Born in Blood

544  Resonance

As Liam's hand wrapped around the imp's wrist, he immediately summoned a petal's worth of essence from the flower – making direct contact with the imp's thick skin. The imp's face fell, and the others were too apprehensive of Liam to approach and save him.

He was on his own. To save himself, he let go of the spear, but he couldn't move a muscle.

Yet…

When Liam's dark-red flame made contact with the imp's skin… nothing happened at all. No wound or damage, not even a scratch.

Liam scowled. Just as the imp was about to lurch backwards and escape, Liam summoned his odachi and sent it flying through the imp's throat. SHING!

It pierced through, killing the imp instantly. Letting the simp live was too kind. Too many of them.

A second later, he unsummoned the odachi, returning it to his ring.

The imps momentarily paused, unsure of what to do next against such a difficult enemy. Meanwhile, Liam assessed the Spider Lily once more. A petal had wilted completely… and, from the looks of it, it wasn't going to regenerate. Liam zoned out for a second.

'What am I doing wrong?' He definitely was looking at this the wrong way. A few talks with fellow Zeniths was never going to teach him all he needed to know. He had to figure this out himself, like always.

Though, he quickly remembered that he was in the middle of a fight, and getting distracted was potentially dangerous.

Liam took out a large pile of 'Ora' Stones, Shellings and any other treasures he'd kept in his ring – putting it to his side in a huge clump.

The imps' eyes shone with greed.

Liam addressed them:

"If you kill me, you can have all this, and a lot more. Just give me some time to test a few things out, eh? Won't take long. I'll give you time to bury your little friend there, or get some more back up if you wish. Just don't interrupt my thoughts." Silence.

The imps were genuinely confused… but, for Seakind, accessing space rings without mental energy was basically impossible. The only way to extract their contents without breaking them, was if the ring wearer willingly handed them over.

The imp leader was convinced. He nodded, stabbed his spear into the ground, then sat down, while the rest followed his example. Liam gave a curt nod, then punched the ground below him as hard as he could.

BOOM!

A deep cavern within the sea bed formed instantly, and Liam threw himself in for privacy.

Then, he focused on his Path, taking out a petal's worth and scrutinizing it deeply.

He scanned it with the King's Eye. Like normal, he saw the three Qualities imbued within the essence – Death, Blood, Chaos. It had to be said, that the only reason Liam could clearly point out these Qualities, was because they were his own. He couldn't see these in another cultivator's aura, at all. Then, Liam used Spirit Sight, and his eyes widened.

Instantly, he realized what he was doing wrong. Elements, as a whole, shared several common features. One of them was the requirement of an origin. Liam's Chaos, Corruption and White Matter, came from the Pearl. His Blood came from his body.

His Shadow… from his shadow.

His darkness came from his core, and vice versa.

Other than this, they also had core functions. Chaos went boom.

White Matter formed puppets.

Corruption wore down.

Darkness corroded. And his Blood and Shadows were capable of many things.

But strangely, the essence shared characteristics with 'Ora'! 'Ora' had no fixed origin. It was a free flowing resource that cultivators took and refined. It had no fixed purpose, either. 'Ora' could be used to refine things, to inscribe, to formulate, and countless other things. In short, it was a source. And so was the Spider Lily in Liam's Path!

This brought Liam to the realization that all Paths were essentially a self-made source of power, separate from 'Ora'. Well… he knew that already, but he never understood to what extent it was.

'Now I realize why you can't call a Zenith a human anymore.' Liam grinned broadly.

Now, he figured out how to use his Path. Till now, his attempts to use his Path powers were like tying a knot with one hand. It was basically impossible… unless, of course, one had particularly nifty fingers.

But now? All he had to do was pretend the essence was 'Ora', then refine it into an attack.

Immediately, Liam began to practice on the Sumo puppet, and hours passed. ***

The sea imps were strangely patient creatures. More than 18 hours passed, and they still hadn't broken their agreement with Liam.

Now and again, they would hear a strange noise, or a distant rumble emerging from Liam's cave, but they refrained from peeking out of curiosity.

And finally, Liam emerged from the cave. There were no traces of tiredness on his face, and he looked fresher than ever.

Six – formerly seven – pairs of imp eyes fell on him.

They had been cultivating, using the spare time to replenish their lost strength. 'They're quite honorable.'

It's a shame they had to die. In total, Liam had more or less figured out that the Spider Lily could transform into three different attacks, corresponding with the three different Qualities. Liam figured out how to use only one of them – Chaos. Nonetheless, he was beyond satisfied with his findings.

'I can't figure out everything inside a cave, practicing against an inanimate puppet.' '...Maybe I'll figure something out now?' He smiled broadly.

Stretching his hands and cracking his knuckles, Liam let out a deep breath, then said with a serious voice: "We can start."

The imps rose to their feet, grabbing their spears with them. There was a tense moment of silence between the two parties as neither one attacked – the underwater currents tightened with pressure.

A storm was brewing.

WHISH!

Once more, the imps were too fast for the naked eye. Even faster than the first time.

Liam remained still, yet waited eagerly for the first imp to attack. This time, he didn't need to let himself be wounded for no reason. The first simp to approach was going to be the first to die. WHISH! WHOSH! WHISH! After several swaps between each other, there was not one sea imp that closed the distance for a quick attack.

There were four at the same time.

Liam didn't expect a strat change, but that was fine with him. He could change his strats, too.

An extra pair of arms burst out of Liam's back, compensating for the two imps attacking from behind. Liam imbued his four fists with a petal's worth of essence as the imps closed in with their spears. His fists appeared to vibrate uncontrollably. Just as the speartips were about to skewer Liam from four angles, he launched his fists forward, seemingly hitting nothing.

…And yet, each of the imps were attacked from four different directions. Liam called this attack, "Resonance." Final exams are still not over btw, so I might not upload for a while. I made this chapter extra long for that, though.

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