Chapter 25 - Heaven's Judgement
North-East Zone.
Sara Desert. The biggest desert of this zone.
There have been many dangerous beasts sighting reports before. So it was sure to be inhabited by many different kinds of strong beasts.
Till now no one had inspected the whole desert. Neither was there a need to before.
It was already night time and the desert was extremely cold.
This was one of the characteristics of the Sara desert.
It would be extremely hot during the day, the temperature would be reaching in the 50s of the degree Celsius. While during the night time it would drop by whole 60 degrees straight, in a span of half a day.
That is freezing temperature.
Zhao Luo and his two companions could be seen running in the desert. He was going to the Xin Mountain Range being led by the two disciples of the Xin Sect, Rose and Si Chen.
All three were wearing purple robes of the Xin Sect which had a built-in cold resistance system because of the thread used to make the cloth of the robe.
It had already been an hour since they left the Dread forest but there was still a long way left to reach the Xin Range.
'They have been so silent all this time.'
Zhao Luo thought.
'Should I start a conversation?'
He was thinking of talking to Rose or Si Chen but then he thought about how he had nothing much to talk about.
He who loved a boring life before being put to sleep for so long couldn't talk to them about the training he did in his mind or the Godly master he had met who taught him about Godhood.
'I will just stay quiet.'
Zhao Luo decided to let the silence continue.
He was more interested in the robe he was wearing.
It felt so light as if he was running naked. That was how light it was.
It was super comfortable to run in them. Plus they were cold resistant too.
He was thinking of asking it from Si Chen forever.
But Zhao Luo didn't know that he could just get a new one for himself if he can join the Xin Sect.
"ROOOO~sniff~AAAAR."
While Zhao Luo was thinking about the robe, they heard a roar.
It was so loud that it made them stop in their tracks.
"A crying beast?"
Zhao Luo questioned after hearing the cry.
"Sand Lion to be exact."
Si Chen answered to clarify the origin of the sound they had heard.
"Arm Yourself"
Rose said in a commanding tone.
Si Chen and Rose both pulled out their swords and pointed them forward.
Zhao Luo was looking at them and thought about the old man.
'He should have at least given me a sword.'
'Sigh Careless Old man.'
Rose looked at the troubled Zhao Luo and comforted him.
"Don't worry, you won't have to fight."
"Yeah, just sit back and watch me. I will take care of them."
Si Chen also boosted.
"Rooooooaaaar"
Dust was being raised far away from the trio and sounds of Sand Lion cries could be heard.
The roars got louder as the dust cloud kept on getting closer.
It came to the point that they could see the number of Sand Lions coming their way.
There were easily more than twenty Sand Lions.
All of them bigger than the ones that Rose and Si Chen had defeated before.
The one leading the Lion Hoard was massive. It was around 10 ft tall and as massive as an elephant.
Its fangs were bigger than the sword of Si Chen and its claws were sharper than their swords.
"Are you sure that I won't have to fight?"
Zhao Luo asked them.
He looked at Si Chen and Rose. Both of them had trembling hands but they did their best to not show their fear.
As the person who falls to his fear will never be able to defeat it.
Even Zhao Luo was a little scared but this feeling was diminishing as an unknown strength was rising in his body.
His wrist was getting hotter and hotter. He looked at his right arm's wrist and noticed a shining book outline.
He knew that it was Heaven's Tomb.
He was bringing his left hand closer to the book-shaped tattoo on his wrist to touch it just when Si Chen pulled out a short sword from his storage ring.
Si Chen already had a sword in his hand that he had taken out from his scabbard. But now he had pulled out another one from his storage ring.
'Impressive.'
Zhao Luo was impressed as he thought about how he was going to see a twin sword style from this guy.
'This may be my chance to learn sword fighting.'
Zhao Luo thought.
He decided to keep his focus on Si Chen so he could learn something from him.
That is when Si Chen turned around having his back towards the closing dust cloud.
He was looking directly at Zhao Luo.
"Hmmm"
Zhao Luo felt weird for a second.
Instead of preparing for the attack, Si Chen was looking at him.
Then Si Chen forcefully passed the sword that he had taken out of his storage ring to Zhao Luo.
Zhao Luo was holding the sword that Si Chen had given to him.
"It looks like you will have to help too."
Si Chen didn't have the confidence to face five of them with Rose but now there were more than twenty coming at them, all at once. So he thought that even if Zhao Luo couldn't kill one he could at least keep a few of them occupied without dying.
'And if he died? May he rest in pieces.'
There has been a case before where the sand lions ambushed a disciple of their sect, who was left in pieces.
With some of the pieces nowhere to be found. The pieces that weren't found would be acting as fertilizers now.
Si Chen thought about Zhao Luo ending up in that state.
He felt a little sad but he couldn't help it.
Zhao Luo didn't care much. He had a thing he could use against them.
It's better than fighting barehand.
'I just have to swing it at them.'
Zhao Luo thought.
The sand lion had already closed in on them.
"Stay close to me."
Rose warned Zhao Luo.
Just like before Si Chen went towards the weakest-looking sand lion and attacked it at once but this time he didn't say out his attack name as he didn't want to get the attention of the other lions.
'Clang'
The sword of Si Chen collided against the claws of the Sand Lion and sparks flew everywhere.
All the other sand lions had stopped as they were ordered to by their 10 ft tall sand lion leader.
Zhao Luo and Rose hadn't moved either. They were still waiting for the other beasts to move.
They were already outnumbered by the sand lions so they couldn't make the mistake of attacking them first.
Si Chen attacked first because he knew Rose could cover for him but if all of them attacked then who would cover them.
"Ahhhhh"
Si Chen screamed and brought down his sword with more of his power.
The claws of the sand lion were sliced through and the sword landed on its body. Instantly bringing the death decree on the sand lion.
"Don't underestimate me."
Si Chen screamed because while he was fighting this sand lion the leader of the hoard didn't send any other to help the sand lion he was fighting against.
He was thinking of bringing down three of them at once but what a shame.
Seeing as how Si Chen easily killed the sand lion Zhao Luo and Rose also went forward.
They joined Si Chen and the leader of the hoard sent 12 of its beats towards them.
"Roaaaar"
The lions were divided into a group of four and each group attacked Zhao Luo, Rose, and Si Chen.
Si Chen was barely able to fight the four of them at once. He didn't worry about Rose as he knew she was more powerful than him.
And as he had thought, Rose could easily manage the four lions and in a matter of seconds, she had already killed one of them.
'What? How?'
Si Chen thought as he glanced at Zhao Luo's situation.
He was a little worried about him so he peeked at him but the scene left him in shock.
The four sand lions were already dead. Each was cut in a clean half.
'But it's only been a few seconds since they attacked us.'
Si Chen thought but then he concentrated on the lions in front of him as it was getting harder to fight the four of them with his focus being somewhere else.
A few seconds ago.
The four sand lions leaped at Zhao Luo.
'They look too serious. What attack should I use?' Zhao Luo thought while the sand lions were circling him.
The sand lions stopped around Zhao Luo and tried to attack him from four sides.
Right when he was thinking about how to deal with this, he thought of his favorite game character and how the character would spin with his sword to kill his enemies.
With the sword in his hand, under this night's moon, Zhao Luo tightened his grip on the sword.
He pushed one of his legs on the sand of the desert and gave his body a powerful spin.
With the power flowing in him through the Heaven's Tomb, he was unstoppable.
"Heaven's Judgement"
Zhao Luo called out the name of his attack.
One spin from Zhao Luo, the sword slashed through all the sand lions in an instant.
The spin was so fast that the beasts couldn't even bring their claws in the way of Zhao Luo's sword.
The four sand lions, slashed in half fell to the ground, dead.
It all happened so fast that in the time taken by Rose to kill one of them Zhao Luo had killed four.
Zhao Luo noticed that Si Chen was having a hard time so he jumped towards him.
"Heaven's slash"
From behind the sand lions surrounding Si Chen, came Zhao Luo, and with a single yet powerful slash, he killed a sand lion in a single movement.
From there it only took them 10 seconds to kill the 12 sand lions that the hoard leader had sent towards them.
Rose was also looking at the dead bodies of the 4 sand lions that had attacked Zhao Luo.
She was feeling astonished.
'He may be as strong as a '|V' mark disciple.'
Rose deduced the strength displayed by Zhao Luo.