My qi gathered around my body, creating what I lovingly called an aura. While my aura was always around, it wasn't always visible. Crimson light danced over my skin like flames on a log. My aura only became visible when I was too excited to hold it back or felt strongly about something. A smile spread across my face, and my aura expanded, covering the room with crimson light. I opened the door and flew out of the room into a hellscape.
Lightning crashed against the ground spearing through thrashing grey tentacles as if the heavens themselves rejected the zombie dragon's existence. I sucked in a breath as my cultivation climbed. My crimson aura spread far from my body tentacles flailed about as far as the eye could see. A flock of electrically inclined monster girls flew amongst swirling purple clouds overhead, blasting the grey tentacles with their own attacks timed with the lightning. Finally, one of the tentacles lashed out and struck the saferoom only for a golden barrier to repel it.
I flashed forward and fired a calamity blast. The red ball of qi struck one of the tentacles before spreading quickly. Large red lumps appeared all around the appendage before I flew in close. I stuck with my hunting knife and pierced the lumps. Explosions rocked the tentacle as the point where my knife struck set off a chain reaction. Small orbs of qi spewed from the wound and were quickly absorbed by my cultivation.
Hundreds of smaller tentacles shot out from the hole I made in the limb as I flew away from the attack. One hit wouldn't do the job. A jagged lightning bolt struck the tentacle popping several red lumps at once. The massive tentacle fell apart, and a wall of multicolored orbs formed before my aura absorbed them. I wasn't sure, but I thought it was a power gained from merging chaos and order. My calamity blast caused weak points to appear in a target that spewed lumps of cultivatable energy when struck.
I didn't understand it and doing something like that didn't make sense. The power, though, was exhilarating. I had just feasted on so much energy. My hands spread out, and two calamity blasts appeared. One blasted forth towards a tentacle where if felt the lightning would strike next while the other hit on closer to the safehouse. I shot through the air and felt a boom explode around me.
Lightning flashed, and the first tentacle hit exploded into multicolored orbs of qi. The second I closed in, they froze midair and flew into my aura. My cultivation swelled with their consumption, and I felt just a little stronger. Absorbing the qi of those tentacles didn't outright increase my cultivation base. It felt more like I gained potential energy from the orbs.
The other tentacle was harder to deal with. While it bulged with red lumps, it refused to stay still and let me hit them. My knife plunged into one, only for the tentacle to shift and a thousand smaller tentacles to fill the hole left from my attack. It seemed the only way to deal with the tentacles was to destroy them with a single attack.
My rifle was in my hands before I really thought about it. The sheer destructive power of the weapon boggled the mind. Just holding it made me feel more powerful. The sleek ashen ebony stock, the polished steel barrel, and the dangerous-looking exhaust ports made the weapon look scary. I held the weapon towards the tentacle and placed my finger on the trigger.
There were no iron sights, an oversight on my part. It was a rushed job. There wasn't a trigger guard, so any snag could cause the weapon to go off. My next gun would be different.
As if understanding my desire, the formations on the weapon lit up and glowed orange on the rifle's ebony surface. There was no ammunition other than the qi from the king-class dark core and high-class fire-core. Even the mid-class metal core in the weapon fueled the weapon's destructive power somewhat. Its design was simple; the formation built into the weapon would activate the second I pulled the trigger.
I lined up my shot with the largest lump on the tentacle and sucked in a breath, then stopped breathing. My body froze as still as a statue as the tentacle flexed around, searching for prey. Then, when I was ready, I squeezed the trigger.
Orange flames spewed from the two exhaust ports on the riffle. My rifle fought against my hold as I struggled to keep it steady. Metal particles lingered in the air, reflecting light from the purple lightning crashing all around me. Half the tentacle fell away, burning as it plummeted to the dungeon below. Flesh bubbled below the glowing orange stump of the tentacle. Lines of black qi stretched down, followed by a stream of ashes falling off as orange stump burned like a lit cigar. Even the qi orbs had been burned up from firing my rifle once.
I aimed and fired, repeatedly bisecting every tentacle in view until the stubby tentacles looked more like a burning menorah than the feelers of some beast.
A shiver ran through me at seeing the sheer destructive power of my weapon. I rebuilt my staff into rifle form to make its power more manageable. Even so, the weapon was devastating. If not for the metal core in the rifle, the weapon would have melted into slag or shattered. Still, the weapon was inefficient. A lot of power was wasted just holding the weapons together. Not to mention it was only a single shot after firing it once. I needed a few seconds to recover before firing it again.