Savage Webs, page 14
part #2 of Apocalypse Cultivation Series
James lifted his rifle to his shoulder and shot a ghoul that had begun crawling toward the school while the other monsters and most of the defenders were captivated by the fight. James felt grim satisfaction when the wily monster writhed in the parking lot.
He was going to do everything he could, keep doing his job. And if his last seven rounds weren’t enough, he’d pick up his spear and join the line below. When James had agreed to defend the school, he’d resolved to see it through to the end.
The Grim had his fight. They had theirs.
Chapter 21
Holy shit, this fucking thing is fast, thought Jake. He was strong as hell too. In general, Jake’s opponent was stronger, faster, and tougher than he was. His magic was incredibly strong. Every weapon the minotaur swung seemed to have some sort of magical effect, and he didn’t seem to care too much about breaking them. This was the first time Jake had ever fought an enemy with dimensional storage like he had, and it was fucking annoying. And scary.
If not for some of the unusual advantages that Jake had, he’d already be paste. The two things that had helped most to keep him alive so far were his phasing ability and his excellent sword. He’d been forced to parry a few strikes and any normal weapon would have likely snapped, even with Jake’s Lunar Dao Polishing applied.
Luckily, Jake had a plan.
Jake had to constantly second guess using his abilities, especially his Demonic Contradiction Wave. If he could really juice up a good strike, he could probably hurt this bastard, but near the school, the collateral damage would likely be bad. There were a lot of questionable things Jake had done in his life, and would likely still do. But knowingly letting children be harmed was something he refused to consider.
The fight had been carrying the two of them gradually west into a residential area that was not far enough away from the school. Jake needed to make a change, and fast.
Veil Piercing Phoenix Eyes, the very tip of the iceberg of the Dao he’d discovered, was vibrating within in dantian, unaffected by the way he was spinning his energy. It was like a stable buoy on a choppy ocean.
Since he’d left the Web Burrows, Veil Piercing Phoenix Eyes hadn’t really done much. He likely had insights he might not have before, but nothing dramatic enough to notice. While meeting The Morrigan, it had no effect at all.
Jake needed a couple seconds. He madly flashed-stepped, just creating distance, and moved quickly. He reached down, gently nursing the spark in his dantian, allowing it to join his spinning chi, influencing it.
The changes in his sight deepened. When Conophta came directly through a house, swinging a flail the size of a refrigerator, Jake saw something he’d missed before: fluctuations in energy. Deviations.
His opponent seemed to be in control, even enjoying himself, but he was barely holding on.
This time when the minotaur attacked, Jake didn’t dodge or back down. Instead, he tapped into a part of himself he’d avoided for a long time, the bestial aspect of his monster body.
He flash-stepped a short distance, combining his forward momentum, body weight, and the strength of his entire Lunar Dao Polishing strengthened body into his strike. All of his effort just barely stopped the minotaur’s mighty swing.
The dark champion’s eyes widened as Jake continued forward, one hand reaching out. His Lunar Dao Polishing-infused claws raked across the minotaur’s eye and then Jake snarled savagely, biting the bull man on the nose and face. Jake pushed past the resistance of his enemy’s flesh, grinding his jaws to penetrate. Then he shook his head back and forth like a dog, trying to do the most damage possible.
Conophta screamed and hit Jake full strength with the heel of his free hand. The blow threw Jake back and almost ripped his teeth out. The wounds on the minotaur’s face opened up. He screamed again as he put a hand to his ruined hand and missing nose.
Jake slammed into a small house with such force, he went right through the wall into a living room. Blood covered his face and dripped down his chin. He spat minotaur parts onto the floor and grinned savagely.
His body was damaged, but he could still move and he hadn’t lost any limbs. Jake hissed in pain, but he had to move. He got up and punched through the back door of the house before limping outside.
Conophta was still screeching in rage and indignation on the other side of the building. How do you like that, asshole? Jake thought. He got his answer a few seconds later, when a very angry, wounded bellowing minotaur deleted the damaged house with a massive, howling column of magical fire.
Jake flash-stepped down the street, then back at an angle, heading directly for his enraged enemy. Conophta obviously hadn’t expected it and the magical attack he’d just unleashed had been unfocused, sloppy. Suffusing power in the air made it more difficult to use supernatural senses. As a result, he barely got his weapon up in time to block Jake’s saber. However, Jake hauled himself forward and managed to savagely sink his teeth into the minotaur’s muscled arm.
This time, he let go right before being thrown off or he definitely would have lost his teeth. He was able to flip, coming down more or less unscathed this time, and he grinned at the minotaur, showing his enemy his dark gums and teeth with bits of fresh flesh between them.
Even though the wounds were fairly superficial, they had to hurt like hell. What was worse, they would likely damage anyone’s pride or calm. In this case, Jake’s plan to piss off his enemy worked flawlessly, maybe a little too well.
Conophta responded by raising a hand and unleashing a burst of mage so powerful that Jake felt it in his soul.
“Uh oh,” he said out loud. In the stillness of the moment, he distantly realized that the boombox on the clay bat was currently playing “Hot n Cold” by Katy Perry. He briefly wondered who in the hell had made this mix tape before instinct made him move before a ball of fire impacted the street and made a glowing crater.
Jake took off like a bat out of hell as sizzling fireballs fell behind him. He chanced a look back and saw a huge, fiery cloud in the sky, following him like a hunter-seeker missile. Conophta was chasing him again now too. The big bull man was catching up fast, but also throwing exploding balls of magical fire and shooting bars of fiery destruction.
The situation had gotten much more dangerous than before, but Jake still felt a flash of savage satisfaction. If pissing people off was a talent, he definitely had it. He make sure Conophta was following him again and then flicked him off. Apparently, the minotaur knew what it meant, or at least suspected, because he redoubled his magical attacks.
Jake raced north, his enemy and the fireball-chucking cloud both following. He passed the school and sprinted into the forest.
Disaster was just a hair away the entire time Jake ran. As it was, he kept getting blown into trees. Jake intuitively began to understand the answer to something that he’d pondered for the last decade.
He’d achieved extra levels past ten that shouldn’t be possible during the Silver stage of Body Refinement. The fact that none of Jake’s bones had broken so far while fighting the minotaur champion had proven the power of this accomplishment.
Body refinement had three stages: copper, silver, and gold. These stages generally corresponded to the blood, bones, and flesh of the body. Even in the Gold stage of Body Refinement, before even achieving a Reforged Body, Jake was enjoying the benefits of this. If he live long enough to reach higher cultivation stages, he had a fantastic foundation to build on.
Living that long would be the trick.
Jake flash-stepped with great precision, keeping just ahead of his rampaging, bellowing enemy. He led the beast north, through the forest that the monsters had been attacking the school from. Plenty were still around, but Jake paid them no mind unless they got too close. He might be having trouble with a giant, intelligent B-rank monster that also happened to be the champion of an evil god, but a regular ghoul or vampire just wasn’t much of a threat anymore.
The glowing, magic cloud followed him, spitting down fiery death from the sky. The monsters in the forest were too slow to understand the danger and dozens of them perished in bone-shattering blasts of flame.
He moved further into the forest, crossing a stream and moving past it. He was moving so fast, it only took seconds to get through the forest, but it felt like an eternity. Scorching death barely missed him dozens of time. He came out on the other side in a large residential area and found out where all the attacking monsters had come from. There were still a bunch of them milling forward. They almost looked like they were in a trance. Moments later, half of them were engulfed in magical explosions as the cloud continued doing its best to kill Jake.
Bars of solid, explosive fire erupted from Conophta’s hands and blew great, gaping craters in the neighborhood. The minotaur threw the magic attacks as fast as he could punch, and each one hit like a shell from a modern battle tank. Jake stayed just ahead of him, and it seemed the minotaur’s depth perception wasn’t the greatest now after Jake wounded his eye. Thank God for small favors, thought Jake.
Jake moved farther north, through another wooded area, into another residential area. He was far enough now he judged his fight wouldn’t cause any collateral damage. There was always the possibility of survivors being in one of the surrounding houses, but by now, they’d either be hunkered down in a bunker… or dead.
He ran up to a stone wall and kicked off of it, moving at a right angle from the direction he’d been heading. The minotaur and the cloud didn’t immediately notice, and even the short delay made it even harder to change direction. Meanwhile, Jake gathered power, making a death’s head grin.
After gathering energy from the world around him and his own energy, he also took energy from the stone looted from another world in his inventory, and even some of the stone from the Murim world that he had in his clothing. Traces were enough to serve as a multiplier, a catalyst. The Murim world energy was much heavier than Earth’s, like Co2 in a container of oxygen.
Jake suddenly turned again, dividing his focus, pushing his control and focus to the utmost he could manage. In his other hand, he formed a second, weaker Demonic Contradiction Wave that he blasted outward. Conophta thought it was aimed at him and slowed momentarily, but the attack had never been meant for him. It hit the ground at the monster’s feet.
The blast dug straight into the ground, blowing dirt and other debris all over the place, effectively blinding the minotaur. Conophta slowed down even further, raising his defenses.
Then Jake let loose his second gigantic bomb of several differing, distilled spiritual energies.
When this Demonic Contradiction Wave directly hit, it was like the entire world sneezed. Conophta had powerful shields in place and the attack hadn’t hit squarely, but that didn’t matter.
A massive explosion rocked the area, starting right where the minotaur had been heading, and blasting outward in a cone of utter destruction. The explosion was so violent, nearby houses were flattened or blown away by the shockwave. Secondary explosions kept a chain reaction of cascading energy and fluctuations going that continued to rip and burn the world.
Jake needed to time his move perfectly. He leaned into Veil Piercing Phoenix Eyes. The destruction he’d created had been from him, from energies he’d manipulated, so he was able to ever so barely flow between the savage waves of destructive chi. His vision penetrated all of the chaos, focused on his target. He could see clearly. Jake waited for the perfect moment to strike.
When it came, he flash-stepped forward, piercing through all of the chaos and power like an arrow through a hurricane. He tapped into almost everything he had to swing with all his might, applying Lunar Dao Polishing to his sword arm, his sword, and, with great difficulty, adding a core of Phoenix Piercing Talon to his sword as well.
Backlash from mixing untested energies hit his body as his sword sped for a very surprised Conophta. The big minotaur was so fast and so skilled, he still managed to raise one arm, but Jake’s sword buzzed right through armor, flesh, and bone, stopping in the monster’s meaty shoulder. Jake had barely missed taking his enemy’s neck. Only the deflecting arm had prevented it.
It was still a terrible wound. Bloom had penetrated the minotaur’s strongest defenses, shields that had been sufficient to stop the most powerful Demonic Contradiction Wave Jake had ever made.
Conophta bellowed and a wave of energy erupted, blowing the last of the explosion away and hurling Jake through yet another building.
He was hurt bad. When he’d suffered backlash from the Phoenix Piercing Talon’s fiery energy, he’d barely been able to move it to his other arm. The Lunar Dao Polishing had protected his sword arm. He was burned on pretty much one entire side of his body. Jake was bleeding from dozens of cuts.
Still, he sprang to his feet and dashed out into the street to finish off his wounded opponent. He got out in time to see the last of the minotaur’s form passing through a yawning red portal in the air. Blood soaked the ground where the huge champion had been standing.
Jake hissed and ran to the blood-soaked ground, casting his senses everywhere, trying to locate his enemy. He pumped more power into it, stilling his mind, calming himself to reach rather.
Nothing. Conophta was really gone.
Jake ran a hand down his face, almost forgetting about his claw. He stumbled down the street, mind racing but generating static between thoughts.
Was this a win? he wondered. I got the fucker pretty good. That thought brought some savage satisfaction.
And at least Jake was still alive, albeit hurt. But the victory felt hollow. The minotaur was wounded badly, which was good. But Jake’s own replacement hand was proof that amputation was not necessarily as big of a problem for champions than for regular people. Conophta was still alive, and most likely a very motivated, very serious enemy now.
One that could teleport, apparently. No wonder he’d found him on Earth so quickly.
He found the minotaur’s arm and methodically hacked it to pieces, just to make sure his enemy wouldn’t be able to reattach it later or something.
Jake sat on an overturned tree, crossed his arms, and ground his teeth. He felt frustration, deep as an ocean, bubbling inside. His cultivation base spun as fast as when he’d been fighting. He was still keyed up on whatever passed as adrenaline for shadow ghouls, most likely.
He tapped his foot faster and faster until he finally slammed a fist into the fallen tree he was sitting on. “All that honor talk, all that yelling and fiery clouds and shit, but then this? That motherfucker really ran away!? You’ve got to be kidding me!”
Chapter 22
Jake was in an incredibly bad mood when he rode the clay bat back to the schools. The fact the boombox was playing “Dance Monkey” now, and he hated that song, was not helping matters. He didn’t bother turning the boombox off, though. It felt appropriate to be blasting music that made him want to stick sharpened pencils in his ear holes.
Blood steadily dripped from his elbow. His burns hurt like hell. Every time he cycled his cultivation base, his meridians burned. He hadn’t done any irreparable damage, but it made everything hurt to generate any power, even his soul.
From the air, he could see that most of the attacking monsters had been wiped out now. Enough of them were still attacking the school that the defenders couldn’t take a break just yet, but the worst seemed to be over.
He turned down the music and was about ready to go in and help the defenders when he saw something odd that jogged a memory. With a frown, Jake went to investigate. Down below were a few vans. Their lights were off, but Jake could sense a driver in all of them. One of them had a lot of people in the back.
And again, something about them was making him remember something that happened in Macon. He’d glimpsed a number of vans back then that had been used by the cultists. These looked similar.
As he got closer to the vans, his suspicions seemed to have merit. One van drove away, lights off. There were two vans left. As Jake watched, some black-clad figures came out of the school carrying sheet-wrapped figures. They began loading them in the back of the van like firewood, but Jake couldn’t see any blood stains and one of the figures was clearly breathing.
God dammit, he thought. His face screwed up in a deeper scowl. He was going to have to get involved. At least I should have enough vampire cores now, he thought. Yeah, he had to get involved. There was no way he was going to go through so much effort to help the people at the school only to let the fuckery he was seeing play out. Not only that, he’d just gotten a good look at some of the sheet-wrapped bundles, and all of them were too small to be adults.
Fuck, thought Jake. Fuck fuck fuck.
He briefly wondered how in the hell these assholes had gotten right up to the school to steal people out from under the defenders’ noses. Jake concentrated and changed his vision in the way he’d learned when he was a mage. Surprisingly, Veil Piercing Phoenix Eyes actually helped, making Jake’s magical senses sharper than they’d ever been before.
Jake hadn’t know that anything related to cultivation could help magic. Wild.
In moments, he had his answer. The vans had a glamor. Jake could see them just fine because, quite simply, he was far too powerful for such a simple spell to work on him. He hid in the shadows, following the black-clothed figures unseen as they went back into the school.
Jake briefly thought about just breaking the spells, but decided against it. The defenders were still fighting and all sorts of keyed up on adrenaline. If they suddenly saw intruders, they might just shoot. There were kids in the vans and who knew what the assholes skulking around the school would do.
He followed the intruders long enough to make sure he was right about what they were doing. All the innocent people in the school were fast asleep, dropped wherever they’d been and whatever they’d been doing when the spell hit. The intruders were abducting them.
