Legacy World 3.18 FenFang vs BaiXue

FenFang finally frowned and changed into her nine-tailed fox form, anticipating a fight. In her fit of anger and anxiety, she momentarily forgot about the restriction MengYao placed on her. Black chains appeared all over her body. One end led to a collar around her neck. The other ends all seemed to disappear into the ground below FenFang, restricting her movements. She felt utterly humiliated to be seen in such a state but was not willing to back off without a fight.

Just as BaiXue lifted a hand towards FenFang, LongFei entered through the front door in his human form. A black cage appeared out of nowhere above him and dropped down. He frowned in annoyance but reacted fast. He overbearingly swung his hand above him like he was simply swatting a fly away and the cage flew to the side easily.

This thoroughly shocked FenFang who still had no idea who this intruder was.

On the other hand, BaiXue's lips twitched at his show of power that she would never have, which was why she could only resort to avoiding such traps like she did earlier.

"I see him. You don't have much time left." LongFei had already went back out and changed back into his dragon form.

"Wait." BaiXue called out just as he was about to take off. He stopped immediately and peeked into the room through the door.

FenFang looked at the dragon with her mouth open. Her heart tremored slightly and her eyes rounded in fear. /When and how did this wretched girl make such a powerful acquaintance?/

"Free her from the chains. Break them."

"What?!" LongFei and FenFang exclaimed at the same time.

"Do you really think he would spare your life if you traded it for mine? Did you not consider escaping together? How could I come here just to kill you when you saved me from starvation?"

Knowing that there was not much time left, LongFei did not wait for her to ask again and reluctantly did as she said. He asked BaiXue to step out of the hut which she obediently did, then destroyed the hut without a care for the person still inside. He hooked a claw and easily broke the chains where it was connected to the ground. After it was broken, it turned into normal dull rusty chains. With his task completed, LongFei took off while FenFang broke out of the remaining chains around herself with her own power.

"Now, are we even?"

FenFang's face lit up. "You're no snake in the end. It's good that you have some heart in you. You should have just stated your purpose from the start. You silly girl, causing me needless stress and worry."

BaiXue smiled coldly. "I could always say it now. I came here to save you..."

"I know, I know, but we don't have the time, let's move while we talk." FenFang turned her back towards BaiXue and began walking off.

"Then kill you." BaiXue leapt towards FenFang just as the last word left her mouth. Whilst in mid air, she changed into her rabbit form.

FenFang got stunned sitll. Then, she turned around in anger, only to get stunned still again. This was her first time seeing BaiXue's mystical form. FenFang's body reacted before her brain could. She found herself tumbling onto the ground to roll away from BaiXue's stomp. A small crater was created from BaiXue's landing.

"What are you? I-"

BaiXue did not bother to wait for FenFang to complete her sentence and attacked again. When FenFang dodged to the side again, BaiXue spun in midair with her leg fully extended to try and intercept her dodge, but it was not enough. In the same instance, she remembered her long tail. Her tail tightly coiled around FenFang's neck and brought her face down into the ground to eat dirt.

At the same time that FenFang's face smashed into ground, her own tails wrapped all around BaiXue's body in a tight hold. FenFang stood back up, shook the dirt off her head, and used her paw to brush more dirt off her face, then scowled at BaiXue.

"That's enough! I may not have seen a creature like you before but I'll not lose!"

FenFang gradually tightened her hold on BaiXue and wanted to kill her by strangulation. BaiXue initially put up a fierce struggle, but FenFang could feel her resistance weakening. Soon, BaiXue's body went limp and her tail no longer coiled around her neck. FenFang smirked and dropped BaiXue's body.

Just before BaiXue's body touched the ground, her eyes opened and she rebounded off the ground to tackle FenFang. As they were not very far apart to begin with, FenFang did not have enough time to dodge and got kicked square in the chest. Intense pain overwhelmed her as her breath got knocked out of her. Blood flew out of her open mouth. She skidded on the floor and was not given any time by BaiXue to recover. BaiXue was already in midair jumping towards her.

FenFang growled in pain and anger. Six of her tails shielded herself. Three of her tails shot out to counter BaiXue's attack. Just before they made contact, ice blue flames from above interrupted their fight, drawing a clear line between FenFang and BaiXue.

BaiXue experienced going through the flames before so it did not faze her. When she landed, she created another crater, deeper this time, but the spot was now empty. What surprised her more was to meet LongFei beyond the flames. FenFang was still in her nine-tailed fox form looking pitiful and weak behind LongFei. His tail moved away from FenFang as if he was just done dragging her out of BaiXue's path.

BaiXue frowned.

"MengYao told me that you poisoned FengJiao."

BaiXue's eyes widened with realisation then gritted her teeth. /I'm still too slow in the end./

[Huh? What're you saying?] BaoBao was dumbfounded.

"You'll pay for harming my beloved." LongFei said menacingly then shot his flames at BaiXue.

BaiXue jumped out of the way and got chased by LongFei, who flew in the air while he endlessly spewed out flames, setting the forest on fire.

BaoBao could no longer help it and screamed out. [BaiXue!! What are you doing?! What's going on?! What're you running from?! She's just there!]

BaiXue had only been able to barely miss his attacks by a hair's breath each time, so BaoBao's sudden alarmed scream surprised her and threw her off beat, causing her to get hit squarely on her back by LongFei's flames. The pain was paralysing and she crumpled onto the floor.

[BaiXue!! What happened?! Why're you in pain?!] BaoBao continued to exclaim. 

At the same time, LongFei spewed out another shot of fire at BaiXue. From this point on, she knew that something was wrong. /I'm not supposed to die by his hands! This can't be happening! It must be an illusion!/

The flames engulfed her right after she made that conclusion. However, the pain from being roasted alive still felt very real. It consumed her entire being but she knew that she could not die. 

[BaiXue!!] BaoBao was really panicking now. All he had seen was BaiXue behaving as if she had lost her mind. Not only was her jumping trajectory completely off, she suddenly stopped where she was when FenFang was right in front of her, then took off in the opposite direction. Now, she was randomly curled into a ball and writhing in pain, while FenFang slowly made her escape in her seriously wounded state.

"Gah!" BaiXue could no longer hold her voice back when she suffered yet another torturous blow of fire from the illusionary LongFei.

BaiXue guessed that FenFang's illusion magic played on people's minds and expectations, thus making it feel incredibly real. If she did not realise it was an illusion, she could have died from stopping her own breathing.

Unfortunately, knowing that it was an illusion was not enough to break the magic. One would have to completely and sincerely disbelieve the possibility of it happening for the magic to have no effect. In this case, it was impossible for BaiXue to believe that LongFei would not interfere with her fight and turn against her. It was also too late for her to imagine that LongFei's flames were painless.

BaiXue fought hard to tolerate the pain and get her brain to work. /BaoBao! Where is FenFang?!/

[Running away to your right!]

BaoBao's answer confirmed her suspicion that the FenFang she saw was fake as well. BaiXue decided to keep her eyes closed and hoped that it was only visual hallucinations so that she could find the truth with her hearing.

Her long ears twitched and she picked up several sounds. She could hear as far as the battle between MengYao and the real LongFei. She could hear the softest sounds like the rustle of every leaf and blade of grass. Among the plethora of sounds she heard, she could distinctly hear footsteps on grass to her right. She also noticed that she no longer felt any pain as if the illusionary LongFei has disappeared.

She stood up shakily with her muscles aching from tensing it continuously to bear with the pain. As soon as she stabilised, she took off towards the movement she heard to her right. Her fast reflexes combined with BaoBao's directions prevented her from running into any trees and obstacles.

[She's right in front of you now! Just go!]

BaoBao had not even completed his first sentence when BaiXue trusted his call and launched her entire body forward, intending to tackle FenFang down.

One second before she felt herself ram into a soft body, she heard LongFei's voice, "Did you think someone like you could escape from me?"

When her body tumbled onto the floor with FenFang's body, she could hear fire raging and her flesh sizzling. At the same time, BaoBao shouted excitedly, thinking that it was the end. [Just bite down hard! She's writhing in pain on the ground in front of you! If only you could see that look of fear in her eyes!]

However, he quickly noticed the weird lag in BaiXue's response. He paid attention to her condition again and noticed how she was not only all curled up again but there were also now tears glistening on her eye lashes.

[BaiXue!!]

Around the time when BaiXue engaged FenFang in a fight, LongFei started his with MengYao.

LongFei gradually realised that it was not as easy as the previous time he fought against MengYao. Not only was LongFei partially distracted by checking on BaiXue every now and then, MengYao seemed to be running on adrenaline and put up the fiercest fight he could manage. He was dead bent on getting to BaiXue. LongFei could see the strong intention to kill in MengYao's eyes. This strengthened his resolve to keep MengYao away from her. In this state that MengYao was in, BaiXue would not stand a chance. This put the two in a stalemate.

Black and blue flames covered the part of the sky where they were at. Each time one side thought the other would be hit, the other would somehow snake their way out of it and counter with an attack of their own.

LongFei stole another glance at BaiXue and saw how she was caught in FenFang's tails. He decided to intervene in BaiXue's fight whether she liked it or not. With his mind made up, he blasted MengYao with his flames at full power fueled by his frustrations and rage. It won MengYao's flame that he was fanning with his wings. LongFei almost hit the same wing that he had injured from before. This time, MengYao was swifter and dodged it by tucking in his wings and diving down below.

The next thing MengYao saw was LongFei taking off to BaiXue's side. Unable to take it anymore, he put aside his jealousy and shouted. "Why are you protecting a person like her?! Didn't FengJiao mean something to you? FengJiao told me about you!"

LongFei's actions faltered involuntarily.

"Don't you know that FengJiao has been poisoned?!"

LongFei frowned. /What's he saying? How's that possible?/

"She's poisoned?!"

"For a day and a half! She hasn't been getting better at all and her condition's still deteriorating!"

LongFei was stunned and his senses suddenly felt clouded. /How? What happened? Why didn't she blow the whistle? FengJiao... How's she now? What did I do? Where was I when she needed me? The almighty me losing someone to something as petty as poison? No way./

Catching how LongFei seemed absorbed in his own thoughts, MengYao took the chance to fly to BaiXue.