Tunde dashed at the azure wing himself, relic wrapped with Ethra as the blue spears of Ethra shot at him. Adept tier Ethra singing through his body, his physique feeling more grounded and more powerful than he’d ever felt, he flipped around the spear, the relic shattering the attack before shooting at the creature. Elder Joran smashed his fists wrapped with vibration Ethra against the blue spears, the attacks driving him backward a few steps before he deflected the rest and made it toward the creature.
The azure wing beat its crystalline wings as it flew a few meters into the air, roaring again, its sonic attack tearing through the air around it. Tunde covered himself with his aura that rippled, straining against the attack with little effect this time, he was an adept now, the azure wing was an early tier 4 creature, it was strong, and its attacks stronger. Rolling away from its body, spitting dirt from his mouth, he gripped the relic tighter,
The creature was making it hard for them to get close to it, elder Joran tsked, firing two projectile attacks that shot through the air, shaping themselves into sharp pointed spear attacks. The creature’s wings came down, the attack smashing into it, a web crack revealing itself on the wing. Tunde took advantage of it, making another dash at the creature that turned its entire attention on him.
He felt the gaze of the predator and almost faltered in his steps, the gaze of the creature seemingly restricting him for a second as it shot at him. He brought the relic crashing into it, the creature’s claws clashing with the blade of the relic and getting summarily cut cleanly. He rolled to a stop as the creature turned to deflect the attack of the elder who slammed into it with another attack on its skull.
It roared, slamming its feet into the ground and throwing the both of them backward, Tunde got to his feet, drawing more on the Ethra in the air, the elder sighing.
“This is becoming more troublesome than expected,” he said.
Tunde nodded, glancing down at the blade, the creature glowing with power that ran all the way from its spine to its head, its, mane glowing with blue Ethra.
“That can’t be good,” he said.
The creature opened its mouth a a blue storm of power tore forth, searing into the walls as it shot it in their direction. Student and teacher scattered, taking shelter behind rocks even as the attack ate into the surroundings, their protection growing hot. Breathing heavily, Tunde left the protection of the stones and dashed towards the creature, robes flapping as he grabbed a stone and lobbed it at the creature, resonance exploding on its wing with a blast, driving it a few steps backward.
Elder Joran grabbed a long piece of stone, his hands vibrating till he shaped it into a spear, drawing its hand back and throwing it with all the force of a projectile. The stone spear smashed into the azure wing with an explosion, throwing it a few feet backward when Tunde considered throwing the blade. It would no doubt cut into the azure blade, hopefully doing devastating damage, the moment he had the thought, he felt the blade draw heavily on his Ethra as he staggered mainly in shock, drawing more from his adept heart that beat with renewed force to make up for it.
The blade shuddered, cracked, and began to reform itself, elongating and stretching with intention till it became a black spear, its black metal glowing with inscriptions that held power but were meaningless to him. The elder whistled as he stared at it, Tunde gripping it firmly, surprise all over his face/
“I’m guessing you didn’t know it could do that?” he asked.
“no” he whispered.
The azure wing roared again as it staggered on its feet, its gaze on them. Elder Joran laid his hand on a large piece of rock, vibration Ethra running through its form as it broke and shaped itself into a set of blades, the elder grabbing them.
“I’ll get you a chance, bring it down,” he said before shooting for the creature.
Its wing cracked and unable to take flight, along with one of its crystal claws shattered, the azure wing geared up again to attack the adept. Joran was a blur of motion around the beast, weaving in and out with preternatural grace, his stone swords shattering as they came in contact with the swipes of the beast but not before releasing shards of tectonic explosions that ripped across its body, pushing it back.
The elder’s projection technique, tiger’s roar took shape in each fist as he landed blow after blow on the creature, doing his best to push it into range of Tunde. Tunde hefted the spear well enough, drawing his hand back as he pushed resonance into it, pouring enough of the technique into it till the staff began to shake with the raw power he pumped into it.
Ethra sight followed the movements of the elder and the flow of his Ethra within his body, a beautiful sight to behold, the intricate way with which the elder switched from imbuement to projection. The creature beat its wings, Joran attempting to counter with a sound affinity technique when he was pushed to one side, struggling to his feet. The creature began to glow again, pumping more power into its body as its mane took on the bluish glow once again, its jaws opening and blue power building within its throat.
“Now!” Joran shouted.
Tunde threw the spear, the weapon leaving his hand with an explosion of power, tearing across the space between them in the blink of an eye before slamming into its throat, pinning it to the wall as it began to shudder and shake, growing brighter. Tunde dived for cover when it exploded, the power tearing across the room with a bang, his ears ringing as he forgot to shield them with his aura. Sight dizzy from the explosion, he shook his head, struggling to his feet and coughing, staring at the destruction they had wrought across the cave.
Elder Joran covered with dust got to his feet, slapped his hands together as the dust all over him blew away, leaving him spotless. Tunde envied the technique, whatever it was as he moved closer to the point of destruction, staring at the slag crater where the fleshy sizzling remains of the beast lay along with his spear. It was the first time he had actively released the weapon from his grasp and Tunde found it oddly uncomfortable, picking it up as it shuddered melting back to a band around his wrist, black lines tracing from it to his fingers. Blue Ethra began to flow up from the remains of the creature where a glowing blue core stared up at him along with gore. The elder stared at the core of the azure wing, his void ring swallowing it as he sat on the ground.
Tunde sat next to him in silence, the raw power he stole from the remains of the creature running rampant within him as the relic distilled it, passing the rest into him slowly but steadily. He felt his entire body drink it in, his exhausted body becoming reinvigorated as he released a sigh of relief.
“That was terrifying,” he said.
Joran chuckled.
“Initiate and disciple battles are more of showing off techniques and finesse, adept and other higher stages as far as I know are more about putting down the opponent as quickly and as brutally as possible” he replied.
“Why haven’t you used the tier 5 resources you have?” Tunde asked him.
Those were highlord ranked resources, Tunde’s mouth-watering, at the thought even of those tier 4 resources they had seen within Zehra’s ring.
“Rift cores and powerful affinity items are the best way the higher you go, not only do they help stabilize your body, heart, and my soon to be core, but they help improve the elixirs you’ll otherwise use” Joran explained.
“Within this ring is a grade 5 ice affinity gem for advancement, too powerful and definitely not for me,” Joran said.
“Tiers, grades, they tend to get confusing” Tunde grumbled.
“As long as you know their level, then it doesn’t matter,” Joran said, getting to his feet.
He had picked the corpse or what was left of it clean of anything useful, leaving the remnant gore that slowly burned away in place.
“As I once explained, a tier 1 essence fruit could also be called an initiate essence or grade 1 essence fruit, it’s mostly for recording or official purposes depending on where you are, nothing much” Joran continued.
The final part of the cave was open to them now, revealing a small room, filled with the same blue flowers, this time glowing with the same blue power wafting off of them. They illuminated the room, revealing a stone-shaped pedestal where a blue stone sat within a water fountain. Tunde sucked in a breath, staring at the tiny stone of raw power, feeling its potency all the way from where he stood.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“That stone” he whispered audibly.
Elder Joran swallowed as he took a few steps forward, crouching and watching the luminous blue water flow past them. He dipped one hand inside, bringing it to his lips as his eyes widened with a jolt that ran through him.
“Pure power,” he said.
Turning to Tunde, the elder spoke again, this time with a smile and awe in his voice.
“Tunde, I’m not sure you realize what we’ve stumbled upon,” he said.
“The source of the water?” Tunde asked.
Elder Joran nodded.
“And more, if I'm right, and from what I’m looking at I definitely most am,” Joran said pausing, turning his gaze to the stone.
“That stone is the single most important item within this rift” he finished.
Tunde’s eyebrows rose at that.
“Not the rift crystal?” he asked.
They were talking about a tier 4 rift crystal here, with so much power that the first to use it in their advancement to lord stage would have nothing short of a stable advancement, to say a single stone not even that defended was more important than it sounded ludicrous to him. Joran stared all around again before plucking one flower off the wall.
“a few of these and one refined tier 4 advancement pill and I could see myself as one of the strongest lords of Jade Peak City, one of the high rankers of the empire even” Joran whispered before he began plucking them with haste, throwing them into his void ring.
Tunde followed suit, the both of them working in silence, moving quickly till the entire room had been plucked clean. They turned their gaze to the stone itself, rings already filled with both flowers and the spare ones filled with the sparkling water.
“And to think that at one point, I had plans to plant these flowers,” Joran said with a chuckle.
Tunde turned to him with a smile.
“Advancement is right within our grasp,” he said.
“To an extent” Joran replied.
‘You start advancing at breakneck speed without spending enough time settling your core and heart, you risk issues down the line” Joran warned.
“it’s not about how fast you go, it’s about how well you develop, many lords today find themselves stuck at their ranks, unable to advance due to bad foundations, their cores unable to handle the strain of the heavens as they push towards the next stage of advancement,” Joran said.
“It’s why you’ve stayed an adept this long, strengthening your heart?” Tunde asked hesitantly.
Joran nodded.
“That and the rank of lord comes with more responsibilities, not just to the clan but to the empire itself,” Joran said.
“You become a proper cultivator, not some young being blindly finding their way around the world” the elder added.
Tunde found it a bit shocking that adepts weren’t respected much in the world, he had seen what they could do, what he could do, and yet, he knew it was true. He had seen what lord Alaric could do as well, and they were leagues above adepts, he estimated three of elder Joran could bring down Alaric. The lord might be strong, but Tunde doubted he was the strongest lord in the entirety of the empire.
If they were to go by how everyone kept referring to Jade Peak as being on the outskirts of the empire and continent itself, then Tunde imagined that meant that despite being as awe-inspiring as lord Alaric and Lirien turned out to be, there were more powerful lords within the empire, and that meant he had an absurd way to go.
He watched the elder stretch his void ring out towards the stone, the ring swallowing it as the entirety of the cave was thrown into darkness, and then the rumbling began.
“Should have expected that,” Joran said as the both of them dashed out of the room.
Ethra sight and vibration Ethra led the two adepts out of the tunnels and into the waterfall itself where they shot out from. Tunde felt the rift Ethra in the air soak into his body with renewed strength, his adept rank body drinking to its fill as he landed on a rocky bank, staring around at the sparse vegetation. He turned in the direction of where the most rift Ethra was coming from, Ethra sight revealing the location to him as he pointed towards it.
“There, the rift crystal is that way,” he said.
Elder Joran cracked his neck, stretching his frame.
“we’d be facing stiff opposition,” he said.
“True, but we’re now on equal terms” Tunde replied as he felt power running through him.
Together they began making their way through the dry land, the vast swampy forest behind them. Casually jogging through the vegetation, they came across peak tier 4 rodents, Tunde simply pulverizing them to bits with his fists as he ran around them, elder Joran herding them in line, reducing them from overwhelming Tunde.
When they were done, the rest scattering away in pure terror, the elder and Tunde made their way toward the tall mountains in the distance. The elder stopped after a while, freezing the closer they got to the mountains, speaking softly.
“I believe we have company,” he said.
Tunde’s Ethra sight revealed the figures coming in the distance, two of them, he began to cycle his Ethra in preparation when five more presences revealed themselves, Tunde surprised. Joran turned to the left with a frown, Tunde confused.
“Something doesn’t feel right about this,” he said.
Lady Zehra and an adept revealed themselves, stopping a few meters from them, rage in the heiress’s eyes, the other adept steeling her gaze on Joran who folded his hands behind him.
“You have something that belongs to me,” Zehra said.
“I have no recollection of taking something of yours” Tunde replied.
She flared her eyes, frost mist coming from her body.
“By the authority of the patriarch of clan Verdan, I hereby accuse you, adept Joran and adept Tunde of treason,” Jashed said, surprise in his voice at the latter part.
Thalas, Rhyn, Sorin, Shiro, and Elyria stared at him with surprise in their gazes.
“Well, that was quick,” Joran said with a chuckle.
“I see not even your people trust you,” Zehra said.
“Hush, let the adults talk,” Thalas said to her as the heiress turned her cold gaze to him.
Tunde was glad not to be on the receiving end of it for once.
“On what grounds Jashed?” Joran asked.
“Colluding with clan Acacia to eliminate us and take the rift core,” Jashed said.
“What?” Tunde, Joran, and Zehra said all at once.
“Your son worked with them, not us” Joran hissed.
“Simply to undermine and take down one of their numbers” Thalas smoothly said.
“After we caught you and you decided to betray your people, stating just how much of a trouble Joran and Tunde were,” Zehra said, the last part with a bit of venom.
Joran turned his gaze to Rhyn.
“Surely you don’t believe such nonsense?” he asked.
Rhyn folded his hands.
“That remains to be seen” he responded.
“Enough being said, surrender, turn over your void rings, and receive mercy,” Jashed said.
Joran chuckled.
“wouldn’t that be comfortable for you, we work, and you reap the rewards,” Joran said.
“Stolen rewards” the adept next to Zehra replied.
Joran turned to her with irritation in her.
“Vaya, it’s the world of cultivators, you show signs of weakness and you pay for it, get with the times will you?” he said.
“So, you admit to not just working with them but stealing from them?” Thalas asked.
“You killed Vasriq, I should have your head for that you insignificant worm!” Zehra screamed as her ice affinity began to grow.
“Can you use dominion yet?” Joran whispered to Tunde.
“What?, no” Tunde hastily replied, unstrapping Shadowfang from his back.
“Well get ready to feel a lot of pressure” the elder added.
Rhyn, Sorin, and Shiro tore backward as Thalas and Zehra went straight for Tunde, he had known what would happen, he had prepared for it, and as the two released projection techniques at him and he imbued himself, Tunde drew on his Ethra, swinging his axe as Ethra discs shot out towards the two adepts.
He had no time to see how elder Joran was faring against the other two adepts, but he threw himself into the battle with lethal ferocity, Thalas falling on the defensive with Shadowfang crashing into his jade crystal imbuement on his arm, cracking and shattering it, the adept screaming in pain. He dodged two attacks from Zehra, his aura holding her ring of ice dominion at bay even as he saw the strain on her body.
Weaving in between her guard, he dropped two punches to her chest and midsection respectively, both attacks she deflected with ease as an ice blade appeared in her hand, bringing it down on Tunde who shattered it with Shadowfang, the aura edged blade going for her throat. She flipped backward, both adepts staring at him with caution.
“And to think there was a time you were my biggest problem,” Tunde said, pointing Shadowfang at Thalas.
The adept’s gauntlets began to glow as he wrapped pressure Ethra on it, reinforcing his body while cycling two Ethra affinities at once. Tunde knew the strain that had to put on his heart, adepts having no cores yet to easily pick from either, he had read little on the rank of adept but knew why they picked their affinities one at a time in battle.
He cracked his neck, twirling Shadowfang before smiling at Thalas, for the first time feeling the thrill of fighting on equal terms.
“Let me show you how much I’ve grown,” he said.
Thalas attacked with all the fury of an adept, streaking towards Tunde who crashed a resonance covered fist into the pressure jade gauntlet of Thalas. The explosion cracked the gauntlet of the adept, Tunde flicking his hand to relieve the strain before grabbing the hand and delivering a kick to Thalas’s midsection, this time resonance exploding off him.
Thalas shot backward with raw speed, tumbling across the ground as he traded fast blows with Zehra, the two crashing into each other with renewed fury. Ethra sight flared, Tunde stumbling back a bit as something had flashed across his sight for a brief second, unsure of what it was.
[technique: Ethra sight is evolving due to battle insight]
Zehra came at him again, not allowing him a moment’s respite as he saw the same flash, her hand twisting at the last second to stab at his stomach. He moved before she even did it, his hand grabbing hers as she stared at him in surprise before he slammed his head on hers, the lady crying out for a second. Thalas shot for him again when a flurry of metal blades slammed into him, the adept weaving his way around them.
“What is the meaning of this?’ he snarled.
Rhyn was at Tunde’s side, and Elyria, Sorin, and Shiro as well.
“You must have taken us for fools,” Rhyn said.
“Got to say, you didn’t think this through, no offense, adept Jashed” Shiro added to where the adept fought for his life as elder Joran unleashed his full might at them.
Tunde felt a great load lift off his chest as he smiled at Elyria.
“Beat me to adept, I’m short of words,” she said.
“you’d be surprised by the things I’ve seen from when we last saw” he replied.
Thalas unleased his full aura, driving the disciples to their knees as Tunde unleashed his as well, watching Thalas shrink back. It came out of him like dark mist, eating into the aura of Thalas slowly, like sizzling acid, Tunde preparing to counterattack when a cold chilly feeling settled on them and the skies above glowed green.
“undeath” Elyria whispered from where she shuddered.
They all paused, turning their gazes skywards where a huge rent appeared and howling ghostlike creatures began to descend along with two blazing green eyes that stared at them. Below it floated the revenant lord, looking weary but raising a staff, a mad grin on his face.
“This doesn’t look good” Joran snarled from where he had pinned down Jashed, a loud shriek filling the air, Tunde watching as his Ark screen scrambled to static and a large bony hand tore its way into the rift.
“Not good at all” the elder added.