Chapter 188: A Mad Scramble to Survive

“Come now,” The Masked Woman said. “You have a sword. Are you at least going to put up a fight?”

Zen could feel the overflowing confidence and amusement in her voice. He gritted his teeth behind his mask and lunged at her, angling the point of the blade to her. He rolled on the ground, past her as she attempted to hiy him. He grabbed Shibi and sprinted away taking a corner.

His breathing was panicked as he rushed through the alleyways with an unconscious Shibi on his shoulder. He turned multiple times onto the different paths of the alleyways. He was sure he could lose the Masked Woman in alleyways. To anyone unfamiliar with the city, the alleyways were basically a maze!

“Shibi!” he said breathlessly as he ran. “Shibi, wake up!”

A figure appeared before him, wearing white. Zen instinctively swung his blade and the Masked Woman leapt back, just out of the range of the sharp edge of the short sword. Her leg shot out, the underside of her foot catching Zen on his jaw and sending him stumbling back.

He caught him self and turned tail and ran. The Masked Woman easily outpaced him and slid in front of him. The woman kicked him in the knee, sending him buckling to the ground but he rolled out of the way before she could hurt him any further, while carefully cradling Shibi’s body.

He tried to run again but she was catching up. He abruptly stopped, crossing her up while he continued to the opposite direction. Zen zig zagged up the building landing on the roof before taking off.

The Masked Woman sailed over him, her figure casting a quick shadow over him as she passed over the full moon. She landed in his path and h diverted to another direction. He dropped off into the alley and kicked off the wall, shooting into an adjacent alleyway before running. He kept running, taking turns to throw the Masked Woman off. At this point, even Zen did not know where he was.

“Zen.”

“Oh, Shibi, you’re up.” Zen said, his heart slowing down by a microsecond. “Good!”

Shibi hopped onto his shoulder.

“I don’t know what’s going on, Shibi.” He said. “My power level and ki is fully hidden by my mask and I’ve taken such a complex path through the alleyway, that even I’m lost. But she keeps finding me!”

He continued taking corners until he suddenly exited the alleyway. He slid to a stop, sldiing onto his butt as two Enforcers looked at him in surprise. He scrambled to turn around and dive back into the network of alleyways.

“Hey you, stop!” one of the Enforcers said as they both gave chase.

Zen ran through the alleyway maze, losing the enforcers but he knew they were still around, hunting him. He continued going on, until Shibi hopped off his shoulder.

“Shibi?” Zen said in confusion as he slid to a hault. “Come back!” he chased after the ape. He took a corner and stopped.

Shibi had also stopped and was staring at a creature, shrouded in shadow. The creature walked out of the darkness and Zen’s eyes widened when he saw what it was. It was a Grey Stalker!

The first Grey Stalker Zen ever met was Sir Drools-A-Lot. But this Grey Stalker was not like the old Sir Drools-A-Lot. This Grey Stalker was younger, it had lean taught muscles instead of flabby skin and a young eager, if not dangerous look in its silver eyes instead.

“Silver eyes,” Zen whispered. “This is how she is doing it. This is how she is tracking me.”

“Kill him!” Shibi said.

“Yes,” Zen said, the moonlight glinting on his sword.

He and Shibi dashed forward preparing to kill the Grey Stalker when a stream of needles impacted between them and the Grey Stalker, forcing both to leap away. The Masked Woman stopped beside the Grey Stalker.

“Naughty brat,” the Masked Woman said. “Can’t have you killing my beast.”

Zen narrowed his eyes at the pair of master and beast. If he was ever going to escape and get to his father’s funeral, Zen knew he would need to kill the Grey Stalker. Zen held out his arm and Shibi ran up his arm to his shoulder.

He took a deep breath then charged forward. In a quick move, he tossed his short sword as if it were a spear, its point heading for the Grey Stalker. The hounds teeth shone creamy white with ki as it caught the blade in its jaw and threw it away.

Zen was about to collide with the Masked Woman.

“Shibi, kill the stalker!” Zen said.

Shibo leapt over the Masked Woman as Zen engaged her. They exchanged punches and kicks, Zen feeling like he was barely keeping her at bay. She caught him in the leg, sending him to his knee. He leg snapped up to deliver an axe kick but Zen dashed forward, dodging the axe kick ad getting behind her.

He tried a spinning kick but midway through the manoeuvre, the Masked Woman proved to be too fast and kicked him away. He rolled on the floor and recovered onto his feet, not focusing on the Masked Woman but instead on Shibi and his battle with the Grey Stalker.

Shibi threw a flaming fist at the hound, which used a ki technique to dodge the blow. The hound’s paw grew ki claws and tried to rake them across Shibi who nimbly twisted out of the way. Zen charged for the hound but was kicked away when the Masked Woman used her superior speed to intercept him.

He tumbled along the ground.

Shibi gathered elemental fire and sent out a stream of fire at the Masked Woman and the Grey Stalker.

The Masked Woman met the the fire head on, parting the stream of fire and somehow, intensifying the parted stream of flames. Shibi was shocked when the Masked Woman kicked Shibi away.

“No!” Zen caught the ape.

The Masked Woman gathered ki above her palm. Zen charged at her before she could finish forming the Needle Sphere. To his surprise, she only formed 3 needles and shot them at him. Zen twisted his body to dodge the needles but one struck him in the leg, paralysing him before he was kneed in the stomach then have the side of his face slammed against the wall.

Zen tried to retaliate but she side stepped him and kicked him the ribs, making him cry out in pain. He tried to crawl away from her as she held her hand out, forming a ki Needle Sphere. “I told you, Wang Zen, you will never survive.”

“Shibi? Shibi!” Zen called out.

Shibi opened his eyes.

“Let them know,” he said. “Let them know we’re here!”

Shibi got up and his body began glowing as he gathered his energy. Shibi let out a screeching cry, a plume of massive fire rising from his body and lighting up the night sky. The Masked Woman held up her hands to ward of the ember light, while the hound shut its eyes and moaned. The fire died down and the Masked Woman looked around, only to see that Zen and Shibi were gone.

There were sounds of bells and yelling as the enforcers zeroed in on their position.

“Cowardly brat,” The Masked Woman said before taking out a scroll and unfurling it. The Grey Stalker vanished in yellow light. “This, is not over.” She said before ran away from the alleyway.

Zen got up and also ran away before the enforcers arrived on their position.

Zen walked into the academy, heading for the medical center. He got a bandage and walked to the library. He picked up a bestiary tome and as he read he, wrapped the bandage around the bleeding hole in his leg.

He flipped the book to the part about Grey Stalkers.

“Grey Stalkers are sub-rare canines with the third strongest sense of smell amongst beasts…” he mouthed the words as he continued to read.

Moon made its way across the night sky before it fell into the horizon. With each passing minute more tomes and scrolls were added to Zen’s table. Shibi had decided to sleep on the table beside him.

As Zen read, he could hear quiet voices behind him.

“See?”

“I can’t believe he is still here.”

“Look, he’s hurt.”

Zen frowned in confusion before looking back. There he saw his twin cousins and Xue Shaonu.

Zen sat with the Jao twins and Xue Shaonu. Jao Cong was reading the books while the girls more actively particapted in the conversation.

“Wang Zen, you need to accept our help,” Jao Fuu said. “Whoever this assassin is, he is more than you can handle.”

“She.”

“What?”

“The assassin is a woman,” Zen explained.

“And she has a Grey Stalker,” Jao Cong added.

Zen looked at him in confusion. “How did you know?”

“The books and the scrolls you’re reading either are about or mentions them.”

“She’s tracking you by smell,” he said. “That’s bad.”

“See?” Jao Fuu said. “Admit it, you need our help.”

“You don’t understand, there’s a reason I’m keeping everyone out of this.” Zen said. “This assassin… she’s nothing like I’ve seen before. She’s faster and more cunning than anyone I’ve met. Her hand to hand combat skills are above most people I know, including everyone in this table and she has the most deadliest ki technique I’ve ever seen.

“If we take her on, its guaranteed that at least one of us will die. And I…” he clenched his hands into fists, his fingernails digging onto his palms. Tears began welling in his eyes but he kept them at bay even though his voice trembled. “I don’t want to lose anyone else.”

He felt a soft hand over his fist, it was like gentle water of calm and love washing away all his feelings of fear and anxiety. He looked up into the eyes of Xue Shaonu.

“You have it backwards, Wang Zen.” She said softly. “Alone, you are guaranteed to die but together, we can beat her. Let us help.”

Zen hesitated then nodded.

“Good,” Jao Fuu said before turning to her brother. “Brother, lets come up with a plan.”