The most naive way to view the fire element was that it only burned things. Such a surface level understanding would ruin cultivators who thought that was a sufficient explanation. The element of fire was an embodiment of temperature and in some ways power itself.
John prepared himself to face off against Steve. He wasn’t sure precisely what new tricks might imply, but at the very least his opponent would be stronger than last time they’d had the opportunity to spar. He was as well, of course. The match would come down to which of them managed to leverage their power most effectively.
Against lesser opponents, John expected Steve to open up with a powerful barrage of attacks. That didn’t mean he wasn’t capable of sustaining long battles, but why bother with one if you could be done early? That left fewer opportunities for somehow slipping up.
John could only ready himself for both a rapid brawl and an endurance battle. The two of them were familiar enough with each other that when including the safety measures of the local formations they could use the majority of their power.
As the battle began, John flung one of his throwing daggers in a wide arc. It wouldn’t be particularly powerful, but it was infused with water element. If Steve neglected his own defenses, he could find himself in serious trouble.
The dagger never arrived. Not because Steve melted it along the way or something of that sort. Instead, his opening move was to flood the area with flames. That shouldn’t have stopped John’s attack unless he focused on it, but the domain of fire Steve created around him disrupted John’s energy control instead of directly counteracting the spiritual energy itself. John found himself instinctively pulling back as if touching a hot stove, an instinct he later determined to have been exactly correct.
Quite often Steve was armed only with his spiritual energy- fire was one of the better elements for offense, and adding a blade into the mix wasn’t as much of a force multiplier as it might otherwise be. However, this time he carried a spear. Any change in style made John quite wary, and he took a defensive stance. He parried the first incoming attack with his blade.
Flames caught onto him and rushed inward- not burning around the outside of his spiritual energy but through his water elemental spiritual energy. John had to once more pull back, manipulating the ground in front of him as he retreated backwards. He could only delay Steve for a moment using those methods, but it gave him time to steady himself.
The next clash, John responded with mixed water and fire, forming a coating of ice around his own spiritual energy. That slightly held back the rush of heat, but he still found he couldn’t engage in a contest of power for more than a moment. His spiritual energy wasn’t being burned away bit by bit, but infiltrated and passed through. A single careless move and he could find his body under direct assault, which would pretty much be a death sentence even with his body tempering. Steve wouldn’t kill him, of course, but it would be John’s loss without even having much to show for it.
Freezing his spiritual energy didn’t work. John still had to discover how the new technique worked, so he threw various different elements at it. Even earth, though he wasn’t confident on overcoming a dominating element.
John was continuously pressed back, but he slowly learned that layering his spiritual energy with different elements was providing a better defense against the intrusion of energy. He determined the spear wasn’t there for any reason except to extend Steve’s reach- which was reason enough to have it. If just touching Steve’s energy caused him to be at risk, an extra meter could make all the difference. And the initial opening had shown he didn’t lose out where both cultivators were extending their energy further beyond the physical.
Soon enough John determined that he was better off creating effects that didn’t require his spiritual energy to maintain, so he wouldn’t come into conflict. Tilting a tile or roughing up some of the arena floor was good. He condensed a small amount of water out of the air- it was instantly vaporized into steam, so it wasn’t much good for slipping. It didn’t create a visible fog, but it was worth considering.
John tried to get a good cycle of elements going even as he was on the back foot, and he found he actually was countering Steve’s new technique better. If he used unusual combinations of elements rather than single elements, the fire element didn’t penetrate very well. That probably meant it was actively controlled by his opponent- not that it was surprising. If Steve could do that without consciously breaking through defenses, he might be unstoppable.
Just to test, John attempted to see if he could overcome Steve’s aura with a whirlwind. He found that his energy was almost instantly traced back towards him, the flames riding through the winds without issue. John cut off his connection, well aware of Steve’s primary concern.
His next attempt was to use fire to counter fire. Not usually optimal against a pure element cultivator when he was mixed, but he wasn’t actually going to use pure fire. His sword clashed with the incoming spear, energies mixing. Flames pushed towards him, but he left something behind on Steve’s weapon as well. His Ethereal Flames were nearly invisible… but John still wasn’t surprised when they were quashed in just a few moments. His friend already knew that trick.
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John was beginning to wear himself out, but the same was true of Steve. There weren’t any techniques so miraculous that they could overpower other techniques without some tradeoff. It was good at piercing defences just like Ursel’s Roots Cracking Boulders. Her technique didn’t take much energy all at once, but it took multiple applications. Steve’s took a significant amount of force and concentration.
It still seemed more efficient than simply battering his way through John’s defenses, though. And even if Steve was close to his limits, John knew better than to assume he’d get weaker. That was the best part of his friend. Steve held back for just a moment, taking a deep breath before spitting out blue flames. His entire body was bursting with fire element, now. If John could last for a couple more minutes he’d come out on top, but the match devolved into a more direct match of power.
Rather than trying to win, John tried to familiarize himself with the technique. He doubted he’d ever have to seriously fight Steve, but he might have to face a similar technique or support him in battle. If he knew how to disrupt it even a little, he could avoid doing so when they attacked a mutual foe.
Mixed elements were good. Constantly shifting was even better- but not in a pattern. John learned that the hard way as Steve nearly broke through his defenses. He stopped before the formations took over out of caution since it was an unusual form of attack. John knew he had been defeated, however. “I accept defeat, Lucanus.” Steve didn’t mind his other name being used, but in a formal location like the clan it was best to stick with his name from this world.
Steve grinned, then flopped onto his back, panting and spewing flames everywhere. “Most people fall far earlier. I should have known you would be the one to push me this far.”
John nodded. “Of course.” It seemed like Steve also understood his weaknesses- but he’d rarely ever have to fight someone using five and a quarter elements. Steve could reasonably anticipate about a dozen different combinations of one or two elements, and that would cover the vast majority of cultivators. John could manage several times as many combinations, and even if they weren’t all extremely effective if they could throw off Steve’s technique they were good enough.
In the coming days they would spar a few more times, but John already thought that Steve was ready to go up against someone like Abritt. With just a couple ranks between them, she might be seriously surprised. John suspected she would focus her efforts on countering people like Ursel- which might be only Ursel- but she might not be ready for how many people that could counter her. Hopefully they wouldn’t need it, but Steve would do well against most other cultivators too.
And if they happened to be especially resistant to his new technique? He could still just burn them to ash from outside in, as normal. It wasn’t like he was locked into only using his new method, after all.
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John had no new and startling revelations about fire, but he wasn’t surprised. He’d already spent the most time with Steve of any fire cultivators, and he’d long since solidified his fifth element. Otherwise he wouldn’t have truly stepped into the Ascending Soul Phase.
The next stop on the journey should hopefully be enlightening. John still had quite a distance to go before he could even think about reaching the Exalted Soul Phase, but much of his focus needed to be on light- and how it interfaced with his other elements. With light element only showing up in a few places, this was the last of three locations.
The star attraction for most of the expedition would be the Golden Tomb Guardians, of course. Ever since Cuah’arn made herself publicly known their options for training were far improved. Technically the founding need for their sect had passed, but Cuah’arn was not ungrateful for those who had spent so long caring for her when she was weak- even if they in turn benefitted from her presence, some cultivators might have taken undue advantage of the situation by attempting to take all the power of the spirit beast.
John was certain he could learn more about light from the Guardians, but he was looking forward to visiting the Summer Sun Sect first. They were closer to the border with the Green Sands and took advantage of both the fire and light elements in their region. John didn’t expect them to have insights into how to combine light and darkness, but combining light with another element was still a step ahead of most.
The Summer Sun Sect’s boundary was made clear by the sudden presence of constantly burning grass. No, it was more like the grass itself was fire. It was similar to some things John had seen in the Phoenix Forest, but quite different in practice. For one thing, the secondary element was light instead of earth. As they got closer they managed to see some of the mechanisms in practice.
When their shadows began to cross over the knee-high grass by the side of the road, it slowed its flames. As their group continued to cast a shadow, some of it burned out, turning into wilted stalks- however, only while the sunlight wasn’t shining on the grass.
In short, they absorbed the power of the sun and augmented it to become flames, or flamelike. Interesting, but a bit impractical. They outcompeted all other forms of plantlife, since they would burn away everything around them. Fortunately, the grass didn’t seem to be able to spread any further from the sect itself, and the other natural grasses weren’t so flammable that small embers would catch everything alight. The stalks of grass wouldn’t be much good at providing light at night, since John presumed the grass would be dormant.
Still absolutely worth studying, though. If John could augment his fire element sufficiently with light, it would be great. He didn’t need to use all of his elements directly. In the best case scenario, he would be using light element to fight darkness cultivators directly and rarely other times.
Soon enough they approached the sect itself. Even though Ascending Soul Phase cultivators had been produced throughout the continent, most sects still didn’t have one. That wasn’t a condemnation of their style- it simply took time. Those sects that had been a bit weaker before the recent surge in cultivation and especially new sects could hardly be expected to have reached the very best cultivation on the continent already. It also didn’t mean that their potential was any lower.
John had heard good things about Astrid, the Sect Head of the Summer Sun Sect. Like many others, even if she didn’t outrank him in cultivation he could still learn something of value from her.
