Maximilian released everything. All three dao fields and killing intent exploded into the room. His recent battles hadn't given much in terms of spiritual energy, but had been a rebirth. A rebirth of slaughter. It still wasn't truly tangible, but it was close. The hive became a bloodied field. A battlefield where death was not only common but expected. The part of him that detested the feeling was still there, but it was quieter. So much quieter. The mindless ants either hadn't noticed or didn't care. This was insane by old Earth's standards, but now? Now it was home. He reached out, welcoming the ants into his killing grounds.
A dozen electrical mines formed in a second. Each one held enough power to destroy a tank. Yet the ants didn't hesitate. The ants were destroyed by the half dozen while he replaced what he lost. He left that part of the battle to his subconscious while he focused on the insect queen. The misshapen ant still hadn't made a move. Yet he could tell it was smarter than the others. There was awareness in its ugly eyes. If the queen wouldn't take the initiative, then he would. Interspaced between the mines were blades of wind and bolts of electricity. Going on the offensive changed the tempo, but it wasn't enough to take control of the conflict.
The ants did not care about their own lives, which meant they were relentless. Even with his speed, he couldn't stop the tide. His instincts screamed a warning seconds before an ant lunged at his right arm. Spiritual energy surged into his arm and fist as he brought it up and then down. He slammed a hammer fist into the creature with bone-shattering force. Green blood erupted right before he blasted off the ground. His position had been overrun, but that didn't matter. His instincts roared. His eyes widened as an emerald ball shot toward him from the queen. He had just enough time to form a wall of wind and water.
His dao intercepted the attack before it could make contact. He cocked his eye at the impact as it tried to dissolve his defense. There wasn't enough water to neutralize the strange acid, which only made him more concerned. He unleashed a blast of wind to clear his landing zone. He followed that up with an imbued Severing Disc. He shot both blades toward the queen. He split both blades into a pincer attack, hoping that at least one would hit. His hope turned to ash as several ants leaped into the path of the attack.
They managed to exhaust the skill's energy and dao, but not before losing more than a third of their number. They still outnumbered him more than five to one. Odds that were slowly shifting in his direction. When he took into account the impact of his Dao fields, he would win. He quickly shifted his focus. He would exhaust the queen by thinning out her hive. She would either reveal a new ability or she would lose the battle of attrition. Both of which were fine with him. The battle continued as he planned for another five minutes. It was then that the queen made her move. She tossed her head back and unleashed a soundless cry. His danger sense screamed, and he activated Prismatic Barrier without a moment's hesitation.
He saw the rainbow shield for a fraction of a second before he was hit with utter agony. A wave of pain slammed into something inside him. For a moment, all thoughts ceased. The pain replaced everything he knew and everything he was. It was indescribable. When he regained awareness, he lay on the ground. His barrier had held against the remaining ants. He ran his hands across his body, expecting to have lost a limb or to have a gaping wound or something that would explain his injury. Yet there was nothing.
The pain was far too vivid to have been imagined. He turned his attention to the queen, who had shrunken by half. It wasn't hard to connect the dots from there. Whatever it had done was an attack. An attack that wasn't physical. He didn't think it was mental, either, though he couldn't explain why he knew that. He passed his inner eye over his body and found that he was fine. Or rather, there was no permanent damage. He got to his feet, not wanting to risk the queen following up. His Dao fields still assaulted the group. He reached for his daos only for a spot at the core of his being to burn. The pain shocked him, but it wasn't enough to stop him.
He would liken the sensation to what happens to your muscles after working out too much. Or after an injury had started healing. Regardless, he couldn't afford to slow down his assault. Blades of wind, balls of water, and lances of electricity shot out in every direction. He briefly considered using his pseudo skill, but he knew that would be a bad idea. If his haunch was right, he had hurt his soul.
If that was the case, he didn't want to find out what happened if he pushed himself too hard. He continued his assault for a few moments before he abandoned it. The burning sensation had grown steadily throughout. It was far too big a risk for a bunch of insects. Instead, he would rely on his skills. Static Bolt made a resurgence. The skill claiming ant lives as rapidly as he can manage. As soon as he felt the stalemate end, he allowed Prismatic Barrier to collapse. The last remaining ants tried to take advantage, but there were far too few. Static Bolt dealt with another, and then he unleashed Severing Disc. The buzzsaws were weaker without the dao, but still more than enough for what he needed. The twin blades cleaved through the remaining ants as if they were tissue paper.
He took a moment to confirm. The number of enemies made the kill energy flow like water. When he was reasonably sure he had killed everything, he turned his attention to the queen. Who looked drained. Part of him felt bad. The creature looked like a stiff breeze would end it. He strangled those feelings and formed a six-foot lance of electricity. The strain returned. He knew he didn't have the time to debate, so he unleashed the attack.
Up until the time he received the kill energy, he held his breath. Still expecting the queen to have a final card to play. Or for more ants to show up. When none did, he sighed. He used spiritual energy to clean himself up and sat down. Even with all the kills, he wasn't quite ready to level up. He estimated it would take a few hours of meditation or another strong beast to push him over the limit. Which was fine with him. Now that the battle was over, he was exhausted. The fight was definitely among his hardest. A testament to how strong he had become. It was also a warning. If the queen had been stronger or had used her attack earlier, he would've died. He sat down to go over the battle and still couldn't explain why he had done what he had.
He could've opened with his barrier and stood his ground. It would have let him hold on to the ants a bit longer. He would have had to move later, but if the queen held her attack back until after it fell, he would have been drowned in a sea of ants. He was not sure how long he was or if he could have battled his way out of that scenario. Not that it mattered. He had made the right choice. He just didn't know why. Part of him wanted to think about it further, but he stopped himself. He wasn't safe here. Not really. The battle likely scared away any monsters, but they would return.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Distracting himself with things that didn't really matter would only doom him. He could do that when he was home. He got to his feet and scanned the room. He wasn't going to waste time harvesting every animal part, but he would cut up the queen. He doubted he knew enough to figure out what organ caused the attack, but someone else might. If not, he would sell it to Network or the alchemists. Either way, he had already gotten quite a few credits for the kills. Which was more than enough for him. It took him nearly half an hour to finish with the queen. At which point his excitement had turned to irritation.
The body was more disgusting than when the ugly thing was alive. He had to remind himself that the future benefits would be worth it. When it was finished, he collected fifty more insect corpses and then left. Fifty put him at the limit of his storage bag. Which was another problem. He would need to upgrade that in the future. If he wanted to stock up on pills and other items that could keep him safe. Assuming he wanted to stock up on pills, food, and everything else. Either way, it was a problem for tomorrow. When he was outside, he launched himself into the air on a platform of electricity. Night had fallen, and from what he could see, it was close to midnight.
He took several deep breaths to purge the stink of the hive. He would have to avoid going after insect monsters in the future. He wasn't sure if they were all like that; he doubted it. If insects became more and more aware, then the really strong ones should be no different than humans. Either way, he would avoid hives unless he had to. He would need to send word to his mother and the rest of Nubia to keep an eye out. They couldn't let hives get too big. He also knew that he should not be the one to clean them out. At least not the weaker ones. The insects are a great experience, and they use almost no tactics. As long as no one faced the queen, it would be a great way to grind levels. He turned his attention to the night sky.
As bad as things were, he had to admit he liked it. He liked having the power to do things. He could right the world. Save people. Heal people. He could do things. He had the power of self-determination. A part of him worried he was going down the road to tyranny, but there was nothing he could do about it. He would not give up leadership of Nubia. He wished he could say it was to protect his mother and everyone else. That was true, of course, but he also liked being in charge. He liked being the ruler. He reflected on that for a few more moments before he headed back.
The time for introspection was over. He had things to do. He arrived in his newest settlement about an hour later. He left word with everyone present about the insects and told them they could collect the corpses if they wanted. He doubted anyone would do it, but they had the option. As much as he didn't like it, there was a clear delineation between people who enjoyed fighting and the people who wanted to survive. It didn't matter much. He stepped through the teleporter and returned to Nubia. He gave the men standing guard at the array a polite nod before entering the settlement proper. He did not want to get distracted before his class selection, so he decided to head straight home. He assumed his mother would receive word and figure the rest out from there.
If there were any problems, he would either deal with them or push them off to later. With the latter being his preferred option. A short while later, he took a seat inside the cultivation chamber. The ambient energy felt wonderful. Especially compared to Hive, yet it wasn't enough. He pulled out two spirit stones and crushed them. Their energy joined what was present in an instant. Even that wasn't quite enough. He crushed two more along with two soul stones. After that, he sat in the lotus position and slipped into meditation. Only when he felt completely calm did he start up the Nine Lightnings Canon.
He sank deep into his dantian as he willed the energy inside. The space felt less like a bowl and more like a small pond filled to the brim. He tried to push himself over only to hit a wall. He cocked his head as his dantian reached its limit. Energy continued to pour in, but it was being wasted. The excess returned to the world, which wasn't an immediate problem. He didn't panic. For a moment, he thought the insect queen's final attack had done something, but his gut said that was wrong. If anything, it felt more like this was a natural barrier.
Some sort of final test before he could hit level 27. A feeling that was further supported by the lack of pain. If his assumption was correct, then he could guess what he was supposed to do. He needed to expand his dantian. He tried to summon his daos to help him, but nothing happened. He could tell he was still connected to them. He just could not control them inside this space. Which wasn't as bad as it seemed. He would need to accomplish this with his energy. It took him a few tries to get enough control that he could batter the edges of his dantian.
Like waves crashing into the shore, he needed to generate enough force to wear down the walls. At least that was the plan. After twenty minutes, he had made little if any progress. The rational part of his brain wanted to go back to the drawing board, but his gut told him not to. His gut told him that brute force was the way to solve this problem. All he needed to do was gather his power and force it. He decided to ignore the little voice that said he was just being impatient. The ambient energy left him with more than enough energy to attempt. He took another breath and took control over all the energy in his dantian. It was like trying to grab an ocean in his hands. The first impact was nothing to write home about, but by the third. He had marshalled enough force to leave cracks.
Sweat poured down his face as he kept at it. He had lost nearly a tenth of his energy by the time he saw real progress. A hole as big as his thumb was punched in the western side. He held his breath until he confirmed that there was something on the other side. It was a dantian, or rather his dantian. Only it was different. The walls looked stronger, like they were made out of a black metal or crystal, compared to the previous stone. From what he could see, it was the same size as his current one, which should mean a doubling in his total energy.
Now that he knew what to do, he settled in for the long haul. He was forced to absorb another two spirit stones before he had enough energy to fully open his dantian. His spiritual energy slowly calmed from the raging ocean he had created. Now that he no longer lost energy, he could tell he had reached level 27. He had even gone a bit beyond that thanks to the stones, but it wasn't all good news. If he had to, he would place his estimated loss at 20% percent or so. Which wasn't great, but cultivation cost money. Money, he had in abundance right now. He knew he could collect his class now, but he decided to delay.
Instead, he absorbed another soul stone to help calm his mental state. He felt both raw and exhausted from the exertion. He wasn't sure if that would have an impact on his class selection, but haste made waste. As soon as he felt well enough to move, he opened his eyes and got to his feet. There was still a lot of meditation to do, but he would do that later. He was confident that he wouldn't advance a dao today, and he was pretty sure that delaying his choice any further wouldn't be good. That and he was at the limits of his patience. He practically bounced out of his home and to the room with the hub.
Fortunately, the area was empty, which meant he didn't need to answer any questions. Now that he stood in front of it his heart was filled with worry. Logically, he knew he had done all he could, yet a small part of him wondered if it would be enough. He still hadn't awakened his physique. He could have more dao. Perhaps even a clearer direction for his cultivation. He shook his head and forced the anxiety down. He knew there would always be more he could do. Opportunities he could and couldn't take. If he sat here and tried for perfection, he would stay stuck forever. He was ready. He wanted the power. He wanted to take the step. With his resolve strengthened, he stepped forward, placed his hand on the hub, and grinned. It was the right choice.
