When martial cultivators move their physical body according to a specific sequence, following specific arrangements and energy flow, they can produce miraculous effects. For instance, a strength-path cultivator could produce fist force, while a sword-path cultivator could generate swordforce, or its more dangerous variant, swordlight. With rigorous training, advanced cultivators could turn these martial arts into passive abilities.
Naturally, some martial art variants are more dangerous than most, such as Shirogane’s [Night Severing Argent Blade], which produces a long-lasting swordlight and is very effective in pushing back the Formic Lord’s [Darkshroud] within its designated radius.
And so, this logic extends to magical spells.
Using the appropriate catalyst, spell circle, chanting, or other activation sequences, mages are capable of harnessing the power of arcane to produce supernatural phenomena.
Now this begs the question, which one is more powerful, martial art or magic spell?
There’s no absolute answer because there’s only the strongest cultivator, not the strongest martial art or spell. After all, as the paths of cultivation ascended to their zeniths, they converged upon a shared pinnacle of attainment.
Then, what if someone wanted to combine two or more methods from different systems, using the beneficial features of magic to eliminate the weakness of martial arts? Some spells or martial arts aren't completely incompatible with one another. A [Fireball] spell produces a near-similar effect to a [Scorch Grasp] martial art, the difference being one is a ball of fire, while the other is a flame shroud that engulfs one’s hands.
Flames, be they produced by magic, chemical reactions, friction, or even vibration, are still flames. Its nature is not too much of a difference.
Before the Great Archmage made a name for himself, compound methods of two different systems of cultivation are extremely rare as research on this topic isn’t too profound. Fights would mean a battle of pure might. Combat would be decided by either ‘I am stronger than you’, ‘I am literally faster than you’ or ‘my defenses are stronger than your attack’.
However, when the Great Archmage ascended as a Sovereign and revolutionized refinement-path, things began to change.
As the peak of refinement-path of Morgen World, his limitless wisdom does not limit him to merely refining artifacts or spell catalysts, but killer moves as well.
For instance, when the Great Archmage’s [Fireball] spell is blocked by an ice-path barrier, he’d refine his [Fireball], combining it with multiple amplification methods into a killer move so that it is specifically effective against that barrier. If the barrier can block 1000 damage, he doesn’t need to conjure a [Fireball] that could produce 1000 damage, as activating a spell with higher pure damage potential requires exponentially more resources. It would be a wasteful way to squander resources, especially when every rank 6 resources are extremely rare to begin with. Instead, a 100-damage [Fireball] is enough, as long as it contains over 1000% damage amplification bonus against that specific barrier.
And so, with his method of refining magic spells into specific killer moves that are extremely potent for specific situations, he became unstoppable.
Of course, that period is brief and fleeting since other Sovereigns of Morgen World quickly adopted his methods. Following the logic of the trickle-down effect, when Sovereigns adopted the Great Archmage’s refinement-path methods, their country benefited greatly. This caused a wave of advancement across the whole world. Thus, battle after the Great Archmage’s ascension is not about pure damage potential, but adaptability and killer moves.
And so, while Kenji delayed the Hulking Ant, Sumire, Sakuya, and Shirogane quickly began their activation sequences.
Sakuya’s spell catalysts are in the form of liquid, they are being used to paint Shirogane’s armor in a specific pattern like a sacrificial ritual circle. To finish them, Sakuya took eight gems and lodged them in the armor.
“My [Mage Armor: Firefox Raiment] is ready,” Sakuya reported.
In that instant, a lump of telepathic will fly towards Shirogane from the carriage. The purple cloud of telepathic will carry a copious amount of spell resources no less than what Sakuya has been using on Shirogane. When it reached the swordswoman, Sakuya helped the cloud of telepathic will's arrangement to paint her sword in purple spell circles.
< [Mage Weapon: Cognitive Purge], ready. > Sumire telepathically uttered after Shirogane’s blade had been completely covered with spell formation.
“Very well, let’s begin,” Sakuya muttered as she began chanting. Her fire-path [Mage Armor] spell catalyst began burning, providing an additional layer of bright red flame on top of Shirogane’s silver armor. The flame armor was giving off a soft fur texture, like the ones possessed by foxes. The most conspicuous feature was the flame cloak, which seems to extend from the fox-head-like apparition that wrapped around Shirogane’s neck.
As the flame slowly engulfed her body, Sumire’s wisdom-path [Mage Weapon] spell catalysts on Shirogane’s weapon became ignited in purple flames. Then, as if a trigger has been activated, the purple flames infect Sakuya’s crimson-colored Mage Armor, turning the firefox-themed Mage Armor into a layer of sleek, futuristic armor of blazing purple light that optimizes aerodynamics and ease of movement.
“Rank 1 compound killer move, [Violet Sword Blaze]!” The three declared at the same time, their minds attuned to each other.
In simple terms, this killer move is literally dumping amplification methods on Shirogane to boost her performance across all metrics. The strategic insight of a wisdom-path mage, the overbearing sharpness of a sword-path martial artist, and the explosive ferocity of a fire-path warmage are being combined into one.
Unfortunately, this killer move rendered Sakuya and Sumire unable to act as they’ll have to maintain their spells and synergy so that the conflicting nature of different paths wouldn’t occur during crucial moments. Nevertheless, the amplification that Shirogane received from the compound killer move is over-the-top.
Shirogane took an Iai drawing motion before slashing wildly multiple times, her hand and sword turned into a blur. Each slash produces a trail of burning purple swordlight, remotely decapitating and dismembering any soldier ant that unfortunately got hit. If they survived, they are ignited in purple flames containing wisdom-path profundity that would incinerate telepathic thoughts.
Since thoughts, will and emotion is the prime aspect of wisdom-path, then having them incinerated means one’s thinking process is being disturbed. Any creatures who got affected by Shirogane’s purple flame wouldn’t feel the flame burning through their bodies until their body couldn’t physically move due to the damage. At that point, they are already dead. With that said, the secondary effect of Violet Sword Blaze attacks saves Shirogane from having to grant them a coup de grace if they didn’t die in one hit.
By spreading the purple flames to some of the ants in the sea of black swarms being held back by the kobolds, the formic army began to waver in their relentless assault.
As a wisdom-path mage, Sumire was fully aware of the Darkshroud Formic Lord’s method of control. It is one of the most basic bloodline abilities that all enslavement-path creatures possess, bloodline enslavement. Mental attacks, which were the specialty of wisdom-path cultivators, couldn’t be used to hijack the Formic Lord’s control upon its workers and soldiers because the ants are under its bloodline influence. The ants also communicate with hormones and other formic compounds, not telepathic connections, so Sumire couldn’t attack through this vector.
However, with Violet Sword Blaze activated, it grants her new options.
Enslavement-path lifeforms or cultivators often have the ability to use their slaves as extendable limbs or eyes. In this case, the Formic Lord is using the ant soldiers to relay information across the battlefield so that the main body could think and decide the best strategy.
Although they communicate mostly through hormones and formic compounds, the method of relaying information is mostly telepathic since two-way hormone-based communication isn’t reliable at this scale.
Naturally, even if the Formic Lord is a beast, as a rank 2 enslavement-path beast, her ‘spirit foundation’ is extremely robust that no amount of rank 1 wisdom-path mage could defeat even on Sumire’s best day. However, what if the information that the Formic Lord has been siphoning from her slaves is being used as a vector of attack?
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With each ant being engulfed in the purple flames, they turned into a metaphorical burning spear that goes straight towards the main body of the Formic Lord, burning its telepathic thoughts and thus, her ability to send out precise commands on the battlefield. Amongst all cards on her sleeve, [Violet Sword Blaze] is the best anti-enslavement-path trump card that Sumire possessed.
…
Kenji saw the conflagration of purple flames raging across the battlefield with mixed feelings. He was once a victim of that flame, after all. Nevertheless, his attention is taken elsewhere.
The sound of a heavy spear made out of black iron known for its density made contact with the exoskeleton of a Hulking Ant could be heard. Although the creature is barely categorized as a large-class lifeform despite being 4 meters tall and 10 meters long, the creature’s thick exoskeleton is something that even the spear couldn’t completely penetrate. The result of his attack is a crater in the ant’s armor instead of penetrating it.
‘Tsk, nanom supply down two 20%...’ Worry started to become visible in his eyes as he slowly healed himself after using the longbow.
If compared to the previous skirmish against the greenskins, then the Ork that he killed with the assistance of Li Xiaobai and Klauss is barely equivalent to a single Slayer Ant. As of now, he had already killed four Slayer Ants before delaying the Hulking Ant, so his nanom supply has been decreasing at an alarming rate. Although having his nanom run out is not a death sentence, he could no longer use it to heal broken bones or gouged flesh, which in this case, is just a slower death sentence.
Putting the longbow inside his dimensional storage, he took out a black warhammer. He couldn’t afford to throw away nanom mass by using them as weapons, so he has to use real weapons.
In any case, the trio’s Violet Sword Blaze is a balance-tipping method that grants him more leeway. Since the Formic Lord’s control of the battlefield is slipping through her grasp, the Hulking Ant’s movements weren’t as precise as they used to be.
Swarm-type beasts have low individuality. This is an excellent feature that allows them to be controlled en masse, but is also an inherent limit. On one hand, commands from the master, even if that meant killing oneself, wouldn’t be rejected strongly. On the other hand, when the master couldn’t give out precise commands, the slave will have to fight on their own, relying on their low intellect and low individuality.
Previously, Kenji had to use his kinetic artillery just to make some breathing room, but now, his signature [Flesh Tearing Bone Breaking Fist] is enough to push them back. Naturally, he has to swallow the grievance of having his attacks ineffective since the Hulking Ant’s physical resistance was comparable to the Slayer Ant’s with their non-newtonian fluid armor layer underneath their primary exoskeleton.
Nevertheless, he had bought sufficient time for Twin Helix to activate their ultimate killer move.
“I have arrived.” Shirogane’s flat tone could be heard as he sensed the burning heat that her purple flame armor produces.
“Great.” Kenji sighed in relief. The activation of Violet Sword Blaze meant the battlefield would stabilize. “What should I do now?”
“I reckon the backlines are being shredded right now. Assist Kurogane, don’t let him activate [Blacksteel Burning].” Shirogane passed Sumire’s message.
“Got it.” He left, using a movement martial art towards the ‘body’ of the formation, leaving a gouged earth with every step on the way.
The wounded beast already suffered from multiple cracks on its thick exoskeleton, black formic blood flowing through them. No matter how many times Kenji used his killer moves, most of the damage was mitigated, but the fact that he could wound the beast to this extent simply speaks of his overwhelming strength.
Shirogane did not waste time. In this state, she could activate movement martial arts without the hassle of activation sequence thanks to Sumire who handles all the workload. She then immediately activates her offensive martial art which was augmented by Violet Sword Blaze.
“Rank 1 sword-path killer move, [Truesilver Slash]!” Her sword became elongated more than twice its original length, the slicing power behind her silver swordlight is stronger than ever before and it also left a trail of purple flames. Severing some of the hulking ant’s limbs with her longer weapon, the wounds left by the swordlight instantly got cauterized, and purple flames subtly spread throughout its body like a cancerous parasite eating through its host.
Just as she was about to grant a coup de grace to the wounded beast through decapitation, the ground shook as three new holes were quickly being dug by the ants.
Slush! Shirogane squinted at a cohort of Slayer Ants pouring through the new tunnels while beheading the hulking ant.
The current situation isn’t good for her or for the rest of the convoy. Despite having an extremely potent anti-swarm killer move, Violet Sword Blaze put a heavy burden on the three hunters because of the resource expenditure. Suppressing the conflicting nature of the three paths also costs more than telepathic resources alone. After some time, it’ll rebound and wound them. In that state, reactivating Violet Sword Blaze would be exponentially more difficult than before.
The ‘head’ of the formation had barely stabilized before the Darkshroud Formic Lord sent down three more assault groups at the same time. She could risk prolonging the activation of the killer move to deal with the new groups of hostile, or deactivate them and risk the frontline from crumbling.
< I’m almost done with my area. > Suddenly, the three hunters could hear Katyusha’s telepathic message. < I’ll be there soon, wait until- > Her telepathic thoughts were disrupted by a surge of [Darkshroud] mist coming from Katyusha’s direction.
Sumire quickly realized what had happened and instantly activated a wisdom-path magic spell to re-establish the telepathic connection, waiting to confirm her conjecture. However, The surge of black mist from Katyusha’s direction contains a hint of an eerie dark-path method in them. It was not the ‘normal’ [Darkshroud] mist that they have been dealing with, but something more sinister. Sumire realized she couldn’t pierce the veil of darkness to get a glimpse of Katyusha’s condition.
Nevertheless, Sumire, Sakuya, and Shirogane, with the remaining mutant kobolds will have to deal with the three Hulking Ants, guarded by a host of four Slayer Ants each, and hundreds of Soldier Ants.
< How long can both of you endure? >
Shirogane pondered for a split second, “Two minutes before my organs melt.”
Sakuya followed suit, < I’m already having a headache. I’d probably pass out in a minute. >
< Then, let’s finish them before that happened. > Sumire decided.
“Very well. [Copper Burning: Alloy Rush]!” Swoosh! Shirogane’s figure turned into a streak of blur, rampaging across the battlefield. With each slice of her attack, droves of ants fell to their death, mutilated into two parts, sometimes more.
The Slayer Ants, the assassins who put the hunters into a difficult situation, can no longer deflect Shirogane’s silver swordlight with their blade-limbs. When she attacked, their blade-limbs and their whole body got severed like a sharp blade running through tofu. She had become the ultimate killing machine.
Unfortunately, good things didn’t last long.
Due to the intensity of combat, the wisdom-path burden that Sakuya had to deal with was more intense than estimated. It wasn't even half of the expected time but Sakuya’s nose, ears, and eyes started to bleed, a hint of purple can be seen from her blood which is proof of suffering from a wisdom-path wound.
“I can’t…” She tried to report her condition, but it was too late. She fell onto the icy ground, unconscious.
< Tsk. > Sumire quickly activates a remote wisdom-path method to detonate the Mage Armor on Shirogane with precision. This isn’t their first time using the killer move, so the Mage Armor detonation is a contingency so that Shirogane wouldn’t be burnt to a crisp.
Swoosh! The detonation of the purple flame armor pushed back the ants, giving Shirogane some breathing room. The three hunters were fully aware that the special units are the ones generating the most threat so while Violet Sword Blaze is active, they choose to eliminate them as soon as possible.
Now that there’s only the Soldier ants, the defensive line of Kobold would be able to hold, even if only temporarily.
Left and right, Shirogane jumped from one place to another without stopping. Even if her stamina has been depleted and she’s suffering from the fire-path and wisdom-path backlash of Violet Sword Blaze, she continues to persist by using [Argent Burning] which bestows her miraculous restorative effect.
Nevertheless, the stress and fatigue accumulate. She also couldn’t use metal-path martial arts too much due to her genetic condition.
In the end, all of the kobolds have been killed, and the broken defensive line is slowly being flooded by soldier ants.
“Shouldn’t we- cough- recall Kenji back?” Shirogane asked as she puked bright red blood, some of them had coagulated into a silvery paste. Not only fire-path and wisdom-path, she’s also suffering from metal-path backlash.
< I did… > Sumire’s message sounds grim and desperate. < The [Darkshroud] is thickening while the effect of your [Night Severing Argent Blade] is waning. My telepathic message couldn’t pierce the veil… >
Shirogane closed her eyes, ignoring the swarm of ants that were getting closer. The sound of ant pincers snapping repeatedly would put any other person into hopelessness, but Instead of giving into despair, she would rather push her body one last time. “Rank 1 metal-path martial art, [Argent Burn-”
Just as she had resolved herself to her death, her voice was disturbed by a thunderous roar in the skies.
< Holy shit! > Sumire’s telepathic message was very unfitting of a wisdom-path mage who should always maintain control of her emotions. < The sound of thunder piercing through the heavens! That’s the side effect of the captain's movement-type killer move. Shirogane, she might be unable to find us due to the thick [Darkshroud], give her a way to see us! >
Shirogane's martial will had already been drained to its limit. No more swordlight, no more swordforce. But within her arsenal, there remained a method to fulfill Sumire's desperate plea. Her fingers danced over her wrist in a specific sequence, her armor opened up revealing a slim tube with a delicate string attached to one end. It was like a straw but despite its small size, about the width of a centimeter, the intricate lattice of microscopic runes etched onto its silver surface was a testament to its arcane origin.
With determination etched on her face, she raised the tube to the heavens. “Let’s hope the captain sees this before we’re all dead.” Her fingers tugged at the string, a silver projectile shot forth, breaking the sound barrier in its flight toward the skies.
One second... two seconds... three seconds crawled by, while the relentless advance of the ants continued, heedless of Shirogane's desperate gambit.
In a despair-inducing moment, just as the nearest ant lunged toward the weakened figure of Shirogane, the heavens answered. A hiltless broadsword plummeted from the darkness above, impaling the ant with lethal precision, ending its threat in a flash.