Maiden Of The Splitting Moon

On the other side, the trio that was the Fifth Sister, Fu Zi, and the Ninth and Tenth Brothers, Chen Liu and Chen Qiu, walked rather nonchalantly through the forest. They looked at the back of her, staring at the wrapped weapon that dwarfed her size.

"Say, Fifth Senior Sister, what sort of weapon do you use? To have it wrapped up seems a bit strange."

The Ninth Brother, Chen Liu commented as the curiosuty began to grow within him. The more he looked at it, the more he wanted to know what it was. But Fu Zi only giggled at his question. 

"Why do you want to know so badly, Chen Liu? You'll get to see it soon enough when we meet the Gold Tusk Elephander."

She spoke playfully, teasing him with her weapon. 

"I suppose so." 

He shrugged and instead began to converse with his brother, Chen Qiu. 

"You know brother, it doesn't seem quite as bad being here than at the Iron Citadel", he said. 

Chen Qiu snorted at this comment. 

"Pah, Iron Citadel? They're all such annoying people. Just because we're from the Tao Feng, they think they can look at us like trash. If I ever see that damned soldier again, I'll beat him to a pulp."

He raised his fist up into the air, clenching it tightly. 

"Stop it, Chen Qiu! The Commander had to come personally to stop your little quarrel. As if we didn't want anymore attention. Besides, I heard that soldier you fought... his body was found dead days later."

"What? Really? How strange?"

"Indeed, as far as I know, they had believed it to be you but you were drunk when you fought him. Furthermore, the way he died... it was messy. Ripped apart like some beast killed him."

"That's so... Wait a minute, weren't there more victims? Didn't they all end up like that? Should they have not searched for this beast?"

"They have been searching. Nearly doubled the patrols too but not a thing was found."

"How peculiar..." said Chen Qiu, "Fifth Senior Sister, what do you think?"

Fu Zi continued walking and didn't turn back, not showing her face but she shrugged. 

"I wouldn't know. I was too busy looking after my youth to bother. Perhaps it was a beast, perhaps it was a person. It doesn't really matter to us, does it?" she answered nonchalantly. 

"I suppose so but still, I would have liked to know", Chen Liu grumbled a bit, feeling dissatisfied

"Ah, you two brothers are the same, too curious for your own good. You should learn that some things aren't worth questioning."

She teased them once more before looking in a distance. 

"Look, over there. It's the Gold Tusk Elephander."

Getting closer, she pointed at a massive, hulking beast. The Gold Tusk Elephander that which had thick, stone-like skin and a long trunk, a Rank 5 beast.

Like its name, it had golden tusks, four of them and each one was sharp like lance. If one wasn't careful they could find themselves, gouged apart by the tusks. As it was the night, the creature was asleep, lying down on the ground under the trees. Despite that, it was massive, like a boulder it laid there undisturbed. 

"Get ready, you two. I won't be waiting for you."

Fu Zi grabbed the wrapped weapon on her back and unveiled it, revealing a bone white scythe, fitted with two blades large enough to cut a horse in half. But it seemed that it was not the weapon's true size for the blades extended outward as she swung it forward and leaped in. 

"Her weapon is... a scythe?" 

The two brothers were taken aback by its appearance. There was something off about the weapon as one of the features was a man's skull that attached the blades to the staff. It was a bit forboding, ominous even. As much death as these two brothers had seen, just looking at the scythe made them feel uncomfortable. 

They took out their weapons, a sword and a saber, and followed their senior sister to fight. 

The Gold Tusk Elephander didn't even seem to notice they were quickly approaching. It only continued on with its slumber as Fu Zi was the first to arrive. 

She leaped up and swung her scythe down. The eyes of skull glowed of a black light as the scythe came down. The two blades quivered and opened apart as fangs grew out, ready to cut the beast apart. 

"Devouring Fangs."

The blades clamped down, trying to pierce the Elephander's skin but went no further than a few centimeters.  Fu Zi only smiled at this as she willed the scythe even further into the flesh. Suddenly, red veins began to appear on the surface as the fangs seemed to suck the life out of the beast. 

It was then that the Gold Tusk Elephander awakened, rousing from its sleep in anger.  From its trunk, it released a furious trumpeting* as the golden tusks began to glow with sparks.

Lightning shot out from each of them, cracking about wildly as it all targeted the Fifth Senior Sister.  She tugged at the scythe and the blades stopped biting down, releasing the flesh as her small figure hopped away. 

One by one, golden lightning shot out, chasing after her as she moved from one side to another.

"Hee hee, are you going to be able to catch me?" she taunted at the beast, talking to it with a playful tone. 

In that moment, the two brothers jumped into action, throwing their blade at the beast.

"Six Petals of the Lotus!"

"Six Arms of the Asura!"

They formed hand symbols as the two weapons they launched forward mutliplied into six, making for twelve blades in total. 

With slight movements from their hands, the blades danced around the Gold Tusk Elephander, cutting away at its tough skin. If it were any other expert, they would've died by now, chopped into a thousand pieces. And with the beast focused on Fu Zi, it did not see where the blades came from and could not find where the brothers had gone. 

Awakened so suddenly and now unable to chase after the one that did it, the Elephander was enraged by it all.  It stopped moving and raised its trunk up into the night sky, releasing an ear- shattering scream.

"Oh no, retreat you two!"

Fu Zi suddenly realized what it was trying to do and called out to her juniors. 

All four of its tusks glowed brightly, illuminating the forest before the beast emitted a shockwave of lightning. The twelve swords and sabers were blown back as the multiples dissipated under the power of this attack. 

"Chen Qiu, run!"

Chen Liu was able to notice it beforehand and pulled his brother back. 

The trio retreated several hundred meters whereas the the area around the Elephander had turned to ash. As for the beast itself, its power did not dissipate. Lightning cracked from its tusks, blowing away the ashes as it hit the ground beneath the creature. 

After that attack, it began to walk forward, having noticed where they had gone. Each step was a heavy thump as the air was buzzing with energy. 

"Alright my little juniors, I hope that your weapons aren't useless already."

Fu Zi spun her scythe once more as the skull atop it glowed with an even strong darkness. The two fanged blades trembled as if hungry for more, The red veins it once had seemed to have been sucked dry. 

"Of course not, Fifth Senior Sister!"

The two brother's spoke in unison as they dashed forward, forming more hand symbols and summoning their weapons once more. The sword and saber hummed and floated up, flying back to their hands as they swung out together. 

As for the Fifth Sister, she looked at them before staring at the beast.. She smile at it, a playful smile but also carried a bit of viciousness to it, as if it was her next meal.