Was it Tsun Tzu who had said that no plan ever survives the battlefield. The pan had been for them to all advance together to reduce the chance of chaos and the chance of the Darklings to flank the aspirants and caused more casualty than was necessary. Now though Cole had pretty much turned it into a one man show as he jumped from darkling to darkling, telling with them within the confines of the forest, his claws the only weapon he relied upon to cause as much carnage amongst their ranks. Luckily, Cole had been able to give the order to have the formation rearranged, this way they would still cover their asses.
It was now in one of those rare moments during this fight where clarity finally settled on Cole that he realized he had decided a messaged from Farida. According to what she had sent, her own side of the fight was not facing as much trouble as what Cole and his group had been facing. And loathe as he was 5o admit it, Cole knew the reason why the fight was toughest on this side was because of him. He had hoped that perhaps the pressure would be even and both sides would advance at the same pace so that they would all arrive at the best together and lay down the fear of God on these darklings. However the pressure was a lot heavier on their side of the fight and Cole knew it was only a matter of time before they were overran by the darklings.
He was the one fighting in the forest as they regrouped so he knew, it was annoying because this amount of fixation was really beginning to creep Cole out. It was now akin to the kind of behavior you would expect from a stalker or paparazzi perhaps. Everyone else should have similar energy to his own, so what made him so much more delicious than the others, he was sure he was also not the only one who had the ability to heal back from damage, his own skill just seemed to be a lot stronger than most. But in the end it was still him that they were after, and that pretty much made him the key to this conflict, as long as he was able to think and plan it well, perhaps he would be able to deal with this pressure and make it easier on the other Aspirants to clear the forest.
[Shadow Dance]
He popped out of dual winged bird man's shadow, startling him as he let out a severely undignified shriek. Cole ignored him and turned to the person he was after, Raven Nightmoon himself. Cole stepped forwards and he stepped backwards, his eyes open in fear as if he had been fighting all this while and looking over his shoulders for Cole to come attack. Cole ignored it and still stepped forwards, his arm from his fingers all the way up to his elbow greasy and stained with the energy fluids that made up the body of the darklings, but beyond that the razor sharp claws that tipped those fingers were still dangerous enough to give any body pause.
"If you harm me then they die! The pirates won't kill them, he would only keep them hostage and let them go once you give into my demands you bastard, if you touch a single hair on my head or even so much as make me lose a single life, they're dead! You hear me, Cassandra and stupid whelp of a useless son Silas are fucking dead!" Cole blinked his eyes once then twice then paused as the realization of what was just said dawned on him. The. He turned around and saw that everyone else was just as shocked and were watching Raven Nightmoon as if he was some sort fossil in a museum, but above all else the look that he saw that probably annoyed him the most was that everyone was also looking at him in a manner akin to what one would give a dead man walking.
"I just wanted you to assume command while I draw the rest of the darklings to my side, that way the pressure would be eased up and you can attack their rear while there are focused on chasing me. However given what has just come to light I believe the matter of you taking command can be shelved permanently. And since we are currently in the middle of a battle I am currently unable to deal with you for this oh so massive blunder you just made, and I believe your family head will be hearing about it, especially considering the fact that we were already in talks on how to cut you in on a percentage of my Sierra Corp stock. In exchange I get to own the rights to Saturn that your family owns, now though, you leave me no choice but to inform the UN and the Galactic council. I'll see you after this is all over Raven Nightmoon."
Cole watched the expression of the bird man, and was pleased at the shocked looks on his face after Cole had explained the depth of the relationship he had now formed with the Nightmoon family in just under a day. It did one thing though, and that was to tell Cole that at least Raven Nightmoon had acted out on his own and this was not a move that was sanctioned by the entire family as that would have been quiet troublesome. Cole was not sure he would have the patience to deal with corporate espionage on a galactic level, which would mean he would have to lean even more on his grandparents and that did not sit well with him. He moved his gaze and luckily enough it fell on the fourth member of the council who till this point Cole still couldn't remember her name…(Come on Author! Lazy much?).
"Hey! Take charge of the aspirants and make sure that they are still approaching the nest based on the plans I had set out. I will draw them to me in order to reduce then pressure on all of you, that way you guys can be fresh for the fight that's to come. We might have to retreat when the entire forest has been cleared, but for now that is just up for debate, we will cross that bridge when we get there, but for now, keep pushing forward and cover for each other!" Cole order then turned to move before he paused, then swiftly turned around and slashed his claws across the face of Raven Nightmoon, ignoring the startled shrills and cries he released as he clutched his face.
[Spectral Rover]
The chaos in the air had been severely reduced allowing Cole a lot more clarity over his movements now, however something has been unlocked within his body and his mind, there was no way he could go back to the way that he was before, and ultimately he also knew that he needed more time to refine every single one of his ability. He appeared in front of Darkling that was somewhat like rhinoceros, but it had beetle like wings on its back,. It seemed it's body was a little too big for those beetle wings to lift it up as the creature was extremely clumsy with it's movements.
But clumsy or not it was prey and Cole came for it with a vengeance as His left hand slashed upwards wrapped heavily in negative energy. It caught the darkling under the jaw, gouging out a massive amount of flesh as Cole pulled out Black Malakai from his back and plunged the blade deep into the eyes of the darkling and using [Sin Eater] at the exact same time. He ignored it as it's body turned to dust and slashed his sword outwards, Negative Energy wrapped around it as he used [Black Cut] releasing a greyish black wave that swallowed everything in it's path.
By this point enough of the darklings had already noticed him as he rushed forwards, and just like he had suspected they followed him. There were wild hoots ,yowls, shrieks and roars as they all struggled and attempted to bring him down. But Cole was fast…. Faster than he thought himself possible as he ate up the distance in the forest like light cruiser moving through space.
As he ran Black Malakai slashed out, putting an end to different Darklings, all of it done with the attempt to keep the aggro on himself. And he was doing it quite well, however the closer anyone of them got to Cole, that meant the end for them as they all chased after him like a merry band of clowns. But they were clowns who were close to the destination as Cole noticed that the reason why all of a sudden there was so many was because he was a lot closer to the nest than he though, just hundred fifty meters away from the crater and the other team were close too, but they too had came up on a problem due to just how much of the darklings there was around. Cole growled, it was time to put and ended to the first phase of this raid, he opened the chat option for the faction and sent a voice message that everyone was sure to hear.
"Glade Solitude! Prepare for Phase 2"
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