Justified caution had John sweeping the area around them with his eyes and senses, as simply assuming the Tenebach clan was the sole remaining hidden force coming for the Shadowhawk would be a terrible idea. Like before, none of them found anyone else, which hopefully meant there wasn’t anyone. They’d been fortunate to come in behind the other groups so they weren’t leaving behind signs for the Twisting Terror clan or the Serpent Watchers.

The latter had just revealed themselves when members of the Twisting Terror clan were flung into their midst by the Shadowhawk, huddling defensively over its nest. The larger whirlwind the clan had created around the Shadowhawk’s tree was continuing to orbit the majority of their forces along with it, but now they had to divert their attention between two sides.

Knowing when to properly inject the Tenebach clan into this whole mess would be key. They could wait until everything was resolved- that might maximize their enemies’ exhaustion, but there was no guarantee that nobody from the Twisting Terror clan or the Serpent Watchers would withdraw, bringing knowledge about what happened with them. What was more important was if they noticed the Tenebach clan, because he wanted to minimize enemies actually knowing anything. Suspecting was fine, but having public reasons to act against them was not.

But nothing could be perfect. The other flaw with waiting until the end was that the Serpent Watchers- who he predicted to be the most likely victors- might not actually be sufficiently fatigued, and thus cause more damage to the Tenebach clan when they fought. If he could attack while they were otherwise occupied with the Twisting Terror clan and the Shadowhawk, they might be able to save their own forces as much as possible.

He began to lead Aydan and the others around the far side of the tree, away from their initial direction of approach. He wanted to pin the Serpent Watchers in, so they had to get closer and the direction he chose would let him survey more area for additional enemies… just one more time. The natural darkness element in the area cloaked them, with John making only minimal adjustments for optimal concealment in the direction of the combatants. It was unlikely they would notice either way while engaged in combat, but anything could save a life. One he cared about, specifically. His time in this world was now nearly matching his life beforehand, and with Fortkran’s memories it felt closer to two thirds of his experiences. Killing had become a part of his life, and while he still had standards for when that was appropriate, a group they’d had conflict with before and another that had blackmailed them were both acceptable targets.

As they circled the tree, John kept an eye on the battle. The Shadowhawk was continuously bombarded by projectiles and prodded by spears, but the feathers protecting it were not flimsy like a natural bird’s would be. John saw dark blood glinting on its black feathers, so it wasn’t unharmed- but it was also not close to death. In return, it snapped at approaching enemies with its beak or flung feathers like razor blades, many of them impaling people while the rest were buried in the ground. There was something about the way they stuck out of the ground that made John pay close attention to them, but the battle was shifting towards the far side of the tree where the two groups clashed, with the Shadowhawk frequently targeting the highest density of enemies.

The Serpent Watchers favored thrusting weapons- spears and thin swords, though not all of the latter were like rapiers. They had two handed swords as well, not bulky weapons like some used for chopping through things, but a handful of centimeters at the base tapering to a finer point. Though John imagined they were perfectly capable of slicing with the blade as well, the Serpent Watchers rarely made use of such moves. Instead, they struck like their namesakes- snapping forward like a snake, in most cases impaling their enemies before they could react. They did so through a combination of speed and subtlety, concealing both their body movements and their gathering of energy for the attacks.

They didn’t possess an absolute advantage, even flanking the Twisting Terror clan. The air element users were mobile, making use of ranged attacks and their combined whirlwind to stay out of easy range, forcing the enemy to overextend or even enter their whirlwind. The few cultivators who were swept up in it quickly found themselves unable to control themselves while the Twisting Terror clan had no issues coordinating to finish them off. But their initial failures still put them behind, one of their Consolidated Soul Phase cultivators having fallen while the Serpent Watchers had three in relatively healthy states.

John left several members of the Tenebach clan behind about a third of the way around the ring of trees at the edge of the influence of the greater tree the Shadowhawk dwelled in. The cultivators left behind were intended to deal with any Twisting Terror clan individuals who fled on the far side- they weren’t on the complete opposite because that might be more obvious, and because this way they would be closer to joining the battle if their other purpose was unnecessary.

Leaves and twigs were prone to crunching on a forest floor, but John blazed a path for the others to follow that resulted in minimal sound, taking advantage of his training in the Emerging Bamboo Sect. Though dead plants were somewhat different, they were at all times enough within the domain of earth that John was now comfortable softening them, making the flexible blanket of leaves and twigs below him acting like padding.

Reaching a place behind the Serpent Watchers- and determining for certain that their sect head, Idartha, was not present- John waited for an opening. Then he gave the signal, readying a throwing dagger, gathering darkness and earth to it. His arm snapped forward, propelling the blade, the spiritual energy causing it to curve up unnaturally into his target’s armpit- one of the three Consolidated Soul Phase cultivators. It stuck in the side of the arm, the weakness in the joints being better reinforced on the side of the torso where the vital organs were. Perfectly reasonable, but seeing how the Serpent Watchers fought, they needed the full range of movement they had… and the earth element burrowed its way into the muscle tissue, petrifying some of it as Bite of the Gorgon activated. Any time he could nearly guarantee landing a hit, that technique was very useful. Even non-earth cultivators could reverse the effect given time… but in combat it wasn’t that simple.

The Serpent Watchers cursed as the Tenebach clan leapt into battle, and now they too were pinned between two dangers. The cultivator John targeted turned to face him, angling a spear. Both individuals gathered their energy at a handful of meters away- longer range than either the sword or spear, but it wouldn’t stay that way.

Both sprung towards each other, John relying on his newfound training to create a cane of bamboo pushing him forward and just slightly to the right. The spear twisted to meet him, springing legs carrying it forward, but the angle did not favor a thrust- and the undiagnosed petrification in the right shoulder froze the extension partway through. The powerful thrust still nearly impaled John, grazing past his torso- though he liked to think that he could have withstood at least a single blow he wasn’t going to test that.

His sword thrust towards his target, but the Serpent Watchers were more than proficient in dealing with attacks similar to their own. A swaying body of the man meant John’s blade only grazed his ribs… but the gathered spiritual energy still served its purpose. Water element, clinging to the ribs only to freeze.

John immediately followed up with a drawing cut back towards himself, stepping forward to stay inside the spear’s optimal range. His free left hand reached for the shaft of the weapon as it was withdrawn, stopping its movement and forcing his opponent to choose what injury they suffered. Completely avoiding the draw cut wasn’t possible without forcing John away or perhaps releasing their spear.

There was only the faint sense of tensing muscles and gathering energy, but John picked up enough to prepare a response. As a leg kicked towards him, aiming to shatter his hip and knock him backwards, a tree grew from the ground next to him. Not a real one, of course- it was merely a construct of earth elemental spiritual energy. Even so, the form of something that could be real made it more effective than simply shaping his energy. The ‘tree’ only came up to his waist, but it represented a greater thing. It was unfortunate that the spikes on his kapok were similarly downsized, but it served its purpose, the man’s shin kicking into the spikes. Ultimately, his attack shattered John’s transient plant, but not without damage. In return, the kick struck John with less force and he held his ground. There was a twinge of pain as his defensive energy was sundered, but his armor and Diamond Defense kept anything from breaking.

His sword cut between ribs, slicing through spiritual energy, armor, and a bit of skin and muscle. But John wasn’t done. Enshrouded in darkness, making it seem like he was trying to wrestle away the spear, air elemental energy crawled towards the man’s hands. His left hand let go of the spear to perform a palm strike towards John’s chin just about the time that the energy began to shock his other hand, tensing the muscles while John continued the motion of his sword, bringing it towards him and up. He parried the palm strike while he twisted his wrist, his blade cutting into the man’s forearm slightly. Then the man was stabbed in his slightly petrified right armpit, one of the other members of the Tenebach clan backing up John. He’d sensed his ally, of course- he was coordinating the flow of spiritual energy between his clan members. He didn’t need the help, because his opponent was only in the early Consolidated Soul Phase and he was more powerful, nearly at rank 32, 5 out of 9 ranks in the Phase. But the teamwork was appreciated for efficiency- John wasn’t going to insist on defeating everyone alone just because he could.

Unlike John’s attack, the dagger went into the torso, piercing a lung as the man’s defensive energy was mainly focused on the other side. It only took a few quick motions to finish the man off between the two of them.

With one of the Serpent Watchers’ strongest members fighting the Twisting Terror clan, John coordinated with Aydan to swiftly take out the other. Just like that, the flow of battle shifted greatly once more. By the time the Serpent Watchers had fully coordinated their response, their slight numerical advantage had been lost, and they were now surrounded. There were curses, some directed at the Tenebach clan as a whole and some at John. He shrugged. They were the ones who had caused trouble first, and a cultivator was wise not to forget those who opposed them.

The balance had shifted away from the Serpent Watchers, leaving the Twisting Terror clan in a slightly better position even with the Shadowhawk harrying them. That wouldn’t do, so John focused on the flow of the twister around the tree, and when he had a decent grasp of how it functioned he stepped in. The control of the winds was still with the Twisting Terror clan, of course, and they wrestled against him- but there was no Consolidated Soul Phase cultivator ready to directly stop him as he cut down a few Soul Expansion Phase individuals before letting it fling him out, away from a wave of feathers.

John intentionally fell on the far side, where there were fewer previous feathers- his actions justified as the ‘spent’ feathers pulled out of the ground, flinging towards him or whatever opponent was closest to their position. He swept his sword, chopping against the concealed spiritual energy guiding them and dodging to the side. He was pleased to find they weren’t particularly mobile- shooting more or less directly back to the Shadowhawk. Though that, too, might have been a ploy.