Air rushed by Chidi’s face and limbs, giving him the feeling of flying. But of course he was not flying. While he might someday achieve such abilities, he didn’t have them for the moment. That was why he had to angle his body in just the right way as he began to pick up speed. His energy filled the air around him, forming small shapes extending from his body. The formation core in his body activated, and his momentum greatly slowed, letting him hit the ground with a moderate impact instead of forming a crater and possibly hurting himself.

“I guess we’ll talk later, grandmaster,” Chidi said, vaguely directing his voice to the sky. He didn’t really expect her not to drop him, but he would have liked some warning.

But now he was back in Shutoll. He could feel the sword clutched in his hand, the proof of his victory. It felt good for various reasons. He had a nice sword, he lived up to the swordmaster’s expectations, he surpassed his own expectations, and the war on Yaitis would be smoother now. Until the sword saint arrived, at least. If he didn’t show up from this, he probably wouldn’t be coming at all. That would be better for Yaitis, maybe, but Chdi was uncertain if it would be better for the Scarlet Alliance as a whole. Did he believe Chikere could kill an Augmentation cultivator?

Well, it didn’t matter what he believed, did it? Only what she believed. Or something like that. He’d experienced overconfident people before, but Chikere was just… her. Though the cultivation gap remained an issue. Chidi didn’t fully count himself as having defeated an Integration cultivator. Instead, he’d simply defeated another Body Tempering cultivator while he was likewise in Body Tempering. Basically. Consistently getting that fraction of a second was also likely beyond him at the current moment.

His feet inevitably brought him to the most important thing, though he did need to use his nose to assist him. He was looking for pungent scents, things his body would warn him about. Though for the most part, Aconite didn’t leak too many of those scents from her pouches.

Still, he was able to track her down easily enough, approaching her in a small lab where she was grinding things into powder, using her energy to direct a pestle. He waited until she finished dumping the powder into one of her bags.

“Hi,” he said. “I’m back, and I got a cool new sword.” He’d promised to return, so he had. There wasn’t much more to it than that.

“You survived,” Aconite growled lightly.

“It appears so,” Chidi said. He was honestly not quite willing to believe it himself at this point. Though he had passed along the information to the Major and command in Shutoll, since it seemed like something they might need to know. “I don’t plan to be doing that again.”

Aconite sniffed at the herbs she was working with. “Most likely your reasons will be different, but cultivators don’t tend to stop challenging themselves. I will do the same, eventually.”

Though on the surface both of them seemed quite relaxed about the whole ordeal, Aconite had simply come to terms with her friend possibly dying long before. On the other hand, Chidi still barely comprehended that he’d actually done what he did- it felt like he must have heard it from someone else.

With everything over and time to dwell on their thoughts, they would deal with the emotions yet to come. But as cultivators, they would ultimately have to grow strong enough to deal with their worries, while not being so foolish as to disregard them.

-----

Catarina looked at the writing in front of her, shaking her head. “I can’t believe it took him a week to contact us.”

Timothy shrugged, “Perhaps he didn’t want to sound like he was bragging. Half of that is basically just wanting to talk to you about formations once there’s a chance.”

“We should go now,” Catarina said. “We could conquer Yaitis easily.”

Timothy shook his head. “Why wait until now only to mess things up at the last moment? We’re not Augmentation cultivators, but people pay attention to us. The sword saint likely will never show up if we do something to spook him.”

Catarina sighed, “Chikere is going to get herself killed someday.”

“Perhaps,” Timothy said. “It could even happen here. But the chance of her victory is worth it. In truth, I have trouble imagining any results short of mutual destruction.”

“I hope that she’s not overestimating herself. The saints are not as untouchable as they claim, but they are still Augmentation cultivators. It’s crazy to defeat someone in a higher realm alone.”

“It’s been done before.”

“But never in a straightforward manner. Chidi… well, I suppose we don’t have enough information on that. But he certainly implied that was also the case with him.”

“We need to remember to tell him how proud we are,” Timothy said. “Preferably without implying that he has to do the impossible for that to be true.”

Catarina sighed, “I’ve only been a parent once, but it’s much more difficult than I imagined. If we weren’t cultivators, Chidi’s life would already be half over and I feel like we’ve barely done anything to raise him.”

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“I think we did fine,” Timothy said. “Given the world he was born into, we gave him as much time as we could spare and let him grow with little restraint. I cannot wait to see him again in person. Though I would not throw away Chikere’s multiple decade long plans and how they might benefit the Scarlet Alliance.”

“I get it,” Catarina said. “I’ll wait. But if Chikere asks me to make a planet spanning formation taunting the sword saint, I’ll do it.”

“What was his name again anyway?” Timothy frowned.

“I believe it was… Zavis?”

-----

Sprinkles of powder that had once been a communication device trickled out of Zavis’ hand. Rakiya, one of his most promising disciples… defeated. No, worse than that. Humiliated. And people were saying it was by a lad that was barely a Life Transformation cultivator. Yet others said that it was by the swordmaster Chikere.

Either way, he had to crush the former rumors, and dispel the latter in the most straightforward manner possible. News of this could not spread beyond Yaitis, the Harmonious Citadel could not stand more instability. And he had no intention to wait for the other saints to say something and try to weaken his position. No, he would go to this planet and settle things all at once. He just had a few things to clean up before he went.

-----

Dangling from a fishing rod was a long line, both made purely of energy. While in some cases those would scare off anything that might otherwise take the bait, for what Anton was trying to snatch it was perfect. The line and rod themselves might actually be better bait than the shark on the end of the hook.

Of course, there were plenty of beasts that were too intelligent to be taken by such a simple thing. He’d already had to replace his bait three times due to nibblers that carefully avoided getting caught. He could have probably managed to wrap his line around something and catch it, but he wasn’t aiming for efficiency. Fishing wasn’t necessarily his favored form of relaxation, but he liked to partake from time to time.

Besides, he had a particular catch in mind, which was why his line dangled all the way down to the ocean floor. And he might be finally about to get his target’s attention. He watched it half swim half crawl along the ocean floor. He actually only barely spotted it as it approached- its ability to conceal its own energy and other features was quite astounding.

But it eventually took the bait, swallowing the shark whole, at which point Anton extended his energy through the hook. The line was already fortified greatly, so when the fish pulled back Anton was merely pulled a dozen meters into the sea.

He should have anchored himself better. Spreading out his energy, he pushed and pulled. A hundred meters of ocean rumbled and splashed around him as he pulled against the flatfish at the bottom of the sea. Fish had a surprising amount of muscle power they could leverage, especially as it came to oversized individuals with cultivation. Only Nthanda could probably give it a fair fight as far as physical strength went. But energy was part of a cultivator’s strength, and it wasn’t his fault if the beast didn’t have much skill at controlling natural energy.

Being able to control the properties of his line was extremely helpful, and if he ever messed up and it snapped he could simply add more energy to bridge the gap. That was almost certainly cheating, but he wasn’t intending to enter a competition.

The struggle continued for several hours as Anton wore down the creature. Slowly he pulled it away from the depths, shortening his line as it approached while keeping his energy spread out to provide sufficient counterforce when it tried to pull downward. It wasn’t as effective as simply killing it and dragging it out, but Anton wasn’t actually certain he wanted to kill this one.

Exterminating sea beasts was one thing… but this one was likely not dangerous to humans. Nor was he interested in eating it for the next several years, or dumping it all on some nearby harbor to sell. It had simply caught his interest, and he wanted to see it on the surface.

Once he lifted it out, he looked at its face. Each eyeball was nearly his size from head to toe, both placed on one side of its head. He didn’t know the proper name for this sort of flounder, and calling it a giant flounder seemed insufficient. It flopped about on the platform of energy he created, still attempting to resist. A stubborn one, it was. Anton liked it, even if it was a bit derpy. Its mouth was still oriented the same way as upright fish would be, with the eyes just plopped on there.

He kind of liked it. It seemed like a shame to force the thing to work so hard for nothing, though. Well, it was currently digesting a midsized shark… but that wouldn’t really fill its belly. If Anton were intending to eat it, he wouldn’t feel bad but tiring it out and throwing it back into the sea was a good way to just get it killed. And he really didn’t want it feeding some of the worse sea beasts around.

So he kept his platform in place just under the water’s surface and tried to pick out a good specimen, with a healthy body and good quantity of energy. If he could shift the balance of power towards something unlikely to attack humans, it might be for the best. He did consider that the flounder might develop a hatred towards humans because of this, but if he understood animals even half as well as he thought it would probably forget him or even be somewhat fond of him.

Arrows flew through the water. While his range was lessened because of the density, that hardly meant anything to Anton. Even without a local star bound, he still had great power. His arrows pierced through a creature of twisted teeth and spikes. Not something most creatures would want to eat, but this gigantic flounder could probably crush anything it ate without harming itself.

He snatched the spiny fish up to the surface with lines of energy, pulling it away from other sea beasts seeking it out. He determined it didn’t have any poison, and as a courtesy to the flounder he decided to chop off the pointiest spines and teeth before placing it near the thing’s mouth. It immediately noticed the fish, sucking it in whole. The flounder continued to lay in its position for a few minutes, no longer trying to escape- though Anton had released his grip. It seemed content to rest in its strange position. And then, it flapped itself once, pushing off of Anton’s platform and diving towards the depths.

Anton wished it well. Tomorrow he would be done with his distractions and continue dealing with the problems facing In’istra, though he did have to consider which sea beasts were the biggest threats. Anything that was unlikely to attack humans could be left alone, even as it grew large and powerful. Or at least they wouldn't have to be the first priority.