When Urami awoke from her sleep, she was lying in a small tent. She was cleaned up, bandaged, and now, she could finally feel all the aches assaulting her body from every possible direction. Even her ear started to ring for a few seconds before finally clearing up, replacing the high-pitched whistle with the rain falling onto the top of her tent.
"Mh…?" She sat up, wondering about what was a dream and what was a reality from the things she remembered. Looking to her side, she noticed Adachi's body, turning her mood deeply sour. At least for the first second. She thought he had died, and his lifeless body was put there, but then she realized he was not covered up and was even breathing. At least his chest was moving up and down!
"You up?" Oxon entered the tent.
"Commander!" she looked up, trying to stand, but she barely had any energy to even move.
"At ease! Rest! Surviving all that and even dragging along your disciple brother is something that is going to be rewarded back in the Sect! But for now, rest! We are preparing something big; we can't babysit either you or him, so when you can move again, it will be your responsibility to take care of him!"
"Yes, sir!" She nodded quickly.
"Good!" Oxon smiled, thinking back to the report that the newly arrived demigod had given to him. It immediately placed the small but strong girl on the top of his list as he constantly graded the gray-clothed recruits. His first thought was that she would make a good leader in the department one day, and if her partner gets patched up, he would also be a strong addition.
"Sir… what happened?"
"Still hazy?" He chuckled, knowing how confusing thoughts can be after something that they went through. "Give it time; it will clear up after a few hours! When all is done and dusted, you can thank her personally!"
"Her…" Urami murmured, remembering Ren's face as she watched Oxon leave, and she fell back on her little cot. Looking sideways, seeing and listening to the stable breathing of Adachi, it finally drove her into a silent sobbing, covering her eyes as she cried in the dark, releasing everything bottled up in her.
Farther away, Kiju and Ziko were nervously standing beside Ren, who was floating high up in the air, just below the rumbling storm clouds. All of their presence was masked by her as she looked down on the hundreds of demons, further reinforcing their stronghold.
"They are quicker than we estimated." Kiju gulped.
"They came prepared and with a clear plan. They are working perfectly in sync." Ren nodded, making them flinch at her words. No wonder, as when Ren brought back Adachi and Urami, the two got a stern look from her, scolding them without words. Even if they did not want to admit it, then and there, they felt like little kids before their angry mother.
"If we can kill their leader…." Ziko theorized, but Ren quickly interjected.
"That's only their surface-level commander. It would be like taking one of you out, your squad would still be able to work, and you would be replaced in a day." She said calmly, making their mouths twitch. "They are coordinated from the ocean. I would bet my neck on the fact that the one overseeing this is at the demigod level."
"Then we really need reinforcement! Preferably Elder Nethraniel; he has experience in defeating and killing demigods!"
"Sure!" Ren shrugged, "If you can contact him, do so! Not that it would matter how many he killed; any fight against one would be different. You can rack up tens of demigod kills; the next can easily be your turn to lose!" she shook her head.
"Lady Ren… have you killed other demigods yet?" Ziko asked, curious about her wording.
"A few. I captured one back home, which in the end, died. Then I killed two here, but the damned third made a self-sacrificing move. Jackass!" She grumbled, but the two were quickly shocked and turning even more white than before, now finding her gaze even more frightening. "Anyway, I will coordinate with your leader while you launch an assault on their base; I'll make sure they have nowhere to retreat to and cut them off from the ocean!"
"Wouldn't that prompt their leader to come out from the sea?"
"Yep! That's the main point!" She chuckled. "Kaizer can't come as he is occupied with my disciple, giving her some tips, so Mommy here is going to do some cleaning for her son~" She grinned widely before teleporting away with the two, who could not really find their own voice. They remained confused even after they were back in the camp.
…
….
…..
When the Midnight's Shadow Sect disciples launched their attack, the first wave literally came from the skies. Those with water affinity, trained in long-range spells, used the heavy rain to their advantage, turning the falling droplets into arrows and needles, showering the demons' base with death. The initial surprise caused some to fall prey to the attack, especially the weaker crab-like demons that were easily pierced through. But it did not take long for the weird, jelly-like creature to form an umbrella above their base, absorbing water, whether it was formed by their spells or not, nullifying their bombardment. The next phase was the attack of the well-built groups of cultivators, led by Harmony experts, taking up the vanguard role. It showed that they were clearly trained for battle, as one such man or woman could deal with three to four demons at once while their weaker comrades attacked in groups, working together to take out the enemy.
"Time to get to work!" Ren cracked her knuckles, flying down from the sky, appearing behind their lines, surprising the hordes of demons. "I love this weather!" She laughed as, by only raising her hand, dozens of lightning bolts came down from the sky, blasting onto the jelly, tearing its umbrella apart, and forcing an otherworldly noise out of it. Even if it had no mouth, it had to scream, releasing deep vibrations, traveling toward the horizon. The electricity traveled through its body quickly, tearing big chunks off its body and blowing out significant slimy bits from everywhere. Their bridge was turned into an electric fence, killing multiple demons on it before crumbling as the creature itself died. When Ren lowered her hand, stopping the bombardment from the sky, the demons' retreat route was gone, with even some powerful demons at the back dying to Ren's lightning.
On the ground, the rest of the cultivators renewed their attack. They started to push in, led by Oxon himself, who also controlled lightning, flashing between demons, cutting them apart with a longsword made out of pure energy. Clearly, he focused on speed and precise strikes, best used for assassination, but at his level, he was deadly even on an open battlefield, dealing fatal blows with every move of his.
"Let me help you out more!" Ren clapped, which sounded like thunder, and three clones of her formed, coming down from the sky by lightning, attacking the strongest demons present, bogging them down, and giving ample time to the others to flank them.
It was that moment when a loud, deep whistle came from the ocean, and turning towards it, she could see the giant whale reappearing, and on its back stood one demon in a human form. Its head looked like a hammerhead shark's, its human-like eyes blinking at its left and right end, presenting a profoundly grotesque image. His body was covered with dark gray skin while he wielded a curved saber made out of seashells melted together in his hands.
"What a weird creature!" Ren tilted her head, but as soon as she blinked her eyes, the demon teleported before her just at that moment. His saber was only millimeters away from Ren's face by the time her eyelids started to go upwards. Yet before it could land, she was already holding it between her fingers, cracking with electricity, stopping its attack. "Your breath smells!" she grumbled, finishing by opening her eyes after that quick blink, and the rain was blasted apart around them. The shockwave behind her was sharp as the blade itself, cutting the lone lighthouse into two, making it collapse.
"Join us… or die! Those are your options!" The demon opened its mouth, flashing its sharp, meat-tearing teeth. They lay in multiple rows, right down to where a human's neck should be.
"I have a better offer!" Ren turned towards its left eye. "Wait… so, which one do I speak to? Left? Right? Anyway!" She coughed, scratching her throat. "Draw back your forces and go back to the ocean in peace! Or I am going to send you back in pieces! What do you say, fishboy?"
"We are the vanguard of God! You dare to refuse the chance to submit?! No wonder he abandoned humans! You lost his grace; we are the chosen one, the new species, elevated to rule this realm!"
"Blablabla!" Ren rolled her eyes, tightening her grip and breaking apart the shark's saber. "You talk too much!" She raised her leg, kicking toward its stomach, but he already flashed backward, leaving a trail of water in the air through the rain.
From the ground, it looked like the storm had just kicked up a notch, the flashing of violet lightning became rampant, and the thundering noise washed away the sounds of battle on the ground. In reality, those loud, exploding noises were nothing but when Ren's and the shark demon's body met, fist against fist or knee against knee. The demon quickly showcased its strength, his body withstanding Ren's electricity that found no way inside and couldn't penetrate it.
"Your eyes are so fucked…." Ren clicked her tongue as even if she tried to influence its mind, she could only look into one of his eyes from that close-up. As a result, the demon always shook off her attempts at mind control. "Fuck it, let me go all out!" Ren snorted, suddenly breaking away from their fight, teleporting high up to the sky.
For first, a purple, electric cage swept out from her body, sweeping through the air and preventing the shark from teleporting close to her. By the time it expanded forward, Ren had already held her hands ahead, forming a triangle from her thumbs and index fingers, aiming at it. Unlike those demigods who wanted to preserve their energies, storing them, Ren always used them to the maximum. She drew in as much as she could from the air all the time, and when it came to battle, she exploded out, not keeping anything back or hidden.
"You think I would let you?!" The demon laughed, and before Ren could fire her spell, to everyone's surprise, the demon's body started to swell, and in a second, it turned into a 50-meter-long, giant hammerhead shark. Its jaw opened wide as he flew up, biting onto Ren in her "bubble." It looked like a mythical, demonic shark had just jumped out from the sea, trying to swallow the sun as its teeth were grinding against Ren's defensive spell. "My teeth can tear through everything! Even your puny strength!"
"Oh? Really? Then bite me~" She smirked, dispelling it and letting the shark chomp down, swallowing her as a whole.
"...!" even it became surprised and stunned for a moment, only to hear Ren's laugh coming from inside of itself.
"This was a big mistake, Dumby! Ahahaha, you have as much brainpower as Skoorn!"
It was already late for it as from the dark skies, multiple strands of lightning joined together, forming one thick bolt before striking downwards. It could feel the same kind of force coming from the inside of its body, connecting to the one on the outside. They were not just going through its body, spurting crimson blood everywhere, but after joining with the outside attack, they fried everything in the shark's body. Ren's spell blasted him apart with such force that the ocean split below them. It caused such big waves that when they crashed into the shoreline, they destroyed it through hundreds of meters, causing the cliffside to crumble into the water.
"AAAAARGHH!" the shark screamed as it felt fear for the first time in its life, especially seeing the hole in its body and how Ren reappeared, holding its backbone with two hands, pulling on it with all of her strength.
"I hate fishbones in my shark soup! So let's get down to business!" She laughed as she simply ripped it out, not just pulling the whole backbone out in one piece, but the demon's skull was still attached to the end of it. She wasted no time as lightning came down, blowing his skull apart, right where its demonic core was, protected by the thick bone structure, finishing the demon off once and for all. "Now… I'll bring back some for Kyu and Ariana; this should be tasty~" she grinned, holding up the remaining body of the colossal shark while a waterfall of blood was pouring downwards from it as she leisurely floated towards the cliffside.
The bloody and gory scenery was not missed by the demons on the shore. Seeing it and hearing it quickly broke their morale. No matter how devoted they were, they started retreating and soon jumped into the water from the destroyed, still unstable, cracked cliffs. They did not even think about if they were going to hit something unseen down there or not. The backlash to their cultivation was also the last thing they worried about; their instinct of not wanting to die won at that moment.
"Bloody hell…" Oxon murmured, standing amongst slain corpses of demons, yet even he had goosebumps all over his body. "What a monster…." He gulped, watching Ren's small figure arriving above them, dragging the dead demigod demon behind herself, happily humming a relaxing tune.
When Urami awoke from her sleep, she was lying in a small tent. She was cleaned up, bandaged, and now, she could finally feel all the aches assaulting her body from every possible direction. Even her ear started to ring for a few seconds before finally clearing up, replacing the high-pitched whistle with the rain falling onto the top of her tent.
"Mh…?" She sat up, wondering about what was a dream and what was a reality from the things she remembered. Looking to her side, she noticed Adachi's body, turning her mood deeply sour. At least for the first second. She thought he had died, and his lifeless body was put there, but then she realized he was not covered up and was even breathing. At least his chest was moving up and down!
"You up?" Oxon entered the tent.
"Commander!" she looked up, trying to stand, but she barely had any energy to even move.
"At ease! Rest! Surviving all that and even dragging along your disciple brother is something that is going to be rewarded back in the Sect! But for now, rest! We are preparing something big; we can't babysit either you or him, so when you can move again, it will be your responsibility to take care of him!"
"Yes, sir!" She nodded quickly.
"Good!" Oxon smiled, thinking back to the report that the newly arrived demigod had given to him. It immediately placed the small but strong girl on the top of his list as he constantly graded the gray-clothed recruits. His first thought was that she would make a good leader in the department one day, and if her partner gets patched up, he would also be a strong addition.
"Sir… what happened?"
"Still hazy?" He chuckled, knowing how confusing thoughts can be after something that they went through. "Give it time; it will clear up after a few hours! When all is done and dusted, you can thank her personally!"
"Her…" Urami murmured, remembering Ren's face as she watched Oxon leave, and she fell back on her little cot. Looking sideways, seeing and listening to the stable breathing of Adachi, it finally drove her into a silent sobbing, covering her eyes as she cried in the dark, releasing everything bottled up in her.
Farther away, Kiju and Ziko were nervously standing beside Ren, who was floating high up in the air, just below the rumbling storm clouds. All of their presence was masked by her as she looked down on the hundreds of demons, further reinforcing their stronghold.
"They are quicker than we estimated." Kiju gulped.
"They came prepared and with a clear plan. They are working perfectly in sync." Ren nodded, making them flinch at her words. No wonder, as when Ren brought back Adachi and Urami, the two got a stern look from her, scolding them without words. Even if they did not want to admit it, then and there, they felt like little kids before their angry mother.
"If we can kill their leader…." Ziko theorized, but Ren quickly interjected.
"That's only their surface-level commander. It would be like taking one of you out, your squad would still be able to work, and you would be replaced in a day." She said calmly, making their mouths twitch. "They are coordinated from the ocean. I would bet my neck on the fact that the one overseeing this is at the demigod level."
"Then we really need reinforcement! Preferably Elder Nethraniel; he has experience in defeating and killing demigods!"
"Sure!" Ren shrugged, "If you can contact him, do so! Not that it would matter how many he killed; any fight against one would be different. You can rack up tens of demigod kills; the next can easily be your turn to lose!" she shook her head.
"Lady Ren… have you killed other demigods yet?" Ziko asked, curious about her wording.
"A few. I captured one back home, which in the end, died. Then I killed two here, but the damned third made a self-sacrificing move. Jackass!" She grumbled, but the two were quickly shocked and turning even more white than before, now finding her gaze even more frightening. "Anyway, I will coordinate with your leader while you launch an assault on their base; I'll make sure they have nowhere to retreat to and cut them off from the ocean!"
"Wouldn't that prompt their leader to come out from the sea?"
"Yep! That's the main point!" She chuckled. "Kaizer can't come as he is occupied with my disciple, giving her some tips, so Mommy here is going to do some cleaning for her son~" She grinned widely before teleporting away with the two, who could not really find their own voice. They remained confused even after they were back in the camp.
…
….
…..
When the Midnight's Shadow Sect disciples launched their attack, the first wave literally came from the skies. Those with water affinity, trained in long-range spells, used the heavy rain to their advantage, turning the falling droplets into arrows and needles, showering the demons' base with death. The initial surprise caused some to fall prey to the attack, especially the weaker crab-like demons that were easily pierced through. But it did not take long for the weird, jelly-like creature to form an umbrella above their base, absorbing water, whether it was formed by their spells or not, nullifying their bombardment. The next phase was the attack of the well-built groups of cultivators, led by Harmony experts, taking up the vanguard role. It showed that they were clearly trained for battle, as one such man or woman could deal with three to four demons at once while their weaker comrades attacked in groups, working together to take out the enemy.
"Time to get to work!" Ren cracked her knuckles, flying down from the sky, appearing behind their lines, surprising the hordes of demons. "I love this weather!" She laughed as, by only raising her hand, dozens of lightning bolts came down from the sky, blasting onto the jelly, tearing its umbrella apart, and forcing an otherworldly noise out of it. Even if it had no mouth, it had to scream, releasing deep vibrations, traveling toward the horizon. The electricity traveled through its body quickly, tearing big chunks off its body and blowing out significant slimy bits from everywhere. Their bridge was turned into an electric fence, killing multiple demons on it before crumbling as the creature itself died. When Ren lowered her hand, stopping the bombardment from the sky, the demons' retreat route was gone, with even some powerful demons at the back dying to Ren's lightning.
On the ground, the rest of the cultivators renewed their attack. They started to push in, led by Oxon himself, who also controlled lightning, flashing between demons, cutting them apart with a longsword made out of pure energy. Clearly, he focused on speed and precise strikes, best used for assassination, but at his level, he was deadly even on an open battlefield, dealing fatal blows with every move of his.
"Let me help you out more!" Ren clapped, which sounded like thunder, and three clones of her formed, coming down from the sky by lightning, attacking the strongest demons present, bogging them down, and giving ample time to the others to flank them.
It was that moment when a loud, deep whistle came from the ocean, and turning towards it, she could see the giant whale reappearing, and on its back stood one demon in a human form. Its head looked like a hammerhead shark's, its human-like eyes blinking at its left and right end, presenting a profoundly grotesque image. His body was covered with dark gray skin while he wielded a curved saber made out of seashells melted together in his hands.
"What a weird creature!" Ren tilted her head, but as soon as she blinked her eyes, the demon teleported before her just at that moment. His saber was only millimeters away from Ren's face by the time her eyelids started to go upwards. Yet before it could land, she was already holding it between her fingers, cracking with electricity, stopping its attack. "Your breath smells!" she grumbled, finishing by opening her eyes after that quick blink, and the rain was blasted apart around them. The shockwave behind her was sharp as the blade itself, cutting the lone lighthouse into two, making it collapse.
"Join us… or die! Those are your options!" The demon opened its mouth, flashing its sharp, meat-tearing teeth. They lay in multiple rows, right down to where a human's neck should be.
"I have a better offer!" Ren turned towards its left eye. "Wait… so, which one do I speak to? Left? Right? Anyway!" She coughed, scratching her throat. "Draw back your forces and go back to the ocean in peace! Or I am going to send you back in pieces! What do you say, fishboy?"
"We are the vanguard of God! You dare to refuse the chance to submit?! No wonder he abandoned humans! You lost his grace; we are the chosen one, the new species, elevated to rule this realm!"
"Blablabla!" Ren rolled her eyes, tightening her grip and breaking apart the shark's saber. "You talk too much!" She raised her leg, kicking toward its stomach, but he already flashed backward, leaving a trail of water in the air through the rain.
From the ground, it looked like the storm had just kicked up a notch, the flashing of violet lightning became rampant, and the thundering noise washed away the sounds of battle on the ground. In reality, those loud, exploding noises were nothing but when Ren's and the shark demon's body met, fist against fist or knee against knee. The demon quickly showcased its strength, his body withstanding Ren's electricity that found no way inside and couldn't penetrate it.
"Your eyes are so fucked…." Ren clicked her tongue as even if she tried to influence its mind, she could only look into one of his eyes from that close-up. As a result, the demon always shook off her attempts at mind control. "Fuck it, let me go all out!" Ren snorted, suddenly breaking away from their fight, teleporting high up to the sky.
For first, a purple, electric cage swept out from her body, sweeping through the air and preventing the shark from teleporting close to her. By the time it expanded forward, Ren had already held her hands ahead, forming a triangle from her thumbs and index fingers, aiming at it. Unlike those demigods who wanted to preserve their energies, storing them, Ren always used them to the maximum. She drew in as much as she could from the air all the time, and when it came to battle, she exploded out, not keeping anything back or hidden.
"You think I would let you?!" The demon laughed, and before Ren could fire her spell, to everyone's surprise, the demon's body started to swell, and in a second, it turned into a 50-meter-long, giant hammerhead shark. Its jaw opened wide as he flew up, biting onto Ren in her "bubble." It looked like a mythical, demonic shark had just jumped out from the sea, trying to swallow the sun as its teeth were grinding against Ren's defensive spell. "My teeth can tear through everything! Even your puny strength!"
"Oh? Really? Then bite me~" She smirked, dispelling it and letting the shark chomp down, swallowing her as a whole.
"...!" even it became surprised and stunned for a moment, only to hear Ren's laugh coming from inside of itself.
"This was a big mistake, Dumby! Ahahaha, you have as much brainpower as Skoorn!"
It was already late for it as from the dark skies, multiple strands of lightning joined together, forming one thick bolt before striking downwards. It could feel the same kind of force coming from the inside of its body, connecting to the one on the outside. They were not just going through its body, spurting crimson blood everywhere, but after joining with the outside attack, they fried everything in the shark's body. Ren's spell blasted him apart with such force that the ocean split below them. It caused such big waves that when they crashed into the shoreline, they destroyed it through hundreds of meters, causing the cliffside to crumble into the water.
"AAAAARGHH!" the shark screamed as it felt fear for the first time in its life, especially seeing the hole in its body and how Ren reappeared, holding its backbone with two hands, pulling on it with all of her strength.
"I hate fishbones in my shark soup! So let's get down to business!" She laughed as she simply ripped it out, not just pulling the whole backbone out in one piece, but the demon's skull was still attached to the end of it. She wasted no time as lightning came down, blowing his skull apart, right where its demonic core was, protected by the thick bone structure, finishing the demon off once and for all. "Now… I'll bring back some for Kyu and Ariana; this should be tasty~" she grinned, holding up the remaining body of the colossal shark while a waterfall of blood was pouring downwards from it as she leisurely floated towards the cliffside.
The bloody and gory scenery was not missed by the demons on the shore. Seeing it and hearing it quickly broke their morale. No matter how devoted they were, they started retreating and soon jumped into the water from the destroyed, still unstable, cracked cliffs. They did not even think about if they were going to hit something unseen down there or not. The backlash to their cultivation was also the last thing they worried about; their instinct of not wanting to die won at that moment.
"Bloody hell…" Oxon murmured, standing amongst slain corpses of demons, yet even he had goosebumps all over his body. "What a monster…." He gulped, watching Ren's small figure arriving above them, dragging the dead demigod demon behind herself, happily humming a relaxing tune.
