Elder Cultivator

Elder Kseniya’s demonstrations were not regularly scheduled. The second one after Anton heard of her was another three weeks after the first, though it wasn’t scheduled until three days in advance and Anton only heard about it by coincidence. Anton arrived a bit early, since Elder Kseniya didn’t seem the sort to delay upon arriving. It wasn’t exactly a short demonstration the first time, but he had the feeling that watching the whole thing would give him the best insights.

The training field the demonstration was in did have actual targets, and Anton found a young man at the seventh star training there. It was not surprising to find him forming a spirit arrow, firing one after the next into a target… though with deliberate speed rather than haste. Anton watched, feeling the young man’s energy as he shot. Obviously he wasn’t much compared to Elder Kseniya, but Anton wouldn’t expect that. His arrows were accurate enough, but they didn’t puncture very deep into the targets. At least, not as much as they should have with energy involved. Anton approached closer, “Young man… interested in advice from an old man a full two stars weaker than you?”

The young man shrugged, “Why not? I’ll hear it at least.”

Anton nodded. He had gotten in the habit of bringing his bow with him, since most disciples carried a weapon with them around the Order, and he quickly strung it. Theoretically, even black steel strings had to wear out eventually if it was left strung. Anton held up his fingers, creating a spirit arrow where the young man could see. “I didn’t see any particular flaws in your creation, but your power seemed to suffer. That bow seems decent enough…” Anton turned to the side and pulled back the arrow, sending it flying towards the target. His energy catapulted it forward through the target. Good, at least he had something to demonstrate that he knew what he was talking about. “The problem is that you’re trying too hard to hit accurately.”

The young man squinted, “But if I don’t hit… I can’t kill anything.”

“I’m not saying you shouldn’t be accurate. I’m just saying you shouldn’t put so much effort into it. You’re stabilizing the arrow with your energy.” Anton held up another spirit arrow, “That’s what the fletching is for. If it didn’t have a purpose, we’d merely form something like needles,” Anton let the fletching fade away. “But the fletching lets it stay aligned on its own. That energy is best used to propel the whole thing forward. Don’t worry if it spins, that’s fine as well.”

The young man nodded. “I see.” Anton stepped away from the target, letting him have a straight shot. He frowned in concentration, forming an arrow and releasing it. The arrow arrived off target, but Anton knew he just needed to get used to how it behaved. Either way, it punctured most of the way through. It wasn’t so inaccurate as to be a problem on any decently sized opponent, just a couple rings from the bullseye. The young man seemed to be focused on the task, so Anton just watched as he continued. Soon enough the others arrived- several new faces, and a half dozen repeats. Anton noticed the returning disciples were all higher stars than himself, but why would they not be? He was still quite new to cultivation.

Elder Kseniya’s arrival was obvious, from her energy but nothing else. She wasn’t hiding it, so the fact that she made no sound and had little visual presence as she arrived didn’t make a difference. Anyone would notice if they were suddenly next to a raging fire.

Everyone cleared out of the area as she approached, standing over to the side and watching. Anton decided not to try to focus on the little details this time, something he couldn’t even really make out as she fired arrows almost without him seeing her move… and then she herself changed locations. If he couldn’t pick out fine details, he needed to follow the flow. Was it just a demonstration of how fast she could move and shoot, or was there something more?

The first arrow flew out, disappearing as it reached a point somewhere in front of her. At that point, Elder Kseniya had moved a quarter circle around the general area. Her second arrow fired at another spot entirely. As far as Anton could tell, she never aimed at the same point- though her arrows might pass through a similar target sized area, they never stopped in the same area as a previous one.

Anton noticed something else. She wasn’t just running around and shooting. Her movements weren’t so straightforward. She had great speed, but she didn’t move straight from point to point. She changed direction unpredictably, tilting her body as she moved and occasionally pulling back steps. It was as if… she was avoiding enemy attacks. Anton’s brain was overloaded with information… but if he presumed she was shooting and ‘hitting’ an imaginary foe, it would explain why they didn’t remain in place. His suspicions were confirmed when she ducked ‘under’ an attack, and instead of firing her bow stabbed out with her hand… a spirit arrow existing for only the briefest of moments. Anton couldn’t say he followed all of her movements, but at least he understood what was happening. It could have just been his imagination… but he thought that sometimes she missed. That is to say, the arrows had a point of maximum power. Usually, they disappeared- indicating a hit- very close to the peak of their power. Sometimes, they continued onward… fading out of existence rather than being directly dispersed. But perhaps that was just Anton reading into things too much. By the time the demonstration was over, Anton was exhausted… both his brain and his reserves of energy just to keep track of anything that was happening.

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Anton couldn’t say he found Elder Kseniya’s demonstration to be a good lesson… but he still learned some things about what she considered important. Constant movement made sense. He needed to be able to hit an opponent while both of them were moving. Predicting the opponent’s movements was theoretically part of that, though Anton hadn’t been able to track the ‘movements’ of her opponent to know that was the case.

Trying to replicate a similar situation himself stretched the limits of his capabilities, not least of which was his body complaining to him for pushing it so hard. However, he didn’t feel as if he was hurting himself. Tempering his body with energy was allowing him to grow stronger, and though it might be painful in the short term, he found his overall bodily health increasing. Even if his joints burned after every practice session, and his bones creaked.

One major issue Anton ran into was imagining an opponent. He hadn’t exactly been in many fights. Hunting animals… usually was done from stealth. If a boar was charging at him, he didn’t use a complex series of movements. He shot it, and tried to figure out how to put a tree between them. For a combat on the level of cultivators, he really didn’t know what to expect. The only images he had in his mind were Elder Kseniya and her invisible opponent. When he tried to imagine fighting them… he died. Rapidly and continuously. His arrows got nowhere near the targets he set in mind, even though he himself had chosen their movement patterns.

Anton shook his head. That wouldn’t do any good. He needed some practical experience… or to pick a weaker opponent. The only other person he’d really seen move was… Vincent. He wasn’t even trying to go fast most of the time, but his movements were strange and hard to follow. Anton imagined shooting at someone who moved like Vincent casually. It was difficult, but he managed some ‘hits’. But that wasn’t the speed Elder Vincent could move at. That was him strolling around. In his head, he pictured being carried through the forest at then-unbelieveable speeds, to return to the bandit camp. Even if that version of Elder Vincent wasn’t trying to dodge him, Anton couldn’t manage a hit on something that speed. On a related note, Anton found himself very glad that the walls of the courtyard were fortified to resist damage. He might still need to be more careful, but at least he wasn’t punching holes in them. He couldn’t do everything necessary to move and aim and shoot with proper power and consistently disperse his energy exactly when he wanted to.

Anton sighed. And here he was thinking he would take out cultivator bandits. Bandits who had years or decades of experience on him, who fought and killed for their livelihood. There was no way he could get revenge like that. Elder Vincent had managed to track down some of them- but they had apparently gone far enough into Ofrurg that he couldn’t track them down while still fulfilling other responsibilities for the Order. Anton would have liked to hear they were all dead… but he also wanted to kill them himself. To do that, he needed to fight… something. Disciples were able to spar, at least. There were also magical beasts to hunt down. He wasn’t sure if he was ready, but he could use the contribution points. Tempering his body while farming was good for the moment, but after the sixth and seventh star he would merely be working at the same time. His bones and tendons would be physically worked, but he wasn’t sure about marrow and skin. Speaking of which, before he got into battles with wild beasts, he should have some better idea of how to defend himself with energy. He wouldn’t want to fail to avoid an attack only to find himself impaled… or just simply have his body shatter to bits. He was working on part of that with the tempering of his bones, but Anton was absolutely certain he could easily break his own body with his energy. On that note, he found himself holding back so as not to actually hurt himself. At least he had some ideas in mind for what to study next.