The verminoxi packs living inside this alternate facility were far older than the one the boy encountered on the other side of the rocky wasteland.

It was the first haven the species had discovered after their numbers had dwindled to just a handful.

The discovery of this sanctuary had been a stroke of luck, and it had allowed them to safely repopulate their numbers.

As a species the verminoxi were territorial. Their packs usually consisting of one female, which was the leader of the pack, and her host of males that served her needs. There was only space for one female leader in the pack at any time.

If these matriarchs gave birth to another female, then initially that verminox would be treated with far higher respect granted to the males, although when the time came when she matured, she was expected to form her own pack at a different location. Failure to do so would usually result in a clash with her own mother.

This was the verminoxis’ way of life, and had been for centuries.

However, everything changed with the dark essence infection and the birth of the darkling hive.

The darklings hunted them relentlessly.

Over the course of a few decades, they had systematically wiped out all the verminoxi in the wasteland to satiate the endless hunger of their countless numbers.

This, along with the dark essence infection had forced the verminoxi to change their behavior to adapt to these extreme circumstances.

Although they were still somewhat territorial as a species, the packs could now subsist together, granted there had to be a short distance between them.

Which made this current facility the best shelter they could’ve hoped for. It was large and spacious enough that multiple packs could subside together without clashing against each other for territory.

For years they had lived and multiplied inside the facility, until their numbers became large enough that space became an issue.

After that every new juvenile female was politely shown the door when she came of age.

As more years passed, many female verminoxi left this safe haven to find one of their own.

Almost all of them usually perished out in the dark, torn to shreds by patrolling darklings of the hive.

But some managed to discover new facilities that they could make their home. The black verminoxi the boy had faced was one such female that had departed from this facility a long time ago.

There were about 50 females and their packs living inside this current facility.

Although their daily lives were fraught with tension over their close proximity to each other, there were also advantages.

Their large numbers granted them immense power.

Power enough to even challenge and repel a battalion of darklings.

Despite the matriarchs' mutual dislike for each other, the power of their immense numbers gave them confidence and a sense of self-assurance regarding their survival.

But today, that sense of confidence was missing, even though all of their collective packs were standing united against a single foe.

Facing against the powerful biped standing before them, doubt and fear were quickly enveloping over any confidence they had initially.

They did not have scouters that could tell them the vast difference of power between them, but their keen senses could tell something was deeply wrong.

In all of their collective experience, they had never faced anything like this before.

“Okay, they’re all together in this room.” Drystan thinks inwardly.

According to the map, aside from the two verminoxi moving through the vents, these were all the critters left inside the facility.

Waving the map away, he looks up at their wide arching numbers, his gaze moving from verminox to verminox.

“Alright then, let’s end this quickly.”

Frozen in place from a deep sense of uneasiness and fear, the verminoxis’ gaze follows his figure nervously as he raises his sword.

He gathers his aether in his core and then jumps up dozens of meters in the air, almost touching the ceiling of the large spacious chamber.

Gripping his sword tightly with both arms, he dives toward their formation’s center like a falling meteor as he releases all the accumulated aether in his core.

Seeing him whirling toward them at such a high speed, some of the verminoxi in the center freak out and break formation, turning away to flee from the coming impact.

But by then they were already beyond the point of no return.

Just before making contact, Drystan swings his sword toward the flock of verminoxi, releasing an invisible shockwave that rips through their numbers. The wave is so powerful, its force stops his plummeting dive in midair.

The surrounding verminoxi shield their eyes and bodies from the strong shockwave that is then followed by a strong gust of wind.

Although they couldn’t see clearly, they could smell the heavy stench of blood in the wind.

When the gust subsides, the collective packs look up and find a large section of their numbers in the center missing. In their place was a giant splotch of black blood with bits of organs and bones floating on top.

“That was about 30 or more.” Drystan guesses as he gently lands a meter before the puddle of blood and meat.

Normally, such high casualties would enrage the matriarchs of the packs into attacking viciously even if the opponents were darklings, but in front of this giant man they could only feel fear coursing through their minds.

Not sure of any other course of action, the matriarchs squeal out their orders and their packs hesitantly start rushing toward Drystan to attack him from both sides.

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Their charge brings a grin to his face.

“You critters do have some balls on you, if you’re still willing to attack after seeing that.” He calls out while laughing.

Despite his calm demeanor, he loved fighting.

Quickly releasing more mana from his core, he channels his boosted aether toward his weapon.

The dull red fuller on his sword shines fiercely as he grips the weapon with both hands again.

Turning to the rushing verminoxi on his left, he delivers two powerful diagonal slashes in the empty air.

The advancing verminoxi feel a strong breeze blow toward them, and their stride falters.

“Of course, showing balls is not always a good survival strategy!” He yells out before stabbing his sword into the center of the two invisible arcs from his prior slashes with a powerful thrust.

As the verminoxi group is about to reach him, their leading row explodes in mid stride, their bodies bursting apart from an invisible force tearing through them.

The rodents behind barely get any time to react as this invisible shockwave travels through their file, ripping their bodies apart.

The wave blows through their ranks like a wrecking ball, littering the floor with their blood and guts.

Before the devastating attack on his left even subsides, Drystan turns toward the rushing group on his right.

He winds his arms back on his left side, pointing his sword’s tip behind him as he builds momentum for a powerful swing.

When the leading verminoxi of this group leap toward him, he unleashes his swing.

His blade moves in a wide horizontal arch, the strong momentum behind its trajectory slicing the very air.

Although the verminoxi in the front row are clearly out of his blade’s reach, their bodies slice into two in midair.

However, it wasn’t just the leading verminoxi. The rest of the group’s bodies behind them sever apart as well, cut by a long invisible blade.

Their cleaved bodies release a fountain of blood that sprays everywhere like rain. The blood is a mixture of black and red since the dead bodies contained both gray male and black female verminoxi.

Two of their number manage to survive the wide arching slash, but they have their limbs severed. They thrash on the floor underneath the raining blood, suffering from agonizing pain.

No survivors from the group on the left side, their collective forms were reduced to a trail of body parts and pieces of meat.

“That’s maybe 35 on the left, 25 on the right, and then there were the initial 30 at the center. That leaves about 8 in the chamber, 10 if counting the ones still inside the vents.”

Drystan was busy calculating the number of dead, oblivious to the remaining living verminoxi staring at him with terror filled eyes.

After completing his calculations, his eyes fall on the still living verminoxi in the chamber. Two of them were the injured ones that had survived the attack through blind luck, the rest were the female matriarchs that had not dared to attack or approach him.

Meeting his gaze, the matriarchs immediately turn around and bolt toward the air vent on the upper left ceiling of the corner.

“A little late for that now,” he calls after them.

The black verminoxi bound across the chamber, using every bit of speed available to them.

But it was in vain.

Behind them Drystan bursts into a high-speed dash chasing after them.

Even though the verminoxi had a running start, he cuts off their escape path by overtaking them with an even faster speed.

He catches up to them in no time; the difference in their speeds akin to that between an adult and a toddler.

His sudden interception startles the black verminoxi so much their red eyes pop out of their sockets.

They try and struggle to stop their fast momentum, desperately trying to flee in the opposite direction.

Drystan lightly swings his sword in the empty space toward their direction and they stop dead in their tracks.

The now-dead verminoxi break apart and collapse on the floor. Some of them with severed heads while others with torn torsos.

Looking away from the dead matriarchs, his eyes fall on the two struggling verminoxi with missing limbs.

Despite bleeding profusely, they were still struggling to get back on their feet, what was remaining of their feet anyway.

Standing on the other side of the chamber, he points his sword toward them and delvers two sharp thrusts in the empty air.

Instantly two large diameter holes rupture the injured verminoxis’ bodies and they drop dead.

“Shouldn’t make them needlessly suffer.”

Having completed the task, his eyes scan the chamber, taking in the sight of gruesome mess of ripped bodies and torn flesh before he summons the holographic map.

The last two critters were still on their way. It would take them a few more minutes to get to the chamber.

He waves the map away with a sigh.

He was wasting too much time.

With every passing moment their pursuers from the council were narrowing down their location. By now, they must have found the site where his team fought the swarms of darklings.

“At least they won’t find anything.”

He knew from experience and reports that darklings left nothing behind, neither their own dead nor their enemy’s carcasses.

The council dogs might be able to detect the signs of battle but they won’t find anything worthwhile.

The problem is, the site will give them a basic idea on where to establish a search perimeter.

The council did not know about these hidden facilities but that slim advantage could be taken away at any moment.

Even though they were not as great as Lord Alfzaar, they still belonged to the same immortal species, with each of their members having lived for several millennia, if not longer.

They must’ve already guessed by now there’s something hidden on this side of the planet.

If they manage to discover even one of these facilities, lord Alfzaar’s plan will fail.

He will never allow that to happen.

He could recall his lord’s words to him, just before he had fallen.

“Drystan, I will not survive this coming battle…but as long as you live and remain faithful to our cause, it will not be…!”

His moment of reflection is broken by the silent opening of the entrance door.

Turning toward the entrance, he spots Fiora casually strolling inside with her spear over her shoulder.

As her eyes fall on the scene of the massacre before her, her face scrunches up.

“You really went all out on these poor fuckers!” she yells out across the chamber.

“Stop shouting you’re gonna spook the verminoxi in the vents,” he seethes inwardly.

He motions her to quiet down by tapping a finger to his lips.

Fiora stares at him silently for a moment.

“Why are you picking your nose!?” she yells out.

A blood vessel pops in Drystan’s temple.

“I’m telling you to quiet down!” he shouts back in anger and immediately regrets it.

He quickly opens his map and finds the two verminoxi still crawling on their way toward the chamber, making him sigh in relief.

Waving the map away he puts a palm to his face.

“Why on earth did lord Alfzaar ever pick her to be a part of the jung-jo.”

Not only was she personally handpicked by the lord himself, but he also made her his second in command.

Sure, she was strong, strong enough to even match him maybe. But she was too nonserious, too careless for the holy mission they were now supposed to undertake.

Fiora walks over to him, casually leaping over the meters wide splotch of blood in the middle.

“After giving me so much shit about being pressed for time, what are you just standing here spacing out for?”

He looks at her with an angry stare.

“I’m waiting for the two verminoxi you let escape in the vents.” He replies curtly.

“heeee I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she answers, turning her face away from his piercing gaze.

“So, aside from what we have to retrieve here, is there anything else that we have to do in this facility?” She asks, hoping to distract him.

It works.

“*Sigh* Aside from the sample of processed dark essence being researched here, we also need to download all the information out of lord Alfzaar’s terminal and then erase it.”

“Wait, I thought there were more than one facility, is this the only one with lord Alfzaar’s terminal?”

“No, he has his own private terminal in every facility.” He replies while checking his holographic map.

Seeing that the verminoxi were about to reach the chamber, he waves the map away and continues his explanation.

“The terminals and the AGI in this facility are quantumly entangled across all the other facilities, so they can share all information in real time without a single second delay. Of course, they’re entangled separately so the AGI and the terminals have nothing to do with each other.”

Finishing his explanation, he raises his sword and turns toward the vent, fixing his gaze on its opening.

“So, if we erase the terminal here, then all the other terminals erase themselves.” Fiora thinks out loud.

Suddenly the pair of verminoxi peek their heads out of the vents opening and look down below, sniffing the air.

As they do, their heads explode simultaneously as if shot by some invisible projectiles.

“That’s correct.” Drystan replies, lowering his sword as the headless verminoxi fall to the floor.

Accomplishing the task, he turns toward the entrance and starts walking with Fiora following behind him.

“What about the AGI?….what was her name again?....Arya yeah.”

“No, no need to wipe her out. She has some sensitive information but nothing the council isn’t already aware of. Besides, she’s the life blood of all these facilities, if we wipe her then these labs might as well be empty useless tombs. There will come a time when we will need these facilities in the future.” He explains.

“Whatever you say boss,” She replies casually as they both exit the chamber.