Maxine had her essence armor on to make herself more comfortable while she was waiting in the in the breifing room with almost twenty nine other essence cultivators. Almost half of which were wearing explosive collars. It was obvious that they had very little or no combat experience just based on how they moved. Maxine felt irratated since there wasn't a single soldier among the essence cultivators. Even four or five of them would have greatly reduced the difficulty of killing any Iron Stage essence beast.
Maxine spotted Patrick, Meagan, Maxwell and Jack as they entered the breifing room. I wonder when General Jones figured out those three were essence cultivators. Emily was no where in sight, but that made sense since Emily's healing abilities would only be helpful after the the fighting was over. Not to mention that General McKenzy would be against her participating anyways.
General Jones was standing infront of them as began the breifing, "Three days ago we detected an extremely powerful essence beast in a forested area near Jefferson City and attempted to eliminate it with a surprise missile attack. However due to some abnormal electromagnetic interference, possibly generated by the beast itself, the missiles failed to detonate as they struck near the target." That doesn't sound good. I only know of three iron essence beasts that have the lightning attribute and only one of them is strong enough to roast the electronics of anything near it. That essence beast was the Tempest Weasel. It wasn't anywhere near as durable or as strong as a Terror Bear, but it's ability to unleash lightning bolts was a problematic. Those lightning bolts could severely injure bronze stage essence cultivators and stun iron stage ones for a couple seconds. Afterwards the Tempest Weasel would attack ruthlessly while their targets. She just hoped that there was only one of them. It was unfortunate that she wasn't certain if that essence beast would be responsible for the next essence beast horde or not. The leader of that horde was never actually seen.
"That is why all of you freaks are here. Although I am loathe to admit it, your combative abilities are useful in eliminating this threat and the lot of you should be able to locate the creature with your strange radar-like ability," General Jones said, "Our attack plan is simple, you freaks will limit the essence beast's movement while the army bombards it with artillery. This has been a proven tactic by Ms. Levings in her previous battle with that oversized bear. Any questions?"
Maxine voiced a question, "How certain are you that there is only one of them?"
"Repeated infared satelite scans have comfirmed that there is only one of them," General Jones said smugly. That doesn't mean shit. Those things are cave dwellers.
Someone else asked an important question, "How will the artillery units know where to shoot?"
General Jones pulled out a strange looking rifle, "This is will paint the target using a laser and the artillery units will target whatever it is aimed at. Corporal Smith will be the one to operate it." There didn't seem to be any more questions.
"Hellen, can you find that iron stage beast and describe what kind of beast it is and how many that I am going to be facing?" Maxine asked Hellen via spiritual sense.
After a few moments, Hellen answered, "A weasel of some kind about the size of one of your Shadow Wolves with arcs of electricity jumping across it's body. There are two of them, a male and a female. The male is actively hunting outside and he is Iron stage rank 1. The female is bigger and more powerful than the male by two ranks and is dwelling in a cave that is on a cliff face." Fuck, it is a Tempest Weasel and there are two of them. That asshole is either intentionally sending us to our deaths or he is an incompetent idiot that can't even get us decent intel. If I were a betting girl, I would put my money on him doing this shit intentionally.
"Thanks, Hellen," Maxine said and contacted her friends to tell them about the two Tempest Weasels. Patrick didn't respond, but he was clearly angry. Meagan was more outspoken about her anger in their conversation via spiritual sense. Maxwell had the same opinion as Maxine that this was a suicide mission. He had met General Jones in private already. As for Jack, he didn't appear to be surprised at all. Maxine couldn't discount the fact that Jack had noticed something about General Jones' behavior.
Maxine and the others were immediately ushered into a transport truck. Maxine sat down near her friends. She started to discuss with them what they should do, but after she mentioned how many Shadow Wolves that she had, they wanted her to send them at the Tempest Weasel to overwhelm it. She would have to make all of her Shadow Wolves fuse into the three headed variety to be powerful enough to be a threat. However it made her unhappy to reveal to the millitary that she had them and asked them to come up with something else with her. Unfortunately that wasn't meant to be. All of the plans that they came up with had a very low survival rate even if they included all of the essence cultivators and artillery support. Maxine didn't like it, but she had no choice as she finally agreed to their suggestion, but only after the other essence cultivators fled. It was quite possible that General Jones had reported that he had seen her Shadow Wolves on the day that he threatened to put her mother in prison.
When the transport truck stopped, Maxine and everyone else got off. Maxine stretched out her spiritual sense to locate the male Tempest Weasel and found out several others were doing the same. She found it some distance away and signaled Patrick and everyone else to follow. As soon as they were out of sight, Maxine retrieved her Twilight Iron Blades from her dimensional pouch and pulled out a few Steel Silk Vests for her friends while Patrick pulled out weapons from his dimensional pouch. Meagan was wielding the bow that Maxine made. Jack had a two inch thick steel rod with a spearhead carved on the end of it. It looked like a crude short spear. Maxwell had two machettes. Maxine remembered using those two machettes herself in the previous timeline until she had a blacksmith make a pair of chinese dao blades to replace them.
Maxine scanned the area and summoned all of her Shadow Wolves from the shadow world. The looks on her friends faces was priceless as they saw her Shadow Wolves leap out of her shadow on after the other. After all of the wolves had exited her shadow, Maxine ordered them fuse into Three-Headed Shadow Wolves. She ordered them to follow her without being seen. She didn't think her Shadow Wolves would be needed to kill the male Tempest Weasel as long as the female one doesn't come out to defend it's mate.
Maxine's group moved towards the Tempest Weasel. When they arrived, Maxine recieved a spiritual sense communication from the other groups of essence cultivators. They had wondered where Maxine's group had gone.She simply responded that everyone in her group was getting prepared for the fight. The other groups accepted her reason.
"Everyone restrain it. Kill it if possible," Maxine heard via spiritual sense from Corporal Smith. He must have been trained in cultivation by one of my students.
Maxine charged without hesitation as her friend formed their essence armor and followed behind her. This wasn't her first time participated in a group assault, but for Jack, Meagan and Maxwell, this could very well be the first time they had even been in large group battle like this. It would be good for them to experience it and since it was many against one, it shouldn't be too taxing. Maxine just hoped that the Tempest Weasel couldn't rapid fire it's lightning attack. Some of Tempest Weasel's had that capability.
Maxine hadn't even crossed half the distance when a barage of essence based attacks flew towards the Tempest Weasel. It created a tempest of wind and lightning that surrounded the Tempest Weasel. All the essence attacks were nuetralized by it. However this move had drawbacks, the Tempest Weasel couldn't move while using it and it couldn't use another lightning attack for at least ten seconds afterwards. Maxine took advantage of this window of opportunity to close the distance and aimed a vicious stab with her blades at it's jugular. Unfortunatley it noticed her and dodged her attack. She unleashed a flurry of attacks to keep it occupied while using her spiritual sense to check if any artillery attacks were coming. It was hard to keep the Tempest Weasel from moving, but somehow Maxine managed it. She kept up her assault as others joined her. Patrick appeared out of nowhere and shield slammed the Tempest Weasel to knock it off balance. At the same time, Jack stabbed forward with his spear from the opposite direction. It was their favorite combination from the previous timeline. Patrick must have practiced it with the others. Maxine watched as Maxwell leapt on top of the Tempest Weasel and started stabbing into it's back while it recoiled away from Jack's spear. Maxine took advantage of it's distracted state and slashed at the Tempest Weasel's jugular vein. As her blade came down, an arrow made of essence pierced the eye of the Tempest Weasel. Seems like Meagan is integrating herself into this attack combination fairly well. Due to the pain of having it's eye pierced, the Tempest Weasel wasn't able to see the attack that Maxine unleashed towards it's neck. Her blades dug deeply into it's neck and blood spurted out of it's neck as Maxine retracted her blades. Maxine got splattered with it's blood as she felt a surge in it's essence. The ten second gap from it's earlier attack had ended.
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"Shit! Back off!" Maxine yelled as she retreated. Electrical arcs were already forming around it's body. Maxine desperately stabbed both of her Twilight Iron Blades into the ground and skipped backwards. She noticed that Jack and Maxwell did the same with their respective weapons when they realized it was too late to avoid the incoming attack. Patrick took shelter next to Jack right as the Tempest Weasel unleashed it's attack. A lightning storm was unleashed from the dying Tempest Weasel. Fortunately all of that electrical energy was attracted to the metal in their weapons and they were unharmed by it. The Tempest Weasel unleashed that attack for twenty seconds in total. It was clearly it's last ditch effort to eliminate it's attackers, but it was loosing blood too quickly. It collapsed after it finished the attack. The weapons used to attract the lightning as glowing red, even her Twilight Iron Blades. Maxine gulped as she realized that if that had hit her, she would have been turned into a charred corpse.
Unfortunately, no one could enjoy the victory as a beastial roar of rage made the forest tremble. It was the female Tempest Weasel. Maxine quickly retrieved her blades and put them into her dimentional pouch. She was already angry at the other essence cultivators since they hadn't helped that much aside from their initial attacks. It was quite possible that they were awed by the coordination of Maxine's group. However other than Corporal Smith and Maxine's group, all of the essence cultivators began to run like the devil was on their heels when they detected the strength of the female Tempest Weasel. Maxine started cursing internally. Because the corporal was present, Maxine couldn't bring her Three-Headed Shadow Wolves into the fight. She couldn't take the risk that the military or government would see her as a major threat and try to eliminate her.
As the the female Tempest Weasel came into sight nearly one thousand feet away, it unleashed a lightning attack at a group of five essence culitivators. She heard them scream for a moment before their charred corpses hit the ground. Oh, shit. It's lightning attack is way more powerful than it should be. It must be a variant. Maxine felt it's enraged gaze lock onto her. She looked down at the blood splatters on her clothes and realized why it picked her out of everyone present. FUCK! It knows I delivered the killing blow on it's mate.
Maxine turned around and ran towards the area where her Three-Headed Shadow Wolves were. At the same time, she told everyone else that she was luring the Tempest Weasel into another large group of essence beasts, so that they could fight it out with each other. This tactic would keep allow her to keep the secret that she could control Shadow Wolves.
Maxine ordered her Three-Headed Shadow Wolves to charge towards her while snarling. However Maxine hadn't even ran two hundred feet when she detected that the female Tempest Weasel was about to unleash another lightning attack. She swiftly pulled off the tracking bangle from her left wrist and threw it behind her. The lightning attack hit the bangle turning it into molten slag and it hit her with about half of it's original power. It still hurt to high heaven as it burned her back. She knew that she had at least second degree burns on her back from that attack, but Maxine didn't dare slow down or stop.
Maxine could feel the female Tempest Weasel rapidly gaining on her. She realized that her Shadow Wolves wouldn't make it before the Tempest Weasel caught up to her. She felt tears flow down her face as fear slowly took hold of her. Fuck, I am such a dumbass. I should have released my Shadow Wolves before I went to that damn breifing and had them swarm the Tempest Weasels long before anyone ever got here. But, no. I just had to let my friends get some experience fighting essence beasts as a team.
Maxine spun around and decided to try her best to evade it's attacks until her Shadow Wolves arrived. However in that instant, she felt a second source of killing intent coming from Corporal Smith that was directed at her. She finally noticed that he wasn't holding the same rifle that General Jones had shown at the briefing. It looked like a gauss rifle and he was aiming it at her, not the female Tempest Weasel. She side-stepped to the right as his hand squeezed the trigger. A projectile moving several times faster than the female Tempest Weasel hurtled towards her and punched a dime-sized hole in her left arm. She felt the bone in her upper arm shatter as she cried out in agony. If she hadn't side-stepped, Maxine would have died when that projectile punched through her heart. Her fear and pain was quickly replaced by unbridled rage. I came out here to help. And that BASTARD not only sends me and the others on a suicide mission with a bunch of inexperienced retards, but also gives me the added 'fuck you' of a sniper. Now I have to deal with a Iron stage rank 3 Tempest Weasel WITH a broken arm! I HAVE HAD ENOUGH! Maxine released roar as her essence surged wildly throughout her body. However it was draining her strength rapidly.
With a thought, Maxine created shadow tendrils that pierced and destroyed the railgun rifle that Corporal Smith was aiming at her. In the next instant, she glared at the female Tempest Weasel, which appeared to be terrified of her as it desperately tried to turn around. She reached out her right hand and made a grasping motion as five massive shadow tendrils wrapped around the female Tempest Weasel. She lifted the female Tempest Weasel into the air using those massive shadow tendrils. However as it was raised into the air, Maxine noticed that her shadow tendrils were actually fingers of a massive hand. She was faintly aware that Hellen was yelling at her to stop using her essence so wildly.
The Tempest Weasel released an intense lightning tempest around it's body in an attempt to free itself, but it had almost no effect on the massive shadow hand. Maxine clenched her right hand into a fist and watched as the massive hand of shadow brutally crushed the female Tempest Weasel. Blood burst out of every orafice it had followed by it's internal organs.
Maxine immediately felt faint as the massive shadow hand vanished and she realized that she had drained all of her essence as the corpse of the Tempest Weasel hit the ground with a thud. Maxine wasn't too far behind it as she began to collapse. Her essence armor had dissolved before she had even hit the ground. Unfortunately she landed on her already badly injured left arm and it cause her alot of pain. She rolled onto her back with difficulty and heard the others yelling in the distance as one of them tackled Corporal Smith. Since it was clear that they weren't going to kill him, Maxine gave her Three-Headed Shadow Wolves an order to go deeper into the forest to conceal their presence and were only to fight if they were attacked first. If they were to arrive and not attack the Maxine in her immobile state, it would be obvious to anyone with a brain that she was the one controlling them and it was a sure thing that the corporal would report it.
After a few seconds, Patrick appeared at her side and leaned down to pick her up. However an overwhelmingly powerful presence appeared and Maxine felt pressure being put on her very soul. Whoever it was suppressing them with their spiritual sense. However it seemed to be affecting Patrick and the others far more than herself. She could hear several thumps as they fell unconscious as Patrick fell down towards her. However he was able to keep himself from collapsing on top of Maxine and was hovering over her on his hands and knees. Patrick struggled to stand back up and Maxine heard a man say, "I can appreciate your tenacity to protect that young woman, but it isn't necessary. Now, sleep." That man sounded familiar somehow.
The pressure on their souls steadily increased until Patrick passed out a few seconds later. Fortunately he fell backwards and didn't land on Maxine. Maxine barely noticed that the pressure on her soul had liften as struggled to move, but it was futile as she heard footsteps approaching her. She had drained too much of her strength earlier when she killed the female Tempest Weasel. After a few seconds, the man appeared in her sight. He wearing a hooded leather tunic and leather breeches. The only feature of his face that she could see clearly was a pair of glowing golden eyes that had green specks in them. Maxine realized instantly that it was Poison Emperor Guan, her biological father. What the fuck is he doing here?