Chapter 353 - Beastmen?

*BANG*

*BANG*

*BANG*

*BOOOM*

The ship's hull broke apart from the repeated bombardment and exploded inwards.

"In position!" the leader of the 30 guards shouted as soon as the explosion sounded. All the guards immediately formed an arch and faced the newly formed 'door'.

Hao Xuan who was standing behind the guards along with Jin Wang and 3 other cultivators looked on with interest.

The leader of the guards was an older man of about 50 years of age. Half his hair had turned a shade of gray and he was the only one of them at the top of the spirit realm, albeit his Qi felt much weaker than Hao Xuan's who was only at Spirit Realm stage 4.

All the other guards were between the ages of 20 and 30 and looked quite innocent. It seemed like this was their first encounter.

"Is this the first time pirates attacked?" Hao Xuan leaned towards Jin Wang and asked in a low voice.

"No, I think this is the 4th time. Why?"

"Why do those guys look like it's their first time in combat?" he asked gesturing towards them.

"Because this is the first time the Pirates have attacked in such force. These guys are probably just trainees and were called for duty because they were short on hands," Jin Wang explained.

*Clank*

A loud noise came from outside and all the noise suddenly died down. It looked like someone had plugged the hole and even the air pressure had stabilized.

Hao Xuan suddenly closed his eyes and turned his left year towards the opening.

*Ba-dump*

*Ba-dump*

He could hear extremely loud heartbeats just on the other side and they were getting stronger.

"They're coming," he mumbled under his breath, but because of the sudden silence, everyone heard him loud and clear. The guard captain turned his head halfway and looked at Hao Xuan with a surprised expression but before he could say anything a loud roar came from the front and got his attention.

"ROAAR!"

It sounded both beastly and human at the same time.

*THUMP*

*THUMP*

*THUMP*

The sound of big, heavy footsteps came first followed by the loud clanking of metal and a huge rectangular shield came into view. It blocked the entire hole.

"FIRE!"

Following the captain's orders, every one of the guards started firing at once. The weapons in their hands made whirring noises much like the sound from a computer's hard drive and started firing literal energy beams in short bursts. (Imagine any Star War gunfight but less....weird looking)

Unfortunately, the shield that was blocking their path was specifically made for taking such damage. Small dents were created by every impact but nothing more. The guard captain's expression changed as he whistled.

All the firing stopped at once. Whoever was behind the shield seemed surprised as he or she was not expecting it at all. It lifted up and started moving forward after a few seconds.

"Now!"

Just as it had gotten a few feet in, the firing started once again. Only this time it was all focused on one single spot.

Within seconds the concentrated energy blasts burned through the shield and created a small hole right in the middle of it before going straight through. With a loud grunt, the shield fell followed by a fountain of blood, finally revealing the face of the person who was behind it.

"That's....new.."

Hao Xuan was taken aback by what he saw. It was a humanoid beast. Two arms and two legs, covered in armor from top to bottom. Only its face was that of a pig, an actual pig. (Img in authors notes)

"We did it!" while Hao Xuan was busy looking at this new creature, he heard one of the guards shout out in excitement. He looked towards it and it was one of the guards, a girl of about 21 years of age with short black hair. She approached the "creature's" body with a confident smile.

"STOP! Get back in position!" the guard captain shouted in response but it was already too late.

*BANG*

Sound similar to a gunshot came from outside and a chained harpoon shot forward and pierced the girl through the abdomen. She didn't even realize what had happened until it was too late.

She looked down at her own body in disbelief and the chain jerked and was pulled back, taking the girl along with it.

"NO!!" one of the boys suddenly ran towards her but was stopped by the others. This all happened in less than 2 seconds so no one could even react in time.

"AOO!"

With a howl, the screams of the girl coming from outside stopped and more than 20 shadows suddenly shot out from the hole.

"SHOOT! Shoot goddamnit!" the captain shouted in response but most of the young guards were too out of it to even hear him. The shadows materialized right in front of them.

They were even more humanoid creatures, this time with cat-like faces. (Khajiit anyone?)

With pairs of shortswords in their hands, they jumped straight towards the unprepared guards. Without even saying a word all 5 cultivators including Hao Xuan and Jin Wang disappeared from their respective spots and appeared between the guards and the cat creatures.

*Thruuum*