Chapter 142 142: Nest War VII
Cassandra scoffed and leapt down, her bow string snapping in the air as she fired off salvo after salvo of shots that exploded on impact. From his spot on top of the tree Cole could even feel the shockwaves from Cassandra's attack against the darkling woman. From where he was perched he longer had direct contact with Silas but from the pained screeches that he was hearing in the distance, it seems the boy was still okay.
Cole began to actively push energy into the skill so that his healing could be accelerated. And while it did work, the drain on his reserves were quite substantial. In not time at all he was fully and completely hole, but he was down to less than 5% of his total energy pool. He huffed then jumped down, right into the middle of carnage. He didn't know it, but he had spent longer on the tree than he had thought as it was not just Cassandra and Razor that were fighting, at least 50% of the aspirants within the Glade had returned and he could still see more arriving in the distance.
"its good that you're back, you fell into some sort of trance while you healed so we figured you were AFK. You good? We've pushed the darklings back to their nests, we're just under 18 feet away from the entrance itself and drawing ever closer inch by inch. But we need you, their defense lines are nearly impregnable and we're even in danger of being pushed back." Farida said to him as she stretched her hand out to help him up from his spot crouched on the ground.
"How Long have I been in a trance? To me it was just a second that had passed." Cole asked as he pulled out dark Malakai and was prepared to step into the fray.
"Close to three hours. But that's not what we have to worry about, phase 2 was a success. The Glade healed everyone to their full health and left them feeling refreshed too which means not just health but stamina also is rejuvenated. We resumed the assault as soon as possible, it would be better to bring them down now!" Farida said to him and far be it from Cole to disagree with inflicting more violence on darklings, and that was ultimately what they were all here for. Cole nodded to her and prepared to take the fight to the darklings.
[Shadow Dance]
His form seemed to disappear and he reappeared out of the shadow of a woman who was using energy shields to hold the darklings at bay. She helped in shock and took a step back, her concentration breaking as a Darkling leapt for her, claws outstretched and fangs exposed ready to end her life in a second. Cole just stretched his hand and caught the darkling or in this case the chitterling that had leapt into the air and used [Sin Eater] on it recouping a bit of the energy he had lost in healing himself, then he seamlessly inserted himself into the position the barrier skill aspirant had previously occupied.
Cole wrapped energy around his fist and smashed a powerful punch into the stomach of an Ursaling that was blasted backwards, bowling over its fellow hive mates in the process. Cole stepped forwards and grabbed immediately with another Ursaling that had leapt over the first, he used [Vertigo] keeping the nest off balance as he immediately utilized [Sin Eater] again, draining the creature until it was even more of a husk before it turned to dust. However this was not the time to hold back on his energy expenditure, they were trying their best to make sure they would be able to get into the tunnel, and as far as he was concerned they had wasted enough time already just to get to this point.
[Chaos Blast]
The ball of condensed chaotic energy that was fully charged with both negative and normal energy though the former was at a smaller quantity than latter, but never the less it was still enough to make an extremely powerful explosion that turned dozens of darklings to dust, easing up on the aspirants as they advanced, quickly giving no quarter or wasting the opening Cole had made. He moved forwards with them, meeting up to another Crocodile that swiftly turned and used it's tail to smash at Cole. Cole on the other hand raised his hand and created a shield of [Gravity] causing a loud boom and little displacement in the air as the tail of the crocodile darkling smashed into it. The rebound force was enough to stun the creature long enough for Cole to shift Black Malakai into a spear and stab it through the eyes and straight up into its brain.
He pulled the weapon back an attempted to turn it into a shield, but there was a feedback akin his skull splitting. He lost the awareness of his surroundings long enough for multiple chitterlings and massive gorilla like darkling to all latch on to him with their mouths filled with sharpened fangs. This was a warning, Cole could feel it echoing from the blade that had shifted back to its normal meter long three inch wide longsword look. This was a weapon for attack and killing, it would never take the form of a defensive tool. And it was not that it couldn't Cole realized, it was that it wouldn't making him finally understand that the sword he held had a mind of it's own.
[Sin Reaper]
The darklings latched on to him all turned to dust as Cole moved forwards, a little wary about using Black Malakai after what he had just experienced. It was weird but from what he could tell it seems his own sword had the ability to take his life if Cole was to ever use it in a manner it did not approve of. That was an extremely unsettling thing to be worried about in the heat of battle, but join that to the list of things he had discovered about himself and his race in just this conflict. Cole now understood even less of what he was capable of, or what the things he owned was capable of, he had an inventory filled with all of these things. He smashed the hilt of Black Malakai into the jaw of a chittering, cracking it's entire skull in the process as it dropped down dead.
This was enough to shock him back into the state of battle as he whirled in between two Ursalings, his left hand claws and Black Malakai cutting them at the side of their necks, accurately nicking arteries that bled out massive dozes of energy. But this was not a killing blow, however it did enough in drawing their attention not Cole as stabbed his sword deep into the neck of one and his claws into the side of the other, [Sin Eater] activated as energy was siphoned and dust was left behind. He turned around to notice that he was now on the threshold of the tunnel that led into the nest, and the fighting had eased up enough that he could take a moment and catch his breath….. they were advancing, Cole had to make sure they all made it.
[Chaos Blast]
Spare over the heads of multiple darklings and down into the darkness of the tunnel behind them. Cole had used every last smidge of energy that he had just regained, making him stumbled as he gave the order to halt, causing more of the darklings to come out and regain some of the grounds that they had lost. But in that very second the skill went off, it was only at that point that Cole worried if he had not perhaps collapsed the tunnel, but there were now answers to be gained yet as massive boom rocked the tunnel, with shockwaves powerful enough to floor the darklings at the front of the line and push some of the aspirants off their feet. Cole growled and rushed forwards blade flashing as he stepped into the tunnel proper.
The scent of chaos was thick in the air once again, and for a second he almost gave in to his more demonic and wild side, but he held himself back with sheer force of will and he smashed his foot into the chest of an injured Ursaling before ending it existence by draining it of it's energy. The tunnel itself was three to four meters wide, there was not a lot of space for both sides to attack each other, but Cole knew that they had the advantage in the fact that they had skills and the Darklings barely attacked with abilities of their own. Never the less as he was about to rush forward Cassandra came out of the crowd rushing last him while firing explosive arrows into the crowd of darklings that waited beyond the area of destruction Cole's [Chaos Blast] had left behind.
He chuckled and followed after her, knowing full well that at the end of this tunnel, there would be a boss and even more immense danger that frankly speaking Cole still had no understanding of. But in the end they were Aspirants and there was no other path for them but forwards.
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