I tried something new this time around and while I like how it turned out, as a writer its sometimes hard to judge your own work so I'm going to ask, are the perspective shifts too jarring or not understood well enough?
Also, the blanks in this chapter are from this
omake if you want to cheak them out.
One step after another, Toka inched closer to his target.
The bridge connecting the two trees in the small town of Green Nest, saw little traffic this time of day, so nothing hindered Toa sight of the target.
He walked forward with confidence, readying the sharp needle in his sleeve.
He moved past several uninvolved Keku and made a deliberate effort for his body to not tense as he redid to strike.
He never saw the dagger that hit his back.
"This is our target" Toka informed his team, pointing to a picture of an older Keku, "the hunters have confirmed that he is a demonic cultivator. Divination support reveled he is a third step"
There were gasps at that revelation, his unit -or any other hunter unit for that matter- has never faced a third step in anything but friendly exercises and they lost most of those.
"Will we receive support?" Bek asked, short and to the point as always.
"We'll have a second step with us, and several first steps as a few thousands Keku at arms on standby" His answer displeased them, which was a given considering what they were up against.
"Look" he began "the hunters are stretched thin planning and executing hundreds of simultaneous operations to catch as many of the demonic cultivators and their supporters as possible before they flee and vanish, cultivator support is even thinner and priority is given to the places where a concentration of enemy assets are found, hell I heard even the Emperor himself is helping out".
"Our target is a third step, true" Toka said "but he is the only demonic cultivator in the town and all signs we have indicate he is completely unaware were on to him".
Silance reigned within the conference room as Toka speech ended before Jota -dependable as always- broke it.
"Well then, what is our plan to get out of this mess alive?"
Kos cursed as she saw Toka go down, the plan was simple on the face of it. they had accesses to a special alchemical poison; a single drop and the threat of their enemy would drop several magnitudes allowing the snipers to take him out safely.
The target shouldn't have known they were here, shouldn't have known that he was being targeted moreover he was supposed to be alone. And as Kos watched Toka being stabbed by what they thought to be a regular civilian she knew all three facts were completely wrong.
He instincts kicked in and in but a moment she put out at least two dozen shots at the cultivator -the laser warming the air and lighting up the early morning sky- before reorienting and dropping the Keku who was trying to stab Toka once more.
Despite her -and the rest of the snipers- quick action, the cultivator came out unscathed beyond a few small burns.
"This is Flight two" Kos started calmly into her personal communication devise "we're compromised. Send in the back up" all the while her hear hammered in her chest as she tried and failed to nail the bastard with her sniper rifle.
She hoped Toka was alive but she had a job to do, she can worry about him when the demonic cultivator was dead and buried.
Unfortunately, the situation has worsened in the few moments since the call for reinforcements was sounded.
"Third regiment" Joku yelled "prepare for deployment'.
At his words the Keku under his commend hurried to stand and raise their weapons, when they achieved something resembling readiness -in under eight seconds too- he nodded to the cultivator in charge and mere moments later the many runes covering the walls began to glow.
And then they flashed and Joku became wind.
A moment later he rapidly flapped his wings to regain stability as he and a thousand other Keku at arms appeared in the sky above Green Nest. From the sky the situation looked grim, fire raged in the town and he could see pockets of hunters hunkering down while repelling constant assaults of what seemed to be civilians.
He had little time to observe further as he had to swerve out of the way of his second in command attempting to gauge out his back.
And he wasn't the only one, his regiment. Comrades that knew one another for years, were tearing each other apart, dropping form the sky as weapons flashed and spot their deadly payload into the backs of friends.
He grimaced, the hunters bellow would have to hold out by themselves, he had to report this to commend and somehow survive the fierce melee that even now claimed the lives of his subordinates.
Flames lapped at his feathers as he rolled around bending the wind to divert them away. His dantian just a little bit more.
Okuitu is already dead, the flames burning his body to a crisp, same as Ituko. Yuto might be alive but she is certainly out of this fight.
And as Ausoku is forced to dodged another fire ball he is forced to admit that he might join them soon enough. Once again Ausoku cursed the one who decided to only send a single second step on this mission -him- but he also knew why he was the only one sent.
All the others were busy dealing with the rest of the demonic cultivators found and with the target alone and unaware they should have won with no trouble and on the off chance that something has gone wrong they had reinforcements waiting in the wings.
Except, Ausoku thought bitterly, they
haven't and now their reinforcements were slaughtering each other in the sky. Showing the same madness that the people of Green Nest succumbed to.
This time He had to deflect the -practically large- fire ball coming toward him. His dantian now emptier then full.
He couldn't keep this up, his opponent -shoddy as his foundation was- stood in the third step, Ausoku would run out of Qi far earlier then him. So, he had to change this form a battle of Qi into one physical force.
When the next fire ball raced toward Ausoku he didn't doge or deflect but dived toward it, Qi infusing his wings and a silent prayer on his beak. He dived through the fire protected by the last of his Qi.
For all the power his opponent possessed they lacked experience and so Ausoku utilized their own flames as cover to close in. he came rushing out his claws aiming for the demon throat.
Unfortunately, his opponent was fast enough to react and Ausoku only scored a grazing hit. But that didn't matter, he was close now they were all but locked into psychical combat.
In the span of a three seconds, they exchanged a dozen blows without a sign of stopping, blood fell from the sky as Ausoku received a deep cut in his lower legs. Yet his enemy fared worse in the brawl.
Third step he might be btu the physical difference between the second and third step were not so vast that they could not be breached by experience.
It was then that he felt it, the low but constant buzzing in his head roaring anew attempting to batter down his will, force him to madness, slowed his movement and sapped his strength.
He realized then that victory has been snatched from him, that his enemy possessed some insight he could not resist.
But if he fell here today, he would make sure his opponent falls with him.
Ausoku became reckless, taking attacks that he could dodge just for the chance at inflicting pain to his enemy, he did not try for killing blows. He knew he wouldn't manage it. so, he focused on a single body part.
The wing.
Attack after attack, strike after strike it was all he aimed for and as more and more wounds accumulated on his body, he became ever more frantic.
Until at long last he fell from the sky, his body no longer able to keep him afloat.
He hit the ground before he could see if his enemy fell with him.
Toka was in terrible pain -most people would after getting stabbed- but he still inched forward, crawling a little closer to the fallen from of the demon.
Toka didn't know if Ausoku was dead -he sure hoped not, the guy was extremely nice- but if he was at least, he sold his life dearly.
During the entire battle of Green Nest Toka was mostly ignored, part of it owing to his nature as a blank and another to the fact that the demon likely thought him dead.
This allowed him to clearly see when both Ausoku and the demonic cultivator fell from the sky but where Ausoku laid unmoving the demonic cultivator even now struggled to stand.
And Toka was slowly crawling unseen toward his position, His movements were slow, one part thanks to his wound, another to try to stay below notice.
It felt like an eternity but couldn't have been more then a minute. The demonic cultivator still attempted to steady himself when Toka fell upon him stabbing as fast as he could.
Normally he would have died by now, trying to overpower a cultivator never goes well but he was severely injured and the few wound Toka managed to inflict with his surprise meant the poison was well and truly within the cultivator system slowing him down.
Toka surroundings deadened as his focus sharpened on the cultivator and he continued stabbing without any disregard to anything else.
He doesn't know when the cultivator died but at some point, the scream around him turns from of those of rage and battle to the screams of sorrow and tears of the aftermath.
Not that he stopped stabbing until he got pulled off the body.
The morning after the greatest blow aginst the demonic you set in your office and red the various reports of the operation.
Specifically, you read the reports of the battle in Green Nest and the disaster that unfolded there.
Three first steps dead and more than a thousand mortals fallen, several order of magnitude more causalities than the rest of the operation combined.
All done by a single third step.
Most of the casualties belonged to the army, the fierce fighting in the sky absolutely deadly and leaved little for the healer rushed there to work with.
The civilians -thanks for small blessings- had a lower lethality rate, mostly owing to the fact that the agents on the ground shot to disable and that the fighting took place on the ground and still more then two hundred have died.
Once more, you wished you've assigned more forces -cultivator forces- to Green nest but it seemed so right back then, a single third step alone and unaware should have fallen easier.
Yet he hadn't and others paid the price.
Overall, the operation has found and slain over four hundred first step, fourteen second steps and a total of seven third steps.
Aside from in the Battle of green nest, only a single first step and fifty or so mortals died in this purge.
The hunters are sure that you missed some stragglers -and your inclined to agree with them- although they cannot estimate how many, at least divination points to you purging all demonic third steps.
Speaking of third steps, the one you've confronted has been easy to dispatch, easy enough you managed to attempt an idea you've had for quite some time by now.
Before he died, you've reached into his soul and pulled out one of his pillars, you'll spend some time attempting to turn it into some worthwhile artifact -or at least gain a better understanding of pillars by studying one out side of the soul- but which of his pillar did you pull out?
[] Blood- the pillar of blood, embodying the vital fluid of life likely utilized in spilling it. there might be a few offensive options with it -especially as it was likely utilized for such- but you think you can influence it toward a healing artifact.
[] Hate- the pillar of Hate, embodying the dark emotion within all living things you're not entirely sure what the demonic cultivator utilized this pillar for, nor do you have any real hints as to the way an artifact forged form it would turn out but hate is a powerful emotion and the artifact will likely follow in its way.
[] Suffering- The pillar of suffering, the pain and tribulations of life, suffering is something al living things feel and your more then certain you can make a decent weapon out of this pillar.
AN: Well, that happened, you pretty much rolled over most of the demonic faction (they'll be back, they are cockroaches like that) but one of the battles didn't go your way, in total 4 first steps died in this "war" and a few more were injured and a lot of mortals died (-1 base EEP).
But you also got a few things for this, mostly you managed to snag a pillar to turn into an artifact and a few dantians (three to be exact) little more than that because your loot rolls were shit.
I don't think we need a moratorium for this vote so feel free to vote.
