In almost two years since the first deployment to protect cities against the beast tides, Naryn was the first one with an actual wall. Built at the side of a cliff, it had a natural protection against invaders from the west, while the city wall protected it from the other three cardinal directions.
Actually the wall was built thousands of years ago by the city lord before Naryn joined the Immortal Alliance alongside the Orion immortal realm. He was a bit of a tyrant and built the wall to prevent his subjects from leaving without permission rather than against an outside threat. After the tyrant was overthrown, the wall was maintained to serve as a reminder of those dark times. Now though the thirty feet tall wall became handy when there was a threat of a beast tide, especially since the tropical forest that covered most of the land in these parts was filled with plethora of beasts.
The accumulated expertise during the past years allowed the academy to send the students against the beast tides in the initial formation of twelve people, with the Musa’s squad being the exception having thirteen members. Currently they were gathered at the main gate of the city, but not to marvel at its beauty. There was a large sign drawn on it which according to locals appeared only a couple of days ago. It depicted an arrow nocked in a bow, except the arrow was drawn with the arrowhead in the wrong direction, towards the bowstring.
There were no witnesses who could tell who or why it was drawn. And no one knew if it was in any way connected to the threat of the beast tide, but it did look rather peculiar and the three squads decided to check it out.
“It’s a sign.” Lily stated the obvious.
“Mhm.” Mark, standing next to her, nodded with a serious expression while Musa didn’t react in any way, except looked gloomier than usual.
“Ye, but what does it mean?” Efran, the newcomer to Lily’s squad curiously asked.
Few days ago he replaced Milton who got seriously wounded during the last deployment along with four more newcomers who joined during the past month – two who replaced injured and two who took the spots of the students who managed to form their nascent souls, just like Harold and Alice’s brother Claude had.
Lately quite a few students managed to advance, even some whom Leo had defeated in duels. Unfortunately pure strength was not the deciding factor for the advancement to the Nascent soul stage. It had more to do with understanding the laws nature and becoming a spiritual life form.
Leo knew that in theory one had to merge their soul with their golden core in the dantian, technically in a similar way to how they merged the liquefied Qi with their blood essence during advancement into the Core formation stage. The problem was – he had no clue how he had done it in the past, in fact, he was not certain he remembered any of his advancements!
Even though Leo was not the most competent person regarding the cultivation, he had the rule ‘number one’ and knew to not piss off the Ice queen. Efran, on the other hand, being a newbie didn’t know she had her ‘special’ days every day of the month and barely managed to withstand the killing intent she leaked after he dared to disturb her.
The rest were already used to her antics and noted they should educate their newer colleague when the Ice queen was not around, but Leo once again came to the conclusion that this person was way too dangerous and one of these days might even kill someone.
Since there was nothing much to do about the weird sign, the squad returned to their camp. Leaders went out to explore, as usual, but the rest stayed to cultivate except for Leo and Alice who ran off to hunt.
In the afternoon and later in the evening, a couple of earthquakes shook the land, followed by one the next morning and another one in the afternoon. Those were clear indications the beast tide was about to start any moment and it did, right before the sunset.
Hundreds upon hundreds of beasts charged from the jungle towards the city, but both students and the local defenders calmly prepared to meet them head on. Apes, snakes, jaguars and tapirs of different ranks ran side by side making a thunderous noise, but from the experience gained in the past couple of years everyone knew this was one of the easiest tides to go against.
The general rule was that if there was no one dominant species in the region, the average rank of beasts was lover. Basically – the beasts naturally policed each other. The students had already defended against similar tides and now relatively leisurely dealt with the crazed beasts. The only thing everyone was too look out for were the poisonous creatures, but that was it.
The sky was already dark when the defenders finished dealing with the first wave, but before everyone could relax, one of the two local Nascent soul stage cultivators, named Galla Santoro, began cursing after noticing something in the distance. Probably only the people at her level could recognize what she saw, because neither Leo nor the other students on the ground had a clue. All they could discern were few flickering light blue spots that could've easily been stars.
“Thunderhawks!” The other local defenders guessed from the reaction of their leader, but it only confused the students more.
“There were no such beasts in the region mentioned in your report!” Musa stated.
“There aren’t! They nest over three hundred miles to the east, on an island group in the ocean!” The second local Nascent soul stage expert, Tyno Woods, explained, his expression turning increasingly sour.
“Ranks?” Musa’s expression turned even more serious, but, hearing the answer, even sour.
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“Around six, probably. But the problem is that they are almost immune to any elemental attacks thus we’ll have to somehow defeat them with physical strength.” Tyno Woods said. Seeing the skeptical faces of most students, he added, “Even though they are called ‘thunderhawks’, whole species have an innate fire mutation that resembles lightning. It’s incredibly annoying to deal with. A long time ago I personally fought a couple of them simultaneously, but to kill those two rank sixes was pain in the butt even for me. They’re fast, resilient and smart bastards!”
“Interesting …” Lily murmured, but then turned to Mark and said, “Get ready to set it up!”
Mark immediately took out a four yard long pike that somewhat resembled a mast of a smaller boat. It had long, thin ropes wrapped around it along with few pieces of cloth, although too small to be mistaken for sails.
“What’s that?” Galla Santoro asked.
“That’s a device our runemasters in the academy invented.” Musa absentmindedly explained while staring in the distance, “In theory it might help to attract the attention of the beasts in the vicinity.”
“In theory?” Gallo Santoro repeated sceptically.
“Ye …” Musa nodded, but then turned to the students, “Clean up what’s left from the first wave! Watch the perimeter while we …”
But Mark’s next move made his nostrils flare up. His fellow squad leader suddenly flew towards the city, but when Musa intended to go after him, Lily suddenly stood in his way.
“It’s fine.” She said in an icy tone, “Let him do his thing!”
“What’s going on?” Tyno Woods asked, noticing the strange actions of the students.
“Stop him no matter what!” Musa said in a grave tone, “Don’t let him set up that thing in the city!”
The two local Nascent soul stage experts perplexed expressions turned similarly grave when the next moment Lily suddenly radiated an intense field of cold, making them sluggish while instantly freezing to death a couple dozens people on the ground.
“Go! I’ll deal with her!” Musa commanded.
It didn’t matter what the reason was for the sudden inner conflict, the two were too experienced to not realize who the real enemy was. They dashed after Mark while Lily didn’t even bat an eye. She continued to watch Musa with a wide grin across her face, while the young man in front of her was having some inner conflict.
It didn’t last long though. A split moment later Musa sped after Galla Santoro and Tyno Woods, but even though to the onlookers below it seemed that he teleported away, he appeared hundred or so yards further away as if running in a slow motion.
“Why do you think master put us in the same team?” Lily said in ridicule while flying after him.
The move she was currently using was taxing even for her, but it didn’t matter as it seemed her only task was to keep Musa from leaving.
“It’s too late anyway!” She continued, “It’s over for those two … and for the city!”
“You don’t have to do this!” Musa hissed in anger.
Only now he realized the true reason he was partnered up with probably the only Nascent soul stage cultivator in the world that was basically his nemesis. Initially he thought it was for them to complement each other and to make up for personal deficiencies, but as it turns out the damned old man thought there was a need to keep a watch on him and have someone with the ability to restrain him as well.
“We do, Mumasa!” Lily said in the same icy, ridiculing tone, “And you do too!”
Musa clenched his fists, hearing the name he hadn’t used for the longest time, and tried to get closer to her, but Lily fell back for a moment, radiating even more cold and freezing Musa’s movements even more. The droplets on her forehead clearly indicated she was going all out, but her expression remained the same.
“Just take your boyfriend and leave!” Musa said, trying to think of the best way out, “Why do you have to kill all these people? They have nothing to do with the Immortal Alliance or the Army of Freedom!”
“Don’t make me laugh!” She continued to ridicule him, “You know that millions will die as a collateral damage and there is nothing you can do about it! Everything is for the cause! In fact, we’ll bring you back to the old man so he could punish you for messing up our plans! You didn’t have to protect those cities so heartily, you know? And none of the students dying in our groups is not forgivable either! Who told you to save them every time? Our objective in the academy was the exact opposite, Mumasa!”
“Stop calling me that!” He angrily hissed, but was met with another ridiculing laugh.
“Isn’t that your real name? Although it does sound kind of stupid ...”
While Musa and Lily were struggling – one to get away and the other to keep the first one in place, Galla Santoro and Tyno Woods arrived at a tower not too far from the main gate of the city. There, on top of it, Mark had placed the pike they saw earlier and currently finished setting up strange looking gray formation flags around in a larger area.
“What’s the meaning of this?!” Tyno Woods angrily asked, but immediately was scolded by Galla Santoro.
“Who cares?! Get the pike and we’ll deal with him afterwards!” She shouted and flew towards the tower, turning into a fireball.
Tyno Woods, also being a fire affinity cultivator, did the same, but just as they were about to reach the tower, few yards away from it both hit an invisible barrier. Running into a wall can daze or even knock out cultivators of any level and, while both local Nascent soul stage experts got confused only for a split moment, it was all Mark was waiting for.
He charged at the duo, slapping both palms in their respective backs, but instead of actually hitting or pushing them, the strangest thing happened. In an instant the two were covered in strange, black goo, that extinguished the Qi flames they were burning with and limited their movement. It took only a heartbeat for them to react, but it was already too late.
The eight flags that Mark set up previously, as if guided by invisible strings, suddenly moved over, forming an octangular prison around them. At the same time Tyno Woods and Galla Santoro to their great horror felt their physical bodies literally melting. The thought ‘we’ve been careless!’ was the only thing that accompanied the excruciating pain and there was only one thing left they could do. Both got away from the imprisonment by decisively discarding what was left of their physical bodies in the form of their Nascent souls.
Unfortunately this was the moment Mark was waiting for. Even though normally one can not touch or hold on to a nascent soul, he caught each of them in coconut sized container before either could react. Then he inserted the ends of the four of formation flags in one of the containers and four in the other and sighed.
“What a waste …” He murmured. But then threw a glance at the spot where Lily and Musa were currently at and added, “But this will have to suffice. It doesn’t look like we can capture him alive ...”