Chapter 838

Chapter 838

Forces began to move towards the forest, the army creating a perimeter with the intention to prevent anyone from fleeing. Then the core of the army gathered into columns, ready to march inwards.

It would be nearly impossible for those within to miss the approaching mass of cultivators, but their concrete information would be limited. They seemed to have some belief they could withstand an attack because they had stayed, but Velvet had seen the numbers filling their camp. Even with the Limitless Edge, they shouldnt be able to withstand the Spirit Slicing Sect and several other local sects.

Velvet wasnt so sure about the Mustelid Menagerie. Shed seen beast tamers before but usually they went for large and powerful creatures instead of these creatures. They were supposed to be rather fierce, but they were sized from smaller than a housecat to some stocky ones barely the size of a small wolf. Fuzz might be able to eat them all in a single mouthful- the entire army they brought along. Then again, that was something they had going for them. Each tamer had at least a half dozen creatures, and they felt strong enough. Maybe the equivalent of Essence Collection, though some were stronger.

Then there were the Prospect Shapers. They were said to manipulate probability. Regardless of how it actually worked they would enhance their allies and hinder their enemies across a battlefield. And of course, they could fight for themselves.

At the head of the Spirit Slicing Sect were Emrik and Runa, for both morale and practical purposes. As they strode ahead into the forest, Velvet watched them approach some of the spying trees. A green mist seeped out of the trees as they got close, spreading out to a radius of five meters. Instead of going through it to assault the trees they simply circled around them, their void blades slicing at something Velvet would normally have called empty air.

But there was something there. A thin connection between both the trees and the cultivators further in. The trees shuddered as the connection was severed, shedding their leaves all at once. The foul mist faded away as it was no longer sustained by the plants.

Velvet wondered what the results of straightforwardly attacking the trees would have been. Certainly, it had to be possible- but it would also take some amount of energy to destroy them. They didnt look like much, but being connected to cultivators they had to be tougher than they seemed. The connections, however, were severed almost without a thought. Obviously there was a bit more than waving around a void blade, but it seemed quite effective.

As they moved further into the forest, the trees began to react even before they approached. A half dozen of them somehow spread that noxious poison between them, creating a larger screen that forced the cultivators around them. Rather than being discouraged, however, Runa and Emrik split up and began to work faster. It seemed they were trying to make their possible path harder to predict.

The swiftness with which they worked meant those following behind hardly had to slow down, marching towards the enemy camp with purpose. They werent moving at combat speeds, of course, which meant that if the cultivators chose to flee they would be quite delayed. But that was why they had people watching.

Velvet was also fairly certain she would be able to sense if a mass of cultivators ran away with speed. That would be a significant exercise of upper energy, likely even more obvious than their army. And if the split off individually, they might still be noticed and would be more vulnerable to the encircling cultivators.

The Forest of Death clearly wasnt willing to just lay down and accept their connections being severed. Among other things, they somehow rerouted their connections through the ground, throwing off Runa and Emrik for a moment. Once they found the connection, however, they swept aside a meter or two of dirt and sliced through them. That slightly slowed them down until the Mustelid Menagerie came forward with a handful of badgers that were able to dig up large sections of ground with seemingly the same effort as Integration cultivators- but saving those two the repeated expenditures of energy.

The battle, though it had initially gone in their favor, was still closer than Velvet would like. People on both sides were falling, and though it took a lot more than she would expect to bring down the feral cultivators they did drop eventually.

Velvet picked up her pace, though she didnt always go for the most likely target. People were beginning to notice people dying with no apparent attacker, and they were scanning for her- though with so many allies, they couldnt even begin to attempt the wild tactics they had done to catch her before. Not without leaving every single one of them open to being taken out by others, and even then theyd probably barely touch her.

She attacked one individual, moved halfway across the battlefield to take out a Limitless Edge sect member, and then dodged behind some of the Forest of Death members.

Meanwhile, the Prospect Shapers were shielding the group from the poisonous mist released by the trees- until the Spirit Slicing Sect could sever each connection. They were over halfway through that project, making the Forest of Death weaker and weaker. Just as the trees responded to the connection being cut, the cultivators twinged in singles or small groups as each tree was removed from their network.

By the time they realized they should run, it was too late. It wasnt just the swarm of beasts that was pouring over them, but also the fact that they couldnt possibly flee quickly enough. The parasitic trees might slow down the armies pursuing them, but then again it might not.

More than that, Velvet was confident enough to try something big. As they turned to run, she gladly hung back, gathering some of her energy. While the One Hundred Stars was only particularly suited to visual illusions because of the aspect of light, that didnt mean she couldnt do others and she had many times in the past. Here, she provided a single one to all of the enemy cultivators. No, it was even more than that. She linked their perceptions in the most unhelpful way.

What she projected was nothing. No sound, light, or feeling. Unlike some illusions, it wasnt meant to fool them but to stymie their senses. They could still feel the positions of their bodies and keep their balance- Velvet wasnt confident in distorting all of that at once- and their energy senses would likely still benefit them, but that was where the last component came in. A linking of their senses, so that everything they could feel would be duplicated to each and every one of them. In theory.

In practice, Velvet didnt have an opportunity to tell them what they felt. Instead, her energy forced a few moments of confusion upon all of them, during which over half of them were cut down or bitten to death. It was only a few seconds, given that she had to push the illusion through their energy, but Velvet was still satisfied affecting so many at once in a non-trivial manner. She likely couldnt have done it at the beginning of the battle, however. They would have resisted better when they were in optimal states. Even so, she put the idea away for later. If she grew a bit stronger, then it might be viable.

For now, she went back to cutting them down in secret- though there werent any who would have been able to stop her regardless.

It was unfortunate that the Limitless Edge would know about her, though. She wasnt certain about the details of what they shared, but someone should know. Hopefully, they would decide it wasnt worth coming back instead of their sect head hunting her down. Because Augmentation or not, Velvet didnt want to face someone who had beaten Chikere in a one-on-one sword match.

Leaving them wouldnt have helped, though. Indeed, they needed to take as much advantage of Velvets advancement and the information she could gather as they could in the near future. And as long as she wasnt going into a battle alone, Velvet felt quite confident about keeping herself safe.