The Primeval Era-Chapter 118: Ambush III

The results of the terrifying ambush were devastating.

On top of the vessel, a massive crater had formed where Damian and Serala had unleashed their assault. The stone and metal deck had been gouged outward in a ring of destruction, edges glowing with residual heat. Blue flames still flickered across the crater’s surface, burning with extreme intensity like lava freshly poured from a volcanic heart.

And above the vessel, something magnificent hung in the air.

Blazing white-blue wings dozens of meters wide spread across the sky, each feather defined with radiant light that made the afternoon sun seem dim. Serala’s Physique had manifested in its full glory, the Wings of the Radiant Dawn expanded to a scale that spoke of Vessel Completion power rather than mere Organ Sanctification capability.

But those wings weren’t just for display.

As the flames cleared, one could see illusory versions of those same wings clamped like chains on the bodies of Organ Sanctification Warriors scattered across the deck. White-blue constructs of Mana wrapped around their torsos and limbs, binding them in place, preventing them from rising or fighting back.

Not that many of them could have fought back regardless

The warriors lay bleeding and shocked across the ruined deck.

One had lost his left arm at the shoulder, the stump cauterized by the same flames that had severed it. His bones gleamed white where they protruded from charred flesh, Mana still pulsing through them even as his body struggled to survive the trauma. Blood pooled beneath him, thick and dark, spreading toward the edge of the crater.

Another had lost both legs below the knee. She was trying to crawl toward a weapon that lay just out of reach, her Fifth Circle cultivation keeping her conscious despite injuries that would have killed lesser beings instantly. Her muscles were visible where flesh had been stripped away, red and glistening, still twitching with the effort of movement.

A third had taken Serala’s spear through his chest. He wasn’t moving at all.

Their armor had been no protection. Their cultivation had been insufficient. Eight Organ Sanctification Warriors who had expected to witness a capture had instead become victims of an ambush they never saw coming!

And in the center of the explosion, Damian and Serala stood side by side.

Damian stood in front of a shocked Imperator Vienna.

She was no longer the cold, composed commander who had ordered Primal Surges across the Lands of Stone. She was no longer the confident Vessel Completion cultivator who had shot down Behemoths with arrows of molten stone.

She was a woman who had just lost most of her left side.

Her entire left leg was gone, severed at the hip by Damian’s spear in that initial explosion of violence. The wound was horrific, exposing bone and muscle and organs that should never see daylight. Stellar blue blood spilled from her like a geyser, Mana-saturated fluid pumping from a body too powerful to simply die from such injuries but too damaged to function normally.

Her left hand was missing three fingers, the remaining two clutching uselessly at air.

Crimson Mana bubbled around her like steam rising from heated stone, her cultivation responding automatically to injuries that threatened her existence. The power kept her alive. The power kept her conscious. But the power couldn’t restore what had been taken in that single devastating moment, not that quickly anyways.

She roared.

"OOOH!"

Not words. Just sound. Pure fury given voice, erupting from a throat that had forgotten how to form coherent speech.

From behind her remaining shoulder, she grabbed for her bow with her right hand.

The weapon of molten stone pulsed with eagerness, ready to unleash devastation upon those who had dared to harm its wielder. Her fingers found the grip. Her arm began to pull the string despite the agony screaming through her body.

And then the skies turned obsidian!

Masamuk appeared above.

The Slime of Chaos had been circling around from another direction, waiting for the moment when the ambush began to join the assault. And now he descended upon the vessel with fury that transcended anything Damian had witnessed from the Beast Lord before.

His size had changed.

The obsidian slime that usually floated near Damian’s shoulder had expanded to proportions that defied comprehension. Masamuk was now as large as the vessel itself, his body blocking out the sun and casting the entire deck into shadow. Stellar blue points blazed within that darkness like dying stars, and those crimson eyes burned with cold satisfaction.

Countless tentacles erupted from his form.

They shot downward toward the vessel like black lightning, each one dripping with obsidian liquid that sizzled and smoked where it touched anything solid. The substance was acidic. Corrosive. Something that belonged to nightmares rather than reality. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

The tentacles found the remaining Organ Sanctification Warriors first.

Those who were still conscious screamed as the appendages wrapped around them. Their skin sizzled and began to melt where the obsidian liquid touched it, flesh dissolving like wax before a flame. The agony was immediate and absolute, breaking even the mental discipline of Fifth Circle Warriors.

More tentacles shot toward Imperator Vienna.

They wrapped around her bow before she could draw the string, obsidian liquid corroding the weapon’s surface even as she tried to aim it. The molten stone resisted, its heat fighting against the acid, but there were too many tentacles. They pried the weapon from her grip and flung it across the deck.

Other tentacles began wrapping around her body.

They constrained her remaining arm. They wrapped around her torso. They bound her standing leg, preventing her from fleeing or fighting back. Everywhere they touched, her skin sizzled and her flesh burned, new wounds opening across a body already devastated by the initial assault.

The aura of something even grander than a Beast Lord was terrifying.

Masamuk had been holding back, Damian realized. All those conversations, all that casual floating near his shoulder, all that seemingly gentle demeanor, it had been a mask. The Slime of Chaos was a being of tremendous and horrifying power, capable of destruction that rivaled anything the Imperator could have unleashed.

Alongside the tentacles, black lightning crashed down from the obsidian sky.

Bolts of dark energy struck the Organ Sanctification Warriors one after another, each impact accompanied by a thunderclap that shook the vessel. The lightning didn’t kill them. It knocked them unconscious, overwhelming their cultivation with force that simply shut down their bodies.

One by one, the warriors fell still.

One by one, their struggles ceased.

Paired with the radiant wings of Serala binding their bodies, all the warriors on the vessel became incapacitated or knocked out in seconds. The assault had been so overwhelming, so precisely coordinated, that resistance had been essentially impossible.

And the only one left standing...

Her body billowing with lava-like crimson Mana, dozens of obsidian tentacles now wrapping around her as they sizzled and burned her skin and flesh...

Was Imperator Vienna!