The battlefield was chaos. Twenty Sword Cultivators were fighting against eight Beast Cultivators. My Brothers fought like mad, slashing and clawing at the enemy, but there were just too many. Even if they were slightly stronger due to the beast bloodlines they all possessed, getting attacked from two sides was just unfair.
I breathed in slowly. I breathed out. My hands rose.
[Dust to Dust.]
My magic flared and thunder roared in my ears.
The stones split, got encased in my Qi, and accelerated to supersonic speeds from a standstill. I could feel the stone wanting to break apart under the insane acceleration, yet I held it together by sheer force of will.
My perception of time slowed down. Century in a Blink worked to stretch the time to its limits, yet the machine gun that was my magic still fired off faster than my eyes could see. Luckily, my mind was faster and I could control the output perfectly.
Hundreds of pebbles struck the enemy Cultivators at blazing speeds, tearing through their flesh like it wasn’t even there. I squeezed the mountains of rock, transforming them into seeds of death that rained on the battlefield. I stood behind the wall, each of my hands controlling a stream of stone.
In a short few seconds, I must have shot out thousands of them, mowing down our opponents, and turning the weakest ones into pink mist.
I could only imagine how others must have felt, hearing the sound of thunder and seeing the people beside them explode into a shower of blood and gore. It must have been terrifying.
I stopped momentarily as all the eyes focused on me and took a deep breath. All those fresh Souls, delicious. Each one of them took off a month of Cultivation and I reveled in the intoxicating feeling.
Half of the enemy force was dead, destroyed beyond recognition. I began to chuckle and then laugh. I could see the enemy tense up and become serious. They thought it was going to be a walk in the park since they outnumbered us nearly three to one. Well, it sucked to be them!
My hands grew claws and I jumped on the wall, eyes crazy, mouth open wide and showing my sharp teeth. [Let’s get this party started, shall we?! To the dea-!]
Something smashed into my body and I found myself falling to the floor. Well, my upper half did. I saw my legs still standing tall on the wall until they too fell down. It was weird.
I was in shock. My body was in pain, but then I heard a laugh.
“Hahaha! Oh, the Elder is still with us! I almost thought we would all get slaughtered by that crazy bastard! Serves him right for hiding his power! HAHAHA!”
“Go get them, boys! Their guardians are gone! Slaughter them all!”
There was a roar of agreement and the battle resumed.
My eyes stared up where the two figures were battling in the sky as I tuned out all sound. A sword that had cut me flew back up.
I saw the flashes of light, the strikes of magic, the physical clash between two titans. Elder Fa in the tiger form was nearly five times larger than his opponent, yet he still couldn’t force him to fight for real. The Sword Elder was battling with his hands behind his back while controlling only five flying swords at once. He still had one in reserve as it floated behind him, appearing spatially locked to his back.
Their dance was magnificent and I would have loved to watch for longer, but the anger building up inside of me needed an outlet.
[Bastard…]
My eyes became a blaze as I rose up. My form changed, transforming, and I grew in size. There were exclamations of surprise and shock, especially after I rose into the sky and my bottom half flew after me, connecting us together. A bow appeared in my hand and an arrow in the other as I crashed down to the earth.
[You dare.]
I growled and flared up my Qi while keeping it contained. The bow glowed and I pulled back the string, first a little, then more and more. My muscles bulged under the strain, yet I kept pulling. Glyphs formed in the air before me, expanding and sharpening my vision as I aimed at the sky.
The enemy Elder was distracted, fighting the large tiger. The beast’s Qi flared and a green Aura spread from it, making it faster.
The enemies around me screamed. I ignored their feeble attempts at stopping me. Their attack bounced harmlessly against my scales as I focused completely on that one shot. The bastard dared to ignore me, just battling the Elder, thinking he had killed me with that pathetic attack. He would pay for that, for looking down on me!
My mind touched the Ghostbane Arrow, a tether of Telekinesis connecting to it like a guiding line.
I roared, giving up every drop of energy I had, and pulled the string back that last little bit.
I released.
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The world dimmed for a split second, and there was an explosion in the sky. The Sword Elder was hit in the chest, the arrow piercing straight through his back like he wasn’t even there, and exploded.
A wave of energy smashed into us as his Soul was instantly destroyed in a blaze of glory, his swords froze, and his body began falling from the sky.
I waited, my eyes wide, for the meal. The delicious Spirit Realm Soul.
And I waited. And waited. And waited…
Yet it never came. I shockingly realized his Soul was destroyed and turned into Base Qi in a split-second, with not a morsel left for me. I was stunned.
[Noooooo! My Soul! You son of a bitch!] I shouted.
It was gone, all gone!
I looked at the bow in my hand and the thought of destroying it crossed my mind. I stored it away before doing anything that stupid though.
Still, how fucking infuriating was that?! I mean, I knew it would most likely kill the guy in one shot, as that’s what it did, but to completely destroy a Soul?! That was enough Soul Essence for me to reach the Third Layer!
[Damn it!]
All that Essence unraveled and turned back into Base Qi, filling the air with immense power. Every breath felt invigorating and my mind calmed down somewhat because of it, but damn! The area where the Elder died suddenly became saturated with Qi, a treasured place for Cultivation, it was way denser than anything I have ever experienced in the Sect, so maybe not all was lost. If I could Cultivate for a few months in such a place, my Cultivation would skyrocket.
[Sigh… It’s going to be fine, I just need to figure out how to collect all this Qi.] I said to myself. Base Qi really hated to move, but even if it was lazy, it still shifted towards lower density, or to a higher ground. Eventually, this magical place would disperse and return to its natural state. The only question was how long that would take. Days? Months? Years? No idea.
I looked at the marvelous density of Qi. I could hardly wait to begin Cultivating, but then I noticed it moving.
Now, that was nothing unusual as Qi always shifted a bit, but that was a bit extreme. And it was all going in the same direction. I turned.
[Oh, you got to be fucking kidding me…]
All the Qi in the area was getting sucked into the four pillars and the bunker in the middle. Was that what the generator was?! It was draining the energy from the surrounding area to power itself!?
[Fucking bullshit!] I shouted in indignation.
I ground my teeth in anger. Every time something good happened it just had to be countered by something bad. Give me a fucking break!
I deserved that Qi! It was mine! I killed the guy! It was me! That was not fair!
Throwing my head back in anger, I roared. It was a long and loud roar. But then the sounds of battle and clanging weapons entered my ears. Not all was lost. There were still a few morsels to eat. My eyes refocused on the enemy. They were weak, each of them at the peak of Golden Core, but they would have to do. Each of them would only take a month off, but it was better than nothing.
[Out of my way!] I roared and jumped into the middle of the fight.
My claws grew, my skin began to shine from the inexhaustible energy, and I swiped my hand at the back of an enemy Cultivator.
My claws, like swords, sliced through his unguarded flesh, receiving little resistance from the thin layer of Qi that surrounded his body. He screamed as his spine was cut and then collapsed into a sobbing heap leaking blood.
[Death to the enemy!] I shouted with a thundering voice and there came cheers from my Brothers as we charged. The last few transformed into beasts, abandoning their weapons, growing bigger and scarier, and we tore apart the last few remaining opponents.
A few of them pissed themselves and one tried to escape, but one look from me, and his heart was turned into a smoldering hole, and he collapsed.
[Victory is ours!] I roared and bit into the neck of a fallen foe and drank his blood.
The cheers of victory became somewhat less enthusiastic as I began to feast on the human remains. Cowards. Meat was meat. And that one was full of Essence. They should eat too, to become big and strong, just like me.
Suddenly something big landed on the ground beside us, it was the tiger form of the Elder. He was much bigger and taller than me, but there were many bleeding wounds on his body. He didn’t possess a regeneration ability like I did.
The Disciples moved back as he advanced and I don’t know what they expected, but certainly not that he would start eating the corpses, judging by their shocked expressions.
The giant tiger began crunching bones and swallowing corpses in big gulps. You could literally see how he swallowed an arm or a leg whole, and soon black smoke began escaping his mouth and nose.
At the same time, the wounds began to close at a rapid pace and the bleeding had stopped.
He was sacrificing so much foreign Essence to repair his body. What a waste!
I quietly chewed on a leg while watching the Elder as he ate five people whole. Afterward, he closed his eyes and stood motionless for a few minutes and then slowly reverted back to his human form. I could see his human body full of scars for a moment, but then his robe reappeared and he groaned.
“What a fucking mess.” He spat out and massaged his temples. The place where the sword pierced his stomach also already regenerated, but there was clearly still some damage and pain as he covered it with his palm and gritted his teeth.
He turned to the few men who already transformed back. “You guys, find the corpse of that Elder. We can’t let such a treasure go.” He then gave me a long, silent look and then turned, slowly limping back inside.
I watched him in silence as well and then swallowed, discarding the empty bone.
“Dude…”
I turned and saw the guy I had spoken with before. I reversed my transformation and shrank down.
“I’m Arkos.” He introduced himself again. Good thing he did, because I had no idea how he was called. Not that I forgot, I just wasn’t listening when the others introduced themselves.
[Gerald.] I replied.
He smiled. “You weren’t kidding when you said they sent a babysitter, that was awesome!”
[Haha… Was it really?] I almost blushed.
“Of course! I almost thought you died when you got cut in half, but then you transformed into… Was that a Dragon?”
[Close, it’s a Drake.]
“Damn! It looks great! Was it expensive?”
I scratched my cheek. He probably meant the bloodline. He thought I bought it. [Well, yeah, a Drake is certainly expensive.] I nodded sagely.
“Damn, wish I could afford one. Unfortunately, I couldn’t and now I’m stuck with this bear.”
[Ah, don’t say that!] I slapped him on the shoulder. [The Inferno Bear looks impressive as well. You never know, you might be able to merge with a Drake as well. They are both beasts of Fire after all.]
“Eh… I don’t know.” Arkos said. “I’m aware that it’s possible to merge with more than one beast, but most Elders advise against it. Apparently, it’s difficult to control, especially if they are a different species.”
I just shrugged. That was his choice. I had no problems and I already had seven different creatures, plus a human, making up my unique bloodline.
[Come, let’s go see what goodies our friends brought us.] I shifted the conversation.
“Oh, yeah… Loot! I completely forgot about that!” Arkos laughed and ran to rob a corpse.
I was stunned. So he had no problem with that, but eating a man was too much for him? These people... Whatever.