The Sorceress: Blossoming Power

Before Xinyi went out from Skrider's space, the animals and the Hutyuns informed Nianshi of men gathering at the empty valley and darting toward them.

"Lord dragon, why are they coming here? Was our covering bad?" asked the Hutyuns.

"Pfft!" Nianshi tried to control the simmering laughter from spilling out as he replied, "Well, it's not that it was bad. It's just, all of you overdid it." And laughed his heart out while looking at the once empty hilltop turned into a pocket forest of tall ancient trees with vines hanging on branches and overgrown shrubs encircled in obvious circle formation around the hut.

The Hutyuns felt low for messing up. Instead of covering, they attracted attention instead. Well, Nianshi couldn't fault them since it was his mistake as the one in charge. Actually, his laughter was more to himself. He thought he was getting rusty and stupid for going inside the hut, instead of destroying it and hiding somewhere. He even allowed the Hutyuns to turn into this odd forest.

The legendary dragon took responsibility for his errors and changed his appearance into an eagle and flew out toward the sky alone. He didn't let the Hutyuns revert to the images Xinyi wanted them while she hadn't gotten out from the diary to get the 'unwelcome guests' attention to himself. He showed up this way to fool the men, but he knew the mounts could see his true form, but thought he could get away from it.

So, when the 'guests' insisted on their mounts to catch the ordinary eagle, the flying beasts wouldn't dare, but only stayed at a good distance from Nianshi. This intimidated their masters, but the leader understood his own mount's temperament well…

"Stop! That eagle is not really an eagle but a powerful being. Surround him from a good distance," said a gray-haired man adorned with a vest of fox's fur.

He readied his bow and pulled an arrow with a head made of blue and red stones. Nianshi saw the stones and recalled the day he was wounded with this arrow centuries ago and almost bled to death. As a result, his mind went in rage and roared as he transformed into a lion dragon that very moment.

The mounts moved away in haste to avoid the strong winds from his huge wings as he reverted to his true appearance. This caused the leader to lose balance and his aim... and the arrow fell from his hand to the forest below. But the leader was an experienced warrior and shouted, "Aim the Wag at the beast." So, each man lifted a hand with red bracelets.

With the stone's power attacking Nianshi, he didn't pounce as planned but never thought of standing still either. Instead, he shot up above him and the chase began again. He tried fleeing using his great might to fly higher and further from them but felt troubled later for the pursuers' distance was the same as they started. He knew this resulted from the blue stone.

Then Skrider spoke in his mind, "Don't fight them. Wait for a while. Your master is coming out very soon." Thus, Nianshi only went higher as he waited for Xinyi.

When she came out, Nianshi's heart lightened and stopped flying for a while then faced the men to give her time to sit still on his head but warned her at the same time.

"I'm glad your back, my lady, but hold on tight and get ready to fight... because they have Wag stones and my magic and physique are partly vulnerable with it. They also have an arrow that could penetrate my scales. But I can still maneuver around them or use my enormous body but we still need to be careful."

Xinyi never thought Nianshi had this type of weakness and also realized that these people could be those men Skrider warned her.

"Okay, but do you know them?" Xinyi asked as she observed the men and tried to find their strengths and weaknesses. This was one of Grandma Liu's teachings that she kept by heart during their mock games with the animals when she was younger then.

She saw they have swords on their waists. Aside from that, they also had other weapons, like hammer tied to a long chain, swords, bow and arrows, hooks in chains, spears, and others. All of them had blue stones, including their mounts, which meant, they had powers to fight against her. Looking at these weapons, no doubt they were capable of long-distance fights.

"No idea, my Lady but be careful. Use your Hutyuns and the animals to fight against them," Nianshi said as he flew in random to avoid any arrows in case the men would strike him.

Then a man with gray hair shouted, "Hey, Miss, stop your mount. Don't think you can get away by flying in circles. Listen, we have the power to catch you and your mount."

"Who are you?" asked Xinyi while her heart pounded in her chest like a galloping horse running away from an avalanche.