The White Dragon - Part 1

In ancient China, there was a special vocation for transporting important items from one point to another. Usually, the items can range from a huge amount of gold to important military letters that might impact the future of a nation. Only the Kungfu masters with special abilities can take this job because many dangers can happen on the way. 

This was the first time Wuxi’s Biaoju(bureau for transporting items) was asked to transport a prisoner. Wuxi’s father was assassinated brutally before the mission set off. The young Wuxi had no choice but to become the commander of this secret mission. Wuxi was frightened when he was asked to lead this mission.

It was closer to getting dark now, and the team was riding in immense distress. Anshu and Lyn each rode a horse. Together, they were hauling a chariot with the metal cell that contained the prisoner. Wuxi and Jin rode at the front. 

An eerie wail distinct from any animal came from the mountain behind them. Every team member stopped their horses and listened in fear. They all instinctively reached for their weapons.

Wuxi turned to his teammates, his voice shaking: “The mountain monster is close. We still didn’t ride fast enough.”

Jin was an old veteran in this business. Despite immense fear himself, he remained much calmer. “Wuxi, we should be reaching a bridge in four miles heading south. Should we pass the bridge or take the longer route from the forest?” 

As Wuxi tried to answer this question, he could hear the monster’s wail coming closer and closer from the forest behind. Wuxi’s forehead was full of sweat.

Wuxi was afraid of these moments the most - when he had to make quick decisions while his team depended on him. And what’s more scary was when the decision’s consequence was a matter of life or death. 

Wuxi turned his head away from the three pairs of eyes attentively looking at him. With the tiredness of traveling under huge pressure for so many days, Wuxi felt his brain was blanking out. 

Wuxi tried to hide his anxiety, but his voice was still shaking, “Let’s go across the bridge. It will be much faster.”

Jin nodded back, Then the team all whipped their horses to dash forward. 

As the team ran out of the forest, they came to the edge of a high cliff. They hear thunders growling. The sky became much darker with a huge pouring rain about to start.

An ancient wooden bridge connected both sides of the cliff. Wuxi looked down the cliff, the river below was flowing fast. Not far away, he could see the river flowing into the open ocean. As the river joined the sea, a huge vortex at least 300 feet wide was formed. This was the famous deathly vortex that sunk many ships. No one ever came out from there alive.

Right at this moment, they heard a howl so loud from the forest that made all their horses stand up with fear. The mountain monster broke through the forest pushing down many trees. It was a monster that was at least 20 feet tall. Its body was covered by dark scales. Huge fangs came out of its mouth.

Wuxi shouted out in panic to the team, “Get across the bridge now! Run!” 

All of the horses were not responding and were trying to run in random directions. Anshu had a special skill with animals. He blew a long whistle, and immediately the horses were calmed down. 

Everyone pushed their horses to run on the bridge as fast as they could. The monster started charging towards them. Wuxi saw the monster was almost getting to the bridge. He tried to yell at Lyn to do something but because of the immense anxiety he had, words weren’t coming out from his mouth. 

Jin saw the monster was almost getting to the bridge and shouted at Lyn, “Use fire to halt him!” 

Lyn suddenly realized what to do. Lyn is the long-distance weapon master in the team, her skills range from archery to even explosives. She halted the horses and jumped up to the chariot holding a long bow. 

Lyn drew the bow full and took a deep breath. She saw the monster charging closer to the bridge, only about two hundred meters away. She released the arrow and it struck right in the monster’s left eye. The monster howled stronger and kept charging at them. 

Lyn yelled at Anshu, “Throw the gunpowder sacks at the monster towards its head” Anshu quickly pulled the heavy gunpowder sacks out of the chariot. 

At the same time, Lyn lit up her arrow with fire. The monster was almost on the bridge.

With Anshu’s exceptional strength, he threw the sack right toward the monster’s head. As the sack was almost hitting the monster’s head, Lyn shot the fire arrow out, hitting right at the sack. 

With a huge explosion, black ashes, and flames burst out of the sack. The monster fell to the ground. A huge fire was lit on the grass beside the monster’s body.

The sky fell darker. A bolt of lightning struck above the ocean afar, splitting through the sky.

The team all let out a long breath.

Jin looked at the monster pensively and said, “The explosives didn’t kill it. It’ll get back again.” Then Jin closed his eyes and channeled his ability to wield Chi. Lowering his body to maintain a stronger stance, Jin pushed his palm forward and a strong airflow went past the team towards the fire. The fire became much stronger, blocking the bridge from the monster. 

Wuxi put back the sword he held tight for a long while into the saddle of the horse. Right out of the panics, Wuxi forced a large smile and talked to the team with fake confidence, “That was a close call. Fantastic job, guys” 

“Oh, let’s not forget to check if the prisoner is alright.” Wuxi jumped on the chariot and knocked at the metal shell. From inside the metal shell came a low sound of disgruntle.

“Perfect. Let’s go guys. There’s still a long way” 

The team all exchanged a Wuxi’s-pretty-much-useless look while he jumped down the chariot.

While the team was heading back on their way through the bridge, Wuxi suddenly spoke with a low voice, “Everyone stops.”

They looked at the other end of the bridge and saw a group of people with weapons approaching the bridge. One person in a dark outfit was leading them, his face was covered by a metal mask. 

Wuxi felt the hair on the back of his neck sticking straight. He knew who exactly that was - Ukaii, the killer that killed his father.

An insuppressible anger suddenly took over Wuxi, and he immediately drew out his sword. The sword was given by his father and was built with a rare metal that only his family had access to.

Ukaii shouted out, “Leave the prisoner to me and I will let you all live.” The team all drew out their weapons pointing at Ukaii and his soldiers.

Wuxi growled with fury, “Over my dead body.” 

Ukaii didn’t respond. He signaled his soldiers to march forward.

Jin spoke to Wuxi, “We won’t be able to survive this if we fight.” Wuxi clinched his jaw, also assessing the situation. 

At this moment, with another huge thunder, a huge rain started pouring down. 

The soldiers started marching towards them, with their spears pointing towards the team. Jin looked behind, the monster also started standing up again. As the fire was put down by the rain, the monster started roaring at them again. It lowered its body ready to charge at them. 

Ukaii signaled his soldiers to continue marching to take the prisoner cell, while his archers pointed at the team so that they couldn’t escape. The team turned back towards the monster.

With the situation so intense, Wuxi seemed to have forgotten about his nervousness. He looked up at clouds with thunders flashing and asked Jin. “Jin, do you think you can try to lead some lightning down to us?” 

Jin was thrown off by this question at first and then understood what Wuxi was trying to do. Jin gave Wuxi a firm nod. Then he sat down on the ground with his legs crossed.

The team all felt a weird feeling like electricity passing through. The rain seemed to have stopped around them all of a sudden. An invisible field was formed around Jin and the team and blocked the rain, while it was still pouring. Streaks of lightning started to merge closer to this bubble Jin created. Lyn and Anshu were all getting afraid. Anshu calmed down the horses.

The fire was completely out now. The monster started to charge at them at full speed. Its roar made everyone falter.

Jin stood still. As the lightning got to its strongest point, he walked in front of everyone and stood out of the field Jin created in the pouring rain. Then, he lifted his sword at the sky. A bolt of lightning hit his sword. The whole sword was lit up blue and charged with electricity. Wuxi held the sword with both of his hands as the lightning kept getting attached to his sword.

As the monster got right in front of Wuxi, he pointed the sword right at the monster’s head and the lightning channeled through the sword immediately. The monster fell head down heavily on the bridge in front of Wuxi, with his body scorched by lightning.

With a loud crash, the monster’s huge body collapsed the bridge. At this point, Wuxi cut the ropes connecting the horses and the prisoner, and yelled to everyone, “Run!”

Wuxi pushed the prisoner’s cell into the river below and also jumped in the river. 

When the cold water hit the Wuxi, he almost instantly lost consciousness. And then he realized that the metal cell was sinking. Wuxi quickly dived deep and held on to the cell as a strong current was overwhelming him.

Finally, he unlocked the cell door successfully. The prisoner was already unconscious. Wuxi pulled him out of the cell and kept both of them afloat. 

In the darkness, they didn’t know the river was taking both of them to the deep vortex…

…TO BE CONTINUED…

Note: I realized the story was longer than I expected and wasn't able to finish the rest for this week.