Unhindered

Staring down Elder Rafiel across from him, Lucian sought the empty state he had been shaken from, and all unnecessary thoughts fled from his mind.

Standing, he formed two additional arms of blood to make four total, none armed as he opted use fist and foot to defeat the elder.

A domain of life and death exploded forth, invasively transforming life to death and absorbing both into himself.

Elder Rafiel's expression shifted as he began fighting the sapping domain with his cultivation, but Lucian closed in immediately, giving him little chance to adapt. A series of unarmed strikes were met almost perfectly by elder Rafiel who had only grown faster and stronger the longer he battled.

Heat buffeted Lucian's face and he felt his internals warming dangerously as he remained in close proximity to the elder. The battle continued as ash and embers flew around the battlefield, forming weapons and flaming bursts that struck at Lucian, shielded entirely by plate armor including a dense, faceless helmet.

Blinding bursts of light flared with every strike from the elder, his arms snapping forth like a striking viper, but as Lucian fought, his focus split to take in his surroundings and exploit the fractured earth, ashen weapons, and his own blood arts to their greatest. He endeavored to create as many variables as possible to take advantage of, all the while extending his focus far away from their battle, towards the clashing of armies.

Another 4th stage aura exploded forth from the Demian troops, and many lives among the Cinderheart sect vanished in an instant before another elder revealed himself to match Sir Hunt in direct combat.

Lucian ignored this though as his senses scoured the battlefield.

Rafiel conjured a blade of ash that swung at him, but he coated a gauntlet in black ice, forged of deathfog and caught the surprisingly hot blade, twisting it as another hand grasped Rafiel's grip and a knee rose sharply to break the elbow.

Even still, Lucian's other two hands engaged Rafiel, while his closed eyes flickered, focusing on those normal disciples.

'You.' He declared in his mind.

A spiritual pulse expanded from Lucian and sought out his target, tracking the core of his life and invading it like a parasitic fog, seeping through the night.

The disciple's eyes ran wholly black as he turned on his allies, cutting down disciples weaker than him wherever he went.

The battle with Rafiel continued and Lucian began to utilize deadly powerful kicks as he'd noticed Rafiel was less adept at dealing with them. After creating an opportunity, Lucian performed a spinning back kick, extending his shoulder out in the opposite direction of the kick to generate incredible power as he broke bones and sent the elder shooting backwards.

On the battlefield near the northern gate, his puppet died, but his blood exploded forth, collecting all that belonged to those he had slain, and forming a small river of crimson water suspended above the earth.

Lucian did not pursue Elder Rafiel who retreated to gain his breath and recover from broken ribs, instead taking a step back and raising his left hand. Twenty drops of blood left his palm, followed by 5 trueblood, as a crimson river shot over to him, floating in the air.

Those twenty drops expanded into a great amount of blood that joined the river and empowered it all as it came crashing towards the elder.

Fire erupted and steam exploded as Rafiel was shrouded. Lucian felt a chill as the ground beneath his feet shifted slightly. Looking down, he recognizes black ice creeping outwards along the ground.

With a wave of his hand, the steam was blown away to reveal a black, jagged ice sculpture of a man on fire.

Stepping calmly to the frozen elder, he saw thin cracks forming along the black ice, and extended the fingers on his right, gauntleted hand.

With a thrust, his hand pierced the ice sculpture, and the fleshy, half frozen body within.

Lucian's blank helmet stared Rafiel in the eyes as the life left him and an influx of power was absorbed into his gauntlet.

When he was done, Lucian turned to leave, the icy sculpture of a man on fire remaining where it stood, never to melt, and no longer cracking.

'Now then. I still have a job to do.'

Extending his lifesense, Lucian covered an area far wider than he could before forming his first anchor, and scoured the entire Cinderheart sect before frowning.

'He's not here?'

He couldn't find Takis anywhere, neither had the fourth elder revealed himself.

Looking to the sky, Lucian locked his senses on the life of a falcon flying high above, and sent one part of his spirituality, infused with his uniquely dominant lifeforce and a hint of deathfog, to creep into the body of the bird.

Immediately, he gained a new set of senses, existing at the same time as his usual set. He was both standing on frozen ground in the sect, and flying high above, spectating the fall of a power.

Gradually, he eroded the mind and will of the creature and took control of the bird's body, flapping its wings and soaring towards distant electric light on the ground, near the foot of a nearby mountain.

He flew closer every second, until he could make out clearer signs of a battle, and swooped low to ascertain the situation.

A 12 foot tall man with hard, bark-like skin and long pointed fingers waved his hands through the air as the ground trembled and lightning struck. A domain of shifting seasons brought autumn winds so sharp they split stone, a winter's chill so biting the surroundings frosted, and a summer heat so hot that Liza Papeli's own fire felt somehow inferior.

The tree-like man had a long mane of hair and flora that swept with the wind, petals and leafs swirling with an intoxicating scent.

Nearby trees shot their roots at the High Elder of the Cinderheart sect as she burnt them to ashes with her rampant flames, constantly retreating. The wooden man walked after her slowly, and the forest itself moved to make way for him as light omitted from his being.

Lucian was shocked and amazed! What on earth was that? Was it… Takis? It had his shifting seasons, and he'd seen the man wield lightning earlier, but… what art does he cultivate?

Another, smaller voice spoke in the back of his mind 'That's not it, you know what this is.'

The tall, thin man of wood glanced at the circling falcon in the sky, and an intoxicating scent reached the birds senses before Lucian lost his connection and the animal plummeted, dead long before it hit the ground.

Back in the Cinderheart sect, Lucian's eyes were wide and he took longer than he was used to to regain his calm.

'He took Papeli far away before revealing that. He doesn't want it known.'

Lucian had been given little to do as Takis' shadow in the past month, beyond literally shadowing him in his day to day life, but he took his duty seriously nevertheless, and decided to act as if he'd seen nothing, at least until the man himself was willing to mention it.

Turning to the crowds of fighting disciples, Lucian advanced slowly. His faceless armor was splattered with red and the five drops of trueblood he had used earlier floated behind him, absorbing back into his body. The twenty drops of normal blood had been lost in the final attack, but he had plenty of volunteers here to resupply whatever he'd lost.

He had many things to test, and had lacked live combat for months now. It was time to get to work.

His surroundings grew brighter as light cascaded from Lucian's body. He felt filled with warmth as he channeled this half of his power, and soon condensed it in his right hand.

The Cinderheart disciples panicked as they recognized his approach from behind them, and the 4th stage aura emanating from his right hand, where lifeforce condensed into light. This was not the pure, mighty sunlight that he absorbed. He could not replicate that. Instead, it was a pale white light, filled with power yes, but lacking what made the sun so unique.

With a wave of his hand, Lucian released that light in a wave that pulsed past the back row of Cinderheart disciples in an instant, vaporizing skin and scorching flesh as it left a row of dead men in its wake.

This, and the river of blood from earlier were results of his testing to gain ranged capabilities. The river was a result of training his ranged manipulation of blood, and this light was an emanation type attack, something he had no control of after it left his palm.

Immediately, he was swarmed with attacks, kicks, punches, lances of fire, and clouds of scorching ashes. Weapons with red hot edges cut through his armor, and shallowly wounded his body, but never did they cut truly deep.

A Cinderheart sword was redirected and pierced through the cheek of another disciple, while a lance of fire missed and scorched it's allies. One disciple had his arm broken, before being pulled around by it to block a powerful fist from his own ally, as if a shield of meat.

Chaos reigned in the all on one battle Lucian waged, and he made the most of every variable that presented itself to him. Four hands grasped, punched, chopped, and pierced through his foes as he weaved his way through them all, unhindered by their great numbers.

Where he struck, people broke. Where his blinding light passed, lives were purged, and where the black miasma of death crept, people withered and died, far faster than a simple theft of life could ever achieve.

Like a one man army he continued to fight, building a river of blood that followed in his wake, suspended in the air.

A fourth elder revealed himself and tried to impede him, but after Lucian blocked just one strike, Captain Stone and David had appeared to lock the man in a losing battle. David's cultivation was only of the 3rd stage, but he was infinitely close to the 4th, and with the aid of a veteran like Captain Stone, he could not lose that battle.

Lucian continued to roam the crowds, more than half a head taller than most with four clawed arms, dark armor dyed crimson, and a faceless helmet. The river of blood that followed him, devouring those who got too close only helped cement the image of a demon for those he fought, and soon, that produced results.

Just as he moved to tear the throat from one man, his foe dropped the sabre he held and rose his hands to the sky in surrender.

Lucian's claw stopped short, and the quivering man fell to the ground.

'Good, they finally began.'

The fingers that almost tore into the man flicked, and a drop of blood left the crimson river to stab through the man's core where it multiplied and began destroying his cultivation, and sustaining his life.

He had crippled the man's cultivation, but he'd ensured the disciple would not die from it, and moved on swiftly.

After the first, many more began to surrender when he approached, and he did the same to them all. It was easier to cripple daoists as they had a dantian, and the 3rd stages among them had cores within that could be sapped of energy or destroyed. For augmenters, he had to plant lasting seeds of blood that would constantly sap the victims lifeforce to prevent that person from exceeding the fundamental realm, a measure far from final, but the best he could do.

Most of the Cinderheart disciples had fallen to he and the cavalry by the time large fires erupted in the buildings of the sect.

'The treasury' Lucian clicked his tongue.

They were trying to burn anything their attackers could steal in victory.