"Get on your feet. I don't believe for a moment that my cousin and son's murder is this weak," Nora Marks said in a tone that just oozed venom. Maxine debated whether or not to leap out of the debris and summersault in the air to land on her feet. But she decided against it. For one, it would aggrivate her wounded right breast, which was hurting enough as it was, and second, it would be a waste of energy since Nora Marks clearly wanted to take her time.
Since Maxine had a moment or two before Nora Marks became impatient, she debated whether or not to bring Guan or one of her grandparents here to deal with Nora Marks. I can't risk it. If she sees my portal, she would, without a doubt, attack it to wound or kill whoever is inside of it. Even if I can bring someone here safely, there would still be collateral damage that will probably include those two wolfkin children. Not to mention since I am a technically a member of the Kavros clan, bringing someone here through one of my portals would still count as the Kavros clan violating the rules. It wouldn't matter to those stuck up assholes in the Alliance that the Divine Marks clan did it first. As long as they don't directly punish me, they will feel safe that Guan won't do something violent. It's just not worth the risk to my family. I will just stick to my plan A and hope that it works.
As Maxine dragged herself out of the debris, she sneaked a recording crystal into one of her boots and activated it. Afterall, she needed proof that Nora Marks was actually on the planet. Now all I need to do is stall for time so my healing potion can repair some of this damage. That reminds me. She retrieved a Essence and Mana Restoration potion from her dimensional pouch and drained it in one smooth motion before tossing the bottle back into her dimensional pouch. She needed every ounce of power that she could muster to pull off her plan.
"Fine, I admit it. I killed your vile rapist of a cousin, but I had no hand in your son's death. If you had bothered to properly investigate the matter, you would have known that," Maxine growled back and saw Nora Marks' face darken with rage, "Still it's strange that your clan's elders let you come here. What did they think would happen when you put a mother near her child's supposed killer?"
"I don't care what any of them think about this. You killed my son and I will make you pay for it," Nora Marks growled in return. It's like talking to a fucking wall, but at least I know she is acting on her own. Now that I think about it. There is no fucking way she would be able to bribe all of the observers, not with just her personal wealth.
"How many times do I have to tell you that I had no part in your son's murder?" Maxine asked while she was relaying everything that was going on to Grandma Victoria through her main body. If she was lucky, grandma Victoria or Boreas would be able to notify whoever was in charge of the observers for this limited war and Maxine would get to watch Nora Marks be either killed or appreheneded. Although it wouldn't change the fact that she was currently in the middle of the Divine Marks base camp. It would still improve the chances of her clone's survival.
"I don't care to hear your lies any longer. You are going to die one way or another," Nora Marks said coldly as she walked towards Maxine.
"Are you stupid?" Maxine asked as she backed up in an attempt to distance herself from Nora Marks, "I don't care how much you paid those observers off. They won't let you just kill me. They should know that daddy would kill them for standing aside while you murder me." That's right. Keep that stupid bitch talking and not attacking me. My strength has almost completely recovered.
Nora Marks simply laughed. "They don't even know that I'm here," Nora Marks said while smiling as the air warped around her as she resumed walking towards Maxine, "It's so easy to bend light and manipulate the surrounding energies to make it appear as if there is no one here. I doubt they can even see those two animals. Enough talk. I have given you plenty of time to recooperate as it is." Oh, fuck me. She has spatial essence. That would explain where the fucking teleportation trap came from. Now I'm really happy I didn't try to bring anyone over here through one of my portals. She might be able to destabilize my portal killing whoever is still inside of it. Maxine looked around for help from the Divine Marks clansmen. She was half expecting one of them to come forward to at least try to convince Nora Marks to stop, but none of them moved. Each one of them was looking at Nora Marks with varied degrees of fear. I see. It's not like they don't want to stop her. They can't.
Maxine barely saw it when Nora Marks charged at her, but that was only because she was ready for it. All she saw was only a faint blur, but that was enough as she lashed out with her tail at Nora Marks while jumping to the side. She thought she actually hit Nora Marks when she felt something connect, but it was Nora Marks smacking Maxine's tail to the side an instant before swatting Maxine into the ground.
Maxine rebounded off the ground on her right side and was kicked into the building damaging it further. Her right side ached horribly, but none of her vital organs or bones were damaged. She's toying with me. I'm not sure if I should be pissed or happy about that.
As Maxine fell to the ground, she activated her essence armor and tried to call forth her dragon from her shadow. Only it didn't heed her call. It took her a moment to realize why. She didn't have a shadow on the ground since it was glowing along with everything else. Before she could think of another way to fight, she was kicked in the gut and slammed through a wall before coming to a crashing stop against an interier wall. The collapsing wall created a small dust cloud.
The dust cloud caused Maxine to go into a coughing fit as a coppery taste filled her mouth. She started silently cursing as she noticed that the interior of the building, the smaller pieces of debris and even the dust cloud around her were glowing. Fuck. This trap is way too fucking thorough. I have no opportunity to get away. The only things that are not glowing are the Divine Marks clansmen and me. Hmm, that means I can use the shadows on my body, doesn't it? A smile came to her lips as she summoned her dragon to fuse with her essence armor through the shadow under her braid.
Maxine used the glowing dust cloud as cover to complete the transformation of her essence armor. When her draconic essence armor finished forming, she saw Nora Marks' sillouette in the opening on the side of the building. Maxine didn't even think about it as she kicked off the ground aiming her claws at Nora Marks' heart. She was confident that her strike would land at least a grazing blow and that's all she would need for her venom to do it's work. But Nora Marks' arm moved to defend at least three times the speed Maxine was traveling at. Maxine was dumbfounded as her wrist was caught a mere inch from Nora Marks' chest. Holy shit! Just how high is this bitch's cultivation for her to move that fast? Is she a peak gold stage cultivator?
"Oh, my. That is quite the power boost," Nora Marks said in mild surprise, "Too bad it isn't enough to save you." Nora pulled back her other hand to hit Maxine, but Maxine wasn't done yet. She lashed out with her tail, but it was caught in Nora Marks' free hand. Thank you for being predictable. Maxine ignored Nora Marks' condiscending smile and she unleashed a fire breath at point blank. She watched with disbelief as the flames splashed harmlessly off of a barrier that appeared around Nora Marks' face, neck, chest and arms. Fuck, she must have watched me destroy that scouting force earlier. I can't see her making a barrier that fast without prior knowledge of it.
After Maxine ceased the fire breath, Nora Marks gave Maxine a cruel smile before releasing Maxine's wrist and pulled her tail into an overhead swing. Maxine plowed through the wall and ceiling above Nora Marks and was slammed into the ground painfully. Unfortunately Nora Marks wasn't done as she summersaulted in the air while still holding Maxine's tail and slammed Maxine into the ground again. After that, Nora just kept using Maxine like a flail and slamming Maxine into the ground. She felt her bones rattle and creak each time she hit the ground. With one last powerful slam on the ground that created a small crater, Maxine was in so much pain that she couldn't move and was only able to groan weakly in pain. She would have an easier time finding a spot that didn't hurt than to list what did.
However Maxine wasn't completely stunned. Everyone was looking right at her and Nora Marks. No one was looking at the wolfkin siblings. She used this moment when all eyes were on her to discretely create a portal to the shadow world and warp the wolfkin children out.
While Maxine did that, Nora Marks released Maxine's tail and grabbed Maxine by the throat before lifting her off the ground. The recent bout of violence left Maxine too battered and broken to resist Nora Marks' grip. "What? All the fight beaten out of you? That's too bad. I wanted to enjoy beating you some more, but it's not fun if you can't fight back. Oh well. It looks like I will have to entertain myself by your suffering in a different way. How about I force feed you aphrodisiacs until you're begging to be fucked by my clansmen and considering your injuries, it will be quite painful. Best of all there is no rule against sexual acts between to consenting individuals," Nora Marks said with sadistic glee, "I'll enjoy watching as your mind break once you come back to your senses. I can already hear your screams. Now all I have to do is wait for your strange technique to wear off and the next phase of your torment begins." I think she is misunderstanding those rules. Aphrodesiacs count as a poison and you can't poison prisoners. But she is right about one thing. My draconic essence armor won't last that much longer.
Maxine finally warped the two wolfkin siblings away. I only have one move that's both big enough and that I'm actually able to do in this state that would cause enough of a distraction for me to escape. I just hope it does the trick since it will use almost everything that I have left. She gathered as much essence into the shadow beneith her braid as she could in preparation for her escape and infused each of the teeth in her draconic essence armor's mouth with spatial Crescent Moon Blitz attacks. She opened the jaws of her draconic essence armor and roared out the barrage of spatial Crescent Moon Blitz attacks. Block that, bitch.
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Nora Marks instantly released Maxine and crossed her arms to block Maxine's attack. Maxine used that opportunity when they weren't touching to create an egg shaped bubble of shadow essence around herself and used the lack of light to shadow step ten miles outside of the Divine Marks' base camp. She would have gone farther, but that is the maximum distance she could shadowstep.
She knew that she had mere seconds to work with before Nora Marks catches up with her and she didn't have the spare strength in this body to perform another shadow step. As her body fell to the ground, she created a portal straight to the Kavros clan's base camp to a point just outside of the women's medical tent. She released her draconic essence armor by sending her dragon back to the shadow world and reverted back to her normal state to free up the essence and mana necessary to keep the portal open.
As her body entered the portal, she sensed a very enraged Nora Marks at the edge of her spiritual sense. Nora Marks' upper body was covered in shallow cuts and her top was a tattered mess. Her once waist length hair had been shortened to shoulder length hair. It didn't appear that Nora Marks saw her just yet.
A smile spread across Maxine's lips as she shifted her right arm and flipped off the bitch defiantly just before she vanished into her portal. She didn't care of Nora Marks saw it or not. She just felt like doing it.
In the next moment, she found herself laying face down on packed dirt as her essence armor finally gave out. She didn't even have to wait for even a second before someone shouted in obvious shock and another handful of seconds before she was picked up and hauled into the women's medical tent.
She was quickly laid down on a table of some kind and her leather armor was rapidly cut away. Damn it, I just had that fixed. Once leather armor was pulled apart, she heard someone groan sympathetically and she felt a very strong urge to look at her injuries. However someone pressed down her forehead to prevent her from seeing.
"Don't look, young miss. Just let us work," Billie Manning said in a professional tone.
Within moments, the rest of her armor and clothes were torn off as sauves and bandages were quickly applied to her various wounds. At this point, Maxine was having trouble maintaining consciousness and the room was beginning to spin. I need to tell them about the recording crystal in my boot before I pass out.
With every ounce of her willpower, Maxine grabbed Billie Manning and struggled to say, "I have a ... recording crystal in... my left boot. Give it... to the commander." With that, Maxine passed out and her consciousness was thrust out of her clone.
Maxine had returned her focus back to her main body. She was laying down on Orianna's bed and was trying to block out the pain being experience from her clone as she began to sweat from resisting the pain. Part of her was happy that her clone still lived, but at the same time, she was furious at herself for falling for such an obvious trap. I'm a fool. I should've known they would pull something like this once they found out that I can't stand to see any child suffer, even if they are not entirely human. She felt frustrated and angry. The only saving grace from the whole mess was that she got proof that the Divine Marks clan was violating the terms of the limited war.
"So? Were you able to save your clone?" grandma Victoria asked with a tone laced with concern.
"Yes, but it's badly injured. I have no idea how long it will take for it's wounds to heal," Maxine admitted.
"Thank the maker, that's far better than your clone being dead," grandma Victoria said as she placed her hand over her heart, "I need to give Boreas an update. We will make her pay for this."
"Alright, grandma," Maxine said as she stayed on the bed and grandma Victoria left to update Boreas. Might as well use this time to send my constructs back to the shadow world.
Just as Maxine finished sending her constructs back to the shadow world, she turned to look at Orianna, whom looked like she wanted to rip something apart. "Orianna? Are you okay?" Maxine asked nervously.
"No, I'm furious," Orianna said.
"I am too. I got to experience a heavy beating and I still feel my clone's injuries," Maxine said in a strained voice.
"I'm sorry. I wish there was something I could do," Orianna said helplessly before she started tearing up, "The only think that I know how to do is hurt people."
"That's not true. You know how to make Maxwell happy right?" Maxine reminded Orianna and Orianna smiled.
Before either of them said another word, grandma Victoria returned. "As you undoubtedly guessed, Boreas is livid at what Nora has done. When I left, he was in the process of presenting his complaint to the Alliance. It shouldn't be long before they come to a decision on the whole matter."
"What will happen?" Maxine asked.
"I don't know. No one has ever been dumb enough to violate the rules so flagrantly. The least we can expect is for Nora Marks to be exiled from the Alliance and believe me when I say this, that is worse than killing her. As for the Divine Marks clan, I believe they will be penalized in some manner for not properly controling Nora," grandma Victoria said, "With any luck, the Alliance will deem that they automatically lost this war due to Nora Marks' interference."
"We can only hope, grandma," Maxine said and suddenly gasped at a sudden sharp pain from her clone. God, I hope that my clone heals quickly.
Grandma Victoria pulled out a cloth and gently wiped the sweat off of Maxine's face while Orianna gently stroked Maxine's hand. Both of them were giving her looks of concern. I don't like seeing their expressions like that. I need to find a way to shut out this pain.
[Maxine, I know you are in pain right now, but I need you to open up the portal to the shadow world for me,] Guan said via spiritual sense to Maxine, [I will also need your mother's bracelet. You know why.] Forgetting her pain, she checked on Hellen's regenerating body. It was very close to being fully regenerated. Some muscle groups were still missing and it didn't have much skin. There as just enough on it for Maxine to know that it was definitely Hellen's body.
[Okay, one second,] Maxine answered through the pain and widened the portal from Earth to the shadow world, [Do you need me to come there?]
[No, I don't. All I need is the bracelet,] Guan paused for a moment and added, [It will still be another week before Hellen will be capable of moving around, and I need to watch over her carefully until she can. Although she may be able to talk as soon as tomorrow.]
[Just let me know when she can talk,] Maxine said as she sent the golden bracelet containing Hellen's soul to the cave within the shadow world, [I would love to hear her voice with my ears rather than with my spiritual sense.] She could have sworn she heard Guan chuckle through their spiritual sense connection.
[I understand that sentiment entirely,] Guan said in a content tone, [Now rest and don't bother trying to shut out the pain. Learn to tolerate it. Otherwise you may loose your clone. Just remember, this won't be the last time one of your clones experiences severe injury.]
[Fine, but can you find a way to punish Nora Marks? She violated the rules of that limited war,] Maxine complained. She really didn't expect Guan to be able to do much about it.
[I already have. Now for the last time, get some rest,] Guan said before severing the spiritual sense connection. What does he mean by 'I already have?' Anyways, I may as well see about assessing how badly injured my clone is and patching it up until I find out what Guan did.
Maxine checked the extent of her clone's injuries. Hmm, there are a lot of torn muscles and ligaments. That will take awhile to heal up. And there are dozens of small fractures throughout my clone's skeleton. Most of those injuries probably happened when she decided to use me like an oversized mallet in a game of wack-a-mole. Now to check on the organs. Good, all the vital ones are intact. Wait... That vindictive bitch! Both of her clone's ovaries had been pulverized. She had no idea when Nora had done it.
She quickly recalled everything she knew on how to repair damage like that from Guan's notes and it was disheartening. Only creatures with extreme regenerative powers such as the hydra were able to regrow reproductive organs, but that process often took decades. There were a few potions that could do the same thing faster, but their effects were so potent that only gold stage cultivators and above could safely drink them. If that wasn't my clone, I wouldn't be able to have kids, at least not for a few decades and that's assuming that my Twelve-Headed Hydra King bloodline provides me with that ability. The only other way to completely heal me is through the use of divine essence.
Maxine boiled with rage, but she forcibly calmed herself. She knew that she was too weak right now to deal with Nora Marks and it wasn't in her best interest to reveal that she had clones.
Once her anger had finally subsided enough for her to think straight, she widened the portal in her clone's shadow slightly to send healing energies to it. However as soon as she did, someone hijacked her portal and began to widen it. Who?!
She quickly changed her focus to her male clone, which she was using as a relay point for her portals, and looked around. Guan was the one that had hijacked her portal and from what little she could see of his face, he looked livid.
She quickly checked the area around her clone and detected Nora Marks just above the medical tent with a raised dagger in her hand. In that moment, Guan struck his fist towards her portal. She felt a powerful focused shockwave go into her portal.
Nora Marks had just torn through the top of the tent when Guan's attack struck her. Both of her arms exploded into bloody mist along with the dagger she had been holding. Guan attacked through the portal again and Nora Mark's legs exploded. Maxine was in complete awe of Guan's destructive power and he hadn't even used his full strength.
Several bulges appeared on Guans arms and swiftly turned into finger thick serpents that launched themselves into the portal. While they latched onto Nora Marks, Guan roared into the portal, "Did you honestly believe that I would allow you to kill my daughter? I let you beat her to teach her a valueable lesson to never drop her guard, even around children. Originally, I was going to let the Alliance deal with your stupidity." Guan paused as his serpents dragged her to the portal and he continued with barely contained rage, "But you weren't satisfied with simply beating her. You ruined her chances of having children when you destroyed her ovaries. You will suffer for that as will all that allowed this to happen." At that moment, several very narrow beams of light flashed by the top of the tent. Looks like someone is running for their lives. I wonder why Nora Marks isn't trying to save herself? She could disrupt the portal to sever those serpents from Guan's arm. She scanned Nora Marks to see why and found out very quickly. Each of the serpents was injecting a venom that paralyzed her essence pathways. She couldn't fight back if she wanted to.
"My husband will...," Nora Marks started to say through her pain, but she was cut off by Guan, "Will do nothing more to endanger his other son by trying to save you. He has indulged your madness enough as it is." Nora Marks started screaming for help, but to no avail. She was brought to the shadow world and was force fed a strange potion by Guan before passing out.
However Guan hadn't relinquished his control over Maxine's portal yet. "Take my daughter to Earth and find Emily Herst to heal her wounds. That girl is the only one that you can reach in time to fully restore Maxine's reproductive ability. Do not give Maxine any more healing potions. Only give her nutritional potions," Guan said before he finally allowed the portal to close. What?! He does realize that more than half the people on Earth hate me, right? And why the hell didn't he just let me warp my clone there?! I don't know what's going on in his head, so fuck it. I will play along. I just hope this doesn't bite me in the ass. On the plus side, I will get to see Emily, mom and Silky. Although, I don't look forward to the earful that I will get from all three of them.