Divine Beast Ascension

530 What is that Essence?

The panther eyed Oli and asked again, “What is that essence? Explain or die.”

Oli softly groaned while glancing at his bleeding side. He also used that moment to drink an essence elixir, catching the panther somewhat off guard. “Huu… Sorry, I hadn’t drunk one yet. I wanted to use the last of my essence first, but I can’t wait any longer.”

“... Now that you’re talking again, explain. What is that essence? And why does it feel so different?”

Eyeing the panther, Oli smirked while feeling his essence fully replenish. “Well, I’ll tell you. It’s something that can kill you with just the slightest touch. Unless you already know about it and have built up a defense to it, I can kill you with a single strike if you’re not careful. Congrats on avoiding it so far. But after taking the elixir, I won’t be holding back. If you want to see the sunrise, you’d better retreat now. Otherwise, let’s get back to killing each other.”

The team members on the side were baffled to see this side of Oli. Though it wasn’t too far from the personality Oli had always shown, it was still jarring to see someone they knew was a low-elder speak so threateningly to a beast claiming to be a pseudo-perennial.

“Kill his ass, Oli-ver!” Yeter cheered from the side, almost letting Oli’s real name slip out. Rather than feel surprised by Oli’s speech, Yeter was comforted. It proved yet again that Oli was still Oli.

The panther’s eye twitched hearing that. Not only were such words a challenge, but they were a genuine death threat. And even though the panther’s pride wanted to rebuke Oli’s statement, the panther’s senses told it otherwise. After feeling that strange energy appear twice, the panther felt disappointed by how it couldn’t reject the weak Oli as someone with the potential to kill it, a pseudo perennial that had hunted multiple peak-elder teams!

“... What is that essence called?” the panther asked, not backing away or stepping forward.

Shaking his head, Oli replied, “That’s the thing. It’s not essence. It’s a soul art. And unless you have a soul art to defend against mine, you’re as good as defenseless to me… Still want to keep fighting?”

.....

The panther took a second to ponder its response. One part of the panther actually felt like retreating in the face of such a strange, unknown ability. But deep down the panther felt something else. It longed to experience that strange energy and learn from it. After being trapped with only one foot in the perennial realm for decades, what the panther desired more than anything was a means to grow stronger. A way to ascend!

“... If I let you live, will you give me your soul art?”

It was Oli’s turn to be caught off guard. He blinked before he started laughing, “... What do you mean? That I just give you my soul art and we part ways? You’ll never appear before me or the team again?”

“Yes. I’ve already let you walk away from me once, so it shouldn’t be hard to believe,” the panther reasoned. “Or would you prefer I bring you to the cusp of death and kill your teammates to wring the information out of you?”

Squinting, Oli fell into deep thought. It was evident that the panther was also at a standstill. And since the panther was seeking a challenge and a way to grow stronger from the get-go, making such a deal appeared to make sense. “... How do I know you won’t hunt us down after giving it to you?”

“Really? You’re just going to make useless arguments until I kill you all?” scoffed the panther.

“No. That’s not what I’m getting at,” Oli refuted. “I can’t give you my soul art–”

“Then you’ll die.”

“But we can give you something else. And that thing would help you ascend far easier than my soul art would,” Oli continued, talking over the interrupting panther. “We can give you a cultivation technique that guarantees you’ll reach the perennial realm. You’ve just been working off of instinct till now, right?”

Tilting its head, the panther asked, “Then give me the cultivation technique and your soul art. Or I’ll kill and torture you until you cough them up.”

“I’d sooner kill you before you start torturing me,” Oli refuted. “Either accept cultivation technique and leave, or we go back to killing each other.”

Irritated, the panther scanned over the surrounding team members. “... That one uses ice like me. He’s the one with the technique you mentioned?”

Nodding, Oli replied, “You’ve got good eyes. But do you also have a good head to understand when you’re up against a wall?”

The panther leered at Oli, letting his fury begin to bubble up inside. “Then… I just need to keep you two alive.”

Lunging to the side, the panther bolted for Freele with bloodlust in its eyes. Three long ice needles were flung by its tail, followed by its lunging claws.

Disappointed, Oli shouted, “I warned you!”

Crack, crack, crack! CRRRSH!

To everyone’s confusion, the thrown icicles shattered mid-air only a krin away from Freele. At the same time, the leaping panther awkwardly dropped to the snow as if it had been pulled down by a tether to the ground.

And Oli was already jumping at the baffled panther, not letting a single moment get wasted on the battlefield.

“W-Wait–”

C-Crack! CRUNCH!

Oli’s dual essence mace crashed into the panther’s exposed spine without reservation. The panther was too confused and inhibited to understand how it had been stopped, let alone put up additional defenses. Its ice armor was plenty thick, but the nature of Oli’s earth and dark essences were a bad match-up for ice. And worst of all was that strange energy. Before Oli’s essence smashed through the ice armor, the panther could already feel its life force get squished and squeezed. By the time the ice armor cracked open, the panther’s soul had already been snuffed out of existence.

“... Huuu, huu…” Oli was panting while holding fast to his mace. He could sense that the panther’s soul was gone. But that didn’t stop Oli’s instincts from wanting to be absolutely certain. “Freele. Heal me.”

“Yes!”

Oli’s team gathered around him while Freele began to pour light essence over Oli’s open side. The panther’s attack had broken one of Oli’s ribs and was deep enough for the bleeding to potentially threaten Oli’s life if left unattended. In other words, Oli was lucky that the panther had felt threatened by Oli’s soul art and didn’t go for mutually killing blows.

“I underestimated my opponent…” Oli admitted with a sigh, dropping to his knees to better relax. “That won’t happen again.”

“What did you do?” Fulkar asked while eyeing the downed panther corpse. “I’ve never seen anything like that.”

“And you won’t see it again,” stated Oli. “All I did was uphold my threat and protect my teammate. As team leader, that’s my job…”

In the recesses of Oli’s mind, he thought, *With the blizzard overhead, there’s no way anyone far away sensed that. But if we had fought in an open arena… It would’ve played out differently. I wouldn’t have had a team for the panther to threaten… then I would’ve been able to rely on the soul art instead of my gravity essence.*

The rest of the team quietly watched as Oli closed his eyes and started to circulate his essence. But they could also feel Oli’s soul art activate, encapsulating Oli in ethereal energy to recover the expended energy.

With plenty of essence to spare, Freele healed Oli’s side for the most part. It was still fresh and would be easier to open up if hit in combat, but Oli was back to his full capabilities without leaving Freele exhausted or tired.

“Everyone, let’s get some more rest. Yeter, can you fix the outer walls?” Oli asked, “Fulkar, do you mind taking night watch while I get some rest?”

“Yes, sir!” They replied together.

Freele asked, “Can I do anything to help?”

“Can you cook up some meat from that pack leader? Feel free to wake me when it’s ready,” Oli replied, getting back to his feet. With a silent wave, Oli walked back to the broken hut and sat cross-legged.

Oli immediately entered his soul jade and greedily started absorbing essence from two more peak-elder cores. He didn’t care how many he wasted. Oli plowed through those two cores even faster than before and was preparing to bring out two more when he finally did it.

*... Mid-elder… I’m a mid-elder...* Congratulating himself, Oli dropped the empty cores at his side and came out of the soul jade. He laid on his back and stared at the stormy sky overhead with a small but overwhelmingly proud smile.

A few minutes later, Freele approached Oli but was startled to see him awake. “Um, Oli, the food is ready.”

“Perfect. Thanks, Freele.”

Leaping up, Oli felt so much better after ascending. He could feel how his strength had grown and how his essence was a bit denser than before, similar to how stretching stressed muscles would bring physical relief. So Oli happily joined the team for dinner and shared the good news.