The fleets of the Sovereign Primacy had arrived. John could sense all three members of the Triptych, plus many others alongside them. Yet there was something more. Weaker than the greatest, yet seemingly more powerful than an Ascending Soul Phase cultivator ought to be.
The only one John could immediately consult was Aldara, and they might not have long. “Do you sense those other three? Any ideas?” John asked.
“Fire. Earth. Air. Correct?” Aldara confirmed what John was sensing. “Their cultivation is strange. Or rather, it would seem strange for humans. But I think they are not.”
How unfortunate. Spirit beasts… and powerful ones. “We clearly didn’t ask the right questions,” John commented. “Or maybe we interrogated the wrong people.”
They weren’t trying to hide anything from the others, and Steve provided the perfect reaction. “Spirit beasts? I guess we’ll take them down too.”
The man exuded confidence that John didn’t feel himself. But perhaps he could share somewhat in the excess his friend was experiencing. “Seems like we’ll have to,” John said.
“I call dibs on the earth one,” Steve said. Yustina elbowed him. “We do.”
“We’re picking targets?” Amalric asked. “I’ll take the fire one.”
He said that with great confidence despite technically being at an elemental disadvantage with his combination of fire and earth. Then again, if he was burning his own earth element he wouldn’t have to worry about the enemy also having fire.
“I’ll-” Renato began, but was cut off by Sitora.
“The air beast is mine,” she declared. “My elemental matchup is perfect for it. I’m sure you’ll be needed against… all the rest,” she gestured broadly.
“We have chosen,” Aldara said. “But there is still one issue. They might have affinity for each member of the Triptych.”
John frowned. “If only we had our own.” Perhaps they could delay somehow. Make their way back towards the continental alliance… though surely Aldara had similarly powerful allies in her own lands.
They were not lacking support in their current location. Everyone they had been able to spare was in the vicinity. Unfortunately, they couldn’t simply abandon the lands they were defending for this battle. They were fighting against the whole rest of the planet. Even if they had been doing well, they couldn’t exactly keep up their relative success if they diluted their forces too much.
But they also had to win this battle. There might not be another chance to encounter the Triptych with both John and Aldara present, unless they committed solely to chasing after the group. They wouldn’t be able to choose the battlefield, and even if the edge of the Molten Sea wasn’t perfect it was still advantageous.
There was also a question of whether or not they could retreat now. If they did… some of their strongest allies would doubtless perish simply to save the two Exalted Soul Phase cultivators. Their foes were advancing too quickly for any sort of repositioning to be viable.
Anything of the sort would lower their morale anyway, and they had little enough of that. John was doing his best, but ultimately he was satisfied with maintaining null emotions. It wasn’t really centered, just numb. But he would be able to fight.
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“How close should they be?” John asked. “And which of us should say it?”
It would be too obviously planned if both of them did it.
“She’ll expect taunting from a woman. It will hurt more from you,” Aldara asserted. “As for the distance… I think we’ve just about reached it. They’re close enough to rush forward, but not so close that the rest of their fleets can catch up immediately.”
John cleared his throat, mentally repeating the lines a couple times. Then he did it seriously, spitting his voice towards the enemies. “You’ve finally arrived. Took you long enough to face us, ugly old hag Folly. You’re going down with the decrepit man called Enniaun beside you.”
The seas churned with power. Steam rose from the border of the Molten Sea, globs of lava spraying in various directions.The very land seemed to understand the clash about to happen, though it didn’t necessarily favor either side.
All Folasade had to do was respond in a mature fashion, and the Sovereign Primacy would maintain their advantage of numerical superiority.
John could feel the flames of her fury from several kilometers away. He felt pleased that at least some of their strategy was valid.
“I shall burn your body to ash!” she screeched. John had to presume her speech was normally more dignified. “You will have no grave!”
John really hadn’t expected a grave if he lost. What was the point if nobody he cared about would be around to mourn for him? It’s not like he would be around to take pleasure in a nice headstone. Instead, there would be nothing. Or possibly a new life in the experience immediately following it up.
Folasade flew up into the sky carried on the back of a phoenix, or at least some form of fire bird. Enniaun, meanwhile, leapt into the sea to join up with whatever was in the depths below, buried under the sands. Caelnon was riding some air element beast John couldn’t quite make out, but it certainly wasn’t a bird. Either way, he was a bit slow to follow after the others.
“Perish!” Folasade flew in front of the sun, gathering power around her.
Light and fire rushed towards John, carried smoothly through the air without disruptions. An excellent combination of the woman’s three elements. John countered with three of his own, forming a temporary prism out of shimmering water. Earth and fire solidified it into something more durable.
Even with the power split and the flames blocked, his sight nearly washed out.
“My eyes!” John called out. “The wrinkles! How horrid!”
“Too much,” Aldara said.
“You sure?”
Folasade flew at them with sufficient speed that John almost altered the plan right then and there. Was she even thinking about her defenses?
Fortunately, he’d kept track of Enniaun. The man was traveling nearly as fast, so it was just about all John and Aldara could do to avoid the incoming phoenix… followed by a vast worm lunging out of the sea below. The many rows of teeth would have doubtless pierced John’s spiritual energy, and his advanced body tempering would have been useless.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
So of course Steve jumped into that open maw. And without even a shred of hesitation, Yustina followed after. Even if they weren’t the original targets, it was still a risk. Yet John knew that even as his sense of their spiritual energy faded that they wouldn’t let people down.
Perhaps more surprising was how eagerly Amalric threw himself at the Phoenix. Maybe it was a fire cultivator thing. Either way, he had apparently been building up pressure in the obsidian wall of the Molten Sea, then launched himself forward headfirst into the underbelly of the phoenix. It was likely the only place that Folasade couldn’t strike with her glaive, but calling it undefended would be a bit much. The phoenix itself had powerful spiritual energy protecting it, even without drawing upon the support of an Exalted Soul Phase cultivator.
The battle had begun in truth. John and Aldara couldn’t hesitate, or their allies would be annihilated. None of the others hesitated either, even if they didn’t launch themselves quite as aggressively at the two humans and two spirit beasts.
Without speaking, John and Aldara followed their plan. Staying cautious for Folasade’s attacks, they turned to focus on Enniaun. He threw javelins at them as the worm continued to rise out of the sea, seemingly endless. If John was fighting only the spirit beast, he thought that would be easily exploitable.
As it was, he made a simple attack- tossing a throwing dagger into a seemingly random craggy bit of the creature’s skin. The attack seemed to be completely absorbed… but that was actually what it was doing. Absorbing, specifically. Even if the spirit beast had the awareness of an average human, it would be less intelligent than a trained cultivator. It was less likely to notice him siphoning spiritual energy from it. There was only so much John could do, but every little bit would count in a battle such as this.
Beyond that, of course, John and Aldara attempted to flank the man. Aldara rode atop the seas, a wave riding the body of the great worm itself. John flew around on the opposite side, keeping close to the beast to minimize the enemy’s attacking opportunities while moving into as much of a flanking position as he could.
The direction of Enniaun’s motion was something he was trying to hide with his darkness element, but there was still a flow to it. And though they fought alongside each other, Enniaun and Folasade weren’t doing much more than that in the first few moments of the battle.
Aldara shot upward like a bolt of lightning, just barely grazing Enniaun- blood dripped from his side, but he’d defended himself with sufficient spiritual energy. The worm flicked its bulk towards Aldara, knocking her back- though she let it do so.
John followed her. It was a shame, but their opponents weren’t weak. He couldn’t afford to be at anything less than peak synergy with Aldara. Just a couple exchanges into the battle, he was beginning to feel the flow of the full cycle.
That was about all the time they had with just two Exalted Soul Phase cultivators attacking them. Caelnon wasn’t so slow that he would fail to arrive after several clashes. Plus, he was flying in on the back of a spotted cat made of wind and lightning. It was a relatively modest size, but it still dwarfed the man on its back.
Claws of vacuum chopped at John and Aldara. John remembered his training in the Breathless Plains, filling in the voids of air to negate the attacks. Both he and Aldara had to twist around a long chain he swung, carrying the weight of the earth as it twisted through the skies according to his will.
At the same time, the fleets were about to begin clashing. Along with the remaining powerhouses from the continental forces, they had as much of their armies as they had been able to gather… and cultivators of the Molten Sea. Some already present, and others that were rushing in as they had recently been informed of the enemy’s approach.
John was focused enough on the greatest enemies that he was startled when the flying cat began to fall out of the sky. But if he was surprised, Caelnon was more so. Sitora had spared no effort with her opening assault, engaging in one of the signature techniques of the Sky Islands- at least against other flying cultivators. The air creature was pulled towards the earth… and the closest piece of that happened to be the obsidian edge of the Molten Sea.
Shards of obsidian flew everywhere as the flying spirit beast flailed about. Sails on ships were severed, cultivators cut down, and even Sitora took some glancing blows. She didn’t have the spare spiritual energy to be able to afford that, not with the caliber of foes that were involved.
The overall shape of the battle was something John barely noticed with his normal senses. He just felt the flow of elements, such as the members of the Bright Trinity- with elements matching Folasade- clashing with the enemy fleets. There was so much power flying around that nobody was safe.
John and Aldara intended for that to include the Triptych. As Enniaun had to dive back into the water- to once again reach the ground beneath- John and Aldara stuck to him. The reason was simple- the others would have to chase them, and the phoenix could likely harm the great worm. The cultivators would also have to avoid striking their allies.
Of course, simple seawater wouldn’t stop them, but it did provide opportunities. John had an idea, and as his spiritual energy began to seep into the area, Aldara followed his lead without question. That was wonderful, and he hoped it would work.
Each side attacked constantly- spears, polearms, swords, chain weapons… the Triptych sought to kill John and Aldara, and the two wanted the same in return. With three powerful spiritual beasts, they had a significant advantage in raw force.
But… their balance was off. Three cultivators wasn’t an impossible balance to keep, but Caelnon was already unbalanced towards water and earth. Riding a pure air beast pushed him yet further in another direction, leaving only a lack of fire. And while the three human cultivators seemed to mesh well in terms of spiritual energy, the beasts simply didn’t.
Why should they? They were proud creatures, beacons of their own element. Partners, perhaps, of their own cultivators- but not of each other. The phoenix showed little hesitation to throw flames at the worm, as long as it stood some chance of hitting one of the pests around it as well. Nor did the wind leopard concern itself much with the gusts it forced the phoenix to endure.
They were a worse grouping than Cuah’arn and Ciaritzal, and the two of them were opposite elements and had nearly fought to the death. Given what was at stake, John would take ahold of any weakness.
It was clear that Enniaun didn’t intend to fight underwater- or underground- even though he would have done fine himself. Folasade wouldn’t have done well at all, and perhaps he wanted the support of their fleets. Either way, John and Aldara followed him and the worm he rode into the sands- and then the bedrock beneath. The worm easily parted the earth around it, though it did try to squash them against that very same earth with limited success.
Aldara made a few halfhearted attempts to stab it, but she mostly used her spear to fend off the Triptych as they attacked. John made some effort to participate in the battle as well, but he was focused on one simple maneuver.
The worm was coming up once more… but slightly off of where it had intended. For a creature of its size, ten or a hundred meters was a mere instant of movement. A small wiggle. However, each bit added up… and it rose at an angle it didn’t quite intend.
The wall of obsidian did nothing to slow it down as it broke into the Molten Sea, senses confused by a smooth mix of elements. John simply made it appear as if the fire element was more concentrated elsewhere, throwing in a dash of darkness to suppress the actual sensations it should have felt. In the chaos of combat, it was easy to miss. Even Enniaun didn’t notice.
Lava wasn’t going to kill a peak Ascending Soul Phase spirit beast, nor could it harm true Exalted Soul Phase cultivators. But John hadn’t forgotten how the battle began, even if Enniaun seemed to have written off Steve and Yustina.
About a quarter of a way down its bulk, the great digging worm suddenly split apart. No, it must have taken some time- even with the boost of fire element from outside, it would be impossible to burn through such a powerful bulk in an instant even if it were not protected by spiritual energy. The blue flames must have been eating away at it for the whole duration of the battle. Yet the beast must not have been able to communicate it properly with Enniaun. The exact details were unclear, but John really didn’t care.
A hole the size of himself straight through the beast? That would have been nothing. But the creature lost either a quarter or three quarters of its mass in an instant depending on which end one counted from. For a moment, as the massive body writhed, John thought that both parts would live. But it was just muscle spasms.
John felt the spiritual energy he was absorbing- mostly earth- suddenly flare to fire. A decent chunk of it bloomed as all control of the great worm’s element was lost. Now they just had to deal with two more… and their masters. But perhaps not in that order, because Enniaun was enraged- while Folasade had somewhat calmed during the battle so far.
