QT: Against My Will

427 7.51 – The Ordeal part 4 – War Of The Wickeds

Ziek had to be on guard around Dai An. She wasn’t as tolerant as Bing Shi, which would make him unable to relax around her. When he was kept like a lab rat in the institution, they used to send the most renowned experts in the world to try and manipulate him into their bidding, so his reaction had to come out a bit off.

|I thought you won’t be showing up for a while.|

|”That’s because I thought Bing Shi would be in good hands. How did you allow her to end up like that?”|

Did she have to hit where it hurt the most? Ziek began to think she viewed his heart like a piggy bank. She would let him fill it with Bing Shi coins to the brim just so she could smash it and steal the content later.

Dai An stopped squeezing his neck and went back inside Bing Shi to continue her cultivation. She wondered why Bing Shi would suddenly ask her to help move her body around, but it was just a false alarm in the form of hubby boy.

Fear was believed to be crucial for survival. Bing Shi didn’t know how to deal with her new godhood at first and had decided that without fear, trauma was not traumatizing. It went well at first, everything became more bearable, but she started to notice that she was becoming emotionally blind to the experience of fear more than she initially wanted. If a truck came running at her husband, she would try to drag him out of the way with logic and common sense, but she doubted her heart would race or skip a beat from a fear that something would happen to him.

‘How is it going with your cultivation?’

‘~I don’t have much energy left.’

‘Oh? Then, take mine.’

.....

‘~He is going to cry if you wake up more exhausted than you already were.’

‘If you are worried about him, then why did you force him to do the babysitting poo?’

‘~I’m not forcing him. Being treated nicely is the last thing that undisciplined brat deserves.’

‘That’s not true. Wait, let me see what I can do.’

Ziek woke up her body, ready to apologize. He should have asked for her opinion first before knocking her out, but there was not much time left to explain.

|Do you really want me to become a second in command? I will do it only if you really, really, really, really want me to.|

He felt how she began to blow on the bruise on his neck through her gas mask as if trying to say sorry too.

|”Forget about what Dai An said, I’m going to occupy your hands with the thing you love the most, which is me, okay? Ah, this is so good. Nothing is better than being carried on your back. Remind me to get a piggyback more often, please.”|

She didn’t know to what extent she could use her powers since there wasn’t the feeling of being at her limit anymore. She could drop dead in the middle of a walk without even noticing that she was at the brim of exhaustion.

· · ———- · ???· ———- · ·

The ‘sun’ started to rise while the team roamed around the EMP area, searching for the B point. This meant their communication and devices would stop working correctly due to the constant pulsation of the magnetic field. This type of energy was contained inside the core of certain plants and beasts.

Flashes of gaudy colour flickered among the branches, showing the strongest members avoiding the whipping tentacles futilely. The green vines hanging off the tress would inexorably begin to feel their way up and around their armoured feet, blasting them back against the tree trunks. Despite the armour, the blow had stunned them.

“It’s the Moving Ivy! Point B is under the Moving Ivy!” Liam finished, baiting one of the hanging vines to one side only to have it whip back and shoot into the gap between his collar and his neck. He created a brilliant ball of fire and sent it above the house-sized tree, drawing out a big B.

Moving Ivy – a basic rank beast, sensitive to heat and fire. It evolved enough to convert any type of light onto its source of energy, including fire (imagine it as a developed type of photosynthesis). Weakness: cold, darkness. Countermeasures that seemed to be working the best: do not fight, do not touch, move it around with light.

Unable to hear what Liam was saying, they still understood the hint and immediately marched to assist him with the raid. Wolfs worked in packs, and so did they.

· · ———- · ???· ———- · ·

At the borders of the EMP area, the place was silent with an occasional mixture of soundwaves of unreconstructable noises. Some of the betas already exchanged their rifles with swords and machetes made of anything but ferromagnetic materials. Their equipment was advanced enough not to get destroyed once within the range, but that was about it.

Climbing trees, flipping stones and parting bushes, they searched for the rest of the objectives. When they saw the huge B in the underground skies, everyone began to cheer, “Liam found the position!”

Now, they only needed to wait until someone came to fetch them up, so they could reach the B point safely. Were they asking for too much? The only beta that ever reached point B was Elera Mai and Riley LeClére. They began to pray for Silvia to wake up soon as it seemed to be the least difficult option and also the one, which worked for them the most. They couldn’t explain the reason behind this newfound strength within their hearts, which would occur whenever they wished for her well-being. The last thing that came to their mind was Silvia LeClére being an actual god.

Bertha thought Ezikiel was a battle-hungry maniac and planned to watch over Silvia in case he dropped her to get into a fight somewhere. But the way he walked around in circles with Silvia on his back without a sign of putting her down, she guessed that none of them was interested in the top spot.

|”Are you sure we will end up in the S class by walking around in circles? You can possess the judges but how are you going to bluff the whole school with it?”|

|We will show up right before everyone gets wiped out, and use ‘the power of friendship’ to defeat Moving Ivy without any prior training. Also, don’t forget to use your ultimate move called ‘strong desire to protect everyone’ to give it a finishing blow.|

|”You have one thousand Ph.Ds in your left buttcheek and every martial art knowledge in your right, and out of all Gary Stu types, you have to go for this particular one?”|

|I don’t know who started it with her ‘kiss from hell’ power-up bullshit.|

|”Bing Shi did.”|

|...|