Chapter 61

Learning New Things

The entire process that was unfolding before Frank was mesmerizing in the way a transit crash, or other form of natural disaster that was impossible to avoid and somehow you found yourself right in the middle of.

From Frank’s perspective, he had only witnessed one event that was remotely similar and that was when one supply tram car going north apparently hit a rock, or maybe an unseen rodent causing it to lift up out of its tracks and then plow into a southbound train car that was unable to avoid the tilting train.

When it was all said and done, Frank had the easiest time to school, as the government quickly built a walkway bypass to allow foot traffic to avoid the wreck, while repair efforts were underway.

Of course, about two or three months after the trains were fixed, some drunk awakeners crashed into the walkways, causing them to fall down and no longer be a feature.

That was life in the slums.

This time around, the trainwreck came in the form of two different factions of shifters fighting each other, for what Frank couldn’t tell. All Frank could tell was that he didn’t want to be near the area when they realized he was there.

There were stories about wandering cultivators who stumbled upon such events, only to be struck down.

His SERE training told him that the best course of action would be to wait until the two groups were completely distracted with each other and find a time to leave.

The only problem with this plan was that one of the groups flew.

Also, with the second group flying, it was hard for Frank to try to track where they were. The more he tried to reach out to see where the flying monsters were, the harder time he had, as they didn’t seem to register with his newly developing cultivating senses.

At least they didn’t register in the way Frank was used to.

This was why Frank decided to try to help protect the wolf shifters, for as long as the wolf shifters were still alive, then the two enemies would be focused elsewhere.

There was another interesting thing that Frank realized at this time, and that was that lightning was an odd element, both positive and negatively charged in an attack.

Honestly, looking at the element and feeling its offshoots flowing into and around the protective earthen structure that Frank had managed to create, lightning was amazing.

While he would not be able to take on a bolt of lightning directly if he were out in the open. He did feel that right, inside his protective earthen energy dome, one that had multiple outlets of metal infused rocks and debris that grabbed the various electrical particles and distributed them evenly under the ground around him, right in here, he was completely safe.

It took a few minutes for Frank to understand why exactly, but then Frank realized it was a matter of the different gradient of powers being used.

For simplicity’s sake, Frank began equating the electrical bolts being generated by the vulture type creatures as being a Tier I of power. While Frank began equating by comparison the energy structure of his earthen dome as a Tier II of power, making the structure more capable and durable than the incoming energy.

Then from there, breaking down the components of electricity were fairly easy for Frank. There was a positively charged starting point, and a negatively charged landing point for each strike. A perfectly contained strike that seemed to neither add, nor take away from the balance of the world around them.

Honestly, Frank felt that after watching this, electricity was the far better of all options.

Though Frank would be hard pressed to see if electricity was a true stand-alone element by itself, or if it was a mixture of two, or possibly even three elements.

From the complexity of being both positive and negatively charged in each attack, Frank saw it as the pinnacle of power. As he watched, he wondered if there was a way he could mimic such an attack with earth energy.

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That was the spark of inspiration, the idea that caused Frank to realize a way he could press the boundary of what he previously thought was possible, all thanks to what was occurring around him naturally in nature.

Violence.

CRACKLE-POP!

“GHHHAAHHH!” The bolts of lightning came, stronger and fiercer than before.

It seemed that the avian attackers had learned to get around Frank’s natural defenses that he had created. Before, the metal coils and tendrils that had provided an enclosure to protect the aviary attackers was now being struck by bolts of energy that were so intense that the energy was overflowing the natural pathways and energy dispersion channels that Frank had created.

Looking at his design, it was clear now that there were ways he could have improved his base design. Namely he could have made wider channels or run off paths that would gather overflowing energy and redirect errand streams of energy back to primary or maybe even auxiliary pathways.

Instead, Frank had gone with the basic model. This was the way nature itself wanted to go, which was apparently not the most efficient in protecting against electrical attacks. Though doing the changes that Frank now envisioned would have taken away from the base structural support framework that was playing an important process in protecting the remaining wolfpack members.

That said, protecting the wolfpack members wasn’t necessarily a priority, especially as Frank realized he would likely be helped by the remaining wolfpack members being too injured to follow him.

While he was still slightly thirsty and hungry, it wasn’t as bad as it had been when he first entered the ground.

“Cacaw!” One of the were-birds let out a deafening roar as it flew close and tried to lunge at any unprotected wolfpack members.

This was the moment that Frank had been waiting for, a moment when the bird was too focused on striking at one of the cowering wolves to notice him. Not that anyone could notice him. In this state, he was all powerful, or maybe defensive, almost like a turtle rising up from the ground.

Still, he was inspired and using the ebb and flow of energies around him, he tried to mimic the lightning that was erupting all around him. Even the arcing bolts that were not being directed by the enemy were still striking the land with impunity. It was those bolts, the natural ones that helped Frank form his mental attack construct the easiest, as those were the most unrefined of the bolts of energy, and therefore the ones that were the easiest to copy.

Focusing on those incoming strikes, Frank focused his earth energy through the nearby wall and directed the energy into a point. Then focusing on the swooping were-bird Frank identified a patch of negatively charged earth energy on the microscopic particles of dirt that were on the beast’s feathers, then he focused.

There was a moment of tension, as nothing seemed to happen at first. Until finally, he felt a release, as if something in the universe around him relaxed just enough for him to send an attack through the thick veil of the world around him.

Whoosh!

In a second, Frank felt the release of stored energy, energy that was quickly converted into matter. Matter that then shot out in the form of a spike that impaled straight into the anchoring parts of dirt on the beast.

The moment he made the attack, his mind came loose with a mental description of the attack. Even though he himself could not see any updates informing him of the new progress

Earth Spike.

That was the concept that came to his mind. The concept of the spike was that of a curving gnarled patch of earth that would be able to rise up and out to any target immediately nearby.

With a start, Frank realized that he could at the moment easily strike at the remaining werewolves, all of them were vulnerable to his attack. Particularly with the way they were all hunkering down inside pockets of earth that he controlled.

However, again that was not what Frank wanted.

For a moment, he remembered the talks about strategy, he gained from SERE training. How he would have been greatly chastised for not taking advantage of the situation that was before him.

Kill the wolves, then when the birds begin to land and peck at the fallen enemies claim the birds as well.

But just as Frank was about to do just that, he paused.

He had killed a lot, remembering the rats and other beasts that constantly came at him, he had no choice but to attack then.

That said, this was not the same. At least this was not the same set of circumstances currently.

For the moment, Frank felt an odd sense of power rising within him. Almost as if the surging electricity that was blasting down and ultimately getting filtered back to him as a form of useable energy was also igniting more of his brain.

That’s when Frank let go of trying to force a perfect strike at the flying enemies and instead began firing off shots rapidly.

Frank found himself lashing out with bursts of energy that almost felt like he was firing buckshot. While the burst would begin with one concentrated burst of energy, it would soon disperse and form multiple smaller branches of stone spikes that would strike out in a crisscrossing web like pattern that couldn’t help but capture the enemy beasts that still came in their relentless assaults.

The dispersal was tough to accept at first, particularly as it seemed to go against his natural instincts of putting as much energy as possible into a concentrated spot.

Instead, he had to again fight his instincts and training to allow nature to take its form. The stone would move and do as he asked, but only as long as he let the stone do it in its own way.

In a way, Frank felt this was merely him being both the provider of energy and the provider of intent on what that energy should ultimately do. Then the medium that he was channeling the energy, in this case the earth, would take those orders and perform the most efficient attack using the resources provided.

The attacks looked hollow and brittle.

To Frank’s shock, many of the smaller branches of earth that did ultimately scratch or impale the fliers broke off. But this was apparently a good thing, for the larger chunk of earth that broke off in each target caused both the target to have a harder time flying away, while also providing an even better anchoring point for his future bursts to land accurately.

Like this, Frank began using earth energy as a weapon. His control was still weak, in time he felt there would be ways to make the spikes stronger, and more accurate, but for now he could see the beginning of what it would take to be a true Geomancer, and that excited him, and caused him to want to push on just a little farther to see what else he could discover about his new talents.

***

(Ravena)

Even from her hiding spot, Ravena saw the first true miracle of her lifetime.

Flicker.

In between the backdrop of erupting bolts of lightning that illuminated the world around them, showing the flock of hovering enemies, Ravena saw the world come to life and begin protecting the pack.

There was no other way to describe the process of what she was seeing.

The enemies would swoop in on their massive war forms, talons outstretched ready to grab and pierce fellow pack members and carry them up, only to be dropped to the ground violently. But before they could get close, the ground itself, looking like a giant tree made of stone struck out and began protecting the pack.

Long twisting branches of pure stone shot out, twisting their way into enemy birds that got too close, and pierced their delicate bones that were less dense in their aviary form.

Not all of the branches that struck out hit their intended targets, but there were enough that did.

“Cawww…” Birds let out death throes from stone branches that emerged from and around the captured predators.

Then just as the flock looked to be demoralized, to question whether they should continue onward, that was when the enemy shaman, the one who started this whole chain of events acted.