10/9 14:54 (Autumn, Night, Mysterious Island)
Sider corrected herself, thanks to the Drake's own use of the [False Life Technique] that the Monster was not a Fake-Cultivator with a Qi Circulatory System functioning as a physical organ but was instead a legitimate Cultivator using as fuel the Fake-Qi around the area.
The process called Cultivation that both Sider and technically the Drake itself employed by fueling it with Fake-Qi instead of Qi, more specifically the one that was not based on biology alone like the Fake-Monsters residing on this island with their Organic Qi Circulatory System, was derived and limited by the user's own Spirit Roots, a metaphysical organ within every single Soul.
The [Qi Condensation] Stage is nothing particularly hard or even complex, merely requiring the condensation of the Qi of the World around them in a liquid-like state that was then contained within the Spirit Roots of the Cultivator, the different Steps simply being derived by the amount of Qi contained within the Roots, the amount needing to reach the maximum possible one to proceed to the next Stage.
Following that, the [Foundation Establishment] Stage absorbs even more Qi to create a System around the Cultivator's Spirit Roots within their Soul and while this doesn't actually change the amount of Qi that they could contain, the Cultivator no longer loses Qi when using it, except for very specific instances, turning Passive and just requiring some Qi to turn Active again, the higher Steps increasing mostly the efficiency of this process even if always requiring external Qi to not be at a loss.
The final Stage when it comes to their specific situation, the [Core Creation] one, is based on the creation within the Foundation previously made of various Cores by greatly condensing Qi, Cores that with the [False Life Technique] can count as substitutes for the Cultivator's vital organs if necessary, even if this is normally nothing more than trying to take your enemy down with you at this Stage.
The Werewolf's eyes narrowed in focus, observing how its Vital Energy was hurriedly healing its missing body parts, trying to heal it before its Qi was exhausted by needing to keep itself alive to try and dodge its death, causing Sider to run in immediately, intent on either outputting damage faster that it could recover from it or at least forcing it to waste Qi.
Sider dashed in, jumping over the Drake's claws, spinning in mid-air to land on its arm, twisting to dodge one of its wings trying to smack her away before jumping over its incoming tail and punching it downwards with pure brute force alone, taking advantage of her currently stone body and the increased stability it offered her to slam it down against its own arm before landing on it.
Her hands held before her own body were connecting with thin strings of lightning, strings that she quickly concentrated in a sphere of electricity that she immediately threw towards the still headless body, intent on racking up as much damage as she possibly could while her opponent was still blind, the small strings of lightning remaining around her hands falling down upon the Drake and chaining its tail and limb together briefly.
The black haired one did not hesitate, jumping away from its tail, landing on the roof above the two before launchign herself back down immediately, spinning in mid-air to land a devastating kick simultaneusly with the impact of the lightning ball, an electric shock exploding from their collision point before it was channeled entirely around her foot before falling down upon the still healing neck.
The Drake's bones in its chest shattered, lightning ravaging its insides and causing it to twitch painfully a couple of times before she activated her "Form: Humanoid Wolf" fully, using her "Enhancement: Transformation" to psh her transformation to beyond what would be her natural limit, growing in size even further its claws gleaming sharply.
Her hands covered in Terran Lightning smashed into the electricity within the Monster, converting it directly within her opponent and erupting from its body into long branches, rupturing its scales, flesh and bones from the inside out, her hands ripped their away deep within her opponent before ripping them and some more of her opponent's body.
She stood up on two fully reformed feet, her temporary transformation having forcefully and immediately repaired her wounds, her new height in her Boosted state reaching a terrifying 250 cm, fangs and claws gleaming before falling down on her prey, her glowing eyes illuminating the madness currently filling her within the dark of this cave, not that either of them noticed the lighting considering how both could see in the dark.
The Werewolf ripped in her opponent at once, the madness of her boosted state being the only thing that allowed her to actively use her Qi externally to release destructive shockwaves upon the Drake while paying enough attention to safeguard herself from the Fake-Qi around them, the Drake falling apart and crumbling down into a mess around her, the Person landing on her feet before after a brief silence to assure her opponent's death, returning to her more Humanoid form, falling to her knees and embracing herself, breathing deeply to help deal with her pain.
After all such a transformation would naturally have its own, very painfull, conseguences and strains.
-
10/11 2:47 (Autumn, Day, Midrar)
Luna nodded to herself satisfied at its gaze, subly sending a message to her Mates to start moving towards them with their previously decided route, stretching her senses as much as possible to both seek any nearby enemy and help analyze her enemy's abilities, more specifically the way its Aura and Lightning-Attribute Magic combined in a new, more combat effective way to use it.
Luna moved sideways, dodging a lightning bolt launched by the Human, confirming that he was the one that launched the previous thunder attack and leading her to wonder. 'Invisibility? No, the previous attack had its source high in the sky. Super speed? No, so fast a movement would cause a shockwave and I would feel it. An Item capable of storing an attack to launch it later then. Well, either that or teleportation.'
Her expression didn't waver at all yet her opponent already fully understood what she thought like, being the one that best understood her and how she thought and causing his hate to only grow, Aura flaring around his body before joining together with his lightning and raining down upon the Lunarian.
The white-haired one did not move, carefully watching the sparks until they were right around her, her own Aura flaring and precisely striking down every single one of the attacks around her, Vital Mana accumulating around her right hand as she felt the attacks having been made using Vital Mana alone.
Luna deflected the punch that tried to carve her face in with her right hand, the layer of Vital Mana isolating her hand from the electricity enveloping his fist, her left hand flashing forward to bury itself within her opponent's chest, the Human suddently vanishing from before her only to appear at her left side, his own fist colliding with a small Barrier that blunted most of his force, especially considering how she leaned away from the blow.
Her Aura flared, forming a spike that would have skewered his arm but he already jumped away, almost as if he knew what she would do. "Why do you hate me such?" She wondered aloud, her eyes flashing with curiosity while she casually released a burst of Vital Mana from all over her body, deflecting various electric shocks away from herself.
Luna dodged left, dodging the spear of Lightning-Attribute Vital Mana sent by the Human, her Aura filling the area around her immediately with long gashes that forced the Human back. "You killed my sister!" He affirmed, his hate being leashed by his experience and concentration as he focused on the fight.
"Oh, I see." The vampiric one calmly noted, a single nod being the only sign that she ever really cared about his reason, trying to search her own, Scarlet's and her Ghoul-self's memories of her opponents, searching throught the small number of faces she bothered to remember before giving up completely.
After all Scarlet was even worse about killing People than she was, having no concept of mercy and being less a Person and more a natural disaster that indifferently culled every Being on her way except for the only one allowed to reside in the eye of the storm.
Some may wonder about how she easily accepted the fact that she was the culprit behind her opponent's motivation but even excluding Scarlet's own tendency of "kill first, ask question maybe later", the Human's hatred is not a new one, having matured and intensified over a long period of time, too precise to be born of a simple misunderstanding about her culpability.
The area over her head immediately filled with blades made by Vital Mana, blades that immediately rained down upon the Human but instead of retreating, he advanced, moving precisely between her attacks and without any hesitation or issue launching his strikes between the Lunarian's own, being able to score two impacts right in her arms and numbing for an instant her defending arms.
Luna's eyes narrowed, understanding at once that her opponent was someone intimately familiar with the way she fought yet he was both an Human around the early twenties and way too weak to be this determined and any older, her smile widening more. 'Experience in fightning me specifically yet I have no memories of this nor would I have spared someone that fought me more than once.'
----
Thanks for reading, comment if you have any thoughts about this chapter and story in general or any suggestion at all.
If you want to read chapters in advance of this and my other story, I have a Patreon.
( patr*eon.com/White_Chaos )