The Exalt [Cultivation Fantasy]

The oceans around Portland Island were dyed red in the blood of man and beast alike; waves came ashore to paint the shorelines with blood, guts, and flesh. All around, the guardians of Portland Island fought valiantly with desperation to protect their home, encouraged by the silvery figure in the distance that went from one battlefield to the next to keep on fighting. With mighty shouts, they held the line; one by one, the defenders fell, but they held nonetheless, making sure the beast tide suffered its own losses.

Celestina raged across the battlefield, fighting a powerful Greater Elite Exalt Beast, skewering it straight through the head with her 'Radiant Lance'. Her emerald eyes shone while her body, covered in blood, shuddered at the sight of others dying. She bit her lip, drawing blood down her chin as rage filled her blood-covered face, praying for their lives and vowing to avenge them.

"Sister!" Charles rode atop his amphiptere anima and slithered through the battlefield, blowing away some Lower Elite Exalts to help out the guardians. His words rang out to rouse Celestina out of her state of grief and anger. His silver hair was uneven, and his gold eyes flickered with tiredness. "I know it's hard, but we must not waste their sacrifices."

"You're right, Charles." Celestina bombarded the horde with her volley of light spells. Many cut cleanly through or exploded. The winds of the explosions blew her hair straight back. "Let's keep moving. Phillip! Eleanor!"

…….

A few distances away, Phillip sliced his foe into pieces; his shoulder bled profusely as his face paled. His prided sword anima had cracked riddled on it, showcasing how much he had gone through. He nearly dropped to his knees from the weakness spreading through his body, strength leaking out with the blood from his shoulder.

Suddenly, a large wooden branch wrapped around his shoulder, and a cool verdant green Ein hissed and gave him a comforting feeling. Phillip turned back to Eleanor in thanks.

"Don't make me waste too much Ein to heal you." Eleanor also had the paleness of exhaustion across her face. Many more beasts charged at them, and Eleanor cursed while slamming her hands on the waters. Roots sprang up from her hand and rushed toward several of the beasts, entangling them in brambles. "I need to focus on restricting them."

"I'm sorry for that, Lady Shaw." Phillip rushed ahead, holding his sword backward, fire surrounding the blade.

Phillip made a long arc, longer than a half moon, upwards with his fiery blade, creating a large slash of fire that split an Exalt Beast in half; the two halves burst into flames until extinguished by the deep waters of the ocean. "But I'll make sure to protect you."

Eleanor scoffed and focused her spell on landing several spikes of wood into an Exalt Beast that crept up behind Phillip. "Are you sure about that?"

"I could have handled that. No need for your concern." Phillip continued to fight. Serena was to the side and fought with him. She said nothing because she wholly focused on the beasts.

"Stubborn bastard." Eleanor wrapped more in brambles. Her main specialties were to restrict her enemies and heal her allies. She continuously healed Phillip's wounds and bound as many beasts as possible to save him and the guardians.

She heard Celestina's call and snapped her head to the silvery figure rusted in blood. "Phillip, it's time to move. This battlefield has settled for the moment. On the next."

"Ok!"

They joined up with Celestina and leaped onto their small airship. Celestina drank some heal elixirs and focused on recovering her Ein as fast as possible.

They rotated to every battlefield, taking a short break between each. The strategy worked to keep a balance on the battlefield, saving as many guardians as possible and reserving their strength, allowing the lines to hold. But the beast tide seemed endless as more continued to swim toward Portland Island.

"On to the next!" Celestina stood up, and they moved to the next battlefield.

…….

The Apprentice Exalts fought against each while the Elite Exalts fought each other, but the most brutal battlefield occurred in the Knight Exalt realm. Celestina's royal guard and City Lore Rufus Sharp fought to hold back the Greater Knight Exalt Beasts within the beast tide with their lives on the line. However, the other Knight Exalts of Portland had trouble holding back the rest of the beasts, outnumbered and desperately clinging on.

"If this keeps up, we'll be overwhelmed. Is the army not here yet?!" Rufus shouted as his blue armor shone like the shimmering ocean; his spear tore through the air to strike at the whale-like monstrosity. But the whale bellowed a loud cry, and a large tide arose to stop him.

Celestina's royal guard fought the other beast, shooting it with arrows from her majestic red bow. "Even if they get here fast, it'll take some time. What about Portland's defensive barrier?"

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"It's up to protect the people, but we can't move. The beasts can ignore us and reach the shoreline; we can't allow that." Rufus fought fiercely and was forced back by the great tail of the beast. He gathered his bearings and readied himself but spotted another creature incoming. His eyes widened in shock as he clenched his teeth. "It's another Greater Knight Exalt Beast!"

The large, shelled Exalt Beast with six claws let out a low roar. In the throes of frenzy, it swam over to where the Knight Exalts were holding on for their lives.

"No!" Rufus tried to break free to deter the newcomer, but the whale beast did not relent, forcing him to watch helplessly.

But as the clawed beast came forward, someone flew in, zipping through the air with incredible speed. With a single swing of his claymore, the tall man forced the clawed beast back, an insane powerful slash that lifted the beast from the water.

"Who?" Rufus and Celestina's royal guard stared at their unexpected new ally.

His short indigo hair and mastery of the sword indicated the Raeven lineage. The figure's black eyes glanced at the two and nodded with a short grunt. The air rippled and distorted from the Ein of a Greater Knight Exalt. "I am Robert Raeven. I will handle this beast here."

"Thank you for your timely arrival." Rufus smiled and clashed against the whale beast.

Robert did not respond. He gazed around the battlefield. "That little brat. He writes me a letter saying he'd be at Portland Island and I should visit, but I arrive to find a beast tide happening."

The shrieks of the clawed beast drowned out his grumblings. An eruption of Ein coursed from its blue shell.

Robert scoffed and held out his claymore. His anima manifested and merged into it. "Beast tides are rare, so I wonder how much of this is a coincidence?"

…….

Oscar ran around the rocky cliff, back toward where they first met the hostile group. He still had some Ein to be able to fight, so he rushed over without recovering, worried about the status of Emily and Frederick's battle. Soon, he came close to their location.

The earth quaked as long columns of rock and rubble blasted up into the air as the fierce and destructive battle was still ongoing with no victor. Oscar hid for a moment, his eyes narrowing at the sight of the large burly man, the leader, and a Middle Elite Exalt, who had a salamander anima by his side. Frederick and Emily were in front of the leader, breathing heavily with bodies coated in dust and dirt.

Emily's orange hair no longer had its usual vibrance, choked out by the dirt, and she breathed erratically, trying to grip her staves tightly. Frederick faired worse with one of his bloodied arms hung down from his shoulders, lifeless and limp. But in a short distance behind him was his enemy, fallen on the ground in a pool of blood.

Oscar looked relieved to find his two best friends alive and still fighting, but he focused on the large burly man, a foe that even Emily and Frederick could not overcome together. Oscar circled around the area as the fierce battle continued, riding atop his deer anima in the trees. With a single command, the deer anima bolted with all its speed.

'Silver Lance'

'Silver Star'

Leaving his buckler on the deer anima's antlers, Oscar formed a lance on his right and a ball on his left. He shot his speedy silver star toward the large burly man, who looked taken aback at Oscar's sudden appearance.

"You?!" The large burly man deflected the silver star with his large axe. His salamander anima shrieked.

Emily and Frederick smiled at Oscar, thanking the heavens for his safety and timely help. The trio crashed into the large burly man with all their might. After a long battle, their enemy had been weakened, so Oscar and Frederick destroyed the salamander anima with all their might, and its death throes marked the end for the burly man.

He crashed onto the ground and saw a fierce girl with dulled orange hair lifting her staff that had fast-spinning rocks around it. In the next instant, the weight of her blow broke all his ribs and caved in his chest. Knowing that death and failure were near, he bit into his tooth and erupted into white flames.

"Stay back!" Oscar pulled Emily away before the flames could reach her. They all watched as their foe turned into ash.

"He killed himself?" Emily looked shaken.

"How horrific." Frederick winced at the fine ash that remained of their enemy but then turned to his previous foe, who had not done the same. "It's not automatic. This man is still intact."

"Enough talk," Oscar said. "We need to help Mary and Austin."

Oscar sprinted to the right toward Mary and Austin, followed by Emily and Frederick. They saw signs of battles across the trees but no sign of their companions. Right as worry began to well up in Oscar, he heard one voice shouting and crying.

"Please put me down!"

"This is so embarrassing!"

Oscar stopped and looked strangely at Austin, who carried Mary over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes; her face facing behind him. Mary's short legs kept kicking about to free herself from this embarrassing position, but Austin remained cool, as though he did not hear her complaints.

"Austin! Mary!" Oscar shouted.

"Oh, you're alive." Austin seemed indifferent to the other three, but Mary shouted even louder.

"PUT ME DOWN!" Her face reddened, and she got more unruly. "Emily, can you carry me?!"

Emily laughed and came forward.

Austin took Mary gently off his shoulder and into Emily's arms. He sighed and said, "She pushed herself way too much. I decided to carry her like this because she's small."

"Small?" Mary trembled and stared at Austin as if she was going to grab his throat.

"By definition, you are small," Austin stated so blandly that Mary took a critical hit and knocked her head back.

Oscar smiled and laughed. "I'm glad everyone is safe."

"It is good, but our enemies were quite strange. Our enemies had quite the low-grade Exolsias but a ton of experience." Austin said. "They also burned themselves."

"We can think about that later. For now, we have to see what that strange glow is." Frederick reminded everyone.

They scaled up the rocky cliff to the source of the strange glow.

"What is this?" Oscar beheld the strange stone pillars placed in a circle, streams of Ein connecting them in a formation. "They must have set this up."

"Let's destroy it. I don't know what they were planning, but I don't want to let whatever they made keep on running." Emily brandished her staff. Everyone nodded in agreement.

Focusing all their power, Oscar and the others targeted a single stone pillar, but it remained sturdy and stood tall. Time passed, and after several cycles of recovery and attack, they finally destroyed one stone pillar. As it fell, the other pillars dimmed as the Ein faded.

Oscar felt the island shake once more the air groaned. What was happening?

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