Zhang Wang just needed a moment to get over himself.
With deep breath drawn in, he remembered that this was hardly the first time he was stuck in a situation as such. And while he'd mostly gotten over the raging jealousy and envy he felt for Sikong Ren, an entirely different feeling of incompetence seemed to plague him when it was the demon king at his side.
The sound of battle distanced, slowed, as Zhang Wang processed his thoughts. He blamed his chaotic mind for throwing him off balance and making him doubt his every move.
And that strange feeling of wishing he could impress Yu Yanlin rather than disappoint him? Hah! Utterly useless.
First of all, how could he ever hope to impress the demon king? That was just too high a standard and Zhang Wang was already familiar with having standards too high. They never did anything good for his sanity.
Letting go of some of the tension that had knotted in his shoulders, Zhang Wang closed his eyes and focused his breath. He drew his bow and felt the vibrations under his foot.
But Yu Yanlin was still mysteriously at his side, as though the demon was strangely hesitating about something.
There came the second point; what was even the point of wanting to impress Yu Yanlin. Nothing good ever came out of such desires in the first place! Zhang Wang blamed himself for innately being a people-pleaser but also being too pathetic to ever follow up. With his half-assed personality, he understood that he was going to gain nothing out of these sentiments.
He spoke calmly to the demon king at his side, "You don't have to worry about me, you know? I know I might not be as strong or anything but I can hold my own. I've survived for this long after all."
"Hm…" Yu Yanlin didn't exactly feel comfortable readily leaving Zhang Wang's side. But at the same time, he found that his arguments were meager and mostly born out of a strange sort of selfishness that he couldn't articulate very well. "If you say so then."
It only took a blink of an eye.
And Yu Yanlin was gone from Zhang Wang's side.
In that instant, he had drawn Ermei and slashed into the side of the snake. Viscous fluid gushed out, the creature writhed and flailed. And Ariunbayar unleashed another rain of arrows.
Zhang Wang had no AOE skill or whatever special power she was using. Instead, he could only rely on the pinpoint precision that he had trained out of frustration in his younger years.
Though now it was dark and he couldn't readily rely on his sight. He had to reconstruct the cavern and the position of both his allies and foe with other means. So he did it by listening to the echos and the subtle vibrations in the ground.
The whole world seemed to narrow. The image painted in his mind was unlike the one he knew with crisp edges and vibrant colors. But he could make out thrums of presence and could determine where the lifeforce of each being inside the cavern currently stood. He could also predict what they might do next…
And even when there was no way for Zhang Wang to follow Yu Yanlin's movements even if there were light, he felt certain about the path the demon king would take in the span of a second; which was plenty of time for a being that moved as fast as the demon king.
Though there was no need to keep up with that absurd being, it didn't make Zhang Wang useless. He only had to prove his worth in serving a helping hand in killing the stupid snake.
That's right.
It was a snake, and not a worm.
The Immortal of a Thousand Blossoms would dwell on that thought later.
He drew his bowstring taut and waited for just the perfect opportunity. Without a flicker of hesitation, he let go.
The arrow that was released from his hand was enchanted; not as much as Ariunbayar's huge simultaneous volley, but the arrow picked up both speed and power each millimeter it traveled. It ripped through the air, passing by the tip of Ariunbayar's nose and almost brushing Yu Yanlin's rib. But it missed them and instead entered the serpent's mouth, exactly when the beast was opening up his huge maw.
The creature was barreling forward at absurd speeds. In combination with the tearing force that the arrow carried, thanks to the attached enchantments, the weapon tore right through the snake's skull and shot out the other side. It kept going even after it was free from flesh, embedding itself into the stony wall behind the beast. Specks of rubble tumbled to the ground.
The snake was still striking from its forward momentum and fell in a strange extended position, dead in an instant.
Ariunbayar and Yu Yanlin stood over the corpse and watched the way it twitched and squirmed for a bit before it really lay completely lifeless.
Zhang Wang let out a sigh of relief, glad that he was able to somewhat prove his worth. The keyword being somewhat. He was not delusional to believe that they needed his help. More accurately, he was certain that Yu Yanlin could have easily dealt with the monstrosity with a single hand if he truly put his heart into the fight.
Just as he was about to relax and join the other two over the snake corpse, Yu Yanlin held out a hand and said, "Wait. Don't come closer." The way he spoke to Zhang Wang at that moment was not gentle and more akin to a command. He froze, almost on instinct.
Like out of some dumb cheap horror flick, the serpent's dead glassy eyes slowly reignited with an ominous red glow. And the stifling devilish energy that Zhang Wang had been choking on earlier doubled in an instant.
Ariunbayar gasped in shock, stepping back out of instinct and Zhang Wang stilled. Only Yu Yanlin was calm out of the three.
One second the snake was on the ground, still and dead. In another, it was gone from its spot on the cave floor, its entire huge body disappeared into nothingness.
Ariunbayar startled even more, she shuffled backward and almost fell on her arse. With a light unladylike curse, she gripped her bow tighter and veered her head around. But she couldn't see anything and couldn't sense anything either. Zhang Wang's spiritual sense was equally crippled by the oppressive cloud of devilish energy that permeated around them.
Yu Yanlin was quiet, as unmoving as a statue.
Neither the Immortal of a Thousand Blossoms nor the Princess of the Steppes could follow what happened next.
Yu Yanlin also disappeared from where he stood, reappearing on the other side of the cave hall. The giant snake was thrown against stone, causing a giant indent in the rock. It struck back at him. The enormous head snaked behind him just as he parried the first blow.
It almost seemed that the beast was matched with the demon king!
The princess was miffed at this development. She drew her bow anyway, aiming around the room for wherever it might be the snake and man might suddenly slow their movements enough for her to follow. Whenever she'd hear a sound she would first shoot an arrow in that direction, then quickly draw and readied her stance once more. But she knew that not a single arrow was even grazing its target.
"Just what is going on!?" She huffed loudly, voice clear with annoyance.
Zhang Wang cursed and, unlike the Princess, gave up on his bow and strapped it to his back. He already knew that he was going to directly contribute to this battle unless it was getting his entire body blown to pieces by a single hit from either the demon king or the absurd snake.
That didn't mean he was just going to give up and completely run away from danger.
In fact, he even walked closer and closer to the fight. Each movement they made seemed to make the air ripple with a large boom, shaking loose rock from their surroundings. The entire cave rumbled terribly like an earthquake. Zhang Wang wondered if everything was just going to cave in and result in the three of them being buried alive.
Frankly, he wasn't interested in having a premature death. And so he did what anyone with more than two brain cells did and fearlessly approached the battle in the thick veil of darkness.
Ariunbayar shrieked at him as he passed her. "Where are you going? Do you want to die?"
Zhang Wang shrugged. He didn't owe her an explanation and just kept walking on.
His eardrums threatened to burst at any second. But in truth, he was trying his damnedest to ignore the lightning-speed battle. Again he closed his eyes and tried to hone his senses. This time he needed neither his eyes nor his hearing. He was honing his sixth sense.
Zhang Wang was trying to make out the true perpetrator for this deadly and sickening black aura that seemed to eat life and fun out of your life. He couldn't help but think that there had to be some sort of anchor for this evil air that wasn't necessarily just attached to the table.
He only noticed this when the serpent zipped from one side of the room to the other, the air itself changed little to nothing at all.
Perhaps it could be argued that the serpent could control both the extent and intensity of the evil aura in the hall, but it was unlikely.
And suddenly a thread of vile energy floated into focus. He drew his bow again, ignoring the thrashing and the loud clash between beast, demon and girl.
He let go of his bowstring. The arrow cut through the air and collided with a black barrier. A boom. The air rippled with a force so strong his balance stumbled.