Elder Cultivator

Chapter 918

Quite a bit of trouble had been raised for the Scarlet Alliance by the Disciples of the Beyond, and Tauno was tired of it. They werent so bad when they fought with a projection, but actual distortion beasts were much worse when unleashed around a planet. The others like Hoyt and Prospero were quite capable of fighting them, but Tauno felt like there was a better solution.

With each planet they passed, they were one step closer to Lonkeon, and predicting their movements became easier. So rather than waiting for them to show up and deal with any distortion beasts then, Tauno was going to do what he did best. And that thing was slaying beasts.

First he had to draw them out, though he didnt think it was as difficult as people made it out to be. All they needed was the proper bait. So he settled down on a nice unpopulated moon and stabbed himself in the gut. Then he began walking around, leaving a trail of blood behind him. He didnt forget to push into subspace regularly to make it more tempting, and to disturb the local fields. He also had a nice little device Uzun had made for him. Normally they were set up in the opposite manner to quell the ripples of ships so that they wouldnt attract attention, but it hadnt taken long for Uzun to have his people send Tauno one that worked in the opposite manner, amplifying distortions.

Before Tauno saw one or sensed its energy, he could smell the distortion beast. A truly otherworldly scent, just barely pushing through the ripples of reality. Then, of course, it tried to eat him. A thousand spikes extended into the space where Tauno had been standing, pushing into and through each other without interference. But his Instinct pulled him away. He understood why people trained other mental capacities, but for him Instinct reigned above all else. The Dancing Slayer Sect fought and emulated beasts, after all. It was only right.

During the battle, Tauno wasnt thinking about the hollow spines meant to drain him of blood, or at least now how he would dodge them. Nor was he thinking about how he would counter with his spear, or how he would angle his armor to block. All of that just happened, his training taking over and performing as necessary. He did think a little bit about what he would make the beast into. Certainly hed have no shortage of spines.

There was a brief point in the battle where he considered he might run out of blood before the distortion beast. About halfway through the battle it was losing hundreds of liters for every drop he shed. For a small one that only seemed to be a few kilometers across, it was still quite a lot. Trying to picture the overall shape of the thing wasnt possible, but Tauno counted multiple tails- or one tail that had several iterations that gained their own wounds- three mouths, and a ridge of spines that seemed to for a single contiguous line down every single appendage the creature had. He tried not to think about it too much and just tried to avoid getting impaled too much.

Every spike or hunk of flesh he carved off of the beast as it swirled around him brought him closer to victory, and he was pleased to find it had something like bones as well. They were oversized for his purposes, but better that than too small to make anything out of.

Eventually, Tauno found himself surrounded by a great quantity of pieces and parts, especially spines. The majority of the distortion beast could likely still be found within subspace and the spaced beyond where they dwelled. Perhaps other distortion beasts would come to feed on its body, but if they did they would likely be surprised by the quantities of exotic toxins the corpse would contain. Some might not have any effect when taken into whatever served as a digestive tract, but others would be absorbed through any sort of contact.

Then again, maybe they wouldnt care. Perhaps Tauno had made things worse, drawing in more distortion beasts or perhaps any that were in the area would gorge themselves full. Either way, hed deal with that later. First, he had to figure out what to do with all of the spines he had. They seemed to be significantly locked into subspace still, and depending on how he held them they grew vastly longer. Or at least, revealed more of their true size. That had to be useful.

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An emergency message came in from the eastern border of the Scarlet Alliance, and the timing couldnt have been worse. Though perhaps with the current war going on, there really wasnt a better time for something to happen.

A hidden fleet was detected coming from the Trigold Cluster, Catarina reported. Moving straight through our territory.

There were slightly more people gathered this time, as they were being constricted towards Lonkeon itself. Alva was among the additional individuals present. How many ships? she asked.

A hundred or so, Catarina said. Though they couldnt get exact readings. The ships werent as big of a concern as the quality of the illusions they were using. Spatial distortion sensors were actually what picked them up. None of our energy detection systems got so much as a peep, so its unknown how strong the cultivators are. But we can make some assumptions from the size of the disturbance. Most likely, a small group of more powerful cultivators.

What is their goal? Prasad asked.

Thats the question isnt it? We dont even know if theyre actually from the Trigold Cluster. Its just nothing else makes sense.

Could they have come through the Trigold Clusters territory from beyond? Prasad asked.

They could have, Catarina admitted. But everything is speculation. Our people on the border said they were going to passively observe. Just tracking their progress through systems. Catarina looked around, noticing the distinct lack of Zazil at the meeting. This emergency meeting is mainly to inform us. Our people can handle things on their own, so unless we have a good reason to give them specific orders we should let them do so.

Alva nodded. Let them handle it and keep us updated. If theyre going for Xankeshan

Then our defenses will hold, Catarina said. Unless they brought a hundred Augmentation cultivators.

Prasad nodded. Indeed. We dont need to worry about our capital under siege. Its more of a question of whether we will have to split our forces to drive them off, or whether our garrison there and the automated defenses can handle it.

Theyll probably have to, Catarina said. We cant really afford to split our attention, especially with the other piece of news that just came in. She was referring, of course, to Velvets report on Zaur. And even though the Domination cultivator wasnt fighting on the front lines at the moment, that didnt mean he wouldnt change his mind. Otherwise, why would he even be close at all?

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Chikeres head swiveled, looking towards a seemingly random point in space. Apologies, Sly. You are going to have to handle the approaching group with Margriet and the rest. I have to go.

Why? Sly simply asked.

Theres a sword I have to go see.

She didnt stop to explain further. She had the feeling she should speed up her approach, so she sliced open a rift in space to step through. The feeling was deeper into the system near a gas giant.

The side of Chikeres mouth couldnt help but raise up into a smile. She was happy about this. She got to aid her friends by holding off an enemy and she was going to finally have a proper rematch with the Limitless Edge.

She landed on an icy moon in front of the woman herself. The Limitless Edge just shook her head. I knew you were simple, but still I cant believe you were so easy to lure into a trap.

Chikere couldnt believe what she heard. A trap? Did she really think that Chikere hadnt noticed what was potentially every single remaining member of the Limitless Edge Sect packed onto the moon?

Seriously, one sword shouldnt be in so many directions all at once. It simply wasnt right. Unless it was. She might come around on the idea, actually.

I know theyre there, obviously, Chikere said.

Then your failure was underestimating what I can do with only a small amount of impure energy, the Limitless Edge said, almost casually swiping her sword in front of her.

Where Chikere had been standing there was only a cloud of blood as hundreds of sword auras cut through space simultaneously. And that was only a small portion of the total disciples present.

Then that cloud of blood formed into a myriad of swords, proudly bearing Chikeres aura. She decided it wasnt valuable to talk. Obviously the Limitless Edge thought that because she had won once that would continue to be true. And maybe it would be, but they wouldnt decide that with words. Either way, Chikere wouldnt underestimate someone because they had a lower amount of energy. Shed seen Chidi negate Rakiyas energy and kill her, after all. It was only for an instant, but who needed longer than that anyway? Sword skill was the important factor, and Chikere recognized that in the Limitless Edge.

And so, it was also the case in her myriad of disciples who also wielded her blade. Ten of them died before they could make another move, which was a disappointingly low number. Chikere got a small cut across the bridge of her nose, but as it was only the second move she found herself quite concerned.

They exchanged another dozen sets of moves over the course of the next few moments, and Chikere found her consternation growing. There was something wrong with how the Limitless Edge was fighting. Was it a deception in her moves, feints that were slipping past Chikeres understanding? Slaying lesser disciples barely provided value to Chikere, as they were swiftly replaced with more. All the while, one or two blades slipped past her defenses just enough to begin wearing her down.

What was wrong with the style was oh yes, that was it. It was that every move they made was the right one. The flawed styles that the Limitless Edge disciples practiced were gone, and so too were the imperfections in the Limitless Edges movements. She was taking Chikere seriously, that was clear.

It didnt take long for Chikere to realize that her skills werent good enough for her to win. She couldnt compete with so many perfect attacks forever, and would continue to be slowly whittled down.

That realization was one of the best shed ever had. All tension drained from her body, and she no longer thought about winning. Nor was she even considering escape. This was the sort of thing she couldnt have even wished for. A nearly limitless number of highly skilled opponents for her to face.

The Limitless Edge fought with her perfection. Chikere could feel the flow of her style, learning how the woman had fused every experience shed ever had. The slightest tilt of a blade spelled the difference between life and death for a swordmaster, and if all else were equal Chikere would have died over and over. Instead, she slew disciples, gaining small wounds while she overcame them with unfortunately large applications of energy.

The Limitless Edge herself did not seem concerned about their deaths, and she had the power to defend herself. The only possible future was one where Chikere slowly died at her hands. Her eyes said that, and Chikere had to admit it was true.

But she wasnt interested in what was possible. Shed already dealt with that so many times, and it turned out the answer was everything and nothing. Pointless.

Chikere had already fought the Limitless Edge, and it had shattered her sword ego. Yet she had gained insights and risen up from her previous state. She wouldnt let it happen again. She might die, but she wouldnt let a perfect style break her.

Especially since Chikere already understood perfection. That had been her guide, before the battle. And now she intentionally let a blade dig into her artificial arm, just to see how it happened. Because if her opponent was giving up on her growth for this fight to bring her down the only thing she could do was learn to surpass the appearance of perfection.

Long ago, it had been drilled into Chikere that training and real combat were only different based on the probability of death in each. It was not the only way- one could train to learn and minimize flaws for use in real combat, where one would perform to the best of their ability. But for Chikere that never felt right. She always preferred to try new things in combat, and so far she might not have even died because of it. Certainly never permanently.

Icy mountains crumbled and rifts were cut into the surface of the moon as Chikere danced about, fighting against her opponent. She had to admit, she liked the Limitless Edges choice here. No buildings to collapse on top of them, which was always annoying.

Three swords drove between Chikeres ribs simultaneously, completely wiping out one of her lungs. However, they disappeared when their owners died- and Chikere had two lungs. One was extra. It wasnt like she was going to live long enough to miss the extra airflow. Her wounds were growing at an accelerating rate. Soon, she would die.

Or she would figure it out. Moment by moment, she was a millimeter from death and then completely untouched the next. Then she was a nanometer from death. And then she figured it out.

All at once, her thousands of swords converged around her. The only opponent she was truly concerned about was the Limitless Edge herself. So she lied to herself and focused everything she had on one final move.

The lie, of course, was that she knew what move would slay her opponent. Not that she didnt have any idea it was just that she had thousands of variations in mind. Maybe all of them would do. Maybe none of them would. The Limitless Edge moved to defend herself, the energy of her countless disciples focusing on each individual move of Chikere.

The icy moon split in half, but that attack was deflected. A line was carved along the surface of the gas giant, but that attack was frankly never going to hit anyone with an ounce of self preservation.

It was the seventeenth small variant of attacking the Limitless Edges wrist that did it. For the first time, her opponent was injured. It was a small injury, especially compared to Chikeres actual intent. The wrist was not severed, instead it was merely a small cut on the womans skin.

But with that, perfection was broken. Chikeres smile had never disappeared, but the Limitless Edge didnt look as if she enjoyed combat. Perhaps she simply didnt express it outwardly. Chikere didnt know, and didnt care to find out.

Her next category of movement cut a strand of the womans hair. For some, that would be less of a success than the wound. Chikere didnt care about her own hair, but the Limitless Edge flinched ever so slightly.

Each minor cut on Chikere came with two on the Limitless Edge, though she was still behind by several critical wounds. But the next moment, Chikere took half as many cuts and countered with twice as much success. The Limitless Edge rapidly began to crumple until all at once Chikere severed every bone in her body, dicing the woman into thousands of pieces. She turned into a true mist of blood.

The blade landed in front of her as the icy moon began to crumble into a new shape. Chikeres grin nearly split her face in half as she bent down to pick it up.