In This Life • Tale Of The Nine Tailed • Lee Rang

Chapter 10

When Lee Yeon had come to his senses, Dueoksini was already driving the sword down towards him. The Gumiho froze, unable to move any muscle like a deer in the headlights. Then Rang's face entered his sight, blocking the view of the evil spirit behind him. That alone quickened Yeon's heart rate by 200% as his brain quickly pieces together what the meaning of this would be.

"Rang no!"

The warning was too late, it all happened so quickly. One of his worst fears happening before his eyes in a matter of milliseconds. He could hear the younger's suppressed grunt upon impact, shielding himself from his own sword which now penetrated through the latter's body, the sharp end of it missing Yeon by inches...it all happened so quickly...that's what people say to compensate for their incompetence.

Dueoksini retreated the sword, causing an ugly scream to echo in the woods. Rang's body trembled above Yeon's, his breathing becomes more hard and laboured as the pain diffuses throughout his body.

"Rang ah!", Yeon cried, his eyes wide with fear as he looked at his brother's pain stricken face.

"Get rid of that bastard will you?", Rang managed to mutter out as he collapsed aside, going limp with no energy, all that his brain could focus on was the localised agony, the nerve endings firing endlessly to signal pain. It felt infinitely worse than the time Yeon 'killed' him, he didn't even cry then, and yet his vision is now blurry from the involuntary tears welling up in his eyes.

Yeon looked at his brother worriedly one last time before grabbing Rang's sword, standing a few feet opposite from the monster. The fact that his brother is now hurt only fuelled his anger.

The celestial fox hung his head low and closed his eyes, muttering, "As a spirit of the forests, I beg for your help, lend me the power to destroy evil. Please...I beg you..."

And his desperate plea was answered...A gust of wind howled, the trees shuffled lightly and the leaves on the floor crackled as they were blown across the floor. Feeling a thrust of newfound energy within him, the grip around the sword tightened, and when the eyes of the Gumiho opened again, they were its dangerous yellow.

The sky suddenly darkened and thunders sounded, "Let's put this to an end shall we?", Lee Yeon charged towards Dueoksini at supersonic speed.

The pace of the two mythical creatures are more or less the same, hard to tell who had the upper hand. But Lee Yeon wasn't just any Gumiho, he possessed God-like powers. And when the time came, a beam of lightning came crashing down from the sky, onto Dueoksini. Taking this chance to strike, Yeon drove the sword into the monster's chest, the golden eyes locked onto the defeated red ones, "-Don't ever hurt my family."

The senior Gumiho watched cold heartedly as the evil spirit turned into ashes, which then got carried away by the wind. Yeon scoffed in anger, death is mercy for those scums.

"Rang ah", Yeon knelt down by his brother, eyes travelling to the younger's limp hand covering the lower left of his abdomen where blood was slowly seeping out of the exit wound.

Lee Yeon quickly cut off some fabric from his sleeve, eyes trained on his brother to gather more information on his condition. Rang was shaking slightly, all colour drained from his face, and his eyes were staring soullessly into the sky. Yeon carefully tried to move his hand away only to have the younger flinching away.

"Don't.", Rang swallowed, clenching his eyes shut to fathom another wave of pain, "Don't touch..."

"You have to let me see", Yeon rolled Rang onto his side despite the younger's previous objections, causing his little brother to cry out in agony, the sound ripped through the dead forest, sending daggers at the older Gumiho's heart.