Chapter 37

The Warmup

Chittering.

There was an unmistakable sound of rodents coming up from underground. This was a sound that he often heard at night in his dreams. The sound of rats chewing and gnawing.

These dreams, or rather nightmares, came from his time when he first began his path of cultivation. At that time, he only had to work with rodents that were not corrupted, and had not had their consciousness consumed by the dark energy that seemed to bind all corrupted creatures.

In a way these rodents should be scarier. They were larger, faster, and above all stronger than the rodents that Frank faced when he fought and clawed his way desperately up from the depths of the slums to ultimately emerge here on the surface.

This whole ordeal should be frightening, in fact, many of the powerful cultivators around Frank were frightened themselves.

Shrieking.

A few of the female cultivators and even many of the male cultivators that had stayed back in what apparently became the sick bay for the ongoing strike against the campus were frightened. Some by the fact that they now had to face an unexpected threat with unknown numbers who seemingly sprung up from right behind them.

As no one except for Frank seemed to be able to see or feel their approach. This was odd for Frank as he assumed that with so many high-level cultivators about that they clearly felt the tremors of the ground and the dark miasma of energy that was lurking just below them.

Yet, for all intents and purposes everyone seemed to have been caught off guard by their sudden and rapid appearance.

This was fine for Frank, as he was already over bursting with dark energy. Having spent the better part of the past two hours working on extracting the remaining poisonous energy from the bodies and infected limbs of others, before being allowed to pass off the wounded individual to the next leg of the process where they would then be healed. It was a smooth process and one that seemed to tax Frank less than using the remainder of his dwindling life energy for healing.

Instead, the loss of life energy was paid by the senior healers of the unit his date, Yolinda, had been assigned to. This meant that while Frank had a sizable portion of his life energy left, especially as he used parts of his downtime to refill his energy reserves from the package that was provided to him by the different runners of the healing unit. Frank still had an overwhelmingly disproportionate reserve of dark energy available to him.

Energy that Frank either must burn off, or possibly risk using to advance to the next layer of cultivation with most of his energy being provided by death energy. While he was certain that one unbalanced level shouldn’t cause too many problems, Frank knew that if he experienced any problems with his cultivation that he and he alone would be forced to solve the problem.

While this would likely mean that he would just have to listen to what his body was telling him more, it would still be unneeded pressure that he didn’t want or need right now.

Fortunately, the sudden surge of death energy infused rodents gave Frank just the outlet he needed for all of his cumulated energy. Focusing on the giant rodents and feeling their energy, Frank focused and with just a slight application of counter pressure to the way the dark energy was cycling within the beasts, he felt it.

There was a spark, a sharp connection of energy as his mind linked to the energy of the beasts. This was a task that was slightly tougher than dealing with the death energy that was flowing within zombies. By comparison, the zombies had stagnant energy that was not controlled. This was due to the fact that zombies themselves did not have true control over their bodies and minds. Only as time went on and their minds began to link to the power, or maybe the power began to reactivate the dormant brains of the zombies did true sentience seem to spark.

By comparison, corrupted beasts were truly sentient from the beginning until the end. This meant that the energy within corrupted beasts was constantly being cycled and used naturally, meaning the energy in a moving living creature was more than twice as volatile as the energy one would find in a zombie or other corrupted corpse that was left to wither and rot.

All this was to say that when Frank reached out to work with the death energy within the corrupted rodents, there was resistance. Had this been the start of the night, Frank would have been completely unable to interact with or even deal with the energy in any meaningful way.

Yet, Frank had spent the entire night seeing and feeling the pulses of dark energy going around the base. He felt the way the monsters coordinated themselves by sending thoughts and suggestions through the energy. The way they made all solid chunks of dark energy receivers. These chunks would be what most cultivators would refer to as cores, but they were slightly different in this case.

For Frank, the cores served as compact spheres that were designed to capture incoming dark energy pulses. Pulses that Frank now knew how to transmit, or at least how standard pulses would see and feel.

As a simple comparison, it was almost like all Life and standard cultivation frequencies were vertical, while the different Death energies were horizontal, bad comparison as this was not entirely accurate, but it was as close to what Frank could mentally comprehend at the moment.

Still it was this thought of waves that Frank used to first find the broadcast frequency, then mirroring it with his own thoughts, he focused his mind and sent out his own counter command.

“STOP!”

With the word, Frank called upon thoughts of danger. From his memory he pulled up images of the giant death serpent that he fought with and killed when he first began cultivating. He remembered its wide mouth, and the way it seemingly crouched as it waited for Frank to fall into its outstretched maw. Focusing on that thought, Frank sent that same thought and mental image to the rodents as he shouted out the dark command.

Silence.

An eerie calm swept over the place as everyone, cultivator and rodent alike both paused and stared at Frank as he apparently managed to convey the same threat of enemies to them as well.

With the brief moment of pause, Frank nodded to himself, as he then began his next step. Focusing on one of the larger rodents that was right in front of Frank’s eyesight, Frank focused and then quickly found the core of the creature.

Focusing on the core, Frank reached out with his mind and did something that was very dangerous. Something that everyone is told to never do, unless they are a trained expert helping with a breakthrough. Even then the effects are often dangerous.

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Frank focused on the dark core of the beast, and then tweaking the provided energy slightly Frank began to pump energy directly into the stationary beast’s core.

The tweak of energy was subtle, as he applied the energy of the hooded Warlock to the creature, rather than its customary energy of the Dark Queen. The switch was subtle, and the equivalent of providing excess Water Energy to an Air Cultivator.

A dark pulse of death energy entered the beast, which the beast began cultivating and trying to purify within its body. Frank watched as the slightly thinner dark energy of the hooded Warlock entered the beast’s body where it was spun about and then cycled through the core of the beast. Then once the energy flooded into the beast’s core, there was a shattering sound as the beast suddenly began to tremble. Then one more cycle of through, caused the alternate energy to tear apart the beast’s meridians, forcing the dark energy to run wild.

At this point, Frank who never let up on his gentle stream of applied energy grabbed the now free flowing dark energy, energy that was the same as zombies would have and executed his final stage of his attack.

BURST!

There was the first explosion, as one beast’s wild and chaotic energy was released, causing blood, bone, and most importantly altered energy to be released to the immediate area. This caused a cascading wave of energy as more and more nearby creatures were hit by the foreign energy. Energy that their bodies instinctively tried to cultivate and utilize.

Unfortunately for the giant sized rodents, their bodies and simple minds were unable to adapt to the new energy as quickly as required. As their bodies took int the poisonous energy and began trembling as well, a sign that their bodies were no longer under the beast’s control.

For a micro-second Frank wondered if this is what he went through when he first experienced the pain of different energy particles entering and tearing apart his body. Over time he had adapted and found that the green energy motes were the best, but he had been able to fix any damage caused by the other energy sources that he had also tried to process. With that thought, Frank worried about future rodents, ones that were immune to this subtle shift in energy. Rodents that would not be stopped by this simple attack. With that thought in mind, Frank began Detonating the loose clusters of dark energy within the different rodents.

KAMBOOM!

More rodents simultaneously exploded, while sending even more shards of corrupted energy out to the remaining nearby enemy rodents.

Only once the core had been shattered and there were a few minor lacerations in the meridians of the beast would Frank be able to detonate the free-flowing dark energy. The minute the energy was no longer being cycled within the body was the moment it became chaotic and deadly to not only the beast but to the surrounding areas as well.

These were all thoughts that Frank had been piecing together for a while, but it was only now in combat that suddenly everything began to make sense. Only now did Frank realize how poisonous death energy was, even to creatures who normally use death energy to sustain themselves.

Knowing what was now required of him. Frank silently turned to see that Yolinda and Captain Perinne were both there watching on in shock. Knowing that those two were there for him, Frank decided to trust his team. As soon as he made eye contact with both Yolinda and the Captain he nodded his head once, then before waiting for any sign of confirmation he turned his head forward, as he began completing the process that he started.

BOOM, BA-BOOM, BOOM!

The blasts and shockwaves of the different rodents began to increase in intensity and tempo. This was when Frank had to be quick, as the next wave of the creatures would only pause for a second before they became vulnerable to his combustion strikes.

For the first time since coming to the surface, Frank finally understood what it meant to fight as a team. With Yolinda and the Captain by his side, he knew that all he had to do was focus on the enemy before him, as those two would take care of everything else. Which was what Frank needed most at this moment, the ability to focus on one threat and only one threat.

***

(Yolinda Holsy)

Yolinda could only look on in shock at what her date was now doing. She had heard her brother talk about the boy, about how he was fearless and quiet. Two things that Yolinda was not accustomed to in the world of cultivation.

Having been the prominent children of Legacies, that is high ranking parents and grandparents in the military, it was expected that James and Yolinda both would go on to do great things with their careers.

Also, there had been more than one great talent who for whatever reason never seemed to meet the needs or expectations of their perceived potential. This was why Yolinda had been at first skeptical about the boy her brother had found.

That skepticism was soon disproven when she saw the boy dancing and striding his way out of Death Row of all places. In what clearly had to be a gimmick, the entire thing seemed like a recruitment movie on steroids. Basically, you take a fifteen-year-old, throw him in with hardened criminals who were too powerful to kill outright, and too dangerous to let loose into society and leave them out on an island in a sea of zombies and other corrupted beasts. Then you normally wait for them to break down and cry and finally give into whatever demand the military had for them, or let them die.

Only those that had never been up to the surface before took their chances.

This was what Yolinda thought when her brother first forwarded her the link to the livestream.

Bro: Hey, this is the Unicorn I was talking about. Cultivator.Lykanthropy/DeathRowLiveLink/#1

Just seeing the link, Yolinda knew that it was a snuff video, or a human suffering video. As Yolinda thought that the state of the prisons was terrible and that the way prisoners were treated was both inhumane, but a necessary evil. How else would you expect cultivators to be forced to remain civil and fear breaking the laws, without dire consequences.

While Yolinda fully understood the world she was in, she did dislike a few things, which was why she refused to watch the poor boy suffer.

It wasn’t until her Captain told her about the video the next day that she actually watched the remarkable escape and survival of the boy.

Then when her brother mentioned that this same boy would be her dance partner if she got her Captain to attend the Military ball, well her Captain fully agreed. Particularly as she saw this as a great recruitment drive for the boy.

Yolinda herself thought that this too was a great time to show the importance of their medical team and how they respond to pressure.

At first, Frank looked like he would be a natural fit, seamlessly going straight to helping fix and heal injured soldiers without even batting an eye. Yolinda herself felt completely lost at first, but then soon found herself acting as Frank’s attendant, signaling to the Captain and runners what Frank’s status was. She was also the one who helped control the flow of patients to Frank so he didn’t get overwhelmed.

Everything looked like he would be a perfect fit for the Combat Medical Support wing, and that it was a done deal. No one could argue with his value with being able to remove dark energy from people, before then healing them.

It was perfect, they would prove to him and the world that the next best healer would be part of their team, and that a team like her brothers, a front-line combat recon team would not be the ideal location for someone of his talents.

That was of course until the ambush happened.

Everyone who was fully combat certified, like her brother, had already been sent out to support the incoming waves of corrupted beasts that were attacking in a clearly coordinated effort. This was why, other than the members of the Combat Medic team and their assigned runners, everyone else was forced to leave and assist with maintaining the base as quickly as possible.

Thus the surprise attack right at the heart of their compound was a stroke of genius.

And likely would have meant a quick end to combat, or at least the Combat Medic team. Of course, this was assuming that someone like Frank wasn’t there.

He was the first to notice the ambush, alerting even the Captain of the incoming danger.

Then just when the surprise attack looked like it was going to succeed and swallow the forces whole, Frank said one word.

“Stop!”

Then to everyone’s surprise the monsters did just that. After which he held out his hand and obliterated the first rodent. There was no other word to describe the attack, one second there was a giant corrupted rodent, then the next it trembled slightly, before shattering to pieces and impaling other rodents nearby with its blood and bones.

This was when Frank just raised up his other hand and then two rodents exploded, followed by more.

After the first wave had been dealt with, Frank turned his stare directly at Yolinda.

Shiver.

There was an electrical pulse of power in his stare. Seeing his intensity, Yolinda felt something ignite within her. Then he just nodded before turning back to face the rodents.

Seeing him turn, Yolinda noticed the slight relaxation that staring at Yolinda caused him, as his shoulders visibly relaxed as he began destroying the rodents that were now surging from the hole. As the first wave that had stopped was no more, and now the next wave was coming forward to fill the gaps, but Frank was already working and taking care of the next waves just as quickly as they appeared.

BOOM, KABOOOM!

Blood and viscera splattered everywhere. Looking down Yolinda couldn’t help but notice that blood covered her normally pristine white uniform, but that was nothing new. No what was new was the way everyone else seemed to stare at Frank.

At this point, Yolinda understood why her brother had called dibs, and why he though the cadet who clearly had a basic understanding of healing would be a front-line fighter with him. The kid, no her date, was amazing.

For a moment, Yolinda thought that the worst thing to come was the fact that she would have to work with Captain Perinne to get others to ignore the obvious combat capabilities of Frank and get him solely certified as a combat healer.

Of course, that line of thinking only lasted until phase two of the enemy assault began.

RUUUMMMBBBBLLLLEEE!

Then just like that the hole that the enemy used to send the burrowing rodents was filled by the next wave of enemies.

“Whoa.”

Clamor.

At this, many of the remaining cultivators all seemed to tremble in fear at the next enemy that even Yolinda could feel emerging from the open crater in the ground.

“Oh no,” was all Yolinda could think, as the true enemy showed themselves.

FWOOSH!

Like that a giant creature shot out from the hole and towered over twenty feet in the air. Seeing the creature Yolinda could only stare on in horror at the creature that was akin to a nightmare. A creature so infamous with death that the only description of the beast came from survivors who witnessed the creatures in action from hundreds of meters away and began running to safety immediately.

Then giving name to the creature of myth, one of the older cultivators with a giant chest wound still being healed called out.

“Devourer!”