Altura

After I got the two Trees out, we made our way back to the cave. The two of them had severe injuries and would need awhile to recover. I left them in the cave, going out to hunt more of the hunters.

The search took a while, the groups were always moving, but I did find one eventually. A group of Late and Mid-Grand Trees, once again with my portrait. Were these being distributed or something?

But either way, I attacked.

I took a shot at the one closest to me, expecting the Mid-Grand Tree to drop dead in a single shot. But he didn’t. Did he have special defenses or something? I shot at him again, flying off to avoid the other seven. The guy, who had just summoned his defenses, died this time.

The rest of them were attacking me in earnest now. I started teleporting around, shooting at them, each of the Mid-Trees took two shots, whatever defenses that one had, the others had it too. I managed to take down two more Mid-Trees but Late-Grand Tree caught up to me.

So, I shot at him too. But it barely even injured him. I kept teleporting to places, but I kept coming under fire. I had to teleport with defenses, further wasting my Qi. The bunch were more prepared than I had thought. But I would still win.

The answer was dealing with all the Mid-Grand Trees, there were only two left. I could then deal with the three Late-Grand Trees. The problem? The Late-Trees attacked as soon as I got there. The solution? Just teleport some more.

And I did. I teleported some more, circling around the place, shooting at the Mid-Trees. The two of them had started just dodging instead of attacking. But in the end they fell, the shots landed their life ended. And I just had the three Late-Trees to deal with.

I turned towards them smiling as I prepared my teleport, they would fall soon. The next teleport, however, I found myself amidst a tornado of fire. The three of them had decided to heat the place up to make sure I spent Qi near constantly. But so would they. And I had a lot more stats than them.

Kept teleporting, and they used the fire tornado to attack me. The tornado must be some kind of combined art. The snowflake defenses were costing a pretty penny in this high heat area now. But I could still do it.

I shot at the one standing in the middle three times at once, spending a lot of Qi, but finishing him off. But I spent an extra shot, apparently a Late-Grand Tree died at seven shots. The death of one of their comrades seemed to anger the two others, as they increased the ferocity of their attacks. But I wasn’t gonna let them kill me just yet.

I started teleporting more often, barely spending a second in one place. The only reason I could do this was because of my prodigious understanding of Space, Qi, and spirit, the other two had no chance at replicating it. Or at beating me.

The fight continued, the commotion brought its own spectators, but no one interfered. I was likely teleporting too fast to be identified, and everyone probably held this fight too risky to take part in.

In the end, though, I won the second Late-Grand Tree died, and the third fell soon after. I teleported down into the bushes and hid before someone saw me, but I was sure I would survive anyway.

The stupid battle had made me spend most o my Qi, it would take me too long to recover all my Qi now.

Well, I could wait a bit. And check the notifications.

System, show notifications.

3 Late Grand Trees killed: 3 × 5,000,000 Qi= 15,000,000

5 Mid-Grand Trees killed 5 x 1,750,000= 8,750,000

Total Qi gained- 23,750,000

(Mid-Grand Tree stage [600,000/78,643,200]) → (Mid-Grand Tree stage [24,350,000/78,643,200]) 68 million and 3 Qi spent

Total Qi available after replenishment: (Mid-Grand Tree stage [92,350,003/78,643,200])

Ah, sweet, sweet Qi. I had forgotten that the System gave additional rewards for killing higher level cultivators. I should return to the cave and breakthrough now, it would probably be helpful.

Viola

Viola looked at the smoldering Sect headquarters with pity. After she had run away and sought aid from the Arch duchy, she had been given leave to set up a Sect headquarters in her half of the Sect territory.

But things seemed determined to go wrong. The merchants would back out, the sect recruitment ceremonies would get sabotaged. The nearby clans had refused to send their children in, forcing Viola to draw from the commoner population.

But that might have been for the better, they had received numerous eager, honest recruits. Not the duplicitous, selfish applicants the Clans would send. The sect recruitment ceremonies had been cancelled, instead recruitment was open every day, and people could come and sign up anytime.

The conditions had caused the Sect to boom in power, she had recently broken through to the Late-Tree level, and she had two other Trees under her. A number of Treelings had also come about, and a veritable army of Plants and Plantlings.

Viola had taken the opportunity to set up the headquarters near the Sect part of the forest, and benefited massively from it. The forest was dangerous, no doubt, but it offered equal reward.

And then she had found out who had been attacking her, the Confederacy. The Confederacy had always been greedy towards the Jade arts, the Jade Sect’s iconic art. But the only one currently with knowledge of it was Ancestor Revelia, who had gone missing, and Viola.

Viola would never give the Confederacy anything, in fact, she had blocked all trade with them and destroyed all the bases of the ‘organization’ that she could find.

As it turned out, the ‘organization’ was behind the Sect’s problems, the Shadow Prince had been working to make the Sect weak, and he had succeeded. The final part of his plan was here, to attack and take the new Sect Headquarters while the Archduchess was away.

Viola did not know how he thought the Archduchess would let him get away with it, she would bet that he would die, but he was still attacking. But whether the Sect would fall was something she had opinions about.

Calling upon her power, Viola caused a light drizzle, quieting the fires that burned, and then let her aura out.

“Hear me, members of the Jade Sect! The Confederacy has orchestrated this unprovoked war with only one intention, to destroy us before our allies, the Arch duchy can aid us. And our task is one thing.” Viola said, letting water run around her, “To destroy them!”

Viola sent out a burst of water towards the enemy, making it rain her special brand of water. The Fair Water. A water that burned everyone Viola deemed guilty. And Viola deemed the entire Confederacy guilty. The attack was expensive in Qi, but it had its intended effect.

The Sect members cheered as the Confederacy front line died. Viola might not be some great orator, but she still knew how to inspire people. The Confederacy would regret the day they decided that the Sect was up for taking, because it was not.

Viola watched as the two lines clashed, saving her Qi for when the higher ups of the Confederacy acted.The two Sect Grand Elders, the other two Trees also watched the scene.

A myriad of lights glowed as the armies clashed, but the Sect had a distinct advantage. A better set of skills. Better weapons, better training. The Archduchess’ decision to spread numeration to the masses had been very wise.

But the Confederacy also had a larger number of…everything. The number of Plants, Plantlings, Treelings, Trees, and of course a Grand Tree. The battle would be hard fought. A wave of Qi emerged from the Confederacy side as boulders began appearing in the air. The Trees on the other side had acted.

Viola moved, rushing towards the other side. A wave of water emerged as she waved her hand, spreading out in the general direction of the enemy. A group of three, dressed in black, emerged.

“An unpleasant day to you, Sect heir. I see that your little force is nearing its end.” the man in the middle spoke, releasing the aura of a Grand Tree. Viola cursed, the Confederacy’s ancestor, the Grand Merchant, had come himself. A quick look released that the other two were also a level higher than her Trees.

But Viola would still win. A horizontal whirlpool formed before her as she summoned a tsunami. The Jade arts were a strange art, it forced the wielder to wield only one element, but gave great power over it. The summoning of the tsunami, for example, cost Viola little Qi, and with her element, would be very, very damaging.

The Grand Merchant made his move, summoning borders in the tsunami’s path as he shot lightning towards him. A mistake, pure water was not a good conductor of lightning. And what Viola summoned was very pure, molecular pure the Archduchess had said. Apparently it only had something called h2o and nothing else.

But either way, the Grand Merchant failed. The tsunami burned through the boulders, and the attack did nothing. Now, it was the Grand Merchant’s turn to curse. Viola had other things to worry about, her Trees were failing, the two of them were faltering before cultivators of a higher level.

Viola sent waves of water at them, adding her power to theirs, and inflicting significant damage. Viola had been considering giving the two of them the Jade arts, and perhaps after this she would.

“An unwise decision, Sect heir, you shall die today for your crime.” the Grand Merchant said, Viola turned to him to see what the fuss was. The tsunami had apparently burned away all of his air, probably hurting his self-image or something. Viola could not care less.

But what she did care about was that the Grand Merchant had not been able to stop the tsunami. So, she conjured three more and went back to dealing with the other Trees. Sending another wave of water at them, she saw them falter, hope rising in her chest.

But it was too early, the Grand Merchant had pulled out some kind of object and was holding it aloft. A pulse suddenly left it, stopping the first tsunami. The same happened with the second and the third, the water just floated in the air, not able to go forward.

“A water ward! A valuable item from the Oceanic lands. I made a rather valuable alliance, you see, and my allies tell me that the Archduchess will not be returning from the Tourney. I advise you to kill yourself, Viola, it will make things easier for both of us.” the Grand Merchant said, laughing.

Viola sent more attacks at him in reply. A ward could not stand for too long, eventually it would fall. But the Grand Merchant was not done, he sent out huge boulders at her, laughing as they attacked her whirlpool.

Viola became more and more desperate, pouring more Qi into her attacks. In the end, the ward broke, it took nearly all of her Qi, but it broke. But her hope was for naught. The water just fell down, not progressing forward, and she had not the Qi for another attack.

Viola readied for her death as the Grand Elder conjured a boulder, but then something she had not predicted happened. The water started glowing. And not just the one she had summoned, all water, everywhere. A notification appeared before her.

The System offers hearty congratulations to Grand Elder Artica on her breakthrough to the Warrior Tree stage. The birth of a new Warrior Tree is a momentous occasion indeed.

Viola dismissed the notification, looking at the Grand Elder, wondering why she wasn’t dead yet. What she saw shocked her more. A huge portal had appeared behind the Grand Merchant, and a sword was piercing his belly.

“Do you know that as General, I get Qi whenever an army under me engages in war? And that Viola’s Sect counts? So, Grand Merchant, thank you for letting me break through and giving me the power to kill you.” General Aswelth said from behind him.

An army poured out of the portal, thirty Trees, a hundred, Treelings, a thousand Plants. The army made quick work of the Confederacy army. Viola sighed at the Arch duchy’s display of power, someday, perhaps far off in the future, the Sect would boast such a force. But the day was far away. A momentous occasion indeed.

Altura

Hurrying along at the cost of some of my newfound Qi, I made my way back to the cave as quickly as I could, only to find it surrounded by other cultivators. A dozen of them.

“Do you think she is inside?” one of them asked.

“The breakthrough Qi came from in there, so there is at least a chance. And even if she isn’t, we can always wait for her.” another replied. I clutched my staff as I crouched in the bushes, hiding among the vines. I had somehow not been detected yet.

“So, do we go in now?” the first one asked.

“No, we wait for the lords to come in, the Archduchess is a tricky one, she might have some sleeves up her sleeve. The lords will deal with her.” the other one replied.

The problem was that I could not act either, I was too low on Qi. I checked my Qi meter to see how much Qi I had.

(Mid-Grand Tree stage [25,310,073/78,643,200]

Ugh, it was too low. I had to wait. So I did. A half-hour later, the Qi had recovered to 65 million. The Qi was rising so slowly, it would take another half hour or more for it to reach full. And didn’t I already have almost as much Qi as before? I could just attack now, I had handled the theirs well enough, and what were the chances of these having the same amount of defenses as the other ones?

I attacked the nearest one, injuring but not killing him. What bad luck, the first one had good defenses. But that didn’t stop me, I attacked again, switching around to attack them as much as I could. But my luck didn’t hold. The defenses were even better this time.

But the fact that there was only one Late-Grand Tree gave me hope that I could beat them. I shot at them from the sky, teleporting around as much as I could so that they couldn’t target me.

But the rest of them weren’t having it, they started attacking randomly, forcing me to keep my defenses on all the time. The defenses slowed me down enough that they kept retaliating, further forcing my reserves down. At this rate, I would run out of Qi before they did.

I switched tactics, conjuring a tornado to occupy their attention, and absorb some of their attacks, and then shot at them using it as cover. The tactic worked, I took down one Mid-Grand Tree and an Early Grand Tree. The problem? An Early Grand Tree took one shot, but a Mid took three. The Lates had yet to budge, and my Qi reserves were dropping like stone. I needed to switch tactics.

I retreated into the cave, pulling the now awake Trees with air. “Come with me, we are being attacked.” I said, as I cleared a path out of the cave for us with Earth magic.

“Archduchess, we were already making a path!” one of the Trees said. Ugh, why didn’t she say so before?

“But I am sure it will be ok, we were all in a hurry.” the other one replied. What was her name again? Oh, I didn’t ask for it.

The three of us flew through a series of mountains, I let us, the cave would eventually lead to an opening. A constant whistling in the air told us that we were being followed. I kept collapsing the cave behind us to slow them down, a Tree could not fly as fast as a Grand Tree.

After some distance they began retaliating, a hail of snow emerged at us, forcing me to spend even more Qi to stop them. The distance between the whistling and is closed as we rushed forward. I was just about to risk going sideways when light finally appeared at the end of the tunnel. But my joy was short-lived, the place we emerged to was full of vines. The vines blocked every direction, a virtual dead end.

To make things worse, the men had caught up to us. I, we, were cornered.

“Archduchess, run, you are the hope of the Land of the Six Jewels, you cannot be allowed to die.” one of the girls said, turning towards the Grand Trees here to kill us. I hesitated, leaving them here felt wrong. But the girls did not wait for me, they had already attacked the Grand Trees.

“Do you know why we fight?” one of them said, “Because the Archduchess saved our sister. The Gorge was dying before she came, and then it was not. Perhaps in the next life, you shall have such a leader.” she said, attacking them with all of her power.

And I ran, using what Qi I had left, I ran, cutting the vines as I went. But I did not get far. A tingling on the back of my head told me that something was heading towards me. Turning, I found a projectile heading towards me, a projectile powered by Spirit Qi.

I knew I could not dodge it. So I pivoted, using my staff as a shield, expecting the staff to block it. But it didn’t. The projectile struck the staff…and broke it. The staff of Royalty, the most powerful item I had encountered, broke. The projectile passed through, cutting across my torso, projecting me straight into the vines as I fell through them.

And then I collapsed on the ground and lay there. In a pool of my blood. A pool of my failures. A pool of my mistakes.