Like a video of grass growing in fast motion, John watched needles of crystal rise from the floor in real time. Their efforts to clear out areas for the Soul Expansion Phase cultivators to stand weren’t entirely wasted, but clearly it wasn’t a long term solution. With that in mind, taking more time to make preparations wouldn’t be terribly valuable.

A loud thud echoed through the chamber as Ursel dropped heavily onto her back, splayed out with her arms spread wide. Not a traditional meditative position, but certainly one that maximized her connection to the physical earth.

“It’s time,” Ursel declared.

At that moment, she began drawing in all of the surrounding earth. Not merely earth elemental spiritual energy, but the earth itself. It rippled around her as it slowly built up. From certain perspectives it might have seemed she was simply building up the ground around her, but careful observation revealed the earthen needles moving a few millimeters at a time.

Spiritual energy was of course absorbed at a tremendous rate. Combined with the movement of the ground itself, there was a constant if minor tremor. The folds of earth began to slowly roll over Ursel, but it never seemed to build up beyond a certain point. Somehow, it was being absorbed.

There were a few tense minutes of waiting. John understood why she didn’t want any fluctuations in the earth element, if possible. She was now deeply tied to the surrounding area. But of course, even if none of them caused a disturbance in the energy, the local creatures would.

Rolling mounds of sand and pebbles were first, loose conglomerations of activated earth elemental spiritual energy. These seemed to have even less intelligence than the others, trying to force anything out of their way as they approached but having no tactical prowess.

They were easily scattered apart by simple elemental attacks that interrupted their structure. Waves of water swept down tunnels at the behest of half of the cultivators, with the other half using gouts of flame. Having fought with more solid versions of the same foes, they found it rather trivial to neutralize groups of enemies all at once.

But they kept coming. Soon more solid foes began to appear, requiring people to crack them apart instead of merely flooding through them. Of course, Tlaloc and the others had learned how to pierce their energy into the enemy’s core and cause lasting damage. Performing the technique once or twice in a short period was reasonable, but they had to do it over and over as enemies crawled in from the numerous tunnels.

Viriato made use of paired light and darkness to blast enemies coming from above within their tunnels. He alternated between forming one element around each hand and sending them forward for the beams to intersect at his target and twisting them together along the way which created a sustained explosion along the length of a beam when he released his control and allowed the elements to mutually annihilate.

John focused on those crawling up from the tunnels around Ursel, often dropping them on each other to conserve his own energy. He constantly moved around in a ring, slicing through any who got too close.

Obviously all of the battling would cause some fluctuations in earth element, but none of the human cultivators were drawing it in except Ursel. With each fallen living element, some portion of their earth element was released and became part of the tumble of earth around her. The disturbances of the battle didn’t seem to have caused her any consternation just yet, but they were trying to stop most of the incoming enemies from entering the chamber.

But they continued to come, and to take them down at a rate that could be sustained meant the disciples had to pace themselves. Those on the outer perimeter had a bit more leeway, but anything entering near John was dangerously close almost immediately. Thus, he didn’t let himself slow his pace at all. He was constantly cycling all of his elements, though he kept his earth element in a strictly internal role.

Fire was his best bet, not just because it was a dominating element but because of the techniques he had unintentionally specialized in. Clinging Affliction with his spectral flames actually burned the spiritual energy of the incoming creatures through the physical layers protecting them. More than that, it spread between them and sustained itself on the weaker enemies.

Those beyond a certain point of durability, however, would cause the flames to sputter out instead of growing. Thus, John focused most of his attacks on them, occasionally renewing Clinging Affliction in particular tunnels when the flow of enemies dried out for a time.

Throwing daggers sunk into the chests of lumbering towers of rock and crystal. Now he was facing off of a few stronger foes drawn by all the commotion. They were more capable of battle, but also more easily distracted from their goal than the smaller ones because they recognized him as a danger.

Rocks sailed past him. He was concerned about what would happen if they impacted Ursel, not because he thought she would be directly injured but because they would be a large jolt of spiritual energy, throwing off her state of concentration. Thus, he focused on drawing the larger enemies around the perimeter.

Unfortunately, their greater intellect also allowed them to work together. He wasn’t certain if they would cooperate beyond defeating him, but that didn’t really matter. One charged towards him, drawing close while others attacked from a distance. While he was busy fending that one off, boulders were tossed- and some of the creatures absorbed the local needle-like shards of crystal, turning those into projectile attacks as well.

Wind and water twirled around John, capturing the smaller attacks and slowing the larger ones long enough for him to get out of the way. His sword stabbed through the torso of the closest one, flames lingering behind and melting its core. But even as he defeated one, two more began to clamber out of the nearby tunnels.

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Elsewhere, people began to combine their forces, drawing back further into the room to manage new defensive lines. The weaker ones among them had to be more careful with their footing, but fortunately they were facing fewer opponents. Viriato also had some spare moments to snipe particularly annoying enemies.

The slight tremor around Ursel had heightened into a distinct rumble, shaking the walls and ceiling of the cavern. Shards of needle earth began to fall from the ceiling, and John expanded his whirlwind of air to cover the whole chamber. He didn’t want to do that since it would likely be a greater disturbance- but Ursel would just have to tough it out. She knew there was going to be combat.

Along with the four core elements, John also made use of his darkness to distract enemies. He couldn’t fill the whole area to limit them as most of his allies had no element of their own darkness, but he could create false impressions of Ursel’s location. With no eyes or normal senses, the constructs of spiritual energy latched onto the false impressions he was creating, occasionally clashing as they encountered each other at their final target.

The density of earth element was increasing as Ursel drew it in, and the chamber was slowly growing in size- and all of the surrounding tunnels were widening as well. It was not necessarily Ursel’s conscious intention, but the physical earth she was absorbing had to come from somewhere.

Then the worms came, burrowing through the ground itself with little regard for its solid nature. Fortunately most of them were distracted by the battle and didn’t directly approach Ursel, but Viriato was forced to blast them as they dropped in from above and John had to send his fire element into the ground to seek them out.

He cut down enemy after enemy as he channeled energy through both his hands and feet. The enemies seemed to come in waves, not based on intentionality but merely what sorts were present at particular distances. The smallest and fastest ones were mostly annihilated, but fortunately many of the larger foes had been cut down as well. John still had to duck and twist around the last several near him, but it seemed that some of the pressure was letting off.

Most of the incoming ‘worms’ were only a few centimeters across, solid chunks of stone but not particularly large. They were dangerous when they wrapped around an arm or a leg, and once they had a sufficient potion of themselves out of the ground they could whip themselves with great force, but their thin bodies made them relatively easy to take apart.

But a few were larger, up to several times as thick. And John felt another approaching from beneath, as big across as his torso was wide. He tried to find an opening to channel more of his energy to create some sort of barrier to stop it, but he didn’t have much time. A half formed net of fire underground created only a few scorch marks as it tore through them and was about to ram into Ursel.

John was prepared to put his life on the line to defend his daughter, but before he could react Ursel dropped through the floor like it was suddenly liquid. Two powerful sources of earth energy collided, disrupting his senses beneath the ground.

The entire chambers suddenly began to shake at a greater intensity, cracking and crumbling. Several tunnels collapsed, along with parts of the ceiling.

“Everyone gather together!” John called, severing one of the largest remaining enemies vertically, leaving a line of molten rock he would have appreciated at any other moment. But he was already diving down into the earth, using his own energy to make it malleable.

Then there was one final burst of earth element, and the whole ceiling collapsed all together. John was glad he’d warned everyone, as together they all channeled their spiritual energy into a dome that kept the mountain of stone off of them. Fortunately some of the vertical tunnels relieved the pressure, though they were choked up with stone. John carefully held his portion of the barrier while breaking down some of the clumps of rocks in the tunnels, allowing some of the rock remaining above them to tumble off.

But they still had several meters of stone pressing down on them, and subsequent tremors shook more and more of the ceiling loose on them. If they could reach one of the side tunnels they might be able to burrow into a safer position, but they couldn’t leave their position.

The constant flow of earth element around them suddenly stopped as the surrounding stone liquified, molding into a single solid shell.

“That was pretty exciting, huh?” Ursel commented as she poked her head out of the floor, raising her arms up and then levering her torso and lower body out of the stone. “I thought I might attract slightly less attention than that.”

John looked at her carefully. She didn’t feel like much at first, as she faded into the background. Rather than a cultivator, she felt like just another part of the Crystal Caverns. But probing deeper, he could feel the connection to a fifth totem and the energy signature of an Ascending Soul Phase cultivator.

Meanwhile, all around her disciples were falling into trances. Even Viriato, who was not yet at the point he could advance to the Ascending Soul Phase, seemed to be meditating on the earth element subconsciously.

John felt Ursel using her energy to create a calm environment of earth, with all of the elemental creatures having been solidified into the ground itself as merely part of their surroundings. She didn’t directly influence the energy of Lir and Tlaloc, but both began to absorb the surrounding earth element. Lir managed to step through to the Consolidated Soul Phase, while Tlaloc simply took one step close.

A good day, both for John and his family- and the Six Elements Crossroads. Though they did have wounded to treat, everyone had been able to let any excess pressure through to John and Viriato.

John smiled at his daughter and wondered how strong she was now. He was still confident that he could personally defeat her- though only with his understanding of her various abilities, the power of his cycle of element, and probably the gap in rank. A cultivator like Abritt, even if she learned from their battle, would likely never be in a position to defeat Ursel ever again.

John needed to break through to the mid Ascending Soul Phase to feel confident in consistent victories against Ursel, however. And maybe he could make some developments in his body. Little by little he was improving his reflexes from Air’s Swiftness and his durability from Diamond Defense, but the other pieces were a bit too niche.

“Oh, congratulations by the way,” John said.

Even through her helmet, he could feel Ursel’s smile. And then he was nearly crushed by her hug. “Thanks! I can’t wait to show the other two,” she snickered.

Indeed. Ursel’s advancement would be a great motivation for the other triplets. Though John hoped they would still advance with proper caution.