Slaughter, Dark Burst (2)

5th month, 2nd week, 2nd day of the war. This was the date for the start of the last face-off between the Wrath Nihility Academy and its enemy, the hidden forces of the Blackotia Kingdom.

"Get ready, eject immediately!" Heian Ciemnosc's voice was heard as everyone prepared. Their legs folded, their bodies slightly leaning forwards as if about to take a dive, and their faces focused. Some appeared nervous, while the majority became stern. Heian Ciemnosc walked around a little more before smoothly crouching in the exact middle. In his hands, a device that needed him to put his two hands and forearms in and grasp something together to hold the device was swiftly taken out of his Covert Space bags and used as intended.

“!!” - “!” - “!!!” - “!” - “!” - “!!”- “!...”

The entire stationary personnel hangar was full of tension the moment Heian Ciemnosc lowered himself to crouch together like them. It was the moment everything gained color and turned real. They no longer looked around and set their gazes on the floor below their feet, just as Heian Ciemnosc and his 1,000+ soldier units have been since he timed those 2 minutes before jumping into action. They started to feel some sense of unity. Their heads were as if held by each other’s hands, trying to keep them attached to their bodies.

A strange yet comforting feeling that delved the more they became serene and remembered why they were here, what they were doing. A person among them, somewhat young but quite capable, already a Spirit Rebirth realm 1st stage Student slowly opened his eyes, the plethora of sweat around his cheeks and sideburns cooled off as he thought inside his mind. ‘For myself! I can’t ever say I didn’t live good enough. This is my path!’

“Break off!” Heian Ciemnosc suddenly shouted. The moment came, and everyone tensed their leg muscles, their veins thinning down and bones cracking as they started a jumping motion. As their bodies unfolded, even those doubtful and nervous still felt confidence overwhelm them as they jumped together. Ten thousand men and women jumped towards the ground as they crouched. It was a comical sight and nothing else.

Puuushhhh~! Whist- WHOOOOOOOSHHHHH~!! Swish, swish, swish, swish, swish, swish, swish, swish, swish, swish, swish, swish, swish, swish, swish, swish, swish, swish, swish, swish…

Heian Ciemnosc led the nose-diving. His body exploded downwards with dark Power Energy connecting to an array formation, merging his body and uniform with those of his Concealed Ornament Team and the other team leaders’ groups under him. Suddenly, from the transporting ship at the center on the vanguard of the elite fleets, a dark cone made by a thin layer of uniquely dark Power Energy descended!

The sound of thousands of bodies diving from the safe and sound underbelly into the wide open aerial space was terrifying, sending shivers to those who were part of those brave, elite soldier units jumping down first and foremost than anyone else! The dark cone wasn’t fixated. Since it covered over 1,000 soldier units, it was waving and fluttering the sky as it went down with precision. The transporting ship they ejected from suddenly dived after all its 200,000 soldier units erupted.

WHOOOOOOSHHH. The transporting ship’s sudden dive wasn’t unwelcome. And as the hundreds of thousands of soldier units continued to rush down with abandon, facing the enemy with several different arsenals ready and aiming at the sky, their vessels dived to the ground and passed them. As the transporting ships arrived around 10 km above ground level and the soldier units barely crossed to the 15th kilometer, they rotated, facing the ground with the upperside, and started firing down!

Pum, pum, pum, pum, pum, pum- tarararara- tadaradaradaradaradaradaradaradaradaradara…

Several transporting ships dived and spun, showing the enemy below their toys and firing at them with the advantage! Not only that, they could have started firing down at the enemy from before, but with the current height and as they continued to descend albeit at a negligible pace, their firepower was intensified as it fell upon the enemy’s army!

From a short distance away, the soldier units could appreciate the sight of several transporting ships taking the vanguard momentarily and coloring their path around with bullets, cannons’ shells whose trajectory was wherever those bullets fell, and occasional firing from a mini-turret to stop an incoming missile. It was all a plethora of military arsenal that was best in the Blackotia Kingdom!

Pum, pum… tarara… tadaradaradaradaradara- tardaradaradara… At this moment, passing by 3 transporting ships, 2 at the left and right and another at the front and slightly higher than the previous 2. Heian Ciemnosc witnessed a little path made as these bullets, shells, and mini-turret’s line of fire left small pathways in the sky open. Heian Ciemnosc activated his device and dived harder, pushing his dark Power Energ to the utmost so he could finally start smashing his group against the ground!

Pshift- clink. Woooong~, whoooooooooooosh… … … pshift- clank- whoosh whoos whoosh…

After Heian Ciemnosc activated his device’s array formation, a bent protective barrier appeared before him, with properties to evade wind as much as possible, including blast explosions. His group then zoomed down, leaving the other groups right above him, sucking a deep, cold breath before doing the same!

As Heian Ciemnosc’s group speed skyrocketed and seemed to want to slam against the ground without any care, more and more groups passed through the same pathway as he did and activated their devices. At once, several groups were covered by a cone. But it was a transparent, translucent, whitish color instead of the dark Power Energy’s tinge. As they formed, one by one, in the sky, it suddenly gave the enemy apprehension as the blue turned into whitish blue instead.

Whiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiisttleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee~!...

Strangely, there were no shadows coming down despite the sun already illuminating from above. And the center of this petrifying image was the dark cone… moving insanely quickly down - towards them!!

“Spread away!!” - “Separate! Run!” - “Disperse, disperse already!!!” The enemy shouted. Their numbers were already under heavy fire as their array formation had holes and were further broken apart with additional holes before the previous ones could repair themselves. But the dark cone wasn’t stopping! Their artillery teams kept firing ahead, hoping to delay for enough time to save their comrades. But they became hopeless as the cone’s whistling movement noise began to deafen them.

“Oh no…” One person from an enemy artillery team said, his eyes wide and hopeless as the dark cone was practically aiming at his team. Before he knew it, the dark cone was already above them, probably only a hundred meters above them. Only now could they see a face behind this device and through the holes of their light green protective array formation. It had… an ultimately cold pair of eyes.

POOMMMM— BRRCKRRRRR… POMM, POMM, POMM, POMM, POMM, POMM…

The dark cone fell on them. Everywhere in a 200-meter radius broke apart and dug a couple meters as earth and grass were lifted higher than a dozen meters into the air. But that wasn’t all. And just as everyone watched the dark cone fall upon one of them, they stagnated and looked at the place where it struck down. However, almost immediately, someone shouted as they pointed into the sky. “Careful! Aah! Don’t stop running no---”

Thus, several dozen translucent, transparent, whitish cones fell down. Each one targeting an enemy artillery team. For a minute, in this strangest type of bombardment, the enemy’s troops were like headless chickens running amok and avoiding their artillery arsenal. But that wasn’t enough. Some whitish cones still fell randomly on the enemy’s heads, backs, and legs, destroying more ground than bodies but still occasioning a lot of fear in their hearts.

… step, step, step- slash. Crrreeesshhhhkk.

“...” After the bombardment of living beings ceased, thousands and thousands of cones fell on the ground, within and outside the enemy’s array formation, which was no longer present. The enemy was coming to their senses and reorganizing, preparing to use their lives to exchange for 3!

However, on a corner where the dark cone had fallen, a cultivator looked around nervously, feeling threatened. It was, all of a sudden like he was being preyed on. But he couldn’t really tell what this sensation was. Before he could react, footsteps sounded behind him as he turned around. All the cultivator saw was a pale face, teeth covered by darkness, and dark fangs. However, his body was already mutilated as ‘something’ was in the middle of his chest.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

It felt like several tiny blades had pierced through him. He couldn’t tell. All he knew was he probably fucked up. As his body fell, his head separated from his neck first. It jolted backwards like a cork just removed from a bottle. Comprehensively, the cultivator saw his torso mangled and sliced in two like lukewarm butter. He couldn’t believe this sight but could barely open his eyes to demonstrate his shock.

Then, he realized his head was cut off, but the pain wasn’t gone. Before he disappeared forever, something he couldn’t tell would happen eventually. He saw the tiny ‘blades’ in his pale murderer’s hands, covered by a darkish Power Energy much similar to the cone that had fallen before. His body finally fell backwards on the ground. But his head was already upside down, and his eyes looked in a different direction while dirt seeped into his eyeballs.

… Step- dash… … …step- step- step- step- step- step- step- step— dash, dash, dash, dash, dash, dash, dash, dash.

Heian Ciemnosc didn’t stop there. Nor did he care about the corpse waiting to be eaten. He immediately dashed away and disappeared in the still low smoke as the dirt was still not finished, causing dust in the surroundings. Everywhere and beyond, the enemy’s array formation was filled with light mist after these strange bombardments, leaving the enemy feeling vulnerable as they were forced to employ their Spirit Sense.

After he left, shadows appeared where his back was once facing. Several thousand more appeared, and before more could arise, those in front of everyone seemed to make a few signs with their arms. The rest was known through their medallions. Thereafter, they rushed away and dashed into the mist, targeting the enemy, no matter how many they were. Six different groups were first divided, with another group led by 2 figures. They entered the battle before anyone else and, in fact, started the slaughter to come!!

From then on, killing sounds could be heard everywhere on this messy battlefield. At first, there were a few ongoing battles, each creating sounds for a few minutes before dissipating. After a couple minutes, they would restart somewhere nearby. This would repeat itself until the entire battlefield resounded with cries, clashing weapons, and Power Energy neutralizing each other or slicing, exploding, and devastating fleshy, metal, and liquid bodies.

The Academy was never a force that focused on a single Race or a certain few but on everyone. The cultivators of the Blackotia Kingdom were known to have been migrants from other Universe, let alone worlds, so they had all Races as well. Even then, although the battles, killing, and outcomes were brutal, only the goal of exterminating the other and forcing the other party away from their ‘home’ remained. It wasn’t a self-preservation struggle but a direct, pure power struggle. Nobody was the hero of nowhere.

“AAAHH!” A cultivator raised his short halberd, with its blade half-broken and a massive gnash on the right side of his torso. He stomped down onto an injured male student troop with his foot on the latter’s sternum and was about to stab him in the heart. Suddenly, charging from the side, a female student troop tackled the cultivator and bit his neck off… they were both human. But such savagery was needed in order to not suffer and not let the enemy hurt her fellow trooper.

As they fell on the ground, the male student troop rose to his feet, bleeding from his waist and thighs, but still lunged at the cultivator and started smashing the latter’s head with his elbows. The cultivator was felled, and the 2 student troops nodded at each other before rejoining their battle. At this moment, not one person was outside an ongoing combat. And if there were, they would rush with their Power Energy, come exhausted, and kill their way through the enemy’s lines with their weapons, tools, and sheer willpower.

Sole walkers through this misty land were rare, but there were some who picked, hunting the other party and delaying their speed to rejoin another battle. Towards these, Heian Ciemnosc was terminating them whenever he saw them, at least for those on the enemy side. But they didn’t take much of his time. They were weak and hiding for a reason, not assassinating like Aleksander or Gloria with their small assassin team, going from battle to battle to ease things up but never remaining in one.

With everyone having their role, only time was needed to decide the outcome of this fight. However, with some hundred thousand student troops diving into the battle since the beginning, it was only a matter of time before the Wrath Nihility Academy’s side won with sheer numbers. However, once again, this was a battle of ‘reserve’ cultivators against the Academy’s elite army. Even with half the enemy’s number, they had no chance against the army!

Although the transporting ships had ceased firing and serving as a defense for the student troops, the enemy’s artillery was all disabled. The student troops weren’t in danger of being barraged to death without much resources to protect themselves. It was already very costly for the warring department in charge of the Academy’s First Step students to prepare those things beforehand. Without those devices, the army would have been downed at least by half before reaching the ground.

Even then, several whitish cones were exploded and pelted by the enemy’s artillery, leaving too many body pieces falling around the battlefield from time to time and raising the Academy’s rage as they fought harder and carelessly!

… step, step- tap- phhshk… … phhshk… crreeshhk… ckrsheerr…

Heian Ciemnosc kept running around without stopping. He could see any enemy hiding and trying to set traps, search for student troops, and exchange information with other pickers. When he wasn’t willing to walk all the way over there, even if he exerted himself, he let his Vocón Link become 1,600 meters long and either slapped the enemy’s body into bits and shredded organs or entangled them before killing them slowly in case they could resist against a single blow from him.

Other times, he charged into an enemy group and, with his bodily strength, broke through, crossed, and killed as many as possible to disrupt their movement with just his dark Claws Out. It wasn’t a simple run into the enemy’s formation and brandishing his wrists around endlessly with utmost fierceness. He jumped from body to body occasionally. His feet’s Claws mangled as many necks, chests, torsos, and limbs as his claws.

Whenever he faced an opponent in the 9th or 10th stage of the Spirit Formation realm, his Vocón Link entangled and tortured them as his dark fangs and covered teeth clung to the enemy’s neck. Heian Ciemnosc swept and leaped through the enemy like a shadow. His trail only left blood-curling screams and blood torrents flying into the sky and smearing on the few lucky ones to be left alive. Screaming their chests out before several small groups came and besieged them, especially an assassin's small team of less than 20 people.

Already crumbling and distracted from the blurry shadow’s intervention and sudden massacre, these groups of enemies could only defend, little by little, exterminated by these noticeably smaller groups without a chance to resist. It was a living hell for the cultivators and a harsh training ground for the student troopers, whose life and death would only matter to themselves.

The warring continued, and before an hour long, not even 50 minutes, it ended.

“... No, please, I…” In a remote corner of the battlefield, the transporting ships hovered several kilometers in the air all this time, ensuring no additional enemy would intervene and slaughter their student troops instead. Heian Ciemnosc was holding a surviving enemy cultivator by the neck, the latter attempting to implore, but Heian Ciemnosc’s grasp was with his dark claws and not even his fingers.

Even with his hand covered in dark Power Energy to not weaken his hands’ sharpness that his Claws Out grants him, he could grab anyone’s body without hurting them. It only mattered if he intended to harm, torture, or kill. As he grasped onto the survivor’s neck, he sliced through, and blood started flowing down the survivor’s neck. Heian Ciemnosc still pulled him up and lightly shook his body before letting it agonizingly die on the ground without Power Energy left in his body to help him.

“They’re coming,” Heian Ciemnosc heard Violet’s voice and turned his body to face her. Nodding at her, he looked into the sky to see their transporting ship coming down. With his Spirit Sense, he saw the tens of thousands of student troops belonging to this vessel in formation and waiting for it to fly towards them so they could board it. It wouldn’t land and would lower itself to 1,000 meters above ground level at most.

It wouldn’t take much time for them to reach it, half a minute more or less, unless they were a Spirit Rebirth realm cultivator and flew up in less than 10 seconds. Heian Ciemnosc looked at Violet and cracked his neck. He started floating upwards and reunited with his group in the air, who followed him as he floated up, his Concealed Ornament Team leading them.

This way, the transporting ships couldn’t be targeted by any land forces unless they were at the 10th-kilometer mark, which would first be dealt with before the student troopers could board it again. When Heian Ciemnosc was sighted going up, the rest of the tens of thousands of student troopers followed suit, following him. They didn’t even need their sub-commanders to speak a word, like a tacit agreement between each other’s selves. They did what they wanted to.

“Violet spread a little Orangebreeding incense when inside the ship, there’s another enemy force ahead of similar size. Just 30 minutes from this one,” Heian Ciemnosc said, his medallion heating up a little and cooling down as he spoke. Violet nodded and began making everyone’s medallions heat up. This action repeated everywhere in the elite army as they boarded their transporting ships, silently entering and preparing to enter battle again after just a short break.

Fwuuuuushh… fwuuush, fwuuush, fwuuush, fwuuush, fwuuuush, fwuuuuush…

The transporting ships zoomed in the distance and only took 2 minutes to catch up with the slowed-down fleets. The fleet then advanced forward with maximum speed, with their Fighters already back after hurrying back to the fleets once the enemy was spotted.

This was just the start of the day. And from how things were, with so many enemy cultivators spread around their last territory, it would take many days to clear them up so as to not leave any hidden dangers behind. The Academy’s manpower would be slowly consumed. But even at this point, this could not stop it from exterminating this usurping enemy.

Even more so, this tiredness couldn’t stop Heian Ciemnosc.

…