A group of three Tekur entered Michael's sight. But the group was not anything like the other Tekurs he had seen before.
Their silver carapaces were charred and cracked in various spots, and two of them were missing an arm. One Tekur lost his mandibles and the wings sprouting from his back were broken and twisted.
It was obvious that the Tekur had been fighting someone, but Michael couldn't see anyone around that could be an enemy to them.
'They don't look like they won. Maybe they fled?' Michael predicted, his eyes narrowing. Analyzing their condition, he wondered if they'd been fighting Killian. The wounds would fit the destructive power of Killian's Soultrait.
'Whatever.'
Michael used 8-layered Enhancement on himself and executed Leviathan Diffusion to weave a considerable amount of energy through his body. He turned into a flash as he dashed toward the group of injured Tekur. Michael crossed the distance to them in no time and unleashed Spirit Disturbance once the Tekur took note of him. Spirit Disturbance was a spiritual attack that could be used over a long distance as long as the targets looked into his eyes. The only downside was that the lethality of the spiritual attack deteriorated with an increase in distance.
Michael utilized Spirit Disturbance at full power, momentarily stunning the three injured Tekur. The energy circulating within and around the Tekur stirred. It was weak and fragile, unable to block Michael. He appeared in front of the Tekur, whom he deemed the weakest given his weak aura and the minuscule amount of energy remaining inside him. The next moment, Aethyr manifested in his hands. It transformed into a longsword, coated in several layers of Enhancement and Reinforced Sword Qi as he slashed out. The Aethyr Sword cut through the air and cut horizontally through the Tekur's head, cleanly severing it.
The upper part of the Tekur's head flung through the air, but Michael didn't even take note of that. He was already moving ahead, summoning dozens of Glacicle Swords around the next target. Each Glacicle Sword was shrouded in silver Sword Qi as they burst toward the one-armed Tekur from all sides. The Tekur was just about to use the last remnants of energy within his body to do something when Michael used Spirit Disturbance from a close distance. The Tekur lost control of the origin energy within him for a moment, which was enough for the Glacicle Swords to pierce through the cracked spots in the Tekur's carapace with eerie precision.
Once the Glacicles pierced through the Tekur's carapace, Michael used Insert on all Glacicle Swords before shattering them. They transformed into freezing mist that was inserted deep into the Tekur's body. The Tekur froze and turned into a statue before a Qi Sword manifested in front of the Tekur's heart – and pierced it.
The last Tekur was a little bit more annoying. It had some more energy left, which Michael countered by using Spirit Disturbance six to seven times in a row. The mental state of the Tekur was already extremely bad after fleeing from a fight it would have certainly lost. His confidence was shaken as well. Therefore, each Spirit Disturbance application hit harder and harder until the seventh spiritual attack knocked out the weak and injured Tekur. Michael pierced the Tekur's heart with the Aethyr blade and looked around.
A heavy sigh escaped his lips.
"When you guys lack the needed energy to use your Soul Techniques, you're actually not that annoying anymore. If anything, this is a nice snack for the time in between."
The battle against the three Tekur was over long before Michael could insert tendrils of Extraction inside them. He didn't drain their energy nor their lifeforce, leaving him with a mild headache and little to no energy reserves. Using his Soultraits in such an extravagant manner granted him great power, but it left him with little to no origin energy to use after the battle.
He accessed the Legendary Ring Artifact to use bits of the Power of Energy Imprint stored within to refill his energy storage a little bit. It was just enough to release dozens of Extraction tendrils that tapped into the streams of energy all around him. The tendrils' range was over 50 meters at this point. The only downside was that Michael had to focus on each of the tendrils a little bit. Splitting his focus to control each tendril was quite bothersome. It added onto the already high toll being exerted on his mind, which was not exactly what Michael wanted. Fortunately, he didn't have to control the Extraction tendrils too long. The energy within the isolated dimension was as dense and pure as the energy within the Untamed Jungle. It was just enough to replenish his used up energy in 10 minutes using Extraction and Leviathan Diffusion to annex the absorbed energy.
Once his energy storage was filled to the brim, Michael used the last remnants of excessive energy to start extracting the three Tekur. He extracted 1400 SoulStar Fragments – roughly 465 Fragments from each Tekur –, and a Soultrait.
In addition to that, Michael extracted a portion of the Tekur's innate spatial storage, some of their Artifacts and their Memory Orbs as well.
Michael was curious about the enemy the Tekur fought before encountering him. Thus, he consumed the three Memory Orbs in quick succession. Memories flooded him and he began to witness everything shown to him as if he was the one who experienced it all.
Like usual, Michael learned a lot about the Tekur's caste system, their laws and living standards. He got to know how the Tekur were trained and what martial arts techniques the ordinary Soldiers were taught.
By now, Michael could replicate the Tekur Soldier's basic martial arts as if he'd been practicing it for decades. Given that he experienced training the martial arts techniques in the memories of ten Tekur, a decade of experience was nothing. Interestingly enough, Michael didn't learn much about the three Tekur's Soul Techniques. All he got to know – or feel, to be precise – was the Tekur using their Soul Techniques against Killian Zeus.
The three Tekur had been a group of seven when they encountered Killian Zeus. They were confident to obliterate Killian Zeus in no time, but the reality was different. Killian used his highly destructive Soultrait to coat his entire body in thunder. He then summoned a thundercloud and created a thunderstorm. The thunderstorm gathered electricity currents by absorbing the energy in the surroundings. Tremendous power condensed within the thunderclouds until humongous lightning crackled in the sky and poured down from heaven. The lightning bolts intertwined and formed one ginormous lightning bolt that struck all seven Tekur simultaneously.
The Tekur survived the first attack since two of them used their Soul Techniques with their Soultraits to erupt an earthen dome that was further reinforced. However, the two Tekur who'd blocked the attack were rapidly drained of energy and Soul Power. Their Soul Technique failed them even before the ginormous lightning strike dispersed. They were struck by the last remnants that stunned them. Stunned and frozen due to the surprise attack for a second, the two Tekur could barely watch Killian disappear from the distance. Killian appeared in front of them in the subsequent second. Their heads fell to the ground with loud thuds and their bodies followed soon after.
Killian released several thunder bolts from all over his own body. It felt like the lightning armor covering his body was alive. It struck the Tekur, who wanted to attack him from behind and charred his arm. Thereafter, Killian continued to slaughter the Tekur as if they were enemies that weren't worth his attention.
At last, three Tekur retrieved a white talisman from their War Runes. They tore the white talisman and disappeared from the battlefield.
The memories ended as they encountered Michael. The terror the Tekur felt the moment Michael charged at them was evident. It lingered in Michael's heart even after he was pulled out of the Tekur's memories.
He finished digesting everything and sighed heavily.
"I really look like a humanoid monster once I've activated all those Soultraits. Even I wouldn't want to face myself like that," Michael said half-jokingly and half-serious, but his own attention was quickly drawn to the memories showing Killian Zeus' combat prowess.
"He has only one Soultrait, but it enhances his speed drastically. He can summon a semi-sentient armor that attacks living beings inside a certain range, and he can deliver long-range attacks," He murmured, "And then there is still this thundercloud. It's a K.O attack. His Soultrait and the wide variety of techniques he uses allows him to generate more than enough power to obliterate the advantage of the Tekur race…something I need six to seven Soultraits for…"
Kaleb once told him that most Inheritance Techniques had various Unique Martial Arts that could only be used once their mastery of the Inheritance Technique reaches a higher mastery degree. Killian was definitely one of the few people who reached a high enough mastery to learn several Unique Martial Arts – Arts that unleashed the potential of the Zeus family's Soultraits.
"Now that I'm strong enough to defeat my peers and deal with Tekur…you really had to show me Killian's combat prowess…was that really necessary?" Michael grumbled, cursing the Memory Orbs for a moment.
Killain was two years older than Michael, and he would have advanced to a Higher Lifeform a year ago had he not been obsessed with the Interdimensional Flag War so much. He desired to find powerful enemies to kill and according to rumors, he obsessed over Maria Seraph as well. Apparently, she was part of the reason why Killian Zeus decided to participate in the Flag War.
Killian's body, mind, and soul refinement degree had already reached the Peak of Tier-3 a year ago, just like his own War Rune. Therefore, Killian spent the entire year training his Unique Martial Arts and deepening his understanding of the Zeus family's Inheritance technique. It was part of the reason why he'd grown this powerful.
Once he became a Higher Lifeform he would grow even stronger and he would progress at an even faster speed than before.
Michael did not really care about that.
However, he realized one particular thing now that he thought about it a little bit.
"If he is obsessed about Maria, and I have her Mark of Fate…does that mean…"
Michael began to shudder, wild thoughts flashing through his own mind.
'Fuck me…Why is my life so complicated?'
**
