The Lower Realms Alliance wasn’t simply waiting passively for the Holy Stars to make their return, but rather than sending their strongest cultivators on offense, they kept them within their own territory while sending proper scout ships towards likely locations based on what they could determine from the two arrivals. Regardless of whether they actually ended up having any further conflicts, they needed to know where the group originated from. They shouldn’t be anywhere close to r- not even within a hundred lightyears- which put them more or less that far from <em>any</em> popted section of the Alliance.
Anton was currently training with both Bear Hug and Three Squeaks. Locally, his algae friend was at such a serious disadvantage that Anton really didn’t need to fully focus on them. That didn’t mean Anton wasn’t taking it seriously, just that what Bear Hug could best get from Anton in the current circumstances was defensive training.
Bear Hug did their best to dodge, deflect, or block Anton’s arrows. If they failed… the arrow would pierce straight through them. Even at a narrow diameter that was very bad for humans. For a being made of algae, it really wouldn’t do anything unless Anton detonated one of his arrows somewhere in the middle of things.
It was actually quite fascinating to watch Bear Hug develop their techniques. They weren’t much of a fighter before, even if it <em>had</em> been done. Taking advantage of their particr qualities was exactly what Bear Hug needed. Their bodily flexibility was pretty much unlimited- there weren’t any bones or muscles to strain after all. Rapid energy control and precise flow as important.
Bear Hug’s energy wasn’t contained in their dantian because they didn’t have one. It was mostly distributed around their body, which was valuable in some ways and exploitable in others. For example, if Anton targeted Bear Hug’s ‘head’- or at least their upper portion- with something that had to be guarded against, Bear Hug had to draw from their middle. If he targeted top and bottom at the same time, he could make a follow up strike on Bear Hug’s middle with almost no energy to stop him.
Even if there weren’t vital organs there, if Bear Hug’s body was separated they could die. Alternatively, Anton could just destroy a significant quantity of mass.
Bear Hug was learning to reflow the <em>right</em> amount of energy, and taking advantage of their strands they did it in alternating segments. Humans moving energy from their dantian through their meridians had predictable flow that was still difficult to disrupt despite that predictability. After all, they were <em>extremely</em> protective of their body. If foreign energy got inside, they were already half dead at that point.
Sometimes Bear Hug was, and sometimes they weren’t. Bear Hug very clearly did not like to lose bodies- it was painful in ways Anton didn’t quite understand- but that didn’t mean they were concerned about <em>damage</em> to a body. People couldn’t actually cut off Bear Hug’s head, it was just a mass of algae that happened to be closest to the area. That was what they should take advantage of.
The way Bear Hug was doing energy flow was… fascinating. The flow could have easily been like water, which Anton might have expected given Bear Hug’s affinity. Instead, Bear Hug took the mostplicated path that shouldn’t have worked- creating a vast number of individual strands of energy that they moved in either direction. Approximately one third at first, though once Anton began targeting various different sides of Bear Hug the proportions changed.
What didn’t was how over the course of a few days Bear Hug learned to control hundreds or thousands of individual segments of energy. That was something that even Anton wouldn’t normally do. He could create a whole regiment of Energy Bows, but they were all doing more or less the same thing. Bear Hug had started pulling energy from wherever they pleased to where they needed it, which wasn’t <em>that</em> dissimr but still should have required a lot of mental processing. Bear Hug didn’t even have a brain, though. They weren’t quite able to exin it, either.
“It just works,” Bear Hug dered. “I think I can get very good at this.” The results weren’t <em>instant</em>, but the growth rate had been obvious.
On the other side of things, Anton was the one trying to improve. Three Squeaks might learn something, but the training was <em>for</em> Anton. The point was channeling his power through a distant star- far beyond the range of his archery. The actual distance didn’t matter as much as the fact that he wasn’t within the normal influence range of the star. A hundred or five hundred lightyears didn’t make any difference.
Three Squeaks shot arrows that Anton tried to hunt down and destroy. It was both a test of agility and power. Thetter was what Anton cared about the most, but he couldn’t expect his foes to just stand still and take hits. Aniello certainly hadn’t, and he’d been able to retreat despite being technically far weaker than Anton.
Anton was well aware that he couldn’t be everywhere and do everything, but the particr circumstances bothered him. Unity was a promise both to the people of a system and to himself. Bear Hug and others had been harmed along with the unique ecosystem of r. If Anton simply hadn’t been involved at all he would have been content with the results, but because he had acted and <em>failed</em> he couldn’t help but want to do better.
The people of Akrys were already prepared for Anton making his presence known. Three Squeaks was also a starbinding cultivator, so even if Anton didn’t personally use his power in the area often they wouldn’t be concerned there was an actual attack. Obviously they had been informed, but he still didn’t want people to lose sleep.
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Anton’s arrow caught one of Three Squeaks from behind, cutting through subspace to catch up. Three Squeak’s arrow withstood the assault even if he couldn’t get away. The advantage of using full power was enough to make up for a different stage of cultivation.
Three Squeaks was quite talented, and only a rtively small number of centuries behind Anton, but using a human cultivation technique and fighting style meant he couldn’t really catch up to Anton. Thetter’s experience and power would always prevail, especially since Anton himself was also quite talented and never cked off.
He might not have had <em>specific</em> training he was performing for thest few centuries, but he didn’t just <em>stop</em>. Now, he needed to be able to disy the full power of Enrichment around any bound star. He knew it must be possible. At current, he was really only like a <em>weak</em> Enrichment cultivator. Not good enough for these Holy Stars. Obviously he intended to fight them at full strength,unching attacks from one of his bound stars, but they might not make things convenient for him.
Sometimes Three Squeaks shed directly with Anton’s arrows, sometimes he avoided them. Anton had to be ready for either, which took a different flow of energy. His connection to the power heunched from a star was perfectly responsive, but it was his own limitations that held him back. Forming starstuff into a bow wasn’t easy. Anton had to improve that. He also needed to make sure he wasn’t only improving his familiarity with one particr star, because while he certainly wanted to protect Akrys he also needed to be effective in other ces.
Bear Hug looked as if they were going to block a shot directly to their midsection- gathering energy and everything. Then that energy pulled away at the same time as the rest of them, opening up a tunnel. Anton immediately twisted his arrow upward, but Bear Hug’s energy was all focused ‘inward’, and Anton’s angle wasn’t perfect. Thus, he scraped off of the energy.
“That was great,” Anton said. “However, make sure you don’t do that against a sword. Or most weapons, really. They’ll have a better time cutting their way out. Polearms, though… you can probably catch most of them.”
Anton was aware that some sword cultivators allowed their opponents to stab them through or at least very <em>close</em> to actual vital organs but it seemed a lot less risky for Bear Hug. Of course, anything that left energy controlled by an enemy vaguely near your body wasn’t <em>safe</em>. It would only take a slight change to make it dangerous. If Anton just used more power, it wouldn’t matter. Though, Bear Hug wasn’t trying to fight a Unity cultivator, just someone on their own level. To that end, it was probably sufficient.
“I understand!” Bear Hug responded vigorously. “I’ll be even better!”
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The others people of r were <em>also</em> training for a potential invasion. Briar was surprisingly verbose about it.
“... gonna kill that one.”
The bar was set very low for Briar talking.
It seemed that Bear Hug might havepetition to take out Aniello, though they had a significant advantage for having reached Enrichmentation.
Then again, it was quite possible that Briar would advance soon as well. A few months or a year wasn’t much, but Briar wasn’t <em>too</em> far from the next step to begin with. The double inspiration of a threat as well as a friendly rival advancing was likely a good motivation.
Spike was busy throwing spiny fruit into the sky. Anton was able to give the tree some guidance, though he didn’t use very simr projectiles.
“You’ll want to make the best use of them you can since your ammunition is limited. Take your time, load it up with energy. Providing some spin will make them more naturally stable, so that you don’t have to correct with your energy.” Anton also provided guidance on uracy, picking out targets that would push Spike’s abilities to the limit.
Spike, along with Helix and even Liberty, had no real chance of taking down Aniello. They probably shouldn’t even try. However, that didn’t mean they couldn’t fight the rest of those that mighte. Liberty was a small tree, never having particrly grown, but he was actually a pretty good bet for splitting apart armor. If there were somewhat weaker cultivators- equivalent to Assimtion- that used the same style, Liberty would likely be quite effective against them.
Various other nt people were prepared to defend their home systems, including the strange beasts that roamed in the void of space within their system. They were part of their home, even if those beasts would probably try to eat them should they run into them.
The Ind Tenders were taking a wide patrol of the system, specifically trying not to agitate the beasts <em>too</em> much. Paradise was a bit <em>frightening</em> for anything working off of its instincts. Anton was stronger, but since the system had undergone the step to Unity he felt like he belonged. Even those things that were not sapient recognized him as natural.
On the other hand, Paradise was a big space turtle that absolutely <em>could</em> just eat huge mouthfuls of them. He <em>did</em> when a few were foolish enough to attack him. He couldn’t let them get to the sect he carried, and it would be a waste to kill them any other way. Mostly, though, he stayed far enough that the locals barely noticed.
Nthanda wasn’t likely to make any relevant progress in the near future. She couldn’t even reallye up with a new technique. Instead, her body developed little by little over centuries. She wouldn’t just sit around doing nothing for months, though.
Anishka practiced her own abilities where she could. Some of the locals did have volcanoes or frozen poles, as well as other simrly relevant locations. She actually ended up spending the most time teaching a few interested locals what she could- most of them hadn’t seen elemental techniques before, and they were interested in learning what they could even if human methods wouldn’t trante directly. Such things had been made avable before, but actually seeing it in person made them curious.
The Great Queen hadn’t arrived yet. She’d been in the upper realms, which was quite a long trip. The local void ants were eagerly awaiting her arrival- both those on thes and those that lived with Paradise.
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