Hundreds of soldiers moved swiftly up the ramp leading to the front gates, lower ranking cultivators standing side-by-side with stronger cultivators, making use of numbers and strength to push back the defenders. Not that there were many outside the final wall, since there was little left of the gatehouses to take advantage of. Those sent to slow them either had to be very eager for some sort of achievements or quite disfavored among the various sects of the invaders.

Not all of them died. Some were forced to retreat while others were simply knocked over the edge where they would have to invest effort to climb back up… and think about whether they wanted to risk being surrounded. Most did not, pulling away from the fight. Anton took note of them but reserved his energy for active combatants. Leaving anyone to cause damage in the surrounding countryside sat poorly with him, but the average civilian was not so defenseless as they might have once been.

As the Graotan forces surged forward attacks from inside the Diamond Hill Sanctuary bombarded them, the mobile formation controlled by Catarina providing some shelter while the attacks provided incentive to move more quickly. There was no slow and steady march but instead an organized charge.

The attackers reached the gates and were repelled by the defensive formations there. The gates themselves were only half-repaired, but they could have been wide open and it would have still been impossible to move inside.

A swirling vortex of darkness and blood surged over their frontlines as the first of the enemy Ascension cultivators took action. Those with greater power protected those around them to the best of their ability, but Catarina’s defensive formation was failing in places under the bombardment of various attacks.

She was also distracted by black-orange flames aimed directly at her. The woman seemed to have taken her to be a priority target which was not strange considering how much she provided for the army. On the other hand it could have been petty revenge for injuring the woman in the attack on the Order, as Catarina had almost single-handedly chased her away at the end, focusing the full power of the formation on her. The flames rolled around Catarina, and while she had to take them seriously she was also empowered by Timothy standing with her, blocking the majority of the attack. When the flames tried to cling to them the energies were easily disrupted by their training in anti-ascension techniques.

The trebuchets continued to bombard the city at their slightly reduced rate while Catarina pushed her way to the front of the wall. She appeared to be doing little more than running about avoiding attacks, but a formation master might have realized she was using her movements to carve runes in the ground beneath her.

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The sergeant stood proudly atop the shoulder of their insider allies. He had been the one to take the risk of contacting them, and now he would have the glory. It was time for battle, and the sequestered cultivators of the Diamond Hill Sanctuary had promised their support. The sergeant and the other ants had already gone back to the camp to relay the news and had returned to the city in the morning to let the insiders know that the coming attack was not just a feint of some sort. As for standing on a shoulder… humans were quite a bit faster than the younger and smaller ants. Even if the ants formed some of the faster moving structures it was tiring to keep up. In addition to that, the sergeant and his squad could provide protection for their companion.

It was impossible to miss the army outside the gates, which meant it was time to act. Weaker cultivators were mixed in among the others, given the opportunity for glory or the duty to participate. Either way, more of them gravitated towards the rear given the chance, and they were the first target of the Diamond Hill Sanctuary cultivators. The sergeant did not mind participating as well, but he and his squad remained poised for juicier targets.

The best ones were outside the front gates, but when a Life Transformation cultivator came for their ally, the squad was ready. The man stood waiting in ambush, concealed by the tasty powers of his energy. Of course, that was not much good against the ants who were resistant to the effects of energy in general- and had different thought patterns that illusions would normally not work on.

As a dagger stabbed towards their friend’s side, the squad leapt onto it, chewing away at the energy that made it sharp and deadly. Their mere presence on it weakened it, and when it stabbed into their buddy’s side it stopped with the tip barely poking into the armor. By the time the sneaky cultivator was drawing his arm back for another stab they were already working their way onto the man’s fingers.

The sergeant had studied human anatomy, and while it was impossible to understand how it worked in a short time it was fairly easy to understand what made it not work. The tendons on the back of the hand were a fine target, as fingers didn’t do much without them. The squad wiggled beneath the leather gloves made from something that would have been very tasty once and began their attack.

The result was a yelling and flailing cultivator that had been stealthy an instant before, trying to squish them but finding that his own gloves and flesh were pliable enough that he had a hard time destroying enough of the sturdy ants. There were losses, but to take down a priority target at Life Transformation the sacrifices were worthwhile.

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A boulder’s eye view showed that enemies atop the walls were swarmed with ants at the same time as the backline was facing fire. The boulder didn’t have long to look at the scenery as gravity and momentum carried it ever closer towards its target. In a moment it would be expected to crash into the defensive formation. The soldiers in it’s vision would have much preferred that instead of what actually happened, as the heavy projectile empowered with the energy of a handful of cultivators turned a small area of cultivators into twisted bodies.

Catarina smiled as the formation faded away. She couldn’t have guaranteed that that particular boulder would reach the ground, but that was why the pace of attacks had been slower. Now the trebuchets would be ramping up with what they launched, taking out the most densely packed groups of enemies. They had a full day’s worth of ranging information now, so they should be quite accurate.

She dipped behind Timothy as flames surged around them, quite certain some formation specialist was enraged at what she had done. If she’d had a little more freedom of movement or time to prepare she would have preferred taking over the formation for her own benefit but that wasn’t so easy even for her. But negating it wasn’t bad at all.

The Graotan forces were pushing towards her and the lady shooting gouts of blackish made the decision that she would rather not be swarmed by an army. With attacks seeming to come from everywhere others took the same cue, pulling back into the deeper parts of the Diamond Hill Sanctuary. If they had been more familiar with they area they could have taken advantage of the many winding paths up the hill to form strong defensive positions, but their knowledge only came from how the defenders had held off against them, and many of those areas were rubble still.

The invaders were more of a disorganized mess than an army, but they still had the unfortunate advantage of high cultivations. The soldiers from the two cities were making good use of their squads to fight together, but they would have been even more impressive if they had been another tier higher in power individually.

Hoyt took advantage of the moment of confusion caused by the defenses going down to push his way through the mostly destroyed gates and even the press of enemies. That was dangerous even with the guest in his helmet, but the target he was drawing after him actually made people open up. The swarm of blood and darkness that had a grudge against him because of his grandfather wasn’t entirely discerning in who he might tear apart with his power. As he ran Hoyt left behind a trail of flames to prevent the enemy from following him, though obviously it only limited them for ground travel. They could still hop on buildings or be a swirling tornado.

Anton supported his allies against both Ascension cultivators, his arrows exploding inside the tornado mass in an attempt to destabilize it. Even if he didn’t fully succeed it at least drained some energy from them, ultimately weakening both attacks and defense.

He had some ascension energy of his own to use, mostly just to spite them. He had improved in his ability to use it, and had about half of his total split between three different arrows, though all were aimed at the same target. The black-orange flames were menacing both Catarina and Timothy as well as a large area around them, and that woman would be easier to directly affect with his attacks. His primary bow and two others not made of energy took the shot simultaneously. The arrows actually ended up with slightly different speeds, arriving at marginally offset times.

The woman threw up a sphere of fire around her in an attempt to block them, and it held on. The first impact did basically nothing, the second scattered some flames, while the third barely even made a hole. But for that portion of Anton’s energy, he felt a significant drop in the woman’s reserves. The first battle had been hard for the Ascension cultivators and their slow recoveries had really set them behind. Now they were running low, and thus becoming vulnerable.

The moment after Anton’s attacks, Timothy and Catarina pushed forward together backed up by shots from Alva and Anton forcing her to spread her defenses to the sides and rear. Catarina was not a specialist in melee combat… but she was still a Life Transformation Cultivator. She stood almost in Timothy’s embrace as they fought, and the trust between them allowed her to focus primarily on offense, her sword strikes forcing the woman into the position she wanted and giving Timothy and others nearby brief windows to attack. Precise positioning of runes was important for a formation, and people worked much the same way. The flow of their energy could give away how they worked or even be altered to dictate their movements, consciously or subconsciously.

Hoyt continued to run after he was beyond the reach of the enemy army, drawing the man even further after him. Even running uphill he was able to continue to accelerate though his opponent was hot on his heels. Occasional swipes of his axe to leave gouts of flame in the air very slightly slowed the man, and Hoyt was not far from his goal. The very top of the Diamond Hill, where there had previously been some sort of ceremonial chamber. It had been toppled in a needless display of destructive ability, leaving the point of the hill more or less bare.

His speed continued to increase as he pushed more and more energy into just running. It was a risky tactic since if he was suddenly forced to change direction he would waste most of that energy, but the enemy following him seemed content to see him run. As he reached the peak of the diamond Hoyt leapt into the air. Some of his momentum would be lost, but he continued to push himself higher.

An amused chuckle came from the cloud of blood and darkness. Hoyt was high in the air leaping over the point of the hill, but his trajectory could easily be determined along with his landing point. It was quite a bit further down the hill, but the Ascension cultivator would have no trouble reaching it before he landed.

Which was the whole point. Hoyt was confident that the man would make it even as he began to accelerate himself back downward, flames burning around him. An Ascension cultivator would not resist a direct confrontation with him, especially not this one. And truthfully, even as he pulled out a rather poor representation of his grandfather’s meteors he knew he stood no chance alone.

His axe came down as he impacted the swirling tornado, flames and blade clashing with darkness and blood. Natural energy could damage the intangible, but the stronger ascension energy was also able to resist it- even with anti-ascension techniques in the midst. Cuts began to appear all over Hoyt as the blood tried to pull his own blood from his body and the darkness tried to reach for something deeper.

As some of it came for his neck, mandibles chomped down on it. Blood and darkness couldn’t be meaningfully harmed by teeth with no natural energy involved… but they also couldn’t be what they were without the energy holding them in that form which was slurped right up by the ant queen taking a ride in his helmet and now poking out the bottom. He’d had to forego the gorget that should have filled that gap for something like this.

Suddenly the ascension cultivator found himself with a finger that was not only clamped in a jaw but very physical. Quick decision making allowed him to pull away, divesting it from himself. A reasonable enough choice, but the queen leapt forward into his center and he found that more vital parts of him began to be drawn back to physical form. When he manifested a hand to try to crush the ant queen, Hoyt was ready. It took careful aim to slice a millimeter past the ant queen towards the ascension cultivator’s hand, but the queen was already chomping on the energy there- allowing Hoyt’s attack to get through.

By the time the man realized he should have turned to flee, it was too late. A portion of the tornado eventually pulled into the air but by the time that happened there was a hand and some spare fingers on the ground, along with various bits and pieces of internal organs. As the tornado rose into the air weakly, arrows and other ranged attacks were launched into it, disrupting the energy holding that form one final time to form a mangled corpse. A pathetic sight of a powerful cultivator who could have entirely avoided the wrath of the people of Graotan if he had made better life choices.