Chapter 522
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Chapter 522
The results of Antons probing attack were interesting, disappointing, and at the same time encouraging. He knew that somewhere around the enemy fleet was Bala Sykora and her bone mountain, hiding out in some sort of subspace. Anton had just enough insight into such things to use space folding principles for travel, but he couldnt just remain in such a place. It seemed that she could, though.
The encouraging part was that his attack managed to break into her subspace. The interesting part was his attack was almost pulled in. The disappointing part was that there was still a mountain of bones in the way of the woman herself, so his attack ultimately reached its end.Ñøv€lRapture marked the initial hosting of this chapter on Ñôv€lß¡n.
Even as she reacted, her mountain of death pulling itself out of hiding, Antons other attacks were finding their way into nearby ships, intent on disrupting whatever thing they wanted to do with poor little asteroid IGE94. Despite having numerically fewer allies- or similar, if he counted every individual member of the royal guard- and Bala having people beyond herself, Anton was more confident in this battle.
Did he have a good reason? Beyond his improved understanding of spectral energy and a marginally closer position to Ruteras star, not really. But he wasnt going to get anywhere by doubting himself. He had shown up, so he would simply have to win. Anton was aware that such an attitude could easily result in death but on the other hand, unshattering confidence in oneself was half of the Million Sword Vaults claim to fame. They were good with the sword, but it wasnt like nobody else devoted themselves to the craft or had the technical understanding of swordplay.
Like Rahayu and Chikere, however, the Million Sword Vault just believed they would win, and then they did. It was a sort of insane confidence that threw off the enemy much of the time. Elder Intan had in fact perished to this very opponent but it was unfortunate for him that he was completely unsuited for this foe. Bala had a wide area undodgeable and mostly unblockable attack, which was exactly the sort of thing that could kill lower power cultivators regardless of other factors.
Anton kind of hoped she would lead off the battle with one such pulse of spectral energy because she only had allies nearby. Alas, he didnt manage to panic her enough to open with such a thing sight unseen. From his position hundreds of kilometers away, he would have been perfectly fine. And the Great Queen and her royal guard werent quite there yet, though Anton only knew that because no ships had their barriers torn apart yet. Void ants were hard to track nearby, and practically impossible at such a range.
Interestingly enough, Anton felt a significant improvement in his efforts from Merves support. The woman didnt have the range to impact the battle herself, instead remaining near Anton wrapped in the wings of Angelic Providence. Quantifying exactly how she augmented his attacks was difficult, but it was something akin to an injection of additional energy and a refinement of the power in what he was already doing. The important part was he didnt have to coordinate with her- all of that was on her part, and he was merely able to strike more effectively. That was exactly the sort of thing that would be great with a larger group of cultivators, if she could manage it.
Many-masted ships turned towards Anton, but the ships had the weakness that it was difficult for them to accelerate effectively so far from a star. Anton wasnt confident in winking out the light of the star again, but the ships were slow enough he just flung himself around in a manner difficult to follow, Merve managing to follow in his trail without disrupting his movement. If he accelerated greatly she might get left behind, but he had no intent to build up momentum away from the general area.
Bolts of spectral energy came from Bala, but they were pitifully slow and inaccurate. She was likely quite precise within the hundred kilometer mark, maybe effective at twice that. But while she had range that would make nearly any Life Transformation cultivators ashamed, Anton felt she was merely adequate. He actually did his best to not react to any attack too quickly, both to not give away his situational awareness and to give her hope that she might hit him.
Of course, the mountain of bone began to push its way towards him, and despite having no visual method of movement it was better able to track him than the enemy ships. And there was something else that Anton sensed. Something extremely uncomfortable given that he was now certain that Alaia was dead. At the very least, he doubted she would let Bala pour energy through her if she was alive, yet Anton distinctly felt the Worldbinding cultivators there as well.
This was why people hated necromancers. Anton was almost completely certain that Alaia would be less effective, even with what had to be the rest of her sect around her, but it was an additional layer of difficulty Anton didnt need in his fight with Bala, who was rapidly getting closer. It was at this point that Anton had to make a choice between immediately fleeing or staying to fight. He could always change his mind if he stayed, but this was the only safe opportunity to retreat.
The good news was that any Worldbinding cultivators Bala took over were definitely weaker than normal. The bad news was that Anton had overly discounted the maneuverability of the Sylanis Clusters other ships, and they were now blocking his best escape route. Anton pondered his options. Candle Wax would either provide him a significant amount of energy or instantly wipe him out, possibly kill him. That might be better than being captured or traditionally killed, but if he was going out Anton would prefer to properly incinerate his own corpse. He kept a tiny bit of his own consciousness sealed in his dantian, ready to let the unrestrained power of a star release inside him if he perished.
Were going through that one, with the stupid face, Anton gestured to one of the ships. Merve nodded. She had little in the way of ranged abilities, but if they were breaking through a blockade she had options.
There were nowhere near enough ships to physically prevent Anton from fleeing, but he didn't want to pass between them and let them attack him unhindered. As skeletal arms began to stretch towards him at a low single digit number of kilometers, Anton pushed himself and Merve towards the indicated ship.
Instead of staying with him, Merve pushed ahead, her upper wings providing a defensive shield over her head as she dove towards the ship. The ones in the middle seemed to be responsible for the actual flight, while the lower ones suddenly found a purpose as Merve reached the enemys barrier. She used the lower two wings like blades, slicing a line through the enemy hull. Anton didnt fail to take advantage of that opening, dozens of arrows piercing through the small gap and targeting important enemies.
Then the two of them tore their way through the center of the ship, shielding themselves from the rest of the fleet. Anton had his blade-bow in hand, alternately firing and slashing with it. The ship had enough enemy combatants that they couldnt sit still as they pushed their way through the ship. It was likely the fleet would be waiting for them to come out the other side but personally Anton was interested in reaching the helm, where a dead helmsman was sprawled on the ground.
Anton couldnt believe the Sylanis cluster still used traditional wheels for their ships. Sure, he hadnt expected technological joysticks like Rutera had, but there were better methods of control than using hands to spin freaking wheels around. But he vaguely understood what they all did, and flipped the ship around at a rate it was absolutely not meant to manage. He had to inject some of his energy into the ships system so it would do that much, and it would doubtless fall apart in a couple minutes. But who was he to care about that? He pushed it to its limits and beyond, pulling away from the rest of the fleet. Anton was extremely pleased that the barrier was almost one hundred percent effective against allied attacks. That made perfect sense in most situations, but now that hed commandeered it the rest of the fleet was basically doing nothing.
It was too bad Bala was still catching up. This ship wasnt as fast as Anton, just a safer place to be. As skeletal arms began to tear through the ship, Anton prepared to vault himself and Merve out the opening theyd torn.
Then he heard a scream. It was partly physical, transmitted through the physical medium of bones, but partly mental and spiritual. It came with a pulse of spectral energy, washing over him- but it wasnt as intentional as before. It was, however, very good at ridding Anton of the annoyances on his ship and the others nearby. Merve even managed to use her wings to block it, which might have put her ahead of Anton in terms of safety.
Chunks of bone fell away from the mountain as it tore into space around it, pulling itself into some manner of subspace. Along with the bones, a few things remained. Anton was able to lock onto them with his energy for how different they were- and thus he detected the void ants that came along with them.
Just to have a place to talk in peace, Anton directed his ship around to pick up the hand and three toes that the Great Queen and her royal guard were holding onto. The Great Queen stood triumphantly atop the severed wrist, though when she came into the ship she looked slightly disappointed. I have no idea how to follow her into that place, she signed.
Anton shrugged, I guess we can try to figure that out. But at least you claimed some prizes.
Id rather toss them, the Great Queen said. I simply wished to display our success. We dont eat humans, and this one would be particularly foul, like her spectral energy. It is unfortunate how adept I have gotten at navigating shifting piles of bones, but our casualties were minimal. If there is another time Bala appears before me, she shall not live. Though the Great Queen said that with confidence, she also collapsed into a heap along with most of her royal guard, proving once more that spectral energy was still a threat to their kind.
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Chapter 522
The results of Antons probing attack were interesting, disappointing, and at the same time encouraging. He knew that somewhere around the enemy fleet was Bala Sykora and her bone mountain, hiding out in some sort of subspace. Anton had just enough insight into such things to use space folding principles for travel, but he couldnt just remain in such a place. It seemed that she could, though.
The encouraging part was that his attack managed to break into her subspace. The interesting part was his attack was almost pulled in. The disappointing part was that there was still a mountain of bones in the way of the woman herself, so his attack ultimately reached its end.Ñøv€lRapture marked the initial hosting of this chapter on Ñôv€lß¡n.
Even as she reacted, her mountain of death pulling itself out of hiding, Antons other attacks were finding their way into nearby ships, intent on disrupting whatever thing they wanted to do with poor little asteroid IGE94. Despite having numerically fewer allies- or similar, if he counted every individual member of the royal guard- and Bala having people beyond herself, Anton was more confident in this battle.
Did he have a good reason? Beyond his improved understanding of spectral energy and a marginally closer position to Ruteras star, not really. But he wasnt going to get anywhere by doubting himself. He had shown up, so he would simply have to win. Anton was aware that such an attitude could easily result in death but on the other hand, unshattering confidence in oneself was half of the Million Sword Vaults claim to fame. They were good with the sword, but it wasnt like nobody else devoted themselves to the craft or had the technical understanding of swordplay.
Like Rahayu and Chikere, however, the Million Sword Vault just believed they would win, and then they did. It was a sort of insane confidence that threw off the enemy much of the time. Elder Intan had in fact perished to this very opponent but it was unfortunate for him that he was completely unsuited for this foe. Bala had a wide area undodgeable and mostly unblockable attack, which was exactly the sort of thing that could kill lower power cultivators regardless of other factors.
Anton kind of hoped she would lead off the battle with one such pulse of spectral energy because she only had allies nearby. Alas, he didnt manage to panic her enough to open with such a thing sight unseen. From his position hundreds of kilometers away, he would have been perfectly fine. And the Great Queen and her royal guard werent quite there yet, though Anton only knew that because no ships had their barriers torn apart yet. Void ants were hard to track nearby, and practically impossible at such a range.
Interestingly enough, Anton felt a significant improvement in his efforts from Merves support. The woman didnt have the range to impact the battle herself, instead remaining near Anton wrapped in the wings of Angelic Providence. Quantifying exactly how she augmented his attacks was difficult, but it was something akin to an injection of additional energy and a refinement of the power in what he was already doing. The important part was he didnt have to coordinate with her- all of that was on her part, and he was merely able to strike more effectively. That was exactly the sort of thing that would be great with a larger group of cultivators, if she could manage it.
Many-masted ships turned towards Anton, but the ships had the weakness that it was difficult for them to accelerate effectively so far from a star. Anton wasnt confident in winking out the light of the star again, but the ships were slow enough he just flung himself around in a manner difficult to follow, Merve managing to follow in his trail without disrupting his movement. If he accelerated greatly she might get left behind, but he had no intent to build up momentum away from the general area.
Bolts of spectral energy came from Bala, but they were pitifully slow and inaccurate. She was likely quite precise within the hundred kilometer mark, maybe effective at twice that. But while she had range that would make nearly any Life Transformation cultivators ashamed, Anton felt she was merely adequate. He actually did his best to not react to any attack too quickly, both to not give away his situational awareness and to give her hope that she might hit him.
Of course, the mountain of bone began to push its way towards him, and despite having no visual method of movement it was better able to track him than the enemy ships. And there was something else that Anton sensed. Something extremely uncomfortable given that he was now certain that Alaia was dead. At the very least, he doubted she would let Bala pour energy through her if she was alive, yet Anton distinctly felt the Worldbinding cultivators there as well.
This was why people hated necromancers. Anton was almost completely certain that Alaia would be less effective, even with what had to be the rest of her sect around her, but it was an additional layer of difficulty Anton didnt need in his fight with Bala, who was rapidly getting closer. It was at this point that Anton had to make a choice between immediately fleeing or staying to fight. He could always change his mind if he stayed, but this was the only safe opportunity to retreat.
The good news was that any Worldbinding cultivators Bala took over were definitely weaker than normal. The bad news was that Anton had overly discounted the maneuverability of the Sylanis Clusters other ships, and they were now blocking his best escape route. Anton pondered his options. Candle Wax would either provide him a significant amount of energy or instantly wipe him out, possibly kill him. That might be better than being captured or traditionally killed, but if he was going out Anton would prefer to properly incinerate his own corpse. He kept a tiny bit of his own consciousness sealed in his dantian, ready to let the unrestrained power of a star release inside him if he perished.
Were going through that one, with the stupid face, Anton gestured to one of the ships. Merve nodded. She had little in the way of ranged abilities, but if they were breaking through a blockade she had options.
There were nowhere near enough ships to physically prevent Anton from fleeing, but he didn't want to pass between them and let them attack him unhindered. As skeletal arms began to stretch towards him at a low single digit number of kilometers, Anton pushed himself and Merve towards the indicated ship.
Instead of staying with him, Merve pushed ahead, her upper wings providing a defensive shield over her head as she dove towards the ship. The ones in the middle seemed to be responsible for the actual flight, while the lower ones suddenly found a purpose as Merve reached the enemys barrier. She used the lower two wings like blades, slicing a line through the enemy hull. Anton didnt fail to take advantage of that opening, dozens of arrows piercing through the small gap and targeting important enemies.
Then the two of them tore their way through the center of the ship, shielding themselves from the rest of the fleet. Anton had his blade-bow in hand, alternately firing and slashing with it. The ship had enough enemy combatants that they couldnt sit still as they pushed their way through the ship. It was likely the fleet would be waiting for them to come out the other side but personally Anton was interested in reaching the helm, where a dead helmsman was sprawled on the ground.
Anton couldnt believe the Sylanis cluster still used traditional wheels for their ships. Sure, he hadnt expected technological joysticks like Rutera had, but there were better methods of control than using hands to spin freaking wheels around. But he vaguely understood what they all did, and flipped the ship around at a rate it was absolutely not meant to manage. He had to inject some of his energy into the ships system so it would do that much, and it would doubtless fall apart in a couple minutes. But who was he to care about that? He pushed it to its limits and beyond, pulling away from the rest of the fleet. Anton was extremely pleased that the barrier was almost one hundred percent effective against allied attacks. That made perfect sense in most situations, but now that hed commandeered it the rest of the fleet was basically doing nothing.
It was too bad Bala was still catching up. This ship wasnt as fast as Anton, just a safer place to be. As skeletal arms began to tear through the ship, Anton prepared to vault himself and Merve out the opening theyd torn.
Then he heard a scream. It was partly physical, transmitted through the physical medium of bones, but partly mental and spiritual. It came with a pulse of spectral energy, washing over him- but it wasnt as intentional as before. It was, however, very good at ridding Anton of the annoyances on his ship and the others nearby. Merve even managed to use her wings to block it, which might have put her ahead of Anton in terms of safety.
Chunks of bone fell away from the mountain as it tore into space around it, pulling itself into some manner of subspace. Along with the bones, a few things remained. Anton was able to lock onto them with his energy for how different they were- and thus he detected the void ants that came along with them.
Just to have a place to talk in peace, Anton directed his ship around to pick up the hand and three toes that the Great Queen and her royal guard were holding onto. The Great Queen stood triumphantly atop the severed wrist, though when she came into the ship she looked slightly disappointed. I have no idea how to follow her into that place, she signed.
Anton shrugged, I guess we can try to figure that out. But at least you claimed some prizes.
Id rather toss them, the Great Queen said. I simply wished to display our success. We dont eat humans, and this one would be particularly foul, like her spectral energy. It is unfortunate how adept I have gotten at navigating shifting piles of bones, but our casualties were minimal. If there is another time Bala appears before me, she shall not live. Though the Great Queen said that with confidence, she also collapsed into a heap along with most of her royal guard, proving once more that spectral energy was still a threat to their kind.
Chapter 522The results of Antons probing attack were interesting, disappointing, and at the same time encouraging. He knew that somewhere around the enemy fleet was Bala Sykora and her bone mountain, hiding out in some sort of subspace. Anton had just enough insight into such things to use space folding principles for travel, but he couldnt just remain in such a place. It seemed that she could, though.The encouraging part was that his attack managed to break into her subspace. The interesting part was his attack was almost pulled in. The disappointing part was that there was still a mountain of bones in the way of the woman herself, so his attack ultimately reached its end.NvlRapture marked the initial hosting of this chapter on Novln.Even as she reacted, her mountain of death pulling itself out of hiding, Antons other attacks were finding their way into nearby ships, intent on disrupting whatever thing they wanted to do with poor little asteroid IGE94. Despite having numerically fewer allies- or similar, if he counted every individual member of the royal guard- and Bala having people beyond herself, Anton was more confident in this battle.Did he have a good reason? Beyond his improved understanding of spectral energy and a marginally closer position to Ruteras star, not really. But he wasnt going to get anywhere by doubting himself. He had shown up, so he would simply have to win. Anton was aware that such an attitude could easily result in death but on the other hand, unshattering confidence in oneself was half of the Million Sword Vaults claim to fame. They were good with the sword, but it wasnt like nobody else devoted themselves to the craft or had the technical understanding of swordplay.Like Rahayu and Chikere, however, the Million Sword Vault just believed they would win, and then they did. It was a sort of insane confidence that threw off the enemy much of the time. Elder Intan had in fact perished to this very opponent but it was unfortunate for him that he was completely unsuited for this foe. Bala had a wide area undodgeable and mostly unblockable attack, which was exactly the sort of thing that could kill lower power cultivators regardless of other factors.Anton kind of hoped she would lead off the battle with one such pulse of spectral energy because she only had allies nearby. Alas, he didnt manage to panic her enough to open with such a thing sight unseen. From his position hundreds of kilometers away, he would have been perfectly fine. And the Great Queen and her royal guard werent quite there yet, though Anton only knew that because no ships had their barriers torn apart yet. Void ants were hard to track nearby, and practically impossible at such a range.Interestingly enough, Anton felt a significant improvement in his efforts from Merves support. The woman didnt have the range to impact the battle herself, instead remaining near Anton wrapped in the wings of Angelic Providence. Quantifying exactly how she augmented his attacks was difficult, but it was something akin to an injection of additional energy and a refinement of the power in what he was already doing. The important part was he didnt have to coordinate with her- all of that was on her part, and he was merely able to strike more effectively. That was exactly the sort of thing that would be great with a larger group of cultivators, if she could manage it.Many-masted ships turned towards Anton, but the ships had the weakness that it was difficult for them to accelerate effectively so far from a star. Anton wasnt confident in winking out the light of the star again, but the ships were slow enough he just flung himself around in a manner difficult to follow, Merve managing to follow in his trail without disrupting his movement. If he accelerated greatly she might get left behind, but he had no intent to build up momentum away from the general area.Bolts of spectral energy came from Bala, but they were pitifully slow and inaccurate. She was likely quite precise within the hundred kilometer mark, maybe effective at twice that. But while she had range that would make nearly any Life Transformation cultivators ashamed, Anton felt she was merely adequate. He actually did his best to not react to any attack too quickly, both to not give away his situational awareness and to give her hope that she might hit him.Of course, the mountain of bone began to push its way towards him, and despite having no visual method of movement it was better able to track him than the enemy ships. And there was something else that Anton sensed. Something extremely uncomfortable given that he was now certain that Alaia was dead. At the very least, he doubted she would let Bala pour energy through her if she was alive, yet Anton distinctly felt the Worldbinding cultivators there as well.This was why people hated necromancers. Anton was almost completely certain that Alaia would be less effective, even with what had to be the rest of her sect around her, but it was an additional layer of difficulty Anton didnt need in his fight with Bala, who was rapidly getting closer. It was at this point that Anton had to make a choice between immediately fleeing or staying to fight. He could always change his mind if he stayed, but this was the only safe opportunity to retreat.The good news was that any Worldbinding cultivators Bala took over were definitely weaker than normal. The bad news was that Anton had overly discounted the maneuverability of the Sylanis Clusters other ships, and they were now blocking his best escape route. Anton pondered his options. Candle Wax would either provide him a significant amount of energy or instantly wipe him out, possibly kill him. That might be better than being captured or traditionally killed, but if he was going out Anton would prefer to properly incinerate his own corpse. He kept a tiny bit of his own consciousness sealed in his dantian, ready to let the unrestrained power of a star release inside him if he perished.Were going through that one, with the stupid face, Anton gestured to one of the ships. Merve nodded. She had little in the way of ranged abilities, but if they were breaking through a blockade she had options.There were nowhere near enough ships to physically prevent Anton from fleeing, but he didn't want to pass between them and let them attack him unhindered. As skeletal arms began to stretch towards him at a low single digit number of kilometers, Anton pushed himself and Merve towards the indicated ship.Instead of staying with him, Merve pushed ahead, her upper wings providing a defensive shield over her head as she dove towards the ship. The ones in the middle seemed to be responsible for the actual flight, while the lower ones suddenly found a purpose as Merve reached the enemys barrier. She used the lower two wings like blades, slicing a line through the enemy hull. Anton didnt fail to take advantage of that opening, dozens of arrows piercing through the small gap and targeting important enemies. Then the two of them tore their way through the center of the ship, shielding themselves from the rest of the fleet. Anton had his blade-bow in hand, alternately firing and slashing with it. The ship had enough enemy combatants that they couldnt sit still as they pushed their way through the ship. It was likely the fleet would be waiting for them to come out the other side but personally Anton was interested in reaching the helm, where a dead helmsman was sprawled on the ground.Anton couldnt believe the Sylanis cluster still used traditional wheels for their ships. Sure, he hadnt expected technological joysticks like Rutera had, but there were better methods of control than using hands to spin freaking wheels around. But he vaguely understood what they all did, and flipped the ship around at a rate it was absolutely not meant to manage. He had to inject some of his energy into the ships system so it would do that much, and it would doubtless fall apart in a couple minutes. But who was he to care about that? He pushed it to its limits and beyond, pulling away from the rest of the fleet. Anton was extremely pleased that the barrier was almost one hundred percent effective against allied attacks. That made perfect sense in most situations, but now that hed commandeered it the rest of the fleet was basically doing nothing.It was too bad Bala was still catching up. This ship wasnt as fast as Anton, just a safer place to be. As skeletal arms began to tear through the ship, Anton prepared to vault himself and Merve out the opening theyd torn. Then he heard a scream. It was partly physical, transmitted through the physical medium of bones, but partly mental and spiritual. It came with a pulse of spectral energy, washing over him- but it wasnt as intentional as before. It was, however, very good at ridding Anton of the annoyances on his ship and the others nearby. Merve even managed to use her wings to block it, which might have put her ahead of Anton in terms of safety.Chunks of bone fell away from the mountain as it tore into space around it, pulling itself into some manner of subspace. Along with the bones, a few things remained. Anton was able to lock onto them with his energy for how different they were- and thus he detected the void ants that came along with them.Just to have a place to talk in peace, Anton directed his ship around to pick up the hand and three toes that the Great Queen and her royal guard were holding onto. The Great Queen stood triumphantly atop the severed wrist, though when she came into the ship she looked slightly disappointed. I have no idea how to follow her into that place, she signed.Anton shrugged, I guess we can try to figure that out. But at least you claimed some prizes.Id rather toss them, the Great Queen said. I simply wished to display our success. We dont eat humans, and this one would be particularly foul, like her spectral energy. It is unfortunate how adept I have gotten at navigating shifting piles of bones, but our casualties were minimal. If there is another time Bala appears before me, she shall not live. Though the Great Queen said that with confidence, she also collapsed into a heap along with most of her royal guard, proving once more that spectral energy was still a threat to their kind.
