Blue Dragon Part 69

'But we don't pay him anything,' I said, crouching to examine the floor.

'That's precisely the point,' John said, crouching next to me.

The other Immortals moved to join us.

'Stand back,' Na Zha said. 'I'll just blast it open.'

He didn't need to. The building's external doors slammed shut by themselves and the trapdoor flew open. We all stepped back. About a dozen young men climbed up some stairs into the room. They looked like gang members with their dyed hair and tattoos. They carried small guns and grinned.

'd.a.m.n!' John said softly.

The Dragon concentrated and they all collapsed as if they were dead.

'That was unnecessary, Ah Qing,' the Phoenix said. 'You will be reprimanded for that.'

'They were only humans,' the Dragon said, and gestured for us to follow him down the stairs.

I checked one of the young men. The Dragon was right: they were human. And he'd killed every single one of them with his Internal Eye.

The stairs went a long way down but the corridor didn't darken. The walls were lined with white enamel panels, similar to the walls of some of the more upmarket exits to the MTR stations, but there was no visible lighting.

'Touch the wall for me, Emma,' the stone said softly.

I put my hand on the wall as I walked down.

'Touch me to it.'

I turned my hand over and slid the stone against the wall.

'The Grandmother will be nearly as p.i.s.sed as I am,' the stone said. 'I have half a mind to take human form and join you.'

'Stay there,' John said. 'He may not be aware of what you are.'

The stone was silent.

The Tiger took True Form and loped ahead of us. The Phoenix and Dragon stayed in human form; their True Forms would be too big to fit on the narrow stairway. John didn't transform either.

'Will you take True Form, my Lord?' Leo said as he followed us down the stairs.

John was silent, still moving quickly. It was a long way down.

'Oh my G.o.d,' I said softly.

'What, Emma?' Leo said.

I stopped. 'Wait, John,' I said. 'Tell me how bad it is.'

'At the bottom,' John said. 'There are no demons there.'

'At the bottom you will tell me exactly how bad it is, John Chen Wu,' I said grimly, rus.h.i.+ng to keep up.

When we reached the bottom, I looked back. We were a good five storeys down, and the stairs hadn't turned so we'd travelled about two hundred metres in as well. The trapdoor was a tiny square of light a long way behind us.

'Can you sense Simone?' I said.

John concentrated. 'Yes. She is behind us, about three hundred metres away.'

'And about fifty metres down,' the stone said. 'You will need to descend further.'

'Now that we are inside, can you still see the layout?' the Phoenix said.

'In a way,' the stone said. 'Some of it. I may be able to guide you.'

'Good,' John said.

There was an opening at the bottom of the stairs, and we went in. The smell was indescribable. This was obviously where the men had their rest room. There was a television, a table set up for mah jong, a filthy couch and a microwave. Cigarette b.u.t.ts coated the floor and the walls were greasy with smoke. Beer cans were strewn everywhere.

I moved as close to John as I could. 'You will tell me how bad this is right now, or I swear I'll use the phone anyway,' I said.

John glanced at the Tiger.

'Tell her,' the Tiger said, his tail twitching.

John gave in. 'It is very bad. I don't know how much will remain once I take True Form. If there are demons present, the Turtle will destroy them. After that, I don't know.'

'What do you mean, "remain"?' Leo said.

'Sometimes I'm glad none of my wives are as smart as this one,' the Tiger said.

I explained for Leo. 'If he changes while he's this drained, the True Form will probably be all animal. John Chen won't exist. That's why he'll be gone for so long. Like he said, if there are demons around, the Turtle will destroy them, that's its nature. But if there are no demons present, the Turtle could very well just take off.'

Leo glanced at John. John's face didn't s.h.i.+ft but his eyes blazed.

'You should have told us this, my Lord,' Leo said softly.

'I thought I would be coming in after a week with the Lady,' John said. 'If I had spent that week with her, I would have been able to retain control long enough to see the demon destroyed. Now...' His face didn't s.h.i.+ft. 'I am very drained. It is best if I do not release the Turtle until we face One Two Two. Let's go.'

The door opened onto a wider corridor, but it didn't go down. It did make a U-turn to go in the right direction though. We didn't hesitate, we followed it. It was lined with the same white enamel panels and seemed to stretch forever.

'Any corridors or turns or stairs up ahead?' I said.

n.o.body said anything.

'Can anybody see anything at all?'

There was complete silence as we marched down the hallway.

'Hold,' the stone said. 'I think I can sense some demons ahead on the left.'

n.o.body stopped.

'Stop,' I said. 'The stone says there are demons up ahead on the left.'

'You will need to relay for me now, Emma. I'm silenced,' the stone said.

The Immortals stopped and concentrated.

'Hard to tell,' the Phoenix said.

'A large number of very big ones, about ten metres along this corridor on the left,' Na Zha said. 'I'll take them. You go past.'

'You sure?' I said.

Na Zha transformed into his True Form. His pale blue robes flowed around him and his long hair was down to his waist. He held his whip in his left hand and his ring weapon in his right.

'Just go past,' he said. 'Let me take them.' He shook out his shoulders. 'I've been looking forward to having fun with some real opposition for a while. This should be good.'

'Meet up with us later,' John said. 'Enjoy.'

About fifty metres down the hallway, on the left side, was a door. The corridor turned a corner at the door and continued to the right. Na Zha stopped at the door and nodded to us as we went past. When we were about twenty metres away he opened the door and laughed loudly.

We didn't look back. We raced down the hallway. It turned a sharp left at the end. We went around.

A slime waited for us. It was a fluorescent lurid shade of green and hung off the ceiling in a mucousy stringing curtain.

'What the h.e.l.l is that?' Leo said behind me.

'Slime,' I said. 'Very rare and highly toxic. Only energy can take it out. Impossible to tell how big it is until you've hit it. Energy workers have to be very careful with these; sometimes they're big enough to kill you with the chi backlash, but you don't know until you've tried.'

'Then it's obviously meant for you,' Leo said.

'Obviously,' I said. 'It's probably big enough to kill me.'

'That's beside the point,' the Phoenix said. She quickly transformed to True Form and blew a shaft of searing flame directly at the demon from her beak. It shrivelled, blackened and fell off the ceiling. The Phoenix turned back into her preferred human form, with flowing long red hair and a red robe.

'Don't step in it,' she said as she lifted her robes to walk carefully over the smouldering ma.s.s on the floor.

We all followed her, the Tiger leaping easily over the blackened slime. The corridor ended about ten metres away at another door. As one the Immortals stiffened and spun. The Dragon grabbed me and pulled me behind him.

'What?' I said.

'Back,' John said.

'What?' Leo said.

'Ah Na Zha was taken down,' the Dragon said softly. 'I am not sure what these things are that destroyed him, but they are on their way.'

We backed to the door. It was tiled with white enamel and didn't have a handle. I gave it an experimental push. It didn't move.

The Dragon and the Phoenix transformed and moved into position in front of us.

'Go,' the Dragon said, and the door flew open behind me. 'Go and find Simone. Zhu Que and I will handle them. Tiger, Turtle, take them.'

I heard them coming down the hallway, but never saw them. The Dragon pushed me through the doorway with his tail, then pushed Leo and John after me. The Tiger came last. The door closed in our faces.

We were at the top of a flight of stairs that went down about fifty metres to a door at the bottom.

'Simone is at the bottom of the stairs, about twenty metres further along,' the stone said. 'You are nearly there.'

'Nearly there,' I said. 'Bottom of the stairs, about twenty metres further along.'

John didn't say anything as we raced down the stairs. Then he and the Tiger stopped and concentrated.

'There are more on the other side of this door, waiting for us,' John said. Then he went rigid. 'The Dragon and Phoenix are gone-the demons destroyed them-but they managed to take the last couple of turtles with them.'

'Can you three handle them?' the Tiger said.

John concentrated. 'Yes. There are about fifteen level sixty snakes on the other side of this door.'

'I'll scout ahead and find the demon, you get Simone,' the Tiger said. His body s.h.i.+mmered, then he snapped back. 'Can't travel in here; interesting.' He shook his s.h.a.ggy head. 'Ouch.' He grinned up at me. 'I'll just have to destroy these demons with you.'

'Let me go through the door first,' Leo said. 'I'll see how many I can take out before I go down. You can take the rest.'

'Go through together,' the stone said. 'Emma, with energy. Turtle, Lion, Tiger, physical. Go in swinging. You will have more of a chance.'

'Stop, Leo,' I said. 'The stone says go in swinging together. Me with energy, you three with physical.'

'Yes,' John said. 'I'll open the door, Leo stand back, Emma hit them first with energy.'

'Can I shoot chi into the ground?' I said. 'Are we on the ground?'

'Good idea,' the stone said. 'Yes.'

'Into the ground,' I said, and John nodded, understanding.

We readied ourselves. The Tiger used PK to open the door, then he and Leo stepped back.

All I saw was a writhing black ma.s.s on the other side of the door; they were silent, not hissing. They must have been at least thirty centimetres across.

Using my sword, I shot a bolt of chi into the floor and it went right through the middle of the snakes, blowing them up. It popped out of the floor about three metres away at the other end of the room, and I managed to make it swerve through a few more as it returned to me. I'd taken out about five of them. I sent the chi into the earth; if I retrieved that much it would kill me.

John and Leo raced through the door, swords swinging. The Tiger leapt. I followed them in and threw another bolt into the floor, destroying another three demons. Eight down. Seven to go.

The room was about three metres to a side, plain concrete. Just us and the snakes.

John had no difficulty with the demons he faced. He backed into a corner and only one at a time could battle him, they were so enormous. Dark Heavens destroyed them easily as it sliced through them; just its touch seemed to be enough to make them dissipate.

Leo had trouble with the demon he was attacking, so I took it out with a bolt of chi, then threw the result into the floor at another one.