Elder Cultivator

Icy mist swirled, thick to the point that not only could Anton not see the ‘ground’ in front of him, he could barely pick out anything below the surface with his senses. Natural energy was both abundant and yet inaccessible in the area, the cold more than it should be but the power that made it so distant and unusable. At least to Anton, who practiced powers of light and fire.

He was looking for tracks, days old in snowstorms that never ceased. So far, he’d had little luck finding anything but concerningly large cat paws and some tunnels of burrowing creatures, neither the right size to be Matija or the woman he had not met, Janae.

The cold was harsh, trying to worm its way through Anton’s energy into his bones. Yet by comparison it was not the worst he’d ever felt. Those had been when he was simply a common man, before he was a cultivator. Likewise, the effort required was nothing compared to his final hunt.

Even if it had been difficult, Anton would have pushed through it. He was far too stubborn to let a place local Life Transformation cultivators traversed with some regularity hold him back. Sure, they knew where they were going and had a goal, but even without drawing upon a sun he had the greater power of cultivation on his side. Internal heat fought with external cold as he hurried along his way, searching for signs of Matija in particular. She was neither local nor in Life Transformation. It had likely already been too long.

His steps carried him atop the snow, his weight distributed widely so as to not limit his movements nor disturb the ground. He kept his senses open for traces of the same, but everything was dull and distant. Even so, he could be certain that he had not passed over anything of note.

A small portion of his senses were locked onto the spire he’d descended from. He needed to keep some sort of orientation in the white-out, and indistinct mounds of snow and ice covering what was presumably something else below were not much good for consistency, especially as the winds scattered the snow and even rent apart ice. That same ice cut like knives against Anton’s defenses.

He hurried his steps, hoping to cross something soon. He had no interest in dealing with the local beasts, so until he found any sort of relevant trail he avoided them to the best of his abilities.

There was quite a significant distance he could cover in an hour, and soon he’d looped all the way around the Third Peak once with little of note. He was now widening his search, hoping to cross any path, when he finally found faint traces of an impact. What might have been a meters deep indentation was now little more than a bit of remnant energy and a negligible dip in the surrounding snow, but that energy was familiar. Matija practiced the One Hundred Stars, after all.

With that barest trace to go from, Anton circled the area to find some sort of trail. Ultimately, it appeared Matija had the same ideas about travel as himself- she certainly wasn’t letting herself sink into the snow and pushing it apart as she trudged. He did find a faint trail, mostly based on imprints of boots several layers deep in the current snow-ice layers and just a bit of lingering natural energy. If Anton hadn’t known Matija was here, he wouldn’t have found it. But it was consistent enough he could tell he’d finally found a direction.

He increased his pace, moving as quickly as he could while keeping the trail. That consumed more energy for both movement and searching, but now was not the sort of situation to be conservative.

With only the slightest indication of its presence, a fox that seemed to be more ice than animal leapt at Anton’s throat, tearing towards him. Perhaps the ambush would have been sufficient against a local creature, but despite the great power packed into the beast Anton fended off its attack at the last instant. A moment later his bow-blade was in hand. He did not begrudge the creature seeking food, but anything that attacked humans was dangerous to allow. The creature did not give up after a single attempt, either.

A swirl of icy mist turned into teeth chomping at his ankle, doubtless with the intent to wound him. Once that was done, the creature likely would have followed after him as his injuries mounted. A good tactic against an animal. Against him, it got the fox a mouthful of sharp blades.

Anton considered the blood on his weapon. It would alert other creatures to his presence- but it might ward them off, if the creature he fought was a known danger. Anton carefully placed the body of the fox, a coat of silvery reflective material now marred by a sky blue blood. Since he had killed it, he might as well make use of it.

He took a few moments to pick up the trail again, and redoubled his speed. The gusting winds carried no noise but that of the constant weather conditions, though Anton was not convinced that they would reveal anything beyond him regardless.

Given the hiding methods of the fox, Anton picked out other creatures in his surroundings- but they kept away from him, either sensing his energy or fearing the blood of the creature. It would have been more than a simple inconvenience for most, a power somewhere akin to a Life Transformation cultivator compressed into a small space. It had simply misjudged its target.

As he continued along the trail, Anton noticed something. Another energy, hidden like that of the fox. Much like the disciples of the Third Peak, once he picked it out- though it was like sensing a particular sort of snow atop various snowdrifts. This one wasn’t the fluffy sort. More like hail than proper snow, hard and weighty, but not quite part of the actual surroundings.

Janae, hopefully, and not some other local cultivator after Matija. Though Anton rejoiced that given the distance he’d tracked her she’d probably passed the first day. Without finding shelter, unfortunately, beyond perhaps a temporary cave in the snow below. He couldn’t be certain how fast a cultivator of her level would run out of energy, but a few days in these conditions was already significant.

Anton nearly missed the great cat ahead of him. He was inclined to move around, but it was directly on his current trajectory. That meant little, it was just that he could not keep track of the trail more than a few meters in front of him. The great cat was still fifty meters ahead at least, and moving at a decent pace away from him. Anton matched it, and it didn’t take long to determine that the cat was tracking the same thing as himself.

It was moving a bit more quickly than he might have otherwise, though he could verify bits and pieces of the trail faster than he could trace the whole route. As long as he kept doing so to make sure the creature didn’t change its mind, he could catch up more quickly. The creature moved at what might have been a sprint for a normal human, though for a creature of that size was mostly a fast trudge, its wide paws only sinking a small distance into the ice and snow mixture as it moved.

At this point, Anton was no longer able to keep track of the Third Peak. But ultimately, he didn’t need it. He kept a general sense of his orientation to make sure he didn’t somehow go in circles, but once he actually found Matija he could pull her above the ice and snow. It wouldn’t be a pleasant flight, but it wouldn’t last so long as to be worrisome.

Anton had not been land bound in several decades, and he found it entirely unpleasant to recall. Dealing with terrain limited movement so much- even dealing with atmosphere was restrictive for him. But that was an issue the vast majority of cultivators had to deal with, especially those who had not surpassed Life Transformation. A few sects had flying techniques they could use earlier, but none were low on their energy requirements.

The snow leopard- Anton made some assumptions about it based on body shape despite clearly not being close enough to see spots or lack of them- continued at its quick pace. At this rate, another hour and they should have made up for most reasonable paces, especially it Matija had hesitated at any point in her movement. She wound around enough it was likely she had been looking for shelter- and avoiding dangers of local wildlife.

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Matija found herself exposed to the frost. She no longer knew how long it had been, deprived of the light of the sun for what had to be days. Any innate sense she had was off balance due to the conditions. She had some measure of protective clothing, but she hadn’t been walking around the Third Peak fully kitted out. Most of her technological devices were frozen solid, and if the ice on the outside didn’t stop them from working the ice on the inside would.

She’d received a brief flicker of something from her communications device… or so she liked to think. If there had been communication from Anton, it could just as easily have been an error in the current conditions. She couldn’t even make out a screen.

She had intentionally left the proximity of the Third Peak, not wanting to risk the Life Transformation cultivators coming after her. She absolutely wanted to avoid capture, because even if the personal consequences weren’t unpleasant to think about, what they might do if properly instructed on the ship was something else. Matija didn’t have much reason to think Gnadus was nearly as populated- but she didn’t want to be responsible for potential deaths caused by them.

There was still her crew, of course. She couldn’t be certain about them, inside the peak. Were they safe? Was everyone dead? She couldn’t know, so she kept moving. She’d found some small shelter at first, protection from the wind and snow. Then the beasts had come. For the most part she’d been able to prevent her actual body from being damaged, but with both creatures and environment wearing away at her energy defenses she would be vulnerable to both soon enough. Lack of food and ironically water were an issue, even for an Essence Collection cultivator.

She’d been lucky to avoid the worst predators so far, her time spent watching Janae move about providing some familiarity with the world. Just enough that with her scanning devices that weren’t all quite broken she could pick out dangers before they came together.

Then had come one of the foxes, the signal being physically small throwing off her judgment. It didn’t catch her throat but instead cut a gash into her shoulder before she managed to snap her rifle into position. Of course by then it was back in the snows, and Matija barely avoided it several more times before she finally managed to take a real shot.

A beam of hot energy cut through the mist, instantly creating steam and scorching the fox’s side. It scurried off, but the attack had lit up the area like a flare. Matija soon sensed many creatures of different sizes coming for a look.

A bear was the next to appear, but Matija only sensed it a moment before it was tossed to the side. “I have finally found you, esteemed guest.”

Rivulets of blood, long since frozen in place, created red streaks along Janae’s arms, trailing to the tips of several of her fingers. Some also went down her forehead and her neck into her robes, and a few gashes had opened in her thighs, briefly revealed there before terminating at her bare feet.

“You came. You survived,” Matija said, suddenly aware her translator didn’t work. Fortunately, the time she’d spent had been enough for the cultivators to reconcile some of their speech differences without its aid, their natural learning capabilities kicking in as they exchanged words. “My crew…?”

“Waiting for your return, no doubt,” Janae said as she turned to face the bear, only momentarily knocked back. “Aid me with that weapon. You are already revealed.”

Matija nodded, concentrating her limited remaining energy into the beam, aiming for the bear’s eye. She was quite aware of how impenetrable large beast’s fur could be, and there was no chance of it properly catching fire in this place. But the difference in temperature was not all bad, if she hit the right target.