Chapter 73

The Flow

Pain.

Unimaginable burning pain flooded through Frank’s mind, as sharp serrated teeth dug their way in and punctured Frank’s skin just over the sweet spot in his shoulder.

The moment those inch thick and impressively long fangs sliced their way through his muscle, bone, and any other organs that were in the way, he felt it.

White hot burning pain that seemed to corrode everything within his body pulsed through those long knife-like fangs that caused instant pain.

Pain was good though, pain let you know you were still alive, still kicking.

Frank knew that he couldn’t win a contest of speed, this was a fully changed monster before him. She wasn’t a queen, wasn’t a leader of people, she was a full-fledged monster.

But monsters like her had a weakness.

While the monster was striking, Frank felt his own innate defenses kicking in.

Regeneration** kicked in to begin to repair the muscles and almost forced the fangs out.

Simultaneously, Poison Resistance** began instantly negating the bitter burning effects of the poison coursing through his body and began breaking it down into base components. Components that his body could then use to both help his own Regeneration and brought forth his first power. Or at least the first category of power that all his bonuses were based off.

Being this close, the monster was now coiling its nearly fully transformed body around Frank. In this form, a combat shifter form, the Serpentine Queen looked more like a colossal constrictor, one spoken about in movies and old tales of horror.

From what Frank was now seeing, the tales and stories did not do this creature justice, for she was a writhing, slithering force of muscle and power.

On reflex, Frank felt his arms going instinctively to the massive core of the monster that was now threatening to knock him off his feet and crush his bones.

Moving quickly, Frank kept his legs braced, knowing that his only chance was to remain upright. Then with his hands that had been going out to instinctively push the beast away, he did something different, by wrapping his arms around her torso and pulling her close.

Only then did he hit her with the full force of his still F-Rank Ability.

Healing.

Green motes of energy coursed through and burned into the dark corrosive scales. Scales that were clearly too dense to cut through and break with conventional weapons and powers.

Yet, Frank understood something.

Or at least, he thought he understood something key.

These monsters, especially the tough ones. Ones that have been able to evolve and advance for decades, some even centuries. Monsters so powerful that they were the epitome of what one would consider unkillable by modern society.

Despite all of these previous thoughts that society held about the power and advantages of these monsters, Frank realized something.

This realization was something that could have only been accomplished by his understanding the trials of the underground tunnels. Trials that showed him the polarity of energies.

While the exact trial did not relate to this exact fight, what he learned there, the base components, the underlying message did.

Polarity.

That was the key to the shifters and even the vampires’ successes in combat. They had managed to condense and align their negatively attuned attributes to such an extent that they could be used to form diamond-like skin. Muscles that were seemingly unbreakable, and unyielding. All because they knew how to wield that one half of a power so effectively.

Yet, they were limited in their scope.

Frank realized that now.

This war form, this form of death and combat, it had a weakness.

That weakness was simple and yet hard to understand unless you knew the basics of why the powers were so different from each other. A basic principle that Frank himself barely understood.

While he wasn’t a genius, at least not to the extent others he had met were. He was smart enough to realize that opposites repel each other.

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

This was why, Frank purposefully allowed the Serpentine Queen to get close, close enough to touch. Even why he took what could be an otherwise fatal hit, because he needed to use his F-Ranked power directly against his opponent’s skin.

Warm Glow.

His hands burned with life energy. Energy that should used to heal his body, but right now, his Resistances and Regeneration were enough for him to do this much.

Almost instantly, Frank felt the effects of his attack.

Though he wasn’t attacking, not truly, which was why his energy was able to easily bypass the innate defenses of the Serpentine Queen.

Frank was healing.

By pushing warm healing energy into the serpentine body, he felt the hard and calloused scales begin to flake away, revealing soft and supple flesh beneath.

Simultaneously, the snake began to wriggle and shift, but since it was now seeming to combat itself and Frank, its resistance was weak at best. The differing body parts and muscle structures actually hurt the Queen more than they helped in this case as her body and mind seemed to fight, as she still tried to keep her fangs lodged deep within Frank’s shoulder.

All this did was narrow the torso to a more human shape, allowing Frank to reach around and further tighten his own grip. A grip that all but assured his victory.

Mumbled cries.

With her over extended maw otherwise engaged, Frank felt, more than heard the desperate cries of the queen. Cries that spoke of pain, fear, and anger.

With his grip tightened, Frank continued to spread out waves of Healing energy everywhere. Using every pore of his body, he leaked the energy. Knowing that in some shape or form, much of the wiggling mass of snakeskin and bones would be affected by his energy. Energy that would directly disrupt her meticulously crafted scales.

As more of her body made contact, each part of her body that did touch began molting and shifting back. Her body seemed to think that this sudden influx of positively charged life energy was the signal needed to revert back to her human form.

Which she did, slowly.

At least, it all appeared to be slow to Frank’s mind that was slowing everything down and helping him break down how to attack and defend.

The final straw, the moment he knew he had survived, was the moment he could once again see the bright burning flames of the bonfire in the background.

Flames that now illuminated the face of a monster. A monster who could appear to have the face of a goddess, if she chose to.

Still, Frank was not done.

In the moments when her body began shrinking in on itself, when the long tail that had wrapped its way around his body slowly turned to legs, long legs that awkwardly held onto him, before having to fall to the ground. Frank held on.

Even as her body seemed to convulse and collapse in his arms, he held onto the monster. A monster that while looking momentarily weakened by the odd surge of energy within her body. Energy that forced her to take on her human form. Frank knew that she was not done.

If given a chance, Frank had no doubts that she would change and strike again.

Madness filled her eyes.

Even now, he could see the look of anger and loathing in her exhausted face.

Anger that spoke of taking one breath, and then striking again.

This was why, Frank decided to continue his attack.

Raising his left hand up, he made a mental call to pull the negative life energy from her body.

The energy was simple to find, with so much fresh and powerful life energy swirling about in her, there was a clear repulsion of energies. Frank used that momentary separation to find the alternate energy type, the type he could call from a vast distance. The type of energy that would have, and likely should have made him an S-Ranker, at least in his past life.

Not that such distinctions made any difference to him now. For now he had well and truly evolved, pushing himself past where he had been.

Once again, he felt the familiar call and connection to the negatively charged energy.

Just like his first kill, Luther, he felt the call and pull of his energy on the energy around him. He felt the way his mind was able to grab hold of this alien energy with a practiced ease that was almost sickeningly easy.

Then he pulled.

Slowly at first, at least it all felt slow to Frank. Though with a quick glance of his eyes he saw that he wasn’t slow, but the world had seemed to slow down around him. Flames seemed to remain floating in air, as if they had jumped up to see what was happening. Flames that should twinkle out in seconds, just hung there in an odd eerie silence.

Even the people all seemed to be stuck, many with eyes wide in shock or fear.

A quick glance showed that Ravena and Drava both were staring, though their expressions were hard to determine.

Then kneeling down below were the looks of the Major, Pi, and Blue each with their own level of attention. The Major was looking away, seeming to try to find an exit. While Pi and Blue both looked on with equal parts hope and horror.

Frank saw all of this, his mind slowing down the world long enough to take in this one instance.

He felt the moment that time resumed its normal cadence.

The jumping flames instantly began to flicker out, sounds began filling the odd eerie void, and most importantly, the energy within the Serpentine Queen began to twist and wrench its way free of her body.

“AHHH!”

The Queen cried out, or at least she tried to, before her throat, chest and most of her face were cut and torn open as the negatively charged energy that Frank was now calling came to him. Free and unhindered, the energy flowed out ripping its way through her body and organs and out to his raised left hand.

In that moment, Frank redoubled his vice like grip with his right hand. A grip that had to be adjusted multiple times over the past few moments, as her form expanded, contracted, and thrashed about wildly, before resorting to her base form.

She pushed, with trembling arms she tried to still fight until the very last. Only once she stopped fighting and the energy from within her body stopped resonating to his call did he finally drop her body.

Thump.

Her body fell to the ground.

She wasn’t dead, the ample amount of positive life energy coursing through her body healed her wounds almost instantly.

Still, the damage had been done, and witnessed by everyone.

In his left hand, Frank felt a pool of negatively charged life energy pooling into a sphere. With a bit of focus, Frank found himself swirling the mass clockwise, trying to help give the energy direction and solidify it into a condensed lump.

The process was intense, as even now with only a few seconds of focus he was nearly at his wits end.

“Here, place that in here,” the wizened voice of Prentip called out.

Turning his head, he saw the offering bowl, the one where everyone would provide their blood to help the next generation of shifters become even more powerful.

Seeing the large offering bowl, Frank let out a sign of relief. A sigh that he instantly regretted as a few drops of precious blood were spilled. Frank once again focused and managed to get the remainder of his spinning sphere into the bowl. Only then did he truly let himself relax.

Writhing.

The Serpentine Queen seemed to be fighting with and against herself.

“You what did you do?” She hissed, as some of her loyal guards had already started to come over and help lift her.

Looking at her, it was clear that she had changed.

It was hard to say exactly what about her had changed. Her skin didn’t seem to sparkle as much with that porcelain sheen. Her hair was not as vibrant, her form not as elegant.

Most of these seeming changes could be addressed by the fact that she was now covered in dried blood and viscera and her clothes were torn and shredded from their combat, but there was more.

Seeing her, Frank looked and realized that she was no longer a threat.

At his contemptuous glare, others also seemed to turn and stare at the Serpentine Queen. The guard who had been so loyal, even found his own face covered with a look of disgust.

Choosing not to respond, Frank used the moment to relax his senses. Danger was over.

At least, he thought it was over.

Until he felt a slight trembling within the dirt.

Pausing for a moment, he turned, only to see that the two hands that were still over the ground trembled, but faintly.

Going over to the buried body of Broadine, the person that started this whole mess, Frank stood over the burial ground and paused.

He was still sore.

Even now, his body was hard at work expelling the remainder of the venom that was unusable, before patching up his wounds.

“You’ll save him?” The Queen asked, a note of desperation in her tone.

Hearing her question, Frank just looked up and locked gazes with the woman.

Everything had been too much, this had gone too far and Frank felt something break within him. Maybe it was his naïve trust in the world, or that the idea that people were generally good at heart. Whatever it was, Frank felt it break and shatter at that moment.

Then with a look of utter shock and bewilderment, he just laughed at the audacity of the statement. Laughed and shook his head.

He then turned back to the buried body, completely dismissing the Serpentine Queen, as he no longer saw her as a threat.

Though out of courtesy, he did answer her.

“No, I’m just taking what’s mine,” Frank replied.

With that, Frank focused on the negatively charged life energy within Broadine. Negatively charged life energy that instantly began reacting to his beckoning.

Swoosh.

And like that, Frank had even more power to provide for this offering.