As cultivators marched along the bottom of the ocean floor, those who could held their breaths while others replenished the air in their lungs directly or by drawing from the surface. The goal was to have minimum spiritual energy involved, such that their approach would not be noticed- at least not too early.

  Obviously the bewildering techniques of the Silver Haze Sect would be instrumental in their efforts. Otherwise, they could be noticed by any cultivator even casually watching the docks. Their spiritual energy was not insignificant, after all, and the majority of the Order of the Amber Heart cultivators had no techniques to hide it themselves.

  They approached the port of Urdcliffe. Their target was everything they could get their hands on- mainly the docks and ships. Further out to sea there were patrols watching for incoming fleets, but so far it didn’t seem an intrusion like theirs had been anticipated. It would likely not work as well a second time, so they wanted their mission to be impactful.

  Two hundred meters from their destination, a ship passed over them and discovered something was amiss. When the spiritual energy of the cultivators above flared, those below launched their assault.

  Unprepared for an assault, the cultivators aboard were slow to defend their vessel. The hull was battered with boulders of compressed sand, making use of the earth element available to those on the sea floor. Most of the cultivators were abovedecks, so they could only rely on the enchantments of the vessel to keep it from splitting apart. That wouldn’t last long, but it did endure long enough for them to strike a warning gong. It rang for a great distance, the strike of an earth cultivator vibrating the whole ship with the blow.

  Even so, the ship rapidly fell. As they tumbled into the water, the various cultivators- earth cultivators and mixes of light aligned cultivators- the cultivators were disoriented, with the Silver Haze Sect cultivators launching attacks as they fell from air to water or were turned upside down. Their focused techniques completely disoriented their foes, such that most of them didn’t even get to fight back.

  But a single ship wasn’t the goal of the assault. They wanted to cause as much damage as possible- particularly to the local infrastructure. Cultivators could easily improvise repairs, but that was why the ships themselves were also targets.

  Renato saw the last of the cultivators from the ship perish and began his trek towards the docks. It would only take a few seconds to cover the distance, even considering the water. Cultivators from the city were already reacting, and would likely begin reaching the shore before most of their assault did. But they would only be few in number at first.

  In addition… one individual had gone ahead, not bothering with the ship that discovered them. That audacious individual was of course Ursel. Renato watched as she compressed the sands underneath her, dropping down slightly before surging upwards. Her club tore through the water, coincidentally sending a torrent of water through the waters above him.

  She struck the keel of a ship. The plan had been to cause irreparable damage with her Roots Cracking Boulders totem. Even heavily enchanted ships would be vulnerable to such an assault.

  Clearly, Ursel had decided that wasn’t good enough. The unmanned vessel she targeted was launched out of the water, its keel cracking in two and its anchor chain snapping as she launched it into the air. Technically, it shouldn’t have gained much momentum at all if she hadn’t spread out the force of her attack- she would have just torn through a section. It was a waste of energy, in a way, since it didn’t break as efficiently.

  It did drop the ship onto the mast of another one, however. The upper deck was crushed, and while the second vessel might still be repairable it would take a significant effort to make it seaworthy.

  Ursel herself continued her arc upwards, landing on the wooden dock about halfway along its length… and immediately crashing through the boards as her weight and momentum carried her onward. Whether it was intentional or not, it was suddenly much more difficult to bring a wagon down the docks.

  Back underwater, Ursel sunk like a stone. No, even those took some time to fall. Waves rolled to the sides as she rushed towards the sea floor with intentional force, the sands solidifying at her whims to give her the footing to swing at one of the pilings. The way her energy was shaped, a section tore out and flew into the hull of a nearby ship. Ursel looked disappointed, which to Renato meant she’d intended for it to go straight through the keel or something to that effect- though it still came out the other side, so he wouldn’t personally have been too disappointed.

  He couldn’t be so easily outdone by his own apprentice, and his friend’s daughter. As Ursel lined up her next target, Renato had slowed his approach to gather extra energy. Enemy cultivators launched attacks or personally dove into the water, but his slowing had allowed allies to catch back up.

  Renato took a position almost directly beneath where Ursel had crashed through the docks, lining himself up with its length facing towards the sea. Then he swung his club overhead. The area was far too deep for him to hit the planks above, and instead his club crashed into the sands. His energy dove deep into the sand, finding the bottom of the pilings and rebounding upwards starting at the far end.

  The entire pier rose up, folding over on itself. Even though it was partially enchanted, Renato only had to damage a small section of it- finishing the break where Ursel had crashed through. The rest was simply pushed. It was actually better for it in normal circumstances to let such kinetic energy be dispersed instead of the enchantments absorbing it forcefully. Thus, it crashed into itself- crushing a few slower cultivators.

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  Ascending Soul Cultivators weren’t meant to make small moves. Being as flashy as possible might be the best move.

  “Break the pilings!” Renato ordered the rest of the Amber Heart cultivators. As it was, the part he had flipped might be unflipped later. Smashing things up would make them have to be replaced, unless they had cultivators with experience in wood repair. Reattaching fibers could be a laborious task.

  Some of the other docks had stone pilings, according to the time and materials available when they were constructed. Those were much easier for Amber Heart cultivators to sabotage as the Silver Haze kept the incoming enemy cultivators off guard, working with groups of Amber Heart cultivators to take out the incoming enemies.

  Renato joined in on the destruction, pieces of docks and ships filling the waters around them along with the blood of cultivators. Soon enough, however, it was time to retreat.

  “Incoming vessels! And an Ascending Soul Phase cultivator!” Renato called out a warning. The latter was from deeper within Urdcliffe itself, no doubt inhabiting the governor’s mansion or the equivalent. “Everyone retreat! That includes you, Ursel.” She clearly looked disappointed. “If they chase us, you’re responsible for fighting off the strong fellow.”

  Their retreat through the water still sheltered them, making it more difficult for most of their foes to track their movements. However, they actually angled inland to cut through a section of the port instead of continuing along the shore as it curved. The reason was simple- the Ascending Soul Phase cultivator chasing them was of the water element.

  Renato was with the frontlines as they charged onto shore, driving a wedge through the defending cultivators. He took wide swings with his stone club, slamming foes into each other left and right.

  The water cultivator caught up to the rear of their group before they left the water. Ursel immediately moved to engage, swinging her club towards the man.

  Without entering the reach of her weapon, he froze the water around her. The momentum of her swing cracked ice even as it formed, but a moment later her club was frozen against a layer of ice along the seafloor.

  The man swung a pick in one hand, the sharp point cutting through the water like it wasn’t there- or likely even being accelerated by his own water elemental techniques. The pick pierced through the ice, stabbing towards Ursel’s eye. Only the very point made it through her helm, as his attack was unable to damage the armor itself. Thus, the slightest widening of the weapon along its length prevented it from moving any further. His own energy protected his pick’s material from shearing on the sides, so the weapon rebounded.

  Realizing it would be bothersome to search for weaknesses in Ursel, the man swam past her to chase down the rest of those retreating. Icecracked as she swung her club backwards overhead. A bubble of water protected the man from having his head crushed, but it didn’t prevent him from being slammed into the seafloor.

  Ursel stomped as she stepped backwards, driving him deeper into the sands. She lifted her foot and stomped once more, sealing the sands around him into a shell. She might have continued her assault, but her companions were getting further away- and there were some at the trailing end who needed protection.

  Ursel did shove the sphere of rock further beneath the sands as she leapt onto shore. Recognizing her power, some of the trailing cultivators began to retreat before she began chucking sections of the paved roads at them. She still did it, of course, swinging her club like she was playing a sport not present in the world and knocking chunks of stone towards the fleeing enemies- she just attacked the ones who weren’t fleeing first, driving some of them through nearby buildings.

  The Ascending Soul Phase cultivator behind her likely wasn’t as injured as she would have wanted, but it would take him a few moments to get out of his predicament after which he would have to decide between chasing two Ascending Soul Phase cultivators onto land with only a small portion of the local forces available.

  Ursel thought it was reasonable he didn’t. But she was still disappointed.

  -----

  If the Sovereign Primacy had been made up of a small number of sects, learning their techniques and how to counter them would have been relatively simple for the continental alliance. Instead, they were similarly diversified in their elements and even had wide variations in styles within those elements. It was no wonder the Muted Crags could not stand against them alone- it was easy enough for them to focus on the weakness of a single element.

  Even if light and darkness were directly opposed and thus both the weakness of each other, the darkness styles of the Muted Crags were more similar than the light styles of the Sovereign Primacy. That made it easier to adapt to them, and they could rely on their allies for a neutral defense.

  The portions of the Muted Crags that were working with the continental alliance didn’t share such a weakness- even if their individual sect wouldn’t be good enough, they had diverse allies to work with.

  The continent seemed at an advantage for the moment, though they did have to defend a wide area. At the very least their supply lines were shorter, and they were able to quickly call in reinforcements to replace casualties. During good stretches, said casualties were injuries and cultivators would quickly return to the frontlines. Obviously there were some deaths and more permanent injuries- in a war, it was impossible to avoid such things unless one side was truly dominant.

  With at least a handful of confirmed Ascending Soul Phase cultivators among their numbers, the Sovereign Primacy was a far greater threat than the Molten Sea had been… and yet the continent was performing far better in its unity. John was confident that they could drive them away, preventing them from achieving their goals- or at least, any future ones. Conquering much of the Muted Crags might have already been enough, as they could take easily half the resources from a single region.

  But they likely wanted more. That was the way of people. It was easily demonstrated, given that they had not chosen to pull back but continued pressing further inland.