“During the past month the Immortal Alliance has put an enormous work in researching the artificial beast tide formations.” Claude answered Leo’s question, “Unfortunately it’s far from enough and it might take several decades if not centuries for us to reliably be able to predict the tides.”
“Damn.” Was the only thing Leo could say to that and both siblings knew what he meant – meanwhile too many people will die.
“I still don’t understand why they didn’t put you in another squad and become part of a solid formation.” Alice said while wrinkling her nose in displeasure, “Not that I’m complaining, of course. You becoming my personal chef was a solid decision!”
That was the joke she was making for the second day straight since the arrival to Dzharla, a city deep within mountain ranges covered with pine forests. It was somewhat similar to Taipaq, where Musa’s squad was deployed during the first mission, but the difference was that last night there was another earthquake, a third in a row, indicating a high possibility of a beast tide.
After the tragedy in Zhetikara where several students lost their lives, the academy began to deploy three squads for each destination at the same time in order to increase the chance of survival for the students. Zhetikara’s incident proved, that a handful of local Nascent soul stage cultivators with addition to three from the academy was not enough to effectively stop a beast tide.
Fortunately it looked like it was not as easy to set up the large scale rune formations that caused the tides or maybe they were too expensive, or maybe both, thus the artificial disasters didn’t happen every other day. Here in Dzharla though, everyone was positive the beast tide will occur any day – all the signs were there with the regular earthquakes as the main proof.
Contrary to Zhetikara, Dzharla had more cultivators at the Nascent soul stage and students from the War Academy would not be the only real defense against the higher ranked beasts. The problem was that the numbers of beasts the surrounding mountains and valleys housed was way too scary.
One of those beasts, a rank four bear, the trio was currently roasting on a large bonfire. Meanwhile the rest of Musa’s squad along with the other two groups were having dinner fifty or so yards further down the river.
When Musa’s squad members found out that they would be deployed together with the squad Alice’s brother was a part of, they almost cheered imagining how Leo’s glory days would come to an end. Everyone, including Lily, were sick of Alice praising the weirdo for being a true hero and hoped Claude would punish him for getting too close to his sister. Unfortunately they were met with disappointment when not only Claude didn’t confront the guy – they even turned out to be friends.
The only one who couldn’t care less was Musa, who according to Leo’s standards was a much bigger weirdo than him. He kept hanging around their bonfire, eating their food, but rarely said anything apart from thanking them for a meal.
Just when the meat was about to be ready, Musa, as always, showed up from nowhere and picked one of the skewers as if it was meant for him. Actually it was, because after the second time it repeated, Leo included him in their dinner calculations. It was a bit awkward, but the squad leader didn’t seem to be a bad person, therefore Leo didn’t mind.
“What did you get with your contribution points?” Alice changed the subject, “Elder Mist forced us to acquire cultivation resources so we don’t fall behind in strength and die in a random beast tide. She said that there will always be time to learn alchemy, but it’s impossible for dead people.”
“I …” Leo didn’t know what to say. He hadn’t seen a single contribution point, but on the other hand elder Li allowed him to cultivate on the island. In the end it was basically the same, so he said, “I also got to cultivate.”
“If we harvest a good amount of points this time, I’d suggest you get a different weapon or purchase a decent combat move to learn.” Claude said, “I’m no elder Li, but from what I saw during your duel last night, that would be my number one priority.”
Leo glanced at the Cleaver lying next to him and sighed. Besides the fact that he loved it, after contemplating for years about what master Zaraki and master Shaw explained to him, Leo came to the conclusion he might as well use this weapon for fun.
Regarding the techniques he wasn’t so sure though. He did spend some time in the academy’s library, but there wasn’t anything that caught his eye. All the self invented techniques form his own Lightning series felt much more interesting and effective and what he lacked was practice and experience.
“I think the best combat techniques are the ones we discover on our own.” Musa’s sudden musings surprised the rest, “Look at my ‘Wind blades’. Even though there are similar techniques in the world, I developed them myself and only used the existing knowledge that belonged to others to refine my own technique. Something others have though of will never be as potent as your own creation. Of course, you’ll see the true potential after stepping into the Nascent soul stage, but ...”
“But what?” Alice asked and Claude was the one who answered.
“Some people have less talent than Musa and if they’ll try to think of their own techniques they might die before succeeding.” He explained.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“Damn it!” Musa suddenly looked up and cursed, but before anyone asked, cold raindrops began to fall on their heads.
At their level a bit of rain wasn’t a tragedy, although some people simply didn’t like it. The girls with Lily in the lead immediately hid in tents, while most guys either pretended or actually didn’t care.
Claude and Leo also continued to sit at the fire and munch on the bear meat roast. Alice, on the other hand, was torn between ‘staying cool’ like the guys and following the impulse to hide. But then she noticed that not a single drop has landed on Musa yet. It was rather confusing at first, but after a careful observation she realized there were tiny swirls of air around Musa’s upper body and all the droplets vanished in those before reaching him.
She sat there with furrowed brows for a while, but then grinned, closed her eyes and few moments later her hair and clothing began to dry up, heated mist rising above her.
“Your thought process is correct.” Musa said after glancing at her, “Unfortunately you can’t sustain that before you reach the Nascent soul stage. I’d suggest you conserve your strength in case …”
He didn’t manage to finish when another earthquake, the strongest up until now, shook the ground.
“Jinx!” Alice murmured under her nose and rushed towards the main camp where the rest of the squad was.
Claude and Leo followed her, but Musa was already floating above the small crowd of students and giving out orders.
They sky was already getting dark and it was raining buckets. Three squads of twelve students each were positioned on a field slightly south of the city, facing the dark and gloomy forest. Of course, it felt that way because of the heavy rain and the confirmation the beast tide was on its way.
If not for witnessing the aftermath, Leo was quite curios what the beast tide actually was and how it looked like. Since he was part of Musa’s squad only theoretically and both his weapon and combat style were not suited for fighting next to a crowd, he positioned himself to the left from the other students, calculating the best ways to retreat unnoticed.
The problem was that behind him were several dozens of local defenders, most of which were at the Core formation stage, similar to Leo. At first the morale of the locals was rather poor. Even the presence of their own Nascent soul stage cultivators positioned around the perimeter didn’t help much.
When the three student squads arrived, most had mixed feelings, but since nine of the ‘kids’ could fly, it clearly indicated they were a force to be reckoned with. Everything changed after a lone student with a huge weapon that looked like an oversized kitchen knife casually strode aside and took a spot intending to protect a whole part of the city by himself. He wasn’t floating, but surely someone this brave had to possess an incredible strength. It didn’t take long for tens of people to get fired up and stand behind ‘the hero’, intending to support him with their lives, but while it caused few snickers and laughs in the student formations, Leo was sweating in despair.
Fortunately he didn’t have to suffer for too long.
“Incoming! Ten miles!” Suddenly the shout of a local Nascent soul stage expert penetrated the thick curtain of rain and echoed around the wide field in front of the city.
Defenders nervously clenched their weapons tighter, while the students focused on their breathing, preparing for the battle. It wasn’t as distinct at first, but soon everyone could swear they felt the ground below their feet slightly shaking.
‘F*ck! F*ck! F*ck!’ Leo cursed to himself in slight panic.
He already knew most of the beasts were going to be wolves and felt the fight should go easier compared to what he experienced in Zhetikara. The problem was that just like the last time there was nowhere to retreat – the city, similar to ninety nine out of a hundred cities in the territories of the Immortal Alliance didn’t even have a city wall!
“Eight miles!” Another shout reverberated through the vicinity, but those who were nervous became increasingly stressed and the ones who tried to focus, concentrated even more.
‘Ok, ok!’ Leo tried to calm down and glanced at the student squads, ‘Breathe and focus, just like the rest!’
In theory it sounded correct, but as it turns out it’s not that easy to calm yourself down in an instant. When the shout ‘five miles!’ came, Leo decided to do something about his state of mind. Either it was because of the crowd behind him or he actually was a pussy, he felt that if it continued like this he could die during the first clash.
‘F*ck it!’ Leo said to himself and jabbed the Cleaver in the ground. Then he sat next to it cross legged, ignoring the fact that he was actually sitting in a puddle, and took a long, deep breath.
At first the locals were completely baffled by Leo’s action.
But then a ‘smarter’ guy with a bigger mouth shouted, “Right! This is our city! We won’t let them through no matter what! F*ck them!”
Then he imitates Leo’s move, stabbed his axe in the ground and sat down, taking a deep breath. He was a puny Foundation establishment stage cultivator and due to the thick rain his shout was heard only in the vicinity. But it turned out to be enough. The nervous locals one after another followed his suit and within moments the bunch behind Leo nonchalantly sat down on the wet and dirty ground, shouting ‘f*ck them!’.
The warning ‘one mile!’ came much sooner than Leo expected. He got up with a sigh and leaned against the Cleaver and the small crowd immediately mimicked his actions. Most of the people had weapons of smaller sizes, but that didn’t prevent them from assuming other ‘heroic’ poses.
While their actions surely would’ve been laughed at by students in any other circumstance, they were busy with their own mindset, focusing on the treeline in the distance. They knew that just because they were better trained there wasn’t a guarantee they would return unscathed.
Leo closed his eyes for a split moment, but when he opened them the first beasts had already charged out from the forest. As expected those were wolves with some being smaller, some bigger. The beasts charged towards the city in a crazed manner without any sense of self preservation.
It didn’t seem too bad at first, but then a sea of hundreds of wolves followed behind the first few and the defenders at all cultivation levels felt their feet grow cold. If it was one long line of beasts coming their way it would’ve been a child’s play to deal with them, but from what it seem like, the wave was endless. The beasts kept appearing behind the treeline and to onlookers it felt like demons from hell kept continuously spawning, except these didn’t have flaming eyes and they didn’t breathe fire, nevertheless the darkening sky and the thick rain made the view even more surreal.