Perhaps unsurprisingly, there weren’t a large number of open spaces available within the Silver Breeze Gorge… except the Gorge itself. All of a sudden, the lack of buildings along the ground made more sense. Suddenly, all of the buildings could be seen as stands watching one massive arena.
As John faced off against Presha, he also saw another advantage to things being arranged the way they were. The protections over their various facilities doubled as arena restrictions, making any construction more efficient. There was the slight issue that when a serious battle was happening nobody would be able to move around between spaces, but John didn’t think that anyone would mind.
Indeed, he felt eyes from all over watching eagerly. The disciples of the Silver Breeze Gorge couldn’t have seen terribly many battles at the Ascending Soul Phase level, since their sect head had only just advanced recently. Either way, they wouldn’t begrudge one more.
The instant the battle began he charged towards Presha, not expecting his longer ranged attacks to be particularly effective against an air cultivator. At the same time, a massive gust of wind pushed against him. John twisted his own air element around him, pushing against the force. Then he sprang forward, far overshooting his target. The move nearly resulted in a terribly embarrassing ring out, but John caught himself.
From sudden gusts of wind to an instant vacuum. He hadn’t expected that, but he was pleased. This was probably the best sort of relevant training he could get outside of the Sky Islands. Even if Presha’s techniques weren’t the same as Abritt, he could learn much. And he had no reason to assume that Abritt didn’t have techniques to create a vacuum and simply hadn’t needed it, with John locked down by her power.
Presha didn’t simply fight defensively, of course. The moment John got back on track, he was assaulted with a dozen blades of air element. They didn’t seem powerful, but he knew better than to underestimate them. He dodged past as many as he could, imbuing his sword with earth element to cut through the rest. Upon contact, the compressed air element actually tore apart, creating both an explosion and a lingering vacuum. John had no doubt that it would have cut him just as effectively as the local beasts, but of course with more power.
Attempting to use his own air element against Presha was ultimately futile, but he still did it. He did his best to replicate Abritt’s technique, as that would both familiarize Presha with it and let him observe her counters. Since he only had a certain proportion of air element, John had to support his power with the core cycle of elements. Earth fed into fire, then water, then finally an outpouring of air.
His whirlwind was less than half the distance of Abritt’s, requiring him to get closer to Presha. At first he’d thought she didn’t have any weapon, but long strings unraveled from her sleeve as he approached. Then, most surprisingly, a heavy weight was dropped in.
With a single rotation, her sling built up sufficient momentum to launch a projectile at extreme speed towards him. John twisted, raising a barrier of earth as he expected the sling bullet to twist towards him, but instead it kept straight on its path. He wondered why an air cultivator would use such a technique. Wouldn’t it be better to take advantage of her element to redirect an attack already on the way?
The next attack was already in process as he was thinking about that, and this time he faced the attack head on just to be certain. His sword, fortified with earth element, crashed against the incoming sling bullet. He won that clash, but not by as much as he would have expected.
So that was it. He felt it now. The sling bullets themselves radiated the earth element, being more or less extremely dense stone. Air element could boost their effectiveness, but it would be harder for it to redirect their momentum, either through winds or creating a vacuum.
John continued forward, expecting Presha to leap away as he finally got close. Instead, she stood her ground. Instead of launching another sling bullet at him, she kept the projectile in the bands of the sling, twirling it around as a long flail. John expected the sling itself was more durable than its size let on, or he could merely cut it apart. Perhaps in a real battle he would have made the attempt, as it was likely possible. But he was more interested in facing this head on.
He couldn’t circle around Presha, as her spinning weapon would be able to strike at nearly any angle. It was quick enough that he couldn’t use its timing as a weakness either. His best bet was to try to unbalance Presha herself.
A gust of wind was useless there. He watched her split the winds around her, with a greater expertise than he himself had. Not that he expected to outdo a single element cultivator, but he could certainly learn from one.
He stomped the ground, trying to throw Presha off that way. His attack did work, to the extent that it threw her up into the air- but as he moved in he realized she was unexpectedly light. And indeed, she had probably been floating the whole time, merely appearing as if she were pushing off of the ground. Or perhaps she was actually doing that, but carried herself with wind bound into the rest of her techniques regardless.
Presha didn’t fly high into the air, but the reach of her sling was enough to cover her legs if John tried to take advantage somehow. He still gave it a few good attempts, feeling the momentum behind the sling as she met his sword with every strike.
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John was fairly certain that he could overpower Presha, but he wasn’t interested in that. Nor would that be as valuable for her. John stopped modifying his normal fighting style for her, and instead started throwing daggers to see how she would respond.
It was a toss up between merely avoiding the weapons, blasting them off course with wind, or catching them for herself. She rapidly analyzed what elements he used, making her choice then. When they were imbued with earth, she moved herself out of the way. His experiments with water showed she was confident in taking over the weapons with a dominant element. Fire she was most likely to blow away, and she was also confident enough to dismantle John’s air element and take over.
When he mixed elements, she had more trouble. That was expected, as she wouldn’t have much experience with such things. Earth and air was difficult for her, because John could redirect those. He was able to chase her around for a while, though her flying technique seemed efficient enough that he couldn’t necessarily say he was winning that exchange. Besides, he had to fly himself to reach her with his sword, or try to throw her off with his whirlwind technique.
John used a grounding technique from the Sky Islands. He started with the most common type, an insubstantial net of earth element. It had little more than weight and the intention to negate air element behind it. Presha wasn’t ready for that, and took a fall. John dropped forward after her, taking advantage of her momentary loss of momentum. His sword pressed against her neck.
“They use that one pretty commonly,” he said. “Abritt will definitely be capable. But I’m sure you’ll quickly learn to deal with it.” Then he stepped back.
He wasn’t interested in who among them won any particular exchange. He needed a sparring partner not from the Sky Islands, where they could watch his progress. She needed to see the techniques he could replicate, as much as possible.
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John had expected that Presha would eventually run out of projectiles, but that was not the case. Certainly, not before she would have exhausted herself from battle. The sling stones were clearly not of great value, yet powerful enough to be part of her style. It made sense, of course. They were basically lumps of stone that didn’t have to be terribly precise. She just had to get them going fast enough… and they flew along well enough with her air element supporting them.
When one of them just missed him, John learned the hard way how quickly she could mold her air element. In an instant it went from a boost to the projectile to a blade creating a vacuum. John was just glad that Diamond Defense protected him well enough, because he hadn’t yet figured out the best counter for those techniques. Aside from just always coating himself in earth element, of course.
John wasn’t ever going to be able to beat Presha with Abritt’s air techniques, but he did replicate them well enough- at lower power- that he saw her various counters. The most surprising one was her sling, spinning rapidly to create a trail that cut apart the segments of wind. The natural earth element in the bullets also destabilized the greater construct of spiritual energy.
The least surprising but most impressive was simply negating the winds entirely. It hardly appeared to be anything at all. She merely created the exact opposite effect from his air element. John knew he wouldn’t be using that one against Abritt.
He also saw some clever movements where she twisted her body in unpredictable way, flowing with the windstorm instead of fighting it. By remaining fully within, John could only attempt to gust her out of it.
They came to an unspoken agreement that technique was more important than power in that context. John had described Abritt’s strength in great detail, though he still wasn’t sure if he’d seen the limits of what she could do even with her whirlwind technique.
John didn’t think he could pick up her sling technique easily, but he could just throw her sling bullets. He found some of them scattered about the battlefield, and while he was missing some power, his earth element made up for that. It clearly took some technique to cut through winds, but the stone bullet’s lack of aerodynamics was actually a boon. They were simply meant to shove through enemy air techniques. Though surrounded by Presha’s own air element, she could do much more.
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Deirdre wasn’t quite an Ascending Soul Phase cultivator, so her battles against Presha were obviously quite lopsided. However, she had the significant advantage that her ranged attacks were completely uninfluenced by wind. Or at least, at first. Presha could still use her air element to directly defend her body.
Furthermore, the Golden Tomb Guardians had many melee techniques they made use of. Their main weapons were staves that they turned into glaives, and though that nicely provided a smaller profile for the wind compared to a weapon that was always physical, it was still difficult.
When Deirdre was able to reach close to Presha, her staff was a great counter to Presha’s sling. She could intentionally let it wrap around her weapon and use the other end to slash at her opponent, though Presha was fast enough to pull herself away and untangle her weapon that she never really got in a solid hit.
The last of Deirdre’s advantages went away when Presha began to use the way light refracted when moving from air to vacuum. That was several times more efficient than using wind to deflect normal projectiles.
John made special note of that… both as a defensive technique, and for the future. Hopefully, some day, he would have more than tiny mote of light element under his control.
It was still useful for Deirdre, however. Presha was better able to replicate wind techniques with greater force. Fighting against a more powerful opponent was always useful for gaining insights. John hoped his friend could break through to the Ascending Soul Phase soon, though he wouldn’t rush her. He had already experienced the consequences of failure- perhaps one of the milder versions, even.