Chapter 111: Survival (II)
The wave bought Seraphina a moment’s respite. She immediately pivoted, ignoring her injured leg, and launched herself at the nearest masked cultivator with everything she had left.
Her flaming sword came down in a overhead strike that carried her full weight and power. The assassin was forced to redirect its attack to defend, the ice technique meant for Kai instead blocking Seraphina’s assault.
The other two assassins released their techniques. Darkness and poison converged on Kai from opposite sides, the attacks timed perfectly to be impossible to dodge.
Kai channeled earth essence into the ground beneath his feet and dropped, the stone floor becoming liquid for just an instant. He sank down as the attacks passed overhead, missing him by inches.
The poison and darkness collided where he’d been standing, creating an explosion that cracked the chamber floor and sent debris flying in all directions.
Kai emerged from the liquified stone and immediately counterattacked. His sword moved in a wide arc, fire essence trailing behind the blade like a comet’s tail. The attack forced both assassins to retreat, creating space.
But the third assassin used the distraction. Its hand shot out toward Seraphina’s exposed back, ice essence forming into razor-sharp spikes.
"Seraphina!" Lin screamed.
The ice spikes launched. They would pierce Seraphina’s spine, paralyze her and kill her.
Kai’s sword was too far away. He couldn’t reach in time.
’Damn, William would probably kill me’
But he didn’t need to.
Kai channeled shadow essence through the ground, creating a tendril of living darkness that erupted from the stone directly beneath the assassin. The shadow wrapped around its arm and yanked downward, disrupting the ice spike trajectory.
The spikes shattered against the chamber floor instead of Seraphina’s back.
She spun, seeing the assassin off-balance, and drove her flaming sword through its throat. The mask couldn’t scream with a blade through its windpipe. It gurgled once and collapsed.
Two down.
But the cost was mounting. Kai’s essence reserves were nearly depleted from using six elements plus shadow manipulation. His vision swam slightly and his hands trembled.
The remaining two masked cultivators backed away, clearly reassessing. They’d lost half their force in less than two minutes to students they’d considered easy prey.
Derek’s expression had shifted from manic triumph to dawning horror. "No. No, this isn’t how it’s supposed to go! You’re supposed to die! All of you!"
He channeled more fire into his wall blocking the exit, making it burn hotter and higher. "If you won’t die to them, then you’ll burn! Everyone burns!"
Roland had regained consciousness, though he could barely move. Sarah was trying to treat his shoulder wound while keeping one stone golem at bay.
Ben was down completely, the essence disruption spreading through his body. Mira had abandoned her barrier to try healing him, leaving the support section exposed.
Two shadow wolves broke through and charged the undefended support mages. Emma created a desperate wind barrier but it wouldn’t hold.
The wolves were three seconds from reaching the support section. Sarah couldn’t help because she was pinned by the golem. Seraphina couldn’t help as she was too injured to move quickly. Kai was too far away and nearly out of essence.
The wolves’ jaws opened wide, ready to tear into defenseless students.
Lin stepped forward alone.
Her hands moved in a pattern Kai had never seen her use. Water essence didn’t just gather it exploded around her in quantities that shouldn’t be possible from someone her cultivation level.
The water formed into a massive serpent, easily thirty feet long, its form solid enough to have scales and teeth. Lin’s face was pale with effort, blood trickling from her nose from the strain of channeling this much power.
The water serpent slammed into both shadow wolves simultaneously, its massive coils wrapping around their bodies. The wolves struggled, shadow-flesh tearing at the water construct, but Lin maintained it through sheer willpower.
"I’m not... letting anyone else... die!" she gasped, her entire body shaking from the essence drain caused by her technique.
The serpent constricted, crushing both wolves with hydraulic pressure. Their physical bodies broke with wet snapping sounds, cores destroyed, and they dissolved into dispersing essence.
Lin’s serpent collapsed into ordinary water that splashed across the stone. She wavered, barely staying upright.
The two remaining masked cultivators exchanged glances through their broken masks. Whatever they’d been told about this being an easy mission was clearly wrong.
One of them pulled something from its robes, it looked like a crystal that pulsed with sickly green light.
Kai’s essence sense detected what it was and horror flooded through him.
"EVERYONE DOWN!" he screamed.
The assassin crushed the crystal.
The explosion filled the entire chamber with poisonous essence that turned the air itself toxic. Students who had been fighting desperately suddenly found themselves unable to breathe without inhaling death.
Mira threw up the strongest barrier she could manage, protecting the support section. Seraphina created a dome of fire around herself and nearby students, burning the poison before it could reach them.
But others weren’t fast enough.
Thomas collapsed, clawing at his throat. Another student—Michael—fell to his knees with green foam pouring from his mouth.
Henrik tried to stand up and help but his injuries made movement impossible. He could only watch as the poison spread.
Kai channeled the last of his wind essence, creating a vortex around himself and Lin that pushed the poison away. But he could see students dying throughout the chamber.
And through the green haze, Derek’s laughter echoed.
"YES! This is perfect! Die! All of you DIE!"
The masked cultivators were retreating now, their mission accomplished. They had broken the expedition, killed multiple students, and left the survivors poisoned and dying.
One of them paused at the stairwell and gestured. The stone golems, no longer receiving controlling essence, simply stopped moving and collapsed into inanimate rock.
Then the assassins were gone, disappearing into level two’s darkness.
Derek stood alone now, his fire wall still blocking the exit, watching the chaos he had created with manic satisfaction.
"This is what you all deserve," he said again, quieter now. "Every single one of you."
Kai’s vision tunneled. His essence was depleted. His body was shaking from overexertion. Students were dying around him.
And Derek just stood there laughing.
Something cold settled in Kai’s chest. Something that had been building across seventeen loops of watching people die because he couldn’t save them.
He still had one technique left. One ability he’d never used in front of anyone because it would reveal too much.
But watching students die while Derek laughed?
Kai made his choice.
He reached deep inside himself, to the core of essence he’d been accumulating across seventeen subjective years. Power that shouldn’t exist in a second-year student’s body.
His eyes began to glow with a prismatic light as he prepared to show everyone exactly what seventeen loops of his life meant.
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