Word of a ‘special excursion’ of the Harmonious Citadel reached Vari’s ears. The existence of the excursion itself was not secret, but the details were. The only details she could gather was that it would be led by ‘prominent disciples of the saints’ and the requirements to join. One had to participate in a special training endeavor and reveal their skill.

That seemed important, but not too important. Specifically, Vari felt confident that she would not encounter a saint, but might learn something useful. This was about the best opportunity she would get, so she took her spear and went to the arena.

Obviously the selection would involve fighting- when did cultivators ever do things differently? More than that, the Harmonious Citadel was large enough that they didn’t keep careful track of individual performance, except for those at the top. That was especially true for practitioners of the Holy Harmony Technique.

The exhibition was set up so that people would fight as many different individuals as possible- an elimination tournament with one or a few winners wouldn’t leave them a large pool to select from.

Vari’s first opponent used a sword. Unless there was a particular skill difference, a spear would have the advantage of reach. Between cultivators that could be overcome, but it would be quite difficult for the other woman to beat Vari. There was still a cultivation gap between them, after all. Life Transformation cultivators were the bread and butter of the upper realms, those who were strong enough to be relevant but not the best.

There was the slight issue that Vari couldn’t display her full strength- and that the spear was not her first choice of fighting style- but she was quite experienced with countering the various styles of the Harmonious Citadel. Her spear flashed, stabbing forth. The point of the weapon extended well beyond its physical reach, and the speed forced her opponent to deflect- or be forced eternally back.

The other woman attempted to step past Vari’s guard, but Vari matched her footwork, keeping at her optimal reach and out of the woman’s. Vari actually found it quite difficult, wondering how her aunt would have reacted to her sharing the same weapon. Perhaps in a different world she might have learned from the woman.

A quick jab with her spear was actually a feint, and she was already withdrawing when her opponent parried. That allowed her to stab deep, piercing into the breastplate of her opponent. The arena’s formations stopped her attack.

Against another spear user she found her own technique lacking- even knowing the proper counters, she couldn’t help but feel she was only able to keep up because of her cultivation. On the other hand, she could have taken her opponent apart in moments with her bare hands. Or gauntleted hands and sturdy boots.

The morningstar was a weapon that was only dangerous if it reached her. That was true of everything, of course, but users of the spiky maces tended to favor heavy attacks, amplifying the properties the weapon possessed. Vari might have been able to handle them unarmed, but she thought her barriers would have actually done poorly against them.

Only bows had greater reach than a spear. Vari had to sneak in a few barriers to protect herself from the barrage of attacks as she approached- and even if anyone noticed the divergence from ‘proper’ combat style was not significant. Even lumping everyone into specific categories, the Harmonious Citadel’s members weren’t exactly the same in how they fought.

Against Alva, Vari had plenty of experience dealing with arrows- though it was quite annoying when an archer had unlimited freedom of movement. Here, the arena was not tremendous in scale and there were only so many places for her opponent to run, once he failed to quickly defeat Vari.

Axes came in many shapes and sizes- for the Harmonious Citadel, that went up to polearms like halberds. Though it would seem that having an axe head in addition to a spearhead would be advantageous, the weapons were slightly slower- and its wielders were predisposed to sweeping and chopping attacks. Ducking under one swing, Vari secured her next victory- though it was not by much.

When she went up against daggers she found herself quite surprised- as weapons with the shortest reach their wielder had to be used to fighting against longer weapons, and the woman had the strength and technique to parry the spear with one dagger along with the swiftness to approach in that same moment. Trying to restrain her power to a reasonable limit while fighting with a style she had only spent a decade at best practicing was insufficient, and Vari suffered her first defeat. But ultimately, that was probably for the best.

Her performance should be sufficient but not exceptional. That was what she wanted, though it irked her that the loss was somewhat real rather than fully intentional.

-----

At the border between the upper and lower realms, a half dozen ships carrying all of the available cultivators from the lower realms followed after a group of five. It was six Integration cultivators against a projected five, but they were not interested in fair balance. If Kseniya and Rahayu had been available they would have been included among the others. Along with them were many Life Transformation cultivators, requisitioned from their various allies for promised rewards- though they could not currently offer anything tempting enough to bring along additional Integration cultivators. Any of them could fight more than a handful of Life Transformation cultivators, but doing that at the same time as they fought Integration cultivators? Quite foolish.

A single ship was ahead of their group with Velvet controlling its stealth capabilities. There was enough divergence between the front and rear sides that the following ships could keep track of her position while being far enough that the enemies wouldn’t detect them.

Today was both one of their first sabotage missions… and a test. They returned to the first location they had found the Trigold Cluster along the border, where there had been a nearly disastrous accident- that turned out to be at least partially orchestrated by a diviner of some sort. They were keeping a careful watch for additional enemies. In the openness of space sneaking up on people was difficult but not impossible, as great distances and special techniques could both be sufficient. But they were prepared to flee if there was danger.

There was no indication anyone noticed them as they reached the ‘border’, and the trailing ships quickly moved to keep up as the enemy crossed for one of their regular training excursions.

A message was transmitted between the ships. “Three of them have swords. Two are on the same ship.”

The true meaning of that unintentionally cryptic message from Chikere was that there were likely more than five Integration individuals they would be facing. It came as they were beginning to cross the border themselves, the upper energy thinning and their presences likely noticed.

They had to make a quick decision of whether to fight or flee. It was possible to retreat still- though the strangeness of the border would likely make going beyond lightspeed difficult. That was part of the reason they were staging their ambush where they were- to prevent their enemies from simply leaving. Though it was not possible to instantly reach faster than light speeds regardless.

Everyone quickly made the same decision. A few more or less enemies wouldn’t make a difference to their plans. They all had their targets, and moved forward as planned. Instead of closing in and then matching their enemies’ speed, however, they accelerated towards them. The chances of a collision were tiny- both sides would have to want one for that to happen. However, they wouldn’t stop to exchange blows.

Around two ships, fire formed itself into distinct meteors. With no gravity to aid them, the traditional method of attack for Falling Stars was not possible- this method had been developed for ship to ship combat. There were limits to how much distance either Hoyt or Prospero could control the technique at, so accelerating along with the ships was optimal. While it seemed simpler to simply begin their technique after the ships had already accelerated, it took some time to stabilize and aim for their high relative velocities. And they were not far from their targets.

The Trigold Cluster’s ships now had their own decision to make- they could still flee at this point, but if they all moved together the incoming fleet was likely to cut them off. However, if they were to split up then infinite directions were available to them- even if it was more or less cut in half because of their location. Either they did not want to split up, or they felt confident in their victory. Only one side’s confidence would be justified in the end.

Both sides opened fire with their ranged attacks- archers, ship-bound artillery, or various forms of energy attack. All moved to evade, except Timothy’s ship. It was the second of the various vessels they had commissioned to be completed, with formations suited for him in particular. It didn’t just make use of barriers- anyone could do that- but also his particular insights into shielding and deflection. The formations would not act at full efficiency without his control. The projectiles that struck Timothy’s ship were partially deflected, while others were reflected back towards the enemy fleet. Given both sides were undergoing evasive maneuvers the results weren’t perfect, but they were sufficient.

Chikere stood at the front of her ship. She’d heard about the interesting designs they had in the lower realms, but if she were to get a ship customized to her it would be a long process. Instead, she was doing the next best thing- just using her own abilities. Her ship was performing evasive maneuvers, but unlike the others it wasn’t entirely attempting to avoid the enemy. Specifically, she got as close as possible to the ship with two rather decent swords- and their wielders.

A hundred swords flew in front of the ship, forming the shape of a single, larger blade. As the ships crossed paths, the arrangement cut forward, intent on slicing the enemy ship in two. Chikere achieved less than a quarter of that ambition- but she did manage to slice through the barriers and the front part of the ship before the two Integration Cultivators together stopped her attack. They only had a short moment as they passed each other for Chikere’s augmented sword to sweep at the ship twice more, cutting an x into its hull but not breaking through.

Catarina seemed most like she was doing nothing, but in actually she send small stone plates spiraling out long before, and while she wasn’t able to perfectly predict the movement of enemy ships she got some of her devices close enough to two ships, at which point they had a clear attraction towards them like a magnet. As they were small and inactive, nobody paid them much mind. There were six enemy ships and their cultivators to focus on- picking out space junk at the same time was difficult. As the stone plates touched their intended marks on the enemy ships, latching on and slowly drifting towards specific positions, they activated their own markings, adding them onto that of the ship… and creating a loop that recklessly discharged energy into the barriers. If they had been attacked at that moment they would have been nearly invincible- but that wouldn’t last for long.

The Falling Stars from Hoyt and Prospero both found some purchase, targeting ships being simpler than cultivators who could react and change directions at greater speeds. Hoyt had more power- he was in Integration while Prospero was still in Life Transformation for the second time- but both were useful in their own way.

The final ship clashed with the enemy as it went by, but the thing that nobody was supposed to notice was Vari, who had pulled away from her own ship before they reached a full acceleration. That meant she arrived somewhat later- but not moving at a speed that would flatten her against the enemy’s hull. She did have to expend some effort to slow herself down subtly, but she caught onto one ship and cut her way through the barrier, making use of some guidance from Catarina. Once she was inside, she could cause all manner of trouble.