Chapter 71
Madness
Death rattle.
There was a sickening sound of tiny beads brushing together at subsonic frequencies. Frequencies so low that a non-cultivator would be unable to hear or even perceive their sound.
Yet, to Frank and indeed many of those gathered, the sound was nearly paralyzing.
It was at this moment that Frank, like many who were gathered could see the complete and utter look of madness that befell the Serpentine Queen, a matriarch so powerful and so revered that even now she thought to tarnish her good name and the status of her tribe to violate the rules of this sacred duel.
Rules that had been spelled out clearly by none other than this serpentine queen. Someone who with her own forked tongue stressed that this was a battle to the death.
Only after seeing the application of the ointments, ones that highlighted Franks four glyphs of power did she seem to realize that she might have overstepped.
Her son however, did not seem to notice the look of fear that came over her mothers face. Likely even going so far as to assume her last minute pleads to void the match were directed at Frank.
Yet, seeing her now, it was clear that she had meant those words for her own son.
A son who was at this very moment being suffocated by the earth, swallowed whole, but only after swallowing liquified dirt that filled his own lungs.
The son was dead, even if they got him out now, the dirt he swallowed was too deep. If Frank worked with the Serpentine Queen he felt he could get the earth out quickly enough to allow the dying combatant, Broadine, to be able to breathe again, with minimal loss to mental faculties.
Though he didn’t want to.
Gentle breeze.
Frank felt the breeze caused by the raging and unattended bonfire nearby pulling in wind from beyond and pulling it into itself, to help continue its processes.
During this time he also felt the sudden tension as multiple tribes of onlookers looked on at Frank and the Serpentine Queen. Well those that were outside the range of her impressive death rattle sound that came from her flicking a tail like appendage over and over again really quickly.
From his SERE training, Frank knew and understood this moment.
This was the calm before the storm. Or what others might refer to as the eye of the hurricane. That dead spot in a battle, where it looks like it is over, you pause long enough to regain your breath, all before the second round of fury will start.
He remembered the training, the advice given for these times.
During these times it was noted that the second wave of a hurricane was often more dangerous than the first, if only for the fact that you were already tired, and therefore more likely to lower your guard.
Realizing this, Frank focused.
He calmed his breathing, and began letting his mind expand out to better adapt to his surroundings, so that he might be prepared for anything.
Only to find out that, his senses began moving and acting on their own.
His trained reflexes already hard at work, despite his mind taking a moment to get around the annoying subsonic rattling sound of micro beads angrily gyrating against each other.
Calm.
For the first time all night, Frank felt calm.
Or at least for the first time since the Serpentine clan members arrived and all but tried to hijack this meeting. A meeting they were not directly invited to, but still felt the need to come nonetheless, just like other tribes had.
Unlike the other tribes though, it was the Serpentine tribe members that sought to take what was Frank’s.
No, not the tribe, but its leader.
A leader who tried to bully Frank into submission from the start.
In his mind he knew that the Serpentine Queen was faster. The way her body moved and swayed, along with the way she was able to reach her way over towards Frank from nearly a dozen feet away spoke to her unnatural ability to bend and flex.
“Free him this instant! I Demand his release right…”
Dense grating rattling sound.
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The angrier she got, the more crazed she became.
Seeing that look in her eye, the words of his father came back to him.
It was a talk about bullies, and Luther in particular, especially after he beat up Frank for daring to talk to Luther’s little sister, Maddie, one day.
“There is a certain measure of madness that can only be caused by some individuals by family members. Just as there are certain members of one’s family that can be used as an anchor, or to help provide perspective. This is important to note, for these rules apply to everyone, even people who are in positions of absolute power. For when either a family member is threatened, or they lose that anchoring point, they lose perspective and can grow wild with rage, that is when they are most dangerous and are best avoided at all costs.”
While it took multiple times for Frank to understand the depth of these words, there was a deeper message that was missed in these statements.
Or at least a statement that was not spoken about as they would have only confused a young Frank.
For the final message was, they were best to avoid at all costs, until you could punch them right in the face.
That was when he remembered the words of the one SERE trainer who actually wanted Frank to succeed, or at the very least gave him the information needed to survive.
“All plans change, once you are punched in the face. Then it is just instinct and training that you can rely on.”
Well Frank had not been punched in the face, at least not recently, and he still planned on not being punched anytime soon.
This was why, Frank decided to act first.
Frank was not of these tribes.
He had not particularly hard allegiances to his undergoing the rite of choosing and being infused with the power of a great spirit.
Had it not been for Drava and Ravena he might have left a long time ago. Despite knowing that the only reason the Major, Blue, and Pi were still alive was due to his influences and the understanding that they would all go through the rite of initiation together.
There was a part of him that felt drawn to this moment, to this ritual.
Part of him was curious to see what if any spirit might or might not reach out to him during his spirit walk. That is the time when he would go out and mentally travel the cosmos to find a spirit that would find him worthy to bond with.
In his mind, he knew that for whatever reason the great serpent spirit had chosen this woman before him as its champion.
It was also clear by striking out now, by resisting the demands of this queen, he would forever sever any possible connection to the great serpent and any of the allies of the great serpent.
This thought only lingered in Franks mind for a moment, before he quickly squashed it, and let his mind fill with resolve as he essentially let his instincts take over.
Instincts were what was praised the most by the most devout spiritualists of the tribe. For instincts were what drew you closer to you totem animal and protector. By relying on your instincts, you were in fact relying on the spirit that had bonded with you. Or so the teachings went.
In this case, Frank let his mind and body work in tandem with each other.
While he was an F-Rank for his primary human element of Life, and healing energies, meaning he had to directly touch a target. His distance with Corrupted or negatively charged Life energy was the exact opposite, being able to be wielded at much further distances.
Only now did Frank’s mind make that small, but seemingly important connection. That he was in fact manipulating Life energy, both positive and negative.
The attack he made against Luther, when he was first filled with the negatively charged energy, that was Life energy. Or what his mind now associated with Life energy.
Frank didn’t know if this was a symptom of the oddly drying paste that had been applied to his forehead, or something deeper, like a true connection with an unknown spirit. But Frank felt his spark of power. The deep spark of power that was still within him and somehow different from the dual channeled and directionally oppositely flowing channels of positive and negatively charged earth energy.
This was life, just as Frank could sense the dying embers of life from Broadine not ten feet away from him slowly suffering and fizzling out. So too he could feel the bright embers of life energy, both positively and negatively charged flowing within everyone.
He could feel these flows of energy, flows that had for so long been referred to as corruption, but only now did his mind truly process what it was.
It was Life energy, just in a different state, able to be handled and adapted differently.
Feeling the different forms of energy with the madly hissing and now slithering forward serpentine queen. As she moved, her entire form seemed to shift and change.
No longer was she in the long flowing form of a fit muscular female. Instead, her body was morphing. Caught in the changes of her body between forms, Frank felt the spark of life and energy shifting and turning within the serpent.
Relaxing his mind, he focused away from everything. He focused away from the innate horrors that seeing a serpent slowly morph and form from the body of a human.
For a second a flash of the first serpent he faced appeared in his mind. This was the same serpent that nearly killed him and burned him away with acidic saliva. Saliva that he barely managed to regenerate around.
It was the scariest and simultaneously the most impactful moment of his life. After that attack, that one moment where he managed to improve his natural healing, Frank knew he would survive. There would be pain, but that was just an aspect of life. An aspect that Frank was well accustomed to at this point in his life.
For a moment, his instincts told him to reach out, to strike with his S-Ranked attack ability. The one that he could rip out the corrupted life energy from this serpent, but he paused.
Somehow he knew that wouldn’t be enough, not while the creature had already changed forms.
No in this form, his activating negatively charged life energy would likely help more than hinder the serpent.
His mind knew this and processed it, rather than fighting his instincts, he trusted himself. By now he had seen and understood enough of the world around him to realize what would work and what wouldn’t.
Also, he was fairly certain that whatever strike this serpentine queen could deliver, he would survive.
That was why with a coldly rational mind he held still.
Lightning slither.
Rather than deviating or moving away, Frank held still.
Death rattle.
All the while the background music to this final duel, one that noted the second and most destructive part of the hurricane was finally approaching was none other than the violently shaking rattle of this monster.
A rattle that became louder and more ferocious as the serpentine queen bounded and lunged forward.
Out in the periphery, Frank could see and feel others moving.
Prentip was charged forward, but his movements were too late. He had waited too long to react, meaning that this moment would only be decided by Frank.
Focusing his mind on this moment, Frank closed off the senses from the outside world and focused just on the lunging serpent.
A serpent who had a giant hood that seemed to hide its mouth, particularly as the hood helped cast shadows over the face of the queen. Shadows cast as light from the giant bonfire were now fading out, revealing only obsidian scales gleaming in the light.
Obsidian scales that all but glowed with the intense power of corrupted life energy.
Seeing the scales reminded him of his time working removing the controlling corrupted shards from Constance. With that, his mind remembered how hard it was to remove that one shard from the side of Constance, who had skin as tough as stone.
Realizing that thought, Frank knew his instincts were correct, that targeting this creature with negative life energy would not yield the result he wanted.
This was why, he clamed himself and fought against his instincts.
Instincts that told him to dodge, to duck out of the way.
As the Serpentine Queen charged forward, a faint devilish smile crested her elongating maw. A maw that was now filled with elongating fangs that began dripping with venom and malicious intentions.
The smile was wide, as she saw that she had won. That the opponent like a frightened field mouse could only stand still and wait for death, death that she would gladly deliver.
That was why she smiled brightly, her eyes closing as instinctive slits covered her eyes as she lunged forward to make her fatal strike.
The last thing she saw was a perfectly still human, one who was too frightened to move. So frightened that its muscles quivered as it no doubt fought the paralyzing fear that gripped it, as it desperately tried to leave.
All consuming hatred filled her mind, as she lunged forward, preparing everything into her strike. Only after closing her eyes did something seem off. Only once all other stimuli had been cut off did she realize why her mind told her something was wrong. It was the eyes of her target.
They were wrong somehow.
Strike.
Only once she struck true, her teeth striking and easily ripping and piercing their way through soft skin could her mind understand what was wrong with those eyes.
They weren’t the eyes of a frightened creature, but one determined to strike back.
But it was too late, her teeth were in, her venom was flowing, and it would soon be a matter of course when she would be able to swallow this creature who dared attack her brood.
Yet, even now, she could tell that something was wrong.
Burning.
There was an intense burning that began with her teeth and began to tremble and echo with cascading waves of pain throughout her body.
Only now did she open her eyes and attempt to understand what was happening. There was just one problem, only now did she realize it was too late.