Chapter 249: Unleash the Mudcloaks
As the dust settled and the world stopped shaking, Ashlock found himself facing sideways and at the bottom of a crater.
"Ugh," he groaned, and he shared Willow's pain. Cracks leaking soul fire were running down Willow's trunk from the impact, and despite the spatial shield Ashlock had summoned at the last second, preventing the Bastion from being smashed into smithereens, the damage was still extensive.
The bow of the Bastion had split off. Willow's roots that had run throughout the Bastion under the stone were exposed, and spatial soul fire was leaking into the air. Worst of all, no matter how hard Ashlock tried, the Bastion refused to fly. They were stuck in this crater.
A shadow loomed overhead as the Titan Tortoise slowly raised its leg, blocking the sun. Rubble rained down like earthy hail, causing ripples on the spatial shield, and the whole world shuddered as the Titan Tortoise shifted its monstrous weight. Having seen the power of this attack previously, Ashlock was positive that the Bastion's flickering and fading shield would not stand a chance.
"So this is the power of this realm's apex predator," Ashlock cursed as he opened his {Dimensional Overlap} with the plan to try and realm warp away.
The system listed this realm as having a Qi level at the 8th stage of the Soul Fire Realm, so Ashlock had assumed everything would be far below him as he was in the Star Core Realm.
But if the 'Qi Level' was not the maximum strength of the monsters but rather the average, then monsters could be on par with him or even stronger. If this Titan Tortoise was at the apex, it was no wonder it could shrug off the Bastion's artillery as it was likely in the Star Core Realm. Not to mention, its earth affinity would give it formidable defenses.
Ashlock didn't know precisely how long it would take the tortoise to power up the attack that would certainly crush the weakened Bastion, so he quickly scanned down the list of free realms to teleport to and picked the weakest one.
[Illusion Qi Realm:
Description: Land of Dreams
Qi Level: Soul Fire 7th Stage
Environment: Neutral
Monsters: None
Current Occupants: 1]
Ashlock mentally pressed the [Free] button in the menu to escape certain death.
[Dimensional Overlap Initiated]
A pulse of power spread through the Bastion but then fizzled out as spatial Qi leaked into the air.
[Dimensional Overlap Failed]
[Bastion Core has sustained too much damage]
[Repair Bastion Core for 300 SC?]
Ashlock didn't hesitate. "Yes, repair it now!"
300 credits vanished from his balance, dropping him to just below 800. It was a less-than-ideal amount, but it was worth the cost compared to losing a Bastion in which he had invested 1000 credits. Not to mention his offspring and soul fragment dying.
[Repair in process...]
The cracks throughout the Bastion and running down Willow's trunk began to heal. The ship's bow that had fragmented off began to float and rejoin. Which was great, but he had hoped the process would be instant.
"Well shit," Ashlock muttered as he stared up at the Bastion's impending demise. Was there really nothing he could do? The Titan Tortoise had shrugged off multiple barrages of spatial bombs from the Bastion, so his newly learned Spatial Blades technique would be equally ineffective. Luckily, the monster moved so slowly when powering up this stomp attack that he might have time to mount a counterattack.
"If spatial attacks are ineffective against this behemoth due to its high defense, then I must rely on the affinity best suited to piercing anything." Ashlock ordered the only Ent he had brought, "Khaos, kill this monster. Aim for its eyes or brain so you don't consume yourself trying to pierce its armor."
Khaos accepted his order and effortlessly strode across the damaged Bastion that was heavily tilted to the side while brandishing its void-coated claws. The Wendigo Ent glanced up at the tortoise and vanished as it used Void Step to reappear on the Titan Tortoise's raised leg. Ashlock almost lost sight of Khaos as it looked like a fly in comparison.
It then quickly scaled the leg, digging its claws and feet into the tortoise's hardened skin. If the tortoise noticed Khaos's existence, it showed no sign of it as the leg continued to rise and gather power all the same.
Meanwhile, Ashlock did not wait for his offspring's death. He activated {Consuming Abyss}, and a twisting column of void tendrils rose around Willow into the sky toward the leg and began to fan out. He poured as many SC as he could into {Consuming Abyss} to force the void tendrils to grow upwards as quickly as possible.
"Come on, please," Ashlock begged as the spiraling void rose ever higher. The pressure of the gathered earth Qi overhead was as if a literal planet was about to be dropped on his head. All he could hope was that Khaos managed to down the colossal creature before he found out how the Kobold's city felt being crushed.
The world suddenly darkened even further, as if a large cloud had covered the sky. Except it was much worse. Clouds were only a minor inconvenience that sometimes came with the promise of rain. Ashlock wished the darkness had been caused by some stray clouds. Instead, he found himself staring into the eyes of the Titian Tortoise as it swung its titanic head to gaze upon him as if it were a godly being passing judgment.
"You got something on your lip, you bastard." Ashlock sneered as he saw a black dot that was Khaos running up the monster's face. It would take moments for his void Ent to reach the titan's eye, but he could tell it was too late.
The muscles in the tortoise's leg bulged as the gathered earth Qi exploded downward. Ashlock felt the air around him compress against the spatial shield as rubble flew into the air, and everything was bathed in soul flames. The worst part is Ashlock knew that was the opening attack... what came next was the full force of the tortoise's leg.
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Ashlock looked up, and sure enough, something was blurring toward him. The foot impacted the void tendrils, and to Ashlock's surprise, they rapidly depleted, barely slowing the foot down.
A sonic boom was followed by the word going completely dark. Ashlock felt the ground below the Bastion cave under immense pressure, and then he felt himself falling alongside the collapsed floor. He fell for a while until the Bastion finally came to a crashing stop.
"The Bastion isn't destroyed?" Ashlock glanced around in a confused daze, and in the flickering light of the spatial shield, he realized he was inside a dome of flesh. Blood flowed down the shield's sides, and he saw earth Qi flowing through visible muscle tissue overhead. It was a gruesome sight, but all it did was fill Ashlock with hunger.
"The void tendrils must have carved out a hole in the bottom of the foot which saved us from getting crushed," Ashlock concluded as the ground stopped trembling. "I suppose one way to escape would be to eat my way out... what do you think, Willow?"
His offspring answered with a wave of hunger that matched his own. "Like father, like son, eh?"
Black vines coated in thorns alongside void tendrils sprung from Willow and anchored into the exposed flesh all around them.
[+4 SC]
[+2 SC]
Only a minute into his feast, Ashlock was rudely interrupted when he felt a strain on his black vines as the foot slowly rose again. Deciding to double down, he sent even more black vines out. Many snapped under the weight, but he replaced them with two more. Eventually, there was enough anchoring him to the inside of the tortoise's foot to support the weight of the Bastion.
Leaving the crater behind, Ashlock was flooded with light as he was raised above the land, hanging from the bottom of the Titan Tortoise's foot.
"Oh, hello again," Ashlock chuckled as the tortoise's face was extremely close, squinting at the painful thing hanging from its foot.
It also gave Ashlock the perfect view of Khaos, standing on the tortoise's eyelid.
"If you think this was painful, you are about to be in a world of pain."
The tortoise tilted its head as if it could hear him. It tried to shake its foot slowly, but Ashlock's vines held firm. "Goodbye, for now, you brute," Ashlock muttered as Khaos plunged its claws into the tortoise's eye and vanished inside.
There was a moment of confusion in the tortoise's eyes, followed by an earth-shaking howl as the pain set in. Its black pupil rapidly became an ocean of red as it roared. The monster shook its head as if trying to make the intruder fall out while earthy soul flames soared a hundred meters into the sky as the behemoth panicked, but its resistance was futile.
After a few minutes of struggling, Ashlock saw the monster take its final breath as it collapsed onto its injured foot, and he found himself staring down the throat of the beast that could swallow the Bastion whole. Its eyes were glazed over, and it had ceased breathing. It was dead.
Khaos emerged from the red sea eye, and the blood coating its body came off in a steam.
"Good job, Khaos," Ashlock praised the Ent for its ruthless efficiency and was glad he had brought it along. In fact, its performance made him even more excited to turn this tortoise into an Ent as well, though he would wait for the Bastion to finish its repairs first and for Douglas to catch up.
***
Douglas stood under the now dense spatial shield of the Bastion with a Mudcloak in his arms. The little guy was awestruck with wide blue, glowing eyes as they looked at the dead monster that had likely terrorized its kind for generations.
"I'm starting to feel like my role in this war is pointless if you turn that monster into an Ent." Douglas laughed as Ashlock floated the Bastion so its bow was in the ajar monster's mouth.
"It's too big to head deep underground," Ashlock replied. He could expend a lot of Qi to decrease its size, but he didn't feel it was worth it. The tortoise's size was one of its main advantages. This tortoise was a bunk buster and moving fortress, and it already fulfilled that role without any modifications.
"I suppose that is true," Douglas shuddered as Khaos walked past him with some blood still dripping from its claws. "It's just your Ents are far more fearsome than cultivators of the same level. Do they even feel fear?"
"They carry some intellect from their past lives," Ashlock said as the Bastion floated into the monster's mouth. "But I agree with you. They will follow my orders, even if it means their demise. Though I try to treat them like any other of my sect members. You are all important in my eyes."
Since the Bastion was as close to the monster's stomach as he felt was possible, Ashlock activated his SS grade skill {Necroflora Sovereign}. A black root emerged below Willow and floated forward. It kept going like an endless snake into the abyss of the monster's throat. Ashlock kept his mind clear to avoid influencing the Ent's creation, as that would cost him dearly in Qi. So long as he didn't wish for any modifications, the {Necroflora Sovereign} skill would only use the Qi available in the corpse to create the Ent.
A while later, Ashlock was notified that the seed had formed and was deposited in the monster's body. "Brace yourself," Ashlock told Douglas, and the man coated himself and the Mudcloak in soul flames.
Douglas glanced up as a wave of death Qi surged from the monster's throat and rushed over the spatial shields, causing them to flicker. Thankfully, they held until the end, and now the real process could begin.
Ashlock retreated the Bastion from the monster's mouth as its red flesh that matched the rocky landscape transitioned into interwoven wood. It began to balloon in size as its body became more hollow. The mountain-looking shell on its back turned into a forest of red bark trees ending in golden brown leaves. The transformation process took a few minutes due to its ridiculous size, but once it was done, Ashlock found himself impressed.
"What should we name it?" Ashlock asked.
Douglas smiled, "In honor of his sacrifice, I believe the name Geb should be passed on."
"Are you not worried that will curse this Ent to meet a similar fate as its predecessor?"
"Geb died protecting everyone. Right? Without his sacrifice, there would have been more casualties. That is the job of earth cultivators. To take the front line and shield others from harm." Douglas petted the Mudcloack in his arms, who seemed to have gone limb from shock, "So if Geb here meets a similar fate, then it did its job."
"I suppose that is true," Ashlock pulled on his connection with his newest Ent, "Henceforth, you will be known as Geb, and you will take orders from myself and Douglas here."
The titanic turtle of woven redwood roared to the sky in response, making the Bastion's shields quiver.
"Now go!" Ashlock commanded, "Find the Kobolds hiding underground and crush their cities."
Geb acknowledged his order and began to turn. Very slowly. So slowly, in fact, he wondered if there was a time cultivator nearby who had reduced the world to 0.5x speed.
"I forgot how slow this thing was," Ashlock sighed. He could try and force it to use that charge attack it had used to surprise him, but that would likely use up a tremendous amount of Qi. The monster seemed to move slowly to conserve Qi as it was constantly cycling earth Qi to stop itself from being crushed by gravity due to its ridiculous size.
Geb began to charge up an attack, and Ashlock was able to watch how the Qi moved through its body. "So it's in the 5th stage of the Star Core Realm, which explains how it managed to shrug off the Bastion's bombardments and even throw the Bastion out of the sky."
Ashlock observed for a little longer and found out why it took so long for Geb to charge up an attack. Due to its size, it took time for Qi to travel around its body. That was why it had to spend so long gathering Qi at its foot before stomping down.
"While we wait for Geb to break into the next Kobold stronghold, should we start the invasion of the already damaged one?" Douglas suggested, "Although time flows faster here, I am worried the Mudcloaks back on Red Vine Peak might be losing their fighting spirit after waiting so long."
"Good point, let's begin right away." Ashlock flew the Bastion closer to the giant crater lined with smashed-up Kobold corpses and could see a clear path into the depths below. The air ripped apart as multiple portals linked to Red Vine Peak manifested.
Douglas jumped down from the bow of the ship alongside Khaos.
"Mudcloaks, the time for war has arrived!" Douglas proclaimed to the portals as he spread his arms. Hundreds of Mudcloaks came pouring through the portals, chanting, "Kill, Kill, Kill!"
They were also waving around knives that looked comically big in their tiny hands as they charged forward. Even to the dead, they showed no mercy as they stabbed Kobold corpses they passed.
Ashlock watched the crazy scene with one question in his mind. "Who the hell gave them knives?"
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