Maiden Of The Splitting Moon

Moving in unison, the Four Claws rushed forward but this time, She Xing and Yu Tu came first. Knives flew through the air as the rabbit girl threw them out by the handful, aiming to lock Ming Yue down. But it was countered as wind needles shot forth, knocking them out in the air. 

"Wha-"

Not expecting her attack to be dealt with so easily, Yu Tu hurriedly reached for more of her hidden weapons. Meanwhile, She Xing moved forward but Ming Yue vanished from her position and appeared right before her. As the feeling of death loomed over the snake woman, she crossed her curved swords just as Blood Moon came, resulting in a loud ringing as the blades crashed. 

"Urgh, damn!"

From that, She Xing was pushed back several steps. And then, Niu Hong and Qiang Rong ran past her, swinging their weapons out. The latter thrusted out, extending his arm as he grabbed ahold of one end of the staff. 

Ming Yue hopped up landing on the other end before leaping forward and smacking him on the back, forcing the beast- man to lose balance. 

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, ack!"

Tripping forward, he fell face- first into the soft dirt whilst she landed gracefully. However, the remaining members weren\'t going to let her rest for even a moment! 

Niu Hong spun back and brandished his short axe just as She Xing ran from the opposite side. The snake woman was the first to reach Ming Yue, swinging her swords in a strange manner. The curved blades seem to act like snakes in the air. 

"Let\'s see if you can take this!"

As she came, the sword twisted and turned, making it difficult to predict. 

But it was unfortunate for the snake woman, Ming Yue\'s swordplay was based on unpredictability. It didn\'t take her more than a few seconds to stop the attack in its tracks and deflect both swords, knocking them out of her hands. 

Then Ming Yue turned around to find Niu Hong right in front of her with his axe raised behind his back. Exerting his strength, he swung down hard and fast upon the cultivator. Rather than avoid it, she stood firm and swung out, confronting the attack with her own. 

As the two blades met, Blood Moon howled, forcing the axe back and Niu Hong. 

She pressed forward, pushing him back before throwing him off balance. A light glimmered out of the corner of her eye as she waved her hand, bringing forth a wall of wind just as a hail of flying weapons came upon her. 

Looking at Yu Tu, Ming Yue gave chase as the rabbit girl hopped around, throwing more weapons at her. 

At this point, the number of knives and needles among other things was a bit comical. 

"Where is she even hiding all of this? A spatial ring?"

Ming Yue couldn\'t help but be curious. It seemed that there was no end to them but Yu Tu soon ran out, reaching into her pockets and sleeves to feel nothing left. 

There was a slightly panicked look on her face as she took something else out. Retrieving chains out from somewhere, two sickles on each end dropped to the sides. The blades were thin and sharp, long enough to cut someone in half. 

Revealing it, she grabbed the chain with both hands before spinning both ends until the sickles were only a blur. 

By then, Ming Yue had caught up, readying to strike her down. 

But Yu Tu was nimble, evading and widening the gap with every chance she had. And under her control, the two sickles flew out, aiming to strike the limbs or even carve out a section of her back. Rather than avoid it, Ming Yue suddenly closed the gap and grabbed the chain before yanking it, bringing the final member of the Four Claws down. 

And just like that, the sparring ended and the victor was decided. 

"She broke through our formations... twice..."

Niu Hong sat up, looking at Ming Yue as he breathed heavily. 

"I can\'t believe she saw through my Twin Serpent\'s Swordplay. She even managed to avoid almost all of Yu Tu\'s hidden weapons", She Xing muttered, putting her two swords away. 

"She is amazing!"

Unlike the other two, Qiang Rong had a wide grin on his face as he studied himself and Ming Yue. He then looked to the other two members and quietly pointed at her. 

"We\'ll definitely get through those ruins with her help!"

He spoke happily before getting up and dusting himself clean. Spinning his staff, he was practically uninjured, having nothing more than a few scratches. Niu Hong and She Xing got back up as well, both of which were relatively uninjured. 

Cleaning themselves up, Ming Yue returned to them while carrying Yu Tu over her shoulder. The rabbit girl had grown dizzy from the chase, nearly fainting even. 

As the cultivator gently set her down on the ground, Yu Tu muttered under her breath. 

"Ahhhhh, she\'s so close to me. I have to run, I have to run." 

After a few more seconds, she slowly recovered from this, seeing Ming Yue standing in front of her. Out of panic, she reached for another weapon only to touch nothing as she had already used them all. 

"I managed to collect the weapons you threw out. I don\'t know if it\'s all of them so please count." 

Going into her spatial ring, Ming Yue dumped out a pile of Yu Tu\'s weapons which included the chained sickles, dagger, knives, darts, needles, and more. 

Looking at it, Yu Tu stared at the pile before glancing back at her. And then, Niu Hong stepped forward. 

"It was our loss", he said. 

However, Ming Yue shook her head. 

"This was just a way to warm up and get to know each other\'s skills. Victory and defeat do not matter at all. Let\'s just make our preparations and head to these ruins you speak of."

She replied before turning back and entering the house to gather her things. 

The Four Claws looked at each other with slight surprise. 

"She is definitely an expert. To be able to deal with our formations and skills so easily, it\'s a bit monstrous."

"The human acts very maturely for her age, I wonder what sort of experiences she\'s gone through. There\'s certainly more than just the war that\'s influenced her." 

"In any case, let\'s just get this over with. Head to the ruins and clear it out before it gets too dangerous."

"Right."

After that quick spar, everyone was feeling energetic and alert. As the sun rose to its peak, the Four Claws were ready.

Ming Yue had packed the wolf pelts and cleaned up the house. Stepping out of the house, she turned back and grabbed the door to close it. 

"Come on, you two, let\'s go!"

She called out to Hei Yue and Xiao Yin, who came out just as she closed the door.

Together, they gathered by the edge of the clearing along with the group of beast people. 

"Please lead the way."

Gesturing towards them, Ming Yue and her two pets stayed in the back while Niu Hong led the way. Along the walk, he began to tell everyone more about the ruins they were going to.

"The ruins are south of here, about a week\'s worth of walking. If we rush, we might be able to get there in three days. While little has been explored about these ruins, from the size of them, it is massive. Exploring all of it may take much longer than we predicted. Although with your help, it might not be so bad."

He looked at her out of the corner of his eye before looking forward. 

"And considering what it looks like, a name was decided just last night.. It will be called the \'Ruins of a Broken Banner\'."