The Almighty Ring

“Sir, we have just killed one Ultralisk,” Bison reported. A smile etched on his face. Although that was not his first time killing such a beast, he had never once thought he would actually be killing them on a hunt, in the middle of an Ultralisk Uprising no less. Instead of fighting for their lives, soldiers were gathered to participate in an all-out hunt. It was open season for Ultralisks!

“Good.”

Jiang Fei reached out and accepted a small metal box with grid-like markings on its surface. The corpse of the Ultralisk was stored in that box. In such advanced times, not including Earth, highly advanced space races had already developed storage units like these that were capable of storing exceedingly large items. It was as common as leather wallets for humans on Earth. Jiang Fei was not at all surprised to see Bison owning such a device although the one he owned was capable of storing objects larger than normal.

“Not bad.”

Jiang Fei hummed. He transferred the remains of the defeated Ultralisk into his own ring soon after and returned the emptied box to Bison.

The defeated beast was an adolescent Void Manta. A beast of 7,000,000 combat level which was defeated by Bison alone. It was already an easy enough job and with the support from his fellow soldiers, the subjugation went smoothly.

“Sir, I’m worried of unwanted casualties if we go in a large formation. Hence, I have personally instructed the soldiers to only target weaker and out-of-group Ultralisks,” Bison reported. He was afraid that the beast he killed was too weak and small, thinking that Jiang Fei might not be satisfied with his work.

“No. This is good work. Your task is to train the soldiers. You’ve made the right judgement,” Jiang Fei praised. He had no reason to push himself further and hunt for a bigger prey as that job was reserved for Jiang Fei.

“Sir, what should we do next?” Bison asked. He noticed the visible changes with Kaa’lna behavior but was not bothered to ask about it. He had been in the “upper social” circle once and knew how females reacted to the presence of a stronger male. Right now, she was so close to him but could not and would not affect him in any way.

“Continue the hunt. Do your part and I’ll do mine. We still need to hunt for a few stronger ones.”

Jiang Fei was not fully recovered from the battle with Bargh. And since he did not want to remain any longer on the godforsaken outpost, he decided to just hunt for a few stronger Ultralisk and call it a day.

“Yes, sir. Here are reports of sightings from a scout mission.”

Bison handed over a device that projected information about sightings of strong Ultralisks which they avoided.

“Good, I’ll get right on it,” Jiang Fei declared. He had 0541 to record the positions and ordered him to guide Jiang Fei toward them.

The first target was a Zola Pincher, a type of larger Planetary Ultralisk that looked a lot like an Earthly Portuguese man-of-war. It had too many tentacles that Jiang Fei did not bother to count and each of those tentacles were laced with poison. Being inflicted by the poison would cause pain and paralysis.

Jiang Fei approached the Zola Pincher and examined its properties via the scope.

Zola Pincher

Combat Level: 9,500,000

Note: An energy-based being that absorbed life force and psychic power from other beings.

“Oof.”

Jiang Fei huffed. The beast’s fighting method was to absorb other beings’ psychic energy aside from their life. One could quickly conclude that the being itself must have a powerful psychic force. That aspect alone was not good news for Jiang Fei.

He had the confidence to fight even larger Ultralisks because he had the upper hand when it came to psychic power. Without that one aspect, he would not be on par with any of the Ultralisks.

“Should we dispatch a team for you, sir?” Bison asked. He noticed the subtle tics Jiang Fei made.

“No need,” Jiang Fei replied immediately. His eyes were cold and the slit in his forehead was opening slowly. Black malice leaked out from it like blood before it enveloped his entire being. Bison was taken aback with that sudden change and retreated quietly.

Thump.

Even in outer space where air was extremely scarce and there were hardly any particles around to transmit sound, Jiang Fei was still able to create a loud booming thump when he burst out like a cannon toward the nearby Zola Pincher.

The Pincher noticed Jiang Fei’s incoming presence and shrieked as it extended all its tentacles in his direction.

“Die,” Jiang Fei muttered coldly. A black cloud emerged from his entire being and streaked toward the attacking tentacles. It was instant; the tentacles that were touched by the cloud were instantly disintegrated.

The Pincher felt the pain and Jiang Fei’s overwhelming killing instinct. It shrieked again, this time with the intention to run away.

“Die.”

The Umbral Jiang Fei flew across space and punched the immensely large Pincher’s main body.

WHAM!

The Ultralisk was at least half the size of an entire planet and Jiang Fei’s punch pierced through the entire Ultralisk’s body, creating a large see-through hole that was at least several kilometers in diameter. That was not the end of it. At the edge of the hole, black mist could be seen latching itself onto it, eating away the beast from the inside.

Ear piercing shrieks were let out when the beast was completely incapacitated. There was no way it could fight back.

“You and your kind will try to eat me, but none of you will get away alive,” Jiang Fei scoffed.

The black mist constricted every part of the Ultralisk as it corroded and corrupted its body. It took some time but eventually, the life and energy essence of the beast were consumed by the black mist. The entire half-a-planet sized Ultralisk was now a small black-colored matter the size of a basketball, radiating with saturated malice.

Jiang Fei held his palm outward and the ball of black malice zoomed toward him. When the black ball rested on his palm, Jiang Fei closed his hand, absorbing the entire ball into his body.

“GAH… This feels GOOOD!” Jiang Fei blared and smiled, satisfied. Two seconds later, the eerie, sinister smile was quickly replaced with a stunned expression.

“What the f*ck just happened?! 0541, what did I just do?” Jiang Fei asked. He remembered being amongst his soldiers, standing next to Bison, and when he came to, he was already far out in space.

“Captain, I strongly suggest that you seek out Master Theon now and consult him about your condition!” 0541 suggested as it replayed what happened earlier in Jiang Fei’s mind.

“How could this happen?” Jiang Fei gasped. All he remembered was having a little enmity toward a target and the next thing he knew, the target was eliminated and a portion of his memory was gone. He thought about it a while and realized that the same thing happened during the massacre. The moment he had a thought to fight, no matter how small or menial it was, the black matter would immediately come out from the slit on his forehead, enveloping him entirely. The Umbral transformation then granted him an enormous boost of power in exchange for losing his consciousness, turning him into an instrument of death itself. Until the target died, he would never return back to normal.

“You’re right. This is dangerous. Cancel the ship’s route to Earth immediately. I need to have myself checked before I do anything devastating.” He was afraid. Returning to Earth was not an option now. There were people he loved and cared for.

Even though there weren’t any more threats to him besides the Ultralisks, who could promise that there wasn’t something headed his way? If he lost control, and he was on Earth, the Umbral version of him might actually go on a killing spree until a scene of hell was created before him. He would not want to wake up someday to see that.

“Aye, captain!”

0541 obeyed the order and quickly changed the ship’s course.