Murim Recurve

Chapter 5 - The Fall

Air and water droplets hit her as she fell along with the three-headed beast. Once it started to rain, the grey sand world she perceived also disappeared, replaced with absolute darkness. She was blind once again, unable to see anything that happened around her.

Her survival hung on a balance between life and death, the result entirely dependent on the three-headed beast. The sounds of wind were all that filled her ears, preventing her from hearing anything else. The three-headed beast continued to fall, making an arc parallel to the steep slope.

Whenever its body approached close to the steep slope, it would materialise an air foothold underneath and kick it to move farther. Though, the efficiency of the air foothold was only a fraction as compared to before, weakened by the change in the environment.

The cow head fully focused on its descent while the goat head swerved its head to the left, watching numerous Punous arrive at the edge of the cliff and growl in anger, glaring at them. Some of them poised themselves in their direction, condensing blue radiance before their mouths.

The blue radiance formed a spherical vortex, with the front elongating to form a cone, spanning a human hand's length and a palm's breadth. Without a second's pause, they launched the cones towards the three-headed beast. It was their breath attack.

The goat head had been observing their actions from the start. A fraction before they shot their breath attacks, the three-headed beast had condensed a foothold below it, slamming at it with its hooves as it moved away, watching the attacks zoom past in vain.

Seeing their failed attacks, the Punous condensed their breath attacks once again, growling in anger as the three-headed beast went farther and farther. Suddenly, a couple of Punous were pushed aside as a Punou twice larger than the rest arrived, condensing a massive cone before its mouth.

Moreover, unlike the breath attacks of others, the cone it launched absorbed the falling rain along its way, becoming bigger and bigger, turning more deadly. The three-headed beast had already moved away like before when it noticed the massive cone arrive.

It had become half as big as the three-headed beast, containing imposing momentum. It was too late to evade, the cone's larger size and the reduction in the efficacy of its air footholds prevented it from fully dodging it.

The three-headed beast condensed a pair of footholds underneath the hooves of its hind legs. It used the momentum in its fall to crane its hind legs, storing as much power as possible within them before the air footholds collapsed.

Using the stored power, the three-headed beast kicked back with its hind legs, slamming at the water cone, the force spilling out the water within. But, the impact destroyed its legs and sent the three-headed beast flying away, its body spinning in the air uncontrollably as a result.

"Kyah!" Re'Kha screamed as the generated centrifugal force sent her reeling away from the three-headed beast. She gasped for breath, fear gripping her mind as she felt the movement of air around her. Her body spun, free-falling as it made a larger arc while heading towards the ground. The feeling of death enveloped her, plunging her into despair.

All she could feel was the flight of her body, unable to determine where she was heading to or the state she might end up at the end.

'It hasn't even been long since my promise but I'm going to fail my master already?' This was the sole thought echoing in her mind, her emotions turning placid as she prepared herself for her fate—of slamming into the ground and exiting the world through a splotch of blood.

The three-headed beast couldn't gather its bearings, the heavy rain further hindered it. Using its two points of view, it hurriedly perceived its state of fall as the two heads positioned themselves before shooting forth blasts of air from their mouths.

The force generated from the wind blasts negated its spin instantly, aligning it along its previous path. The goat head dissolved and seeped into its body as the three-headed beast regrew its hindlegs, gazing forward to notice the position of the falling Re'Kha.

It kicked with its hooves, uncaring about the expenditure of energy as it rushed forward, creating air footholds without rest. The ground was nearing with each passing moment, the three-headed beast was in a hurry, still a fair distance away from Re'Kha.

Its body decreased in size as the foothold it created turned solid, allowing it to propel itself forward by a large distance. It mooed, showcasing its arrival as it approached Re'Kha. Hearing the shout from proximity, Re'Kha grasped the chance at life, craning her right hand towards the direction of the sound.

They timely coordinated; she grabbed its horn as the three-headed beast jerked its head, the created centripetal force pulling at her in a certain angle that planted her on its back accurately. The moment it did so did the three-headed beast create footholds under its forelegs, reducing its body's angle with respect to the ground.

It curved its descent forward, trying to reduce its momentum as much as possible. Still, they were falling too fast, about to crash into the ground with enough momentum to kill them. The air footholds shattered too quickly to result in a satisfactory effect.

The three-headed beast shrank further, generating tougher air footholds that it used to hack at its descent velocity.

"Mooo!" The three-headed beast mooed, prompting Re'Kha to grab tighter. It exerted the last of its energy to create a curved foothold, akin to a slide that it slid on when it approached the ground, transferring most of its vertical momentum into the horizontal direction.

The speed sent it skidding forward, its hooves slamming into the ground as they made a large trail, breaking in the process. It aligned its body against the momentum, trying its best to preserve the condition of Re'Kha as much as possible, cushioning her using its body.

It dissolved part of the energy makeup in its back, softening it to act as a cushion for Re'Kha as the three-headed beast slammed into the ground, dragging its body halfway into the dirt, creating a trench along its way.

After creating a long trail through the ground, it slammed into a rock, throwing off Re'Kha. Thankfully, it had negated most of its momentum, causing Re'Kha only to be thrown a hand's distance away. She fell on the ground and rolled a couple of times before stopping, coughing as she got up.

"Koff…Koff…" She spit the mud and grass that had entered her mouth and panted heavily, tumbling to the ground the moment she stood up. She grabbed hold of a nearby rock and poised herself up against a tree, feeling pain all over her body. An intense smell of blood wafted to her nose, despite the rain continuing to fall unabated.

"Am I going to die here?" She muttered helplessly.