Another Breakthrough

In spite of the fact that Momo had felt her Mercy Essence at the edge of Intermediate for a while now, she'd been holding back on making an attempt to get it to the next level until the other forms could finish making the same breakthrough. The last to give way had been her Death form, which happened the day before Cifer arrived at the camp. She was hoping to make a breakthrough sometime in the next couple days, maybe even a week at worst, and didn't expect changing to the Limit Break method would make it so much faster.

She made the breakthrough in just three hours. Momo was stunned by the efficiency of the method, which had only taken her a dozen of her Striped Blue Pearls in addition to the Essence she already had within her body to heal the Dove a little more. Now it didn't seem even wounded to her anymore, instead looking like it bore scars that could be closed up with some more work. Momo was pleased by the surprise, and was looking forward to seeing just how fast this method could take her through to Advanced Broken Origination in all five of her Cultivations.

She stretched and looked around the camp, feeling invigorated. Her vision was sharp enough to ignore the difference between day and night at reasonable ranges, and during daylight Momo could see details for thousands of feet. Cifer was still in the midst of his own Cultivation, which didn't surprise Momo at all. Until she realized that he was in the midst of breaking through to Beginner Broken Origination.

Momo watched, expecting the first attempt to fail. It normally took her at least 2 failures and often 6 or 7 failures before she would succeed. In all honesty, she thought it was already extraordinarily impressive that he'd reached this point again with only another few hours of Cultivation. While it was only the third Stage, the step between Early and Beginner were known to be a larger stage. Not unlike the gap from Advanced to Transformation was, though Momo had yet to reach that point herself.

She could, however, say that the jump from Beginner to Intermediate wasn't as comparatively difficult and gave a smaller increase. Although that was ignoring the cumulative effect on both difficulty and increase to focus on the relative amount.

Cifer seemed determined to leave her speechless though, as she watched a blackened mess leave his body into the White Lily in front of him with that fiercely spinning whirlpool of his Essence. That ended up connecting two of the petals of the White Lily to each other as she felt his Essence suddenly drain and calm, the furious vortex transforming into a calm pond in an instant. Yet the depth felt greater and his body seemed sturdier and less unpleasant to the eye, if only slightly.

He opened his eyes with a delighted smile. "You broke through as well, didn't you Momo? Isn't this great! We're both slowly rising, and we will keep rising until nobody can suppress us anymore. Someday... someday we will be the ones to make the rules, and when that day comes we can finally put an end to the injustices that are so common in this world."

Cifer sounded so excited that it was infectious. Momo found herself laughing along with him, amazed by the boy that she thought of as a brother. He was swiftly growing into a fine man, and was gaining a confidence that stood tall behind what had once been nothing more than defiance and bluster. A sudden image of Oji's arrogance smirk rose to her mind, but she shook it away. Tonight was her and Cifer's victory!

Neither of them were considering where they were or how late it had become as they laughed together. Momo chasing Cifer as he jokingly took her share of the food. She found that using her weakest form, Tyranny, she wasn't able to keep up with his speed anymore despite having a Stage advantage in Cultivation. Of course, when she decided to use Famine's form that stacked the Cultivation of Tyranny onto its own progress things became much easier. Too easy if she was honest.

Catching Cifer as they laughed, Momo retrieved her food before mercilessly tickling him and returning to the logs they'd used as seats for their meal. As she did she heard him shout, "Momo!" It almost sounded like when he'd ask for her help while they were back at the Clan, and she thought he was trying to trick her.

"Nice try, but I'm not falling for that Cifer." Momo answered as she took a seat, only turning around when she heard a huge crash.

Her food dropped from her hand as she saw why Cifer had called for her. There was a massive bear that roared when it saw her, releasing Essence into the bellow. They had managed to attract an Origination Beast that thought they seemed like easy prey.

Momo went for her mace as she tried to recall everything she knew about Origination Beasts in general. From what she could remember, Beasts rarely knew actual Techniques like humans could use, and had terrible Comprehensions for their stage, yet were often as strong or stronger than a human Cultivator of the same level.

Three reasons made this the case. The size, instinctive and Bloodlines advantages. Which were easy enough to handle if the Beast's Bloodline was thin or hadn't been awakened enough, or if it wasn't outrageously huge. But if the Beast had a strong Bloodline it often required a Cultivator who was two or even three Stages above it to overpower the Origination Beast alone.

This Bear stood 15 feet tall on its hind legs, letting out the aura of a Intermediate Bottom Origination and had yet to even activate any Bloodline at all! It was amazing that Cifer had dodged the first charge at all, resulting in the massive lumbering Bear crashing headlong into a two foot thick tree and knocking the whole thing over with the crash that first got Momo's attention.

Using the time that the Bear had wasted on roaring and standing on its hind legs, Momo got her weapon while Cifer got clear. Now armed, Momo shifted to her original body, praying to any deity that might be listening for her stacking Cultivations to be powerful enough to compete with the obviously angry Bear. Her own estimation was that it was probably close to a human's Advanced Bottom Origination, but she didn't have the Comprehensions and Techniques of one. Hopefully just the strength would be enough.

Letting out a savage warcry, Momo charged the Bear head on. It stayed upright, waiting for her and swung its massive paw dead into her own swing. The cracking sound was deafening as the opposing forces sent them both back. The Bear was shoved back a single step while Momo needed five to catch herself.

The Bear slouched down back on all fours, licking its chops with an evil grin. Momo felt a chill run through her as she realized she was outmatched by the Bear, and that the creature had made that move due to knowing it. With all its feet on the ground it wouldn't be able to put as much power in each strike, meaning it wouldn't shove Momo around so much and could more easily follow up it's attacks. It also gave it much greater stability, meaning the chances of shoving the Bear were right next to nil, again leaving it close enough to Momo to block her first attack and then follow up to leave nasty damage.

But that same move meant that the Bear's head was level with her own, and the significant decrease in the strength the Bear could put behind its blows gave Momo an opportunity. But to take advantage of it and actually leaved some damage, Momo wouldn't be able to manage with just a regular attack. She'd need a lot more.

Momo would need Skull Smasher.