580 580 Kurgath the Annoying
The mighty Kurgath, destroyer of continents, Heir to Immortality, Crusher of Souls, and Disciple of the Ascendant Divine One Kurgon was as good as his word, and he didn’t back down from a challenge, even when Cain stood up and summoned Dozens of Spirit Rank Seraphim Inquisitors.
The remainder of the battle stopped in shock, staring at the spectacle, but Kurgath seemed convinced that they were all fakes, or that at best one was real and the rest were illusions, designed to distract him from the healer in front of him.
[Just Purge him with Holy Light or something, he is incredibly annoying.] Cain directed his summons, and the body of Kurgath lit up with bright white light.
Taking that spell directly to the face, with no protection was usually a death sentence for a Transfer of the same level back at home, so Cain knew that Kurgath was hurting and that [Might of Many] was stacked up with damage now.
As the Cultivator was hoping, Cain charged with a sword in his hand, which the Immortal contemptuously batted aside. But Cain’s spear appeared in his hand at the last second and stabbed the man in the leg, nearly severing it with the enhancement from [Might of Many].
Kurgath and Master Moon were both seriously injured by their battle, and the last few strikes weren’t easy for him to withstand, but his pride would never let him submit to this incredibly rude man called Cain in front of him.
The pain and humiliation proved too much for him though, and he began chasing Cain mindlessly around the area, roaring in frustration every time Cain slipped into the shadows and disappeared.
Cain wasn’t fast enough to actually catch him with another strike though, and it just turned into a game of cat and mouse, until the cooldown timer was finished and the Seraphim hit Kurgath with another Holy Light spell.
“Young Master!” A surviving attacker called, racing for the fallen and scorched Cultivator before Cain could react.
They vanished in a flash of black light the moment that the follower made contact with Kurgath, and Cain sighed.
[Oath Breaker, leave without being noticed and see if you can finish them.] Cain ordered.
If he was lucky, the leader would still be out cold from the Holy Light spell, and easy pickings, but Cain wasn’t keeping his hopes up as one after another the survivors grabbed the fallen attackers and disappeared.
“You really know how to make a man want to stab you to death, you know that, right?” Master Moon asked.
“Like the guy back in the Valley that tried to call you a Tyrant and almost got murdered by the door guard before you could stop him.” Luna agreed.
“Rage blinds the mind. A man and a beast are on different levels because of intelligence, eliminate the intelligence and you can slaughter them like beasts.” Cain informed him, trying to sound wise.
“Not bad advice, but they are still going to come after you at some point. Not soon though, now that I am healed. I owe you for that by the way. Was that truly Seraphim Magic you used?” Moon asked.
“Yes. It works especially well against evil humans, so I thought it would be more appropriate than anything else.” Cain replied, dismissing the Seraphim Inquisitors before anyone could realize that they weren’t a trick or an illusion.
“Well, you’ve met the Glorious Sons of Prophecy now, so you’ve officially been welcomed to the city. They’re idiots, but they are dangerous idiots, who think they have a divine calling to rule the valley.” The Sect Master informed Cain.
“Just the Valley, not the world?” Cain asked, confused.
“Just the valley, and the three towns in it. Nobody really knows why, since they’re not even from here, but they routinely attack the cities and then flee south out of the valley toward the ocean.” The old Immortal sighed.
“The more things change, the more they stay the same. There were raiders like that near the Kingdom of Skyview where I lived for quite a long time. They would raid routinely and annoy the locals, steal some women if they could, and then run away again.
But they didn’t have any grand goals or aspirations, they just wanted to raid and get women, since they couldn’t convince any of the ones that were born into their tribe to stay of their own free will.” Cain explained, making the Sect Master chuckle.
“I’m glad you understand. Can you do anything about these fallen guards? It has still been under ten minutes since the battle started?” Master Moon asked.
“First, we should let the Sect Master try. He has made great progress, and it would be a shame to waste this opportunity for him to give it a shot without having to harm anyone to get the chance.” Cain suggested.
The Sect Master focused for a while, and slowly a white light built up until it surrounded his hands. He placed them on a fallen guard, and released the light, bringing the man to life, then feeding him a healing pill.
“It’s best if the pill is in their mouth when you cast the spell. As you can see, the initial ability only brings them to life, it doesn’t heal them, so if they’re still bleeding or internally injured they will just die again right away without additional healing.” Cain reminded the Immortal.
“Good point. Let me try again.” The Sect Master Nodded.
This time he put a pill in the guard’s mouth and cast the spell, causing the healing to start immediately as the pill was absorbed. It was a much less stressful method of resurrection.
“Give me a moment to reassemble these injured men and I will resurrect the rest of the guards who can still be saved,” Cain informed him, then walked to a nearly decapitated guard, fixing his severed neck and moving on to a man missing an arm and his head, sticking both back in place and mending them.
“What is that? Only the highest level of healing pills will regrow a limb. It is basically a death sentence to a cultivator to lose his sword arm, but you make it look easy.” Master Moon asked.
“Flesh manipulation is an extension of Earth skills. Once they are dead, it isn’t a big deal to stitch the body back together. Then you just need to resurrect them, and they should heal.
At least that’s the theory. We will have to see once they are alive again. But we’re running short on time, it’s almost been ten minutes since the ambush.” Cain informed him.
Cain used a Holy Light, the all-purpose Seraphim area spell of choice, to bring the guards back to life once he had as many of them patched up as he could, and the Sect Master stared at him in envy.
“A bit of Seraphim Magic goes a long way. That was the same spell all three times, but the way Seraphim Magic works will differentiate between friends and enemies, so it can either heal, damage, or both.” Cain explained.
“I don’t suppose you can make a book and teach that ability?” The Immortal Sect Master asked hopefully.
“You would have to ask a Seraphim for that one. Learning it is hard, but getting permission to learn it is much harder, nearly impossible for most.” Cain sighed.
That was true. Cain himself wouldn’t know it at all if he couldn’t summon them, or have Evangeline as a Companion. Meeting Seraphim was a rare occasion in most worlds, and they weren’t big on teaching their secrets to random power-hungry strangers like him.
“How are you feeling? Does your arm feel fine? Has your cultivation been damaged?” Master Moon was asking a repaired and resurrected Guard as they talked.
“How am I not dead? I swear I actually died back there. But you are right, there is something wrong with my arm still. It is there, and it is my arm, but it is like someone severed the flow of energy through it. I will have to try to fix it later, but for now, it’s like having a mortal arm attached to me.” The guard replied, clearly in shock.
“Interesting, so there is lingering metaphysical damage that the ability doesn’t fix, but you can only expect so much. I will have to ask the local Earth specializing Sect if they can do something like that at a higher level. I don’t know if they have ever tried if it only works on corpses, but I heard that they are the ones that make the pills for reattaching a living cultivator’s severed limbs, so they might be the best ones to go to for an option to upgrade the ability.” The Sect Master said thoughtfully.
“Different worlds really do have different ways of thinking. I like it here, we can do so many fun new things that nobody would have thought of back home.” Luna agreed, looking out into the forest in anticipation.