Despite the planetary formations being patchwork at best, the fact that they were still functional at all could hinder the Trifold Alliance in any number of ways. For Anton, that meant his next mission was assaulting a sect in the Black Desert along with Ingeborg. This particular region was rather fuzzy to Antons senses, precisely because of the sands themselves. However, hed still managed to pick up a feeling of something familiar. Someone familiar. Which of course meant that whoever that was had to die, as a secondary but still relevant objective.
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Anton flew down next to one of the ring-ships of Weos. This one was quite larger, the weapons emplacements dominating its surface and barely visible positions for those who were more suitable to use their own weapons. Or those who had defensive abilities that would complement the ship and spatial distortion around it.
Even as they began to descend, Anton sensed Vasu. Nostalgia filled him, bringing back all sorts of fond memories. The Million Sword Vault was his favorite sect of completely unreasonable individuals, and it was a great loss to them and Ceretos as a whole that Vasu was gone now. Anton had some miniscule hope that Vasu was alive and well, and the real him had taken over this region. He held onto that shred of hope even as the black sands began to coalesce into a tornado stretching into the sky.
It seemed that Ekict had chosen well. Though the Scorching Mirror Desert was quite different, both in the department of colors and overall temperature, the Black Desert did share an important property. Unlike traditional sand, it was not rounded but sharp. The whirling vortex of sand could tear apart energy defenses and flesh, of that Anton had no doubt.
He focused his senses, pushing through the distorting effect of the metallic sands. Even beyond the tornado itself the particles filled the air, but he was able to latch onto the source of the energy, the figure behind it all. A woman, wrinkled but certainly no older than Vasu himself had been. Unfortunate, that she should hold his power. But he had confirmed it.
She was not careless despite the distance between her and the fleet. In the tiniest fraction of a second it took Antons arrows to reach her, she had barriers of black sand surrounding her. No, perhaps they were there all along, obscured in some odd way by their very presence. Spread thin, but instantly condensing into one place. Skillfully constructed, and sturdy enough Anton didnt feel he was having any notable effect. He wasnt yet going all out, but likely that was true of this woman.
He felt energy gathering from the large ship. His finely tuned ears picked up Ingeborg speaking. Ive never had an opportunity to actually use this. Her own energy formed the main component of what he felt, a power both familiar and odd. Rarely used in combat, and certainly not at such a scale. First was that it was generally impractical, and beyond that it was ill advised. But there was nothing around here that they would want to spare from destruction, so the potential side effects were just a factor to consider.
It wasnt really a cannon, simply a cylinder that focused the energy. Anton felt himself dragged towards it for a moment before a beam of black nothing pierced into the center of the sandy tornado, causing it to collapse. Not down to the ground, but inward towards a point in its center. The fleets continued their approach, now unhindered but that didnt last forever.
The woman on the ground maintained control of the sands, she merely had to work harder to fight against the massive gravity pulling at the center of what had once been a vortex. Instead of doing so directly, Anton felt her drop control of that, instead calling upon wider spread black sands, once more forming a vortex but with a wider eye, larger and more powerful as a whole. But it would also be more effort to maintain.
As the two forces wrestled each other, Anton thought about his own possible contributions. He could manage one of them without question, but the other would likely be less impactful. But one was a familiar and focused attack, so he could still have plenty of concentration to attempt the latter.
Anton drew upon energy from beyond himself. Not his stars, as they were basically a part of him. Nor was it Ascension energy, but something rarer, or at least more obtuse. Spectral energy, the other component of Fleeting Youth that was likewise harder to comprehend. Ascension he understood and had rejected, but neither death nor reincarnation had truly been experienced by him.
The arrows were made of practically nothing or perhaps the most vital sort of energy in the world pierced through the cloud of metallic sands. Physical barriers were pointless against such things. Once again the woman displayed her competence, countering with her own natural energy. But that only went so far, and as Anton faded away along with the arrows he knew one member of his barrage had actually pierced her side. A small injury, but a step forward.
As for his other use of power, he was just getting started. He focused his thoughts on Azun, and the massive power it held. Magnetism not experienced on such a scale anywhere else, not even other stars. Of course he could not replicate the full power of a star, but it influenced the efficacy of his techniques and the insights he could gain.
A dense power began to pull the sands in a path perpendicular to their flow- and towards each other. The black sands began to clump together and fall into the gravity well Ingeborg created, while ultimately slowing the whole vortex. Anton had some concerns about how it would affect the fleet, but the spatial distortions minimized the impact, along with his intentions. Actually, the effect might be even more divergent because he was uncertain if the black sands were mainly iron, or perhaps some other less magnetic metals. But he knew that on a certain scale, only very few materials didnt interact with magnetism at all.
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The fleet split to the sides of the whirlwind, bombarding the barriers below. The Assimilation woman controlling the sands most likely wanted to maximize her effectiveness, so she was mainly outside of them, except for an overhang above her.
Behind her was a small compound, though it could still fit a few hundred defenders. And it was indeed populated, both with those waiting for the barrier to be breached and those making use of older style artillery or long range techniques to counterattack.
Metal. Everything was metal. Anton found it difficult to form a wave of magnetism, and indeed it was much more difficult to use at a great range than his normal techniques, so he ultimately began flying closer.
Some of the sands rose to meet him in particular, but he was ready. He didnt have to get close to the ground, but he had been curious. He formed much smaller fields around him, and found that his control was enough to overwhelm the enemys. Or at least the portion the woman was able to devote to him. She quickly gave up, but Anton did not stop his manipulation. In fact, he focused it into familiar shapes. Strings and shafts, along with arrows.
His first several volleys varied widely in their efficacy. Some arrows disintegrated, some moved with great speed, and others lagged behind, as if in slow motion. It all depended on how tightly he held the magnetic fields and laid out a path for them. They had to be properly aligned with the arrows or they acted more like a net slowing things down. He understood the ideas behind it, especially after hed first studied with Varghese, but this particular application was new as he needed to maintain tight control over individual particles without exhausting himself.
After a minute or so, he had a consistent volley going, striking the barriers with high speed masses. The barriers had an excess of energy, as this was one of the core locations that was supposed to be supporting the larger planetary formation. Breaking through with only force would be difficult but they did have a formation master with them. Ingeborg had plans already underway, and what looked like random bombardments was not entirely without a deeper pattern.
Soon, the barrier began to wobble. Then it popped, but only on the top. A half dozen ships flew over, escorting a nondescript seventh ship that dropped something through the barrier before it repaired itself a moment later.
Anton saw and felt a great pull, tearing apart the less fortified structures within the barrier and beginning to drag cultivators towards it. Then a moment later the power contained within the bomb detonated, sending everything flying into everything else. No doubt most of the more powerful cultivators would survive, but the structures themselves would be ruined- and the underlying formations damaged to the point they lost functionality. Ingeborgs ship was waiting for that moment to fire a series of lasers that melted the various components of the larger planetary formation, sending ripples of energy across the surface of the planet as a great portion of the remaining web fell apart.
Now they could go. And they should, before Otakar could show himself. It was possible he was on his way to another location, but they could lose much even in a short confrontation. Yet neither Ingeborg nor Anton were willing to leave just yet. Anton felt her larger ship turning around for another pass- perhaps at the formations, or perhaps at the woman who stole Vasus assimilation.
Anton had to admit she was making excellent use of Vasus abilities, unlike some of the others. Perhaps her previous style was closer to his, or she simply adapted better. But even so, she was still lacking. Life Transformation cultivators flocked around her to mutually defend each other, but Anton didnt mind taking all of them out too.
Metallic arrows began to bombard them, co-opting barriers of black sand meant to protect them and turning them into additional arrows or extra mass. These struck Life Transformation cultivators for the most part, as the closer Anton let them get to the woman the greater her control became. But in his hands he still held his own bow, firing Spirit Arrows of natural energy, ascension energy, and when it was most unexpected spectral energy.
The whole time, sands chased after him. No longer trying at being a tornado, they turned into arms and spears grabbing and stabbing at Anton and the other ships. Anton flew away from these assaults as he fired his own attacks, grabbing at bits of metallic sand as he did so. Anton found the control excellent but he would have been more worried if it was Vasu. Because then he imagined would have had to contend with either ten million swords, or one the size of an entire desert making use of highly honed sword skills. This woman had talent and experience, but she was simply lacking the maniacal passion of the sword cultivators Anton had met.
When Ingeborgs ship returned, there wasnt anything fancy that happened. No gravity distortions beyond the norm. Well, perhaps a little bit to accelerate the massive cannon ball, a simple high velocity kinetic weapon. The speed it moved at was immense, but still technically avoidable. However, that avoidance was much harder with Anton pestering the woman with his own attacks, and she had to choose between what hit her. Unfortunately, she chose wrong as Antons arrow split and stopped her dodging momentum instead of piercing through her, keeping her in the path of the projectile. Nothing could stop that path, and the majority of her torso was removed while everything else both caught on fire and was battered about by sonic waves as the heavy mass crashed into the desert.
Perhaps it would have been better to use that on the barrier, but Anton got everything he wanted as they left behind an impact crater to remind people of the incident. There was no Otakar yet, but Anton had the feeling that only meant he was striking another target.
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