Energy Stone

The snake hissed and then advanced at Nile with all its speed and strength left.

"Not so fast." Nile said raising a hand creating a tall ice wall which was a meter thick on the snake's path.

'BOOOOOOMMMMMM' the snake crashed right into the ice wall, even though the wall was still intact but several cracks appeared on it after the giant snake crashed into it.

It took the snake several seconds to recover from the crash, once it had recovered it screeched in anger and irritation. How could it accept being stopped by the creation of a mere human who was far weaker than it was? The snake furiously attacked the ice wall with its tail.

'BAAAAMMMMMM' by the impact of the attack the cracks spread throughout the wall, and in the next moment, it shattered into thousands of pieces.

"You act even more arrogant than Mucalinda, seven-headed snake god." Nile spoke with a smile. He was enjoying the fight as he could use his skill without bothering about the energy pool.

As the snake was about to advance it looked up and stood standstill, a huge 5-meter sharp icicle took shape from the shattered pieces of the wall and was floating just in front of the snake.

Nile then swiftly directed the icicle at the monster aiming for its head. The snake hastily moved its head to a side dodging the icicle by just a foot. Seeing the attack miss Nile clenched his fist, the icicle bursted outwards just as it was near the monsters' face.

'KUUUUUUAHHHHHHHHHHHH' the snake screamed in pain as shattered pieces of the icicle stabbed in its yellow eyes, blinding the monster. Blood dripped down the giant snake's eyes and it looked like it was crying blood.

All this time one of Nile's hand was touching the five meter big energy stone. If it was not for energy stone Nile would have had already emptied his energy pool.

Seeing the monster out of its wits due to the pain Nile lifted his hand high up in the air. Slowly an ice blade started manifesting in the air, within seconds the blade had increased in size and had reached a length of ten meters with sharp edges. Beads of sweat appeared on Nile's forehead and his whole body shivered, even though he had a huge amount of energy reserves just beside him but his body was not strong enough to sustain the excess amount of energy flowing through his body.

In the next moment, Nile started harnessing all the energy he could in his trembling hands. If one looked closely he could see the energy stone shrinking a few centimeters.

The snake sensed the fatal blade that had manifested above it, somehow enduring its pain the monster started moving towards the exit of the cavern.

Nile's gaze was fixed on the snake all the time, once he had harnessed enough energy Nile swiftly brought down his trembling hands utilizing all the energy in bringing down the massive ice blade.

'BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM' the loud voice echoed inside the cave. The blade moved so fast that it looked like it teleported from its initial position. After a whole minute when the dust had finally settled down, the severed body of the monster snake could be seen lying among the shattered pieces of ice.

After confirming the death of the monster Nile dragged his exhausted body towards Darren who was lying down on the ground.

"Good job, that was some show. You definitely made good use of your skill. " Darren said as soon as Nile reached him.

"Hmmmm" Nile replied while helping Darren to get up. They both then slowly walked to the energy stone and sat beside it, Darren refilling his energy pool while Nile just trying to recover from exhaustion. Within seconds Nile drifted off to sleep due to exhaustion, Darren stayed up consuming the energy stone while keeping a check of any nearby danger. The cave they were at was located in a bit denser part of the forest, and warrior-ranked monsters were abundant in the area.

"AHHHHHHH....." Nile suddenly sat up after just an hour of sleep as he felt a piercing pain in his stomach.

"Is everything fine," Darren who was just sitting beside him asked with worried expressions.

Once the pain had subsided Nile replied while brushing off the matter- " Just a little bit pain. Maybe I have used too much of energy today." Nile then spoke further - "We have to take care of the remaining search party too, we cannot let them escape and inform their sect."

"But even if we dispose of the remaining search team the other sect members would still come searching for the stone. So why ?" Darren spoke puzzled, he was not sure why Nile wanted to kill the remaining cultivators even if there was no benefit to it.

"Yes, but we have to delay them as much as we could-." Nile then shifted his gaze from Darren to the energy stone and spoke- "I believe we can consume energy and increase our cultivation from this stone at a rate that is five times higher than normal cultivation. So we have to make the most of this opportunity and try delaying the arrival of the rest of the members as much as we could."

"WHATTTTTT..... five times ? This means I could increase my cultivation level in just a few months " Darren's said while clapping his hands. 'What would happen if we could take it with us.' Darren thought excitingly as he grabbed the stone with both his hands, but at the same moment, Nile spoke as if he had seen through what Darren was thinking.

"Don't even think of pulling out the stone, you might destroy it."

Darren pulled back his hands as soon as he heard Nile, then they both sat next to the stone and started cultivating.

"Any news from the search party ?" Darvin asked one of his white masked messengers.

"No, sir" the messenger replied.

Thinking for a while Darvin commanded the human rank cultivator standing outside his tent- "Call all the members of the extraction team along with Gary and Tiara ."

Within five minutes Darvin's tent was filled with twenty-two cultivators beside him and the white-masked messengers.

"Milton step forward." Darvin spoke with his husky voice.

A masked cultivator step forward as soon as he heard Darvin.

"I want you to lead the extraction team into the WildWitch forest a month from now in case the search party does not return. One of my messengers will be staying just outside the forest so in case if any unforeseen situation arises you are to contact him immediately. "

Milton gently bowed and stepped back once Darvin had spoken.

"Gary and Tiara step forward."

When both of them stepped forward Darvin continued -"You both will be leaving for the Withlock town in a day so prepare well. Try completing your mission within eighteen months. Two of my messengers will be camping outside the town, so once you are done you will let me and the extraction team know. On your mission, you both will be giving monthly updates to my messengers. You both will receive your fake identification cards and necessary resources tomorrow before you leave for the town. Any question?"

"Where are you headed to, if I may ask ?" Gary asked, his head still bowed.

"I have some business to attend to so I will be leaving within a few days. If anyone of you doesn't have any further question regarding the mission you all may leave." Darvin spoke.

All the twenty-two cultivators left as soon as they heard Darvin.