I wouldn’t be surprised if those two girls also have halmite weapons, thought Kalvin with rising avarice. If he could present such weapons to Angram, then it would likely cement his position as the second most powerful member of their growing faction. After all, Merchant Lord Varus and his group had just joined hands with them, which meant that they had gained a tremendous amount of influence and support within the organization despite the deaths of Connick and Daren. Of the thirty merchant lord positions, their faction now boasted twelve individuals that held such posts.
Running a subconscious thumb over the necklace beneath his neckline, Kalvin suppressed a rush of excitement. While it was true that May and the White Rogue were powerful enough that he couldn’t sense their cultivation levels, in the worst case scenario they would be as strong as Belren. The Nightshadow Sect’s elder aside, there were still well over a hundred Genesis-staged cultivators in their ranks. Just Kalvin’s subordinates alone could counteract the remaining eight members of the opposing group, let alone the countless summoned spirits that he personally had at his disposal.
Still, he couldn’t shake a growing sense of unease that was gathering within his gut. The situation was painstakingly obvious to all that were present, so why were they so relaxed? Some showed wariness, sure. But fear? He only saw traces of it in the eyes of the pair of newly arrived girls. The others looked as if they had not a worry in the world.
“Scan the area carefully,” he said to his inner circle of subordinates via a sound transmission talisman. “Something’s not right.’
After they all acknowledged his instructions and went on to follow through with them, Julian sent him a response riddled with suspicion.
“I’ve been thinking this since we arrived here, but don’t you think this clearing is a little bit too circular? If they simply intended to carve out an area within which to set up their tower, why would they take the extra care to make it a perfect circle?”
Looking closely at the dimensions of the open space, he suddenly understood. “It’s likely that a formation’s been set here.” Frowning, he glanced at Belren and his companions to try to discern any indication that they might have realized something about their current location. “Those from the Nightshadow Sect don’t seem to have noticed anything. Perhaps we’re thinking too much about it?”
“There’s a chance that they’ve done this just to make us overthink things. After all, Belren is an accomplished arrayment master who’s well known even in the Western Isles. If he didn’t spot anything wrong with things here, then there shouldn’t be any problems.”
The young man’s logic was sound, though Kalvin was still uneasy. Throughout his life, he’d quickly learned not to ignore such a sombre sensation.
Yes, he thought, I need to trust my instincts. Something’s wrong here. Could they be stalling while awaiting reinforcements?
“Enough with this, Tems,” he eventually called out in exasperation. “They’re clearly up to something. Either make a move now, or I’ll be leaving here with my forces.”
Tems fixed him with an irritated look, though he eventually calmed himself and raised an arm with a flourish of his ornate azure robes. “You’ve given me no choice. May, Little White, you can only blame yourselves for what’s about to happen!”
The blond-haired young man suddenly stood up with a stretch and then hopped out of the tub with a shower of spattering droplets. Grabbing hold of his halmite longsword in a nonchalant manner, he slowly floated away from the balcony and up to the towering eaves to join the others. Still dripping wet, he rested the flat of his blade atop his lap and then turned his calm, unreadable golden eyes on Tems and the great elders behind him.
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“Your arm looks a lot better than the last time I saw you,” said Nolan, who seemed to be the leader of the group based upon his disposition and the fact that the White Rogue had evidently been enslaved by him. “I should have cut the whole thing off last time.”
People in the surroundings immediately began to mutter amongst themselves. Tems, the Sect Master of the Falling Rain Sect, had almost lost an arm to such a young cultivator that was only at the seventh level of Integration? As unbelievable as it sounded, the man himself didn't deny it.
“I’m going to enjoy killing you,” said Tems, who abruptly called out to his sect members with a loud, angry voice that shook the wind within the vicinity as if a giant bird had suddenly appeared above them to fan the clearing with its wings. “Members of the Falling Rain Sect. Ready your standard attack arrayments! I’m interested to see just how much energy this barrier can take!”
As two thousand index fingers began to trace out the same arrayment at different speeds, Belren looked to his cousin with a frown. Like Kalvin, he likely found such a move foolish considering what they had just learned about the nature of the barrier. If they wanted to confirm their suspicions, just one or two attackers would have sufficed.
The sun was momentarily blocked out by a lazy cloud, a refreshing wave of shade falling over the area as thousands of iridescent arrayment diagrams became visible in the ring that the Falling Rain Sect disciples and elders had formed around the tower. As these schematics exploded with azure light before revealing countless blades of sharpened, condensed energies, the eyes of Kalvin and his people were visited with quite the grand sight.
“They’re not lauded as an arrayment sect for nothing,” muttered Benlay, his blue eyes wide with appreciation. “This attack arrayment is a bit more honed than the one I use. Less waste, more tangibility…”
Kester let out a gruff snort, beefy arms crossed over his large chest with his CMA uniform undisturbed by the wind. “These fellows ain’t as weak as I thought. Maybe we can just sit back an’ enjoy a free lunch?”
Kalvin hoped that this would be the case, but he couldn’t be certain. “Just wait for now.”
He watched on with silent intrigue as Tems gave the order for his sect members to launch their attack. It had to be noted that those gathered were the cream of the crop among the Falling Rain Sect’s members, solely the strongest disciples and the most influential elders from all over the Grand Isle of Weston. Even the weakest amongst the force had been able to conjure over a hundred deadly swords, each of the blades capable of killing individuals several levels above the caster’s cultivation. The great elders, on the other hand, easily created thousands.
It’s a pity they were burdened with such a sect master.
The tower was abruptly swallowed up by tens of thousands of azure projectiles, some shining brighter than others while giving off heavier auras due to the condensed energies within. From Kalvin’s point of view, it looked as if a magnet had just drawn in such a high number of nails that one could no longer make out any of its features.
There was no explosion, at least not of smoke and flame. Rather, an earsplitting sound similar to steel shrieking against the surface of a thick sheet of glass immediately filled the area, in tandem with a tremendous wind of force that easily uprooted hundreds of trees in the surroundings while snapping the trunks of many of the smaller ones. Many of the sect’s core disciples couldn’t withstand the fallout of the attack, with dozens cartwheeling backwards after struggling against the oncoming winds for a brief moment as if they were leaves that had barely held onto their branches in the face of a memorable storm.
The elders were quick to shield their subordinates with several wide-reaching barriers that popped up so quickly that the ones that had created them had clearly prepared secondary arrayments while waiting for their underlings to draw out the diagrams for their standard attack arrayments. After all, the elders were far more proficient in their practice and thus could work much faster than their subordinates.
Kalvin didn’t bother defending against the violent shockwave, for Benlay, Kester and Julian immediately counteracted the force by punching out with their full strength, effectively warping the oncoming winds and dispelling them shortly after.
Miraculously, the wooden tower didn’t so much as let out a single creak. Even the earth beneath its foundation didn’t shake around like the land that surrounded it.
Just what type of barrier arrayment was this? Traditionally, barriers had a finite level of durability and would be broken after receiving a certain amount of damage. Even if a Genesis-staged cultivator created one such arrayment, it could still be broken by a modest number of those at the Integration stage if continuously attacked for a long period of time.
“No more arrayments,” came Belren’s booming voice. Glancing over his shoulder at his fellow sect members, he bellowed, “Come! Let’s break this arrayment together, with force!”