Lu Na didn’t have the same confidence that Sun Ren had, but she knew one thing was certain. Nugua was pivotal to saving her friends, as she was the most powerful asset she had. But since she’s having trouble fighting the summoners, it was up to Lu Na to assist her.

  When Lu Na walked back toward the general’s tent, the situation was different. Nugua was still fighting, but this time many of the summoners had run to the north side to fight off the spirit horde that Lu Na’s invention summoned. Even from this distance, Lu Na could see the mini-city was having trouble holding them off.

  “Please let the sins pass,” Lu Na said to herself.

  “Hmm?” Baihu stood next to her, staring at the same battle unfold.

  “Nothing. I’m just thinking about my karma. Anyway, do you think your fox pup can bring my devices into their leader’s general area?”

  Baihu nodded. She closed her eyes, clenching her left fist, before a small fox pup appeared at her feet. She lost another tail behind her, bringing her down to four. She stumbled a bit before sitting down.

  “Listen to her, my child,” Baihu told the fox pup.

  The white fox pup whined at Baihu before nodding. It turned to look at Lu Na.

  Hearing Nugua’s shriek was all that kept her focused. Otherwise, she would have picked up the pup and squeezed it. Not only was it cute, but she needed something to hold and comfort her.

  Lu Na stooped and placed five light wards on the pup’s body. Then she took out a firecracker and placed it in the pup’s mouth.

  “Okay, this is the hard part. I need you to get close enough to them and shake all these wards off of you. When you do, throw the firecracker at them. When it goes off, it will make a blinding light, so be sure to hide when that happens. Do you think you can do that?”

  The fox pup nodded.

  Lu Na took out her fire stick and blew on it until it came back to life. She lit the firecracker.

  Then the fox pup ran like the wind toward the leader’s tent. It kept its head down as it snaked its way through the mini-city.

  “What do we do now?” Baihu asked.

  “You do nothing. I’m going to save my friends.” Lu Na tugged her null metal bracelet tight onto her wrist. She took out a spirit wall ward and activated it onto herself, creating a spirit skin. Then she took out the broken slingshot. It would not do much, but Lu Na repaired it enough so that a wave of the slingshot would shoot out tiger claws.

  “Good luck. If you don’t make it back, I will bury your body,” Baihu said.

  “Thank you.”

  Lu Na sprinted toward the leader’s tent where Sun Ren and Hen Li still kneeled. The first thing she had to do was help Nugua. When Lu Na got closer, she saw Nugua had sustained a few injuries, mostly across her arms and side.

  Lu Na marveled at her fighting spirit as she looked like a feral animal, using her tail and claws against the very spirits that attacked her. None of the summoners or soldiers dared approach.

  It was time to even up the fight.

  Lu Na snapped her slingshot at two of the spirits in quick succession. She used it at full power, causing the string to snap again. It didn’t matter. She put it away into her chest pocket before she ran away.

  The other summoners noticed and sent the soldiers to chase after Lu Na.

  That was their mistake. Lu Na turned around, clenched her left fist, and punched out. Tiger claws crashed into the soldiers, knocking them back or shredding their armor. That was enough to force them back.

  Lu Na ran around and faced the three spirits that broke from Nugua to attack her. One of them threw a wood technique at her.

  Lu Na raised an earth wall from the ground by flicking her wrist to the left. She stepped aside and punched at the spirits. Two tiger claws ripped through one spirit while it pushed the other two back.

  Next, Lu Na focused for a moment, thinking about what she wanted to do. She kept running while raising an earth wall to her right, creating a divider between her and the other spirits and summoners. She kept raising the walls until she reached Nugua.

  When Nugua saw her, she almost bit Lu Na’s head off. She opened her mouth and her fangs dripped with blood.

  “Wait, it’s me,” Lu Na said.

  Nugua looked at the earth wall being raised up and waved her hand. It looked like she was pushing the wall down. Instead, the wall broke up into large chunks and flew at the enemy spirits and summoners.

  “We have to run,” Nugua said.

  “Not yet. I have another surprise.” Lu Na raised another earth wall in front of them just in time.

  A loud bang sounded behind the wall and the entire labyrinth lit up in a bright white light. Anyone staring at it would have been blinded.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  Lu Na released her left fist and shook it out. Her bracelet was burning.

  “Cover me while I free Sun Ren and Hen Li.” Lu Na didn’t wait for a response before running toward the pair. She had to shield her eyes as the source of light was very close by. Her light ward would keep shining until someone turned it off.

  Sun Ren and Hen Li were both writhing on the floor. Lu Na took out Sun Ren’s dagger and cut Sun Ren free before moving to Hen Li.

  “It’s me, Lu Na. Follow me.” Lu Na pulled Sun Ren and Hen Li up. They followed each other by holding onto Lu Na’s hand.

  “Ah, the Young Miss Lu is back,” Yang Deli said.

  “How are you not blinded?” Lu Na asked.

  “This helmet of mine doesn’t just protect from stray arrows.” Yang Deli unsheathed his sword. “Now you either come with me, or I will cut you all down here and now.”

  “You won’t do that. I have the key to the puzzle.” Lu Na let Hen Li go to free her left hand. If she used her bracelet, it would probably burn through her hand at this point. It hadn’t cooled off yet.

  “If you hadn’t noticed, I have all the time in the world to solve this puzzle,” Yang Deli said. “I have farm land and farmers. I have an army that can protect against these feral spirits.”

  “No, you have slaves to do your bidding,” Sun Ren shouted. She unsheathed her belt sword and thrust it at Yang Deli. He parried her with ease.

  “I can’t believe you’re still so strong after that beating,” Yang Deli said.

  Lu Na looked around for Nugua. She was supposed to be covering their escape.

  There was no helping it. Lu Na clenched her left fist again. The bracelet was burning her through the leather wrap. She punched forward, releasing a tiger claw at Yang Deli.

  Yang Deli parried it with his sword, but it knocked him back.

  “Sun Ren, we have to run. The feral spirits are going to overrun the base at any moment,” Lu Na said. She helped Hen Li up and pushed toward the western exit behind the leader’s tent.

  Sun Ren screamed.

  Lu Na turned around to see a long gash on Sun Ren’s tunic. She flicked her wrist to the left and raised an earth wall in front of Sun Ren before Yang Deli could stab her.

  Lu Na ran back to Sun Ren and dragged her with both arms toward the exit. Her left wrist burned from the bracelet, making her lose her grip on Sun Ren and they both fell.

  “Come on, Sun Ren. We have to keep moving. We can’t stop here.” Lu Na got up and pulled Sun Ren up.

  Sun Ren held onto her wound and ran with Lu Na.

  When they made it past the wooden wall, Lu Na realized why Nugua wasn’t there. Her spirit was fighting a group of soldiers. They all had spears and kept Nugua back.

  It didn’t matter how powerful spirits were when compared to people. If enough people worked together, they could overcome any spirit. But Nugua was not alone.

  Lu Na took out an earth wall ward. She focused her mind, activated it, and tossed it in front of Nugua. An earth wall rose in front of Nugua. Lu Na took out another earth wall and threw it by the first wall, creating a smaller earth wall.

  “Climb up!” Lu Na jumped onto the earth wall and dragged Sun Ren up. She then activated another earth wall right in front of her, making a walkway in front of her. Nugua and Hen Li followed behind.

  When the soldiers realized that Lu Na was creating a bridge over their heads, they stabbed at it with their spears. One almost got Lu Na in the foot.

  “Nugua, can you strengthen the earth walls below us?” Lu Na asked.

  Nugua grimaced, showing her fangs. She waved a clawed hand and the bridge below them became like stones instead of soft earth.

  The soldiers ran around to the stairs and followed behind them.

  Lu Na turned around and threw another earth ward behind her. That was a mistake. The earth wards took whatever earth that was below it to create their walls. When her newest ward activated, it reshaped the very bridge they stood on to raise another wall.

  Nugua saw that happening and instead made the new ward form only halfway.

  “Child, stop trying to make my life harder. I can’t do much more.”

  They all ran to the end of the bridge. It connected to the main gate within the labyrinth. The soldiers followed them from below as well, awaiting them with spears.

  “Child, take out the phoenix hairpin and open that gate before they gut us. I’ll hold them off.” Nugua turned to face the pursuing soldiers. They slowed and approached with their spears, two abreast.

  Lu Na took out her hairpin and it was glowing red already. She opened her spirit sight to look at it and saw red spirit energy leaking out from it and reaching toward the gate. However, it didn’t connect directly. It was flowing downward toward the gate on the ground.

  “We have a problem.”

  “What?” Sun Ren was patching up her arm with a piece of linen.

  “The door is below us. The key is telling me we have to go down there to open it.”

  Sun Ren peeked down at the soldiers as they grimly stared up at them.

  “We can’t fight them. Not in my current condition. And I doubt the monk is in any condition to do anything. They were so afraid of him that they beat him up the moment he entered their encampment.”

  “What’s the holdup?” Nugua shouted.

  Lu Na looked up and saw her spirit dodge the spears with the narrowest of movements. Her body bent this way and that. She looked more like a snake than a woman.

  Lu Na focused again on the hairpin. She peeked down toward the hole it was supposed to get to. There was no way they would get there. But what if she tried something else? She squinted her eyes at the door below and could faintly make out the patterns etched into the gate.

  They shouldn’t be too hard to copy. Lu Na took out her spirit wand and began etching the same patterns on the gate in front of them. From what she could see, the technique didn’t open like a normal door or even a normal gate. There was a mechanism that connected the gate to the turning mechanism at the top. If Lu Na could match the same patterns here as it was down there, it should open all the same.

  Nugua screeched. The soldiers had pierced her abdomen with a spear. Golden spirit energy leaked from her like blood.

  Nugua snapped the spears with her claws. She teleported forward and grabbed the two soldiers by the throat before tossing them back at the other soldiers.

  “Get that door open or I’m going to eat you child,” Nugua hissed.

  Lu Na turned away when her spirit did just that with the next approaching soldier. She finished the patterns on the gate and then placed her silver phoenix hairpin right on it.

  “Please work.”

  The red spirit energy flowed from the hairpin into the patterns. The gate lit up red and the spirit energy flowed to the very top. Chains rattled and gears turned within the gate. The large metal gate fell forward, being held up by large chains on either side.

  Once the gates hit the floor, pandemonium followed. A large group of feral spirits waited on the other side. They pounced at the soldiers waiting for Lu Na.

  Not one soldier survived.

  The soldiers on the bridge panicked and ran away from the gates back toward their camp.