It was tempting for John to rely on his cultivation to try to dominate the battle, but while that was a perfectly normal option for a cultivator, it wasn’t always the most effective. If the strongest cultivator was sufficiently powerful, they could push back the enemy ranks and inspire their allies all at once, but that came with the risk of exposure. Then there was the option to hang back as some sort of emergency measure, watching people fall and die. Callous, but safe.
John wasn’t interested in either option. He could still be a powerful force on the battlefield without overextending himself. And as his whole style hinged around balancing various elements, fighting alongside the various sects was only proper. He wouldn’t stand out as an independent champion, but instead would act as a pillar of support.
Fighting formations of cultivators required trust and practice, so John wouldn’t be able to direct the whole battlefield, but he had connections to many groups of different elements, guiding together water, fire, earth, and of course the mixed elements of his own sect. His own air element should be effective against the Stormy Sea Sect which were primarily water cultivators, but they were specially trained to resist certain sorts of abilities.
Lightning was more or less neutral. It wasn’t a waste of energy, but it didn’t afford the same advantages it normally would- at least not unless he could catch them off guard. But Duha stood at the head of the approaching fleet, and surprising people looking directly at him was a bit troublesome.
John still threw lightning anyway, just to watch how Duha deflected it. It was nothing special, just creating a trail of water that provided it an easier way to flow, though precisely controlling its path still seemed impossible. She deflected it to the edge of the ship and over the side, but the lightning still bit into the wood on its way down as John manually directed it. Not enough to break the ship apart or catch it aflame, but it was a start.
More air element gathered around John, but while he continued to fling lightning a small portion of it was siphoned off for other uses. Darkness kept his true intentions hidden, in two different ways. It permeated the whole area around him, hiding what he was doing in front and those ships hiding around the curvature of their new cliffs to the back.
A wave of water carried forward the enemy fleets, directed in large part by Duha. With the angle they were coming in, it was clear they intended to slip into the harbor past the defenders. But as they went, they would be under a bombardment of fireballs, lightning, and rocks. The latter didn’t sound that impressive, but it couldn’t be underestimated. A sufficiently fast rock could puncture a hole in sails, people, or the ship itself. Though the enchantments on the ship made actually sinking their vessels more difficult, they still had to defend the vessels.
John had already prepared plans with the Brandle clan cultivators after Storm Rock Isle had been reshaped. They were ready when he directed their energy, just as the first ships were reaching the gap in the cliffs. Rather than attempting to negate the waves they rode upon, John added another component to them with water rising up and pulling towards the cliffs. That made the ships lurch starboard. Ruha kept her ship well controlled, but several others scraped against the rocky cliffs, suffering damage and opening themselves to be boarded by cultivators who preferred melee. Meanwhile, the enemy cultivators were raising great waves with which they tried to shove or pull the defenders off of their cliff.
John was tempted to unleash his air element trap on Ruha, but he let her pass. He focused instead on the next ship, specifically the pilot at the back and the cultivators sustaining the wave propelling them with extra speed.
Protecting against what John did wasn’t impossible, but it would require awareness of what was happening. With so many attacks being thrown around it was difficult to detect a relatively subtle manipulation of air. Waves splashed over John, trying to move him or perhaps drown him, but he anchored himself in place with earth and protected his body with water. He would end up at a slight imbalance of fire, but he could use that in a moment.
The cultivators on the second ship probably didn’t notice themselves running out of air. At least, they wouldn’t immediately. Cultivators were fairly aware of their own body so it was unlikely he could actually kill them, but as they breathed in and out they wouldn’t be getting any oxygen. Or at least not much, as he filtered the area ahead of them- that way he didn’t have to deal with their defenses. Since they were still breathing out carbon dioxide, their bodies wouldn’t immediately recognize their suffocation.
All that oxygen was pulled together behind them, and John used his excess fire element to detonate it. As the first of his tricks didn’t act directly on the cultivators it was difficult to resist, but the slight flames he managed on the latter ships accelerated with the excess oxygen in a sort of explosion. The cultivators were able to protect themselves and the ship enchantments did the same, but it was an efficient attack.
The second ship was drifting port, with the pilot recognizing something was wrong just before they crashed into the newly extended outer cliff. One sail scraped against the cliff and snapped, nearly toppling the mast as the crossbeam twisted. The crew recognized something was wrong and expanded their defenses, the burst of spiritual energy breaking John’s influence in the area- though he couldn’t extend such fine control terribly far, so they would have been released from his technique soon enough.
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Ruha at the front no doubt expected to find vulnerable ships within the harbor, but what she encountered were a half dozen vessels lying in wait, attacking the instant she rounded the inner curve. And at that moment she was isolated, the rest of her fleet still making their way through the gauntlet, the second ship attempting to course correct without crashing into the sides or spinning to block the entire path.
As an Ascending Soul Phase cultivator, Ruha was still able to deflect most of the attacks on herself, her crew, and her ship, but not all of them. She also wasn’t prepared for one of them ramming from the side. That would be the Order of the Amber Heart. It looks like they at least remembered to fortify their own ship before the collision.
Several others had been upon the cliffs, dropping onto the ships below. One group wrestled control of the helm from the Stormy Sea Sect, though they couldn’t send it careening into the cliffs quite as easily as they wished. The water cultivators were still controlling the water underneath, so the ship mostly stayed on course. But it was only a matter of time before they got ships to crash into each other, clogging the entrance.
John turned his attention from the nearing pileup to Ruha. He trusted his allies to give their best, but leaving them to fight an Ascending Soul Phase cultivator without him was a bit much.
With a rapid and long strides John reached the back edge of the cliff, leaping towards the at least temporarily isolated vessel and the sect head. The cycle of elements flowed through John, ready to respond to any whim. He had a bit more earth element remaining, so he used that to turn himself into a projectile, crashing into the rear mast. The wooden mast was nearly a meter thick, but John’s impact easily cracked it, cracking it in two. All he had to do was break through the defensive enchantments and even the best material couldn’t stand up to a decent injection of spiritual energy.
Or at least not ones that could be made in such quantity. Perhaps there were some magnificent trees that could make nearly unbreakable vessels, but they wouldn’t be something a seafaring sect could easily get their hands on. Maybe the Viridia Wildlands. Ruha’s eyes showed rage as swirling waves rushed towards John.
“This is your fault, you know,” he commented as he used his sword to guide air element into a blade of wind, cutting apart the waves as he dropped down towards Ruha. “Your sect started this.”
Her trident caught his sword between two prongs, but that was what he’d been expecting. John kicked out, fire swirling around his foot. Ruha was slightly delayed in her reaction, no doubt not expecting the element she was strongest against. She redirected some of her energy to her side, giving up on the crashing waves dropping back towards John.
John grabbed her trident behind its head with his free hand. She’d managed to freeze his sword to her trident, even though her specialty was clearly not ice. A good move, but he didn’t care so much. Darkness swirled around his hand as he simply held the trident. She protected it with water element, but he tore away at it. She seemed content to wrestle with him, but something gave John away. Maybe his face, or she simply picked up what he was doing more quickly. Ruha formed an expanding sphere of water, pushing John and herself apart.
Too bad. But John had still picked up more water element to work with. Spiritual Energy Absorption was not something that anyone expected, and since he could overpower her it was actually relatively efficient. The unfamiliar energy tried to rebel, but much of it had already been swept up in the cycle, converting into different elements and erasing any connection Ruha had.
Ruha splashed into the water, and John readied himself for her following assaults… but they never came. He felt her drop to the bottom of the harbor… and then she was swimming away. John hadn’t yet decided whether or not to chase her when a waterspot shot her over the outer edge of the harbor and into the sea. She swam faster than any ship, and while it was likely more energy intensive John didn’t think he could easily catch her.
Easily being the key term. And he had better things to do, like deal with the rest of the enemy cultivators. He watched her with his senses as she circled around towards their opening, helping to pull some of their ships away. He thought she was ready to retreat, but even if she intended to regroup he found it better to deal with those currently remaining locked in combat.
In the end, they only took down three ships- the rest were able to extract themselves, though it would have been completely impossible if they weren’t water element cultivators. Perhaps they should have sent Tirto and Verusha to target this fleet and let the other enemies reach the harbor. The narrow entrance was unsurprisingly quite advantageous. Then again, the supporting cultivators were more likely to have earth element cultivators who could simply topple the thin cliffs. All they’d have to do was destabilize the base. Sufficiently determined water element cultivators could have done it as well, but they’d have to have known how thick the cliffs were to begin with.
John could have caught the retreating fleet, and likely so could have a few others… but that would have been too risky. As it was, they focused on capturing the remaining cultivators. The next prisoner exchange would have harsher terms. John was hoping they could push for a surrender, or if they weren’t willing to admit a loss at least push for the remuneration that was one of their goals.
Money wouldn’t bring back the dead, both those who died in the pirate attacks and in this war, but pushing too hard would just bring more death, even if they annihilated their foes. John had no desire to do anything like that just yet, when it would be better to have a living example of how the continent would retaliate to spread the word. If this method didn’t work, then future consequences would be more deadly. Not that too many people hadn’t died already, in John’s estimation.