Elder Cultivator

It was quite obvious to Anton that the people of Xaphiot didn’t wish to speak about Airus except in vague terms, and that was doubly true of whatever was in the core of their planet. They also kept silent on the matter of teleportation.

Anton hadn’t yet asked directly about any of those pieces, but that was to help maintain his current facade of power. Perhaps stronger than individual cultivators on the planet, but only by a small margin. However, even without a bound star in the system he was actually quite a bit stronger than he led them to believe. So far, nobody had tried to kill him and take his things… so that was good at least.

From the small snippets that he overheard, it seemed that there were long standing rivalries between the planets… which indicated some way to interact with each other. Without any apparent space travel, Anton wasn’t quite sure how that was- but he could make some assumptions. Perhaps they had interplanetary teleportation… though why they would not create formations to stop the other side from teleporting to their planet was a mystery. Perhaps their particular techniques were difficult to block.

Ultimately, Anton knew that he needed to learn from the other side. So while he appreciated being a guest of the Swirling Sword Sect and Elder Togoldor, he was going to have to visit Airus himself. He just needed to find a way to do that with minimal fuss. At least the two planets weren’t in active conflict, or his task would be several times more difficult.

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Finally the Scarlet Alliance had managed to track down the biggest trouble in the Silver Fang. The pair of cultivators that had most disrespected the territorial claims of the Scarlet Alliance. One was the sect head, a man named Reigo. The other was one of the sect elders, carrying the name Tanel.

Scarlet Alliance forces had pinned them in, eventually driving them to the planet Tros, where they had taken a stand with four other Augmentation cultivators from their sect.

The assault on the planet was about to begin, after having gathered what forces they could quickly bring to the area. The Scarlet Alliance fleets were led by Zazil, Prasad, Catarina, and Timothy. While the enemy had an advantage in numbers, the quality of their cultivators had proven to be worse. While they anticipated that Reigo would surpass the others, the few recordings from his raids hadn’t shown an alarming level of power- simply one that outlying planets hadn’t been prepared to deal with.

Something drew Catarina’s attention to her tablet. “We’re not a moment too soon,” she said. “Looks like some sort of reinforcement fleet is approaching.” She furrowed her brow. “A powerful one. Too bad we didn’t have any proper scouts in system, as the report is somewhat lacking. I can only tell that the fleet had sufficient power to trigger a warning.”

“I would anticipate a week,” Catarina said. “Unless this fleet is particularly quick. Though subtracting the travel time of the message, it might only be a few days now. But that’s sufficient time to take down Reigo.”

“We should get started,” Zazil said, metal rings spinning around her. “It would be better to be done and off before they arrive. And we have other objectives besides the killing.”

Catarina nodded. “Our strike teams are prepared to focus on major slave markets or labor zones. Some of our transports are still en-route, however. Just a few hours away.”

“We should have enough to get started,” Timothy said. “What’s your assessment of the formation?”

Catarina grinned. “Weak. And clearly supplied by some other sect. The Silver Fang doesn’t seem capable of fully maintaining their planetary barriers. Don’t worry, I’ve already confirmed attack points with the fleet. They’re just waiting for bombardment orders.”

“Then we begin,” Prasad declared.

Two giant hands appeared, nearly cradling the planet between them. They slapped together, delivering a shock to the entire planetary barrier. A third much more modestly sized palm- just a few kilometers across- then crashed into the barrier directly above the enemy’s main defensive position.

The four cultivators rushed in as the main fleet followed after, the orders given for the other fleets surrounding the planet to begin their own assault. Enemies rose up to meet them, but their Augmentation cultivators remained beneath the sect’s barriers.

Catarina observed the inner barrier without concern. Timothy stood next to her, driving away all attacks. Most cultivators found their assaults rebounding upon themselves, having to expend double their initial investment just to balance things out.

The barrier was simple enough that they could certainly just overpower it- though not trivially. Catarina focused on analyzing the barrier while the others dealt with incoming waves of enemies. No doubt reinforcements would be called from other parts of the planet, but they all had their own concerns at the moment.

Clearly they’d spent more resources on this inner barrier. Catarina took a good fifteen minutes to confirm its weak points, where it would not only fall more easily but be unable to rebound attacks. If it was a fully passive barrier, she would have not bothered to be so thorough… but she preferred not to underestimate the Silver Fang. Expending too much of their energy before fighting the sect head would be a waste.

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“I’ve got it,” Catarina declared. She directed the others on how they should begin their assault, with their attacks hopefully continuing to the cultivators sheltering below. Of course, the Augmentation cultivators would no doubt strike back at the same moment.

The moment before they began their attack, Catarina paused. Only top priority messages should be coming through. Another fleet? How had they missed it? It was closer than the last.

No. That might not be the correct way to interpret things. With this timing…

“We don’t have days,” Catarina said. “Something is approaching, quickly. Almost at the same rate as our messages propagate. We might only have a couple hours.”

A measure of hours was both an extremely short time, and an extremely long one. A battle between cultivators could last a single instant, or it could stretch out over days.

Prasad wasted no time launching his attacks on the barrier… but as he did so, the Augmentation cultivators inside supplemented the barrier with their own energy and direct control.

That wasn’t an efficient use of their energy, however. Were they stalling for time? Did they know?

It wasn’t strange for them to have received advance word of incoming reinforcements. Though what concerned Catarina the most was how swift the fleet was moving. Even their best ships weren’t anywhere close to that fast. How could-

“We should leave,” she declared.

Zazil glared at her. “Now? This is our best opportunity to deal a crushing blow to their leadership. If this incoming fleet shows up… we’ll take it down as well.”

Timothy frowned. “It’s… not a fleet, is it?”

“I don’t think so,” Catarina admitted. “The speed is too much. Even an Augmentation cultivator couldn’t manage that speed.”

“You mean…?”

Zazil interrupted them. “They can’t just throw Domination cultivators around everywhere. Even if one is coming… we need to maintain our assault here so our other forces can withdraw.”

“I want to at least warn people to try to avoid prolonged engagements,” Catarina said.

A few moments of discussion hadn’t actually stopped their focus on the barrier. Zazil’s rings were crawling over the surface, cutting into it- and disrupting it at as many points as possible. The actual barrier itself was constantly being torn apart, but the persistent Augmentation cultivators within was maintaining a shield of their own energy.

Short battles between high ranking cultivators didn’t tend to be because one side completely wore down the other in a few moments. Instead, they found a weakness in defenses, concentrating their energy to break through in an instant. A pure defense like the Silver Fang were putting on was inefficient… but they might be able to hold out for a couple hours.

If Catarina couldn’t convince the others they should immediately withdraw- and Prasad didn’t seem any more willing than Zazil- then she could at least do her best. If only she had a clear assessment of the incoming energy besides a vague magnitude. But since she didn’t, she began setting up a generic shell of a formation.

She carved into surrounding buildings while Zazil and Prasad continued their assault on the barrier. The rest of their forces were busy securing the wider area, fighting off lesser cultivators attempting to swarm in.

This would have been a perfect day to have someone meant for cracking barriers like Durff present. Or to have begun their assault a few hours earlier, even if it wouldn’t have been perfectly ready. But an unanticipated factor was making things difficult.

Timothy had little to contribute to bashing down a barrier. Facing static defenses was his least viable option, so instead he maintained his readiness. With the main barrier that the Augmentation cultivators below flickering into and out of existence, it was possible that counterattacks would be launched. He wouldn’t want harm to come to any of their Augmentation cultivators as they were focused on offense. Or to his wife, concentrating on carving the surrounding buildings into some sort of functional formation.

Along with cutting things up, she shattered windows and toppled furniture to shift the flow of energy- along with throwing down formation flags she carried with her to supplement the process. She worked quickly, but it was still not an instantaneous process. By the time she set up a basic formation around the area meant to begin draining the energy from the Silver Fang cultivators huddling inside, several more alerts confirmed some of her fears about the incoming foe.

“We need to be done quickly!” Catarina warned.

Prasad nodded, putting more vigor into his attacks. Giant palms rained down repeatedly on the central structure where the Silver Fang cultivators were sheltering. All of Zazil’s rings focused on a single point, crashing through the final defenses. The six Augmentation cultivators scattered, and no longer able to maintain their defense switched to the attack.

Reigo was a silver haired man, his long mane of hair blending with the wolf pelts he wore. Catarina felt his strength as he charged towards her. He was, of course, intercepted by Timothy. Catarina had her own moves prepared to counter him if Timothy had prioritized something else, but the man’s spear deflected off of Timothy’s shield, the energy piercing through several nearby buildings.

The old man was clearly drawing upon his deepest reserves. He would be able to fight at full strength for only a short time, even after being worn down… but that might just be enough.

Catarina focused on empowering her formation, trying to weaken the six Augmentation cultivators as a whole. Every bit of their energy would help the formation’s secondary purpose.

But Catarina’s estimation of timing had relied on a constant rate of approach, which was incorrect. It seemed the incoming individual was actually able to accelerate even further, as evidenced by her early arrival.

The instant Catarina sensed a cultivator at the edge of the system, the entire planet was suddenly engulfed in flames. Not consuming flames, but ones that suffused the entire area. In that instant, everyone was aware that a powerful cultivator from the Creeping Fire Sect had arrived. The flames would bolster their allies and suppress their enemies.

It could only be assumed that the aura everyone sensed was that of Koronis, the Sect Head of the Creeping Fire Sect. The Scarlet Alliance had no recording of her personal energy, but it was an easy presumption to make. It seemed their intelligence had been lacking, however. Because there had been no previous indication she was a Domination cultivator.

“I think that’s quite enough,” the woman’s voice rang throughout the system. “This quarrel ends now.”

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