From her position on the safe side of the leviathan, Nitza assessed the current situation. She had most certainly required the sudden flip to keep her safe as a second Ascending Soul Phase cultivator had snuck up from behind… though actually, Nitza simply missed him.

  She had focused far too much on her single opponent, trusting in Yonit to hold off the other two. Her trust wasn’t misplaced- Yonit had managed to wound the man as he disengaged. She should have sensed that moment, but she had been careless.

  Of all the strong cultivators Nitza knew, none of the others would have missed that. If they were so careless, they would have fallen in battle long before. No, even she had sufficient combat experience to avoid such a stupid mistake. Even if she didn’t fight above her own level frequently, it was always appropriate to keep a sense of your surroundings.

  But things had come to this point, so she simply had to manage. “Sorry, Carl,” she said. “That was my fault.” The Leviathan wasn’t terribly hurt, but he shouldn’t have even gotten a scratch if he wasn’t defending her.

  So, what to do? Was she now the one delaying while Yonit and the rest defeated the others of the Sovereign Primacy? That seemed like a good call, except for one minor detail… Carl couldn’t dodge. At best he could reposition to a different angle where attacks would be deflected instead of direct hits, but there was no way to move something of his bulk out of the way of any attack that could damage him.

  The leviathan was powerful, certainly, but he wasn’t two Ascending Soul Phase cultivators powerful. Not if they had any sense to them. If they decided to forgo technique it might be a different picture- but in that case Nitza would have to say they were trying to lose. Assuming they weren’t terrible, she would have to make up the difference somehow.

  First Carl had to flip back over while she still remained defended. Avoiding one cultivator’s attacks was achievable with a bit of borrowed power, but two? No chance. So first she would maneuver the leviathan back to the other orientation and…

  Actually, this was fine. Carl’s belly wasn’t particularly vulnerable. Nor did the leviathan entirely have a top and bottom. It was just that she was used to a particular orientation. Flipping might still be valuable, but she would need to combine it with something else worthwhile.

  The leviathan was thrashing around, creating waves on the surface above. The ship of the first cultivator was still mostly intact, but if they could deal with that they would have less cover. Of course, Nitza was under no illusions that they would fare poorly in the water. Clearly, they were ready for the Shimmering Islands.

  “Okay, Carl! We’re taking out that ship first… unless one of those two is stupid enough to get in the way.”

  It was strange to see the ship ‘below’ her, but battles underwater didn’t always maintain the same orientation. The same was true in the skies- a cultivator who couldn’t manage a small shift in perspective wouldn’t last long.

  Nitza urged Carl to dive deeper. At the same time, he could lash out at the vessel with any number of things. There were several long tails, fins at different angles, and spikes going every which way. The anatomy didn’t have to make much sense as half of the work was done by spiritual energy. Some people might have called Carl monstrous, but Nitza didn’t associate with those people because they would be dead.

  On his own, Carl would have swept a trailing tail at the ship and swiped it away. With Nitza’s guidance, he actually used the tip of the tail, accelerating it through the water by minimizing friction.

  Both Ascending Soul Phase cultivators were launching attacks at Carl, summoning the storm above to try to pelt him with lightning while also throwing spears into the sea. Neither was foolish enough to get in the way of the attack… and the ship was far too slow to avoid it. The hull cracked, even with its enchantments and the combined energies of the cultivators aboard.

  They scattered into the sea. Immediately, some of them were swimming after Nitza, planning to reach around the leviathan. Unfortunately for them, they had a long way to go- and they had to avoid any incidental attacks that might get to them first.

  Carl couldn’t swim too deeply or the Ascending Soul Phase cultivators might just go after the others, but given his size a significant amount of his bulk could be dozens of meters beneath the surface while he could still attack the cultivators standing atop the stormy waves. It wasn’t just lashing tails, but also creating massive swells of water. Nitza found great joy in pushing various cultivators into the path of bolts of lightning. Even if most of them didn’t actually get hit, it meant that the Ascending Soul Phase cultivator had to avoid them, weakening the attacks.

  After a while, Nitza didn’t find the situation much different from training she’d done. The main difference was that in addition to lightning from the sky, one of the Ascending Soul Phase cultivators was trying to impale Carl with spears to act as lightning rods. It was a pretty obvious pair tactic. Carl might have been fooled by it all on his own, leaving the various spears impaled assuming they could cause no further damage, but Nitza would make sure to destroy them.

  The first cultivator reached Nitza. Another Consolidated Soul Phase cultivator, though not at the peak. It still would have been difficult to defeat the cultivator in an instant, if Nitza were using only her own energy. Instead, she redirected a small portion of Carl’s energy to freeze the water around the woman as she tried to sneak up behind Nitza with a short blade. Then Nitza kicked the icy sphere towards another approaching cultivator.

  Drawing upon Carl’s energy didn’t prevent him from using his own. The limitation wasn’t the total quantity he had, but how much he could actively control himself. At the moment, Nitza could manage something greater than her own Consolidated Soul Phase power, but not as much as a proper Ascending Soul Phase cultivator. Some were relatively weaker, so she might surpass them- but none were actually weak.

  That was the problem with the current opponents. They would eventually find an opening to cause serious damage to Carl… or they might sneak around and take her out. Nitza wasn’t going to make that easy for them, but they were already spreading out to flank Carl to some extent, attacking from far angles.

  A single swipe from Carl knocked away about half of the weaker cultivators. Most of them would be undamaged, but breathing room was helpful. Attacks continued to rain down from above, leaving small wounds as Carl couldn’t defend his entire colossal body at once.

  Nitza guided a few attacks to counter their foes. If he was swiping, the energy concentrated on that limb served as both attack and defense. She just had to get the timing right, and of course communicate things properly to Carl. She was glad he moved along with any prompting she did without question.

  “Ugh, this isn’t going to work,” Nitza complained. The distance they had gained to use as cover also worked in reverse to some extent. Even if water resistance wasn’t a big deal for the aquatic leviathan, the further he had to attack from the longer the enemies had to dodge. Fractions of a second would vastly change the outcome. “We need another form of attack.”

  Carl helpfully highlighted some of his spines. Nitza didn’t immediately understand why- they had the same problems as the rest of him. Until she paid closer attention to their construction. They seemed able to… detach? Why didn’t Carl ever use them?

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  “Do you need me to aim them?”

  She didn’t get a proper response, but she felt that was right. Carl really wasn’t made for attacking anything smaller than an entire ship. Humans were miniscule in comparison, and fast. Quite difficult to focus on. Yet somehow, the leviathan wasn’t even a fraction of the size of his predecessor. The original sea god had been closer to the size of a large city, with blood vessels the size of wide hallways.

  Even if the spines were made to be projectiles, they were limited in number… and looked painful to shoot. Nitza would need to get the timing precisely right. She also had to pick one of the greater opponents. The storm user, or the spear tosser? The latter was already injured. If she could finish him off… but he was cautious, and kept further. Battle didn’t always line up with a cultivator’s desires.

  Nitza made certain to keep swatting aside weaker cultivators. Carl would eventually run out of spiritual energy, but in a battle of pure endurance he would likely win, even combining his power against an entire ship and two Ascending Soul Phase opponents. Along the way he would sustain many injuries, though. Nitza was able to focus on lesser threats, mobilizing energy quickly. Only a small portion of hers was actually involved, leading the leviathan.

  Water spouts shot people like cannonballs towards her foes. Even if they dodged, that was fine. The tiny chance that she would hit them was sufficient, as she would heavily injure at least the weaker cultivator.

  Nitza rarely had to watch so many directions. Normally, she had more allies by her side- or fewer enemies. Her thoughts were flipping back and forth… but eventually she settled into a rhythm that was working. Attack here… then there. Defend Carl’s rear. Wash away a few people who got below him.

  The waters opened up in a great whirlpool once more, massive lightning building in a cloud above. Carl had been turned into a pincushion of spears, though he was occasionally breaking them off with all his movement.

  Lightning fell in great sheets, drawn towards tempting targets. Specifically, it was seeking out the leviathan himself- and it would easily flow through the spears, bypassing his defensive energy.

  Nitza wasn’t fully confident with her counter, but she had been waiting for such a moment. She thought it should work. A spike shot upward- part of Carl. Surrounded with water element spiritual energy, it was an extremely tempting target for lightning. It drew in the vast majority of the attack, absorbing into the spine as it tried to scatter the spiritual energy. If it had been connected to a body, it would have flowed into it and destroyed a large area. But without that… Nitza was able to circulate the lightning through the water element- even if only for a moment.

  The spine just missed the storm cultivator. Nitza had wanted to impale him through his torso, but she only managed to send him flying from the shockwaves of power. The lightning in the water that brushed him was nominally under his control, but some of it still lashed out. The projectile spine exploded in the sky, creating a tree of lightning with branches above and roots below.

  How disappointing. If she could have taken out one, their victory would have been secure. Now, they might expect something similar. Nitza made sure to immediately remove the remaining spears from Carl- it only took a small flex of muscles around the area to pulverize the metal spears. They’d been tempting targets, but in the future they would simply be a liability. Nitza already regretted the bits of lightning that had gone through. It must have hurt.

  “Sorry. I tried to do something better.”

  Carl of course continued not to say anything. Even so, he projected trust.

  Nitza focused on deflecting incoming spears. Even if they weren’t all that much on their own, small wounds on Carl would add up. Rather than directly blocking them- something that her foe was ready for- she just deflected them with some water element, making them impact at worse angles. Usually, that meant Carl’s natural hide would be sufficient.

  The storm cultivator was mad. Nitza didn’t know how to take advantage of that, but she noted it nonetheless. Having nearly died to his own attack he was unlikely to launch a single big strike… but he might be that stupid.

  No. He was extending his energy towards Yonit’s battle. Nitza couldn’t allow either of these two to return there- not without consequences. Yet it was difficult to keep them anchored from down below. She didn’t have any actual anchors to work with. The one from the ship had already sunk well below where she was swimming, and the Ascending Soul Phase cultivators could easily annihilate the chains.

  The spear tosser continued to probe with his own attacks, but he was clearly also considering pulling away. Could they swim faster than Carl? Probably not, but they were waiting for him to be facing the wrong way.

  So Nitza gave them the chance. She had Carl rush towards them, lashing out with some of his tails. It would have been nice if they hit one- a direct impact would probably take one of them out, at least for a few moments. But they didn’t, and that was okay.

  Then they were past them, their back to the rest of the battle. Taking advantage of the waves, the two cultivators let themselves be pushed back towards the other battle. Meanwhile, the underwater duo were nose down as the tails had reached the surface.

  They dove deeper. The two cultivators began to pull away. Those who were the sea built up speed, turning. The cultivators above were ready, waiting for the moment they were attacked. Whether it be tail or fins, they would dodge as necessary. It was impossible to target them both and have a wide area of attack.

  Or so they thought. The duo leapt upward with the sea, not shooting into the air but instead carrying the sea with them in an arc. They weren’t aiming for either of the two, but instead above them. Carl’s broad bulk shadowed the two cultivators as he came down from above. Then he dropped like a rock. No, far faster than that- he was pushed down by the very water that Nitza had carried up with them, actively forcing them downward.

  Carl only had to focus his defensive energy vaguely on the areas that would impact the two cultivators. It wasn’t concentrated enough to significantly damage either, but the collision sent them deep beneath the waves- and Carl went with them, diving at over a hundred meters per second. He was broad, which meant they couldn’t easily escape even if they moved slowly towards the sides or the front. They tried, of course… but now that they were actually touching Carl he could create a shell of water around them that was difficult to escape.

  A direct conflict of power, equally matched. Except that Nitza was there. She was still on the opposite side of them, as she had flipped over with Carl, but she didn’t need to throw her spears to hurt them.

  She simply picked the injured cultivator and compressed the water. He couldn’t even move his arms. They dove deeper, and the water pressure continued to increase. The man’s partner tried to throw lightning everywhere- especially into Carl. However, with the leviathan’s spiritual energy already concentrated in the area, there wasn’t much to be done. Not fast enough.

  Nitza increased the pressure at certain points, destabilizing the spear wielder’s defensive energy. He had to focus on specific spots. She rapidly changed her focus, ripples of energy spinning around. The man quickly locked into her pattern. Then Nitza just stopped. Spikes of ice formed, pushed by the greater pressure around them. It only took one to pierce the man’s spiritual energy- then she let the natural consequences of the pressure take over.

  Leviathans were originally deep sea creatures- and not the sort of deep sea that humans usually saw, not even sea cultivators. Truly deep seas, where the pressure was a hundred times that near the surface or more. It was like having a massive boulder pressing down on every tiny part of the body. Each bone in the hands and feet. Eyes. Eardrums. Water forced its way into the mouth and nose.

  Nitza was already attacking the lightning cultivator as the first was being crushed. It didn’t take more than a few moments before Carl was able to put his full focus on the second man, with the other being utterly crushed as his spiritual energy collapsed.

  They should have done this from the start. Not that they could have, until their opponents were in precisely the right state of mind… and making the right moves.

  The pressure on Nitza was just the same as the others, but nobody was actively poking holes in her spiritual energy. Besides, she was used to it. She’d been down to see the gorge that was once Carl’s parent, and more than once. She knew how to deal with the pressure, especially when nobody was making it more difficult.

  Storm cultivators were bad for water cultivators. They cultivated air. They could control lightning to pierce through most defenses.

  But they never really went beyond the surface level of the sea. And these two didn’t get to survive the trip to learn from it.

  “Great job Carl. You did it.”

  Nitza helped with strategy and extra control, of course, but most of the power had been his.