With the additional support from their allies, the Shadowed Union was not limited to merely defending their territory. They could strike out into the rest of the Muted Crags, not with the express purpose of rescuing their neighbors but to hinder the invaders before they could close in on friendly territory.
The Silver Haze Sect led the way, as they were most experienced with the terrain. John had participated in the assault on the Black Peaks, but that didn’t mean he would be more proficient than the natives. Furthermore, the circumstances were flipped- they were still on the move, but few traps had been prepared among the crags. Instead, that was their main task, whittling down enemy forces as efficiently as possible.
Core to their tactics was the Silver Haze Sect drawing upon the power of the Muted Crags to bewilder patrolling groups of enemies. Outside of their home territory with their permanent formations they couldn’t create a flawless navigational hazard, but they were still quite effective.
They hid atop the crags, concealing themselves and their energy as it flowed between marching squads of foes. Little by little, the outer edges peeled away- individual rows of troops, spiraling away from the others without anyone noticing until it was too late. That was the optimal situation, of course.
Sufficient vigilance would allow a squad to resist the assault, but that was fine as well. Being constantly on alert would wear them down, even when there weren’t any ambushers about. Even more so if they had to keep up barriers of defensive energy to make up for the shortfalls of their weaker members.
The sensory limiting effects of the Muted Crags themselves were a large factor in the effectiveness of the tactics. A small addition of darkness element would hardly be noticed, and not fully being able to see your neighbors out of the corner of your eyes became normal.
-----
Concealing the presence of elements aligned with darkness was trivial. The Order of the Amber Heart and the Succulent League were both earth element, and they along with the approximately half of the Six Elements Crossroads aligned with the darkness side of things were easily concealed. That included John who had a cycle of core elements. Even if he wasn’t still leaning towards darkness, he would have been able to keep a neutral presence that was easily covered up.
It was admittedly much more difficult to hide the Summer Sun Sect. Not impossible, but given that their light element directly clashed with the local darkness it took concerted effort. They also had fire element which stood out from the others, but it was their different elemental traits that made them valuable.
John watched as a tight cluster of soldiers was lured away from the rest of their company. Dense formations were one way that the Sovereign Primacy was attempting to counter the bewilderment attacks. If those behind watched those in front of them and those to the sides were nearly touching, it was more difficult to separate them without anyone noticing. It was still possible, with the Silver Haze Sect expertly finding seams of weakness, but the isolated groups were larger and thus less vulnerable to ambush.
In theory, at least. In practice, that depended on the particular squads set against them. The Summer Sun Sect, for example, was particularly effective at assaulting tight formations. Astrid led the assault, her squad spread in a half circle to the side of the wandering group.
It was difficult for even John to say what sort of spiritual energy she led with. Obviously it had to be a mix of fire and light element, but it felt very little like either. Either way, it created a softly glowing core that immediately drew the attention of the surrounding squad. It was inevitable, as the main source of sensation in the area.
Their reflexes told them to move away, and that was the right call. However, not all of them were fast enough to avoid the incoming barrage of attacks adding to Astrid’s, which rapidly expanded it into an explosive ball of fire and light. It was far from a replica of Firegrass, but it was a clear example of light empowering fire.
Three cultivators fell instantly from the explosion. If the squad wasn’t made up of fire cultivators they would have suffered far more than a trio of losses. About half of those that remained had dodged towards the attackers- that was the only direction that would bring them away from the explosion, after all. Others had pulled away, which split them up from their compatriots. In the heat of combat they wouldn't easily lose each other with spiritual energy flaring, but they were unable to immediately provide defensive support.
The Summer Sun Sect engaged in melee combat with part of the squad, while the rest found themselves having jumped into an additional trap on the other side of their path. That was where Anna waited with members of the Succulent league, having created projections of cacti- in short, spikes that their foes crashed into. Even though fire cultivators were advantaged against earth cultivators, circumstances could balance that out. It simply meant fewer of them fell in the initial moments.
John and the few with him charged towards the ‘front’ of the approaching squad, which was now effectively the sides. John himself cut people down swiftly. While he absolutely wanted everyone to gain proper battle experience, it was also a real battlefield. Humans were dangerous, and could easily kill those above their rank if pressured.
The rear of the squad was left open, not because they lacked sufficient forces to surround the wanderers but to leave room for them to flee. And flee they did, pressured on three sides and quickly losing people.
Rather than giving chase, they let them flee. The downside was that the enemy would become more aware of their particular ambush tactics, but that would be the case even if one or two slipped out. The upside was that their own casualties were minimal. This time, it was just injuries. A few of the weaker cultivators would likely be sidelined for a few weeks, but that was acceptable for a short battle.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
The important part was to wear down the enemy, causing more casualties than they sustained. They weren’t defending an important location that they had to hold no matter what- not yet, though the Sovereign Primacy was slowly pushing into Shadowed Union territory.
The total forces they had were significant, and it seemed like they were constantly getting reinforced. In turn, the continental forces were taking their invasion very seriously, sending continuous support to their allies.
The war had continued for half a year already, which made it the longest conflict in recent history. The Molten Sea invasion had lasted longer as they secured their path to the Shimmering Islands and the leviathan, and had also come with many scattered casualties given that the various sects were unorganized- falling individually instead of standing together.
The Sovereign Primacy had no clear goal such as the Leviathan, so if they had any intentions other than to conquer part of the continent it hadn’t yet been revealed. But what they had shown was bad enough. They weren’t particularly worse than typical cultivators, but that would be of little comfort to the conquered sects.
No doubt the rest of the Black Peaks had thought they were capable of standing against any potential foes together, but they had been sorely mistaken. Or perhaps they hadn’t even properly organized against the invaders, instead only loosely ascribing to the rule of what remained of the Black Peaks.
If they now regretted their decision to reject the diplomacy of the continental alliance, it was too late. They had already lost most of what they could lose. Their cultivators were dead or had to flee, their sects pillaged or occupied. At least the normal citizens were left relatively unharmed, according to the reports- though occupying cultivators could be even more callous with regards to the lives of the common folk than cultivators who lived in a land long term.
-----
Renato and Ursel, along with a team of Silver Haze Sect cultivators and more of the Order of the Amber Heart, were slowly making their way along the northern coast towards one of the larger ports. Their goal was sabotage, to destroy some of the docks. That wouldn’t suddenly cripple their enemies, but it would be a significant inconvenience. Rebuilding or replacing the docks would take effort- doing it quickly would require cultivators to do the work themselves, drawing them away from the activities of war.
“You know, this would be easier if it was like Dolomite Harbor,” Ursel commented. “We could just topple the entire cliff down on them.”
The crags began close to the coast and continued throughout the area, but they didn’t rise completely vertically. Towards the Silver Haze Sect they were a bit more immediate, but further east there were areas that were actually reasonable to build a port.
“There might be a better way,” Renato commented. “How long can you hold your breath?”
Ursel tilted her head. “Something like… five minutes?”
“That’s surprisingly tame. Did you not temper your lungs?”
“Of course I did. So are we going to dump a bunch of poison on the city and run through it?”
“Of course not. We don’t even have poison.”
Ursel shrugged. “I don’t know what you have in your bags.”
Renato sighed. “Regardless… we’ll walk along the bottom and dig out the supports for the main docks. Do you think you can make it that far? If you need to refresh your lungs or draw in some air, we’ll risk discovery.”
“Oh, yeah. I can do that. If we’re just walking underwater I can probably do it for an hour. I assumed you meant while fighting.”
“Of course you did.” Renato turned to the Silver Haze Sect representative. “You will be able to keep us concealed?”
The elder nodded. “It is not within the Crags, but as long as we are not walking directly among our foes our techniques will be sufficient.”
“Excellent. We just need to be prepared to face off against their water cultivators.”
“Should we sink their ships?” Ursel asked. “I mean, obviously the water cultivators can swim and fight in the water, but it would be good for the future right?”
“If we can, absolutely. But they aren’t the first priority. The Sovereign Primacy has large fleets. The docks will likely distract them longer with their replacements.”
“People will still be able to come to shore on little boats.”
“It’s very inconvenient for shipping goods, though,” Renato pointed out. “Like battle rations. They aren’t fully able to take what they need from the local areas, or at least it would take them more effort.”
“How about you dig out the docks and I take down the ships?” Ursel suggested.
Renato pondered for a few moments. “How much damage can you cause alone without drawing attention? You can’t give our positions away until the docks start collapsing.” It was a serious question, because he knew his disciple was very capable.
“That depends on how close together they put their ships,” Ursel commented. “I can probably ruin a handful of the biggest ones while you guys collapse the docks.”
“Fine. I’ll trust your judgment on this. Once we have the rest of our strategy in place, we can approach.” He turned to the elder. “Will you be able to do more than conceal us?”
“Once the fighting breaks out we can enhance confusion to cover our retreat. But our strength doesn’t lie in damaging infrastructure or ships.”
“That’s perfectly acceptable,” Renato acknowledged. “We all have our particular strengths. You’d be able to see that taken to an extreme if this port had actually been built by proper cliffs.”
With that, they withdrew from their position overlooking the port city, navigating down to the sea while remaining out of sight. They would be marching along the ocean floor, relying on the Silver Haze Sect to minimize their presence.
