Elder Cultivator

About half of Anton’s focus was on his opponent from the Falling Clouds, with the other half reserved for the rest of the battlefield. Enemies who left the safety of their ships’ defensive formations found themselves in very real danger from volleys of arrows.

Trying to recall information about the man he was fighting took a moment. Anton did keep track of the best prospects, but there were many… and the Falling Clouds hadn’t been exactly eager to have visitors. He had been willing to respect their privacy, but obviously he should have been a bit more cautious. Anton didn’t intend to dictate everything that could happen upon Ceretos, but he should at least make sure people didn’t help out invaders. Not that he was certain to last until the next opportunity.

Suhash. That was the name. Unfortunately, Anton had no more relevant information about his capabilities that he hadn’t been able to discern in the time they had been fighting. Early Assimilation stage- clearly the last couple decades at most. Experience wasn’t everything, and in some ways overall training time was the inverse of how dangerous someone was- those who trained quickly were often stronger. But Suhash wasn’t a young genius who breezed his way into Assimilation. He should have been cultivating for a few hundred years now, changing his focus from Ascension to Assimilation.

As for his domain… he seemed to be bound to the planet’s water. Both that of the skies and the seas- though of the two he seemed more comfortable with the former. That would provide wide-ranging utility, and he had decent power… but not enough to take out Anton’s ship with the crew defending it and only a small amount of direct defense from Anton. He was a threat not because of anything in specific, but merely by the fact that he was an Assimilation cultivator, making him worth the same as a highly coordinated squad of Life Transformation cultivators.

His ship’s defensive formations would have fallen long before if not for forming a barrier of water around it. Anton could have likely broken through both that and the formations if he solely focused on the task, but it was better to leave the battle with fewer casualties throughout the rest of their forces.

When Juta, who had been concealing herself, appeared as a hundred meter crab snapping a ship in half he reacted with covering fire. The loss of a ship and the lives of some of those unfortunately positioned was unfortunate, but he could at least allow them a chance to retreat to other vessels where they could combine their efforts. The continental fleets were currently disengaging, but the sea vessels couldn’t just break away whenever they pleased. Neither side would be able to completely outpace the other.

They needed more. Something to shift the battle in their favor. Unless the enemy planned to make this their final battle they wouldn’t pursue forever- but Anton didn’t like the casualties he was predicting now. Juta especially was a dangerous force- though she was being held back by Devon, Anish, and Annelie. Unfortunately, that meant they couldn’t affect the battle elsewhere.

Anton had a few tricks up his sleeve. Unlike the Sylanis Cluster these ships didn’t have adaptive barriers, so it wasn’t terribly difficult to break through them all on his own. He might even be able to cause serious damage to their flagship, though the methods he would use he preferred to save for an important kill. Once it was revealed it would lose some effect.

Then Anton had the most frustrating thought anyone could ever have. He wished for Everheart to be around. Both fortunately and unfortunately, such wishes were the type to be answered- and they of course came with consequences.

-----

Devon’s chains were powerful, but not enough that they could match up to the crushing claws of a massive crab. The lack of finesse in the claws didn’t matter when they could simply sweep through the vague area. That didn’t mean he had no recourse- it just meant he couldn’t completely control the situation alone. Not that he should have expected to be able to. He was just one man, a single Assimilation cultivator.

But his chains were meant for the protection of Ceretos, so he would at least do his best. The joints behind the claws were a reasonable place to wrap his chains, and with the aid of his niece they were frozen into the joint, preventing Juta from squeezing the joints together to snap his chains as had happened on his first attempt. Of course, holding onto said chains meant wrestling an Augmentation cultivator- and even weakened by her presence in the lower realms Juta was far stronger than Devon.

So he counted on the lack of leverage and wrapped his chains around the most convenient leverage in the area- ships. Not allied ships, of course, but instead the enemy. That came with the downside of both ends of the situation trying to break the chains off, and he had to continuously add more, but he slowly increased the number from two to six that he was maintaining, Annelie adding her ice while Anish tried to boil the torso of the crab. He was certainly causing some damage but it wouldn’t be a quick kill- and some enemy Integration cultivators would no doubt join their part of the battle if it looked as if Juta would truly be taken out.

Devon slipped between the claws- ironically enough, directly in front of the mouth was fairly safe- he threw chains to both sides, wrapping around the middle joints and then fusing the chains together in the middle. That would further limit the range of motion of the crab. In theory, anyway. In practice… a surge of energy came from Juta, the claws swinging outward to snap his latest chains then reversing to pull inward, snapping some chains while dragging a couple unlucky ships on one side. That claw was fortunately slower, so as the two converged on him in the middle he was able to dodge them sequentially, diving down into the water.

Why he chose to dive into the terrain of a giant sea creature he could not have explained, except that it felt right. When he almost went directly into the maw of a giant turtle he had a brief moment of panic, but a familiar energy calmed him. Pushing down his hesitation, he continued to dive, passing below.

He looked back over his shoulder just in time to see one of the crab claws reaching for the neck of the turtle- only to be repelled by an almost indistinguishable figure standing atop it. The energy of both Paradise and Scholar Eulogius had been hidden up until that moment, but now he clearly felt both. Paradise paid no mind to the attempt to crush his neck and continued towards his goal, his mouth stretching past the left crab claw to the base of the right. Then he chomped down.

In that instant, the whole dynamic of the battlefield changed. The massive turtle jaws snapped cleanly through the armored shell, breaking the limb clean off. Devon didn’t understand Juta’s transformation mechanics- it wasn’t a simple projection of a form, however. That became extremely clear when the crab disappeared and she turned into some sort of silvery fish, darting away- but leaving behind the claw which Paradise munched on happily. Devon could see a trail of blood behind Juta- though the speed with which she moved made it impossible to catch her. There hadn’t been more than a single moment between her forms to react.

-----

The sudden arrival of Paradise and Everheart was great news for the continental forces, and shifted the flow of the battlefield. The sudden damage to Juta shifted the balance of the battle against the invaders, and it was they who turned to retreat moments later. Unfortunately the continental forces couldn’t immediately turn about to chase them, being in the middle of their own retreat. But neither was that necessarily the right call.

Yes, they had struck a blow to a powerful cultivator- but the forces were simply closer to balanced now, not sufficiently in their favor to chase after an enemy who could easily reform to crush those first to catch them.

Anton didn’t have to follow to continue his bombardment, but in truth his efforts were not fully focused on that. Instead, he was concentrating on merely observing Juta. A fin was missing on her temporary form, and when she boarded the enemy flagship her arm. Determining fine details through the defensive formations was difficult, so he had to focus his efforts. He couldn’t sense anything directly but he at least heard enough cursing to know that it wasn’t so easy to regrow the limb. Or Juta was an extremely sore loser, which would also be valuable for them. A sore loser on the side of the enemy when they had Everheart? If that was actually the case they could make her life hell. Or just kill her.

As the enemy fleet pulled away, a few more ships sunk- and Anton wasn’t merciful to the unprotected soldiers. Invaders from the upper realms- old or new, whether they had actually seen the upper realms or not- would not be given mercy. And those of the Exalted Archipelago who chose to join the Trigold Cluster’s assault were going to regret it. Especially since they should have known what they were getting into.

It seemed that the Worthy Shore Society would not be forced out of their sect just yet… and the foothold they represented in the Exalted Archipelago would remain.

-----

A message was waiting for Anton not long after. Not one from anyone on Ceretos, but rather from Rutera. Since the invasion began, they’d been keeping in touch with their allied systems. As expected, forces had arrived on Weos shortly after Ceretos, based on the tides. It was difficult for them to say the war was going well. Weos had an entire system to defend, and some of their outlying outposts and less populated moons had been taken over. But they were ready to fight.

Rutera’s message was simple, relaying what forces would be coming as reinforcements and where- it was now as certain as possible that they would not be under attack themselves. All of the remaining forces they were aware of had ended up in the Sylanis Cluster. Anton didn’t have many contacts there- at least not compared to elsewhere. But out of a hundred billion, he could hear from more than a hundred- though not every Worldbinding cultivator would want to speak to him.

“Can the Trigold Cluster really afford to lose all these forces?” Anton asked, looking specifically to Everheart.

“They can afford many things,” the scholarly guise of the man nodded. “Even these forces they can recover from the loss of. But obviously they don’t intend to lose them.”

“None of them are leaving this time,” Anton declared.

“Agreed,” Everheart said without even a wry smile, though he generally seemed to be in a good mood. “They come to take from us, and we will take everything from them. Too bad it’s limited to just what they brought to the lower realms…”

“If it makes you feel better… those in the upper realms are going to scout their outposts.”

Everheart sighed, “It’s just not the same, having someone else do it. I should be there to crack open their vaults, taking their treasures and secrets with my own hands. But that business a couple centuries back left me below my peak performance.” That was his confident way of saying he was nearly dead.

“You seem strangely happy about something else,” Anton said. “What is it?”

“What, can’t I just like a good victory atop my turtle?”

“Ah. It’s because Paradise let you ride him.”

“Because he asked me to do so,” Everheart said. “Soon, he shall follow me and support me as he was meant to.”

Anton shrugged. He did find the situation odd. Paradise didn’t exactly speak, but even so Erin made it clear that he had agreed with the interpretation of the void ant queen about that being his desire. The turtle had been quite unhappy with Everheart when he first returned. Was there some buried fondness there… or was there something else? That part was unclear.

At least Rutera would be sending reinforcements. Their ships were a whole step ahead of most of what Ceretos had access to- and their aid could shift the war from vaguely even to dominant. Though Fajra would be a concern for them in particular, as even if their fighter vessels could match a Life Transformation cultivator, the actual individuals were somewhat weaker and thus would be more susceptible to her aura.