The rapidly approaching mass of energy that was Zaur swiftly made it inside a more reasonable range for Kseniya. One functional for more than simply provoking, but potentially causing actual damage. Alone she couldn’t hope to pierce his defenses, but with Lonkeon’s fortifications and the other cultivators it was feasible.

Her arrows flew along her chosen arcs, striking for vital points to the best of her ability while Prospero and Hoyt added their Falling Stars to the mix of attacks. Along with various other cultivators, faster ships and the orbital platforms joined the assault. The concentrated fire was sufficient to turn an Augmentation cultivator to dust in an instant, but rather than trying to minimize the damage taken, Zaur seemed to let it hit him head on purposefully.

The man was a shining beacon, both of light and upper energy. While not everything directly hit him, his fists created rays of light that blasted away swaths of attacks while still having the energy to destroy ships and slay cultivators.

For the Scarlet Alliance to take advantage of Zaur’s approach, they had to cause him serious harm before the rest of the fleet arrived. Focusing as much of their forces on him as possible- without interfering with each other- was their best chance. Yet he didn’t hesitate at all.

The first to directly block his way was Prasad of the One Thousand Palms Sect. The man took on the form of a giant with a great number of arms. He struck out towards Zaur, exchanging hundreds of blows in a handful of seconds. At the same time, Zaur was bombarded with attacks… but he didn’t seem as if he would crumple anytime soon. Indeed, it only took him a few moments to prepare a counterattack that drove a spear of light through Prasad’s chest. Prasad began to fall towards the gravity of Lonkeon, and Zaur continued on without a single change in his confident expression.

The light extending from the man like rays from the sun cut apart most incoming attacks with great efficiency, and the rest made little progress in damaging his closer defenses. It seemed as if he was unstoppable… but nobody gave up and ceased their assault.

Timothy charged forward with great velocity. His shield was raised in front of him, providing a barrier that went far beyond the physical dimensions of the object. A wave of Zaur’s hand caused a blast of light to surround him, but the power spilled around Timothy and he kept his momentum. He reached close enough to strike Zaur’s midsection with his sword, but he didn’t penetrate through his energy. Even so, he managed to get the first slight change in expression from the man, a twitch of annoyance, before the man slapped him away.

The blow sent Timothy flying away, his shield dented and the arm holding it shattered. But personally, he felt rather proud for actually forcing the man to stop his movement for a single moment. Even so, if they survived this, he had a great motive to further improve his strength.

Groups of cultivators began flinging themselves at Zaur, along with the constant bombardment of longer ranged attacks. Some managed to distribute the force of his counterattacks between them in such a way that they minimized damage, if mere survival could be called that. Others were not so fortunate, his light disintegrating them into nothing.

Zaur’s movements inevitably approached the orbital platform upon which Kseniya was standing, and its barrier delayed him for no more than ten seconds. When it cracked open, he took a single step to arrive in front of Kseniya, grabbing her left fist where she gripped her bow and crushing. Bones and bow alike snapped to pieces.

“You are an annoyance. An insect,” Zaur said. “Did you truly think you could provoke me and survive?”

Kseniya just grinned at him. “That’s the problem with old farts like you. All hung up on survival when you lack even basic dignity.” Her final act was to use her remaining hand to give him a rude gesture. Then light began to burst from within her until nothing was left. Zaur turned his head over his shoulder to look at his approaching fleet, still easily half an hour out.

-----

Chidi shivered next to his master as he felt the power of a Domination cultivator. Never before had he had such a clear picture of anyone, even if in a way that power kept him from actually discerning any parts of the man’s body. But his presence was on another level.

“So what do you think?” Chikere asked of him.

“I can’t,” Chidi shook his head. “His flow of energy… it’s too much.”

“Too much?” Chikere asked. “That seems… irrelevant, isn’t it?”

“It’s too late to build a dam when a river is flooding,” Chidi said.

“Shoulda brought some void ants,” Chikere sighed.

“At the risk of compromising our entire plan on the border…” Chidi frowned. “I would agree. Except there are limits to the energy even they can withstand. Crossed Antennae is the preeminent queen in the upper realms, but I don’t imagine she could tackle this yet. And numbers wouldn’t work here.” Chidi ‘looked’ over towards his master, though of course he mostly took in her presence. “Why aren’t you up there?”

Chikere shrugged. “I think it’s pretty obvious, don’t you?”

“He doesn’t have a sword.”

She spread her arms wide. “What can I say? That’s only part of it though. His power is…”

“Too much?”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Not interesting enough. I wouldn’t learn anything, and I’ll be a lot more effective against the incoming fleets.”

Chidi felt the barrier on the orbital platform shatter and flinched. He wanted to run to Kseniya’s aid. She was an interesting woman. But it was too late. And he knew it wouldn’t help. Managing the flow of his own energy and Zaur’s to try to negate everything was… far beyond him, and obviously he couldn’t overcome that energy directly.

The flow of energy around Lonkeon finally finished its hidden shifts a few moments after Kseniya’s death. It was unfortunate, but perhaps the exchange of words slowed him down just enough.

-----

“Dammit,” Catarina cursed to herself. “They were supposed to slow him down… not do whatever that was.” But of course, they hadn’t anticipated how difficult it would be to slow down a Domination cultivator.

Still, as the flow of energy snapped into place, Catarina felt a moment of relief. She’d been worried that the orbital platform would be destroyed before she finished activating the formations fully, or that Zaur Beridze would notice and escape the area. Instead, he was now trapped.

For how long… that Catarina didn’t know. The intent of the formations was to drain away Zaur’s energy, but their systems were practically flooded with excess energy and he didn’t feel as if he was losing anything. Domination was a great mystery, and perhaps he had a great source… or maybe he simply had a vast amount of devotion empowering himself. That was something they could delve into after the battle.

A small beep indicated an opening of the connection to Engineer Uzun. “Our systems are flooded with energy! They’re about to burst!”

“Redirect it towards our long range artillery,” Catarina suggested. “That fleet should be close enough. And I have the feeling directly targeting Zaur would be a mistake.”

At the moment the man was testing his range of motion within the barrier. It wasn’t just a containment barrier, of course. In addition to draining his energy it should have reasonably killed most people. Waves of heat alternated with shocking cold, and many forms of exotic radiation were piercing through the area. The second best tech and formation mastery that the Scarlet Alliance had to offer was all there- but Catarina imagined that their actual best might still be lacking, even with Xankeshan’s formations restored and improved.

Another beep.

“Are you getting that?” Uzun asked.

“Indeed. What timing.”

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence,” the engineer said. “Our mysterious fleet is here.”

“If we die, I’m going to study pure technology for the beginning of my next life,” Catarina said.

“And how would you know that? You expect to keep your memories?”

“Not really. But it’s good to have plans.”

She swiveled around. She was still directing changes in the formations to try to have more visible impact on Zaur. Talking wasn’t that much of a distraction. But having someone show up in person in such a crisis was concerning. Not many people had access to the area.

It was Prasad. He limped through the doors.

“What are you doing here?” Catarina asked. “You should be getting that hole looked at.”

“I will,” Prasad grunted. “Just need to tell you… about Zazil.”

“Seriously? Now is when you reveal secrets?” Catarina looked towards him. “Just stay outside the line.”

“Not… stupid,” he grimaced, blood spilling through his hands and settling onto the floor. “You need to… prioritize other targets. Other than Zazil, I mean. It will… make sense…” At that point the man collapsed unconscious, bleeding out on her floor.

Great. Where was Catarina going to find someone with the security clearance to drag away his hopefully unconscious body during a crisis like this?

-----

Spikes grunted as she and Fuzz rode on a kilometer wide asteroid she had scavenged from another part of the system. “I was too slow. Should have thought of this ahead of time.” Currently, she’d thrown them into an extremely unstable orbit of the planet, but she was ready to reangle their path at any moment. To crash into the Domination cultivator, of course.

“Inspiration may strike at any moment,” Fuzz growled supportively. “I think biting at his legs would have been a bit less effective.”

Inside of Fuzz, he held his own power of flames, ready to use them to enhance their combined assault. Because if they were going to fight someone with such power, they weren’t going to be able to hold back for even a moment. Maximum output was the only option.

Spikes jumped up when a voice suddenly appeared in her ear, then she settled back down. “I’ll never get used to this technology stuff,” she barked.

“Perhaps not,” Fuzz replied. He kept his words short as he listened to the information. “Seems we’re still needed.”

The trembling formations had already told them that Zaur wasn’t going to remain trapped for long. But the plan was not to wait until he broke out. Instead, they were going to collapse the formation on him in a burst of energy. That would be the optimal time to crash their little asteroid onto him.

Spikes was altering their rotation to try to match up with the timing. It would be difficult not to telegraph the assault in some way, but Zaur might not predict which rotation would be the one. Fuzz sniffed as he passed by, and along with the smell of death from the orbital platform, there was a slight feeling of frustration. It seemed the man did not handle even small setbacks well.

Then it was time. Fuzz focused his powers as the comet crashed into Zaur with the two wolves on the far side- but as expected, the mass of rock was cracked open as it struck him even with Spikes’ power augmenting it. His movements were locked completely for a moment, and more were following behind the wolves as they dove through the broken chunks of rock.

The stone suddenly began to reform into a molten sea, the two wolves combining their power. Zaur’s light turned everything that touched him to dust, but the two wolves arrived in front of the man uninjured. Then they bit towards his legs. And given their size, most of his midsection as well.

The two of them were blasted away as light exploded within their mouths, tearing apart their teeth and the inside of their mouths. The two wolves let themselves get flung away to make room for other assailants. Fuzz and Spikes exchanged a single look, the damage they had sustained not foremost on their mind. Because they both had smelled the tiniest bit of blood that was not their own, nor of their allies. They had no way to know if they caused that injury themselves, as nobody could see Zaur… but they were eager to report to the Alliance to raise morale. If either of them could make their jaws function.