Earth elemental spiritual energy surrounded John’s sword, gathered to defeat the foe in front of him. Akash was in the first rank of the late Ascending Soul Phase, ahead of John. An air cultivator and the leader of the Last Gasp, John felt the power of decisive action, drawing air from their opponent’s lungs, while bypassing the usual difficulties of affecting the inner body of a cultivator. Even with defenses in his lungs, John felt light headed.
He toppled forward and his sword hit the ground. But that was entirely unrelated to the dizziness. Rather, it was the plan all along. The very first sword technique he had learned upon transmigration, from the swordmaster Brage. His sword struck the stone wall, rebounding upward with great force as he lunged forward.
His slash cut across Akash’s chest, stunning the man as his defensive energy was scattered. A swift following stroke cut horizontally, decapitating the man. The look on his face was the beginning of great astonishment.
John rallied his air element to refill his lungs, partially collapsed from the vacuum force the man wielded. If he hadn’t practiced Diamond Defense, perhaps he would have found himself in a worse state… but the air drawing would have had to reach beyond his lungs into his blood. He wasn’t certain if that was even possible, but with sufficient spiritual energy it might be.
“... That’s it?” Anna commented.
John flicked the blood off of his blade. “He died as quickly as he intended to kill me. Don’t think that once you reach the Ascending Soul Phase you can’t be killed in an instant.”
The morale of the defenders was devastated by the death of Akash. John still had the majority of his spiritual energy- though he’d gone through something like a quarter of his stores in those few moments, draining most of his earth element and a good portion of darkness and other mixed elements.
Lesser cultivators of the Last Gasp were unable to create such instantaneous effects as Akash. They could create a greater area of vacuum around their targets, but John didn’t intend to fight them for over a minute, and even if he did he could replenish the air in his own lungs easily enough. He’d done it in moments of peace before it was even a proper air cultivator, so it was trivial to do now even in moments of battle. Others didn’t always do as well, but the earth cultivators of the Succulent League were able to negate the air element around them. Meanwhile, the Summer Sun Sect was quite capable of attacking from a distance, sparking fires with beams of light.
The water cultivators fighting alongside the Last Gasp had never seemed to fit. With Akash’s death, they were the first to run- they didn’t hold the same moment of anger that filled the cultivators from his sect but went straight to the fear. By the time the majority of Last Gasp cultivators got there, they were being rapidly slaughtered.
As they fled, the continental forces captured those they could and cut down others. But those who were fastest they let flee- chasing them throughout the streets of Asawell would likely result in individuals being picked off. Captured cultivators could be exchanged later, as the continental forces weren’t always victorious. The little diplomacy that the Sovereign Primacy was willing to engage with was related to hostage exchanges. Mostly, they wanted important young masters or sect elders… but they were still interested in various disciples as they had put some resources into raising them.
After securing a foothold in the city, they began the methodical process of removing the Sovereign Primacy from the remains of various sects and clans. Only fools would remain and fight to the death, but some were interested in running off with the rest of the valuables in such places, whatever hadn’t already been taken care of. So along with securing the city properly to avoid any spies remaining behind, they wanted to deal with as many cultivators as they could- so that they would not be a problem in the future. Every enemy spared was one they might have to face later, though there was a level of risk appropriate to undertake.
-----
The continental alliance’s push into the Muted Crags was largely successful, though it was not without losses of life. If they were in such a dominant martial position, the war would not have lasted for the current year of occupation.
Most devastating of the losses was an elder of the Order of the Amber Heart. She had been peak Consolidated Soul Phase, with potential to break through to the Ascending Soul Phase. There were others as well, and though they had not yet lost the lives of any Ascending Soul Phase cultivators, some of their own had been injured. Such injuries would keep them off the battlefield from anywhere from a few weeks to a year.
John had been fortunate to actually kill one of their strongest cultivators. In most cases, they were able to survive battles and retreat. As they pushed back the Sovereign Primacy, the chances of having multiple Ascending Soul Phase cultivators on each side of a battlefield increased, and thus there would be more casualties on either side. The Sovereign Primacy seemed loath to give up their position, but they didn’t really have much choice.
-----
After another month of war, John once more saw the Black Peaks on the horizon- with the permanent mark he had caused by collapsing the top of one onto the city. The city itself had repaired its walls, but now it was under occupation by foreign adversaries. What remained of the local sects were subservient to the Sovereign Primacy. That included the Swirling Shadow Sect, which had nearly completely capitulated to the invaders.
Stubborn with relation to him, timid against those they didn’t understand. Perhaps they shouldn’t have been so merciful. But that time was long gone, and the choices that mattered were the ones made in the modern day.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
As one of the major cities in the region, it was well defended. Any damage to the walls had been repaired in the time following the initial takeover- though from what John had heard, there had been traitors within the walls. How nice it would be if some individuals afraid for their own lives would do the same for him.
The walls of the Black Peaks were significantly higher than those of Asawell. While cultivators certainly had a chance of surmounting them, it would be a more difficult task, leaving them open to attacks for a longer period. Furthermore, there were a wider variety of defenders available.
Then again, they couldn’t cover everything. John already had various ideas to discuss with those present. His thoughts mainly revolved around earth cultivators, based on traditional siege successes, but he was open to the options anyone might present.
Anna was the first to contribute an idea. “If we can get close for a sustained duration, we can grow roots into the walls and rip them apart.”
“Would that be faster than direct attacks?” John asked.
“Well…” Anna shrugged. “No. It would be less energy intensive though. I suppose climbing vines again would still be better.”
They were making use of the time honored siege method of throwing rocks from a distance, but the defenders could match them in turn- both with rocks of their own or with defensive abilities. Thus, they hadn’t made much progress so far.
Astrid was next. “If we can get a good angle on the city, we might be able to start some fires. Normally, our range isn’t that far, but if we have time and don’t fear retaliation…”
John nodded. “A decent plan. The Peaks would be the optimal location, but they might have learned from previous circumstances. Or rather, those who were here before them. So we’ll keep that as an option, but not just yet. And it has a high potential to harm the civilian population.”
Ursel had been quite patient with her suggestion. John had seen her, waiting quietly. She knew they weren’t planning a frontal assault at the moment, or she would probably suggest bashing down the front gates. And she could do it. He knew she also had other ideas besides brute force, where that wasn’t good enough.
“We can just dig them out,” Ursel said. “These guys aren’t locals, right? The soil of the Muted Crags still possesses the sensory dampening properties. The Sovereign Primacy won’t be as ready to pick us out.”
“A decent plan,” John agreed. “Though it comes with the risks of them bringing their own earth cultivators and collapsing your tunnels on you if you are noticed early.”
Frankly, they didn’t have to do this. They could just throw people at the city and they would win. They also didn’t have to have a next generation of cultivators either, and they probably wouldn’t if they got them all killed. Even if it wasn’t terribly uncommon for cultivators to simply launch attacks, a proper siege seemed to be more viable with the scale of the current warfare. They could even let the enemy flee.
“If things go long enough,” John commented, “We could try to starve them out. However, that would result in the deaths of the common folks first. At that rate, I’d just drop things on them.”
“Like the peaks?” Astrid asked.
“Like anything heavy. I’d just fly up really high and let it go. If there weren’t any civilians, I might.”
“You’re not gonna break any walls that way,” Ursel said.
John shrugged. “I could learn to aim. But I could probably get something going fast enough to cause significant collateral damage. I’m not planning that, though.”
With them were cultivators from the Phoenix Forest. One of the sect heads also mentioned various ways to set the city ablaze- though that might be countered by local water cultivators. And they still weren’t trying to destroy everything. They just wanted to tilt the inevitable battle in their favor, and that meant not having to deal with the walls. Or minimizing their impact somehow.
Miron, an elder of the Scalding Geyser Sect, added his own thoughts. “If we burrow beneath the walls, we can weaken the soil with water element. Or we can pressurize a chamber. Done properly, either will accelerate the collapse of the walls.”
“Would that risk the collapse happening on the squads underground?” John asked.
“The pressure…” he paused, “Very well might. Usually, we don’t burrow much ourselves.”
The tunneling method was eventually chosen for the way it took advantage of the natural features. Even if the city itself was somewhat less effective by the muting effects of the crags, they could hope for the enemy’s lack of familiarity. And if they dug deep enough, it wasn’t unreasonable to get beyond sensory range regardless. It might take time, but they weren’t currently in a rush.
The other fronts were still pushing in, and eventually they needed to move past this point, but they could afford to take the time to do things right. They just couldn’t wait so long that additional reinforcements came- unless they could secure the surrounding area completely and cut them off. That would be a bit harder, when a relatively small group could significantly impact the defensive prowess of the area with high enough cultivations.
There was some possibility they would be too proud to call for reinforcements, but counting on their enemies to make mistakes was an unnecessary risk. They didn’t have to commit to just a single attack pattern, either. They could continue attacks with cultivator powered trebuchets, for example, hoping to bring down a section of the walls.
-----
John wasn’t part of the initial digging operation, though they would be making use of darkness cultivators to cloak their approach. John himself might join later, at a key moment, but his presence was prominent enough to be noticed missing. The same was true of Ursel, as much as she would have liked to lead the efforts there. There simply weren’t that many Ascending Soul Phase cultivators, so if one was missing for long enough people might suspect something more than simply lounging around at camp- which was far enough for energy senses to not reach.
The tunnel would have to be quite long- hundreds of meters, since the area around the city was cleared out. They had to begin further out, and keep signs of their digging hidden. For that, they made use of a large tent to cover the entrance. Rather than removing all of the dirt, they partially compressed it- solidifying the tunnel- and removed smaller amounts where they had to, doing that work mostly under cover of night. It wasn’t like daylight would reach underground, so their movements would simply be less noticeable with all operations at night. Any random scouts who got close to the camp wouldn’t be able to see much.
