Ascenders: Rising From Zero 42 Surviving Capture

Not that it was surprising but he hadn't expected the bite to take as much as 50 points of energy from him. His energy had dropped now from 745 to 695.

And as it did, the Law of Gluttony rushed in to fill the spot, fueling the Principle of Affection to absorb energy. But unlike before, the energy trickled in units of 5, 7, 3...

But it was enough.

Little drops of water make a mighty ocean after all.

Smiling inwardly, he infused energy into the Tailed heat conducting metal ball of spikes, drilling in 300energy points.

It was half of his energy but he couldn't afford to hold back. Not when there were two Vampires watching him.

Quickly, he mandated his business zone of his tail to heat up, bringing it in a swing for a home run.

THWACK!

The tail slammed heavily and quickly into the Wolf's side as the smelting of roasted fur steamed into the dusk airs. Fueled by the momentum of the slam, the Wolf growled, staggering away and blindly on a motion that was not its own, for ten meters.

Now, that was something.

"W-what?" The coarse voice of the Wolf sounded like the grinding of two stones together. It blinked, looking uncertainly at the Latent Stealth Dog ahead of it, which was engaging in a sort of tap tap dance with its paws.

It was mocking it.

"Tske... You!" The wolf growled, limping forward as Agbara blazed out from his eyes, making them a kind of energy flare sort of.

Bayo blinked.

He wasn't expecting this type of reaction from them all. Even the male vampire that had wanted to move for him earlier on but was stopped by a signal from the female just stared at him.

'Behold the power of My Super Star Dance Stun!' He gloated, as he prepped his limbs.

They all were stunned, and this was his chance to make the hit. His frame transversed the 10 meters gap, racing with reckless abandon with open fangs.

This was going to be the home run...

'Stop!' Yasmin ordered when he was just inches from the Wolf. 'Turn back. I am detecting a concentration of Agbara from the Wolf from its Law of Gluttony.'

Bayo frowned. 'Too late now.' He was already inches from glory. After all the Wolf was still looking stunned.

He flicked his fangs wide and crunches on the neck of the Wolf. Only to bite nothing. Confused, he slammed his weight forward, hoping to hit the Wolf who might have escaped him by a hair's breadth.

But still, nothing.

Instead, his empty slam buckled his stand, almost throwing him to the ground. In a fright or flight response, he righted himself. But it was already late as a dozen set of Fangs sank into his backside, mercilessly.

'NNNRRGHHHHH...' Bayo gritted his teeth, pain coursing through his entire body. He had being enduring the pain of a throbbing soul all along. But now, it was even worse.

The physical and soul pains he felt almost blackened his vision. He staggered, falling but th fangs wouldn't let his limbs give way as they picked him up and righted his paws on the ground, solidly.

In intense pain,he stretched his neck to see what had happened. To his dismay, 6 Spirit Wolves were sinking their fangs in his back.

'it appears that the Spirt Wolf has just used Principle of Space to multiply itself as well as deceive you earlier on. It was never stunned, what you slammed was merely a space clone.' Yasmin stated, clearing off his confusion.

'Oh... space eh.' Bayo muttered, tanking the pain as he swung his tail again for a hit.

Not he was right, then his hit would clear through all the clones, revealing the right one. He just had to try.

FWOOOM...

'NDERGHHH...' Bayo yelped, eyes watering as the pain of a severed tail rang out wildly against his frame. A burning Sensation stood where his tail once stood, churning out trickles of energy.

His life essence.

"Dont lose yourself after that snack of its tail. You are not to kill it, remember." The female Vampire shot out a reminder to the Wolf.

"O Ga fun ê oh!"(1)The wolf replied in Yoruba as it let go of its prey, visibly annoyed. The wolf bowled, slamming a fist down into its prey waistside, sending the entire frame buckling down to the ground as all the other clones replicated.

The original wolf was standing just beside Bayo's right shoulder.

Bayo buckled, falling flat on all fours. The pain as intoxicating, infuriating and totally cruel. It seared through his subconscious, melting his mind like a big knife in butter. The doubles assault of the Wolves had chunked off 320 points of energy, rendering him at 100 points left.

And the reason it was even yet 100 was because the Law of Love was trickling minute energy points via the Principle of Purity into his body, trying to calm his nerves down as well as Principle of Affection.

Yes, that was it.

'Gltuttony, you still active?' He asked frantically. Who was he deceiving? Since when did Energy become sentient?

But to his surprise ,the Law of Gluttony churned hungrily in him as it flowed through his body faster and faster in response to his call.

'You ready for another home run?' He asked.

The Law churned angrily again, slamming against his body inwardly as its flow increased speed tremendously.

Bayo was Breathing on Adrenaline of Gluttony.

More!

Im full but More

Can take More!

Yes, Ready for more!

The Law whispered hungrily within him, licking up the wounds he had sustained already.

'I do not rommenend that! The Law of Love filled your soul to its current capability that your form can handle. Gluttony stretched it further. Using Gluttony once more at this time will only force your soul into expiration. Soul decline!' Yasmin warned.

Just then, a heavy weight buckled into his side sending him spinning away. His energy dropped to 20 at the impact.

"I said, don't kill it. Deola call your wolf back." Tobia ordered as the wolf strolled leisurely to the smacked out body of Bayo that was lying haphazardly against the circular rock.

"He's knocked out!" The wolf rasped as the Deola moved closer.

'Tske... eh... damn l.. you... I'm not.... knocked out yet...' Bayo strained within his mind.

His soul had being bulging for the time past now, on the verge Of exploding. Using Gluttony once more would make sure the job was complete but again, his soul was already down to 20 points of energy.

What did he have to lose? Nothing!

Using Gluttony again, meant certain death. Not using it still meant he was going to die. It was just a matter of the best odds.

And he would rather die taking down his enemy than go down alone.

Frowning, he picked himself up, standing on wobbly feet. Testing one paw forward, he nearly fell but righted himself immediately. Why wasn't Principle of Chastity strengthening him ?

Or was his one time use already expired?

On his second step, he had gained much of a composure. Snarling, he pounced forward, racing with a sucidal head dive towards the Wolf.

It was Now!

3 meters.... 2... 1...

'GWAAK!' Bayo choked as the paw of the wolf gripped into his neck, raising him up like a trophy.

The Wolf snout shrank a little in the curve of a smile, watching the breathless look in the eyes of its prey as his claws dug in, deeper into the neck, bleeding energy essence. The Wolf shifted its weight to balance well on three paws while the other wolves suddenly magneted themselves towards it, superimposing upon the original.

"You..." The spirit wolf growled. "Give up." Its voice rocky, echoed against the cave.

However, inwardly, Bayo was smiling maniacally. This was what he had planned for.

'Hey, Gluttony, how about some assist from Principle of Absorption?' Bayo asked as the churning of the Law energy slowed though as if contemplating the question.

Then as quickly as it's slowed, it picked up, flowing round it's Soul and thinning till it was a silvery strand of seeking hungry Energy thread.

Not satisfied.

More.

Give me more.

More than I can take.

Give it all.

More.

Still hungry.

More.

'Okay, boy. NOW!' Bayo snarled, swatting a Law at the Wolf.

Before the paw could connect, the Wolf slammed him down against the ground, causing another bout of pain to spasm through his muscles.

But it was enough.

Simultaneously, his body glowed a sickly purplish dark color as light shone out of it in a diverging form. Only that, the deep purplish light was concentrated at the Wolf, giving it an exterior shape of an inverted cone.

"W-what?" The spirit Wolf stuttered as its body suddenly cramped up, shrinking slowly.

At that, Deola's eyes widened. "Impossible." She screamed as a trending force through her soul.

Her soulbound Wolf was forcefully being extracted from her and it hurt, badly. She grit her teeth as she fell to her knees, pointing a hand towards the now shrinking, startled wolf.

"S-stop it... Absorbing... its... absorbing my wolf." She gasped, energy strands whisking away from her towards the wolf as the wolf imprint beside her soul began fading.

"How?" Tobia frowned. "It is impossible. Even if it mastered Principle of Absorption from Gluttony. It is impossible for such a low classed creature to absorb life force as opposed to absorbing energy." Tobia frowned, watching as the wolf began floating in the air, several times smaller than it was.

The light from the Latent Stealth Dog flickered for a brief second as the shrunk particle of the Wolf floated towards its body.

Bayo smiled.

So this was what Absorption felt like? He had only experienced it once and then, he was bodiless to see the reaction. The only time he saw it was with the dragon.

But now that he was seeing it, it was totally a different experience.

'Ndddgghhhhhh... Too much!!!!' Bayo yelled, veins crisscrossing his Latent Stealth Dog as he bulged and shrank simultaneously. Within him, in his soul space, his soul was spasming violently, sloshing here and there as cracks began appearing.

'I... warned you. Excess Energy is absorbed. Your soul cannot withstand the strain any further. Soul fragmentation is begun, leading to Soul decline in the next 5 minutes. ' Yasmin voice it through the entire pain within his system.

Hearing the facts stated, he felt like countering, with the mindset that something could be done but sadly he didn't feel any conviction.

Yasmin was right, he knew the soul genie was.

He was going to die and this time, he felt so much at peace.

"Hey, you Adzes, step aside from the beast." A thick voice bellowed from a distance.

'Who was talking?' Bayo wanted to see what was happening but try as he could, he could only see his soul, fracturing and the shapeless mass of darkness extending over his soul like an adhesive, binding fractured parts of his soul together. However, the cracks were innumerable and the soul genie tried but still was unable to cover all the cracks.

'The 5 minutes you have is a result of me bringing you into your soul space to buy you time. Even though, you acted recklessly, I still believe there is one stunt you can pull. Afterall, you have a unique soul.' Yasmin strained, flinging tendrils upon tendrils towards the large cracks and binding them together.

"Oh, really? You beastkins think you can just pop up and order us around. The beast is ours!". Bayo could recognize the voice because he had heard the voice before. It was the voice of the male vampire.

"Ah! You Adze vampires are truly arrogant. You forget your place." A new voice bellowed, full of might.

"Stop wasting your Agbara to make your voice sound terrifying. One thing is certain today. And it is your death, if you don't step aside, Terilius and Mackrys." The male vampire ordered, his voice full of icy chills.

Just then, a large chunk of his soul tore off before Yasmin could even notice, drifting an fading away. Bayo growled, feeling the intense searing of a fresh bout of pain in his chest that blacked his vision briefly.

Upon, gaining sight again, he saw theYasmin seated atop its soul, with half of its mass clinging and dragging the escaped chunk of soul back to the main piece.

Another chunk fractured off below and Yasmin slid down the mass of his soul, till it was ontop the front with tendrils of darkness grabbing the two large chunks at the top and bottom.

Just the , the most beautiful woman... goddess smiled at him, a bright white teeth, a mesmerizing bath of warmth and love.

'H-help. Me. Patron.' He prayed.

'Eledumare does not permit me to interfere, Bayo. But I believe in you. After all, it's just life force you absorbed and putting it to use can be really helpful at this point, right?' She asked as her form faded off into the catastrophic disaster of his fracturing soul space.

The air chilled around his body, as Bayo heard the running of footsteps towards each other.

Wait.... He absorbed Life Force not Energy Essence...

Did this mean that if he somewhat evolved into the Wolf, he would be free from this imminent soul decline?

'Yasmin, evolve me.'

The mass of darkness stopped its activity for a brief second.

'Yes, evolve me into the Spirit Wolf But first, within the next 4 minutes, allow me tweak its bloodline abit.'

'Amazing! How did I not think about that? Tsk... I was so concerned with saving your soul from fragmentation that I failed to...'

'Yasmin, Evolve.' Bayo stammered, gritting his mental teeth as his vision blurred, pain coursing through him again.

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(T/N)

1. I am tired of you- an indirect Yoruba translation

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Chapter end