Far Sway hovered and used a percentage of her concentration to keep the weak silver rank bound. At the same time, she focused a fraction on leading the drones and the greatest amount to impress Far Ao. The beautiful blue male psion floated above all, as was his place, while the drones scurried about. His own resistant stood at attention, armed with a human repeater.
Occasionally, she looped a green tentacle around the male's blue, making her advances clear. Dao partners, all she had to do was keep that Gwen trash subdued, and it was a done deal. Far Sway, a mere servant, would marry into the main family and gain access to many resources.
She saw a drone enter, looking dull and glassy-eyed like any other. It moved toward the trash, and she paid little attention to it.
"Haven't you heard the gossip?" Gwen transmitted.
"Shut up, trash. He can have more than one Dao Partner." Far Sway said.
She felt something tap her tentacle and automatically reached out for the drone. Far Ao wouldn't mind it if she only ate one. Clearly, that's what he wanted if it bumped her tentacles.
"Ah, you have no shield." Suddenly a powerful force gripped her tentacles and yanked them. Pain she had never felt before shot through her, and she felt a rip. Far Sway ordered the other drones to stop it.
The drones were too slow to react when she felt bullets cut through her body. As a result, several of her lower brains were damaged and would take months to heal. But the drone hadn't stopped; it continued to yank her down after ripping off her tentacles; it grabbed two and hauled her to the ground, and fired on her body.
She threw her tentacles at him, hoping to cut him into ribbons with her many hooked suckers, but he flowed like liquid. Its flesh seemed to ripple away from her assault as it aimed its shot.
Before the drone pulled the trigger, she got off a transmission. "Are you betraying me, Far Ao?"
The male floated away, carrying Gwen as blood gushed from Far Sway's body. "If you can't care for a rogue drone, what good are you." Far Ao said as he floated away with Gwen.
"What do you see in Su Charity?" Far Sway said as more rounds impacted her body.
Drones didn't go rogue. So why did he betray her?
Far Sway saw her favored drone and transmitted it to get close and protect her. It obediently obeyed. She looked around, and the rogue drone had vanished. She realized that a servant of the Far family wasn't the target. The rouge drone only wanted her out of the way so it could go after Far Ao.
She opened her arms and hugged her favorite drone, a rugged-looking human muscled to her liking. She had him since he was a young, shivering cub and raised him well.
"I wish you could talk with me. Brian, it hurts, and I don't know if I will make it."
"Don't worry, you won't." A strange transmission said.
She felt a warm hand touch her head in an action she hadn't ordered. Then blows rained down on her, and everything went black.
…
Far Ao had eaten Brian a while ago and had been joking about it to a Su Charity not far away. It was well known that Far Sway held a particular drone in high regard. Far Ao had eaten the drone for fun. He was the type who enjoyed leading on servant girls like Far Sway only to dash her hopes and dreams.
Vergil felt bad for the Far Sway. The green psion wasn't the worst psion around, so the kindest thing he could do was kill her as quickly as possible.
He yanked a gun from one of the drones and pointed it at the psion's main brain before pulling the trigger. As Far Sway died, a wave of psychic energy blasted forth, and he rotated 4 strings of ki, struggling to absorb it all.
He felt a rumbling shake through his mind from the sudden influx of psi and felt himself enter the advanced stage of the prenatal realm. Vergil made a 5th string form and absorbed the dregs of her psi before taking the storage ring off her finger.
After killing hundreds of apes, killing a psion was the next logical step. The second storage ring fit on his middle finger, and he quickly loaded it full of guns and ammo. When he looked inside, it was filled with even more guns and cases of ammunition. Far Sway seemed to be the supplier for the drone's arms.
He looked at the cave above and floated up before charging through it. A bright blue light appeared in the tunnel as he charged down it, and he dodged before a laser of psionic energy fired. He pushed himself faster as his muscles filled with thicker vital energy.
Slowly he changed his appearance back from Brian to his true self. Of course, he settled on 6'1" instead of the former 6ft tall. His vital energy had increased again, filling his muscles with new strength. It wouldn't take much to reach the intermediate stage of prenatal body refinement.
Ostrich Oscillation helped him sense when the attack was at its full charge allowing him to dodge before it fired. Adaptation still showed itself to be the right way to go.
Vergil launched himself close to Far Ao and kicked the blue psion in the head, blasting it against the cave wall. He saw Tyson in the new chamber but ignored him in favor of finishing off Far Ao
That was a mistake; he felt a bullet lodge in his chest before the bang went off, nearly deafening him in the cave. He spun before plummeting at Tyson's feet. He recognized the Jordans.
"Hello, Vergil; it's been too long; you don't call, text, or stalk my Facebook. I would think we weren't friends if I didn't know better." Tyson said.
Tentacles flew down from above and wrapped around his arms and legs. He stared down the barrel of the rifle in Tyson's hands. While there wasn't a bit of psi or vital energy flowing off of Tyson, his ki was in the advanced stage of prenatal.
"I'm guessing you aren't quite as affected by the transmissions as I thought," Vergil said.
Tyson sighed before pulling out a cigar and lighting it with a flame hovering above his thumb. After taking a long drag, he blew a long stream of smoke in Vergil's face.
"I expected you to cough your lungs out; how is that Asma treating you," Tyson said.
"What is this about? We were friends in high school, but people grow apart. That isn't my fault."
"I had three heart surgeries, and Dante called me before and after each one. That man is a true friend. When I got in trouble with the law for some green in my trunk, that guy helped get me off. So when he said to send you in first because you're the weakest, I didn't bat an eye. You are the weakest." Tyson said and pushed his lit cigar into Vergil's open wound.
He groaned as he heard his blood sizzle. "You aren't a team player, and that's fine. But don't dare expect my support; I saw the way you looked at me. If you're going to work with us, then know we aren't friends, and I am in charge. Do you understand?" Tyson said.
Vergil nodded, and Far Ao let go of him.
"What's going on? How is he controlling Far Ao?" Gwen asked.
"I have some guesses, but I'm not sure," Vergil said.
Tyson bent his cigar and tossed it on the ground.
"You're at the intermediate, so you should have two techniques; what are they?" Tyson asked.
Vergil raised an eyebrow before dodging Far Ao's tentacles. The fire had to have something to do with one technique, but Tyson had two more, one of which allowed him to control psions.
"Probably a movement technique and a strengthening one. So nothing useful; let me show you what I can do." Tyson said, and his hand started glowing.
When Tyson took a step towards Gwen, Vergil moved.
He pulled an automatic rifle from his stolen storage ring and fired. Tentacles covered in shields flashed, blocking the bullets. When his gun clicked empty, he replaced it with another fully loaded assault rifle.
"One of my techniques completely counters anything you can do. What will you do against my second one?"
A blue glow surrounded Far Ao, and suddenly he was much stronger. He flashed forward, and Vergil activated Burst. Vergil could feel his body scream as more apertures opened across his body from psychic energy. He shot forward faster than ever and traded blows with an amped psion of the advanced silver rank. A blue light glowed as it powered up its laser attack, and Vergil flashed past the psion and punched Tyson.
Vergil's fist impacted a blue barrier surrounding Tyson. By the psi rolling off it, Far Ao was the source of the protection. His strength increased as bleeding apertures opened all along his body from his psychic power. With each one opened, a world of potential strength emerged hungrily, bursting with psi.
The barrier cracked under Vergil's blow.
"What are you going to do against the next hundred?" Vergil said.
A flurry of blows erupted, shattering the barrier as tentacles shot out and wrapped around his arms. Its silver psi output felt weaker after the barrier broke, except the tentacle grip was like iron chains.
"Numbers matter, Vergil," Tyson said.
The numerous tentacles holding him in place tightened their grip. Vergil was made to stand still and take a beating. Tyson punched Vergil in the face and followed it with a hard knee to the chest while Vergil felt Far Ao charge its beam attack slowly.
Vergil let Tyson pound him like hamburger meat. His eyes swelled shut, and mouthfuls of blood shot out of his mouth from the blows. The pain from the hits was only matched by the pain from Vergil's burst technique.
He moved when he felt Far Ao's attack was at full power and Tyson was close. He slammed his head into Tyson's face, grabbed the man, and flipped backward. Then, he felt Tyson's feet leave the ground, and suddenly Tyson was in the way of the firing beam.
A barrier appeared around Tyson briefly before the laser cut through it and through Tyson. Then it blasted Vergil in the chest. He felt it burn his body and struggled to fight it off with his vital energy.
When the beam finally depleted its energy, a hole had been half burnt through his chest. He looked down to see Tyson somehow still alive. Suddenly Far Ao grabbed the cultivator and fled while Vergil stumbled forward. He used Black Goat's Embryo immediately and felt his flesh slowly put itself back together.
Vergil would have certainly liked to have chased after Tyson and Far Ao but didn't have the strength. The psionic spell that held Gwen back faded, and she floated next to him and pulled him into her tentacles. His wounds were healing quickly, but it could be days before he regained normal strength.
She pulled him through a cave system to a glowing purple vein in the ground. Waves of powerful psi energy erupted from it. Slowly he cultivated to replenish his Black Goat's Embryo technique.
He had more than enough psi to use more energy than he would previously dare. A small shell grew around his body while more of the healing liquid gushed over his body. Tiny bristles of flesh grew outside the bubble of protection, and he felt his wound healing quicker. Soon there was no air in the bubble, but Nyarlathotep's flesh had changed his biology enough where that wasn't a problem. He could run off psi if needed.
With Tyson driven away, the others would go against him. Tyson was always popular and everyone's friend. So Vergil could expect nothing but trouble from them in the future. Dante would probably fight the apes or use others to do it for him and collect void pearls if the guy was in this place. Then he would reach the initial stage of the natal realm and become a true cultivator.
Suddenly he felt a flood of vital energy blast through his body, and his recovery increased. Vergil had entered the intermediate stage of the body refinement prenatal realm. Power like he's never felt before rushed through every cell of his body while he rapidly cultivated psi. Soon he could reach the peak stage in the prenatal realm thanks to an improved foundation from his intermediate body refinement.
By cultivating the body, mind, and ki, he found it easier to make breakthroughs. However, while focusing on one type sounded easier, there were limitations to choosing that direction. One loss from that was the number of possible techniques. But on the other hand, Dante might be stronger.
Whether that was old fear from their high school days or something else, he didn't know.
"Are you better now?" Gwen asked.
"Yea," Vergil said.
"Then let's cultivate and leave those losers behind," Gwen said.
"I like the sound of that," Vergil said.
They were the ones behind Gwen's capture and needed to pay. But, unfortunately, they were alone.
"Do you have any techniques for mind control like the one the other human possessed?" Gwen asked.
This was getting into dangerous territory. That technique had been ki based and was highly effective against those with low ki. Gwen was all about the mind, so it wasn't an option. Mind control techniques that worked off of psi wouldn't be effective against the creatures in the local ecosystem. Giving her his ki cultivation technique was asking to lose an important advantage. Even if he liked Gwen, there were limits to his charity. He had technique slots open for ki, mind, and body.
Vergil thought about the problem and tried to control the brand, using his need for Gwen's loyalty as a filter. With the brand, a lack of techniques was never an issue; it was finding what he was looking for in a sea of thousands. He never really knew what was around him or what was useful until he needed it. Using his wants as an artificial filter helped him narrow things down, but when there were thousands of techniques, they all sounded like static.