Soul Venerable (Re-written)

 

 

The moment Shion went out of Sumire’s tent, she saw a group of six-legged crocodiles fighting against her teammates. These earth-path beasts are actually huge, each having a 3-meter-tall, 6-meter-long, and 2-meter-wide body. They possessed whiskers on their face akin to catfish’s, their function was to absorb earth elemental particles directly from the environment.

Thanks to their secondary diet: dirt and earth elemental particles, six-legged crocodiles have brown earthy hide. Like most earth-path lifeforms, they are highly resistant to sharp and slashing weapons. Only blunt weapons with sufficient force can effectively deal damage to these beasts.

That being said, the most effective person on the battlefield wasn’t Kenji who should be able to easily handle these beasts, but Murasaki Ayame.

Her hands held a waist-mounted 2-meter-long howitzer-like assault railgun which spewed bright purple lightning-encased projectiles. The sheer penetrative power of her railgun ignored the beast's defensive hide. In a few seconds, she had already spewed dozens of projectiles which killed one crocodile while wounding the closest two.

It was a major success, since the beasts are as powerful as late-stage rank 0 martial artists, but Ayame couldn’t erase the frown on her face.

The ammunition which was prepared to hunt the greenskins are now used for these worthless earth-path beasts. 

Nobody in the team is an earth-path cultivator, their corpse’s value is very low because nobody can use them directly. Trading might suppress the financial loss that her faction suffered, but hauling this large beast costs resources, even if they put them in space-path storage artifacts, they took up a lot of space.

In other words, the profit margin for killing them is extremely low.    

Shion immediately ordered her to retreat, “Stop wasting precious [Supermagnetic Rounds]. Take the car away, go to the highest vantage point and be our eyes.”

Ayame soundlessly nodded as she dematerialized her assault railgun and military jeep with a flash of prismatic pixelated lights. She then equipped her various digitalized equipment such as her invisibility cloak and anti-terrestrial magnetism boots as she turns invisible with a flash of prismatic pixels, disappearing from the battlefield.

After ordering Ayame, Shion’s eyes turned towards Kenji who’s fighting the crocodiles in the frontline with his bare hands.  Although he was given a bow, in an emergency like this, his instinct kicked in as he couldn’t forget the primitive combat habits of ascetic monks. Shion shook his head in disapproval, however, she didn’t say anything.

“Sumire!” She reprimanded the captain of the allied faction.

“Already done!” Sumire had finished formulating a plan. Despite being ambushed by beasts, she wasn’t panicking. As she closes her eyes, telepathic thoughts are being transferred through [Group Chat] towards her faction which was activated by Alanis the moment she realized combat was imminent. In an instant later, Sumire’s faction moved orderly, creating a defensive line.

“What’s the plan?” She asked Shion.

“Since your faction has taken care of the defensive line, I’ll let Kenji support you. Use him as a cannon fodder while I kill the most dangerous beast as soon as possible. Don’t worry if your faction missed one or two, Ayame will protect you without fail.” As soon as Shion finished her sentence, she closed her eyes, exchanging telepathic thoughts with Kasumi as her hands made some hand seals.

‘Initiate combat mode. Activating rank 0 Kai Kuji-in (premonition seal), [Active Soul Sonar].’

A soul pulse was sent from Shion. This investigative method works like real sonar, but it reacts to the soul presence of other lifeforms. The only way to hide from this investigative method is through concealing one’s soul presence to the fullest, which was impossible in front of Shion.

Everybody felt a strange chill the moment their soul was touched by this pulse, but the feeling lingered for a split second, as if it was an illusion. Shion opened her crimson eyes as she savored the sensation of all living being’s presence in a radius of a hundred meter. 

Yamamura, Shirogane, Kurogane and Sakuya were delaying the beasts. Only Shirogane and Sakuya can deal effective damage while the two others barely defend against the beasts’ attacks. 

As for Alanis, Ramiel and Seraphina, they were supporting them to the best of their abilities. Seraphina uses her wood-path methods to delay a crocodile by constricting them with rapid-growing roots, Ramiel with his crossbow and Alanis took the role as the ‘eyes’ of Sumire’s faction.

She stood at the highest vantage point while her eyes glowed in prismatic lights. It was the physical manifestation of using information-path magic spells to provide real-time combat situations to Sumire who managed the frontline. Sumire had also enslaved one crocodile to serve as cannon fodder, but it was obvious that she was exerting herself too much because blood was dripping from her nose.

At this stage, Shion mentally nodded at Sumire’s swift reaction. In a few seconds after the first crocodile was found, she had made use of every resource at her disposal to form a proper defensive line. 

After a brief calculation, Shion leaped at the direction of the beast where Sumire’s faction defenses are the weakest.

One crocodile attacked the area guarded by Yamamura and supported by Ramiel. Yamamura is the closest to being a Hunter-Killer instead of a Hunter, he was lacking in skills and combat habit when facing large-bodied beasts like the Six-legged crocodiles. It was understandable that he had to be supported by Ramiel’s pinpoint crossbow bolts. 

Behind Yamamura is where Sumire faction’s Brute Lupines rested. They howled as they sensed the approaching danger, yet they did not fight against their orders. Sumire couldn’t let these precious beasts die under the jaws of crocodiles because she was just renting them. 

If they actually died, she has to reimburse the academy with a large amount of resources or contribution points. It's best if they are kept alive without harm.

At this time, Kasumi is rapidly exchanging telepathic thoughts with Shion.

< Entering Combat Configuration… Gathering environmental data… Scanning hostile presence… Active Soul Sonar data received, multiple rank 0 hostile lifeforms detected.  Fetching beast anatomical information… Cross referencing host’s past memory with current beast presence. Beast’s life signature matches, biological hazard level: 7 transparent stars. Compiling optimized movement routes and formulating battle plans. Apply on the host's visual? >

“Synchronize our sea of consciousness.” Shion mentally gave the order.

When Shion’s and Kasumi’s mind synchronizes, Shion’s vision is filled with augmented reality-like holographic lights that guide her every action. In her eyes, the crocodile’s large physique is laced with bright geometric lines, there are various color-coded areas which signifies which area is the weakest.  

Shion leaped as she sent forth a fist towards a crocodile that was trying to take a large bite out of Yamamura with their large jaws. Bang! A sound of a drum being hit resounded when Shion’s liquid metal combat glove-covered fist connected with the crocodile’s head which was colored deep red in her vision.

The sound was coming from Shion’s Rin Kuji-in (power seal) ninjutsu, [Triple Extreme Sound: Drum Fist]. 

By compressing vibration within one's fist and then unleashes them into one vector, Shion can deal the maximum amount of destruction through her fist. This move was a variation of [Triple Extreme Sound]. But, unlike [Bell Palm] which was designed for heavy internal damage, [Drum Fist] does not possess the ‘ignore armor’ effect.

The core essence of this move was pure unadulterated destruction through vibration.

The spot where she hit the beast has the thinnest layer of bone matter. The skull caved in as grey brain matter mixed with flesh, blood and gore exploded through it. 

The six-legged crocodile has a strong passive defensive method. Its thick stone-rubbery hide is comparable to the defense of a peak-stage rank 0 martial artist, but the concentrated vibration manages to break any semblance of defenses it can offer because it deals critical damage.

Of course, Shion at her current level couldn’t deal this amount of damage alone. She can achieve this result because of the amplification of her weapon, Kasumi.

Most of Kasumi’s slime mass protects Shion in a military uniform-shaped liquid armor, while the slime core acts as a secondary crystal processor which collects and calculates the best course of action for Shion. A large part of her excess slime mass transformed into a pair of combat gloves and boots to protect Shion’s hands from the self-mutilating nature of high-vibration ninjutsu. 

Since Kasumi can use her own methods, she assisted Shion by activating [Quadruple Maximize: Overlapping Resonance]. Thanks to it, this particular [Triple Extreme Sound: Drum Fist] exhibits naked destruction.

“Dangerous!” Yamamura yelped as the crocodile he fought suddenly became a vegetable. The life force of beasts is more resilient than that of man, even when its skull breaks and brain matter leaks, it hasn’t died yet. 

But, the damage is sufficient for supporting Yamamura and Ramiel. The beast can only twitch randomly as it loses most motoric functions. Shion immediately leaps backwards, she takes a breather as her hands visibly twitch uncontrollably.  

The primary materials used to construct Shion’s body are lightning-path metals which are Current Limit Copper supported by Magnetic Storm Ores and a few other materials.

They are not sound-path material.

Her body cannot handle the amount of vibration caused by the ninjutsu due to the conflict of the two paths, at least with [Overlapping Resonance] in effect. Although the relationship of lightning-path and sound-path are not two polar opposite like water-path and fire-path, they are also not compatible like lightning-path and metal-path. 

In that exchange, if Shion’s hands were not protected by Kasumi’s slime mass, the metallic muscle tissue of her hands would be ripped apart and the bones would break.  

In other words, Kasumi is the one who took the brunt of the damage. But, as a metal slime, it was okay for her to shield Shion from the damage. As a natural transformation-path lifeform, slimes could freely change the shape of their slime mass, and thanks to the recent upgrade, she could alter her density up to a certain point like a non-newtonian fluid. Thus, Kasumi is almost immune to vibration-type damage as long as she has time to prepare.

While Shion took her time to let the nanomachines repair the micro-fractures on her arms, Yamamura and Ramiel finished off the wounded crocodile. When the two killed their target, Shion had already leaped towards another beast, but this time, she brawled with it.

The usage of [Triple Extreme Sound: Drum Fist] with the [Overlapping Resonance] puts a heavy burden on the physical body, this couldn’t be used freely. However, if [Drum Fist] are used normally, Shion is able to consistently dish out damage, which is more sustainable in terms of energy expenditure.

By fighting like this, she reduces the amount of pressure that Sumire’s faction experienced.

Each time she leaped from one place into another, she left deep footprints on the rocky ground as it shook as if a meteorite hit them. This was because Shion’s body weight alone reached a few hundred kilograms, and Kasumi’s slime body contained a large amount of metal which weighed more than her.

Still, her movements were agile as if her body was as light as a feather.

Bang! Bang! He sneak attacked a giant crocodile that Kurogane and Shirogane fought. The sudden strike caused the beast to lose balance, allowing Shirogane to slice its throat and rupture the beast’s belly. Quickly, Kurogane followed up with his greatsword, striking on the same location in hope to decapitate the beasts. 

However, earth-path beasts are known to have strong defenses. Even when the beast’s neck is wounded to the point of its bone being visible, it is still struggling. The beast roared, trying to bite Kurogane with unnatural strength. 

While the beast is distracted with Kurogane, Shion once again sneaks an attack at the beast. First, she uses the liquid metal combat boots imbued with [Drum Fist] to perform an axe kick at the beast’s head before pummeling the same spot with newfound fervor, each strike carrying the weight of a meteor.

Her rapid attack speed was never before seen as electric blue acceleration force fields enveloped Shion’s body.

This was Kasumi doing the work again, this time, she uses lightning-path buff spells to accelerate Shion’s movement and attack speed. After all, unlike Shion, she genuinely possessed a Mana Pool and thus was capable of using magic spells independently.

After the giant crocodile is killed with Shirogane’s decapitating attack, Shion’s acceleration forcefield dissipates as its power is limited. The pressure on Sumire’s faction lowered as the two large beasts are now dead. The only Six-legged Crocodile alive was the one who’s being tangled up with Kenji and Sumire’s enslaved crocodile. 

Kenji had already killed one on his own and is now currently assisting Sakuya and Seraphina in dealing with one.  

The beast has multiple burn marks on its body and large amounts of rapid-growing roots are constricting its movement. When Shion looked over, Kenji was splitting open the beast’s skull with his bare hands, his movements were unrefined yet brutal.

Crack! With a sickening crunch sound, the crocodile is dead. Kenji has turned the beast’s brain into juice. After that, Sumire ordered the beast she enslaved to stop moving and let Kenji kill it as quickly as possible because she couldn’t handle the pressure anymore.

“The first wave… has been repelled.” Shion shook her head as she ‘took’ several deep breaths. The first attack merely consists of a handful of giant crocodiles, but how can they continue fighting against these beasts indefinitely? 

It’s common sense that beasts are more powerful than man. A late-stage crocodile might be equivalent to several peak-stage martial artists. The only reason why Twin Helix are ‘easily’ handling these beasts are because of the body runes on their body amplifying their performance to a great degree.

However, body runes do not work like a cheat. The amplification came with a price.

The higher the amplification, the higher the resource expenditure. These ‘resources’ are stamina, or for mages, perhaps mana or for super powerful yet dangerous ones, it can even burn one’s lifespan.    

Of course, there’s also stamina regeneration-amplification body runes to handle this weakness, but the energy did not come from the void. This world still follows the law of conservation of energy. Body runes cannot function perpetually or produce energy by itself. 

Thus, this is the reason why martial artists consume a lot of meat. They need the nutrients to fuel their body runes, especially after an intense session of combat. For Kenji who primarily relies on his crazy defensive and regeneration rate, his energy expenditure is extremely high. It’s unrealistic if they have to fight a full day against these beasts.

Just as rank 0 mages couldn’t store too many spell resources, rank 0 martial artists also couldn’t store too many nutrients in their body. After all, they are still considered as rank 0 ‘apprentice’.

Even if they had prepared emergency rations such as Galatreon’s D-rank liquid nutrient or other types of rations, they couldn’t replenish them in the forest.

That being said, this situation is like why Shion ordered Ayame to retreat. Twin Helix would be expending precious combat resources, ones that should be used to fight against the greenskins.

After all, the greenskins are an unending horde of semi-intelligent races, they are much more dangerous than beasts. If they consumed their precious combat resources now, their future battles against the greenskins would be difficult. 

“Shall we bait some mud beasts?” Sumire catches Shion’s remarks and almost instantly understands the direction of her thoughts. She quickly offers a solution.

“As expected of someone with wisdom-path attainment. Yes, but I couldn’t sense any elemental lifeforms. My investigative method does not react to elemental lifeforms. Well… to earth-path elemental lifeforms.” Shion casually lied.

The original principle of [Active Soul Sonar] is detection through soul presence. Elemental lifeforms, at least lower-ranked ones, do not possess souls. They are merely amalgamations of elemental particles without sentience as they act based on primal elemental instinct. Things are different for sentient elemental lords or kings, but most elemental lifeforms generally do not possess a soul. 

Since they don’t have a soul, elemental lifeform couldn’t be detected by [Active Soul Sonar]. However, Shion isn’t that dumb to leave that flaw alone after entering this unfamiliar world. 

Thus, the current [Active Soul Sonar] was a product of combining soul-path investigative method with sound-path and information-path profundity, it doesn’t only detect through soul presence alone.

Shion naturally wouldn’t want to elaborate further. For a person of her caliber, the ‘weakness’ she exposes is a method to exploit her enemies. In addition, having an all-powerful investigative method would make Sumire wary of her. She would have to try harder in deducting countermeasures for Shion, which was actually useless and forces her to commit telepathic resources for nothing. 

So, it would be better for both Sumire and Shion if she revealed a weakness that Sumire can ‘exploit’. This way, Sumire can gain false intelligence regarding Shion.

“Wait.” Shion suddenly said as bright purple lightning strikes were bombarding a location not too far away from their location, “Ayame has already thought about it. There are multiple mud beasts attracted by her methods.” 

Just as she finished her words, everyone could sense the approaching group of mud beasts amidst the heavy downpour. Their earth-path presence was like a blazing torch on a dark night in this rain. For observant people like Alanis, she could practically sense the rapid increase of earth elemental particles in the surrounding. 

At this moment, the presence of mud beasts suppresses other elemental paths, especially wind-path. This was, as stated before, due to the fact that Mud Beast is an earth minor elemental lifeform, their presence emits earth elemental particles and raised its average level to beyond what it is’ normally’. 

Since earth is the nemesis of wind, it also pushed away wind elemental particles the most due to the fact that they are conflicting the most with each other.

“The true Minor Elemental Wave is here… Due to the earth-path environment, we are somehow suppressed…” Kenji muttered with a low voice. “But, it does not affect me!” He jumped towards the closest group of Six-legged Crocodile with renewed vigor, forgetting the fact that he could do much more destruction with his bow.

“I have to admit, this is where Kenji will shine.” Shion muttered. “Sumire, I think it’s best if Shirogane took a rest, she’s the most useless one in fighting against mud beasts.” 

“Alright.” Sumire agreed immediately. Sword-path have the greatest damage output amongst all paths, but this was because they maximize their power to deal ‘critical damage’. Since mud beasts are literally amalgamations of dirt and mud, they could replenish themselves no matter how many times they are decapitated. 

Shirogane’s attack wouldn’t be effective because it would be as if she stabbed and sliced water. How can that be productive? Engaging combat with mud beasts would only expend telepathic resources (telepathic ruthless sword emotion) that allows her to function normally.   

“Good. You just need to defend from those that survived our assault. My faction will handle this battle.” Shion gave Sumire a wink which was their secret code which told her not to forget harvesting the souls of the fallen. 

Sumire blinked, answering Shion’s message which meant her affirmation.