Demon Wolf

Wolf wiped Eviltongue’s wavy blade before storing it. He had left twenty-five corpses in his wake, and as he awakened his senses, he confirmed no others approached, or at least their movements were covert enough to escape his hearing.

Not one of them lasted long enough for me to use an Elemental Initiate’s strike. Maybe I should open battles with Fire or Earth style attacks? Wolf rummaged through the twenty-three new holdingrings in his possession, finding various assets and provisions along with Earth Pavilion and Quickdraw Gate insignias.

He noted the mismatch in the number of callingjades and the insignia Brilliant Gate’s disciples had gathered. They aren’t just killing people from Earth Pavilion and Quickdraw Gate. I can safely assume these bandits kill anyone who crosses their path, overwhelming them with numbers.

For a moment, Wolf considered the difference between these brigands and the Soaring Dragon Peak’s disciples. At least those girls didn’t indiscriminately slaughter everyone they met.

That thought naturally birthed another.

I don’t regret leaving the little red alive. He assured himself yet again, reaffirming that his decision, while not righteous, was not entirely unjust.

Inspecting the newly gained holdingrings took a while and resulted in another problem. I have too many callingjades now. Without wasting time, it’s impossible to sort them by organization.

To avoid confusion, Wolf stowed the unidentified communication devices into a single ring. Then, using a brush and paint, he marked the rest with EP, QG, SDP and BG. Finally, he picked four random representative samples to carry. Combined with his own device, it reduced the unnecessary noise, as well as the plethora of signals which might alarm those tracking him.

Hopefully, they won’t be able to use these to track me. I should rotate them occasionally, just in case.

Wolf spent fifteen minutes organizing his gains, when the callingjade with a blot showing BG on its back sounded.

“Charlotte, what’s the situation?” asked the dispatcher, labeled as Ella Laurent in Charlotte’s callingjade.

“I’m the only one alive. Everyone else is dead.” Wolf adjusted his voice to match the tone he had heard from deceased Charlotte’s orders as she charged towards her doom.

“What about the mark?”

“I killed the enemy.” Wolf answered, using truth to deceive the other party.

“Good work,” Ella commended, her voice business-like. “You will return to the base to give your gains for safe keeping. The administrator will then assign you your new squad members, chosen among the lightly wounded. Now, turn rim-wards and memorize my instructions…”

***

Ella Laurent finished her instructions. She ended the call with a warm ‘bye’ and sighed. “Twenty-five casualties. He killed them all.”

He has to cross three hundred and fifty kilometers before reaching Senior Apprentice Sister Grundhoffer. That will take four days. Three if he’s fast, and if he’s lucky enough to avoid powerful Monster Beasts.

Our three thousand reserves should have reached the first stage of Blood Saturating by then, if not the second. They should handle him. Ella laughed at her preposterous notion. There’s three thousand of them. Even if they were all first stage Qi Gathering, they would drown an initial stage Blood Saturating combatant in blood and numbers.

She gazed towards the outside world, outside the safety of her cloaking, sound-insulating Spell Formation. She sighed again. While staying here means I will not play any part in the action, I am safe. Everyone’s so confident, and only us dispatchers know that we’ve already lost over five hundred of our own.

Three thousand are cultivating with Senior Apprentice Sister Grundhoffer, a thousand went to follow Young Miss on her mission, five hundred most trusted disciples act as dispatchers, sitting around, cloaked, cultivating any chance we get, and the rest are patrolling and fighting. Yet, despite our advantages, we’ve already lost ten percent of our fodder.

In a month, once the reserves reach the third stage, we will head deeper and sweep through those confident bitches who went exploring as soon as they entered Blood Saturating without consolidating the first stage.

Ella comforted herself, thinking how, despite their severe losses, the damage they had caused the other factions was fifty times their dead. If observed solely as a numbers’ game, Brilliant Gate, which only sacrificed random pawns, was winning by a wide margin, destroying all opposition.

After taking five minutes to stabilize her mind, Ella reported to all teams in her area the IDs of compromised devices. Then, she notified the surrounding dispatchers of the change in circumstances, and how she sent a hostile combatant into a death-trap.

Ella did not doubt the mark would head towards what she had painted as the Brilliant Gate’s unguarded treasure vault and infirmary. The step of sending hostiles into the hornets’ nest was the last resort. Ella had skipped a level of contingency procedures, but she believed that the expedience with which the mark had eliminated five squads warranted such action, and potentially saved the lives of a hundred people.

***

Yawning in boredom, meditating safely at the center of Brilliant Gate’s base in Corpsewood, Marie received the report of the troublesome person sent her way, the first one to survive the focused extermination. She considered the news for a second, then nodded.

“Tell Ella she had made the right call,” she replied. While she did not intend to, her kudos created work for nineteen dispatchers standing between her and Ella.

A moment after Marie ended the call, her callingjade chimed again.

“Senior Apprentice Sister Grundhoffer, we’ve located Jakob Silentear.” Marie grinned at those words.

“How much ‘till interception? How many teams did you send? We need him alive, preferably in good health.”

“Don’t worry, Senior Apprentice Sister Grundhoffer, Fleur organized ten groups to encircle him from all directions. He can’t escape even if he grows wings.”

“Very well. Keep me posted. Earth Pavilion’s disciples described him as a frail boy, just shy of fifteen years old.” Marie was about to end the call, when her finger froze. “Right, Tina.”

“Yes?”

“Good work, all of you.”

“Thank you, Senior Apprentice Sister Grundhoffer.”

Marie tapped Tina’s name, ending the call. She tucked the device into her pocket and rubbed her hands.

“Noemie, head towards sector two hundred and seventeen.” Marie called the guard minding her field-tent. “Take one hundred apprentice sisters and make sure to return the mark alive and as undamaged as possible. You can have the first turn once I’m done interrogating him.”

Marie heard the rustle as Noemie left to gather her squad. She smiled, thinking how she would enjoy interrogating another male disciple.

Why do those three forces allow male disciples? She wondered for gods know which time. They know men are useless. All they are doing is distracting their disciples with convenient temptations and forbidden fruit. If a male joined Brilliant Gate, we would tear him to pieces before the first night ended.

Still, Marie did not mind the convenient Qi morsels their enemies prepared for them. Brilliant Gate was an unorthodox sect three decades ago, before they destroyed Ascension Peak and took their place as Boreo’s guardians. Despite the sect master’s half-baked attempts at joining the righteous side, the elders and seniors taught their juniors about the practical aspects of unorthodoxy, which made it the superior path.

The quickest way to riches lay in robbing and plundering. The quickest way to advancing cultivation followed the same principle, robbing men of their Qi and internalizing it as their own. Thus, Brilliant Gate forbade men. They had joined the orthodox powers, and having male disciples disappear would damage their reputation.

Frail boy. Marie licked her lips. That frail boy has reached Blood Saturating by now. Should we keep him uninjured as bait for Wolf Hillman?

She considered the thought, then laughed as she shook her head. Keeping a virgin until the hero comes to save him is a bedtime fairytale. Sparing the hostage holds no value, unless you’re losing, and we’ve already killed over two thousand Earth Pavilion disciples. Even if the Soaring Dragon Peak and the Myriad Flowers’ Spring only killed a thousand each, that means Earth Pavilion’s fighting strength is halved, and most of those had advanced deeper into Corpsewood by now.

Even with the most pessimistic estimate, Marie believed Wolf could gather no more than three thousand disciples to save his footman.

And if it turns into a three thousand versus three thousand, we have already reached the first stage while you wandered around. You don’t stand a chance, my little morsel. I will keep you all to myself. I will take good care of you and ensure to squeeze every last drop of Qi and blood you have. Doing otherwise would be a waste.

Instead of gathering Qi and saturating her blood with it, Marie undid her robe and indulged in fantasies of the future about to come.