Though the kilometers long serpentine form of the dragon was certainly a concern, Erin focused her attention on the man riding it and the weaker cultivators incoming behind him. Paradise would take care of himself, Erin was responsible for everything else. It would have been nice if they’d already established that void ant colony here, but sadly that wasn’t the case. Though there weren’t many void ants that could fight against flying opponents easily either. If the Great Queen were around she could have replicated her success with the Ultimate Phoenix Sect.

But this was Erin’s sect to defend, the Island Tenders. A place chosen for its beauty and peace atop Paradise himself. The figure in the sky stretched out his hands, giant claws scratching towards the sect as he swept his arms. Erin countered with a turtle shell of her own, buying time for the sect disciples to reach a full state of readiness.

The island trembled as Paradise moved, forcing everything along with him. His head snapped up as the dragon descended, but the creature wouldn’t stay close to the island turtle for long.

The imperious sect leader- Manu, if Erin remembered his name from the list correct- radiated his confidence and power. “You’ll never win if you just defend.”

It was possible that he was correct. But the statement was not true as a whole. If she was more efficient with her defenses than he was with his attacks, she could wear him down- assuming other factors were equal. Unfortunately, they weren’t. He was clearly stronger, which was not unusual given he had established his position more than a century prior. Erin was one of those who only rose to her level in the last decades.

The flow of Paradise’s energy shifted as he fought the dragon, but instead of wrestling for control of the power Erin simply took what she could, excess bits and pieces that would have otherwise been wasted. More than that, she also helped smooth the flow of Paradise’s energy as it passed through and around him, including the sect’s defensive formations.

The battle quickly escalated with enemy forces landing- or setting down in the nearby sea to push their way on land. The latter would have resulted in their immediate destruction if Paradise had any effort to spare, but sadly he was quite focused.

-----

Among an archipelago with islands both larger and smaller than Paradise, starships settled into the sea as if they belonged the whole time, their strange symmetrical patterns somehow still functioning atop the water. Not all of them did so, as there were certain factors to consider. There was a loss of mobility gained for more limited angles of attack against them, the water guarding one side.

That was what Treloar presumed they were banking on, at least. Personally, he knew of a half dozen sects that were capable of underwater combat with no drawbacks, after the Ponderous Turtle Clan got themselves wiped out. Treloar himself had some tricks to make use of, but he planned to save those for the most impactful moment. For the moment he stood on the shores and fought against the armies supported by oppressive auras, martial and draconic in nature.

Immediately present was Naamah, who took a more direct approach to combat. The Hardened Crown Sect was not the sort who focused on large scale coordination efforts. They understood the value of tactics, and would make use of them. They also understood the value of brute force. Naamah literally tore her way through ships between her and the statuesque man who seemed to be in command.

Though a cultivator at the Assimilation stage always had sufficient power to fly, not all were proficient in such techniques. Naamah appeared to be among those, preferring to leap from ship to ship, the force of her movements breaking holes in everything in her path. It didn’t take her long to reach the man, a spear thrust at her heart. With his other hand, he raised his shield to block her punch.

She deflected the spear with her empty left hand, sliding her palm along it to grab his fist in her hand. Her punch she transformed into another grab, her fingers locking over the edge of the shield, pulling it away. Of course, her hands were occupied holding his in place, so they simply stood across from each other on the prow of his ship for a moment. No doubt he expected an attack still, likely a kick from her free legs. That was why she faked a knee to bring herself forward for her real attack.

The Hardened Crown Sect was well aware that surprise was a valid tactic, and their body wasn’t trained randomly. The crown of the head itself was often seen as a weak point, or at the very least the head a place that had to be protected. It was even true, but would someone in armor be afraid of a little bit of danger?

An attack focused more on physical force than natural energy sent Naamah’s head into the man’s nose. Sadly it didn’t shove the bones into his brain, but it did majorly disrupt his flow. And Naamah wasn’t done. She had no intention to let go of the man until the fight was done, since he’d been careless enough to allow her to grab on.

-----

“That man stinks,” Annelie commented of the one with scales and claws.

“Much worse than the sulfur vents,” Anish agreed.

“He has to go first.”

“Absolutely, can you imagine if he got that smell inside?” Flames wreathed around Anish, burning only what he wished for them to burn. That did not include Annelie’s ice, and in turn her ice did not cool the fire.

Spears of ice stabbed forward in waves, leaving burning craters behind them as the married pair stood above their sect. There had been a long period of decision on whether they would ascend, but there was no way they were leaving Ceretos behind at their current point. More than a half dozen children, most of them not actually kids but still young enough to need their protection… and some with children of their own on the way. Previous ambitions to ascend to the upper realms had been set aside as their desires shifted to a staying power.

This was their domain, and two completely unrelated Worldbinding cultivators might be a reasonable match on paper. In practice, if a scaled man smelling of the worst sewers and an individual with formations carved into his body wanted to take anything from them, they would find it more than impossible. It didn’t matter what sort of barriers the formations created around the second man… if anything held true, all they had to do was break his body.

Two Assimilation cultivators synchronized in their attacks from nearly a century of tandem practice fought with the vigor of parents that couldn’t find an excuse to keep their children off the battlefield but would not accept anything lasting long enough for them to be injured. At least Gudrun was an archer. But there were many others who would not be in such safe positions. The volcanic mountain the sect was built upon boiled in anger, preparing to add its own contributions to the battle.

-----

Flooding the desert seemed like a reasonable method for two Worldbinding cultivators to take, and the creatures that came along with them were reasonably powerful considering they had not been able to plan for what was available near Aicenith’s southeastern shores.

Unfortunately for the invaders, the Scorching Mirror Desert was not accepting visitors. Seemingly innocent puffs of sand turned into blades along the bellies of the sea beasts, and inside the gills of others. Similar damage came to any ship foolish enough to venture into Vasu’s domain.

The ocean itself did make things difficult for other members of the Million Sword Vault, and reshaping the continent would be inconvenient for others. However, the attack had taken long enough to reach them that reinforcements had come from the north.

An armored man trudged along the bottom of a new sandy sea, Sudheer of the Silver Rhino Legion making his way towards the smaller individual controlling the waters. When he was close enough, he crouched into a starting position. Vasu helpfully solidified the sands beneath his feet, the waters forced apart by the man’s charge. Sudheer left behind his sectmates, a reasonable Assimilation target… but not what he had chosen. Instead, his shining armor was the source of his power, packed with enchantments bursting beyond material limits.

His target attempted to dodge, but Sudheer wasn’t restricted to keeping his momentum how it had been. His path curved to meet his opponent, who had no choice but to block and let themselves be pushed back. Fighting the charge would have simply resulted in them breaking, and he could commend them for that insight. But he was still going to accomplish his goal, as he shoved them backwards and up, out of their partial sea. And then they were perfectly arranged for a nice one-on-one brawl, one covered in armor spikes and the other clearly focused on wide scale control.

-----

Zedong made the mistake of setting a foot on the ground beneath the Grandfather Willow. She had correctly calculated that there were no branches that could easily reach her position… but she failed to account for another factor. Lev was quite glad to encompass her with roots- despite knowing that they would be frozen solid and drained of life. There would be much effort required to recover them, but he was holding the woman still for more than just his own efforts.

Anton didn’t miss the moment, firing dozens of smaller shots as well as two from his primary bow. The air rippled with the power of ascension energy drawn to him by the power of Fleeting Youth. Hidden in its shadow, a much more subtle and recently advanced arrow of spectral energy trailed it. The first attack was blocked by Ashwin himself, forcing his whole book into Anton’s path. Anton grinned as he heard the spin creak, though he suddenly wished he’d readied that arrow with fire. No doubt the book was enchanted to resist flames, but it would still be weaker to that than anything else.

The spectral arrow moved right through the book- sadly, Ashwin himself avoided it or Anton would have chosen him as the more versatile of the two targets. But he was still quite happy with how his arrow drove into Zedong’s dantian. Even more so when she suddenly lost control of some of the energy she’d been siphoning from the Grandfather Willow because of it.

He was only a bit short from outright killing her. As it was, she would perhaps be only half as effective- maybe less, since she wouldn’t be able to recover any significant amount of energy with a damaged dantian, and that was part of her main abilities. When she tore herself out of the roots she not only had the damage from Anton’s arrows… but little hooks holding onto her, nearly impossible to sense. Anton only noticed them because of his familiarity. The technique derived from the parasitic moss would also dig into her energy, further weakening her.

Ashwin charged towards the trunk where Lev stood unmoving. He judged correctly that Lev’s body was a weak point… but only by certain definitions. His limbs really didn’t move on their own, he had to control them indirectly like he controlled the limbs of the Grandfather Willow. But Lev no longer needed to injure his body to fully synchronize with the tree. As a swirling cylinder of pages filled with natural energy charged towards him, Lev simply sank back into the bark of the tree behind him, letting himself be swallowed.

A tremendous explosion tore open the area, flattening some nearby sect buildings. However, the damage to the Grandfather Willow was only enough to reveal Lev’s face. Then a dozen limbs surrounded Ashwin, sacrificing themselves to force the power of his defensive detonations inward. The man staggered off of his book a bloody mess, and though it would have been nice to inspect Anton already had a dozen flaming arrows on the way to burrow into the pages… the vast majority of which did not release their contained energy as they were destroyed. But enough did for it to be gone, leaving Ashwin hardly a Worldbinding cultivator anymore.

Anton nodded to himself. These two would be gone soon. Then he would seek out wherever needed his help most while Lev and the disciples wiped up the weaker invaders. Then after there were none left, they would make their plans for the sects of the Sylanis Cluster… but instead of foolishly spreading their forces, taking them out one at a time would have to do. Only the ones involved in this attack, of course. Though if possible he would prefer the Sylanis Cluster do most of the work themselves, with powerful sects suddenly weakened.