ATAPOW Chapter 182

Chapter 182: Into the Pit

“Why are you two still dozing off? Quickly get him up.” Ji Bai’s roars roused up the two toadies nearby who were hugging their pillar.

“Oh-Okay!” Like a pair of prisoners being granted amnesty, the toadies hastily nodded before speedily scampering off to where Capeau was buried.

Lin had already responded to the sudden developments by releasing her vampire form. A large crowd of tiny bats fleetingly appeared as she broke away from the ground, causing her silver hair to freely sway in the wind.

“So a vampire? …Griffin, swat this brat down!”

“Roar!!…” The griffin let out a long howl at the sky, creating strong gusts of wind with its powerful wings before it suddenly swung them forwards, sending thousands of its thick feathers flying out like arrows.

[Thousand Feathers Punishment]

Lin’s complexion was neutral as her quiet chanting came to its conclusion. With her in its center, a thick blood fog that severely obscured one’s vision began to spread. Following which, countless small bats flew out and began to dance lightly and gracefully within the rain of feathers in pursuit of the griffin.

Despite the storm of feathers piercing through the blood fog with precision and dispersing it with their strong tailwind, their target had long since disappeared without a trace.

At another location, the swarm of small bats speedily converged and coalesced into Lin. Reappearing above the head of the Griffin with a fang-shaped sword in hand, she resembled a Grim Reaper ready to collect on her debt. Her objective was very straightforward; To defeat the one controlling the monster.

Her fang-shaped blade carried a red sharp luster, as she sent it in a ferocious chop towards the purple-gowned elder sitting on the griffin.

“Clank!!” A clear, crisp sound of metal colliding with glass resounded.

Her blade had bounced off some sort of transparent barrier.

“How naive.” The purple-gowned man narrowed his eyes and coldly harrumphed. “A mere second-tier race¹ …”

Lin had already lost the chance to follow up with a subsequent strike in the short lull following her last attack — For the griffin had already raised its massive eagle head.

“Roar!…” Thick and furious flames with a slight golden hue spurted out from its maw.

Even though Lin managed to evade them in the nick of time, she still smelled something burning.

“Ugh…” Her right wingtip was on fire. As the bane of vampires, flames could certainly deal an impressive amount of damage, but only when compared to other attributes. For a strong vampire, an ordinary blaze wasn’t capable of even scratching their back.

Unfortunately for Lin, she quickly realized that this was no ordinary fire.

The raging and slightly-golden flames had no intentions of dying down; Instead, they incessantly dealt damage and gradually formed an infinite loop capable of contesting the formidable regenerative abilities of a vampire.

A vampire whose wings were on fire would naturally have greatly reduced maneuverability and speed in the air. Lin’s opponent would definitely not let such a chance slip.

“Swoosh!” A cloud-piercing arrow² accurately landed on one of the griffin’s swiveling and blinking eyes. Although it did not deal any substantial damage, it successfully infuriated the creature.

“Roar…!” A furious roar unlike that of an eagle or beast resounded, as the furious griffin targeted the one who shot the arrow with their bow.

It spread its powerful wings, creating a lingering smokescreen as large amounts of snow and dirt were blown into the air. Its gargantuan body was nowhere to be found.

Soon, Ji Bai realized that something above him was obstructing the sunlight. As he raised his head, he caught sight of the gradually approaching griffin charging downwards at him from the sky.

Judging from its momentum, it was practically impossible for him to avoid its attack by rolling away. After all, this wasn’t a Souls game and rolling did not grant him invulnerability.

“Boom!!…” In the nick of time, a white silhouette flashed by and exploited the fact that the griffin was still airborne to push Ji Bai away.

The griffin collapsed the three black lacquered metal arches effortlessly, as if the weight of Mount Tai bore down on them. This further excavated the soil and snow, creating a large hole of unknown depth.

“…Thanks, I owe you one.”

Lin received Ji Bai’s word and responded with a roll of her eyes. “If you have time for idle chat, why don’t you think about how to solve our predicament.”

“It is still burning? That shouldn’t be possible.” As he saw the flames continue their furious rampage on Lin’s wings, Ji Bai wondered about the exact origins behind the mysterious griffin. As royalty from a second-tier race, Lin’s ability far exceeded that of a vampire earl, yet she was unable to get even a bit of advantage in their exchanges.

The griffin once again targeted the airborne Lin. Seeing this, Ji Bai wanted to come forward and help her.

Although harassing it with arrows from below was the best he could do as a human, his attacks were extraordinarily weak against such a gargantuan creature capable of flight. Even getting in range of it was difficult, let alone hurting it.

In the sky, a large and a small silhouette were engaged in a clash.

Their huge size disparity was clearly situating Lin, who couldn’t recover her injuries right now, into a disadvantageous position. Even more unbelievable was the unusually formidable combat prowess that this giant creature of unknown origins possessed; Even Lin, a carrier of royal blood, was heavily suppressed and could only occasionally let out a few [Magic] spells as symbolic counterattacks.

One could definitely say that Lin was the only one present who could compete with the cruel and boorish behemoth, with Ji Bai being relegated to a bystander that could only stand at the side and cheer her on. It would only be a lost cause to entrust anything to the three toadies.

“Roar!…” Overbearing fierce flames spurted out of the griffin’s mouth from a crafty angle, sealing every avenue of escape available to Lin.

In a spate of helplessness, she could only choose the second best option and protect her vital points from being burned.

“Crackle!” A large portion of her body brushed against the thick and furiously burning flames.

“Tsk…” A burning smell arose once more.

It had already been extremely taxing for her to remain airborne in the air with her right wing still on fire, but now…

Lin raised her eyebrows and looked towards her left with an expression of annoyance — at her wings, of which only half remained after being consumed by fire.

With half of her demon wings gone, it was evident that she had already lost her ability to remain airborne. Without any suspense, she fell down the cliff — Into the massive caved-in hole caused by the griffin.

A cold and ear-piercing wind blowing from below smoothly brushed past Lin’s ears and blew her hair upwards as she fell ever faster.

As someone who could fly in the sky as easily as walking on flat ground, she felt a sense of helplessness after losing her wings.

A mysterious creature with an unknown attack pattern had caught her off-guard; Everything had happened too suddenly.

Lin closed her eyes.

“Bam!” In her rapid descent, she suddenly felt her body coming to a stop as she felt the pain of her elbow being dislocated.

Opening her eyes, she found out that a strong, large hand extending from the edge of the large precarious pit had held onto her wrist. For a moment, her eyes slightly widened.

“It’s really time for you to go on a diet.” Ridiculed the owner of the large hand in a gloomy voice.

“If you think that I’m too heavy, you can let go.” Lin continued to uphold her seemingly millennia-lasting poker face. However, if Ji Bai had listened to her words carefully, he would probably detect a trace of spite in her tone.

“Alright, alright. I’ll let you have this one, Madame. I would never dream of letting you go.”

“But don’t misunderstand! I wouldn’t be able to explain things to your mom if I lost you.”

Lin’s eyes slightly flashed, as the image of a little two-faced devil that had long expired surfaced in her mind.

“Hmph, so what if it’s a vampire? No matter if it’s a third or four-tier species, everyone can only prostrate to the ground and express their allegiance to the Lord of Sin when faced with his miracles.”

The griffin unleashed a ferocious roar before it swept up another gale that pushed the pair into the unfathomably deep pit.

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Read the Author’s FAQs for more info.
This is actually a subtle quote that the author had slipped in from a Stephen Chow movie. The full line is “A (shot with) the cloud piercing arrow and all the king’s men and all the king’s horses will (show up) in greeting.” In that movie, the main character had masqueraded a firecracker as a signal from the axe gang and threw it, accurately hitting the vice leader’s hat and burning a hole through it. This comedic scene, along with several others from the same movie, had gone viral on the Internet, causing netizens to come up with different iterations of the line.