Maiden Of The Splitting Moon

She felt as if she had aged ten more years as sweat dropped from her forehead. Then, hundreds of gazes looked upon the ship.

"What is this?"

Senior Bei could not help but gasp as this change, she had never seen them move before. Each and every time she came here, these spirits had always just stared into empty space. What had changed now?

Moments later, a wave of energy came over everything, it was oppressive and imposing. It was similar to that of what Ming Yue felt in that formation only much more powerful. It washed over everything in a instant but that instant nearly pushed everyone down to their knees. Even the ship creaked and groaned from this.

As that wave of energy washed over these spirits, their empty eyes seemed to glimmer with life as one by one, they began to blink and look around.

"We must leave! The spirits are alive!" Senior Bei shouted out.

"What? Why now?"

"That can't be..."

"How is that possible?"

Everyone looked around and found that the senior was right. Both Long Wang and Long Wei had left the captain's cabin to see as well. On their apathetic face was now an expression of surprise and disbelief. None of them knew what had happened nor did they understand what was happening now. This was the first time they had seen this and they were stuck in a trance of shock.

"What are you all doing?! We have to leave now!"

Senior Bei yelled out, knocking Long Wang out of her trance. Long Wang shook her brother, waking him as well and they headed towards the captain's cabin.

The ghastly spirits looked around and their eyes locked onto the ship.

"Ship. Ship. Ship. Ship", they chanted as if this was the only thing in their minds.

Wading through the waters, they moved closer to it. Was this their chance to once again take the helm and explore these waters. Their chants grew louder and soon it turned to shouting and screaming before devolving into gargled screams and guttural roars.

"Everyone, prepare to protect the back!" the siblings called out form the cabin.

The ship slowly moved forward and the dark green armor on the hull shifted towards the front, leaving the back exposed. As they began to pick up speed, the spirits did the same. Their slow gait became running until some began to sprint on their four limbs.

With multiple layers of armor at the front, the ship charged through whatever wreckage was in front of them. Even with these hindering their path, they did not lose speed and tore through whatever was in their way.

But in no way have they escaped this predicament yet. In fact, it had only begun for these spirits seemed to mutate on the spot. The limbs that were that of a dragon's slowly took over the rest of the body, transforming them into hideous dragons that looked more like a winged lizard. They had become mutated dragon spirits, any trace of humanity was gone from them.

Some flew, others chased on the waters, leaping out to grab ahold of the ship. In the front, the armor went through anything in its path but there was bound be be a few who clung to the small crevices and climbed up.

"Protect the ship at all costs!" Tian Zhui yelled out as he took out his fan and began to attack the creatures climbing up the sides.

Everyone did the same either taking out their weapon or manning the cannons to attack.

With her umbrella, Senior Bei pointed it at the mutated dragon spirits before activating it, shooting out a beam from the point of the umbrella. When one came close, she would open it, sending out a wall of energy that pushed them off. At a touch of this energy, these spirits began to melt, slowly turning back into energy.

Tian Zhui waved his white fan as crescent waves of wind came from each swing. He protected nearly a quarter of the ship's hull on his own. Standing on the edge and attack with speed and accuracy. Sharp and austere, these waves cut through the bodies like it was nothing. With his other hand, he shot out balls of compressed wind that propelled the bodies off of the ship and forced them back into the water.

With her mace in hand, Xin Kuo pointed it at the ascending spirits. The gold gem glowed, imbuing the mace head with golden lightning. Holding it like a wand, thick lines of lightning coursed from its head and into the first spirit before splintering into the ones below it. Convulsing and roaring in pain, they could not hold onto the hull and fell back to the water.

The Roaring Thunder Cannons attacked constantly, shaking the earth and creating loud booms all over the sea. Unfortunately, as powerful as they were, the sounds only attracted more of these mutated spirits.

Like hordes, they chased after the ship, climbing up like ants on a mound. These inhuman creatures, neither man nor dragon, flocked to it, surrounding it. They piled onto each other as they dug into the exposed hull. The dense wood that made up its body was punctured with hulls but they were not deep enough to go through it.

But with these countless monsters coming onto the ship, its speed slowed down even as the Long Siblings pushed its power to the limits. The mechanical rudder could only do so much.

Ming Yue walked towards the front of the ship. The armored bow of it was damaged and covered in these spirits, all clinging on with their misshapen claws and slowly making their way up. Using Wrath of the Winds, she created a massive hurricane with enough power to pull them off of the hull. She pushed it forward, clearing the path of any approaching creatures and allowing the ship to push forward.

That move drained her Quintessence energy by a third but that hurricane had shredded through everything in its path. Any spirit caught in it was dead and turned back into dragon energy.

From the air, several mutated dragon spirits came down, shooting orbs of fire and flame. She unsheathed her sword and pushed off of the shipdeck. Supporting herself with a burst of wind, she flew up and sliced the orbs before cutting the spirits in half.

"They're endless!"

One of the researchers yelled out as they spin their spear about and threw it down. Under their control, the spear flew about, piercing bodies in fluid motions.

Everyone tried their best to ward off these spirits.

Senior Bei held the umbrella on one hand before pulling out the sword on her hip. The longest of the three, she opened up a compartment of the umbrella, replacing the handle and shaft with the sword. She closed the umbrella and wielded it like a sword. At the tip, energy gathered before forming a blade three meters in length. She swept it across the back of the ship, ridding it of the massive number of sprits.

Even with everyone working together, they could not continue like this. They were getting tired, the Roaring Thunder Cannons were losing power. If something didn't happen, they would be overrun.

As Ming Yue looked ahead, she noticed something strange. Many of these spirits had largely ignored the ship and opted to move forward and go deeper into the gravesite. But something had blocked them form coming further. Even as they clawed and struggled their way in, they could not move even an inch further.

Ming Yue ran back to the captain's cabin and quickly entered. She saw the two siblings hard at work, commanding a massive table full of levers and buttons.

"There's something up ahead and its blocking the spirits from going any further."

She informed them as they stared at the controls, looking up to see her as they heard those words. Something must have clicked as they moved quickly clicking a few buttons and pushing a lever forward.

There was a loud bang outside as the ship suddenly gained speed. It plowed through everything in front of it and charged forward.. As they reached closer to this invisible barrier, the spirits began to lose focus and stopped paying attention to the ship, instead rushing towards this barrier.