Unintended Cultivator

It turned out that Glimmer of Night could not teach them how to do it. It wasn’t for a lack of trying, either. The spider had very patiently described his exact process for doing whatever it was he had done to the cores. It just hadn’t taken Sen very long to figure out that Glimmer of Night was operating from an entirely different understanding of qi that used webs and various kinds of interconnection as the baseline. Given enough time and context, it was probably a decipherable method. They just didn’t have that kind of time. So, Sen had turned to experimentation to see if they could still make use of the spider’s ability. While the modified cores were unstable, they weren’t irreparably unstable. He had Glimmer of Night do his thing to a core and just set it on the ground. Then, the cultivator, the spider, and the fox had watched the core from a distance. When nothing happened, they traded glances.

“Alright,” said Sen. “I guess it’s my turn.”

He walked over to the core and gingerly picked it up. He held his breath for a moment as he waited for it to engulf him in some kind of qi explosion. Sen glanced at the others. Misty Peak tried to give him an encouraging look that mostly failed. Glimmer of Night was staring at the core like he was almost disappointed that it hadn’t done something terrible to Sen. Shaking his head, Sen moved on to his second experiment. He tried to put the core into a storage ring. As soon as the ring started to act on the core, he felt it. Sen threw the core up in the air and covered himself in a dome of hardened air. A massive torrent of water crashed down on him and flooded the nearby streets. When the water finally cleared away, he walked back over to Glimmer of Night and Misty Peak as they exited the building they had been hiding in. Sen just handed the spider another core.

“Maybe try doing what you do a little less this time,” said Sen.

As much as Sen wanted to get out of the ruins, he couldn’t view the hours they spent experimenting on those cores as a wasted time. It took a lot of trial and error, but Glimmer of Night eventually figured out how much he could, for lack of Sen coming up with a better word, crack the core and still let them go into a storage ring. A casual toss wouldn’t set them off anymore, but a throw from cultivation-enhanced arms was still good enough. Sen didn’t imagine that they would be enough to turn the horde back, but they should make a very effective distraction. Particularly if the horde was still behaving like a disorganized horde.

It was something that Sen had to keep reminding himself about. He didn’t need to beat the horde, just elude them. Given how little attention the devilish beasts and spirits had paid to anything happening in the nearby forest, he figured it was a safe assumption that most of the horde wouldn’t chase them into the woods. As for the ones that did chase them, Sen felt a lot more confident about handling one or two dozen out in the trees. It was an environment that would likely favor him more than it favored them. He just needed to get them all there alive. First, though, everyone needed a rest.

Sen wasn’t sure how much it cost the spider to modify the cores, but it certainly didn’t look easy. Plus, Glimmer of Night had been at it for hours during the testing and prepping cores for their initial exit. Sen was probably fine to go, but an hour or two of sleep should serve them all well. If nothing else, it would give their minds a break. Sen didn’t even get the token resistance he’d expected from Misty Peak. Not that he thought she was in a hurry to leave but simply because she seemed to enjoy being contrary. She must have read the thought on his face because she rolled her eyes at him.

“I don’t disagree with everything,” she said.

Sen lifted both hands to her. “I didn’t say a word.”

“Oh, you said plenty.”

Sen put a lot of extra effort into keeping his expression perfectly neutral, but Glimmer of Night came to the rescue again.

“No, he didn’t say anything. I was listening.”

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Sen had to resist an urge to give the spider a hug. Misty Peak turned a glare on Glimmer of Night that was, as near as Sen could tell, completely lost on the spider. Worried that he might start laughing if he kept watching, Sen picked a building and went inside. He threw a blanket and pillow on the floor and stretched out. The other two came in shortly after. Realizing that the spider would have nothing even remotely like bedding or anywhere to store them if he did, Sen got back up. He took a minute to transfer everything out of a storage ring, and then store some essentials in the ring. That, in turn, led to a much longer conversation than Sen wanted about the ring itself and how it worked. The spider seemed fascinated by the ring, taking things out of it and putting them back in over and over. Sen reminded himself repeatedly that he was once in awe of the rings himself. With that problem settled, he returned to his blanket.

While thoughts of the fight to come threatened to drag him into a spiral of what-if thinking, Sen fell back on meditation techniques to clear his mind. It was simplicity itself to fall asleep after that. He was deeply surprised to discover when he woke up that he hadn’t had any dreams that he could recall. He’d almost expected to have a nightmare about the horde killing them all. He looked at the others. The spider seemed to be sleeping peacefully, but there was a troubled expression on Misty Peak’s face and she twitched occasionally despite being asleep. I guess she got the bad dreams this time, thought Sen. He stored his blanket and pillow back in the ring and settled in to prepare himself mentally.

It was unusual that Sen had more than a moment or two to really think about what he might do in a fight. It was usually just a quick buildup and then a descent into violence. In this case, though, he discovered that there wasn’t a lot of ambiguity. There was nothing in that horde that deserved to live another day as far as Sen was concerned. That bit of clarity put things on the table for him that he might otherwise think twice about. Heavens’ Shadow and Heavens’ Rebuke were obviously on the table, although he had to wonder if there was something in the horde that could counter them. It seemed unlikely given that he’d never met anything else that could, but it was never wise to assume. Of course, there was one other thing he could do or at least try to do.

He’d done it when he was fighting the dragon, and again when Falling Leaf was fighting against that beast tide. He’d resisted any urge to do it again or even try to practice it. It wasn’t refined or controlled enough to call a technique. He wasn’t sure what to call it. He could replicate it, though. The fact that the dragon had withstood it gave him a little pause but what else could he expect from a dragon that old? It would have been more shocking if it hadn’t shrugged it off. What he could remember about what it had done to that beast tide and everything else in its path was the real reason he’d held back from doing it again. The utter devastation of it had been too much. Until now. Now, he faced foes that deserved that level of devastation, that kind of annihilation. He could only hope that it would destroy their souls if it came down to it. Still, it was a last resort. The first resort was simply to get away, but Sen took a certain comfort in the knowledge that nothing was off the table in this fight.

When the others woke up, they found Sen standing in the doorway to the outside. The spider cocked his head to one side like he was trying to figure something out. It was Misty Peak who looked at Sen with alarm written on her face after she got a look at his expression.

“What happened?”

Sen lifted a shoulder in response. “Pack up. It’s time to leave this place.”

There was a total lack of talking as Sen led them to the barrier. He frowned out at the blurry mess, wishing he had a better idea of what was waiting for them. He supposed it didn’t matter. They were going out there one way or the other. He drew his jian and prepared Heavens’ Shadow like he had the last time with one minor alteration. He hadn’t gone far enough last time. He’d infused the technique with fear. This time, he infused it with unadulterated terror. The cold terror of being without shelter before the storm. The hot terror of facing down things you know can kill you. The existential terror that comes with the certainty that a predator has come and is hunting you. Sen didn’t want those things afraid. He didn’t want them panicky. He wanted them to feel like they needed to flee before the arrival of certain death. In his other hand, he summoned one of the unstable cores. He looked at Misty Peak and Glimmer of Night.

“Whatever you do, stay behind me. If it looks like we won’t be able to carve a path, I’m going to do something that you do not want to get caught in,” said Sen before he focused on the fox woman. “Do you have a way to contact your grandfather? A way to send him a message?”

Misty Peak’s brow furrowed as she thought it over. “I think so. What message should I send?”

Sen turned back to the barrier, drawing his focus ever tighter. “Tell him to take cover.”

Then, Sen stepped through the barrier.

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