What in the Nine Hells, damned beast whatever curse, is going on?!

  The rooster kept staring with malevolence as the strand of Tribulation Lightning hit it almost gently, and its form began to change as the energy poured.

  Its height grew until it reached the boy’s chest, but the shape got leaner, losing some of its size in favour of maneuverability, only the legs thickening; it quickly shed most of its feathers, and as soon as it did, snake-like scales covered the soft skin. Its head lowered as the neck snapped down, pointing straight ahead, the beak enlarging and becoming pointed, ready to pierce anything in its path, like the lance of a jousting knight.

  If that wasn’t worrying enough, the last touch of the lightning had it emitting an aura that proved above what Heng could comfortably fight: right at the middle of the Qi Acclimation Stage.

  His pride was a bit hurt that the first monster he encountered was a rooster.

  It screeched the sound of a drawn blade, and just like one of those knights, it ran at the boy, beak first, aiming to spear him through. Fear for his life was more than enough to shake the confusion and annoyance off and dodge to the side. As he rolled on the ground, the creature stabbed the wall behind him with ease. In the second it took to free itself from that position, the boy didn’t hesitate to run away with eyes big as plates.

  A Spirit Beast! A damned Spirit Beast! In the city! With the Blue Moon! What are the Heavens doing now?! This is not how it works! This is not how it works at all!

  Right after he jumped over the fence, the beak pierced through it and grazed his arm, almost drawing blood. In that brief moment they touched each other, pain flared all over his body; it was the one he had lived with for so long, the progressive decay that had cursed him since the day he was born, in the worst form he had ever lived through.

  His bones felt like they were being burned from the inside, brittling down as all that remained was charcoal.

  His muscles were the opposite, as if freezing down into a thin layer of ice, refusing to move in fear of shattering.

  Every inch of his skin was stung by needles, hurting and itching to the point he had to resist the temptation of scraping it off.

  Not one organ was spared from melting down, turning to mush and then a disgusting paste.

  The only reason he didn’t fall on the ground in agony was the sheer desire to get as far away as possible from that monster and never feel anything like that ever again, without question for how or why the brief contact gave him such images. He sped away in the alley as he heard the wood break and the Spirit Beast chase after him, turning a sharp angle into a smaller one.

  This time, it ended up lodged in a wall of bricks.

  It took it barely any longer than earlier for it to start its pursuit once again, and from the outside it was no worse for wear. The boy, on the other hand, was tired from his earlier run already, and adrenaline could only push him so much before his Stamina ended. This time, his muscles burning was far, far from fun.

  Changing direction once again, he felt something graze his shirt, leaving a perfect cut, and something big and violent hit another wall.

  He wanted to call for help, but stopped himself: mortals would only be killed in a matter of seconds. Hiding proved pointless, too, as it kept finding and spearing through whatever refuge he found.

  The first thing he needed to do was gather more Stamina, that was for sure. If he had to give it a number, he would be at less than 20%, just enough for an empowered [Three Layers Defence]; he needed that safety net, no matter how easy it was to predict.

  To do that, he slowly switched from using Stamina to using Qi to run, stopping the natural flow from moving him. The first attempt had him almost die on the spot as his muscles simply did not know what to do with it. It took him a few minutes, and many bleeding holes and cuts, each of them forcing him to suffocate a scream from the immense pain, but he was managing to make it, mostly, by mixing the two.

  His foot found a rock, and he fell.

  The Spirit Beast didn’t waste time in dashing at impossible speeds and attacking where his head was just an instant earlier. The beak, more than a foot long, went most of the way into the ground, lodging itself there, and this time it was the boy who didn’t hesitate, showing no mercy as he gave the neck a powerful hook.

  Just die, damn big chicken!

  It was as thick as his leg, and his punch didn’t accomplish anything if not prove the hardness of the scales, the faintest noise coming from the inside.

  It was still stuck in the ground, but the malevolence it carried had it prioritising the kill, rather than freedom, as its talons sliced where the redhead’s own neck was supposed to be; the awkward position had it hit only his forearm, leaving three deep, red lines and a screaming boy who managed to run away.

  He was in pain and afraid, and at that point, someone must have woken up from the noise and destruction they were leaving in the city. The only thing that prevented the potential onlookers from being the next victim was that the duo sped through the alleys faster than anyone could get out of their homes. He fought off the pain from his many cuts and gashes he had all over his body, the drops of blood flowing out bringing out memories of his last loss.

  Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  At least, the sharp angles he kept taking were effective at buying him time to think.

  I don’t know what is going on, that I know. I don’t know how to take this thing down, that I also know. Damned beast. Is there anything that I have that can help here? Whar can I do?

  He was tough, and hard to kill, that he knew, and he could get even better with his Fighting Technique.

  His endurance was out of the norm, almost to the level of someone in the middle of his Stage, but not quite there.

  He was getting good at cultivating while doing other stuff, but it would be a challenge to focus in such a dangerous situation.

  He had once stood his ground against a move of Xie Shun thanks to an improvised move, who was much stronger than this overgrown, scaly, deadly tribulation rooster, but that was not a feat he knew how to replicate.

  My surroundings. I can use them, while it almost seems to see only me. But how?

  He still ran the familiar, maze-like path he had gone through earlier, making sure he didn’t lose that one advantage; the answer came to him when he had to grab a corner to turn around it fast enough not get skewered.

  Looking up, he finally found the right thing: a low window to latch onto that was in the path right in front of him, on the opposite side of a small square. When he got close enough, he jumped as high as he could, forcing more than a fifth of his Qi reserves in his push against the ground. This time, he had gotten high enough, and grabbed the edge at the base, tucking his legs in as the Spirit Beast pierced into the wall.

  He could feel the vibrations in his hands as cracks formed.

  Without wasting a second, he shoved himself off of it and fell right where he wanted: on top of the monster.

  The first impact was against the scales: for as much as it hurt him, the resounding crack he heard told how the monster was the one who took it the worst. For once, it didn’t come off of him.

  The second was his head with the ground, and only a quick [Three Layers Defence] spared him a concussion, or worse. With that, even counting the energy he had replenished, he was officially below 15%. His Qi was holding a bit better, but it was far from good conditions.

  His heart was noisy inside his ringing skull, but he made sure to take a good look at the monster’s state.

  There were chips in its narrow beak, which only served to show him how thick its bone was, but more importantly, the neck was slightly bent down right in the centre.

  The couple rose, staring at each other.

  Both were exhausted and in pain. Both had angry, bloodshot eyes. By then, the young man was fueled only by pride and anger; the beast by the inherent ruthlessness it was created with, a cruelty it brought even upon itself. Neither would back down.

  I’m going to kill this damned animal and make a banquet out of its corpse!

  His Cultivation Technique roared to life, and the world answered his call. He had a plan, and the skills to make it real, but something felt wrong. What he wanted to accomplish was not going to happen; the pieces refused to fit together. He wanted to replicate the move he had used to protect Xie Mo, stand his ground against a power far greater than his own. But he couldn’t, and if nothing changed, he was going to die.

  The same thunder that had hit the beasts earlier now coursed through its scales, leaving all of its body and concentrating on its now sharpening beak and thickening legs. The incoming rush would be like none other before, leave nothing alive; not its enemy, and not itself.

  Strength left its torso, thinned its wings, all that furious light focusing on taking one life. When there was no other part to draw from, it took away the scales, dulled the talons, and, at last, its eyes became once again those of a simple farm animal, rather than a furious force of nature. Those Heng stared at were the eyes of a simple, common, random rooster that had been in the wrong place at the wrong time; terrified, with no control over what was once its body.

  He would’ve laughed at that sight, had it not told him what was wrong.

  I’m not fighting some grandiose battle. There is no one behind my back to shield. I’m taking pleasure in ending the life of a mere… pet. Nothing here is its fault. It is not even evil. He looked up at the cloud covering the Moon. That is.

  The Spirit Beast, reduced to a husk of what it was, exploded forward.

  That was a Technique I made up to protect a kid in danger, of course I can’t force it to work when all I want is the opposite.

  As he saw the incoming monster speed up with each step, even when its hide tore and its whole being started to crumble down, all he noticed were the eyes: a scared animal in pain that wanted to run, sure, but run away.

  He couldn’t do anything to prevent its fate, there was no way he could save it.

  All his Qi moved, settled in his body from head to toe, making every inch of his skin tougher than marble, but no matter how hard he was, if he was just thrown away, the creature would still have to live with that pain.

  The very least I can do is free him, right?

  The pieces of the unnamed Technique snapped into place, and suddenly, he wasn’t just a boy anymore: he was a shield that wouldn’t crumble down, a wall that wouldn’t step back, a hero that wouldn’t budge.

  Every drop of Stamina was spent to make it true, leaving him barely enough to stand.

  The Spirit Beast reached him, its weapon pointed at the core of the readhead, ready to pierce his stomach and end his life; Qi and Stamina made the boy into an indestructible wall. The beak shattered on impact and the neck with it, and every untold promise was fulfilled. The boy stayed still, feeling the impact on his skin of what he refuse to call a monster as it was forced into one last desperate tremor; whether it was trying to stay alive, or trying to somehow attack, he didn't know and didn't care.

  it stilled, closing its eyes as it went limp. The beak was gone, skull fractured, the bones of its neck pressed into each other to the point than many of them had speared and fused into the next ones. After a moment of calm, the boy let himself fall back on the ground, and rested its head on his lap.

  Heng embraced what remained of the animal, even as the remaining energy of the Tribulation gave him pains that his nightmares had yet to conjure, and he lulled the poor rooster into its last sleep.

  ...

  …

  …

  When the first lightning struck his family’s manor, Chang Jian had smiled.

  It wasn’t directed at him, just like the next two wouldn’t be, but he could still find a challenge in them.

  Link to the video), the guy is genuinely a genious in his craft, super useful for anyone who wants to write... anything. Also, I hate how these spoiler boxes work on phone