Molting the Mortal Coil

As the Emerald Dragonfly sped away, Sage was finally starting to relax. They were a few hundred feet away from the Solarium and he figured they were safe now. The Dragonfly had darted down below the treeline to try and hide its presence. Sage had rapidly raised and matured the Dragonfly from an egg in just a couple minutes. The Dragonfly was far weaker than its current rank would suggest and it had only a very small energy reserve. He had rushed the process of growth and maturing, as well as not taking the extra time to refill the Dragonfly’s own energy before they raced off at full speed.

Once he felt they were safe, Sage doubled the distance from the Solarium before letting the Dragonfly return to the ground to rest. Still worried, Sage used spirit stones to recover the Dragonfly’s energy. At the same time he used a few of the stones on himself, having spent everything he had to get the Dragonfly to full size as quickly as possible earlier.

Snap!

The sound of a twig breaking suddenly drew Sage’s attention. Jumping up from where he was seated and looking around for the source. He hadn’t planned to stay here long so his normal preparations weren’t taken. There were no formations or alarm crickets to warn him of danger. Having just escaped from battle this was his most vulnerable moment. The bushes around the small clearing they had landed in all started to rustle. Just as Sage seemed to take notice more and more branches and twigs snapped, leaves fell to the ground and a commotion arose around them. Sage was about to quickly enter the space in the Dragonfly and escape only to see things suddenly go dark.

Thick vines had extended over the clearing they were in, weaving together and rapidly creating shade. The clearing went from bright daylight to dim shade in an instant. They had extended rapidly while he was examining the motion in the bushes around him. Damn, I didn’t act fast enough.

As he cursed his late reaction the bushes around the clearing shook and emitted more vines. The number of leaves on them were much reduced from the ones on the canopy, letting them move quicker and slide through the underbrush easier. It was like hundreds of immeasurably long green snakes had suddenly slithered into the clearing. Sage quickly ran through his options and started to draw in a deep breath, condensing it in his lungs with Qi. Preparing to use his Divine Breath again, Sage stopped when a commotion came from behind him.

Quickly spinning around, he was rewarded with the sight of dozens of vines getting severed and a hole in the vine canopy was formed. Bladed forearms slashed through more and more Vines as Sage realized it was the Chameleon Mantis! Sage entered the Emerald Dragonfly and had it rapidly fly through the opening that the Mantis had created. Spinning webbing and rolling over as it flew through the gap, helping to hold the gap open for the Mantis to use. The Dragonfly passing out of the encirclement with the Mantis right behind it. Wow! The most unreliable partner became the most reliable one in the end!

Having already been chased once, Sage led them down towards a rushing river. Exiting the Dragonfly and storing both of the Spirit Insects. Putting them both into the Beast Bag before sliding down into the water. A big river like this was bound to carry some dangers, but it would be much harder for that Demonic Plant to track him. Slithering in, Sage swam rapidly, undulating along with the current and moving quickly. His physique was far stronger than before he had merged with the Twin Ringed Soul Serpent and he could hold his breath for nearly twenty minutes now even while doing strenuous exercise. Thankfully, this time he truly did escape from the Demonic Plant. He wasn’t sure if it was because he hid in the river or he’d just left the area that the Plant could reach. From the way it had confined itself to the Solarium, Sage’s guess was it had a limited range and had to stay nearby something important in the area.

Either way, he’d escaped. Traveling the river he was able to catch a few fish and didn’t run into any predators. There had been a couple bears on the shore, but they were merely Spirit Animals and didn’t bother to wade into deep water to chase after him as he passed by rapidly. After some time the river wound its way between two canyon walls and Sage heard the echo of some voices. He couldn’t make out what they were saying, but as he progressed further into the canyon it got louder.

His whole body was hidden beneath the surface of the water, only peeking out the top of his scaled head far enough to have his nose and ears clear the surface. While he might still have the coloration of tanned skin, a closer look would reveal he was completely hairless and covered in scales, not skin. He also had an oddly shaped skull and a flat nose not to mention how obvious his lack of legs would be if he exited the water.

“Now that this Grandfather is here, hand over the Lamp of Passion and I’ll let you brats live.”

Sage heard a single voice echo down the canyon and realized the ones having a conversation were above him. He was in a narrow canyon with steep sides nearly fifty feet high. If he could climb up these rocks he could get a good look at what was going on above. Heh, who needs to climb!

With a thought, he drew out the Emerald Dragonfly. He had put it in his Beast Bag earlier so he’d be ready to merge with something else while he was still underwater, but he hadn’t needed to. Transferring into the internal space of the Dragonfly, he had it carry him up and out of the canyon, but only after first taking a further trip down the river so he wasn’t noticed by the ones talking above. The Dragonfly was actually pretty conspicuous so Sage dropped out of it a few hundred feet away from the people and slithered his way closer. At the same time he released a neon blue gas from his body, having mastered the Cerulean Cloud technique during his year of training. While it couldn’t hide him from the normal senses it protected him from Spirit Sense, something that all high level Cultivators relied upon just as much as their vision and hearing. He wasn’t sure what rank these guys were, but better to be safe. Getting closer he heard that same voice from earlier, one that definitely wasn’t an old man. It sounded more like an arrogant and stuck up youth.

“Since you’ve already refused my kind offer a few times, this Grandfather is running out of patience! Now you have to give me the Lamp of Passion, all of your Spirit Stones, and also kneel down and apologize for wasting my time. You wretches better hurry up while I’m still being lenient.”

Sage slithered a bit closer in time to see that it was two groups in confrontation. The first was a group of three teenagers in matching uniforms. A male of about seventeen, a younger boy looking around fourteen, and a fifteen or sixteen year old girl. Sage was surprised to see such young people running around in the wilderness. Across from them was a group of seven, all of them looking like sixteen to eighteen year old hooligans, burly and mean with leering looks on their faces and standing behind a fourteen year old boy. This boy was the ‘grandfather’ that kept making ridiculous demands and it seemed he had a team of goons that gave him such bravery.