The Story Of Dusk

Senja didn"t like the way he talked to her, no, she didn"t like all of them.

Ignoring his innuendo, Senja wrapped the brown cloak, which the leader of the bandit had given to her, around her body tightly as she hugged her legs in defensive gesture, didn"t want to continue the conversation.

"Even if you hide yourself under the cloak, he will find a way to get to you." The man slurred and laughed drunkenly before he walked away and finally left Senja alone.

Senja gulped down and fought back her tears. At this time, she hoped she was death in that forest in the first attempt to kill her.

Suddenly a commotion was happening. No one knew where it started, but suddenly all of the men had raised their sword and was in fighting position.

It was so noisy with many people were shouting at each other.

When Senja raised her head, she saw white smoke in the air that covered her vision and made her blind for awhile. She couldn"t even see her own hands as the white smoke thickened.

"What is this!?" The men shouted to their fellow. "Put out the smoke!!!"

"Gather together!"

"We are being attacked!"

Despite all the commotion, it was only the leader of the bandit, who was thinking if this smoke was only a distraction from their opponent to get whatever they wanted from them.

"WHERE IS THAT GIRL!? BRING THAT GIRL TO ME!" He yelled and dashed toward the spot, which he a.s.sumed, where Senja was sitting a moment ago.

But the little girl had gone.

"THAT GIRL IS GONE!" He roared in anger.

***  

Among the thick white smoke, Senja could feel someone was holding her from back, covered her mouth and easily carried her away easily.

She tried to struggle and get free from her this strange person with no avail, he was a grown up man and too strong for Senja.

From afar, she could hear the leader of the bandit was calling out her name and ordered his men to look for her.

If this person behind her wasn"t one of the bandits, then who was he?

Senja tried to tilt her head, so she would have a better look on her new kidnapper, but he covered her face and the only thing that Senja could see was his pair of eyes, that somehow was familiar.

"Stop fight me, will you!?" A sharp hissed sounded on her ear from that man.

Senja stopped struggling as she blinked her eyes, the voice also sounded familiar to her. Only when she had stopped moving around and they were had already far enough from the thick white smoke, the man put her down and pulled down the mask that covered his face.

"Gong Xu?!" Senja"s eyes opened wide in surprised, she would have never thought that he would come for her rescue. "You come to save me!?"

After the surprised, Senja"s eyes shone brightly.

"No, I come to see whether you still alive or death." Gong Xu replied offhandedly as he shook the remnant of white dust from his robe and his hair.

Senja also did the same, she combed her hair clumsily. Because her hair was so long it took some time for her to get rid of it.

"I am alive." Senja grinned. She felt very happy when she knew Gong Xu was there, risking his life to save her. She felt all of her desperation feeling before was worth it. "Where we will go?"

"Come." Gong Xu grabbed Senja"s wrist and led her toward the place where he had hid his horse.

Because of Senja"s short legs, Gong Xu couldn"t run faster, as he has to wait for her, in the end, impatiently he carried her again on his back.

Gong Xu also helped Senja to get on the horse and was about to leave that area when he felt something sharp pierced through his chest.

Gong Xu couldn"t hear Senja"s shrill scream, but from her expression he knew how dreadful the scene that she was seeing now.

Atop of the horse, Senja could see the tip of an arrow pointed out from his right shoulder.

Out of reflex, Gong Xu drew his sword and turned around to face his attacker. As if he couldn"t feel the pain, he pulled out the arrow from his chest and pressed his wound with his hand as the blood started gushing out through his fingers and trickled down on the ground, dyed the barren land with red color.

"Gong Xu!" Senja jumped from the horse and was about to come closer to look his wound, but Gong Xu stopped her.

"Don"t come closer!" He said in low voice, from his tone, she knew the pain was almost unbearable.

And then from the direction where that arrow was shot, the leader of the bandit appeared. He managed to track them down.

He walked very slow with devilish smirk grazed his lips. However, he was alone, his men were nowhere to be seen.

"So, it is you…" The man was taller and bulkier than Gong Xu, it felt like the later wouldn"t stand a chance if the fight were about to break, added that to the wound that Gong Xu suffered.

Gong Xu was squinted his eyes dangerously, his grip on his sword tightened.

"Gong Xu, the son of the mind controller, Modama." The man drawled, he knew Gong Xu real ident.i.ty.

"Who are you?" Gong Xu didn"t like the way he addressed him, even felt disgusted when his name was mentioned in the same breath with his father.

"Me? You will not know me, but you will know about L clan." He said, grinning. The distance between them wasn"t too far, so Gong Xu could figure out what he was saying.

Gong Xu expression turned unsightly when he read his lips and recognized that clan named. "L clan…" He said that name with venom in his tongue.

Of course Gong Xu knew that clan.

L clan was one of Modama and the Emperor"s paw, the force that they had been cultivating to topple Black Sword Clan"s strength.

With the mention of L clan, Gong Xu started his attack, he dashed toward the leader of the bandit with lightning speed and slashed his sword viciously, his eyes burnt with killing intent as if the wound on his arms had never exist.

It surprised the leader of the bandit as well, seeing his movement and his speed was something that not many people could master it.

The leader of the bandit was barely could defense himself with the waves of attack from Gong Xu, no wonder he was the son of the mind controller, his skill was extraordinary.

In the other hand, Gong Xu was like a madman who swung his sword toward all direction, looking for the opening that could take down that leader faster.

If the battle was taking long time, he would be in disadvantage because of the blood loss that he suffered, hence he needed to end this as soon as possible, not to mention if this man"s henchmen came to help him, there was only a slight chance for him to survive.

"I heard your sister was died." The leader of the bandit was trying to distract Gong Xu"s concentration. "Do you know the rumor in the capital city about that? Or what Prince Xiao Tianyao has been planning?" He asked, the mocking tone in his voice was clear to hear.

However, the thing that he didn"t know was, Gong Xu couldn"t hear him, neither he wanted to give an extra effort to understand what he was going to say. The only thing in his mind was to kill him.

"Prince Xiao Tianyao was looking for you, because he thought you are the one who had killed his wife." He continued, despite Gong Xu"s lack of interest. "Even though I don"t know you and Luna pretty well, but I know you would never do something like that. So, who had exactly killed your lovely sister?"

Gong Xu also didn"t hear that, his focus was somewhere else, however Senja, who was standing on the side, could hear that clearly.

Senja knew about Prince Xiao Tianyao, she had met with him once in the past when her grandfather and her father came to "rescue" her from Uncle Ye Xiu.

She also heard about the news of the death of Prince Xiao Tianyao"s woman, as they had never married before, so people couldn"t say that Luna was his wife.

The rumor was a little bit complicated, because people said Luna was killed, but until now the murderer was still not captured yet and instead of chased for the murderer, Prince Xiao Tianyao was building his own force that was called; Crescent Moon.

This confused people, moreover, Prince Xiao Tianyao had never brought this matter to the palace and asked for the Emperor"s helping hand to capture the person that responsible.

But, was what the leader of the bandit said true? Luna was Gong Xu"s sister and he had killed his own sister?

Gong Xu didn"t answer that, because he even didn"t know that question existed. By now, he had managed to draw blood from that man legs and arms.

Seeing his method didn"t work, that man focused his attention on getting a chance to ask for help. He tried to send the signal, but Gong Xu was fast to act.

He kicked his hand that was holding a small firework and landed another kick on his chest. The firework dropped from his hand and heartlessly was stepped by Gong Xu until it turned into dust.

However, as cunning as the leader of the bandit, he had another firework on his hand and managed to lit it up.

Gong Xu was too late to stop him as he looked at the sky that suddenly turned bright for a couple of minutes before it resumed its darkness.

In exchange, Gong Xu threw his sword toward that man"s chest a second before the firework stopped it signal.

The man was caught out of guard and fell on his knees, the arrogant smirk on his lips immediately disappeared as he vomited blood.

Gong Xu stormed toward him and drew his sword from his body before he stabbed him on the back.

Senja had to close her eyes, upon seeing this gruesome scene before her eyes.

A moment later, she felt Gong Xu had stood beside her and held her elbow. "We need to get out from here quickly." He said weakly between his panting.

"Yes." Senja nodded vigorously and ran toward their horse. She tried to climb it, but it was hard for her without help.

Gong Xu then wrapped his arm around Senja"s waist and hoisted her up, secure her between his strong arms.

However, because of the wound from the arrow from before was still bleeding, the blood also drenched on Senja"s shoulder and tainted her dress.

"Are you all right?" Senja looked up and witness Gong Xu"s pale face, as white as cloud in the clear sky.

"Don"t mind me." Gong Xu said in difficulty as he could feel there were many people were about to approach that spot.

Just like what Gong Xu thought, it didn"t take them long time to find the spot where the firework had been sent and swarmed that place.

Gong Xu was late to make an escape as soon as they saw their leader had laid down on the ground motionlessly like a rug doll, with thunderous roared they charged toward Gong Xu and Senja

Gong Xu tried to fight them from the horse while protecting Senja, it wasn"t an easy task and he didn"t have a good chance to go away from this situation either.