Elder Cultivator

On their final approach to the planet Gniteria, which was the home of the main sect for the Silver Fang, the assault group had just finished wrapping up their final plans.

Tauno had a stern look on his face. “These people are terrible.”

“I agree,” Koralo nodded sagely. “They seem as if their purpose has been to cause the most damage to our people, not to gain the most benefit for themselves.”

“Huh? Oh, yeah. That’s not great either. But mostly I meant that their style sucks. Seriously, they’re totally lacking in cohesion. Seriously, hunters of wolves? It’s like their founder saw a wolf once and got scared, then decided they were the apex predator throughout all worlds.”

“I see,” Koralo responded. “I suppose I should have expected that angle from you. But simply because their essence is focused, it does not mean they’re weak.”

Tauno held up a spear made from some sort of spine. “If they made practical use of their fallen foes it would be one thing. But the fur is an aesthetic and little more.”

Prasad gave his own comments. “That is quite a judgment for you never having engaged them in combat.”

“That’s not quite true,” Tauno replied. “I fought some of them before the Scarlet Alliance was formed, just to see. I wasn’t impressed. They don’t seem to have done much but breed since then.”

“At least one of their Augmentation cultivators advanced recently,” Koralo explained. “At least on the scale of the Scarlet Alliance’s lifespan. I wouldn’t call that nothing.”

“We’ll see when I fight them. I hope they remembered to leave some people defending their homeworld, or this is going to be boring. You can handle the barrier?”

“As long as the scouts didn’t miss anything, I hardly need to. Our information indicates it is rather poorly maintained. But I will be prepared to adapt should that prove not to be the case.”

A planet much like any other appeared before them. It had more apparent wilderness than most highly populated worlds, but that was to be expected from those who fancied themselves great hunters. They needed sufficient space to continue with their traditions.

That did lead to cities brimming with greater populations, skyscrapers held up more by enchantments than precision engineering allowing more people to be packed into a smaller space. Within the core sect of the Silver Fang there stood one much greater, a curved tower closely resembling a wolven canine standing nearly double the height of any others.

Their target would be the most well defended area, but also the most valuable place to strike. They could only hope that their plan was not more reckless than it seemed.

Velvet kept her attention on the stealth systems as they approached the planet itself. The lack of orbital platforms seemed odd to her, but that was not terribly odd for cultivators. They often gave little care to planetary defense aside from a large barrier.

“Everyone remember where the ship is going to idle?” Velvet asked. “We can’t just leave it near the shockwaves of battle.”

“Nope,” Durff replied smoothly. “So you guys have to survive so I can make it back.”

Everyone else gave an affirmative answer, of course.

“Good,” Velvet said, standing up. “I can keep us stealthed at least until we break through the barrier. Beyond that…”

“I expect we’ll quite quickly reveal ourselves,” Prasad commented. “I certainly don’t intend to be casual in my approach.”

Koralo looked at Durff. “Do you at least remember what I told you about the tower’s formations?”

“I have a pretty good idea where to hit, yeah,” Durff said.

“I’ll try to follow behind in case there are any hangups,” he said.

The six of those present made their way to the exit hatch as the ship made the last adjustments above the planet. Then they dropped out.

Koralo pulled out a simple looking sphere, but that simplicity faded away when he threw it to strike the barrier below. It suddenly expanded in size, from the size of a fist to double that- but the new size was merely a projection. However, it expanded again and again, doubling in size each time. The projection had extended through the barrier, cutting off the flow into its center. It then collapsed into a ring, leaving a hole about a meter across.

Instantly, Durff dropped through. A moment later, he was outside of Velvet’s range to hide his energy- but he also wasn’t trying himself. And the fireball of igniting atmosphere around him wasn’t so simple to hide either.

Durff accelerated downward faster than gravity could carry him, his hammer held at the ready. People were scrambling to react when he struck the tip of the Silver Fang itself. His momentum completely ceased… but rather than crumpling into rubble, the tower stood without a mark. Durff did not look disappointed, instead letting himself drop next to its base.

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A hundred disciples and a few elders were rushing out from that very tower, and more from beyond, but massive palms began to crush buildings further away as Prasad began his attack. Meanwhile, Tauno landed next to Durff and immediately struck out at the strongest elder nearby.

The first dozen disciples to strike Durff did so simultaneously, and their spears likewise shattered simultaneously. While Durff’s armor flowed around him like a liquid to settle in place, once set it was immeasurably hard and was a hazard to those who were unprepared. Though that would have been of lesser value had the individual inside of the armor not been able to hold himself against the blows.

Durff wasn’t even paying attention to the crowd around him. Instead, he was looking at his target… and the tower in front of him, which were not the same thing. With a wide swing, he swept people out of his path. His hammer struck the base of the main tower… and the entire thing sailed through the air, the base cracking apart in a single instant. It sailed point first through a grand statue of the sect’s founder, standing triumphant over a fallen wolf. All that remained after the fight was the man’s legs.

When the building finally stopped after having tumbled over a great portion of the inner sect finally sustained the impacts levied upon it, and its enchantments were unable to keep up with the strain. Where it didn’t immediately crack, it began to crumble under its own weight.

Tauno’s wish had been fulfilled to some extent, as the elder he was battling was an Augmentation cultivator. However, with the very first move he drove his own spear through the tip of his opponent’s spear, splitting the metal and wood.

“Should have made your weapon from a creature you slew with your own hands,” Tauno commented. Not that any advice he gave would be useful, as he stabbed the elder in the back as he turned to flee. The man had only had a handful of moments to stabilize his own energy for battle, and while he might have been disturbed in the middle of his cultivation and thus weaker, Tauno wasn’t going to give the man a chance to fight at his full strength. If he had been caught off guard, he deserved his fate.

Then Tauno roared, his aura spreading throughout the sect with the uneasy fear that distortion beasts tended to bring with them. Weaker cultivators convulsed, unable to withstand the sudden effect. Durff was pleased, as it allowed him to look around. “Now, where did they put that?” he said. He casually attached his hammer onto his back as he walked around, not even thinking about battle at the moment.

Velvet was merely a trail of death among the local disciples, taking full advantage of her twin voidsteel daggers. Any exposed flesh became a target as she sliced through the energy of Integration cultivators one after another. They were the greatest threat, numerous as they were, though they could not easily join together against their smaller numbers.

Lelka fought exactly as she had said, flying in the air above everything and taking down opponents with beams of concentrated light. A small portion of individuals attempted to fly up and deal with her, but not enough of them coordinated at any one time. The threats of Tauno and Prasad were extremely immediate.

Koralo had no visible presence, but Velvet knew he was wandering around disrupting formations that were supposed to give a homeground advantage to the sect. Perhaps in a few minutes they would be the ones bolstered by the formations instead.

Durff’s feet carried him over many kilometers, though still within the central sect. He brushed past all of those trying to stop him as he looked for one thing in particular. “There you are,” he said as he approached a mountain. “Mine number one.”

Frankly, Durff thought it would be a pain to try to fight their way all across the planet, collapsing every mine they came across. However, he knew something that they didn’t know. Mines wanted to collapse. Big holes in the ground weren’t stable at all. He pulled out from his storage bag the pick Grandmaster Sadiq had so kindly made him, feeling its weight. If he did it right, all he’d need was one good swing.

His pick swung into the ground. With its length, one would expect that he could collapse no more than a meter of stone- but of course, that was only considering its standard length. And Durff wasn’t restricted in his energy usage here. Having good basics really helped with everything. He also had a strong body that could withstand the counterforce of his efforts without him having to supplement with too much upper energy, letting him focus that effect.

The ground trembled, once, twice… then a wide pit opened up around where he swung as everything compressed inward. Durff looked at it and shook his head. “That wasn’t the right feeling.”

He hefted his pick again and swung it down, and when he did there was no immediate feedback as his pick extended and sank a kilometer deep into the collapsed mine. He pulled his weapon out, wiped his forehead, had his armor pull back so he could actually touch his forehead, then nodded.

“That should be good enough. Alright guys, we can leave now!” he shouted.

Even if they didn’t hear him clearly, they’d figure it out as he leapt towards the sky. The planetary formation was a bit shaky above them, considering a large portion of the main sect’s infrastructure had collapsed. Durff wondered if more of it could cave in with the mines. Well, that wasn’t his business.

Lelka looked over at him as he flew up next to her. She continued blasting people as she raised an eyebrow. “Done already? I thought we were here to cause maximum damage.”

“Yeah, but I’m done with my tasks now. So we can go.”

“You collapsed one mine,” Lelka pointed out. “It’s not going to be operational anytime soon, I agree. But what about the rest of them.”

“What about the rest of them? They shouldn’t be much better.”

A faint rumbling sound reached Lelka’s ears, and she saw buildings below swaying back and forth. Some held together while others collapsed. But given her vantage point, she could see for hundreds of kilometers and the same was happening elsewhere. And if she extended her energy and extrapolated… “Is the entire planet shaking?”

Durff crossed his arms over his chest. “The mines wanted to collapse. I think some of them were pretty deep.”

“I- actually, I saw you hit the Citadel of Exalted Light off the planet. So this might actually be more sensible.” Lelka frowned. “The whole planet isn’t going to collapse, is it?”

“Don’t be silly. Innocent wolves live here.”

Lelka didn’t know whether or not that meant he could have done it. But she had the feeling that maybe he could have. Then again, he was the right sort of cultivator for such a result.

The others began to appear around them, starting with Koralo. Tauno was last, looking somewhat disappointed. “Next time, we need to make sure they’re better defended.”

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