For this mission, Sarah was in charge of making sure all the evacuees were doing well during the long trek. During David's scouting sorties, it was the perfect time to reapply bandages, ensure people stayed hydrated, and handle general upkeep with the injured.
Just like every other stop David had made, she made her rounds, distributed water, and took a seat to rest.
Sarah found herself watching the soldiers who were supposedly "protecting" their group by sitting in a circle sharing chewing tobacco. They were Outer Residents like everyone else here, but because they were employed and trained by Rayner, they had developed a superiority complex toward the rest of them.
Sarah was in the midst of her thoughts about their lack of class unity when she heard David screaming at the top of his lungs.
"PREPARE FOR COMBAT!"
Sarah was stunned. Sure, she knew it was better safe than sorry, but she actually hadn't expected them to run into anything until they left the tunnels.
Her eyes snapped to where the shouting was coming from, and she almost fell to her knees. Her legs turned to putty at the sight of the enemies.
The wolves, if they could even be called that, looked like a horrific mix of boar, bear, and wolf. However, it was also clear that they had once been... dogs. Just regular house dogs. The spots of a Dalmatian on one, the stocky build of a Pitbull on another, and the fur of a German Shepherd on a third, all showing the unique features these animals had once possessed.
Somehow, instinctively, Sarah knew that these weren't Portal Realm beasts, but instead were mutated Earth animals.
In Sarah's frozen, analytical shock, she caught every detail.
She saw David spinning around once he reached the group and pulling a sword from a makeshift sheath on his waistband. She saw Juliya running toward the befuddled guards and snatching one of their rifles.
Then she witnessed a dance of combat that seemed to completely complement the two of them. David focused primarily on drawing attention and delivering quick, probing strikes, while Juliya shot rapidly and accurately, ensuring that she only hit where it counted.
They worked with an efficiency that betrayed their current condition. She couldn't help thinking to herself, "If this is them now, I can't even fathom what they would be like in peak condition."
---
David lay on his stomach behind a cluster of crystalline formations, sweat dripping down his face despite the perpetual twilight chill of the realm. Three weeks. They'd been trapped in this hellscape for three weeks, on what was supposed to be a routine one-week scouting mission.
Juliya was next to him. Her M24 sniper rifle on its tripod as she looked down its sights, searching for something.
"Still nothing on the horizon," she whispered. "No exit portal. No other teams."
David nodded grimly. Two weeks ago, their twelve-person scouting party had split into smaller groups to cover more ground, each searching for the realm's exit conditions. Standard protocol. What wasn't standard was radio silence from every other team.
"You know what I keep thinking about?" David said, his voice barely audible. "The NLS told us these Portal Realms weren't some kind of magical pocket dimension. They're real places. Real planets, maybe in different galaxies."
Juliya glanced at him. "Your point?"
"My point is we're not fighting monsters someone created to test us - like in the Manhwas I used to read. Instead, we're fighting things that evolved to survive in places humans were never meant to go."
David gestured to the alien landscape in front of him that was covered in purple crystal "bushes" and large "trees" of obsidian.
"And we are the invaders right now."
Juliya snorted. "So you're saying we're the bad guys right now? Like the aliens in Independence Day or something?"
David, a little louder, snorted. "See, that's the problem!"
He was starting to get more animated, the delirium of lack of quality sleep finally getting to him.
"All the aliens in these movies were OP as hell! But what I'm seeing is that we are barely on the food chain in these realms, let alone near the top!"
Juliya sighed at her husband. This rant about him not being the embodiment of Sung Jin-Yoo from his favorite comic was frequent. She shook her head and looked through her scope.
BANG!
A shot rang out from her rifle.
David jumped in surprise with a yelp. He looked at his wife, who was already racking another round.
He pulled out his binoculars and looked at where Juliya was shooting.
A group of quadrupedal crystal beasts were on their way to them. They looked like a nightmarish mix of porcupine and ant, each about the size of a small dog but moving with predatory intent. A purple-orange carapace covered their bodies, segmented like insect armor but gleaming with an inner light that pulsed with each step. Obsidian spikes jutted from the carapace at irregular intervals, some as long as David's forearm, creating a bristling fortress of razor-sharp points that caught the realm's eerie twilight.
The creatures moved in perfect synchronization, their six legs clicking against the crystal ground in a constant, sickly rhythm. Juliya's second shot connected with one of the ants. A large crack formed in its forehead equivalent, but the penetration was limited.
They had taken out groups of two or three of these creatures during their weeks here, but this was by far the largest group so far. Roughly forty crystal ants were making their way toward them.
Previously, the small groups they'd encountered required Juliya to land several shots concentrated in the same spot to crack their carapaces and draw blood. If that didn't bring them down it was followed by David moving in close to stab between the segments with his sword.
This time, though, their strategy would have to change.
David dropped his binoculars and took off his pack. There were few provisions left due to them being here two weeks longer than expected, but there were still other items to be used.
He took out two noise makers, similar in size to a soda can and completely covered in speakers. David always thought of these as one time use disposable speakers.
He grabbed them and hit a button on the top of each one four times, starting a twenty-second delay.
He looked to Juliya and shouted over the ongoing shots. "We're going to need to retreat! I'm going to try to split them up!"
Juliya moved with practiced ease, collapsing her rifle's tripod while slinging her bag on.
David, not wasting any more time, threw the first noise maker to the left flank and the second to the right flank. As they soared through the air, the sound of human conversation and gunfire erupted from them.
The result was immediate. A screeching howl that sounded like breaking glass and a piercing whistle enveloped the terrain, and the group of forty broke into three smaller groups.
Two attracted to the noise makers and the third going after their original target.
David turned around to see Juliya was already running ahead. This distract-and-dash tactic was something they had to do frequently, so the order of operations was ingrained in both of them.
David, reluctant to gather more attention than necessary, kept his pistol holstered and drew his sword as he ran. They were retreating to a previously established choke point deep within the crystal formations.
Ahead of them, the crystalline plateau broke apart into jagged hills covered in massive spikes, like enormous hedgehogs lying on their stomachs, bristling with crystal protrusions that jutted in every direction. Juliya navigated expertly through this maze of razor-sharp formations, leading them deeper into the labyrinth where the spikes grew taller and closer together.
Eventually, they reached a section where the crystal spikes had grown so close that their tips crossed overhead, forming a natural tunnel. The semi-transparent crystal ceiling filtered the realm's eerie light, creating a dim, enclosed passage that dead-ended at a crystal wall.
This was their kill zone.
She immediately began climbing the wall at the dead end, using footholds carved the night before in preparation for a quick evacuation during their sleep. She stopped at a shelf carved into the wall where the two of them had slept the night before. It was a perfect sniper's perch with a clear view down the entire length of the spike tunnel.
She lay down on her stomach and set up her rifle. She quickly replaced her magazine and laid out five more on the ground next to her. She would need to be quick and efficient.
Her job here was not to get the killing shot, even though that was usually her role. Due to their crystal skin, all she could do was distract, giving David the opportunity for the final blow.
In this small lull she realized that she had gained quite a lead on David, so she closed her eyes and listened.
David had a skill where he could see disturbances in Qi like ripples in water. Juliya, rather than developing her sight, had developed her sense of hearing. She had long since learned that the voices that plagued her in crowded places were manifestations of surrounding emotions. Now she was using that skill by forcefully shoving the Qi into her ears and mind.
A crippling headache came along with it, but she knew it was worth it.
Just entering the range of her senses, she felt a slight emotion of joy mixed with overwhelming panic.
"David," she thought to herself, "you really need to stop getting excited about things like this."
Shortly after, she felt intense bloodlust. It enveloped the air and would normally have made her buckle if she wasn't ready for it.
She braced herself for the wave of rage and felt a wave of nausea overtake her. Quickly shaking that feeling off, she aimed down the scope toward the tunnel entrance.
Rushing toward the mouth of the spike tunnel, David was getting excited. This Portal Realm had given him a more active role in the subjugations they took on. Normally, as a scout, you wouldn't go out of your way for combat, but David was beginning to think more and more that the condition for opening this locked Portal was to clear the inhabitants of the surrounding area.
That guess and Juliya taking on the distraction role was giving David the opportunity to finally get the killing blow! In every other Portal Realm, his role was to just keep the enemy still while Juliya blew their brains out, but this time he was the star!
He definitely wasn't feeling salty about Juliya always getting the final hit. No, not at all. He was just happy that he could finally help on equal footing.
Yeah... that was it.
He turned once he reached the tunnel entrance and readied his sword. The crystal spikes formed perfect barriers on either side, forcing anything approaching into single file. He couldn't see the beasts coming yet, but he knew it was only a matter of time. He didn't bother with his own Qi sense as he needed to be ready for something else.
He poured Qi into his arms and legs. A pain he had long been familiar with, but not fully used to, enveloped his mind, body, and soul.
He let out a groan of agony but stayed standing and ready as the first crystalline beast squeezed through the narrow tunnel entrance.
Explosions erupted from above and behind him as the first shots connected with the mighty beasts. The crystal carapaces cracked and splintered as the bullets found their marks from Juliya's elevated position.
David didn't have time to appreciate his wife's handiwork as he immediately went after the stunned beasts.
He went for the first beast in line, using the narrow tunnel walls to his advantage, and waited for the opportunity to strike. As the second shot connected with the beast, stunning it, he rushed forward and stabbed into the space between its head and torso's crystal plating. The body of the beast fell limp and lifeless to the ground.
---
David had thought his first real combat after having his meridians corrected would be different. He'd had fantasies of slaying Portal Realm beasts with unparalleled ease, of Juliya watching in awe as her strong, badass husband dominated the battlefield.
That was not what happened.
As soon as he turned back toward the beasts after his strategic retreat to the convoy, he realized he was already exhausted. The incredible restoration he'd been given was being constantly undermined by the overwhelming drain from the hole in his middle dantian.
This wasn't the triumphant return to combat he'd imagined - this was barely controlled desperation.
Before he could continue to wallow in self-pity, a shot rang out and connected with one of the beasts. David watched in shock as the beast's head exploded, splattering blood everywhere. In that moment, the years of experience he'd undergone overtook his apprehension.
He rushed forward to draw the attention of the beasts charging at him and the convoy. He focused on the Heaven part of his Heaven and Earth cultivation technique, keeping himself light and flowing. Channeling Muhammad Ali - floating like a butterfly. But when things got too dicey and the beasts threatened to break past him, he struck like a bee. In tempo with a shot from Juliya, he shifted his weight into his feet, squared his hips, and slashed down, focusing on the Earth part of his technique.
It was a basic slash, one of the first strikes he'd been taught, but it was undeniably effective. The head of the German Shepherd-like beast was severed from its body as Juliya's shot took out another beast that was about to break through the line.
After that strike, David was feeling uncharacteristically exhausted. This Qi leak was affecting him more than he could've guessed. His body was heavy, and his mind was racing about what the convoy guards were doing. They were here to help them, right? Not just let them die?
Was that why Rayner had been suddenly so kind about letting them retreat? Did he plan this?
Before he could continue to spiral, an explosion of gunfire erupted behind him. The four guards had finally gained their footing. From when David had yelled "prepare for combat" to now, it had only been roughly fifty seconds. Short in time, sure, but for specially trained soldiers, David felt it was pathetic.
His previous suspicion of Rayner was quickly shifting to disappointment in the guards Rayner had chosen.
With the added firepower of the soldiers, the encounter finished quickly. David claimed one more kill himself before he collapsed to the ground in exhaustion.
Juliya sat on the ground too, but not from exhaustion. From enlightenment.
During the combat, she had instinctively copied the cultivation technique that David had forcefully circulated through her body the day before. It felt natural and helped her focus, so once she realized what she was doing, she kept it up. But something strange happened as she got closer to the dying beasts.
The Qi they were radiating was released from their bodies when they died, creating pools of violent energy scattered about the tunnel. Without thinking, she rushed forward to help David when he collapsed, passing directly through one of the Qi pools.
The sensation was extraordinary.
For a terrifying moment, her body tensed, expecting the familiar agony of Qi overload. Five years of conditioning had taught her that foreign Qi meant pain, meant voices screaming in her head, meant meridians threatening to rupture. But this... this was different.
The chaotic energy didn't slam into her damaged pathways like a sledgehammer. Instead, it flowed through her reset meridians like water finding its natural course. She could feel it probing gently, almost curiously, at pathways that had been dormant since David dissolved her cultivation.
'It recognizes me', she thought with sudden clarity. 'It knows I'm starting fresh.'
The Qi began to settle into her lower dantian, and she gasped at the sensation. It had been so long since she'd felt that warm fullness, that sense of internal completion. Her meridians, pristine and unmarked by years of damage, eagerly welcomed the energy. Each circulation felt like stretching muscles that had been asleep too long.
She could feel her body remembering what it was like to be whole. The constant background ache she'd carried since the awakening, the phantom pain of broken pathways, was fading with each breath. For the first time in five years, the voices in her head weren't foreign intrusions but her own thoughts, clear and focused.
She quickly sat on the ground in the lotus position, not wanting to waste a single moment of this perfect state. Her body seemed to know exactly what to do, muscle memory guiding her into the proper breathing pattern. The violent Qi from the beasts continued to flow into her, but now it felt like coming home.
As she began to circulate Qi utilizing just a fragment of the Heaven and Earth technique, David received a system notification:
System Message: "Quest Update:
Quest Content: Correct all deviated cultivators: 1 / 7,456,141,421"