Elder Cultivator

Anton faced off against Chidi at a distance of a hundred meters apart, on a spatial platform made precisely for high tier duels. The distance was chosen as a compromise to actually getting some sort of benefit from their sparring and of course the limitations of physical arenas. Obviously Anton could be a full system away and continually pepper Chidi with attacks, but that wouldn't be interesting. It still seemed appropriate that he should have to close some distance to reach Anton.

Chidi felt weak. Anton knew he was anything but weak, yet it still felt like it. That was something he had to be aware of, as the lack of threat that he naturally felt could easily cause him to act carelessly.

The instant the signal indicated the match to begin, Anton formed a dozen bows of energy and began to rain arrows down upon Chidi. He was more than certain that his opponent could handle as many arrows as he could shoot with just his primary bow, but he figured that he might force something from his opponent this way.

He did. Instantly, the entire ten meter area around Chidi suddenly became empty. Not of space or matter, for which Anton was quite grateful, but simply of all energy, or at least any sense of it. Anton felt his arrows simply erase as they entered the area, all at precisely the same distance around him- and Anton had attacked from all sides except for below out of respect for the local infrastructure.

Anton wondered if that distance was Chidi’s limit, or if he was even limited to a spherical area. He would be willing to bet no for both. Chidi had immediately begun to dash forward, but with his negation abilities active he moved at a nearly trivial pace. Until he suddenly dropped negation, covering fifty meters in a fraction of a second with a surge of energy.

Anton leapt to the side, while at the same time firing more arrows. This time, he focused on different types. He retained his standard Spirit Arrows, but added to the mix those imbued with elements of fire and light. Just for fun he mixed in a few ice arrows as well- it was far from his specialty element so it was likely ten times as costly for half the effect, but it was worth experimenting with.

What Anton learned was that Chidi… didn’t care. All of the arrows simply disappeared around him, regardless of type. Anton had been led to believe that Chidi was actively canceling the energy fluctuations in the area around him, though that was information from when he first achieved Negation as an augmentation equivalent.

Even if he didn’t require active effort, activating Negation was a weakness in itself. Anton took a single ‘step’ while his arrows were being turned into nothing, making use of his distance to use his full speed. He was easily a hundred meters away once more, and he could have been a thousand or more if he were not acting within particular limitations.

That was where Chidi finally had to reveal something more, and Anton nearly lost his head for it. Or more likely he would have received a deep cut that would stop short of decapitation, based on how his master acted during spars.

Anton was forming new bows around him as Chidi instantly changed directions of his sprint. The process only took a fraction of a second, so he would be able to rain down more arrows and repeat. Anton could have even used the previous energy bows, since they were hardly a significant distance away, but he’d dissolved them back into usable energy instead.

He saw Chidi extend his sword, but it was as if it was in slow motion. Anton’s senses were still heightened by his own energy, while Chidi acted purely with his body. There were so many orders of magnitude of difference between their speeds he was effectively immobile.

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And then suddenly Chidi was faster, but Anton lost all sense of him except for sight… and the very slightly delayed sound of his feet. Anton attempted to fire his weapons, but found that they didn’t exist. None of the energy previously around him did, or at least not in any meaningful way.

Anton turned to run, but at over fifty meters away Chidi slashed out. Without even extending his reach with energy, just his sword intent was enough to fill Anton with a sense of danger. He ducked and rolled, during which time his pursuer actually managed to close the rest of the gap.

Had the materials in Anton’s bow been anything less than worldheart, he doubted that he could have parried the incoming sword swipe. Acting on what was presumably a level playing field, Anton felt almost entirely helpless. He could try to kick Chidi, but he didn’t like the idea of his leg getting punctured or severed. He hadn’t even noticed the Negation expanding to cover him- if that was even a concept that mattered for it.

Anton couldn’t even feel his stars, though he was certain the connection was still there. It was simply that the flow of information and energy didn’t exist. A few moves later, and Anton had a sword pressed against his heart.

“You’re much nicer than your master,” Anton said. “She would have run me through. In an entirely safe but painful manner.”

Chidi stepped back, and Anton felt everything return. “I don’t have the luxury while doing that.”

Anton pondered for a moment, wondering if Chidi somehow lost control. Then he remembered. During negation, they both had to rely on their physical senses- and Chidi was blind. Or even, he had no eyes to begin with. Judging distance between himself and his opponent with sound and other means with great accuracy was likely within his capabilities, but determining the minute differences in position between various organs and important muscle groups when stabbing through the chest was probably a bit much to do without energy senses.

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The first round was obviously Chidi’s victory, and Anton hadn’t really underestimated him. He’d been serious, trying to keep his distance, but clearly that wasn’t enough. The second round, he kept moving. His feet never stopped as he made instantaneous changes in direction. If Chidi could fully encompass the area between them without warning there was nothing he could do, but Anton expected that to extend beyond a particular distance- not necessarily that ten meters- would take more time and likely a narrowing of effect.

As he ran, Anton left trails of energy bows behind him. He also began pulling things out of his storage bag, because during negation he had no access to it. He hooked onto his belt some hatchets which would likely be useless against Chidi but he’d prefer to have a proper melee weapon. He also withdrew some actual, physical arrows. Most of them were things that negated energy, but he kept a few around for novelties- and others he had prepared for this spar. He would just normally draw things directly from his storage bag, because that kept his enemies guessing. That just didn’t work if his supernatural access was cut off.

The trailing bows continuously fired at Chidi, who mostly ignored negation and instead cut his way through, slicing open a path to forge ahead. Only when he was completely surrounded with no way to dodge would he erase everything around him. The transition was so smooth that Anton truly couldn’t tell if it took any time at all. The same was true of his Spirit Arrows, which didn’t split into free energy but were effectively just gone while within the area- though they did return to unbound energy spread throughout the area when Chidi left.

Anton thought he could do something with that, but it would require an excessive amount of energy. It would be worth experimenting with for Chidi’s sake, in case he wasn’t aware of the potential threats.

So far, he hadn’t been caught again- but he had to keep his movement pattern from becoming predictable. As for his offense, he had an idea how he might actually do something.

Suddenly, Anton shot an arrow formed of Ascension energy. He knew Chidi could negate that, and indeed he would be more attuned to it than natural energy- but he followed with another arrow of natural energy that approached from a different angle with the same timing.

It worked, in that it forced Chidi to react differently. Even Chidi didn’t seem to quite know how it was going to happen as he swung his sword before activating negation. Anton’s natural energy arrow was completely eradicated, but the other arrow continued on with little hindrance. Chidi split it in two, but Anton maintained control turning both halves back around until Chidi severed the actual connection- which was also made out of the same sort of energy, or it wouldn’t have continued to exist.

Having succeeded at his experiment, Anton immediately added spectral energy to his attacks- including all of his energy bows. He made certain that the controlling connection would also be of the same energy, even if it was more expensive.

Spectral energy was not the same as imbuing natural energy with fire or light, or even some vaguely deathly elements- it was something more. Yet even without having prior experience, Chidi immediately reacted. All of the spectral energy was negated, leaving only a few natural energy arrows to be individually cut apart. ꭆ

Anton had a plan. And he was ready to enact it… on the third round. Somewhere in the process of cutting one of his arrows out of existence, Chidi had also cut through space and appeared behind Anton. “I didn’t know you could do that,” Anton admitted.

“Chikere could,” Chidi pointed out.

“Yes, but she also used her blood as swords. And I don’t believe you do that.”

“Doesn’t mean I can’t,” Chidi shrugged.

A fair enough point. Though Anton was certain that Chidi would be quite limited in that regard. It required its own path to make any sense, and if he made use of Negation he would lose his connection to every mote of blood. But it was good to know he could perform high tier sword abilities such as severing space with lower tier energy. Not that Anton ever expected to have Chidi as an actual enemy. Otherwise, the battle would have been recorded instead of specifically not having that be the case. Plus, Chidi’s presence alone was something like an alliance secret.

Anton no longer felt that any distance was safe, and any patterns in his movements were quickly discovered. But he could mix his attacks between spectral energy, natural energy, and ascension energy. Two of those were specialized sorts that he had limited quantities of, but Chidi couldn’t negate more than one type at a time.

Until he managed two of them. And surprisingly, Anton found that it was natural energy and spectral energy together instead of the more normal pairing. He’d been trying to land a single hit, but he simply couldn’t keep up the pace, especially not with Chidi expanding his negation to include any energy bows Anton formed. Even if each group took only a fraction of a second to form, suddenly having them be lost along with a portion of his attacks put great dents in Anton’s plans.

Mundane arrows weren’t any better. Chidi cut down groups of them in a single swing, while at the same time slicing through the arrows of Ascension energy individually. Anton was growing low on his special resources- which included his store of mundane arrows.

His energy stopped around him as Negation expanded to cover him, but Anton called upon Fleeting Youth to form arrows of Ascension energy as Chidi moved directly towards him. Anton couldn’t run fast enough to leave the area, so that was his only choice. Arrows flew out, but they circled around Chidi instead of getting within his reach. Anton timed them to reach Chidi slightly before Chidi would reach him. If he felt any access to the other two forms of energy, he’d immediately call upon them.

The arrows were meant to disintegrate peacefully upon touching Chidi, obviously. He had no reason to actually cause any harm. Chidi swung his blade to cut off Anton’s connection to his arrows, but some of the trails were beyond his reach.

Yet, no arrows hit Chidi. Instead, Anton felt his connection wobble and then his arrows slowly began to fall apart. It wasn’t as instantaneous, but the effect was the same. And now Anton had access to no type of energy at all. Chidi’s blade was coming for his gut, which Anton parried. He reached for one of his hatchets, despite knowing he’d never land a blow on the swordmaster.

Then Chidi collapsed, his energy exhausted. The complications of negating the flow of distinct and separate bases for energy combined with his low quantities of actual internal energy must have been too much. Though Anton had already died twice, so it wasn’t particularly much of a victory. Nor did he think winning a battle starting a lightyear distant would be much of an accomplishment.