Chapter 27

Chapter 27 - LOT

The aggressive wolf appeared once more in front of Liren, its body blurring into existence. Small spikes covered the various scales on its body, and a sweltering aura of heat emanated from it.

“Growr?” The beast let out an odd, growling noise as it looked at Liren. The spikes on its body began to glow and it raised its head, opening its mouth. Energy began to congregate in a small, black ball just above its mouth.

“Damn.” Liren fully activated his Natural Ability. In his mind, he visualized a large ball of Spatial Essence, and drew upon it heavily. A feeling of control, as if the world around him would bend to his will, settled down upon him. He sent out a minor spatial wave, sensing the world around him, and then several more, keeping up a constant area of control.

As he did this, Liren closed his eyes.

A mental image of the world around him appeared in his mind through the spatial waves. Evan carrying Bale off to his side, both emanating faint spatial fluctuations due to their bloodlines. A small pouch on the boy in his arms emanated spatial fluctuations as well, apparently a Space Sealed storage artifact. Himself, a flush sea of spatial fluctuations.

And lastly, the wolf before him.

While it gave off no spatial waves, it instead had a gravitating effect on the world around it. The space around it seemed to sink in, belaying the incredibly dense energy the creature gave off.

For, this wolf was a Gem Beast.

The beasts of this world could be split into three groups.

Regular beasts. Like an average cow, a scaled horse, a small chicken. These beasts could be somewhat strong when compared to the average human, but when compared to a powerful warrior, would be sorely lacking.

Spiritual Beasts. These creatures, one and all, stood far above regular humans. Strands of Spirit Energy had formed and concentrated for so long on these creatures that they grew what was known as a Spirit Crystal. Different tiers of Spirit Crystals existed, but all of them contained incredibly dense energy, and were a key part of any Spirit Beast. They could draw upon the energy in these crystals, granting them enhanced strength, intelligence, and recovery abilities, in addition to their own unique powers.

Gem Beasts. The most powerful beasts in existence.

When a Spirit Beast lived long enough, the intensity of Spirit Energy in their Crystal would increase. Most beasts had the ability to evolve their Crystal, from that of a low tier one to a mid tier one, or even a high tier one.

However, some exceptionally powerful beasts had the rare chance of evolving their Spirit Crystal into a Spirit Gem. This evolution happened by chance, with little rhyme or reason. It could not be artificially recreated.

A Spirit Gem contained energy more than a thousand times denser than a Spirit Crystal. That meant these beasts had a virtually inexhaustible supply of Spirit Energy, and were able to use incredible powerful techniques. They were prohibitively difficult to kill, with inhuman regenerative abilities.

As Liren focused on the beast, he saw the black ball of expanding energy above the wolf’s head. This crackling sphere was extremely compact, and energy was rapidly flowing towards it. The space around the black ball began to rupture, unable to bear the enormous concentration of energy.

“Evan! Take the kid too! Run back towards the mountain!” He threw the unconscious boy off to the side as he focused on the pulsing beast in front of him.

“But wha-“ Evan stuttered out a reply as he caught Jack, his arms twitching. Years of intense training had made him stronger than the average teenager his age, but he still needed to use his bloodline power to help carry both unconscious bodies at once.

“Just go! NOW!” Liren moved his hands together in a unique pattern, drawing upon the ball of Space Essence in his soul. As he moved, a large amount of Spirit Energy concentrated on his hands, giving off an intense blue glow.

He felt more than saw Evan flee with the two unconscious fighters. Spatial waves began to ripple out more and more heavily as the black ball of energy reached a concentrated crescendo.

“Focus… focus…” Liren calmed himself down as he felt the scale of the attack. His uncle would be there any moment now, such an attack couldn’t possibly go unnoticed. His uncle was one of the stronger warriors in the clan, easily among the top 50.

The wolf’s head lurched downward. The energy ball abruptly twitched.

Liren breathed in, and then used up the entirety of his Spatial Essence.

The space in front of Liren twisted, reality itself twisting slightly.

A split second later, a half meter wide black beam of energy shot out towards Liren, moving at an incredibly fast speed. The world shivered slightly at this attack launched, a massive gravity wave shaking everything within a mile of the valley.

Before Liren could blink the energy beam had already crossed and slammed directly into him.

Or, in any normal case, it would have.

Just before the beam hit, however, it curved slightly, the hyper-concentrated attack twisting and missing Liren’s face by roughly a meter.

Liren had managed to use all his remaining stores of energy to perform one of the most difficult techniques of the Space Clan, Spatial Warping. Knowing that he couldn’t stop the attack, he could only attempt to redirect it. Because of how powerful the attack was, if he tried to warp space directly, the attack would simply blow through his warping and kill him.

Thus, Liren instead chose to warp the space right below where he predicted the attack would land. This, in turn, caused the space to twist naturally as a result.

His spatial warping was still destroyed almost instantly. However, because the attack was so fast, by the time his energy was blown apart, it had already moved far beyond him, shooting through the valley into a mountain off in the distance.

A second of tense silence reigned as Liren’s face turned pale, his body swaying. Exhaustion flooded into his eyes as he looked at the scaled wolf, his legs unsteady.

*BOOOOOOM*

An enormous sonic boom reached the group in the valley a moment later.

In the distance, an enormous hole had formed through the red mountain directly behind Liren. The Gem Beast’s attack had expanded as it moved through the distance, drilling a several hundred meter wide gaping hole through the mountain. A hole that was starting to collapse, thousands of tons of unsupported rock starting to tumble down, while lava began to flow from the now open earth.

Visible through this collapsing gap, an enormous explosion of brilliant yellow fire was spreading out, on a mountain that was much farther in the distance. The energy attack of the wolf’s had apparently drilled through the closer mountain before detonating on a more distant mountain, devastating it.

The yellow flames covered the entire mountain in an enormous explosive cloud, mushrooming up into the sky. The sheer scale of the explosion was jaw dropping, a beautiful masterpiece of destruction.

Liren fell to the ground as the shockwave hit, unable to support himself any longer. He looked at the Gem Beast with despairing eyes, his spatial sensing failing. This creature was far more powerful than he had anticipated. Abnormally strong, even for a Gem Beast.

Evan was directly knocked to the ground by the shockwave, his head slamming abruptly into the edge of a boulder. A trail of blood trickled down his face as he laid on the ground, unmoving. The two charges he had been carrying fell to the ground next to him, all laying still.

The scaled wolf cocked its head as it looked at the collapsing mountain in the distance.

*WHOOSH*

The figure of a middle-aged man appeared in front of Liren, an explosive aura bursting out as the warrior raised a midnight black sword in his hand. The space near this figure warped, a characteristic of a powerful fighter in the Space Clan. A heavy, condensed blue aura covered the warrior, giving him a mighty air.

The spike-scaled wolf turned its head from the collapsing mountain, its curious eyes focusing on the new intruder.

“Uncle Lee!” A brief flare up of hope filled Liren’s chest.

*CRACK*

The wolf’s form disappeared as it launched itself forward. Its movements were far beyond what Liren could make out, too fast for him to see anything but a blur.

The aged fighter was knocked back nearly a hundred meters as he held his arms over his chest, layers of solidified air protected him. He had managed to raise a guard quick enough to block the attack, mitigating the impact.

His eyes flashed darkly as he twisted, slashing forward with his sword.

*SWOOOOOOOSH*

A thunderous blast of air exploded outward as an enormous beam of blue sword energy cut through the air. This blue beam cut into the valley ground, throwing up shards of red stone, sending them slicing towards the Gem Beast. The air around this slash warped as it moved, infused with the power of the Space Clan.

While the slash seemed to be moving slowly, in actuality it moved incredibly quickly, covering the space between it and the wolf in an instant.

The wolf, meanwhile, looked at the slash with an almost human look of boredom. Its body wavered as it leaned slightly, avoiding the attack and shrapnel entirety.

As he saw this, Liren’s uncle swore aloud,

“Damned be-“

*CRACK*

All was silent for a brief instant. Liren looked on, his eyes dull, as he saw his uncle’s body sail through the air for several dozen meters, crashing into the stoney valley ground where he lay unmoving. The aura of strength and spirit his uncle had faded away, replaced by a quiet silence.

The creature was ridiculously strong, and ridiculously fast. Perhaps only the Grand Marshal could face this beast, Liren thought, his eyes no longer surprised.

The wolf appeared in his vision, its body blurring into existence as it looked at his uncle lying on the ground. It then turned back to face Liren, blurring forward to be just a few meters from him.

The energy the wolf gave off was overwhelming. Its presence was immensely strong, enough to make Liren, who was kneeling on the ground, feel as if he would die just looking at it.

As Liren encountered this, a calm feeling overcome him.

“So this is how I die.” His heart was calm. Regret, fear, anger, despair, a myriad of emotions flashed through him in an instant. His plans for the clan, for the future, all of them faded into the background, as he accepted his death.

In that instant, a strange aura formed around his eyes.

An air of authority emanated from Liren as he looked at the Gem Beast. He became like a king looking at one of his subjects. Despite his impending death, he looked at the creature fearlessly, refusing to give way even should he die.

The wolf noticed this aura and blinked. It then took another step forward, as if about to attack.

Before anything else could happen, however, the wolf turned its ahead to the side and leapt backwards, its body blurring as it moved a hundred meters away. A look of indescribable fear filled its eyes, abject terror.

A dozen meters to Liren’s side, a young boy stood on trembling legs, wielding a pure, golden blade in his hands. A golden light surrounded this boy as he stared at the scaled wolf, his eyes shining a brilliant gleam. The sword in the boy’s hands trembled as the boy focused on the mighty Gem Beast, almost as if in joy.

Liren looked at this, and back at the wolf in astonishment. He then collapsed to the ground and fainted, his body pulled and pushed far beyond what he could stand. His last memory before darkness overwhelmed him was of that boy stumbling forward to stand between him and the colossally powerful Gem Beast.

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