An instant before Maxine's Twilight Iron Blades made contact with the Four-Tailed Fox's neck, she saw a strange look in it's eyes at the same time that she felt erratic essence fluctuations coming from it. She knew something was wrong, but she was already commited to her attack. Both of Maxine's blades sliced through it's neck as if it were made of soft butter rather than the tough flesh of an iron stage essence beast. Something's wrong here, I shouldn't have been able to cut through it's flesh and bone that easily.

"MAXINE! GET AWAY FROM THAT THING NOW!" Hellen roared hurriedly to Maxine using her spiritual sense and Maxine immediately obeyed since Hellen never talked to her during a fight for fear that the distraction would cause her harm. She immediately kicked off of it's back as hard as she could and curled her body up into a ball as she formed a rubbery ball of shadow essence around herself. 

Maxine knew that she had taken the correct course of action an instant later as a massive explosion hit her, but it it wasn't strongh enough to get through her defensive ball. However the explosion had put her into a violent spin and it became increasingly more difficult to maintain her defensive ball. The spinning only got worse when she impacted with the ground and bounced back up due to the rubbery properties of her protective ball. She eventually came to a violent stop after several more bounces. The sudden stop had left her dazed and with an urgent need to vomit.

Maxine dissolved the ball of shadow essence surrounding her and dissolved her essence armor as sne collapsed onto her hands and knees before vomitting onto the ground. After finishing her bout of vomitting, she noticed that she had gotten vomit in her hair and immediately used her essence to clean her hair. Afterwards, Maxine wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and got to her feet before she scanned her surroundings. She was in the middle of the forest with a tall rock face with alot of cracks spiderwebbing out from where she had impacted it behind her.

Maxine extended her spiritual sense and found out just how far she had been thrown. She was roughly three miles away from the battlefield. Patrick and the others were running in her direction. She knew they were all concerned for her, but Patrick looked the most concerned out of everyone. She reached up to press the talk button on the ear piece to let them know she was alright, but didn't find it. She assumed that she lost it sometime during the fight with the Four-Tailed Fox and decided to let Patrick know she was still alive via spiritual sense. 

"I'm alive and I can move on my own, Patrick," Maxine said with her spiritual sense and decided to tease Patrick, "You don't need to carry me like a princess this time." Patrick visibly relaxed, but was still running towards her.

"If you are up to teasing, you should live," Patrick responded with a small smirk on his face before his face got serious again, "You scared the hell out of everyone. If I hadn't noticed that you formed a ball around you and flew off into the distance, we would think you were dead."

"You are acting like I planned this," Maxine said via spirtual sense, "If I knew that essence beast was going to self-destruct, I would have turned around and ran rather than be caught up in the explosion. I am not suicidal."

"You sure about that? You have done some pretty reckless stuff lately," Patrick responded.

"Yes, I am sure," Maxine responded angrily, "Now was there anything left of that fox?"

"Nothing but blood splatters," Patrick answered, "Even the tail you cut off earlier didn't survive." That's the second thing that isn't what I expected. It's tail should have been far enough away that it shouldn't have been damaged. Maxine scanned everything in the area of her battle with the Four-Tailed Fox and couldn't even find a trace of that severed tail. That's odd. There should at least be some pieces of it. Maybe it got thrown a good distance away like I did. Maxine expanded her search area and was startled as soon as she detected the heavily wounded Four-Tailed Fox stealthily fleeing from the battlefield. What the fuck?! Didn't that thing self-destruct?! I need to find out what's going on and the best way is directly from the source. Time to capture it. 

Maxine ordered her Shadow Wolves to capture the fleeing fox. She would have her wolf girl shadow clone restrain it and bring it to her after she met up with Patrick to let him see that she is alright. However she looked down and saw that her clothes were in tatters and saw second and a few third degree burns on her exposed skin. Fortunately she had worn her arachne silk bra and panties as well as her Steel Silk Vest. If she hadn't worn them, she would have alot more burns. Some of which would be in some very tender areas. However her protective garments were very badly damaged. I am definitely going to be feeling these burns on my thighs and arms quite a bit once my adrenaline wears off. Thinking of which, why hasn't my adrenaline worn off yet? As if on cue, her pain levels quickly skyrocketed as searing pain flooded her nervous system. She let out several groans of pain and had nearly collasped on the ground because of it. OH,GOD. THIS HURTS! Still it could be worse. I could have an audience. As if fate was toying with her, Maxine detected that Patrick was almost close enough to see her and she immediately her essence armor to temporarily seal up her burns to reduce the pain. As she felt a some relief from the pain, she leaned up against the rockface and waited for Patrick to avoid causing any more pain.

A few moments later Patrick appeared in the distance from behind some trees. At the same time, Maxine's shadow clone notified her that it had captured the fox and it was pleading with her shadow clone to be spared even as it struggled to free itself from the Shadow Wolves. She sent it a message via spiritual sense, "Cooperate with the wolf girl and I promise that you won't die." Unfortunately that didn't seem to placate the fox at all and it struggled even more fiercely. "Either do what I say or die now," Maxine said cruelly and it seemed to dispair as it finally gave in, "Good. The wolf girl will take you to a place where I will pick you up later." Maxine ordered her shadow clone to transport all of her Shadow Wolves and the captive Four-Tailed Fox to the shadow world before going there itself and she gave it an additional order to keep the Four-Tailed Fox in the cave. Maxine would open a portal to the shadow world later in order to interogate the Four-Tailed Fox later.

Patrick wasn't running towards her, but his face was filled with concern the moment he appeared to notice that Maxine was very obviously in pain. He jogged towards her and said as soon as he got to her side, "I thought you said you weren't injured."

"I never said that. I said I would live and that you wouldn't need to carry me," Maxine said while trying not to groan in pain, "Although I think I might change my mind on that if this pain gets any worse." 

"You got hit with an attack before that thing exploded in your face afterall," Patrick told her as he glanced down at the state she was in. He took off his shirt and presented it to Maxine while turning his head to look away. Too bad he is wearing that Steel Silk Vest that I gave him. I wanted to see his muscles. Maxine caught herself thinking oddly again and couldn't help but get enraged. GOD DAMN HORMONES! "You are kind of exposed," Patrick said. Maxine snatched his shirt from his hands and put it on.

"Thanks," Maxine said. She hadn't enjoyed the thought of people gawking at her undergarments when she returned to the headquarters. She was as Patrick grabbed her hand and slung it over his shoulder while his other hand grabbed Maxine's left shoulder. She was silently grateful that he was helping since walking on her own sounded like a very unpleasant activity at the moment. However he started moving too quickly and it cause Maxine to be jolted with pain.

"Careful, you big idiot. I'm covered in burns," Maxine scolded him through grit teeth. 

"Sorry," Patrick replied as he very carefully helped her walk.

During the walk back, Maxine thought about what to do in the future since it was better than focusing on the pain that she was in. First off, she needed to work on her escape plans since it was literately only a matter of time that someone figures out that she is Guan's daughter. All someone has to do is look at a picture of Hellen when she was younger and they would have her. She didn't honestly expect that Hellen hadn't gotten a single picture taken in her entire life. That would be wishful thinking. 

Maxine had already planned on fleeing to the shadow world for such an eventuallity, but hadn't done anything yet to establish a living space. A cave was hardly suited for that especially considering she was going to take her mother, Silky and possibly Emily there. That cave was just too small. The village that she had saved on the other hand would be a good choice to live at least temporarily. However her high cultivation would attract all sorts of attention since she would be the only iron stage essence cultivator there. Maxine wondered if her cultivation method was compatible with the people of the shadow world. It would give the villagers a greater capacity to defend themselves as well as helping Maxine conceal her presence. The only drawback she could see was on the off chance someone was monitoring the cultivation of every individual in the shadow world, but the odds of that are slim to none.

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Second, Maxine knew that there was a limit to how many shadow creatures that she could make and felt like she was close to reaching it ever since she made her dragon. She guessed that she could make three more shadow versions of essence beastss or shadow clones, but not another dragon. It had felt like creating two hundred Shadow Wolves when she had made it and guessed that the dragon-type essence armor would be far superior to the other ones. However first she would have to find out if it was as powerful as she guessed. If it is that much more powerful, it would give her a nice trump card. 

Third, Maxine wanted to set up a school for essence cultivators to acquire income to assist in paying the bills. The biggest problem wasn't finding students. She know how to do that. It was as simple as making a few posts on multiple social media sites. The problem was that she had no idea where she could teach them. Her backyard was out of the question as it wasn't that large and the middle of the forest was too dangerous to drag non-cultivators for lessons. Maybe I could ask General McKenzy if he knows of a place that I could use.

Lastly, Maxine had to do all of those things while training her Phantasmal Steps of the Shadowcat, master the Flowing Water Blade and begin training the Yin Yang Blades technique to increase her battle power. It made Maxine feel alittle overwhelmed by everything that was demanding her attention. The easiest of the three things she had to work on was testing out the dragon essence armor once her wounds healed up and she could have her shadow clones do most of the weapons training to get a feel for them before engraving it into Maxine's muscle memory.  

Maxine returned her awareness to her surroundings as Jack came into view. Apparently Meagan and Maxwell had stayed behind to keep an eye on Alice. Surprisingly they didn't talk much as the two of them escorted Maxine back to the army's defense line. It was a painful experience for Maxine since every step caused some level of pain due to her burns. She wanted to sit down and cultivate for a couple hours to speed up the healing, but that wasn't a good idea since there might be some decently powerful essence beasts in the vicinity. Although the chances of that were staggeringly low due to the recent bombardment, it was better safe than sorry.

As soon as they got past the tree line and were able to see the armed forces, Maxine immediately got angry. There were several medivac helicopters taking the severely wounded to hospitals and one of them was parked on the ground behind the armored vehicles without doing anything at all. Why the fuck couldn't anyone have sent that thing to come and get me? Instead he had me hike three god damn miles through a forest with second AND third degree burns! If it wasn't for the fact that I am an essence cultivator with far greater mental strength than a normal human, I would have passed out from the pain. Patrick better have one hell of a good reason for this! 

Maxine pointed weakly at the parked medivac helicopter and asked Patrick angrily, "Why didn't call for one of those to come get me when you found me?"

"Ask the former General McKenzy," Patrick answered, "He just asked me to make sure you weren't taken to a hospital if at all possible and if you got picked up by a medivac helicopter, that's where you would end up going." Why did he do that? Wait! Does he know that I am technically an alien? I better tread lightly if that's the case. She was nervous about talking with him now. However due to the fact he hasn't said anything thus far, it was unlikely that he would reveal anything to the public.

"Fine, just find me a nice safe spot, so that I can start healing myself," Maxine replied. She guessed it would take a total of eight hours of cultivation to heal her burns the smallest of her burns and it was likely to take her a few days to heal up. However she knew that she wouldn't get that luxury until she got home. 

"I think that might be a problem," Patrick stated as he gestured towards the essence cultivators jogging towards them enmasse. Fuck, I really don't need to be popular right now. I am injured, tired and in no mood for this shit. 

"Tell them to fuck off," Maxine grumbled, "Can't they tell that I am injured?"

"They can and I think they want to help. I think I even see a few carrying a first-aid kits," Patrick answered, "You did save them from suffering alot more casualties by fighting that 'thing' head on."

Maxine let out a sigh, before she said, "Fine, but be sure to let the men in that oncoming group not to touch me." She still felt uncomfortable whenever an unfamiliar man touched her. Just the thought of it made her skin crawl.

"I'm a man and you don't seem to mind me," Patrick stated.

"That's because I trust you," Maxine told him and he immediately trembled.

"You shouldn't," Patrick said via spiritual sense, "Every time I see you, I remember what the other Maxine did to me and I have to resist the impulse to kill you. Even now, it takes more effort than you realize to keep myself from doing something to you." 

"I can never begin to understand what she did to you and I won't even try," Maxine said to him via spiritual sense, "But I am not that person and never will be."

"Maybe, maybe not," Patrick said before he severed the spiritual sense connection. It was excellent timing since the group of essence cultivators had finally reached them. 

Alice and a few other female essence cultivators surrounded Maxine and Patrick protectively. They were physically blocking all of the others from approaching. Huh? What are they doing that for? Maxine realized very quickly they were keeping all of the men present at a distance and realized as Meagan came closer that her avoidance of physical contact with men had become well known.  

Meagan was taking Patrick's place to help Maxine walk. While they were switching places, Maxine said, "I will be fine as long as I have a place to rest for awhile." 

"How long is awhile?" Meagan asked while glancing at what was left of Maxine's scorched clothes, "Because if your skin is in the same condition as your clothes, you might need to go to the hospital."

"Three days at a minimum," Maxine responded, "And will probably take more time that."

"Those burns must be nasty for it to take that long for you to heal from them," Meagan said while looking extremely concerned before she turned her head towards Alice, "Alice! See if any of those guys have any burn treatment kits. We will need them." Meagan and the others took her to a tent and Meagan helped carry her inside. Alice was right behind them with the medical supplies.

"Alice help me get these clothes off of Maxine," Meagan said and Alice helped her take Maxine's tattered clothes off as well as the shirt Patrick let her borrow. Fortunately they left Maxine with her bra and panties on. Meagan picked up Patrick's shirt and handed it to Alice and said, "Take this back to Patrick and stand outside with the others. Unless you want to see, what i am certain, are some pretty gruesome burns." Alice grabbed Patrick's shirt and looked at Maxine with a concerned expression before she turned around to leave.

After Alice was out of the tent, Meagan said, "Drop your essence armor. I know you havn't already because you felt shy with Alice in here."

"That's not the reason why my essence armor is still up," Maxine responded, "It hurts more when my essence armor isn't on."

"Oh," Meagan said with a surprised expression on her face, "Turn it off anyways. We can't leave your burns as they are. They might get infected, so I need to clean them to prevent that."

"Alright," Maxine responded, "Just give me a moment to brace myself." She quickly steeled her will and dropped her essence armor. She just managed to keep herself from groaning loudly in pain when the air got access to her burns again.

"Jesus! Those are third degree burns!" Meagan exclaimed and quickly opened up a burn kit to treat Maxine's burns, "If I didn't know essence cultivators heal alot faster than normal, I would drag you to a hospital and consequences be damned." Maxine really didn't care what Meagan was saying as she laid there in agony. However one by one, there was a cooling sensation covering each of her many burns. It didn't allieviate the pain entirely, but it helped.

However while Meagan worked, Maxine felt something take over a small portion of her essence. Her essence was separating to white and black colored essence and the white essence was being directed towards her burns. It took Maxine a moment to realize that it was Hellen, whom was controlling some of her essence, as Maxine's burns started to hurt less and less. After seeing how it was done, Maxine separated her shadow essence into black and white essence herself and began to use the white essence to heal her burns. "Thanks, mom," Maxine sent to Hellen and didn't expect an answer since Meagan was close enough to detect if it Hellen responded. At this point, Hellen had stopped helping her do the healing.

"What the hell?" Meagan said softly, "Maxine whatever you are doing, keep doing it. It's slow, but I can literately see your burns healing." Maxine wanted to keep doing this herself since it was making her burns hurt less, but she was running out of essence extremely fast. She estimated that her essence would run out after she did about five percent of the healing. However it would take her roughly two hours to recover that essence if she meditated and it took around five minutes to drain her essence. She did the math and it would take alittle over thirty eight hours for her to completely heal if she focused completely on healing her burns. It would reduce her recovery time significantly, but Maxine imagined that Emily could do better. 

"Hey, why did you stop?" Meagan asked when Maxine ran out of essence. 

"Ran out of essence," Maxine answered simply, "Give me a couple hours and I will continue."

"Can I ask you a question while we wait?" Meagan asked.

"Go for it," Maxine said, "But make it quick. I need to meditate in order to recharge."

"Why are you helping us so much?" Meagan asked, "I don't mean humanity in general, but me, Patrick, Maxwell and Jack." Maxine looked Meagan in the eye, and saw a hint of worry like she was afraid of Maxine's answer. She doesn't seriously think I am trying to steal Patrick from her, does she?  

"Didn't Patrick tell you?" Maxine asked Meagan.

"He told me that you might turn into a violent lunatic if left alone and he wanted to see if it wasn't too late to keep that from happening," Meagan stated, "And I know that you have seen the future like he has. Now answer my question." So he didn't tell her everything. I thought he would have. 

"I want to help you because I am helping myself. The more powerful people present the easier it is to ensure the future that I saw won't happen and making the strong stronger is the easiest way to do that," Maxine explained, but she didn't add anything else. Maxine didn't think Meagan would believe her if she said that she was the fused soul of Maxwell Adams from ten years in the future and the broken Maxine Levings. Fortunately her explaination seemed to satisfy Meagan. As soon as I heal up, I will go to the shadow world and see if those villagers can use my cultivation technique. I can test out my dragon armor while I am there as well. That way I can take care of two birds with one stone.