Soul Venerable (Re-written)

 

 

With a sweep of her gunlance, Shion decapitates three to four goblins in one attack . The grey lance head is oscillating in high frequency, allowing it to slice or pierce most rank 0 defenses like hot knife through butter.

Since the primary material for the gunlance is seism iron, Shion could use sound-path ninjutsu through it without worrying the gunlance will break. There’s no conflict of path, so her methods have great compatibility with the weapon.

The Heavy Assault Ceramite Shield is on her left hand, blocking all ranged retaliation attacks that the goblin army could offer. Her petite body is completely covered by the large shield; she could charge head on without worry. In less than a minute, she killed all the goblins in the surrounding area. 

“I thought that you’re an assassin-cum-antimage, boss.” Kenji commented as he cleans his fist from blood and gore, he carried a large coffin-like mobile furnace on his back. While they spoke, other hunters were converging on their location. 

“Assassins are not limited to using small weapons. I knew a group of priests and priestesses who were secretly assassins. Are you expecting me to be like those assassins who use daggers? You read too many fantasy books. The usage of small anti-personnel weapon in a large scale war is dumb. 

My body is petite; imagine the effort I need to kill a thousand goblins with a dagger. Gunlance is my preferred weapon in large scale war, not only can it kill four to six goblins with one sweep, it can also release a short ranged attack if necessary. When the war progressed into the later stage, I could use other weapon configurations, granting me higher killing efficiency. Only idiots think that the sword or dagger are peerless weapons in all situations.”

Kenji nodded in understanding, he agreed with her words. It’s true, having a petite body is detrimental in large scale war, her large weapon actually makes her easier to kill foes.

Of course, both the gunlance and the heavy assault shield are heavy. Even Kenji would tire quickly if he uses one of them for a prolonged amount of time, nevertheless if equipped both at the same time. Based on his understanding of his boss, the blazing heat that her chest emits is the best proof of this.

By the time the two ended their conversation, eight additional hunters gathered at their location.

These are the members of the vanguard team; they are responsible for clearing the path towards the Ruined Wood Palace and finding a suitable location for their temporary base.

The ten vanguards are led by Shion, the co-captain of Twin Helix. Her members are: Arakawa Kenji of Twin Helix as vice-captain, three members from Radiant Desolation, three members from Frozen Heart, and two support-focused members of Thousand Flowers.    

“What now, Herr-captain?” a youth in SS Waffen uniform, robotic left arm, and an assault rifle on his hand asked. His gun has two barrels, the top one shoots rifle rounds while the bottom one is a grenade launcher. He is Klauss Ludwig, a combat engineer from Radiant Desolation.

He was livid at Shion for being late and wasting a lot of time, but after seeing her gunlance, he gulped down his pride and asked for being in the same team with Shion so that he can observe the weapon up close. After the original team separated into team roles, he always used his free time getting close to Shion to ask for an intellectual debate regarding engineering-related topics, but he was ignored most of the time.

Shion changed her weapon from combat gunlance configuration to standby. “We rest for ten minutes before heading out. If you want to collect blood-path materials from these goblins, this is your chance.” She shared her decision.

“Verstanden!” Klauss gave her a military salute before finding a clean place to rest and maintain his equipment. Others followed suit with the exception of the members from Thousand Flower who wanted to harvest blood-path resources from the battlefield.

“Boss, that dude really wanted to get close to you. I heard he self-proclaimed himself as your rival.” Kenji nudged Shion who is in the process of resting, her chest is cooling down at a steady rate.

Shion opened her left eyes to glance at Kenji. “Aren’t you the same? You should be resting and accumulating energy. We just fought a 100-man goblin group, you must’ve used a bit of stamina.”

“It’s fine. One of my body runes allows me to regenerate stamina rapidly. More importantly, why aren’t you letting me use the bow yet. Didn’t you refine that so I can kill more?”

“Not yet.” Shion denied. “The greenskins as a whole aren’t a bunch of idiots. There are some greenskin variants who serve as strategists. They will react accordingly and create countermeasures for us. It’s best if you keep hidden your cards until the best moment… Alright, I know this level of bullshit isn’t going to fool you.” Shion smirked. “Your marksmanship is actually shit in my eyes. Seeing you shoot arrows with your meager skill give me physical pain”

“Boss… With all due respect, fuck you.”

Shion giggled.

Their relationship is no longer awkward like how they first met. The ten-minute break time quickly passed by while the two busied themselves in idle bickers. The Vanguard team slowly moved on.

Unlike the area near the rampart, this area of the forest has no road. The vanguard team must serve as pathfinder and scout the optimum path so that the main army consisting of enslaved beasts did not meet any beast groups or large beasts that would otherwise obliterate them.

“The bark of this tree has been damaged by petrification methods. We aren’t aware which beast caused this, but I’m sure it’s a nocturnal creature.” A mage of Frozen Heart traced the petrified grey wood with her fingers. She has light blue hair color and an unhealthy pale skin tone due to the lack of melanin in her skin. Her name is Yulinka Victoria, a distant relative of Anastasia Victoria.

Shion raised her eyebrows. It was obvious from a glance that this was caused by a dark-path beast known as Giant Kararan Serpent. The Seas of Eternal Winter have the greatest concentration of water and dark elemental particles in Morgen World, thus they are extremely rich in water-path and dark-path lifeforms. Shion wouldn’t believe that these brats from Frozen Heart aren't familiar with the abilities of dark-path beasts. 

However, she didn't say anything about their effort to test her. It was perfectly understandable. 

“Klauss, I will give you a chance to prove yourself. If you can find out which beast did this, I will accept one session of engineering debate that you’ve always wanted.” Shion coldly ordered.

“Verstanden, Herr-Captain!” Klauss moved excitedly as if he was injected with chicken blood.

First, he took off a large fragment of the petrified wood and put it inside a beaker that he fetched from his personal dimensional storage. As a refinement-path expert himself, it was normal for him to carry a Dimensional Storage artifact everywhere, even if it’s rare for rank 0 cultivators. He mixed a few chemicals and waited for it to react. The petrified bark changed color from grey-green to black before melting into a black goo-like substance.

Klauss sniffed the vapor from the melted substance safely from a distance before speaking, “Herr-captain, it’s a dark-path beast known as Giant Kararan Serpent. It happened 2 nights ago.” 

Kenji raised his eyebrows from his explanation. ‘You can tell from the smell alone? Are you a dog?’ He almost blurted that out but didn’t say anything in fear of offending Klauss.

“You can tell that from the smell alone? Are you a dog?” Shion said. Almost everyone frowned, but it seems like Klauss didn’t mind it.

“Nein, Herr-captain. Keiserreich combat engineers have to pass rigorous qualification tests before we are considered as official members. I haven’t reached the minimum cultivation base to pass the test, but I’ve been honing in on other aspects such as my chemical mastery.”

“I see. We’ll talk about that debate later. Since there’s a possible nest of Giant Kararan Serpent, we need to slay them as soon as possible. Any objection?”

“Nein.” “No.” “None.” Everyone immediately agreed. They are aware that if they do not eliminate the danger as soon as possible, the beasts will deal great damage towards the main army. Although most of the ‘main army’ are rank 0 cannon fodders, rank 0 enslavement-path cultivators couldn’t enslave too many powerful creatures. They will have to rely on vanguard teams like this to shave off the potential danger for their armies.

“Good. I will lead the way.” Shion said before moving towards a certain direction. Due to her small body size, the way she carried the heavy assault shield and gunlance is quite comical. Obviously, it was too big and too heavy for someone of her size, yet Kenji could feel something was off about her.

‘How the fuck did she use it effectively during battle but drag it like it’s so heavy when not in combat?’ Kenji asked himself before realizing another thing. “Boss, you know the location of the nest?”

“Of course. I’m not a retard like you. Giant Kararan Serpents lived in dark underground caves in pairs where they can bask in dark elemental particles. After their offspring matures, they kick them out to fend for themselves. They consume meat or petrified meat, so their nest is oftentime in proximity of other beasts. In this forest, the greenskins are too many to count, so they can thrive as long as they are not unlucky enough to meet an ork or a troll group.” Shion replied nonchalantly.

“Then why’d you asked Klauss if you already knew?”

“To prove his worth. I’m not going to lead a bunch of useless brats into battle. I am not a nanny.”

“Boss… If others look at us, they will think that we’re babysitting you instead.”

Shion’s face turned dark. “This motherfucker...” She immediately slapped Kenji with her gunlance. Fortunately, it was in standby configuration so no actual harm fall on Kenji, but he failed to react accordingly so he was sent flying.

“I fucking hate you, boss!” Kenji coughed blood as he removed himself from being embedded in a tree. 

“Oh, you dare coughing blood to make it seem like I’ve wronged you so that you can ask me to give you a lap pillow for consoling you? What a worthless pervert.” Shion gave him a true universal gaze of disappointment.

Kenji blushed in shame because that was exactly what he was hoping for. He wiped the blood that he coughed due to biting his own tongue. “Fuck, that look is exactly like my old man. One day! I will make you willingly comfort me with a lap pillow! Mark my word, boss!” He said while grinding his teeth in indignation. 

“Herr-captain, what’s wrong?” A clueless Klauss immediately notices the little fight as he tries to catch up with Shion’s footsteps. For some weird reason, Klauss always wanted to get close to Shion. 

“Nothing, we’re just chatting as usual.” Shion smiled, the gaze of universal disappointment on her face was no longer there. “Klauss, you are a refinement-path student from Keiserreich. Do you have an explosive focused on disorienting foes?”

Klauss turned serious. “Unfortunately, no. My fire-path gunpowder is all about heavy damage. Why do you ask?”

“Using high-explosive munitions underground is not wise. Fine, I’ll give you some of my own.” Shion stopped the group’s advances to fetch a few flashbang grenades from her mobile furnace that Kenji carried. She also gave a few to Klauss because of his familiarity with gunpowder-based weaponry.

“These are called flashbangs. It causes an explosion of light and sound, disorienting foes who got caught in the blast radius. Since we’re going to use it underground, it’s best if you prepare defensive measures against light and sound-attack.” Shion gave an instruction towards the vanguard team before progressing.

Soon, they reached a thick foliage that hides a rock mound covered in green moss. The cave’s entrance is hidden under vines, moss, and leaves; it was inconspicuous from a distance.

Shion led the charge towards the Giant Kararan Serpent’s hole. Unlike the clunky and slow way she moved during non-combat, the two heavy objects in her hand seem to have lost weight. Her center of gravity becomes extremely solid as if her weapon and shield is as light as a feather. However, Kenji noticed that her body also produces heat.

‘I see. It seems like when she’s in ‘combat mode’, her energy expenditure increases significantly and she could use the weapon effectively… that, or when her body runes are activated, they generate a lot of heat…’ Kenji analyzed as he silently followed his boss’s charge.

The dark cave led to large corridors with multiple rooms, but Shion ignored the empty or the fake ones and directly went for the Giant Kararan Serpent’s nest. Her steps caused a great tremor as if a minotaur is charging, while her speed is comparable to an armored train.

For others, they need to investigate the dark cave by using telepathic thought sweep or other methods, but for Shion, the vibration from her footsteps is an investigative method similar to echolocation. Having an extremely high attainment in sound-path allows her to use this type of investigative method passively.

When Shion entered the core part of the nest, there was a pair of Giant Kararan Serpent chilling in the darkness.

As the name suggests, these serpents are actually gigantic compared to other snakes. It has a body circumference of 2 meter, with a total body length of 50 meters. The head has two miniature horns that gleamed with dark light. It’s jet black scale does not reflect light as it would be a detrimental trait to stealth-focused beasts. 

However, the most dangerous part of the beast wasn’t it’s large body that granted it great strength, but it’s amber-colored serpent eyes which has the ability of [Minor Petrification].

The serpent hissed, it’s nest has been infiltrated by food-grade lifeforms. It didn;t like the presence of Shion and her group of friends.

“As expected, there’s two of them. I’ll take the female one while the rest of you kill the male one.” Shion leaped after giving an order.

The Giant Kararan Serpent is the type of beast whose females are more dangerous than the male one. This was a trait almost all dark-path beasts shared. That being said, the female one is larger than the male one.

It has around 3 meter body circumference and 60 meter body length. It’s horns are longer and it’s gaze of petrification is also stronger than the male one. 

However, Shion isn’t worried.

“I’ll bait the female one. If you guys couldn’t kill the male one after I’m done, then I’m going to take the kill.” Shion said confidently towards the vanguard team behind her.

The vanguard team frowned, but acknowledged her arrogant claim. Unlike her, they are not ‘captain-level’ characters. Only the best of the group are chosen to be a captain and she had proven her worth a few battles ago. 

The female serpent hisses before opening it’s large maw to swallow Shion. It bit her with the force equivalent to the attack of a late-stage rank 0 martial artist, but the heavy assault ceramite shield is not for decoration. 

Boom! Boom! Boom! The serpent’s head hit the cave wall consecutively while Shion was caught within the clutch of its jaws. Then, it trashed about uncontrollably, the two eventually moved somewhere away from the male Serpent as they left a trail of dust behind them.

“Damn, she really did it. Alright boys, let's kill it.” Kenji spearheaded the attack on the male serpent. He has a great amount of experience in fighting against large-bodied beasts, and he uses his knowledge immediately. 

He has already dropped the burden of the mobile furnace safely in the corner of the room. Kenji can move swiftly without being hindered. 

Before he reached the serpent, Klauss threw a flashbang at the serpent’s face. Kenji blocked his eyes as the explosion of light and endured the sound explosion as it disoriented the beast. Since an opening has been made, the vanguard team (minus Shion) quickly attacked the serpent to the best of their abilities. 

Entangling Roots from Thousand Flower’s support members limited the serpent’s movement while hails of bullets from Klauss’s gun continuously bounced off of it’s hard scale. The two mages from Frozen Heart also tried their best to attack with their ice spears and temperature-lowering spells, but most bounced off or completely negated by the serpent’s defenses. 

Of course, their attack isn’t useless as they slowly accumulate damage towards the serpent’s hard scale. The ‘durability’ of the scale will eventually melt away under the relentless attacks, and the one who gave the team the chance to continuously deal damage was no other than Kenji. He brawled the serpent’s head without any equipment on his body other than the ten rings, leather overcoat, and his pants. 

Kenji had been swept away to the cave walls multiple times with a flick of the serpent’s tail, but always got back on his feet as if the blood that he bled wasn't his. 

“Careful, it’s going to use [Minor Petrification]!” Kenji warned the vanguard team. Although they worked together for the first time, they are not unfamiliar with their own roles. Immediately, everyone hides behind a cover, be it natural or artificial (Root Shields erected by the support members of Thousand Flowers).

The serpent’s eye activated Minor Petrification, it swept the cave room like a flashlight but anything showered with this light would undergo a process of petrification.

Although it has the form of ‘light’, this attack is dark-path in nature. One must be proficient in handling dark-path methods to effectively dispel the petrification, but this ‘gaze of petrification’ has a severe weakness.

The ‘petrification light’ has to hit the target to work. 

To defend against this attack is extremely easy. One just needs to raise a paper shield to block the light. The penetration of the petrification light is bad, Root Shields are sufficient to block it. It petrified the shields, but that’s about it. It cannot petrify the person behind the cover. The serpent couldn’t constantly use it’s gaze of petrification, so there’s actually a cooldown grace where the vanguard team could whittle down the beast’s ‘health’.

Since they are prepared countermeasures for the serpent’s methods, hunting this late-stage rank 0 beast is actually pretty easy. 

Unlike typical beasts, Giant Kararan Serpents are considered as [Large Beasts]: they have great vitality and regenerative power. [Large Beast] is a beast categorization that separates typical beast and more dangerous one.

The biggest difference between [Small], [Medium] or [Large] Beast categorization are, of course, their body size. A late-stage rank 0 medium beast typically possessed the bioenergy level of multiple small beasts of the same level, so on and so forth. Thus, it could be inferred that a large beast is multiple times stronger than a medium-sized beast.

For comparison, a Charging Mass Boar is a medium-sized beast, while Kobolds could be considered a tiny-sized beast (a classification lower than Small). Even if they have the same cultivation base, their physiology is simply different. 

But eventually, the beast is killed after an hour of constant attack by the vanguard team. They were exhausted, but they couldn’t take a rest until the captain slayed the other Serpent. 

“Vice-captain, are you sure Herr-captain is capable of defeating the female serpent?” Klauss asked worriedly at Kenji. It took them over an hour of constant battle to kill one.  

Kenji, who's being healed by Thousand Flower girls, opened his eyes. “Haven’t you noticed that the cave is not that big. What I’m trying to say is, in the first two minutes of our battle, I can still hear the distant rumble of her fight. Then suddenly, absolute silence as the only source of sound is our skirmish with that thing.” Kenji pointed at the serpent’s large corpse. 

The Frozen Heart girls and a male of Radiant Desolation are trying to harvest precious materials from it. They also find precious plants that thrive by feeding off the serpent’s feces which are worth a lot, but they pale in comparison to the unharmed 6 serpent eggs in the nest. 

“You’re… right.” Klauss turned silent. He believed in Kenji’s assessment because the previous battle is basically Kenji brawling against the Serpent with the Vanguard team being an accessory. This wasn’t due to the vanguard team being useless, but simply because Kenji is simply too strong as he could be on the same level with Frozen Heart girls who are supposed to be at the peak-stage of rank 0. He is, after all, a ‘captain-level’ character himself. His battle strength has been proven. 

Yet, Kenji is merely Shion’s assistant. This one fact is a crucial proof of Shion’s own battle strength.

“Don’t worry too much about her. She’s probably harvesting the beast’s corpse at this moment, it would be an insult to her if we tried looking for her. She likes to play around with materials, so it’s best if leave her for now. The serpent’s eggs are worth a lot in the market. We can divide 4 and give the remaining two to the Captain. I’m sure she’ll be pleased.” Kenji smiled. Not long after, he ordered the vanguard team to reach for the surface to camp. 

The fight against the serpent drained a lot of energy and combat resources which should be replenished as soon as possible, but it’s almost dark now. It’s better for the vanguard to prepare for the night.

…

At the same time Kenji dealt the last hit on the male serpent, in the depths of the cave. 

A flash of faint golden light silently flashed as it materialized a large beast corpse, a headless body of a petite female, and a gold-white robed female battlepriestess holding a head. 

The large beast corpse has been dismembered, almost every piece of it’s scale has been battered, bruised, punctured, sliced, or corroded by time. However, the cause of death of the beast isn't those, but it's severed head.

The petite female next to her suffered the same fate. Although there’s a heavily damaged oversized lance on her right hand and shield on her left, it couldn’t stop her head from being decapitated. Liquid silver is slowly gushing out of her severed neck, but because of the dark environment, nobody could tell its color or texture. 

As for the white-gold robed woman, her clothing is in tatters. The original shiny decoration lines on her apparel is actually a [Mage Armor] in rune array-form. She had almost lost her right arm and left eye, and her nose and ears are still bleeding.

However, she has an accomplished smile on her face. 

Her left hand held the head of a young girl whose hair color is metallic blue on the roots, and purple on the edges. The girl’s expression is locked in perpetual shock as she’s now dead.

The white-gold robed woman swallowed the air greedily as if she hadn't breathed for a long time. “Finally, Yukikaze Shion is dead.”