It didn’t take long before the Eternal Sword Hall launched their first attacks on the gates of the Pink Pollen Sect. Their handful of Life Transformation elders simultaneously slashed with their swords and nearly chopped through the defensive formations and the gates together. It likely wouldn’t take them more than a few strikes. It had to be admitted that their technique was strong, but it seemed far too effective.

The immediate response from the Pink Pollen Sect was throwing tiny packets of powder towards the attackers, though they batted most of them away without trouble. It seemed the small packets couldn’t be thrown far as more of the defenders shot bows into the main army. The Pink Pollen Sect’s technique didn’t focus on raw power, so many of the arrows were blocked without effort. Others were evaded, and some just missed. Or at least, they appeared to miss. In actuality they were right on target.

As the rain of arrows landed in the fields they struck flowers, spraying up pollen. The Eternal Sword Hall cultivators had walked through the fields just fine, but something about the arrows triggered the flowers. Cultivators began hacking and coughing, spreading out away from the clouds of pollen.

Nothing stopped the Life Transformation cultivators, however. They positioned for their next swings, gathering power for stronger attacks. As their swords swept towards the defensive barrier, two of them spun around to counter the arrows Anton was shooting at them, while the other attacks struck the barrier. Anton fully expected his attacks to be countered, but he didn’t expect it to be done so casually. The two he targeted did have to halt their attacks but they actually shifted most of their energy to general defenses instead of augmenting their weapons.

Anton continued to harass the Life Transformation cultivators while occasionally attacking some of the others who were easier to actually injure or kill. After a couple volleys he also worked in the Pink Pollen’s technique. Even their Spirit Building cultivators could do what they did to activate the flowers, so it wasn’t too difficult for Anton… though he had to admit his first shots were imperfect.

The battlefield was beginning to be flooded with pollen, making it nearly impossible to actually see. For weaker cultivators that could be a problem, but for those inside the cloud the actual problem was the pollen itself. After the initial surprise the attackers were prepared to keep the pollen away with their defensive energy, though it seemed that most of them couldn’t perfectly filter the incoming air. They had to choose between breathing and not being poisoned, and while they could get away with the former for a short time it was more difficult in battle. They still had to worry about the arrows and darts from the wall, after all.

Even with the weaker forces basically being in chaos, their participation was barely required to break through the gate. Only the five Life Transformation cultivators and slightly larger number of peak Essence Collection cultivators continued to attack the gates. The Pink Pollen Sect was not so prominent that they were prepared to resist that magnitude of attacks, and had merely been fortunate to avoid the attention of invaders thus far- likely due to Paradise’s efforts. Unfortunately they weren’t lucky enough to avoid opportunists.

As the gates were broken open, Eternal Sword Hall cultivators began to pour into the sect. Those leading the assault, however, broke off and began to move towards Anton and the others. It seemed they didn’t want to take any chances, and they trusted in the rest of their sect to deal with the Pink Pollen Sect for a time. Anton hoped their judgment was wrong, but he had to focus his attack on the incoming enemies instead of the rest.

To his chagrin, even the six Essence Collection cultivators were consistently able to block his attacks. They crossing over from Essence Collection to Life Transformation was a serious step, but it didn’t seem to be quite enough. The determining factor seemed to be their swords which they wielded with great agility. Their actual technique wasn’t sufficient to deflect or dodge every arrow, but something about their swords seemed to read their intentions and augment them.

It wasn’t strange for sword cultivators to have fine swords, even very exceptional swords… but it was strange to find so many that appeared to have the same origin. Then again, Anton wasn’t a sword aficionado so he could have simply missed some connection the Eternal Sword Hall had to a master smith.

Before they arrived Anton managed only minor wounds on the Essence Collection cultivators as the group covered for each other. When they were finally close enough to engage the odds became nearly three-to-one, and if Catarina had not set up a formation with her flags they would have had to retreat. It was still being considered, but if they could hold them off for a short time they might be able to sway the battle back towards the Pink Pollen Sect.

Timothy managed to hold back half of the enemies himself- two in Life Transformation and two in Essence Collection. While his sword skills were inferior, his shield techniques allowed him to focus on harassing their movements while he kept himself safe. Fighting next to Timothy, Catarina managed to increase that to three and four, leaving Anton to deal with two Life Transformation experts and two in Essence Collection ‘alone’.

But he wasn’t really alone. Neither were the other two. Ants joined the battle on all fronts, with the Great Queen targeting one of the Essence Collection cultivators coming for Anton. While in most cases the difference between cultivation level was trivial to the ants, the Great Queen recognized the danger the swords could pose. She was large enough that she might actually be targeted directly, and thus she chose to remove an easier target.

That left Anton in a fighting retreat against two and a half enemies, with one being hampered by small but very bitey ants. Even if he kept his opponent at ten meters or more, Anton still had to avoid attack as he moved, the reach of the swords extending far beyond the blades themselves. The position was untenable, especially for Timothy who was slowly being worn down without being able to cause any real damage.

There was another twinge of something. Not quite hidden, but instead distant. Full of killing intent, but also friendly. Anton still felt he should recognize it, but he was too occupied keeping his limbs that he couldn’t focus on the incoming presence at all. He hadn’t felt such fear for being chopped apart since he was last at the Million Sword Vault. And though he felt his opponents had less skill than Chikere and the elders there, their swords had more speed and extremely sharp blades that cut through the ground and trees around them without even coming close.

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A duck to keep his head on his neck, a parry to keep his arm attached at the shoulder, and Anton found himself moving merely to survive. He was quite glad for the sword-bow as it served well as a defensive weapon, while he didn’t even have a safe moment to fire his bow made from the Grandfather Willow. At least he had the energy bows around him getting some use, though the closer ones were often severed by the attacking enemies.

Then he was hemmed in on three sides, the two Life Transformation elder working flawlessly together, as the third dealt with the ants harassing him. The Great Queen had more or less killed her opponent, but she wouldn’t be of help to Anton at the moment. Timothy and Catarina were fighting off their group together and had no effort to spare for assisting more of the battlefield. Anton found himself flanked by Life Transformation experts, their attacks covering the area in a way he found impossible to dodge. Anton was prepared to sacrifice a limb or two escaping, but he hesitated.

The clashing of metal on metal rang in his ears and Anton leapt to the side as both attackers were stopped, launching attacks at them as he went. His hesitation was really more like a tactical delay, though it had been a bit of a gamble nonetheless. He hadn’t been fully sure of who was coming, and they could have easily chosen to take the opportunity to kill one of the opponents instead of defending him.

“Nice swords!” Chikere commented, “Those can be the new three through thirteen!” Anton felt more than saw the glare from nearby. “Sorry. Four through thirteen.”

Vasu didn’t comment out loud as he drew the attention of one of the Life Transformation cultivators attacking Timothy, freeing him up to perform some attacks of his own. No other members of the Million Sword Vault were present, but bringing things into a sense of balance was enough.

Most importantly, Anton was free. It felt a bit rude to just leave Chikere facing two opponents alone when she had literally just saved him, but Catarina needed his help more. He focused his attacks on those two elders while Catarina led them through different parts of the formation that had varying levels of suppression to throw them off.

It was only after he was already doing that when Anton took a good look at Chikere. She looked almost the same as he was used to, fighting with a myriad of swords spinning around her. One thing was missing though- any sword held in her hands. Her arms seemed to be bound around her chest, and her legs were stiff.

It didn’t stop her from using the swords floating around her to deflect the incoming blades, however. Tiny trails of blood appeared across her body as she barely avoided lethal attacks. Just as he was preparing to assist her, one of the swords was twisted out of the Eternal Sword Hall’s grasp.

“I’ll take this one for what you owed me for winning the tournament,” Chikere said, “But there’s still interest.”

Anton was fairly certain she’d already stolen a large number of swords from them after that incident, but it didn’t really matter. What mattered was the following move.

The blade floated into the air, controlled by Chikere. She thrust forward with it, stepping away from the field of blades that now solely dealt with the other opponent. He took a stance just like he still had a sword in his hand, grinning slightly as he thrust in return. When his heart was impaled he looked surprised.

“How…?”

“I stabbed you,” Chikere commented. “Never been stabbed through the heart before?”

“... impossible. That’s a… bound weapon.”

“So what?” Chikere said. “The thing about bound weapons that they probably forgot to tell you… they’re useless if you suck.” With that she chopped off the man’s head with what had moments before been his own weapon.

The battle began to quickly tip against the Eternal Sword Hall from that point. The Great Queen and Anton were free to attack distracted Life Transformation cultivators, and a single opponent wasn’t going to last long against Chikere.

Vasu was actually facing the strongest opponent on the field, which suited him as the one who had actually been in Life Transformation for more than a handful of years. He engaged in risky moves in a different style than Chikere, ultimately winning out over his opponent by being willing to sacrifice an arm for the victory. His opponent withdrew his attack to try to stop his own arm from being severed, but his lack of commitment resulted in a swift defeat.

Timothy took an attack head on, his shield groaning in the exchange… but he reflected the force of the blow, sending the weapon flying. He didn’t have any fancy techniques to take an opponent’s bound weapon, but he still stepped forward confidently as he stabbed with his sword. His opponent caught Timothy’s blade with his left hand, while his own sword reappeared in his right.

Yet Timothy didn’t stop, barreling into the man and tackling him to the ground. Despite having control of both swords, there was no good angle to swing at Timothy. It was only due to the exceptional blade that he managed to even scratch Timothy’s armor from an awkward angle. Meanwhile, Timothy pulled out a dagger as he sat on his opponent and stabbed for his eyes. There was only so much one could move in such a position, and though he was dodged once the second stab required his opponent to grab his wrist. But Timothy continued to press forward, extending his energy beyond the point of the dagger as he pressed against the man’s arm and energy defenses, slowly piercing through and then finally running out of resistance.

If the grapple had gone on a moment longer Anton would have taken a shot, but he’d been occupied by shooting towards the Pink Pollen Sect. Now the only Life Transformation expert remaining was the one trying to get the Great Queen off of his sword’s hilt while she chewed on his gauntlets and the energy he was trying to use to crush her. She could truly be in danger if he got a proper hold on her, but he was a lone enemy among melee opponents and quickly found himself with a sword through the back of his neck. Yet not deep enough to kill him… only enough to make him fall to the ground unable to move. It probably had something to do with confirming where the swords came from.

By the time the battle of Life Transformation cultivators was over, the Pink Pollen Sect was so full of toxins that nobody was willing to go near it. Anton continued to shoot into the haze but the others had to wait for some of the Eternal Sword Hall to begin fleeing before they could assist. It was clear that the members of the Pink Pollen Sect weren’t all immune to whatever they were using, but they had been backed into a corner.

More and more cultivators were fleeing, and Anton continued to take shots. Until an old woman called out to him. “Don’t bother.” She coughed slightly and shook her head. No more enemies were present. “They’ll die soon anyway. Thank you for your assistance. We’ll thank you properly in a moment but…” she looked towards the rest of the Pink Pollen Sect who were currently trying to disperse the various toxins in the air and treat their own maladies.

The ultimate toll of the battle was heavy damage to the Pink Pollen Sect, which if had been against the invaders would have at least felt like some sort of victory. As it was simply against another sect from their own country, it could be seen as a big loss- though the Eternal Sword Hall was decimated. They might have had other smaller groups but unless the information was quite wrong they shouldn't have any more Life Transformation Cultivators.