Chương 10: The Valley of the Shadow of Death

For the first time in my life, I truly feel powerless.

It had been many hours since the start of the battle between Will and the horde of guardians.

This horde was much smaller in number than the previous one. There were only ten thousand at most in this one, whereas the previous horde had hundreds of thousands, if not more.

Unfortunately, it seems the difficulty was inversely proportional to the size. This small horde was far more difficult than the previous one. Not just because these wolves were stronger, but more importantly, because they were far more intelligent.

When they attacked, they did so with order and near perfect teamwork. Unlike their predecessors, these enemies knew how to use their numbers, and their abilities well.

They always attacked in groups of threes. One would attack with a barrage of wind blades; each one compact, powerful and well placed, then another guardian would attack from the opposite side with its claws. The third guardian would crouch carefully on the side, waiting for a mistake from Will, so it can attack.

The barrage of wind blades would be met by a large wall of compressed water, made by Will. He had finally taken advantage of his Water Meister class. Due to his increased level, he could more finely control the water at a molecular level, even doing something as incredible as increasing the surface tension of the water, to help it withstand the barrage of wind blades.

Even if the wind blades got through the surface, they would have to travel through many meters of compressed water to get to Will. This was also not ordinary water, it was water reinforced by Will's yuan, this made it far more dense and resilient, not to mention that the currents inside the wall were very chaotic, to further dissipate any wind blades.

Although Will could compress the water, he still couldn't manipulate its state or rather he hadn't had the time to see whether or not he could.

At first, due to his bloodlust, Will didn't have a hard time dealing with these wolves; he managed to kill a few hundred. The wind blades had little effect on his bloodlust, and the other two wolves would be suppressed by the aura from the bloodlust, making them easy kills.

After some time the fatigue from using bloodlust started to show itself. It used up far more yuan than Will could create or gain from killing the guardians. Will could no longer maintain it for long periods of time, so he decided to use it in short bursts. This plan was good at first, but it also had its drawbacks.

Will didn't truly understand what bloodlust was, he only had a basic understanding of what it could do. This lack of knowledge is what led him to another crisis.

Every time bloodlust is activated, it does some damage to Wills body. The yuan Will uses up from using bloodlust isn't from activation, but rather to reduce the damage caused by the activation of bloodlust. Will didn't really know what bloodlust is powered by, but he started realizing that his body was far too weak to handle it.

It was like a car fitted with a jet engine. Will's intuition told him that his body was far too weak to use and control this ability. In the end, after knowing all of this, he still had no choice but to use it.

After the first few hundred kills Will had to start economizing his use of bloodlust on his body. The guardians sensed this, and in turn, increased the intensity of their attacks. Will was only able to survive this, due to the fact that he had leveled up from his previous kills.

Although Will couldn't tell his level, he was now able to resist the aura that these beasts gave off. He knew that he was nearing level 20. His mind only had 16 parts so he definitely had not reached level 20.

Without his bloodlust, Will could still kill the wolves, but it required much more time and effort on his part. Thanks to his previous hundreds of kills which had increased his level, and his improved footwork and technique, he was able to fight on. In fact, fighting more intelligent foes under such dire circumstances improved his technique even more.

Another reason why Will was able to survive this long was another miraculous ability he had gained from his encounter with Modus' killing intent. This was radiant energy. Like bloodlust, Will didn't know what this was, but he had a rough understanding of what it could do. It could heal him slowly and increase his life force.

Whenever bloodlust was off, radiant energy would be working none stop within Will's body. Unlike bloodlust, radiant energy didn't use up any yuan. Instead, it used up a lot of mental energy. Will had to use thirteen parts of his mind to get it around his body and heal him. Radiant energy required very careful and minute control, to bring it out and manipulate.

It's like a massive steam engine inside an old train, one that needs lots of hands feeding coal constantly throughout the journey to keep the train moving. The hands are the mind parts, and the coal is the mental energy used up.

If he could, Will would definitely use more parts, but unfortunately, he needed the other three. One part was used to maintain and manipulate the wall of water, one other part was used to battle and respond to attacks from nearby guardians, whilst the remaining one was keeping track of the others in case they try something else.

As a result, after many hours of fighting, Will was mentally and physically drained. All paths to escape were blocked, so he could not run. Not to mention he knew he could not outrun the guardians in the first place. Although he could keep up with their attack speed, their movement speed was far above his at the moment.

The result was Will Chamberlain, for the first time in his life, was truly fighting with his life of the line.

His heart was beating so hard it felt like it was about to burst out of his chest, his limbs felt as heavy as lead. His eyes were losing focus, and his mind was getting weary. All he wanted to do was just lay down there and sleep.

'I can't keep this up for much longer.'

Will himself knew that he was approaching his limits fast. He realized that his previous arrogant actions had brought disaster upon him. Although he didn't look like he had a chance to survive, Will still had not given up.

This was no longer that naïve teenage boy; this was a warrior who had taken the lives of many beasts. The aura of blood and death was saturated deep in his bones, all the way down to his marrow. So long as he had an ounce of energy in his body, he would not give up!

'My future wife is waiting for me!'

Will was even having lustful thoughts about Adelda during such a serious situation; he was truly unique in this aspect.

At some point in time, Will started entering a trance-like state. His mind was partially conscious. It was now pulling out one hundred percent of the boy's full potential. The two guardians nearest to Will saw the empty look in his eyes; they had assumed that it was a lack of concentration, so they both attacked with the intent to kill.

The third guardian stopped its barrage and followed the lead of its companions. Using its innate control over wind, it jumped up, reaching above the wall of water protecting Will from it.

It started gathering wind energy for its strongest wind blade, in an attempt to finish off this battle whilst its opponent was still off guard.

Little did these wolves know, that they were already in the valley of the shadow of death

...

Will's first ever scientific experiment in middle school was a very boring one, the simplest of actions that almost every adult on earth does every day, boiling water.

He, with a partner in class, was to boil water in a conical flask, and record the temperature when the water reaches boiling point, a very simple experiment indeed.

The teacher in the class was a middle-aged woman. She saw that the class was bored by the experiment, and rightfully so, after all, who in this room had not boiled water before? So she decided to spice up the experiment

with some interesting facts about water.

She walked up to the desk nearest to her table, which just happened to be the desk Will and his partner were doing their experiment.

"Will and Joan, did you two know that water can be used to cut steel?" said the teacher eagerly awaiting the looks of shock on her students' faces.

Joan showed shock immediately, but Will showed indifference. The teacher was not happy.

Will saw her look of displeasure, so he knew that he had to explain his somewhat rude behavior.

"My uncle is an engineer. He always talks about interesting science stuff to me. He even took me to his lab and showed me how a jet of water can cut steel." said Will nonchalantly.

The teacher realized why the young man had been indifferent. She shook her head and had a melancholic smile on her face.

'As expected of my smartest student.'

...

This was an unimportant memory from Will's slightly younger years. It randomly popped up in his mind during his semiconscious state. His subconscious stuck on to something from this short, remote memory.

Will's eyes regained the life they had lost. His mind forced itself into overdrive and focused entirety on Will's surroundings. He stopped using radiant energy to heal himself. He had no concentration to spare. Although his eyes had regained their life, Will was still in his semi-conscious state.

Suddenly, a large green illusory sword appeared on top of Will's head. This sword had little to no presence at all. So the guardians thought nothing of it. Although they were more intelligent than normal, they still primarily relied on instinct.

The guardians were still moving to attack Will, and in less than a second, Will would be dead...or so they thought.

Although the presence of the word meant nothing to the guardians, to Will it was a lifesaver. It rejuvenated Will's mind and body and boosted his fighting spirit. It also sped up his healing processes and increased his senses.

The guardians suddenly seemed much slower than before, so slow in fact, that Will felt that if he had the strength, he could dodge them easily. Unfortunately, the presence of the sword was a massive drain on Will's yuan. He could not keep it there for long. Not to mention the strength it gave Will was not really his own.

Will knew that if he tried moving at top speed and dodge all three attacks, his own body wouldn't be able to handle the movements, because this strength was a temporary boost, one his body wasn't used to. So Will didn't dodge, or rather he wasn't planning to.

This whole time Will had been using one hand to hold his sword, and the other to assist in manipulating the water wall. This time Will sent half of his mind into the water wall. He did this so he could better control the water.

Then he summoned the wall of water back to him. The wall moved much faster than the wolves and was next to Will in an instant. It surrounded Will from all sides. The Wolves thought this was a defensive measure and mocked Will in their hearts. They could easily break apart a wall of water with their mighty claws and fangs.

Will, however, was not doing this as a defensive measure. No, quite the opposite, this was the preparation for an attack. He started compressing the water more and more. Harder and harder, the water formed a cocoon shape around Will.

Will continuously, compressed the water, until he was approaching his limit. Then he started rotating the water cocoon, in an anticlockwise direction, faster, and faster. As he rotated the cocoon Will had an idea in his mind. This idea wasn't really one that could be visualized. Instead, it could only be put into words.

'Faster, more compact, thin, swift and sharp!'

Will said these words over and over again in his mind. These words were clearly influencing the water. The cocoon was becoming smaller and smaller whilst rotating faster and faster. The once large cocoon suddenly had the radius of only a meter. It was reduced in thickness and was giving off a sharp feeling. One, that made you think that touching it once would get you cut.

All of this, from the time the wolves pounced on Will to the time the cocoon formed, took time to describe only took two seconds.

Will now had incredibly high intelligence and wisdom, so his mega processing speed and the fact that he had 16 minds in one made his mind as fast as a computer.

It was at this point in time that the two guardians nearest to Will started sensing danger. Their highly tuned instincts were telling them to avoid Will and run, as soon as possible. Unfortunately for them they had initiated their attacks and were at the point of contact, so they could not retreat. Hesitation is often the cause of death, so they both hardened their hearts, and followed through wholeheartedly with their attacks.

The last one in midair also sensed danger, but it was further away than the other two, so the sense of danger it got was much less. It had finished condensing its wind blade and was about to unleash it on Will, when suddenly from its perspective, the world went black.

Somehow, within an instant, its soul had already gone to the underworld.'