Elder Cultivator

Getting personal revenge wasn’t as important to Abder as preventing people who attacked him in the streets from doing the same to people who were more likely to die. Not that he was all that far from death himself, but even with what happened to him he had a good bit more life in him than many. As a higher stage cultivator, he felt it was his responsibility to act.

There were a few more incidents that occurred later that day, but once people were mobilized to act it seemed to send the culprits into hiding. Tracking them down would take some time, but it would be pretty much impossible to completely disappear. What were they going to do, flee the city? As Abder could easily point out… it wasn’t great out there. And they wouldn’t have any way to go to Unov or New Ibbore.

It was an exhausting day making sure everything was in place. All he wanted to do was go home and collapse in his bed.

-----

Without a sound, a thin stiletto stabbed through the top sheet of a bed, piercing skin, muscle, and bone until it went through the heart and out by the spine. Abder clutched his heart. That was brutal.

Good thing it wasn’t him. It was a waste of good bed sheets, but the one who died wouldn’t be missed. It was his allies’ own fault, though he hadn’t really been useful to either side since he wasn’t really in the know about anything and unwilling to give it up regardless. Both so that he would feel more like Abder and to prevent him from causing trouble, his energy had been suppressed by binding shackles.

The assassin had been a bit careless, still. No doubt she had already noticed how easily punctured her target was, though she might not know that consciousness didn’t change that. Abder took his first step towards her at the same time as his first breath in ten minutes- the assassin had been skulking around for a while. He would also have to replace his closet door, but opening it would be too slow. The high speed splinters might harm the would-be assassin if he was lucky.

Even in the dim light, Abder recognized her, in the way he could picture most of the strongest cultivators in the city. This woman was Jaya’s distant cousin, friend, or important lackey of some sort. She hadn’t been around during the incident, and she hadn’t had any sustainable causes brought against her so she’d made it through.

Isi, if Abder remembered correctly, though this was no time for introductions. He wasn’t good at kicks, so he wasn’t that surprised that even with his speed he went right over her head. In turn, she stabbed him in the back of the knee. It clearly didn’t go as deep as she would like, but she snapped her stiletto away before Abder could clutch his knee around her weapon and pull it away.

He got into a better stance as she stabbed at him. Abder was cautious. He wanted to grab her weapon, but the timing had to be just right. His testing efforts showed she could turn her weapon upon him instantly, and he wasn't eager to get his hand or forearm impaled in the process of trying to stop her. Apparently there were people who fought like that, but Abder wasn’t going to be one of them if he couldn’t help it.

Isi wasn’t running, and her energy fluctuations were well contained so it was possible that not too many people would be aware of what was happening. Abder hadn’t been certain that he would be attacked at night, and he wouldn’t have been if he just had guards hanging out inside. Abder was still catching his breath so a shout at the moment seemed ill advised. The guards were a bit further down the block, but hopefully they would notice the commotion soon. Except he didn’t sense them. He hadn’t even noticed they were gone, dozing off in the closet.

The sounds of combat still seemed like they were underwater. Abder had maybe ten percent of his hearing back at best. In some places he had new skin… which wasn’t exactly more durable. He still had many wounds, though most of them were covered. Isi could probably still feel them with her energy, though. Abder couldn’t exactly block her senses.

He realized quickly that she was reading the tension of his muscles very well- which he couldn’t prevent for the same reason. Thus, she seemed to react to his moves before he began. Abder couldn’t successfully strike or grab without exposing himself, and Isi was likely getting used to his patterns.

How unfortunate. Perhaps he should have focused on combat instead of other things. Longer days of sparring might have made all the difference here. But this wasn’t what he’d wanted to do- it was just thrust upon him.

Abder realized he was covered in wounds… and he had a nice new one. He could use that. Doing his best to look like he was winding up for a powerful attack, he brought his foot down… and stumbled. He had actually considered kicking through the floor, but that might be harder to believe was an accident.

The outline of a blade stabbed towards him, and Abder reached to grab the blade. Then the second one in her other hand was finally revealed, stabbing into his ribs. The plan was likely to go between them, but they weren’t as easy to push apart as she might have expected, even with the thin blades. It still scraped across his rib, tearing at the muscle, but there was no risk of it reaching deeper.

He didn’t manage to get a hold of her off hand or his real target- her wrist- but he wasn’t willing to let go of the stiletto in her other hand. He yanked her forward, and she made the correct choice to release her weapon. Abder almost snapped it, but instead he spun it around.

His lack of expertise in the weapon might be clear, but using it as an extension of his own body that he didn’t care if it got stabbed was good enough for him. That lasted all of two exchanges before Isi snapped it with her other stiletto with an unexpected sweeping strike. Either it wasn’t as expensive as Abder thought, or Isi was really determined.

Obviously the enchantments would make the weapon a bit more durable, but with him unable to relevantly augment it with natural energy it was an easy task to destroy the weapon. Holding just a handle… Abder chucked it at her torso and tried to slip inside her range. He really hoped she only had one weapon.

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The handle crashed through the wall, and her stiletto continued to keep Abder at bay. She even managed to wound his forearm. If he was doing a better job of wearing down her natural energy Abder might feel confident still, but sustaining more wounds while still having been half-roasted earlier in the day was a bit much.

Should he run? No, he had at least one more thing he needed to try. Something he could do as an advanced body temperer. Well, anyone could do it- it should just work better. He planned his next move, his muscles tensing. Then he lunged. Isi thrust her weapon towards his incoming knee, but his leg twisted, instead sweeping her leg. The things he had to do with his tendons to change trajectory like that were serious. Normal cultivators would probably tear something or have some sort of concentration of energy that gave them away.

Isi leapt over his sweeping leg, but the weight of gravity didn’t pull her back to the ground fast enough to get solid footing. Abder held his arms out wide, looking to encompass her as he rushed forward. Her stiletto stabbed forward towards his eye, but he tilted his head just enough for the blade to scrape along the ridge of his eyebrow. His bones were still quite solid, and her insights into piercing simply weren’t enough. She might have gotten a little bit of his brain though, skipping past his skull. He couldn’t be sure, because there were no pain sensors there.

Abder’s arms wrapped around her at the shoulders and squeezed. There was a moment of resistance as her energy tensed against him. Then she snapped all at once. He should have probably yelled at her to surrender, but he didn’t have such an upper hand that he thought that would have been successful.

So now there were two dead bodies in his room. And Abder was quite certain Anton had left him alone. Which was both scary and heartening. He could manage on his own, even without someone watching over him at all times.

-----

Anton breathed out slowly. “It’s so difficult not to interfere,” he said to Prospero. “He took some significant wounds. And Moturn is… well, they’re handling things well.”

“Hmm. You can really do something from here?” Prospero asked. “That’s… far more distance than I thought.”

“I’d be launching an attack from the star,” Anton said. “It would be weaker, but enough to do something in situations like this. I’m two full stages above them, after all. Should I… should I have saved those two guards?”

“You told Moturn they were responsible for their own problems,” Prospero shook his head. “While the guards didn’t deserve to die, it wasn’t your responsibility to save them.”

“I would have saved Abder, though. If he really was about to die.”

“And he’s your apprentice, of a sort,” Prospero shrugged. “Different rules apply. But it sounds like you let things get far enough.”

“... I really want to tell them where the rest of the people are hiding,” Anton said. “What if I just leave little hints? Is that too much?”

Prospero rolled his eyes. “I’m sure they’ll get it soon enough.”

-----

They did. Abder wasn’t there for any of it, but the issues were resolved with a minimum of excess bloodshed, at least not from those he cared about. The people attempting a coup had also tried to kill him and those he cared about, so his sympathy for them was less.

Currently, he was searching to see if the archives had any information on how to heal stab injuries to the brain. Once the battle was over he’d used his small bits of natural energy to determine there was indeed a wound inside him, and even if it was small he didn’t think any damage to the brain was insignificant. He didn’t feel bad, which partially made him feel that everything was fine- and partially made him panic that he was going to die without knowing it was coming.

Clearer thoughts won out, and after making sure the bleeding stopped, Abder had gone to look for solutions. He wasn’t a huge fan of the information he was finding. If part of the brain was destroyed, the rest of it could take over functionality in some cases… but his options for healing it were generally things that even the Lower Realms Alliance said were rare, including cultivators who were good at healing.

At least it was a straightforward puncture, and nothing was really missing. He’d have to live with that. And since he wasn’t dead already and wasn’t still bleeding, he would almost certainly live.

To take his mind off of that, he needed to do something else. Training was probably not a good idea at the moment. Bouncing around his wounded brain might be a bad idea, as it turned out.

Well, he owed someone a new floor. And he’d just saved a stone cultivator’s life. Though he could have requested aid from other members of The Gathering regardless, it was best not to be too burdensome. They really did need to make sure that hole was fixed, though. He didn’t want someone to stumble through the bottom of the barrier, least of all an old grandmother sort. Even if she’d been a bit cranky when he first met her.

He knocked on her door, but heard no reaction. He knocked a bit louder. He could hear her moving around inside. A bit louder, and finally she started making her way.

“Who could that be?” she muttered. She flung open the door. “Yeah? Who is it?”

“Hi. It’s Abder again. I can sort of hear now. Thanks for helping me out. This is Karl. He’s here to fix your floor.” Karl waved gently, as his ribs were currently bound.

The woman blinked. “Wait… you really came back?”

“I did promise. I can’t imagine you’ve gotten it repaired yourself so quickly.”

“I put some boards over it,” she said. “But if you’ll do a proper fix… well, know I can’t pay anything.”

“I wouldn’t expect you to,” Abder said. “It was my fault.” At least, to the extent he was responsible for it getting fixed. Obviously most of the ones actually at fault were dead or would be soon, since murder- or even attempted murder- were executable offenses. Oh, right, and barrier tampering. Though nobody had ever been stupid enough to actually do that before, as far as he recalled.