111 Danger!

Screaming with satisfaction when the ward fell, the remaining worms, launched a vicious attack against Jayde. As thousands of psionic blasts hit Jayde, the strength of her mental block weakened. Excruciating agony drilled through her brain.

Blood leaking from her nose, Jayde bit her lips as she mustered all her magic to invoke {Earth Dragon Strike} again. The Demonic Nematomorpha were so focused on destroying Jayde that they didn't bother raising their psionic shields, and with their numbers reduced Jayde attack was greatly enhanced.

The vitality that had been drained from Doha was returning to the dead parts of the area, revitalizing the area, and Jayde's {Earth Dragon Strike} returned an abundance of vitality to the area.

Yinxin spell hit the worms, slaughtering more than two thirds. Seeing that there was just over a thousand of the worms left, Jayde rejoiced. Just as she felt that they would be able to win this battle, her joy turned to horror.

The worms left alive had turned on their dead companions and started to cannibalize them.Feeling nauseous just watching the scene, Jayde noticed the Demonic Nematomorpha strength was increasing rapidly.

Jayde knew that time was running out for her and Yinxin, downing the last of her Qi replenishing potions, she invoked her {Earth Dragon Strike}, but this time the worms had raised their psionic shields and with their increased strength Jayde's attack was abolished before it could cause any harm to the worms.

Yinxin, spell only just managed to break through their shields — killing just over two hundred of the worms.

With quick, shallow breaths Jayde prepared to receive the next attack from the worms, she had very little magic left. All she could do now was stand in front of Yinxin as a meat shield, buying Yinxin time to launch a couple more attacks.

This time the Demonic Nematomorpha launched their psionic vampiric attack, as their attacks landed on Jayde, she could feel her remaining magic being sucked from her, but to her consternation, their attack didn't stop there.

Jayde meridians started to shred.Jayde's magic they had siphoned only increased their voracious feeding and Jayde's magic status started to decrease.

Through his bond with Jayde, Reiko could feel Jayde's panic and the horrific drain on her magic, rushing over to her, he tried to help. Merging with Jayde he started to feed his magic to her. Reiko magic helped slow down the drain on Jayde, but now the two of them were locked together, and Reiko's magic was draining fast.

Yinxin could feel that Reiko and Jayde were in a grave situation. Knowing that if she stopped her attacks, all three of them would lose their lives, she carried on weaving her spell, but without Jayde fire abilities, the potency of her attack had decreased drastically.

Jayde magic rank continued to decrease.

Knight of the 12th Class

Knight of the 11th Class

Knight of the 10th Class

Knight of the 9th Class

***

Takara had been spying on the trio from a nearby bush, he was bewildered by what they were up too, he had figured out that they were under attack but he couldn't find who or what was attacking them.

When he realized that Jayde was in a serious predicament, he tried to go to her to help, but her stone ward prevented him from entering. Knowing that if he broke through her ward, she would suffer from a backlash, he debated what to do.

When he saw her shadowbeast collapse, he wasted no time. Reaching out he called Fahmjir frantically.

Fahmjir hearing the desperation in Takara's voice immediately opened up his mind to Takara. In all the years that Takara had served him, he had never once heard his right-hand man desperate.

[Takara, what wrong?] Fahmjir demanded.

[My lord, something is attacking the two females. The human is in a very serious condition and I can't help her due to her ward. I am worried if I break the ward, the human will not survive.] Takara stated.

Fahmjir didn't waste time, immediately he tore a hole into the space-time and teleported directly to Takara. While his head of elite guards could be a whiny bastard at times, he was never one to over exaggerated a situation, if Takara was panicking then the situation was indeed dire.

Arriving on the scene, Fahmjir sent out his senses to probe the area. Finding the Demonic Nematomorpha his eyes widen in pure shock.

"By all the gods, how the f*ck did these things end up on Doha," he said, his voice trembling betraying his fear.

Takara had never heard such a tone from his liege before.

Fahmjir sidestepped into the in-between space, while in the in-between space he walked over to where the trio where then he stepped out of the in-between space.

Like Takara, he too didn't dare break the ward Jayde had set up. Summoning his magic Fahmjir set up a strong ward to cut off the vampiric link between Jayde and the worms. Observing the state of the trio, Fahmjir could see that all three were in a dire situation.

Yinxin magic was nearly deleted, her scales her a dull grey. Blood streamed from Jayde eyes, nose and ears, her lips were chewed raw. Reiko lay on the ground, unconscious, breathing shallowly. His magic totally depleted. If no one intervened within the next few minutes — Reiko would die.

Analyzing the situation quickly, Fahmjir came to a decision. He couldn't help Jayde and Yinxin his magic was incompatible with them and would cause them more harm.

Lifting his giant paw to his chest, he tore a gash open through his chest, then extending a claw, he pierced his heart. Then using his magic he opened Reiko's mouth and allowed five drops of his heart's blood to enter his mouth.

Takara jaw hit the ground seeing his lord sharing some of his precious heart's blood with the shadowbeast. Takara still wasn't sure what was going on, but he knew that the situation must be incredibly serious for his lord to make such a dangerous choice.

Just one drop of his lord's heart blood would drain a thousand years of his cultivation, and weaken the beast lord, and Fahmjir had given the shadowbeast five drops.

As soon as Fahmjir blood entered Reiko's system, Reiko's body underwent tremendous changes. The dormant ancient magic in his cells awakened. Beautiful golden runes started to appear on his body. These golden runes glowed as though they contained liquid gold.

Reiko's black wings changed, from the tip of his wings hues of blue, turquoise and purple appeared fading into black near the bottom of his wings. Fahmjir placed his paws on Reiko's body and pour his own magic into his body.

With Reiko's mind still merged with Jayde's, the magic pouring into his body transferred to hers. Jayde had fallen to the ground, her eyes closed — she was barely conscious when the magic started to fill her body.

Knowing how dire their situation was, Jayde did not care where the magic was coming from, she immediately activated her fire magic and poured her magic into Yinxin.

Yinxin feeling Jayde fire magic again enhancing her earth magic, and with Jayde pouring magic into her she immediately began to weave her spell. With the four of them linked, Yinxin attacked the remaining worms.

With only a few remaining worms left, Fahmjir not wanting to be discovered by the trio teleported himself and Takara back to his den. While linked to Reiko he had read his memories and now knew just what a precarious situation Doha was in — he needed to return to his den to make plans and to recover his strength — he had drained over half of his strength helping the trio out.

***

As soon as the last worm was killed, Yinxin turned to look at Jayde. Seeing the condition that Jayde was in, Yinxin left out a grief-filled cry.

[Jayde!] Yinxin cried out.

Jayde lay on the ground, her body sprawled like a rag doll. Seeing her friend's bleeding and barely conscious body Yinxin stomach clenched, as a sour taste filled her mouth. Leaning down she gently nudge Jayde with her head.

[Jayde!] she cried out again desperate for some sort of response.

Jayde was barely hanging on, blackness was creeping over her mind. Fighting desperately to stay conscious, she struggled to open her eyes. With blurry eyes, she stared at Yinxin leaning over her.

[Did we win?] she whispered.

Hearing Jayde weak voice, tears filled Yinxin eyes.

[Yes, we won Jayde all of those creatures are dead.]

Jayde tried to smile, but she was in too much pain, her mind had been flayed by the Demonic Nematomorpha, and every nerve on her body felt exposed to the naked air. Knowing that she didn't have much time left before she fainted, Jayde recalled Yinxin and Reiko back to her pet space and then summoning the last bit of her strength she teleported directly to the Pavilion.

Just before Yinxin disappeared the tears in her eyes fell and hit the ground. As her tears soaked into the ground it set off a huge chain reaction.

***

As Jayde materialized in the Pavilion, Isha who had been observing the whole fight, was ready to receive her, flashing to her side he caught her tumbling body. Cradling her close to his chest he whispered to her: "I got you, Jayde — you safe."

Hearing Isha reassuring words, Jayde finally let go and allowed the blackness to sweep her away.

Isha and Green had already prepared the medical bay to receive Jayde, rushing her the healing pod, Isha placed her gently inside, he activated the pod. As the glass top slowly closed over, Isha leaned over and gently stroked Jayde bloody hair off her forehead.

"You did good," he said proudly.

***

Fahmjir Den.

When Fahmjir arrived back at his den, he immediately sent a call out for all his elite guards and the elders of the Lightning Panthera packs to attend an emergency meeting.

Receiving the urgent summons everyone dropped what they were doing and teleported directly toFahmjir's den, even Master Kioshi had no choice but to leave his closed-door mediation and attend the meeting.

The elders and guards were in a state, it had been eons since Fahmjir had summoned them, and they were anxious about what had happened to cause such a stir.

Once everyone was gathered, Fahmjir disclosed everything that had happened. When the elders andFahmjir elite force heard about the Demonic Nematomorpha, they were aghast. Never would they have expected they faced such a serious threat.

"My Lord, are you saying that there are hundreds if not thousands of these breeding colonies spread throughout Doha?" one of the elders asked Fahmjir.

"Yes,"Fahmjir answered succinctly.

With Fahmjir confirmation, pure pandemonium broke out, and the elders and guardians started to argue and debate with each other.

"SILENCE!" Fahmjir roared.

It had been such a long time since he had last called everyone together he had forgotten how irritating these elders could be.

Once peace and calm had been restored, Master Kioshi bravely stepped forward.

"My Lord, how are we to combat these things?" he asked respectfully. He knew just how little patience his lord had, and right now was not the time to test his limit.

"We can't defeat them,"Fahmjir said bitterly.

With Fahmjir announcement, the meeting hall became deadly silent, as everyone digested the news that they couldn't defeat these worms, then chaos erupted as the elders started to cry out in despair.

"Shut the f*ck up!" Fahmjir bellowed.

At Fahmjir thunderous bellow, most of the elders rolled onto their backs, showing their stomachs in submission, while Fahmjir guardians lifted their heads, showing their throats.

Seeing everyone submission to his authority, Fahmjir calmed down.

"You have forgotten that those girls defeated a breeding colony," Fahmjir stated calmly.

The elders felt a flush of embarrassment at Fahmjir reminder, they had forgotten all about the two females.

"My Lord, so those females can save us?" one of Fahmjir guardians asked.

"They are the ONLY ones that can defeat those vile creatures," Fahmjir said firmly.

"Takara, Canirr, Suki, Prota, Amaya and Master Kioshi will be appointed as guardians to Jayde and Yinxin."

When Takara heard that four more guardians were going to be appointed to his team, he was overjoyed, snickering to himself he was wondering who he would 'honor' to accompany Jayde and Yinxin. While disgusted and horrified when he heard about those parasitic worms, right now he wanted to give them two big thumbs up, for getting him out of having to shapeshift into that awful 'cute' shape that Fahmjir had ordered.

"Master Kioshi will stay here in the Oceanus Domain to oversee the protective detail, Takara will accompany Jayde and Yinxin as their companion, while Canirr, Suki, Prota and Amaya will stay hidden and protect them in the dark."

Noooo, Takara wailed quietly to himself. This was even worse than before now his subordinates would see him in that disgusting shape.

Those f*cking worms, just you wait until I get my claws in you, I will f*cking shred you into a million pieces, he snarled in his heart.

"Master Kioshi, Master Suki, and Master Ayame you will stay behind so that I can teach you how to sense those breeding colonies. The rest of you will attend training with the master, then you will travel to reach domain, and located every single one of those vile colonies,"Fahmjir ordered.

"Yes, my Lord," everyone chorused.

"Elder Shika and Elder Kenji, I want you and your assistants to go through the ancient texts and find every bit of information that we have on the Demonic Nematomorpha as well as any earth or fire spell that might be beneficial to those girls."

"Yes, Sire," Elder Shika and Elder Kenji said, snapping to attention.

"My Lord. shouldn't we inform the other races of this threat?" asked Elder Kenji.

"No!" Fahmjir stated emphatically.

Seeing the confused looks on his subjects faces, Fahmjir sighed. Really sometimes his people were very naive.

"What do you think would happen if the other races found out that those two little girls were the only ones who could save this planet?" he asked.

"Er... they would want to take over protecting them?" Canirr said tentatively.

Fahmjir just should his head in despair.

"No, idiot! They would immediately try to take control of them, to force the other races to submit to them," Fahmjir growled.

The greed and power hungry races were one of the reasons that Fahmjir had withdrawn from interacting with the rest of Doha, he was disgusted with their power plays.

Fahmjir was happy though that Canirr had reminded him of the despicable means of the other races, especially the humans.

"Master Kioshi, Suki and Ayame, I want every Lightning Panthera to take a blood oath of silence with regards to this matter," he ordered.

At least that way, none of his people would be able to leak this matter. Even if they tried to speak about it, they would just speak gibberish, and if anyone tried to invade their minds to read their thoughts they would get nothing, and they could even lose their own minds if the tried to force their way through the blood vow.

Satisfied that he had covered all the bases, Fahmjir ordered everyone to get going.

--

Notes

[1] Reiko's new form: https://ibb.co/3sjgJjk