Pursued by Monsters

The fleet plowed through waves as gray as lead, sailing silently westward.

Three days had passed since they had delivered Tyria's survivors to the shelter of Oros.

Without pausing for a moment, they continued through the boundless mists of the Smoking Sea.

Thick fog clung to the hulls, swallowing the passage ahead until only a few feet remained visible.

The fleet was like a blinded beast, groping its way through waters shrouded from sight.

Drawing on the seamanship he had picked up aboard the Laughing Lion, Liu Qian directed the silent Dragon Spirit Guardians to adjust the sails. His nerves tightened with every command as he struggled to avoid the hidden reefs beneath the murky waves. Fortunately, despite a few scares, they had made it through unscathed.

On the bow deck, Liu Qian raised the Myrish telescope he had found aboard a Lannister warship, pressing its cold barrel against his eye.

Ahead, the dense fog that had plagued them for days finally showed signs of thinning. A sliver of blue horizon struggled to pierce the gray veil.

The edge of the Smoking Sea lay just ahead.

"Look! What are those things..." Janice's startled cry suddenly broke the oppressive silence as she pointed toward the gloomy sky behind the fleet.

Liu Qian spun around.

The skies over Valyria were always a mingling of gray-white and blood-red, colored by lingering dust and the embers of volcanic eruptions.

Yet now, beneath that suffocating canopy, a thick line as dense as ink was eerily taking shape.

It did not look like a cloud. It looked more like a stain slashed across the heavens by a giant brush soaked in ink, surging toward the fleet with the force of something that would overturn all creation.

Liu Qian's pupils contracted sharply. That was no cloud. Those were living creatures!

A living storm formed by a swarm of hideous, bloodthirsty abominations!

"Everyone to battle stations!" His roar cracked like thunder. "Janice! Get below! Lock the door!"

Jelena hurried over at the commotion. "My lord, what happened?!"

"A swarm of monsters from Valyria is chasing us!" Liu Qian's expression was grim.

Jelena recoiled. "How is that possible? They never leave the Fourteen Flames..."

Liu Qian pointed at the writhing black line in the distance, cutting her words short.

"I'll hold them off. Stay aboard. The edge of the Smoking Sea is just ahead. Once you're out, those monsters won't be able to pursue you." Liu Qian made his decision without hesitation.

Before his words had faded, he vaulted over the railing.

Golden light burst around him in midair. Flesh and bone twisted and swelled within the blinding radiance, transforming him in an instant into an immense golden dragon, his scales gleaming, his majesty unmatched.

His wings beat, whipping up violent currents that tore the fog apart. His massive body soared upward, charging straight toward that roiling cloud of death.

A thousand feet above the sea, the monstrous horde's hideous features became terrifyingly clear.

There were dozens of winged monsters.

Chimeras with three purple heads shrieking and roaring; monstrous birds with fleshy wings and eagle beaks, resembling twisted griffins; cockatrices crowned with scarlet fleshy crests, their feathers like poisoned needles; enormous serpent-lizards covered in brown scales, their bat wings blotting out the sky.

And at the center of their throng, a colossal creature cast its shadow.

It had a lion's body and a human face, vast wings spreading from its back, and cold, blood-red eyes that looked down upon all below.

A Sphinx!

Even the smallest monsters were over ten meters long, while the larger ones reached forty or fifty meters. Most terrifying of all, the Sphinx measured seventy or eighty meters, like a moving mountain king surrounded by its monstrous retinue.

The golden dragon Liu Qian had become was second only to the Sphinx in size, but enough ants could bring down an elephant. Against so many terrifying abominations, a single careless move could leave him buried in the Smoking Sea.

He turned his draconic head to look back. The fleet was still some distance from the edge of the Smoking Sea and the hope of survival it promised.

I have to buy them time!

His thoughts raced. The golden dragon banked sharply, tracing a streak of dazzling gold as he hurtled away from the fleet.

As expected, the bloodthirsty swarm immediately changed course and pursued him relentlessly, like sharks scenting blood.

Glancing back from the corner of his eye, he spotted a purple monster bird with a wingspan of over ten meters. More frenzied than the rest, it broke from the swarm and accelerated toward him with a shriek.

Liu Qian sneered inwardly. His wings suddenly swept backward, bringing his massive body to an abrupt halt in midair.

His neck twisted like a drawn bow, and his maw, bright as molten gold, opened wide.

Boom!

A raging torrent of golden flame blasted straight at the unsuspecting purple monster bird.

Lost in the frenzy of the hunt, how could the monster bird have expected its prey to strike back like this?

Searing dragonfire swallowed it instantly!

"Screee-!!!"

Its piercing shriek instantly became an agonized wail. The thick purple feathers it had taken such pride in burned and curled like oil-soaked dry grass beneath the licking dragonfire, crumbling into ash.

The flames greedily spread across its body, turning the vicious bird into a huge, struggling fireball. Trailing thick smoke and the stench of burned flesh, it tumbled toward the seething, ink-black sea below.

Liu Qian narrowed his draconic eyes, a barely perceptible flicker of disappointment passing through them.

No dragon spirit escaped.

It seemed that as his own strength grew, the chances of extracting dragon spirit even from monsters of this caliber became increasingly slim.

In that brief instant of distraction.

Whoosh-!

The impenetrable sea of fog below suddenly burst apart!

Violent currents struck like a giant hammer, carrying salty spray and a rank stench as an enormous bat-winged serpent-lizard shot skyward through the fog like a phantom.

Its huge, fang-filled jaws gaped wide, foul wind rushing ahead of it as it lunged straight for the golden dragon's belly.

Inside the cramped lounge belowdecks, the air seemed to have congealed into lead.

Janice clutched her sister's cold hand. "Sister, there are so many monsters. Can he really fight them alone?"

Jelena remained silent, her gaze fixed on the fog-shrouded battlefield beyond the porthole, where golden light surged amid roaring cries.

Only after a long while did she force out an answer. "Maybe."

Her voice was wavering, utterly uncertain.

The terrifying sight of that monstrous swarm was branded into her mind. Liu Qian could become a golden dragon, but how long could he hold out?

"If only we could help..." Janice sighed, released her sister's hand, and walked out of the lounge in a daze.

Jelena's gaze remained pinned to the window, but her heart hung in suspense.

Suddenly.

"Ah-!" A short scream pierced the muffled quiet beyond the cabin walls!

"Janice!" Jelena's heart nearly leaped out of her chest, every thought instantly swept away by terror.

She spun around. With a metallic ring, the Valyrian steel sword at her waist flashed free, becoming a silver

blur as she raced toward the scream.

A figure blocked the way outside Janice's cabin.

He wore filthy, foul-smelling red copper armor, and his burly body reeked of sweat. One thick hand gripped Janice's dense, molten-silver hair, forcing her head back in pain.

In his other hand, a longsword gleaming with cold light rested steadily against Janice's smooth, snowy neck. Its edge had already bitten slightly into her skin, drawing a glaring line of blood.

Though Janice had become Liu Qian's Flame Knight and her strength and constitution had improved enormously, she had received no basic training and had no actual combat experience. Caught by a sudden attack, she had been seized with almost no resistance.

The man raised his grimy face, its stubble unkempt, and bared his teeth in a twisted grin that mingled madness with triumph. "Jelena... long time no see..."

Jelena's blood froze instantly. Her sword hand trembled with sheer fury, and every word emerged like shards of ice forced between clenched teeth. "Teres, you haunting coward. You're still alive..."