Chapter 26

(Please note: The demons speak in a language called Tagalog. I am just writing it in English for convenience.)

"WINNER! SU MING"

These words resounded on the stage although everyone was in a state of confusion. Su had barely recovered from the fear she felt moments ago. "What were those eyes?" She thought to herself. The ref, signalled for the medics to come forward. He turned to Su and opened his palms to help her up.

"Congratulations." Louis voiced suddenly appearing behind the ref. This froze the ref but Louis tapped his shoulder to relax him. Su hadn't fully processed all that happened but she nodded at Louis based on instinct.

"I am sorry but further congratulations would have to wait till after the blood moon." Louis declared and the ref nodded in agreement.

"What? There's a blood moon happening now?" Su spoke in shock. The Medics soon arrived and were about to begin a check up on Kris but to their surprise, all openings on his left hand were already cauterized. Louis soon felt the demons sending energy blasts at his barrier.

"Our noisy neighbours are being tenacious. We would need to evacuate everyone immediately. If I raise my energy anymore to protect this hall, even the power dampeners wouldn't be able to stop the toxicity of the energy. There is an underground passage that leads to a major transport center. The transport center is linked to a protection dome. I am sure one of you has the passcode to it."

"I do." The ref affirmed.

"Good. Begin the evacuation procedures."

"Yes sir."

"How many healing capsules do you have on you?" Louis asked the medics.

"We only brought one sir. For Kris. The rest are stashed in the medical unit."

"Hmmn." Louis thought but soon felt another heavy blast on the barrier.

"Tchh... Not enough time." Louis thought to himself.

"I'll take care of Kris. Give the capsule to Su, we'll need her strength."

"Yes sir!" The medics responded and gave Su a healing capsule. The moment she ate it, her strength was returned and her body felt lighter than ever.

"Be careful, your body might be back to full power but you still have the mental stress you've accumulated. Don't push yourself too much." Louis warned.

"Yes sir!" Su replied in affirmation. She did feel a lot of stress but she was determined to help out regardless.

With the efforts from the ref, Su, Louis and two other source soldiers present, the hall was swiftly evacuated. The medics went back to the medical unit and began evacuating personnels present. The cadets helped in hastening the evacuations. Those who were still unconscious such as Fred, Salim and Francis, were put in healing pods and were carried along. Within a few minutes, everyone had moved into the underground passage and were headed for the transport center excluding Kris and Louis.

"Everyone is gone. You can get up now, James." Louis smirked and Kris eyes opened up.

"As expected. You'd easily have noticed that I was in control." James spoke as he stood to his feet.

Basically, James was in control of Kris' body. Kris fell unconscious after his fight with Su and in that instant, James consciousness became dominant. The eyes of the body became grey and the voice was that of James. Soon the hair began to stretch out and its color changed from brown to black with the tips being reddish.

"Fascinating." Louis mused but soon felt a large tremor on his barrier. A massive red energy ball was launched at it and the demons kept pumping it with source energy in an attempt to break the barrier. Louis casually increased the strength of the barrier and the energy ball was repelled pushing some of the demons backwards.

"It's quite noisy out there. isn't it?" James stated.

"Let them play with the barrier a bit more. I am curious about you. How do you feel?"

"Stiff. It's a bit uncomfortable. Not to mention, his body is heavy from all the damage it has received."

"Hmm, maybe I should have let you go with them."

"Nah. I am not so good at pretending to be able to stay stagnant for long. Especially when it is not needed."

"As expected from my proud student."

"It's not pride. It's a sense of duty. Also, could you do something about this left hand. I can't feel it at all."

Louis formed an energy cast around James' hand and connected it around his neck with an energy chain.

"Much better, this way it wouldn't hinder me in battle. Thanks" James cracked his neck and began to walk towards the rear exit.

"Hoo, you plan to fight despite that damaged body."

"It's a blood moon.The situation calls for it."

"I just feel bad for Kris. He'd probably be in bed for much longer than necessary." Louis turned around and headed for the front.

"Is that your way of showing concern? You are getting soft old man." James waved as he kept walking. Louis smiled while he cracked his knuckles. As he got closer to the front, his white energy rose and swirled around him. He began to walk through his barrier while his armor was forming then he appeared in front of the hoards of demons with his full armor.

"I am honored, you guys quadrupled in the brief time you faced my barrier." Louis closed his eyes and smiled.

"But unfortunately, you guys stepped..." Louis took a step and the floor below all the demons glowed white.

"...into a death zone." He opened his eyes and chains burst out of the ground piercing through the heart, then into the throat and out through the brain of every single demon killing them in that instant while lifting their bodies high up into the air.

Louis sighed. "How boring. I guess I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up." The chains dissipated and the lifeless bodies of demons rained down.

A red source, cyclops demon, on a hill a few kilometers away witnessed what had happened and felt terror throughout its body. It bit its lower lip and aimed an arrow at Louis. Before it could shoot the arrow, it felt a hand on its back.

"Trying to shoot an enemy while you cower from a far." Louis spoke gently as he maintained an unfazed smile. A cold sweat ran down the cyclops head while its body shivered.

"How gutless," White chains tore through the demons body, pulling out its insides.

"This is a nice view. Louis stood on the hill and looked around. I guess, I'll just protect the barrier from here until the blood moon runs out.

AT THE OTHER end of the barrier, James walked out to face the demons.

"This body is too stiff." He mentioned as he pulled a scarlet red energy from his core and let it flow through the body. Soon the energy rose out of his body and the army of demons around felt a threatening pressure behind them. They stopped their movements and slowly turned to James. James took in a deep breath before letting it out with smirk on his face.

"Much better."

A massive hammer from a minotaur struck from the sky. Without looking, James lifted his hand to stop it in place. Blue source energy spread out causing the ground to sink in a bit. The minotaur had put its entire weight into that strike and was stunned in disbelief as James looked unfazed. James squeezed on the hammer head and it shattered instantly. The minotaur left the handle of the hammer in an attempt to pull back but James closed in. He drove his fist, fueled with source energy, into its armor and its back exploded pushing out a wave of scarlet red energy. Soon after the lifeless body of the minotaur was launched into the hoard of demons knocking down some in the process. They were stunned by this. They gritted their teeth in fury and all burst out their energies releasing a wild spread of blue and green energies.

James swooped in with a punch smashing the skull of a demon. Two jumped at him while swinging their axes. He twirled his body in the air and landed kicks at their necks breaking it in the process. As he landed, he zoomed past multiple clusters of demons snapping their necks, breaking their backs, smashing their skulls in or just piercing his hand through their armors and ripping out their hearts in the process. The demons didn't relent and soon started pushing numbers against him and attacking from every angle.

"Ho..." James muttered before increasing his speed of attacks leaving bursts of source energies in his wake. The more they attacked the more lifeless bodies of demons were launched into the air.

Four demons gathered their energies together and sent it through the ground to hit James. He smirked then used his leg to hook a demons neck then slam it onto the ground. He wacked another on the face with a back fist which tore out its flesh and broke all its teeth including the jaw. The demon fell on the previous one then James backflipped onto them just as the energy reached his position. It exploded upwards lifting James as he spun himself towards the location of the four demons. He landed and smashed his fist through the head of the first killing it instantly. Before the others could react , he ripped the throat of the second, Kicked the third in the face and its head rolled 360 then finally gave the last one an upper cut that sent it spinning in the air. James zoomed into another set of demons, decimating them and as soon as the demon in the air was about to land, James caught it's head and chugged it towards a spear coming at him before jumping above it, spining then landing with a drop kick on spear's wielder.

A hoard of green sources formed a massive sphere and shot it at him. With a thunderous boom, the ground sunk and broke apart as the sphere passed while it hurled towards James. James casually caught the sphere, then jumped on a demon's chest before releasing source energy through his legs which not only propelled him to the hoard of green sources but also created a big hole in the chest of the demon he jumped on. He spun in the air as his eyes glowed red. The green sources were fear stricken as they watched James slam the sphere on them which caused a massive explosion dispersing a wild flow of the green energy, sinking the ground and also spreading deep cracks which some demons fell in.

As the dust cover cleared, James began to feel stings all over his body.

"I shouldn't get to riled up. This is after all an already beaten body." He muttered to himself before instinctually dodging an arrow shot at him. Multiple arrows from all possible directions came crashing at him. He let out an energy burst from his body that repelled all the arrows. Another set were shot at him and he did the same thing but this time, after repulsion they all exploded. The demons were about to celebrate when they noticed a scarlet energy burst pushing apart the explosion while an unharmed James stood in the center. James gathered energy on both eyes and scanned the area to mark the positions of the archers.

"Fools. A circle? Really?" He gathered energy in his right hand then noticed desperate waves of arrows being shot at him with the demons screaming as they did. He released the energy burst to counter the arrows while he divided the energy in his right hand into tiny spheres on his fingers.

"I'll be borrowing your flash shot technique Kris. Although, just for the penetrating power and speed. He gathered them to the tip of his middle and index fingers. He pointed forward and aimed for the archer furthest from him in his line of sight. He shot a beam instead of a sphere and with blinding speed, it pierced through several demons before piercing the head of the furthest archer. The demons to the side soon realized what was about to happen and they tried to run away, but james Spun dragging the beam in a circular twist, beheaded all the archers and diced the demons unlucky to be in the radius of the beam all in one go.

Blood showered like rain in the moment and two third of the army of over a thousand demons had been decimated in such a short amount of time. Fear crept in as those left were horrified by the sight of James. A red source demon launched at James with incredible speed and they both clashed fists. A wave of red energy was released causing a huge depression on where they stood. This also rose broken rocks and bodies of dead demons. The demon had fury in its eyes as it tried to push against James but James didn't budge. He soon noticed two other red sources (a badger and a goblin) closing in on him, both wielding broad swords. James increased his energy a bit pushing the demon backwards before stretching his feet upwards to hit its chin thereby launching it to the sky. The badger struck from his head downwards while the goblin struck from his feet upwards. James used his arm to intercept the badger's strike while his knee to intercept the goblin's strike. To their surprise, despite putting all their might into those strikes they only managed to cut a bit into James. Blood dripped out a bit from his arm and knee. The body of the red source he had kicked into the air landed head down. It groaned in pains while it tried to drag itself away. A cloak started forming around James thereby pushing the blades out of his body. Once they were out, a full scarlet cloak had formed around James.

He spun in between them then stomped the head of the goblin into the ground with his right leg while at the same time stretching his left into the jaw of the badger breaking its neck in the process. As the badger's body lifted, James caught it's leg then used it to slam into the goblin shattering the bones of both demons in the process.

"Red source cores are very rare and a bit difficult to get. But I am glad that you three managed to stay alive for me to retrieve them. You have my thanks." He stabbed his hand into the demon's one by one and retrieved their cores.

"Shit I don't have a black box to keep them. Oh well." He pulled off the armor plates of the goblin and used it to make a makeshift box which he kept the three cores in and coated with scarlet energy. Since the box was too big for his pocket, he placed it on the cast on his left hand and used a red energy to tie it to the cast. He nodded his head once he was done.

The rest of the demons watching were filled with despair. Some began to cry while others shivered.

"Monster!" Some yelled and they began running away from James.

"Hmmph."He scoffed. He held the leg of the largest of the three demons and coated it with scarlet energy. This clasped the body together and gave it the outlook of a gigantic sword. He teleported to their front and many stopped in their tracks. Others who had given up on surviving kept rushing at him while shouting and crying. James swung the body of the demon thereby leveling them effortlessly. Shockwaves and sharp crescent like energy from each slam/swing of his "sword" blasted those that either stopped in their tracks or turned around to run. The massacre continued.

AT THE UNDERGROUND passage. The evacuated audience in company of the cadets, the ref and two other source soldiers finally reached a massive elevator. There was a bit of confusion and muttering by a few people but none was ready to ask anything decisive. They divided themselves into three sets. The first set went up with the ref, after which the second set went up with the two other source soldiers. Finally The cadets and the last set went up. They were in a massive transport center almost five times the size of the one used during the graduation ceremony.

"Alright people, we'll move based on the sets in which we came in." The ref called out. A child asked his mother, "Why are we going in there," while pointing to the door to the transport room.

"Well, in cases of emergency, during a blood moon. People get evacuated to protection domes for their safety." The mother responded.

"What's a blood moon?" he asked again.

"Well.. that is, erm..."

"It's a time when monsters from stories come out to attack everyone and soldiers have to fight them to protect the people." Su replied as she tickled the child which made him chuckle.

"I am not afraid of any monster." The child said happily

"Of course. You are a very brave little boy." Su smiled at him.

"Thank you " The mother said to Su with a smile. The family was soon called and they entered the transport room.

"Bye bye!" The child waved at Su while she waved back. A few moments had passed and two sets had been transported to the protection zone.

"Alright then, Last se..." A massive explosion occured and the bodies of two source soldiers alongside multiple normal soldiers were flung in through the wall.

Joukron with a group of nineteen orcs walked in. The orcs beamed with green and yellow source energies while Joukron beamed with blue source. The civilians behind began to panic.

"Civilians! Move into the transport room. We'll handle this." The ref, Sadiki, roared out before moving to stand in front of the cadets and source soldiers.

Joukron opened its left palm and a harmless blue wave spread across the transport center. It looked at the transport room and smiled.

"It's here!" It spoke to the others while pointing at the transport room.

"I don't think they plan on letting us pass easily." An orc scoffed.

"Then we'll mow them down like the others." Joukron responded and began to walk forward. It summoned it's weapon which was two butcher blades connected together by a chain. The other orcs brought out their weapons and began to march behind Joukron.

"Arm yourselves." Sadiki ordered and the source soldiers alongside the cadets present released their energies. This made the orcs stop in their tracks and lift their guards.

Sadiki was in his full blue armor holding a katana. The other source soldiers were in their green armors, one with a twin axe while the other with a spear. The cadets all formed their cloaks while Su had her astral armor. After seeing the number of those without armors, the orcs began to laugh.

"They are looking down on us." A source soldier hissed.

"It doesn't matter. Listen up. Our job here is to stall them until the room is ready to transport all of us to the protection domes. It has a five minutes interval, therefore after the last set gets transported, it will be our turn to go. All you have to do is survive for ten minutes. We full-fledged will take on two each while the rest of you will battle 1 v 1. Are we clear!" Sadiki roared out.

"Yes sir!"

"Good!" They took battle ready stances. The orc burst out their energies and so did the humans. Both sides logged in an intense stare down as their energies clashed. Small movements and flinches from both sides. Sweat dripping, teeth gritting everyone watching intensely for that perfect moment to strike. A tiny crack sound on the ground and both sides launched at each other.

"ATTACK!" roared both leaders.