fight.

Though the fade's initial movements put Rix in mind of a snake, as it fully unwound itself, he realised it more closely resembled a centipede. From the underside of its long, slender body sprouted myriad legs tipped in sharp points, though they were considerably shorter than the stabbing limbs of the spider fades. Perhaps not its primary weapon, then.

No, that was something far worse. With a clear view of the thing's face, Rix could see a circular mouth ringed by protrusions of bone as long as his hand.

As he watched, the mouth began to rotate.

It picked up speed until it was little more than a lethal blur. A whirlwind of cutting teeth.

To make matters worse, two holes opened on either side of its maw and white spikes, like elephant tusks, erupted from within. They were two feet long and lightly curved, tapering to a needle-sharp apex that gleamed faintly in the wan crystal light.

The creature let out another sharp hiss.

"Oh bleeding hells," Rix said.

"I thought you'd be happy," said Luna. "This thing is right in your wheelhouse. All legs, no arms."

Rix glanced across at her. Despite the quip, her voice was growing shakier by the minute. Though she brandished her weapon, he could tell by her stance that she was far from at her best.

"You should leave this to me," he said, with more confidence than he felt, stepping forward to draw the fade's attention. The beast, which was maybe forty feet away, reared up, leaving the back half of its body on the ground to support it while raising its killing arsenal to above head height. Like the spider fades, it had no discernible eyes. Something about the sheer unnaturalness of that sent a chill down Rix's spine every time.

Luna stepped up to join him. "What did I say about stealing my fades?" There was grim determination in her voice. "Besides, this one's a rank above you. I'm still your bodyguard, remember? What will they say back in the prison if it gets out I let that thing mouth-drill you?"

Rix let out a sharp breath. He should have known better than to try and talk her out of a fight. "Together then. Let's split up. Make it choose."

Without waiting for her to agree, Rix dashed to the fade's left. His plan worked. As the first mover, the fade's attention immediately shifted to him. It scuttled to meet him, its hundred legs driving it across the crystal with sinuous grace. As they got within striking range, Rix realised how large the fade really was. It was longer than a wagon, thick and muscular, and its maw was nearly the width of his torso. This was a fight where a single good attack would be the end of him.

With no other weapons visible, Rix was ready when the thing made the only attack it really could: a blistering whip-like thrust of its body directly at him.

What he wasn't ready for was how powerful the lunge was.

He raised his weapon in time, meeting the fade's tusks with one end, but such was the force of the blow that he was driven skidding backwards across the ground. Somehow, he kept his feet, but he narrowly missed being impaled on one of the crystal spikes that were peppered around the cavern. Hells, the beast was strong.

Fortunately, Luna capitalised on the distraction. Racing across to the creature's blind spot, she unleashed [Falcon Slash], her blade a pale green blur as it carved three foot-long gashes in the fade's mid-back. Though the cuts looked deep, no blood spilled from the wounds.

The creature snapped its body around, trying to use the momentum of the movement to skewer Luna in the process. Rix expected her to use [Wind Dash] to shoot backwards to safety, but with horror, he saw her stumble after using her attack, her face a mask of tension. She managed to raise her weapon to block, but it wasn't nearly as grounded as Rix's defence. Instead of deflecting the blow altogether, she simply knocked it slightly off course, leaving one of those terrifying spikes to slam into her arm instead. Her mantle flared, but there was enough power behind the attack to leave a deep cut across her bicep. She cried out, clutching the wound with her other hand as she backpedalled, blood spilling onto the ground in her wake.

His adrenaline raging, Rix pumped qi into Energy Surge and leapt forward. Unfortunately, in this fight he was at something of a disadvantage. The area around them was still webbed by the same structural flaws as the cave entrance. That set off alarm bells, as he had no idea if he'd caused any wider damage with his escapade at the entrance. He could likely [Force Hammer] the fade's back, but there was also a chance that it would bring the entire place down on their heads. The risk was too great. He had to rely on his other tools.

He arrived as the creature was rearing up for another attack on Luna. Calling on [Wind Blade], he unleashed a rapid series of slashes at its back. Powered by his style, the blades cut cleanly through the fade's scales, leaving wicked gouges in their wake, though these, too, were bloodless. The fade howled again and tried to flip once more back towards him, but unlike Luna, Rix was ready, darting backwards at the first hint of movement.

"Are you okay?" he called, backing up a few steps further to buy some time.

"Couldn't be better," she replied, in a voice that very much said the opposite. She stood about thirty feet away, hand still wrapped around her wound. "Might struggle to use more than one technique in a row, though. Who knew a thread of mana could be so damned heavy?"

Now evenly positioned between them, the fade reared up once more and stood poised, its mouth still grinding like a saw blade. It seemed indecisive, wending its head first towards him, then Luna, in reaction to their voices.

"The good news is we've scored a few good hits," he said.

"I thought so too," she called back, "but I can't actually see mine anymore." As if to punctuate that statement, the wounds Rix had just caused started glowing.

Then they closed up entirely.

"Bleeding hells," he yelled. "It can heal!"

Something in his voice must have made the fade's decision for it, because it launched itself at Rix again. Rather than trying to meet the blow head-on, this time Rix fired Energy Surge and dodged forward and under the strike. There had been nothing in the books he'd read about a fade that could regenerate its wounds. He had no idea how to begin tackling such a problem. Could they wear down its healing? Or overwhelm its capacity? All he could do was experiment.

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Summoning [Wind Blade] again, he stabbed the creature's side. He put more force behind it this time and the technique bit deeper, almost to the halfway point of the blade. Then, Rix ran. He lurched towards the back of the room, parallel to the fade's body, dragging the mana-wrought edge with him and cutting as he went. The creature thrashed, and its tail slammed into Rix's chest, sending him sprawling, but he still managed to carve a fifteen-foot long gash into the fade's flesh.

As the thing spun to try and leverage his disadvantage, Luna sprang into action. This time, she didn't use [Falcon Slash], instead relying on the simple cutting edge of her weapon and her body's own strength. It was the right strategy. The fade wasn't abnormally durable, so she didn't need the cutting power of the technique. At that moment, minimising her mana use seemed to be key for her.

Rather than strike at its body, she took a different approach, hacking at its legs with short brutal swings. She managed to sheer half a dozen of them free before firing [Wind Dash] to hurtle backwards, though the movement had none of the grace or control he'd come to expect from her. She came to a halt at the cave wall and staggered, her hand shooting out to grip the crystal for balance.

That round of attacks had caused significant damage. Rix's cut alone would have ended most living things, and Luna had literally carved pieces off the fade. For a few moments, it roiled and bucked there in the centre of the room, but then once again its body glowed. At the site of Rix's tear, its scales stitched back together.

And where Luna had amputated its legs, the limbs began to regrow.

Luna let out a groan. "That's basically cheating!"

Rix's jaw tightened. The girl had a point. How the hells was anyone supposed to kill something like this?

His instincts told him that it was indeed a game of attrition. It had to be drawing on its own mana to heal. If they had the luxury to cut and slash at the thing for the next few minutes, it might eventually run dry. But a glance at Luna told him they didn't have minutes. The girl could unleash a single technique every few seconds, and even that left her barely functional in the moments after. Each one also seemed a little more draining than the last. He didn't know how much longer she could hold on to his tether under these circumstances.

They needed a new approach.

Before the fade had fully recovered, Rix was on it again. Rather than cutting to wound, this time he attacked to kill. His style had movements for all manner of attacks: thrusts, sideswipes, full-body swings, but there was one that was clearly most suitable when maximum damage was required. Predictably, it resembled [Force Hammer] — a colossal overhead swing, though with none of the mana that lent that technique its strength or effect. Still, it was the strongest basic attack he had, and he made it stronger still by activating [Wind Blade] as he swung. He was still sluggish when trying to work techniques into his style, but the monster was still righting itself, and was thus vulnerable. Rix aimed directly for its centre mass, bringing the [Wind Blade] infused staff down with all the power his body could muster in an attempt to cut the fade clean in half.

Were he a master of his style, maybe it would have worked. With every training session, he felt his muscles grow more acclimated to the style's demands, wringing more power and precision from its movements. But right now, he was still a novice. There was a gulf between what he wanted to achieve and what he was capable of.

[Wind Blade] hacked deep into the fade's back, before lodging less than halfway. Rix let out a curse. The creature thrashed, but he was beginning to become familiar with its movements now. He scuttled in close, where neither the tail nor the head could easily strike him. His knuckles were white around the butt of his weapon as he fought to keep his purchase. He needed to keep cutting. If he could finish his attack, that would surely end the fight. Nothing should be able to regenerate from being literally bisected.

He gritted his teeth and pushed, applying his full body weight as extra pressure, but with the momentum from his attack dissipated, the creature's flesh was simply too tough. He wasn't strong enough. For a few agonising seconds, they were locked together like that, then the creature's skin began to glow once more.

But this time, the wound remained open.

Rix's eyes widened. The area around his weapon continued to shine, and he could feel a vague sense of vibration through his staff, as though something was trying and failing to dislodge it. The creature howled. Rix opened his mouth to call to Luna, but at that moment the fade bucked its entire torso inwards in a way it hadn't done before, slamming into Rix and sending him flying.

He crashed into the cave wall, driving the air from his lungs and consuming a small chunk of his mantle. Somehow, he managed to keep a grip on his weapon, but that, of course, meant it was wrenched free. By the time he regained his footing, the wound was again stitching itself back together.

But now they had something they could work with.

"It can't heal while our weapons are actually in it!" he called.

Luna, who seemed to have recovered from using [Wind Dash], was circling the fade on its opposite side. "Didn't seem to be enough to kill it, though."

Rix grimaced. She had a point. He'd been lodged about as deep as he could, and still the thing had lived. Even if they both managed to stick it with their blades, would that be enough? It was a deadly gamble to take. He doubted Luna could survive for long in close range.

Luna's eyes lit up. "The crystals!"

Rix looked at her blankly.

She gestured with her sword to one of the crystal spikes that jutted from the floor near her foot. "We can stab it with these. They're basically free weapons!"

Rix looked around the room. She was right. The floor in the cavern was peppered with at least a few dozen crystal stalagmites. They were several inches thick, and while they varied in shape, most came to needle-sharp points.

"You collect, I'll distract!" he called.

The fade had once again recovered from its healing and was stalking between the two of them. Not giving it time to target Luna, Rix launched himself forward, once more drawing the monster's eyeless gaze.

As he ran, he summoned [Wind Blade] and used his momentum to slash at the bases of the crystal spikes along his path. The conjured blade met a little resistance, but sliced through the formations easily enough. He left the spikes on the ground. They were more of a backup than anything else. He could see Luna shearing her own spikes free with her sword across the other side of the room.

As he drew close, the fade unleashed its signature thrust, aiming to impale Rix on those lethal tusks. Again, he fired Energy Surge to dart to one side, before lashing out with a flurry of bladed strikes. They were shallow, superficial wounds, but they weren't designed to kill. The creature wheeled around and thrust again, and again Rix dodged under and around. As long as he had qi, his speed was up to the challenge. His supply was close to empty now, but it hopefully wouldn't have to last much longer.

From the other side of the room, he heard the staccato of Luna's boots against the hard ground as she raced into position. In one hand, she clutched a bundle of crystal shards, each longer than her forearm. As she drew close to the fade's back, she snatched one with her other hand, slamming it into the creature's flesh. The spike punctured straight through the scales, embedding itself almost a foot deep.

Rix felt a surge of elation.

The fade let out a howl, but he gave it no time to pivot its attack. He thrust out with [Wind Blade] once more, this time in a powerful stabbing motion that buried the blade deep in its neck. With his weapon lodged, he began to twist. He knew he couldn't keep the creature impaled long enough to cause damage, but he had to assume it still felt pain. He needed to keep its attention on him.

The fade convulsed, a horrible keening sound coming from that terrifying mouth. Luna, meanwhile, was running alongside it, jamming one crystal after another into its hide. Her gait was unsteady, and she moved slowly, but under assault from both sides, the fade didn't seem to know what to do.

At least up until the moment that it coiled and jumped.

It was a lightning-quick manoeuvre that carried the fade several feet into the air. As it leapt, it twisted, reorienting its body, allowing it to lash out with its entire length in a great sweeping circle. The tail struck Rix, sending him once again hurtling across the cavern. He hit the wall with a hideous crack, his head slamming backwards into the crystal. For a moment, he saw stars. When his vision cleared, he saw that something similar had happened to Luna. She was sitting slumped against the wall, eyes glassy.

And the fade was rearing up above her.