Progress dealing with the various traps left along the route to the Black Peaks had been slow. John wasn’t quite certain which options they should pursue for further advancement. Obviously their progress wasn’t enough. More people would be better to some extent, but that also brought with it more chances for a slip up. Trying a different route might be better- there was no guarantee that they equally trapped all directions, given that they knew people would generally be coming from the south.

These were the things John was thinking about as he drifted off to sleep. With Charlotte and Deirdre both present, he was comfortable enough to properly do so. And that comfort lasted for all of a few hours.

He awoke to a piercing shard of light element jabbing into his head. Not actually, of course. None of the light element cultivators would have any reason to do so. Still, it was like he’d gone from sleeping in total darkness to opening his eyes and looking directly at the sun. Which woke him up rather quickly, and alerted him to the many smaller and more subtle flickers of energy.

It was crazy that he hadn’t immediately felt Charlotte, at the peak of the Consolidated Soul Phase, but that was how the Muted Crags functioned. Even camping in the area reduced their ability to sense their own allies. So incoming attackers were even more difficult- though not unexpected.

John slept in his armor- it was light and comfortable, enchanted cloth and some heavier pieces to cover important vitals. Like his chest and neck. His sword was in his hand in an instant, and he stepped into the chaos outside.

That was the part that needed fixing immediately. At a glance, John didn’t feel that the enemy forces were too overwhelming. It was just that their side was reacting poorly to the attack.

Five elements flowed through him, amplifying each other. That would draw the attention of their enemies, but he could amplify that to pierce through the haze around them, being a beacon for allies as well. “Six Elements! Form up!” he called. His first target was Charlotte. She was the backbone of this operation, and thus a priority for both sides.

John cut his way through a few Black Peaks cultivators along the way to her, diverting his path to pick up groups of cultivators. With some of the enemies driven from their midst, they were able to fight properly. John focused his energy on cutting through the veil of darkness that permeated the area. The more their side could sense, the better they would do.

Then he felt something. A being of darkness so pure, even his enhanced senses wouldn’t have been able to pick him out if not for intimate familiarity with Ciaritzal, a spirit of darkness. John had no time to think. He simply gathered every speck of light element he stored within him- which was admittedly not much- focusing it towards the man in an extremely short burst, like a laser pulse.

Only the most incompetent darkness cultivator would fall to a level of power so far below their own, even if it was light element that was mutually destructive. And the man John sensed was far from incompetent. He was powerful. Ascending Soul Phase, almost certainly.

The man shrugged off John’s attack, but the conflicting spark drew the attention of the one who mattered most. Charlotte spun around, the forest of flames she carried with her spinning around. Violent explosions filled the area where the man had appeared, one after the other. That didn’t stop the man, but it certainly slowed him. Not quite enough, however.

His figure appeared, a sharp dagger stabbing forward. Charlotte had no recourse except to block with her own forearm, the blade piercing through her. There was a moment when a cloaked figure, hazy in form so that even the darkness of his form wasn’t clear cut, lingered in John’s vision. Then dozens of tendrils from conjured fire lotus began to wrap around him, and a few dozen attacks blanketed the area, coming from other Firepine Palace cultivators.

The man disappeared just as quickly as he had appeared- but they had at least caused him some trouble. And Charlotte was not in as poor of a state as she might have been. She was alive, at least. Her arm, however… she instantly cauterized the wound, leaving a visible hole in her arm. A decisive move, meant to prevent both bleeding and eradicate any poison. John admired her willpower.

A large number of darkness cultivators were still attacking from the periphery of the camp, their presences hidden by the natural terrain, but the army was setting up a proper perimeter. Only having to fight those on the outside greatly increased their efficiency.

Of course, the Ascending Soul Phase cultivator wasn’t going to be satisfied with a single attack. He appeared across the battlefield, taking out the representative of one of the Phoenix Forest sects. An early Consolidated Soul Phase cultivator, taken out in an instant.

The next attack came for Deirdre, a dagger of darkness that pierced through the night sky and towards her side. However, the destructive reaction that was expected from powerful light and darkness clashing didn’t happen- or rather not immediately. Her light element wrapped around the thrown weapon, redirecting it out away from the camp where it then exploded quite violently, causing a nearby cliff face to crumble.

John tried to keep his focus on the Ascending Soul Phase cultivator as much as he could. He was unfortunately under informed about the strongest cultivators in the Muted Crags, so he could hardly guess the man’s name. Maybe there were a few he’d heard of who had the potential to break through to such a level, but even then he could be making things up.

A dagger came flying towards his neck. John dodged… but knew that there was more to it. It took as much energy as he could redirect in that instant to just barely deflect the second dagger hidden in the shadow of the first, and even then it scraped across his ribs, cutting through his armor. There was some pain, but John was uncertain if it tore through his skin. Diamond Defense might have just saved him- plus the extra training with Ursel.

The four core elements flooded the potential wound, as John wanted to deal with poison even less than Charlotte. He didn’t have any specific technique, but instead merely tried to pull away anything that didn’t belong there.

The battlefield trembled as one of the nearby crags shook and then crumbled to pieces, a victim of collateral damage. As it crashed to the ground, the haze of confusion slightly cleared up- the strange material unable to maintain its effects without proper form. John took note of that as the battle continued to shift.

It was a long battle where they slowly beat back the attackers, but ultimately their forces were superior. Once they organized, the enemy couldn’t directly face them. Even with the addition of an Ascending Soul Phase cultivator, they weren’t able to win a straightforward battle. Or at least not willing to commit to it yet- which made perfect sense. After all, they could repeat these attacks every night, causing as much damage as possible while trying to minimize their own losses. Or they could attack while they were on the move, trying to deal with the traps. They’d already taken their best shot, but even knowing they were roaming about didn’t mean that future attacks would be ineffective.

Things began to settle down, but John didn’t relax. Instead, he began to gather cultivators. Every element, though aside from fire and light the rest were mostly disciples of the Six Elements Crossroads. “Before we attempt to rest once more… I suggest altering the terrain slightly.” John gestured towards one of the mid sized crags nearby. “Based on the flow of energy, I think that one will be the most effective. Send it crashing down, and our zone of safety will expand significantly.”

With dozens of cultivators working together, it wasn’t that difficult to bring down some simple rocks. Earth could weaken the stone, fire and water heated and cooled the area in turn, causing stress fractures, and air was able to strike with the force of lightning… or build up pressure inside small cracks. When those small cracks expanded, water freezing into ice provided the force to pop things apart. Soon enough, it crumbled.

John nodded. Things felt slightly clearer. But with that many people, it had taken too much effort. It was achievable, of course, but there were hundreds if not thousands of rocky spires of varying sizes along even the most direct path to the Black Peaks. It would be difficult to destroy even a portion of them. And yet… that was exactly what John thought they should do. He didn’t even care if they devastated the countryside enough that they had to change the name of the country. The Muted Crags started this, after all. If they weren’t prepared for the consequences, that was on them. Besides, it would really only be the immediate area around the Black Peaks.

Some interrogations of captured enemy soldiers revealed the name of the Ascending Soul Phase cultivator. It wasn’t exactly a secret, after all. Rezso was his name. If John recalled correctly, he hadn’t really stood out. But perhaps that just meant the information he’d been receiving from further areas like this was incomplete.

“How is it?” John asked Charlotte. The bandages wrapped around her arm visually concealed the hole, but he could still feel it.

“Better than it could have been,” the old woman admitted. “Good thing you drew my attention to him.”

John nodded. “He’s pretty solidly in the Ascending Soul Phase. If I knew that… I would have pushed for bringing more people.”

Deirdre walked up to their conversation, having heard what John said. “Indeed. I might have asked Cuah’arn to come along.”

“I don’t know if that would have been appropriate,” Charlotte said. “Times are changing. Perhaps we need to be able to deal with Ascending Soul Phase cultivators with more modest means. Though I will admit to wishing we had a greater army even so.”

“What should we do?” Deirdre asked.

“More of that,” John said, gesturing to the two piles of rock. “And no, I’m not joking. Sending those spires crashing down will deal with any traps they might have laid, while at the same time carving a path where they cannot easily lay in ambush. Some rubble might hide them, but not as well as the crags conceal them with their presence.”

“That is a significant undertaking,” Charlotte commented.

“It’s that or we should retreat,” John said. “But I’m not happy with that option. We can’t let the Black Peaks think they can walk all over people just because they brought along a somewhat strong cultivator. It would be the Molten Sea all over again. Except it wouldn’t be so ‘easy’ to get the entire region riled up about this. And even then, it took far too many years for people to actually react. In short, I’m saying we should make a proper show of force so that nobody thinks we can be bullied.”

“As long as you think it’s a task we can accomplish,” Charlotte commented. “I doubt most of our cultivators can do that more than a few times in a day, however.”

“Precision was sacrificed for speed. It will be much more difficult for them to attack again tonight,” John said. “But if we properly scope out the weaknesses in the rock faces, we can be more efficient tomorrow. And we’ll save energy not having to deal with traps as much.”

-----

Saying John went back to sleep would be somewhat of an exaggeration. He rested, certainly, but he had the feeling he wouldn’t be getting proper sleep until this war was over. Even if their new tactics worked, hindering night attacks, it wouldn’t stop the enemy from trying. And he had so many disciples to worry about. They weren’t strong enough. That was his fault, allowing them to participate when the sect simply hadn’t had enough time to grow.

And yet, the experience would be good for them. The survivors, at least. John didn’t want to think about the casualties, but he knew he needed to do so. Disregarding the deaths of his own people would never lead down a good path.

When the sun came up, it was time. Traps were still an issue, but as it turned out a few hundred tons of tumbling stone would trigger anything. So as long as they could stay away from them as they moved, the traps would barely be an issue.