Elder Cultivator-Chapter 1218

Thousands of deadly sharpened bones encircled Ty, driving ever closer as his blade passed through a chunk of the distortion beast. Their momentum would have carried them through him in an instant… if not for the slightest of flinches when his attack landed. That minuscule movement provided everything he needed to charge into a dozen of them, positioning himself such that the majority of them intersected with each other.

The distortion beast still used its unexpected skills to control just three of the blades, sweeping towards Ty in a crossed star pattern. His combat momentum allowed him to gather his energy once more, meeting them all at a single point in front of him. He ducked around as his ship slipped through. Then he was free of the greatest danger.

The forces of Forinti were out in full force, taking advantage of the momentary focus of the distortion beast. Nekesa led her people to focus their resonant energy weapons on the beast’s bones, cracking them a few at a time. Even if distortion beasts were so large and had so many redundant weapons and organs, they weren’t actually limitless. Each part that was weakened provided more advantage to the defending side. Furthermore, nothing was just a weapon. Every tooth, claw, or sharpened rib was connected to other parts of the distortion beast, even if the vulnerable parts didn’t leave subspace. Attacking what was exposed could cause some amount of damage to what lay hidden behind.

Ty kept the focus on himself as he displayed his sword intent to the beast. It had the skills of a swordmaster, somehow, but it lacked the proper spirit that went behind such things. At least, that was Ty’s assessment. Because with how things were going, he expected a swordmaster to either accept their loss… or to change their tactics. But it more or less stuck to similar patterns, responding to his actions but in ways that were just a little bit too predictable for someone with his experience.

Ty’s ship danced among the incoming attacks as he blocked and parried incoming threats. Once he recognized that the challenge was in the technique, he wasn’t going to make any more mistakes. He didn’t have just one blade, though. His ship was equipped with kinetic launchers with specially made projectiles. He focused his cutting power through them, aiming for anything he could detect in the surrounding subspace that might be important. Unlike fighting a human or animal, he didn’t know where the vital organs were. So he just had to get all of them.

The distortion beast finally recognized it was losing when he had destroyed three organs of some sort. It began to withdraw… but it was far too late for that. The beast was fast, outrunning most of the fleets of Forinti, but Ty and three other ships with post-Life Transformation cultivators gave chase. There were several more of similar strength that remained ready around the planet.

“You guys have any big attacks left in you?” Ty asked, projecting his voice to the other ships.

“Only if it exposes itself,” Nekesa explained. “We only follow to make sure it retreats.”

“If you had a chance, though…” Ty prompted, “Would you take it?”

“Absolutely.”

“Then get ready. Oh, and try not to think too hard about what you’re attacking. Literally anything that isn’t us is fine. Everyone in agreement?”

“I agree,” Nekesa affirmed. So did the other two. Ty had to assume they spoke for their crews.

“I’m going to assume this thing can’t count,” Ty said. “Be ready when I hit one. Five. Four. Three. Two. One!”

His sword slashed wide, cutting open a rift to subspace. He could have done it just for himself, but he figured the local defenders wanted to take part- and it was a more dangerous task than it appeared. If anyone asked Ty to explain what he was looking at, he’d say a bunch of nonsense. It wasn’t even possible to see the entirety of a distortion beast at once, since they always lived across multiple layers. But this layer seemed to have a bunch of important stuff.

Ship weapons opened fire. Retaliatory blades struck out. Ty cut again, bringing them back into real space as their attacks struck. The incoming ribs were too slow to catch them as they returned to real space.

Ty knew they had been successful when chunks of monster began oozing everywhere around them. Rib-blades flailed wildly, no longer making use of insights or even intentionality. Chunks of meat and organ between the sizes of houses and palaces appeared and disappeared- but some remained in real space, floating separate from the main body of the creature. Ty helped the surrounding ships get to a safe distance, parrying incoming wild attacks. It took a while for the thing to die, but after an hour it had mostly stopped moving, maintaining its momentum through space with random pieces floating around.

“So… anyone need some bone?” Ty gestured. There was a lot of natural energy in distortion beasts like this. The materials were valuable, even the squishy hunks of organ.

“... We actually killed it,” Nekesa commented blankly.

“Obviously. What did you think happened to that other one?” Ty asked. The first one had actually been way more vulnerable.

“That one was much weaker,” she countered. “Though I was particularly unsuited to take it on. Normally the ones of this strength… well, they are a rare occurrence.”

“Probably for the best,” he said. “I’m going to return to the planet, unless you need me to cut these chunks smaller. I need to take a look at my ship.”

Readouts said there were seventeen damage systems. Three of them were critical. He’d have to look closer to figure out if it actually meant it or was just whining.

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As it turned out, the distortion beast’s attacks had cut a little close for comfort. “I don’t suppose you happen to have a Mark XII subspace drive available?” Ty commented to the closest random technician.

“I uh… don’t believe we do, sir. Your technology is probably incompatible with ours. But if you’d let me take a look…” The man had never stopped looking at Ty’s ship over the last few days- when he was on duty, at least. He was either a terrible spy or an enthusiast of some sort. Ty was leaning towards the latter.

“I’d have to get an answer from home first,” Ty replied.

The man nodded. “That seems a bit difficult, given the state your ship is in.”

“Well, comms still work.”

“Would you not have to travel still?” he asked. “I heard your people come from hundreds of lightyears distant.”

Ty might have wondered how he knew that detail… if he’d been secretive about it. That was the main thing he told people, though. “Anyone going out this far is supposed to have special long-range comms. I’ll hear an answer within the week,” Ty explained.

This 𝓬ontent is taken from fгeewebnovёl.co𝙢.

Unless the system barrier blocked it. Then he’d either have to fly his ship out of system and wait there for a response, or make an independent choice about whether to entrust the locals with his ship. He could also try to contact anyone else out exploring if he did that, and he’d probably only have to wait a couple weeks for them to arrive. But that would involve giving away the location of the system.

Well, to more people. The contact ping he’d sent out would reveal his location, but there were secrecy protocols for just such this thing. So far, he’d been sending updates every day that indicated things were still good. Assuming they were going somewhere, of course. He’d receive his first automated response just a couple hours before his message about repairs and the like.

Forinti was quite happy to keep Ty around. While they’d lost a number of people in the distortion beast assault- partially related to their attempts to aid his particular tactics- they would have also expected to lose more against one of that strength. Plus his aid for Nekesa directly, when they didn’t seem to have tons of Cycle cultivators. Their words for post-Life Transformation.

Ty had also put in a request to talk to them about cultivation. He really hoped the messages would go through, but he could wait a few months just fine. The only real price the Origin Cycle was paying for his continued presence was a little bit of natural energy, some food, and a single landing pad.

Well, two landing pads. The one he’d exploded a little bit, and the one he was occupying currently. But that was still cheap compared to mountains of energy-infused bone. Ty hadn’t noticed anyone bringing back the viscera. Ty knew Aipra used that stuff, but they kind of needed everything they could get. And the risks of strange toxins were enough for most others to avoid that sort of collection.

“Alright, second question… Uzochi, wasn’t it?”

“That’s correct.”

“You don’t happen to have any uncutting tools, do you?”

The man frowned. “I am not quite certain what you mean, I admit.”

“Well, the main problem is that this was cut,” he gestured to his ship.

“Ah. I could weld something for you, if you would like.”

Ty pondered for a moment. “I think it would need molecular fusion. And some rearrangement for parts that were pushed about. I just don’t know which ones. I’m only trained in repairing the simpler parts. Mostly the armor sheets on the wings. Cleaning gunk out of the engines. Replacing worn bearings.”

“Interesting,” Uzochi commented. “It seems like a strange mix of technology levels. At least, if we were to compare it to our own.”

“Well, this ship is at a base… nearly a thousand years old?” Ty tilted his head. “With upgrades over the years.”

“There are parts over a thousand years old in there?”

“Well, maybe. We have restoration cultivators who could make anything last that long. But bits and pieces have been replaced a little at a time. It could be all entirely new. But you know how I know it’s the same ship?”

“How is that?” Uzochi asked.

“It’s my ship. That’s how I know,” Ty said. To emphasize his meaning, he had the ship radiate his energy. Philosophers could speculate about what made something what it was, but a cultivator knew. “I do have some original parts, actually,” Ty commented. “Just not here. Mostly bits and pieces that were cut off.”

Uzochi pursed his lips. “May I ask why?”

“Because they were cut off by Chikere.”

“Is she someone special? A hated foe, perhaps?”

“No, a friend,” Ty commented. “I’m glad I kept them. All that remains is her legacy now.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

Ty nodded. “Thank you. But I’m sure she was happy, in the end. She did go down in an assault on a Domination cultivator’s anchor, after all. She got to cut a planet in half, and then we killed him later.” Ty held up a hand. “By we, I mean our Alliance in the upper realms. Obviously not me.” He almost continued and said that he would have been weaker if he’d gone to the upper realms. But that was probably secret.

“Your alliance killed a Domination cultivator?”

“Yeah, that was the first one,” Ty said.

Uzochi’s eyes went wide. “The… first one?” He then composed himself. “I suppose you mean the first Domination cultivator to have died in the long history of your alliance’s existence?”

“I mean, we’re relatively new as far as I understand,” Ty said. Then he began counting on his fingers. “I think we got five.” They couldn’t count Cynbel because Everheart killed him. “No wait, four? Ratna took out that one Swirling Swarm guy.”

“Four.” Uzochi said the word like it was entirely new. “How long is this Alliance's history?”

“Actually just about a thousand years. If you round.”

“So you were there from the beginning,” Uzochi said.

“I guess so, yeah,” Ty nodded. “Since we first met our neighbors.”

“And over those years, you have managed to slay four Domination cultivators. That is astounding.”

“Well,” Ty shrugged. “All the Domination cultivator kills were in the last couple centuries, though.” Ty lit up. “Oh wait, do we get to count Korin? It might be five.”