28 The Might of the Raider

Godermo stood in silence on top of the complex array of runes. He gave them a brief look, before moving his gaze back towards the dangerous creature that he just attacked.

"There is no other way" thought the commander. His will was firm and his expression stone cold. It had attacked his people, if he just ran away he wouldn't be worthy of being their leader. "More importantly" thought the Fire Earth warrior eyeing the little black snake before him, "If I manage to put my hand on that cultivation technique of this creature... then becoming an Elder won't be just a far dream! "

On the other side of the battleground, the serpent was seething with rage: one moment he was happily consuming energy and the other a disgusting human dared to attack him! Plus it injured him!

His eyes were losing their silver and red light now that he had to abandon the rune that allowed him to operate the Heavenly Battleground Technique. His body was full of energy, but his Natural Heart didn't fully solidify. He was still a long way from forming a solid rank one cultivation base.

A low guttural sound started to echo in his throat, while the two violet flames burning on the reptile skull looked with hate at the human that stopped his cultivation.

Rage, unbridled rage moved him, almost making him abandon any of his common careful behavior and attack with fury the man before him. However, that changed when he saw the man do a very simple action.

The human moved the blade on his hand towards the ground, breaking the array of runes that was drawn in the dark ground with the raiders' blood in a single a large slash.

Darkscale's eyes narrowed. "Does he know?" he said in disbelief to himself. Only someone who knew about the tree pillars would do something like that. A common mortal wouldn't give even a second glance at the large formation that the snake painstakingly created.

"Of course he does now! How could he be able to hurt you if he wasn't also practicing cultivation?" a calm and gentle voice sounded right in the reptile mind, echoing with a hint of sarcasm that the serpent couldn't help but notice.

The realization made Darkscale stagger a couple of feets backs. It was true! He didn't think much about it because he still wasn't accustomed to being invulnerable, at least in a fight against a normal creature. He looked at his open wound, confirming that it was indeed there even if it wasn't that deep or large. He still managed to wound a body that had been tempered by his Pretoria's Breath for weeks!

"I need to be more careful in future..." thought the serpent. If it wasn't for Carelia he probably wouldn't even consider that point and simply attack him like he did with the other two humans.

"Carelia! Are you saying that he is like Yun Sutao? or is he stronger?" he asked inside his mind.

"Yes, probably he also is a disgusting Immortal Cult... " started saying the artificial intelligence, only to cut herself halfway and then immediately add "a cultivator wannabe! As for his strength? Who knows..."

"No, that's not what I meant..." said the snake, a strange light shining deep in his eyes. "What d.id you mean Master?" asked him the matrix.

"Does he also have a cultivator technique that I can take?"

His sentence was met with a brief silence. Then a delighted MAID suddenly responded with a very unusual but content voice: "... now you are thinking more like a Devil Cultivator, master Darkscale!"

Then she continued "I don't know, there are no particular undulations that come from his body... but you won't know for sure if you don't capture him!" she continued after calming herself.

"Capturing? I'll need to draw another rune then..." considered the snake, looking around immersed in his thoughts. The first thing that he needed? Something to draw his runes with!

"Oh, I almost forgot! I have something to draw with!"

In the meantime, the Fire Eart warrior was also thinking about the gains that getting his hands on Darkscale would bring him.

"If I can get that technique, the Fire Earth Tribe wouldn't be my only ambition... I could return to Mother's Clan!"

Greed appeared in his eyes as he evaluated the reverberation of energy that came from the creature before him. They were incredibly stronger than those of a normal beast, but not enough to be considered a real Devil.

Godermo wasn't like the other members of his Fire Earth Tribe. Even in the other tribes in the whole Extreme Wilderness Region there were few people like him: born from an exiled person from a cultivator clan!

His mother was from a local small cultivator clan and was exiled after she refused to marry a man that she didn't love. As punishment, she was crippled and expelled from the clan. In the end, she managed to build a family in the Fire Eart Tribe, marrying his father and having him.

She thought him plenty of things about the word that was outside of the borders of the tribe, even giving him a breathing technique that helped him to temper his body! However, she couldn't pass him her clan's techniques as it would only bring him a great disaster. The clan would hunt him down and kill him with no piety.

Even if he couldn't get access to cultivation techniques, Godermo trained with the simple breathing method since he was a young child slowly building up incredible Tempering and Gathering Skills. Sadly, without any cultivation manual, he was going to remain forever incapable of forming any kind of cultivation base.

"This is my chance!" the thought, his flesh tense as a bowstring.

"Despicable vermin! Die!" he screamed, flashing towards the serpent. The blade in his hands shined in the spots that weren't stained by the blood of the Forest Will people, moving dangerously towards the body of the unmoving snake.

The reptile moved only when the blade was going to hit his flesh, darting toward the man's side trying to bite his neck as he did with his first human kill. However, he wasn't against a harmless common warrior this time: he was fighting against an expert commander that had also some kind of training as cultivator!

Godermo managed to intercept the snake, using the side of his blade to block his advancement and then, using a considerable amount of energy, to push him back.

Taking advantage of the opportunity given to him by the failed attack of the reptile, the man in red armor moved forward, proceeding to continue his assault and causing the snake to only be able to defend itself over and over.

The fury and viciousness of the attack were seemingly unlimited, Godermo didn't stop to take a breath or to give some rest to his arms. He continuously struck, forcing his adversary to continuously dodge.

However, the latter didn't seem to care: Darkscale continued simply avoiding the attacks of the human, with a creepy smiling expression plastered on his little head. It was almost as he was mocking the Fire Erat Village's commander.

"Mph, trying to make me lose my temper?" laughed Godermo, almost not believing that someone would use such stupid tactics against a Fire Eart raider chieftain. His tribe was known for these tactics, why would someone try to use them against him and expect them to work?

"Stupid thing!" he exclaimed loudly, suddenly spinning on himself to deliver a kick to the serpent's head. "Not gonna work!".

Finally, the strange attack with his feet managed to hit the target. Darkscale, who was trying to avoid the man's double-bladed ax, mostly followed the motion of his arms and put less effort into tracking the movement of his other limbs.

This caused the strange spinning attack of Godermo to be effective, sending the snake crashing towards a ruined wooden wagon. A sinister flash passing through in eyes, the Fire Eart commander followed the attack with a slash launched with all his strength.

"Die for me!" he screamed loudly, his raging voice echoing around the whole battlefield. He truly believed that this would at least wound in a terrifying way his enemy, if not completely kill him in the spot.

Which was true: the strike managed to hit the serpent, while he was trying to flee towards a pile of rubble. A horrifying wound ran long almost all the reptile lower body.

It was deep, it was bloody.

"ROAR" another terrifying roar emerged from the mouth of the snake. Yet this time it was more full of terrible pain than unbridled rage.

Roaring, Darkscale darted again towards the same pile of rubble, disappearing between the destroyed crates of supplies and pieces of a wagon. Behind, it left a large blood trail.

"Mother! I did it! I will soon go back to the clan and obtain vengeance!" exclaimed Godermo, this time crying his thoughts out loud. The commander wore a satisfied smile on his face: this was the most gratified he felt in years!

He moved, following the dying snake to the pile of rubble that he fled to. He wasn't worried that the creature could run away, not with a devious injury like that.

"Come out to die with honor! Don't let me drag you out myself!"