Chapter 509
Choosing to ignore that Elder Intan had instantly gotten within a few millimeters of death or at least deadly injury, Anton instead focused on the chaos and disruption inside the barrier. It only took a few moments before everything <em>shifted</em>, copsing around individual enemy ships instead of being onerge bubble around them. That meant that fighter pilot Ty and Elder Intan only managed to cause <em>moderate</em> damage in the few moments they had. Several more ships were destroyed in those moments, and with therger barrier suddenly unavable suddenly the orbital defenses and waiting fighters were effective.
It seemed that with the Worldbinding cultivator focusing on them each ships barriers were slightly stronger than they should normally be, but it was nothingpared to the near-invulnerability they had just lost.
With the focus shifted away from Anton he had a few moments to reorient himself, picking out critical targets. The strongest of those who had a connection to the aura user, and any ships he felt he could bring down. Anton considered attacking the Worldbinding cultivators directly, but wasnt confident he could seriously affect them yet. Better to whittle away at their source of power while he had the chance.
Ruteras fleet reacted quickly, weaving themselves among the enemy ships and making it impossible to simply take out the hindrances within the formation and reestablish the barrier. Anton was impressed at the speed with which the opening was exploited.
The maneuver didnte without cost. With the Ruteran ships inside their formation, the full power of the invaders was brought to bear, including the Worldbinding cultivators. That aura was a problem, weakening the moderate strength cultivators on Ruteras side greatly.
Spectral energy was still the solution, Anton pulling upon as much of it as he could to pierce through the now weakened barriers, targeting any he felt had a connection to the woman. With therger barrier copsed he could feel she was a woman now- both Worldbinding cultivators were, though the barrier augmentor was significantly older.
Whenever Anton targeted someone with his spectral arrows, the barrier augmentor focused her efforts on those ships but there was only so much she could adjust such things on the fly. Anton settled for a half dozen weaker arrows at once, some only <em>appearing</em> as spectral energy because his stores were limited. Some managed to still pierce the barriers, their specific qualities making them difficult to stop, while others werepletely negated. Even if they had all been stopped, however, Anton felt his efforts were worthwhile. While the second woman focused on stopping his attacks, the rest of the fleet was facing slightly diminished enemy defenses that they were happy to continue to exploit.
Along with Ruteras fighters, there was now a hefty mix of Ceretos cultivators moving between the ships. Not all of them couldpletely control their movement in space, but they were able to jump between both enemy and allied ships, using them as tforms. Thebat continued to rotate around the, not quite matching that of the orbital tforms and thus allowing fresh arsenals to open fire. Anton could only imagine how costly this battle would be for Rutera- ammunition meant to fight cultivators was not cheap- but no costs couldpare to what would happen if they allowed themselves to be conquered.
As each ship fell, Anton felt both Worldbinding cultivators weaken. He knew that even without any support at all they would still be worth more than a dozen Life Transformation cultivators each- the stronger one perhaps several times that- butpared to what they had been doing Anton was little concerned about their individualbat capabilities. Soon enough the enemy fleet had been cut by a quarter and then they began to pull away from Rutera.
Anton heardmunications in his ear, something that hadnt been necessary for most of the battle as <em>he</em> was the one rying information. It was a simple bit of Ruteran technology that vibrated sound directly into him instead of those speakers they preferred to use. It was a simple order, one he didnt technically have to follow- but was d to. Maintain pursuit. Dont let them reform.
Even as those orders went out, Anton knew it would get many pilots killed. Without the support of the orbital defense tforms, they were more vulnerable and yet it was undoubtedly the right call. If these Worldbinding cultivators got another chance, they wouldn''t make the same mistakes again. They coulde back, more prepared, with arger fleet and perhaps that would be the end of Rutera. Anton didnt want to disparage the ground defenses, but if fighting broke out in the cities it wouldnt be pretty no matter who won.
The power of ascension energy flowed through Anton, into his bow. Either the enemys defenses would focus solely on him, or he would punch a hole through one of their ships. Maybe two, if he was lucky. The pull of his bow strained his muscles and energy, fatigue beginning to actually catch up to him over the course of the battle. But he wouldnt let this opportunity pass.
By the time a third of the enemy fleet was destroyed, Anton thought he could have taken out the weaker Worldbinding cultivator, were she not on the same gship as the one managing the barriers. The enemies response continued to be panicked, and Anton imagined they expected to be pulling away from these fighters. After all, all of the enemy ships were capable of interster travel, which meant superlight speeds in some circumstances. But they couldnt draw the power they needed.
When the sky had darkened, even Anton had been <em>momentarily</em> surprised. Hed forgotten his grip on the stars energy, but it had been working from the moment he did it- and it simply took more than a handful of minutes for the effects to reach them. Anton was only controlling a tiny fraction of the stars power- the miniscule sliver of it that was directly pointed at Rutera- but that was sufficient. Which was good, because that was close to the limit of his power.
Perhaps realizing this, the enemy ships were making their way towards the star with a slight offset, hoping to draw from its power as the chasemenced. Over the course of the next half hour, the Ruteran fleet determinedly dogged the invading forces, reducing their numbers to below half. Then the invading fleet began to pull away, as the interster ships finally managed to disentangle and begin to elerate at a rate the fighters couldnt keep up with. There was also the matter of fuel the local fighters had.
Another order, slightly dyed as distance became a significant factor. Assist the Ceretos cultivators and pull back. End pursuit. We cant stop them.
As much as it bothered Anton, General Nicodemo was right. But he was also wrong at the same time. As the enemy ships began to pull away, none of the local fighters could keep up the pace unless they wanted to doom themselves to never returning home. Even the most brash individuals turned to retreat, Ty Quigleys <em>extremely</em> expensive fighter bearing numerous holes as he carried Elder Intan away, thetter clutching one of his own severed arms in his teeth as they went.
With the Snis Clusters ships only getting faster, there wasnt much hope. Except, while they had chosen the best avenue of retreat for them it was also the worst mistake they could have made.
Antons eyes lit up as fires burned inside him. He was <em>absolutely</em> going to need a long period of recovery after what hed done today and how much more energy he was going to use. But as the enemy fleet drew closer to the local star he followed in silence and peace, merely keeping pace with them until he suddenly cut off a wider arc of the suns power for just a few moments. He was ready for the dy, now, and when it hit the fleet, briefly dropping their eleration and the strange invisibility they had, Anton took his shot.
It was just a single arrow, but it went straight through the sails on one side of the gship. The barrier from the second Worldbinding cultivator was instantly forced to its maximum as his attack went, but with half of the fleet missing and the woman having been constantly pushing herself it wasnt enough. The barrier defended the body of the ship, but with the sails on that side went a quarter of their energy replenishment capabilities and a great amount of their <em>stability</em>.
His second arrow went through one of the lesser ships. His third came from behind the enemy fleet, from the direction of the star. Hed actuallyunched that one moments after he cut off the flow of power, minutes ago. They werent close enough to the star for him to simply melt the entire fleet with a giant, but they were inside Sizipra, the innermost. Anton felt a significant boost as he began to tear through the ships and people- and the Worldbinding cultivators power.
Front-facing weaponry on their ships couldnt do anything to Anton with his current position, and the myriad of attacks the weaker cultivatorsunched in his direction hardly mattered as he swept himself back and forth behind them, his momentum keeping his position behind the fleet while he changed histeral motion on a whim. The barrier augmentors attacks were the only thing that could concern him, but she was fatigued and the fleet was only getting smaller. Half of Antons efforts countered her attacks, while the rest whittled the fleet lower and lower.
As the enemy fleet became less and less worthy of the name, Anton felt a wave of energy from the enemy- not an attack, but an attempt atmunication. Wait! We surrender.
In other circumstances, Anton would have thought it entirely impractical to attempt. Containing not one but <em>two</em> Worldbinding cultivators, even away from their optimal bases of power? That wasnt something they had restraints for. Actually, Anton would bet that Everheart had something that would do it, but he wasnt exactly willing to wait a week.
But at this exact moment, he felt confident in managing things on his own. His energy connected to the enemy, transferring his message back to them. About time. Then he used another powered arrow to pierce through the core of their gship, rendering it nearly nonfunctional. He wasnt much more merciful with the Worldbinding cultivators, gathering part of the star and forcing it into their dantians. If I lose control, that energy will explode. Im sure you know what would happen to you.
Without the barrier, he could even feel the two nod their heads before they carefully responded, their energy barely able to squeeze past the burning fire Anton tossed into them. We understand.
Anton then tossed out a massive- not using the direct power of a star, but rather a more <em>conservatively</em> sized made of peaceful natural energy. The remnants of the fleet were gradually slowed by him so they would not drift past the star, as Anton instead settled them into an orbit. He also caught the other ships and pieces of them as they came into reach, further behind since they had stopped elerating when destroyed. Hed greatly increased his storage bags size after previous incidents, but even now he didnt have enough space for dozens of ships, so he settled for holding them in ce. As for any surviving cultivators, they were thrust into one of the surviving ships that still had air and <em>some</em> protection from the stars radiation.
Then Anton sent a message to Everheart. Got two Worldbinding cultivators, could use longer term restraints. Come to Ruteras star with a solution and you can have first dibs on interrogating them. That should be sufficient to get him interested, and since they couldnt have a back-and-forth discussion, he went with what he hoped to be tempting. Everheart knew much about Ascension. Hed surpassed Integration and reached Augmentation, and perhaps wasnt even too far from Domination himself but Worldbinding and Assimtion seemed to be limited to the lower realms as options. Or perhaps they were simply unnecessary with the power of Ascension but Everheart would be tempted to find out regardless.