Molting the Mortal Coil

Seeing the spider being pushed around, Sage had to move his plan to the next stage. He yelled up at the Swamp Genesis Spider, and somehow it understood his tone of voice and immediately retreated. Having just pushed back the trio of Nascent Souls, it had the time to retreat a few steps and then sink into the water. The swamp they were battling in was only three to five feet deep in most places, but somehow the giant spider was able to dive down without an issue.

It hadn’t moved very far from its initial starting position, which just so happened to be where a large hole in the web was placed. It was the one spot that the spider used to surface if it ever needed to. Usually, it only needed to push out a single limb to draw in air every few days, but it was also an escape route, or for a situation like this where it’s swamp was being threatened. When the Living Disaster had entered the swamp with such force and ferocity, its mere steps threatened to break the spider’s web and so it was compelled to make a stand.

The giant spider disappeared into the water, sinking below the surface of the salt-water swamp and into the ocean proper. Beneath the swamp was a murky stretch of sea, one that the spider was overlord over. It didn’t just have a web to form a shallow bottom for the swamp, but also as a giant wall to separate it from the rest of the sea. Anything that wished to enter this area had to be small enough to fit through a gap in the web, or strong enough to break the web. With the exception of course being the hole in the web it’d just used. It flipped over, hanging from the web underwater and turning to lie in wait for one of the Nascent Souls to leap into the water and suffer its wrath. That moment of disorientation when entering the water, the large splash and the moment of closed eyes to resist the sudden water pressure was its favorite moment to strike.

With the Spider safely retreating, Sage had to buy it some time to recover from the vicious attack. The Swordsman and Fu Clansman had fled, while the Yincha woman was picking herself up after being thrown through a few trees. At that time, the swamp came to life around them. The trees in a half-mile radius had already been infiltrated by vines and power from the Sacred Banyan and fell under Sage’s control. The tree that the woman had finally used to stop her momentum came to life behind her. She’d just pushed off the shattered bark and shook the dizziness out of her eyes when the remaining half of the tree’s intact limbs stretched downward. The number of branches suddenly multiplied, and thousands of new leaves sprouted, twisting and spreading into a thick green wall around her. At the same time, the roots of the tree curled upwards. The roots were hidden under the surface of the murky water and it drastically reduced the time she had to respond when those roots experienced an explosive growth spurt, shooting like spears towards her.

Of course, the woman was a Nascent Soul, so even after taking a direct hit and requiring time to adjust, she was still able to avoid the Root Lances. At least most of them, two of them slightly grazed her skin, tearing her clothing and leaving shallow cuts on her skin. She immediately smashed the wooden spears that had put her into a contortionist pose and used bursts of sound to start blasting away the thick leaves that had trapped her in.

At the same time, a similar thing was happening to the two male Nascent Souls, though they were having an easier time. They benefited from being able to stand back to back, watching out for each other to prevent any injuries. It also helped that their abilities were quite good against The Sacred Banyan. The Fu Clansman used his smoke to slow and hold-down the dangerous plants, while the Swordsman could slice through the thick roots with no effort at all.

The three of them cursed, as they’d been aiming to defeat the spider quickly. Their rapid assault was done specifically to prevent a situation like the one they were in. Instead of turning into a three versus one, it was now a three versus two. Even so, they were more annoyed than they were worried. The trees of the swamp rising up against them did little more than scrape the Yincha woman’s skin without hurting the other two in the least. They sensed no law energy being used with the trees, which meant they weren’t very dangerous to a Nascent Soul. That said, neither of the three were body refiners, so they still had to waste time or energy avoiding or destroying the plants that attacked them. As long as they took their time, they could easily force their way through.

To reach rank five a Cultivator created an Inner Core of some sort, a core that provided them with a source of passive Qi generation. While this meant they’d never be able to truly run out of energy, not all cores were created equal. The Banyan style that Sage was using was based upon this fact. It was designed around having greater Qi regeneration rates than an enemy, forcing them to use up their Qi reserves and then compete over recovery rates. It was just threatening enough to make someone waste their energy defending themselves. More and more leaves flooded the area, packing the area around the Nascent Souls with green and brown. The majority of the leaves formed a thick canopy over their heads to deter flying abilities. While trying to destroy or pass through the thick layers of leaves it would leave them vulnerable to Root Lances hidden in the leaves. While not impossible, it was far easier to travel below the canopy and just avoid the roots from below. They were much easier to see coming by watching for where the soil was stirring.

Also, how were they to know that Sage had grown the new Sacred Banyans to form the key points of an Array Formation? It didn’t incorporate any strange or expensive materials, so it wasn’t as strong as it could be, but even something as simple as the placement of the trees was enough to create an array. It was also not an array that directly conflicted against them, the weak bewildering array merely making them go around certain large clusters of bushes and making them circle around the forest for a while. The three of them only lost a few minutes before they figured it out, at which point they just started destroying everything that stood between them and Sage’s position.

It will have to do.

Tree trunks splashed loudly into the water and leaves were blasted into the air along with their attached branches from loud thundering sounds and bursts of black smoke. The three Nascent Souls burst into a large clearing at the same time. The Fu Clansman and the Swordsman were staring at the Yincha woman across from them, but where had their target gone to?

At that moment, Sage had taken advantage of his lack of physical body to sink down into the swamp and pass through the gaps in the web and sneak into the sea beneath them. He’d made a big show to give them a goal and waste their time fighting off the trees, simply to buy a little more time before running to join the spider for an undersea battle. They clearly had an advantage in an underwater fight considering his lack of a physical form and it being the Spider’s den, and that’s all he had to rely on at this moment.

Especially when the water rippled around him and he heard the distorted rumble that could only mean one thing. The Living Disaster was back in action.