Maiden Of The Splitting Moon

2A Beast God was a Beast God after all, even with a hundred little mouths feasting on it, the amount of life force and power it had was immense. It was certainly weaker now but not enough that it could not fly.      0

"Damn!"     

Ao Qin thought quickly, trying to see if there was another way before Ruishi Lei spoke.      

"Aim for one of the wings, if it knows it will lose a wing, it will be forced to land!" said the White Lion.     

"Do it! I'll see if I can steer this beast back to the ground!"      

The dragon-kin backed him up before making his way towards the Devouring Goose's head. As the others started attacking the wings, he stood right on the back of the beast's neck. It was long and slender, with enough space for him to walk through but a wrong move still meant dropping out of the sky.      

Ao Qing couldn't help but look down from where he was, seeing the city below him. It was small, minuscule, about as big as his hand. The scattered clouds were right above them, passing by without so much as a care in the world.      

"Hah, I can't believe we'd be doing this", he muttered to himself.      

The dragon-kin then looked forward, straight at the head of the Devouring Goose. Taking a deep breath, he ran forward, sprinting across the goose's neck and reaching the head soon enough.      

Looking around, the head was large enough for him to move around with ease. However, that wasn't what he was focused on. Ao Qin's eyes flickered from the city to the top of the goose's head. At this moment, the Devouring Goose was flying away, going further and further from the city.      

"Alright, alright, how am I going to do this? I need to get this damn thing back to the city", he thought to himself.      

Going silent for a bit, Ao Qin's eyes lit up as turned around, staring at the point where the goose's head met its neck. Walking over to it, he raised his saber, pointing it straight down into that very spot. Closing his eyes, he steadied his breath, taking in the air slowly. His chest puffed out and went back with each breath, his aura slowly grew.      

There were audible cracks within his body as the red scales on his body quivered and began to grow thicker and larger. In fact, his entire body seemed to bulk up as the whiskers on his face became thicker and longer too.      

But that wasn't all, the most surprising thing was the fact that he had a pair of horns growing out of his head!      

Everyone who had been focused on breaking that wing suddenly stopped and looked in the direction of Ao Qin, feeling the intense power coming from his body.      

"He... What stage did he revert to? The third? The fourth?"      

"It might be the fifth..."     

"Wha- isn't that Partial-True Form? Has he been hiding his power this entire time?"     

Everyone murmured with each other, not expecting this from one of their own.      

"If he's going that far, then we can't let him just outshine us! We're reverting as far as we can and we're going to take this damned bird down!"     

One by one they reverted even further, going past Primal Instinct and they were met with shock.      

"This... Is this from eating the Devouring Goose's flesh? When was reverting so easy?"      

"I feel like I can go further!"     

"We can do it! We can kill this Beast God and with that..."     

"We can hunt the other ones..."     

They realized this, the efficacy of consuming this flesh was far more powerful than they had expected. And with that, the Devouring Goose's death was becoming inevitable. The Beast God felt it, one of its wings was growing weaker, making it harder to fly.      

But everything it tried couldn't rid its body of these pests.      

And there wasn't enough time for it to think of something else as it felt a searing pain right on the back of its neck. The source of it was Ao Qin and in his strengthened state, he was able to pierce through the flesh and right into the bone.      

"Hah, so this is what it feels like to be able to hold the Partial-True Form stably", he muttered.      

There was a bit of sweat on his head as he revealed a slightly pained smile.      

"It's still a bit difficult but much better than before. At least my body isn't trying to break itself apart like the last time."     

Gritting his teeth, he held tightly onto his saber which was stuck deep into the neck of the Devouring Goose. The beast whipped its head around in pain, making it much more difficult for everyone to stay on.      

It could no longer keep flying but instead jerked around and out of control, giving in to the pain.      

"Ack, come on! Get us back to the city!"     

Shouting out loud, Ao Qin jerked his saber around, forcing the Devouring Goose to turn and fly back to the city. But with it losing control over its wing, the beast couldn't quite fly. Rather, it had lost control, barreling straight towards the city.      

"Shit! Back to the city, not straight into it!"     

The dragon-kin looked forward, trying his best to steer the beast away but it was difficult controlling such a large body. Not to mention, he wasn't the only one riding the Devouring Goose. All of the other Seekers with him were clinging on for their lives as the Devouring Goose barreled through the sky, flying towards the ground.      

Gritting his teeth, Ao Qin pulled his saber to the side as far as he could, trying to drive the beast away.      

"Come on! Come on! Come on!"     

He kept shouting out, trying his best to avoid this devastating crash!     

They came closer and closer to the land,      

10,000 meters... 7,000... 5,000... 3,000... 1,000...     

The distance closed up in a matter of seconds and everyone braced for the impact.      

Those within the city watched from above as the Devouring Goose flew down, barely flying over their walls before crashing into the land right behind them. There was a loud boom followed by the crumbling of stone and dirt. The trees in its path were all but crushed as everything beneath the beast was killed.      

And the devastation it left behind was horrifying, it was a path of blood, both from the things it killed and from its own wounds.      

The Beast God's body barely moved as its breath was weak.      

There was silence before the city erupted in cheers. From the Seekers of Preservation and Expedition to the people that hid within its walls, they all cheered in joy because they knew that they had survived this trial.      

Ao Qin took his saber out and returned to his original form. He sat down before dropping and spread his whole body, groaning as he did so.      

"Uggghhhh, maybe I shouldn't have gone into the fifth form, my body is already beginning to ache."     

He continued to groan while laying on his back, looking up into the sky. After a bit, he raised up, wincing in pain before looking back at the city. A shadow loomed over him to which he turned to find Ruishi Lei standing beside him. The dragon-kin then turned back and gazed at his home as did the lion-kin.      

"We survived", he said.      

"Yes, we did", Ruishi Lei responded.      

Ao Qin looked back at the Devouring Goose.      

"Looks like everyone will be eating good. This might be a turning point for us, we might actually stand a chance at pushing back the Savage Lands."     

"Indeed, it doesn't seem like our losses were too great."     

"Yes, we can stand to gain a lot from this. Perhaps this was a blessing in disguise."     

"Perhaps, but for a beast horde and even a Beast God to come out. Something in the North must've forced them out, something stronger than all of them. Perhaps, it was a blessing... or a warning."      

Even after all of that, Ruishi Lei still looked towards the North,narrowing his eyes as he noticed something.     

"Why are the clouds black over there?"     

But just as he noticed it, something else caught the duo's attention.     

"Oh! Oh! Oh, thank the heavens, you two are alive!"      

A voice echoed out as a large figure ran towards them in glee. Ao Qin and even Ruishi Lei revealed surprised expressions.     

"Zhu Xie?!"     

"You survived?"