Unintended Cultivator

Falling Leaf was closing on them fast, which meant that Sen had a limited amount of time to decide what he wanted to do. Of course, those limits weren’t quite as limiting as they had once been. Much as advancements in the formation foundation stage had refined his brain and improved the speed and clarity of his thinking, the transition into the core formation stage had done the same and benefited from a similar advancement in his body cultivation. That meant that decisions that would have once seemed absolutely rushed and been made on instinct more than reason were now things that he could approach with almost clinical detachment. He let his spiritual sense wash over the spirit beast and estimated that it was probably the approximate equal of an early or middle-core formation cultivator. That put it at least one solid step above him on the power scale.

Of course, raw power wasn’t everything, and the beast was coming at them in a very convenient straight line. Maybe it thought that brute strength would get the job done. Maybe it just wasn’t that smart. Either way, Sen meant to take advantage of that fact. He cycled for a variation of earth qi, metal qi, and what had become his go-to for most combat situations, lightning. Then, he drove that qi down, deep inside the world, searching for what he wanted and what he needed. He started walking toward Falling Leaf and the bear-cat spirit beast. It was the calm, measured walk of a man about to deal with an unpleasant task, but not shirking from it. As fleeing Falling Leaf saw him, she got a mildly concerned look, but he just bobbed his head to the left a little, indicating which way she should go. Once the bear-cat spotted him, it lost all interest in Falling Leaf and adjusted its course toward Sen. It was big enough that Sen guessed it probably weighed close to seven hundred pounds. Not that it would matter much with what he was planning.

Sen closed his fist and started hauling the combination technique up from the earth. It felt like it took the technique a long time to build up momentum, although he understood that it was really only a second or so. It just seemed like a long time because there was a bloodthirsty spirit animal bearing down on him with a jaw full of rending, tearing death at its disposal. Yes, thought Sen, it really does think that brute force will get the job done. Oh well. When the beast got within ten feet of him, it did what so many beasts seemed to do when they closed in on a kill. It leapt at him.

“Mistake,” said Sen, and let his fist launch up into the air like he was trying to deliver an uppercut to the sky.

A vaguely fist-shaped mass of stone and metal that had lightning coursing through the metal shot up from the ground. It took the bear-cat in its unprotected belly. The spirit beast that had been flying through the air with claws extended folded over that stone and metal fist like a limp doll. Sen heard as much as saw the lightning seek a home in the flesh and blood of the spirit beast. Then, the giant fist stopped moving. Of course, momentum had the spirit beast by then. It was thrown a good fifteen feet in the air. Sen took that opportunity to take a handful of steps forward to position himself for his next attack. There wasn’t going to be anything fancy with the second attack. As the smoking form of the bear-cat fell out of the air and came level with Sen, he simply hit it with every ounce of strength he could wring out of his body cultivation-enhanced muscles and bones. He even used a bit of core qi to enhance and reinforce his entire system. There was a noise like dry twigs being stepped on by something heavy, and then the bear-cat’s direction was altered again as the full force of Sen’s blow was transferred into its body. It flew back in the direction it had come from for nearly five feet before it dropped to the ground and commenced a tumbling roll that Sen thought would be really painful for anything with bones.

While Sen didn’t actually want the spirit beast dead, he wasn’t willing to give anything a full step more powerful than he was time to muster their resources. Letting his earth qi fall away, he seized the metal that had been in the fist and sent it flying toward the spirit beast. Some of it wrapped around the spirit beast’s throat. Sen made that metal grow spikes that drove threateningly inward. Even something that wasn’t very bright could get that message. If you make me mad again, I’ll just kill you now. The rest of the metal formed a web of strands that locked the beast’s legs into place. Given some time and effort, Sen expected the bear-cat could break free from all of that, so he gave it something else to worry about and hit it with another bolt of lightning. All of that metal touching the beast’s body made sure that the lightning went everywhere, rather than just driving into one spot. The desperate noise the spirit beast made at that point left Sen relatively sure that he had the thing’s attention. Sen walked over to where the bear-cat could see him. It thrashed weakly a few times but got exactly nowhere.

“Can you talk?” Sen asked.

The spirit beast didn’t say anything, but Sen was pretty confident he caught the spark of comprehension in its eyes. That was all he really needed.

“I’m going to assume that you understand me well enough to pass on a message. I’m tired of this. I’m tired of having to fight one of you every time I walk into the wilds or even into a forest. I’m tired of you targeting the people I know. So, it will end. Yeah, I’m sure you’re thinking all about the revenge you’re going to take and how your kind will hunt me down. So, this is the message,” said Sen cycling up several kinds of qi, “I’ve done my best to steer clear of you for the last year. You have not extended me the same courtesy. So, it’s war now. Starting today, if I see one of you, you die. If I hear about one of you, I will hunt you. I will burn down your forests. I will flood your dens. I will bury you beneath mountains of stone and darkness until there is nothing left of your kind but stories and bad dreams.”

As he spoke to the immobilized bear-cat, he summoned rings of fire, stone, water, and the deepest shadow. He let them spin in circles above his head like halos of destruction and wrath. The bear-cat stared up at those halos like it was seeing the annihilation of its entire race given tangible form. Its fear was so palpable that Sen could actually smell the change in the spirit beast. Certain, for once, that he had gotten his message across loud and clear, he released the metal restraints and pointed out at the forest.

“Go, before I decide to start with you.”

The spirit beast stumbled to its feet and hobbled off into the forest as fast as its injured body would allow. When it passed beyond the range of Sen’s spiritual sense. He finally released the halos above him. He took several deep breaths, trying to calm the anger, no, the rage that was festering inside of him. When Sen turned back to the others, he was met with three very different expressions. Shi Ping looked like any loud noise would turn his bowels to water. Falling Leaf looked surprised and sad. Lo Meifeng had put on the rigidly neutral mask she wore when she didn’t want anyone to know exactly what she was feeling. She was the one who finally broke the silence.

“That conversation we had about you finding a way to temper your anger. Finding a way should move right up to the very, very top of your to-do list.”

“Oh, come on,” said Sen. “It wasn’t that scary.”

“The hells it wasn’t,” Shi Ping almost screamed. “You didn’t see yourself. With the fire, lightning, summoning a giant, and issuing genocidal threats. Oh, and casually punching that thing out of the air hard enough that I felt it inside my chest. Just what do you imagine scary looks like!”

Sen hadn’t really intended to send that particular message to Shi Ping, but maybe it was ultimately for the best. Sen sincerely doubted that the man was going to complain to him about anything short of an imminent threat of death any time in the near future. However unintentional it had been, Sen wasn’t too good to reap secondary benefits. In his recent frame of mind, he really was worried he might murder Shi Ping just to shut the guy up. With his enhanced senses, he could hear Shi Ping muttering under his breath.

“I thought that stunt back in the valley was a one-time thing, but no. Apparently, that was just another day of the week for this guy.”

Realizing that Shi Ping was probably going to continue in that vein for as long as they stood around, Sen decided to put a stop to it immediately.

“There’s still plenty of daylight left. Let’s keep moving,” he said.

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