Mei and MK held eachother in a hug as they stared starry eyes at the scene in front of them.
"So that's my great great great great and fifteen other great grand papa!" Mei pointed excitedly.
Jinhua hummed in slight amusement as she patted the girl on the head, "That is correct."
MK was looking through the group with a curious gaze, "So that pig demon is Zhu Baije is the guy with the fork for a weapon.." He hummed.
Tang let out a loud gasp, "Its not just any pitch fork! It's the Nine-Toothed Rake! It was his great weapon that defeated multiple enemies of the group!" He ranted on.
MK rubbed his chin and shrugged, "I'm a little grossed out about the ritual thing ritual thing with the spider sister...." He shivered at the mere thought.
Mei shivered as well, "Even though I'm not afraid of spiders or bugs, the mere thought of them actually eating each other like cannibals makes even me scared..."
Jinhua nodded, "It was truly a gruesome sight to behold... But really that's how the spider Queen evolves into a powerful being. They eat and consume their features and powers and become one big hybrid of powerful spiders... And that would make the one and only Spider Queen."
Tang started writing it down, "That's pretty interesting... I never thought of such a thing to happen... Maybe it was best that history left that out in the books...." He stated as he dipped his quill in an ink bottle.
Jinhua nodded, "It will only get worse from here on out because of a certain relic I possessed at the time..."
Mei perked up, "The Golden Lotus?? Ohhhhhh! It'll probably attract the demons as soon as you activate it to heal the Monk...!"
MK stomped his foot on the coffee table and held his fist up victoriously, "Have no fear! The Monkey King and his friend Macaque are still at the entrance! They'll guard it long enough for Jinhua to heal him!"
Mei joined him on the coffee table with a triumphant grin, "And then after she heals them, Jinhua will go and kick ass because she's such a girlboss!"
"Yeah!" MK and Mei high-fives each other.
Jinhua glanced over at Tang for a moment, "I feel I know what girl-boss suggests.. but what is the definition of it exactly...?"
Tang fixed his glasses with a small smile, "It refers to when a powerful woman figure can do things just as any other man can and doesn't need the dependency of a man to help her."
Jinhua looked back to the cheering and dancing duo of friends with a small grin, "I like that title..."
Crouching down next to the side of Tang Sanzuang. She grabbed hold of his hand gently in hers and had to fight the sudden urge of taking his powerful essence.
She blinked for a moment, "Well now I know why people are so desperate for this man..." she muttered to herself as she observed the red and purplish veins growing from his chest to his legs and arms.
She placed another hand on his cheek to see the veins growing up his jaw and reaching up towards his temple.
"It seems the venom consumes everything and then goes for the brain to shut down the body and all its functions leading to death..."
The Monk's group watched on in high alert, "So your telling us he could've died any day now...?" Zhu huffed impatiently.
"I'm saying that he could've died in just a few hours if I hadn't gotten here today..." Jinhua sent the pig demon a short glare.
Taking out the relic, she placed it right above the Monk's chest.
Holding her hands out towards the relic, it started to bloom more and open up. The sudden spores that flew out landed on the monk. They landed on the veins that started to shriek with each touch and start lighting up in a golden fire.
"Whoa! Wait! Your catching him on fire!" Sha Wujing exclaimed as he readied his hands out to put it out.
"Wait!" Ao Ji held up his hand before his ally, "I don't think the fire is hurting Tang...."
"Then what's that screaming if it ain't coming from our Master!?" Zhu pointed out frantically at the high pitched screaming.
Jinhua rolled her eyes, "It the poison of a Camel Spider...."
"Camel spider...?" Shu Wujing muttered confused.
"When a Camel Spider hunts it's prey, they literally scream at it to paralyze it in fear..." The Prince explained with an almost annoyed tone, "Geez, I'm thinking the other group is a lot more smarter than this one...."
"Hey-!" Zhu Baije was restrained by Ao Ji who hooked his arms under the Pig Demon's shoulders.
"Thankfully it wasn't the Sydney Funnel Web Spider sister that was involved in the poison or else your master would've died in just a few hours..." Jinhua stated, but her eyes furrowed, "But that leaves another question... Why didn't they use the Funnel-Web Spider's poison if they wanted to kill the Monk....?"
"That is also another question I fear I don't have an answer for..." The Prince stated with his lip jutted confused, "It's almost like they were trying to prolong his death but make it urgent with the centipede venom also involved so that they couldn't heal it themselves...."
Jinhua's eyes narrowed as she looked back to her work, "It's almost like they were trying to draw me out with the relic..."
The Prince met her gaze with a grin look, "I fear it is all going to the mastermind's plan...."
"Precisely..." Jinhua breathed out as she enforced more energy into burning process. Her fingers started to itch with the slight warmth and cramp up as she felt the sudden wave of another heat source coming from the venom.
"Something's wrong..." She muttered as she placed her hand on the relic to try and draw it back, but it suddenly grew more in power with a different shade of flames.
"A flame the color of blood..." Jinhua's face hardened as she grabbed hold of the relic, "That is not my power..!"
As soon as she touched the red flames, her skin felt the searing wave of pain the grew on her finger tips.
"What's wrong??" Ao Ji noticed quickly something shifted in the power of the relic, "Those aren't your flames it seems..."
"No..! It's not! I might've set off a defensive chant in the poison and drew it out to the relic..!" Jinhua hissed as she felt the poison grow from her fingertips to her forearms.
Leaving herself no choice, she shifted into her demon form and let her violet eyes glow a gold and grant her more power.
The golden flames spiraled down her arms and burnt her sleeves. They started consuming the red flames and searched onto the lotus relic.
Consuming the lotus relic in her golden flames, the poison had finally been burned out and the relic was now safe in Jinhua's arms.
As she tried pushing herself up, her arms lost all strength and made her collapse.
Her eyes shifted back to its beautiful violet color as she glanced down at her cracked and purple tinted hands and arms.
A frown soon settled on her face as she saw the damage, "This Mastermind is truly becoming a pain in my ass..."
"Let's hope that the Spider Queen had not sense that overwhelming power surge just now..." The Prince stated grimly as he helped Jinhua up to her feet.
She glanced back to the group to see them surrounding their master and checking him over. The Monk's skin shown no more veins or the pale complexion he had when she got here.
He was unconscious and resting to gain his energy back.
Jinhua smiled softly and placed the lotus in a pocket on her traveling trousers.
A sudden shriek echoed throughout the catacombs and above.
"That does not sound good..."
"No it does not..." Jinhua slowly placed The Prince behind her protectively as she felt her hands tremble in agony as they touched the hilt of her sword.
"I smell blood..."
The voice echoed throughout the halls and empty deathly cold air.
"I hear the cries of the dead..."
It happened again but it sounded closer as a cackle erupted in the air.
"I see..."
It sounded just above them.
Jinhua turned her head slowly upwards to see a broken hold in the ceiling a piercing yellow eye staring down at them.
"Everything..."
Jinhua felt a sudden shudder go down her spine as the eye was directly staring at her, "Take Cover!" She saw the ceiling collapse and a boulder fall directly above the Prince as he stood there frozen with fear.
Jinhua pushed him back, making him stumble back towards the safety of the Monk's group.
The Prince stared dearly at Jinhua as she gave him a smile before she was separated from the group.
"JINHUA!?"
She rolled out of the way and behind a pillar, her chest heaving for air as she put too much strain on her arms again. The crunch of the bones beneath her boots didn't help her as she wanted.
Her cat ears perked up on high alert as she was now alone with the HEDL. Her two tails swaying dangerously as she could feel herself way her options.
"You show honor even in a dire situation as this.... I commend you that, warrior.."
Jinhua couldn't help but chuckle at this, "Nah, It's just my motherly instincts kicking in again like always...!" At that statement she had to keep moving. She heaved herself up and started sprinting down the hall as she heard the loud crash of the pillar she was hiding behind moment before her destroyed into rumble.
She heard the centipede demon chuckle at her statement, "I was always curious as to why some female demons always were far more stronger and stubborn when protecting their children.. Even when they were not related by blood.. I always liked that about demoness'."
Jinhua smiled at his statement, "Would that give me the excuse of not fighting you..?"
She slid behind a wall as she heard the room across from her get decimated by a strike of the Demon Lord's highly venomous tails.
Jinhua held her breathe as she looked around for an idea. She glanced down at her hands and saw they were in no condition to start using her swordsmanship of sword dance style.
She couldn't even force out her Chi flames because of overdoing it trying to get rid of the scarlet flames that were trying to consume the relic's power..
"Shit-!" She muttered out haggardly.
"Even if I have found you as a fond demoness to talk too, I'm sorry to say that a friend of mine needs you and that relic alive..."
Jinhua gritted her teeth, her hands roughly gripping the hilt as tight as possible with her weak grip.
'So this whole this was a trap to lure me in and the Lotus... They knew that the Lotus wouldn't live long enough for the journey so they need me...'
Her eyes darted around the cracked walls as she pushed herself off the wall she hid behind to dodge another hiding spot being destroyed.
She rolled over behind a tossed over table. Her eyes looking around as she tried to catch her breathe.
'We're Wukong and Macaque part of this...!?'
But she quickly shook her head at the crazy idea, they were honestly afraid for their master's health and being.
'So really the Monk was the bait in the end to lure me out with Wukong and Macaque's pleading, having no other choice...'
"You seem to be lost in thought.. Let me help bring you back to reality."
The sudden feeling of a tail smacking hard against her side, spiked a sudden adrenaline down her spine as she tried to grab hold to bring back her balance but she was thrown across multiple layer of walls and halls.
She finally stopped flying and landed on the ground out of breathe as she tried to help herself up with the filthy cobblestone walls.
She felt exploding pain in her side and chest as she covered her mouth to prevent the fluids to come out. Trying to stable herself, she spit out a tooth to the side and wiped her bloody mouth that tried to make her hack up blood.
"You seem to be a lot stronger than your original race.... Tell me... Are you a hybrid..?" He asked curiously as she watched his body slither around the high pillars and ceiling.
Jinhua chuckled with a bloody grin smeared across her face, "And risk the mystery on my profile? Yeah no."
"That's too bad, I thought of having a good chat with tea with you over the different races, but it seems fate has other plans..." He hummed sadly as he raised his stingers in the air directly above Jinhua's head while she held her sword at the stinger only inches away.
"Having tea and a chat with you would be a sight to behold with your size." She snorted with a shake of her head. A hand was placed on her side to stop the bleeding.
As he went to strike her head to poison her, Jinhua deflected his attack and sent her blade flying towards his head.
As he swerved out of the way, he glanced back at the woman with a amused grin, "You missed and lost your weapon, warrior! What do you do now!?"
Jinhua stood there with her hands on her hips, a smirk growing on her lips as they showcased her canines, "I wait for you to learn never underestimate your enemy..."
With that her sword destroyed the last pillar supporting the coliseum above, making it crash down down and fall above them directly.
HEDL's eyes widened in slight fear as he looked around in worry as he felt his body collapse around the catacombs, making him immobile.
He made one last attempt at paralyzing her with his hundred eye power, they all glowed in a yellow light trying to immobilize her, but he was surprised to see her close her eyes and twist around one of his sharp legs and push her palm out, shooting a large amount of golden flames up his face. Decimating it in seconds.
His head no longer there but ashes and the smell of burnt flesh in the air, his body collapses in front of her as the ceiling stops falling and the coliseum is now no longer standing.