On this particular battlefield, Aveksen was far from the strongest cultivator- but it didn't matter. Indeed, his relative insignificance was almost the point. He wasn't the strongest among them, he wasn't a commander or strategist. He simply was.

Their battles were against the Exalted Quadrant, far removed from the troubles of the Heartbound Palace… for the moment. It was quite possible that they would make a move against the upper realms hivemind again in the future- and the war would be a perfect time.

So Aveksen, having somehow fallen into the role of a specialist, was waiting for a moment he was needed. If something in the hivemind was off kilter, he would help right it. And if it wasn't… he would follow the flow and fight.

It was impossible to describe to another precisely how the hivemind battled, but an approximation had been done many times. It was like having a million pairs of eyes, a million pairs of ears, and of course just as many thoughts. It was impossible to process all of that- cultivators just had to react. If you thought you should leap backwards to dodge but the hivemind thought you should lean to your left? You did it.

And sometimes you died. That was the unfortunate reality of war. It was impossible for the hivemind to have flawless victories, despite their desire. But if you trusted the flow, you would always be closer to survival than you would have otherwise.

As one, Aveksen and a woman whose name he didn't know- didn't need to know- attacked a foe in front of them. Their target was another woman, who found herself pinned between polearm and sword.

The hivemind was nearly tireless, though specific individuals could become fatigued. Rather than forcing themselves to continue to fight, they smoothly retired to recover. The energy they generated during their meditations was shared with the others, but even if one had infinite energy they couldn't fight indefinitely.

Their opponents didn't know that, though. Nor could they necessarily exploit it. After all, they were but simple humans. The Western Mirage Sect in particular was not known for their longevity in combat. Instead, they were meant to use illusions to bypass their foes' defenses and win swiftly.

Perhaps they might do so, at some point. But to fool any member, they had to fool the hivemind. Taking into account the myriad angles and thought processes that were possible made their tasks much more difficult. At most, they created visual illusions- concealing a section of space with a projected image. But they had to perfectly maintain their concealment, for the hivemind could rely on their memory to approximate locations should they falter for even a moment.

Aveksen advanced forward, swinging his glaive widely as he passed by foes. Just as often, they were cut down. His skills in battle were middling, but being in the right place at the right time multiplied his effectiveness.

An illusion in front of him. He slashed through it, intentionally assaulting nothing at all. He was covered by several snipers- not all archers, but some using firearms or long range elemental attacks. When something appeared behind him, the foe fell before Aveksen could even comprehend them. There was no noticeable delay in hivemind thought sharing- some people were simply that fast to act. Nobody could have possibly said how they knew where to target before there were any significant sensations. They simply did.

Aveksen moved to save a woman. She was in a poor position, a failure of her hesitation to follow the intuition of the hivemind. But she would not be abandoned because she made a mistake. The hivemind didn't sacrifice anyone, no more than any sane individual would let their limbs be cut off. Small injuries were one thing, but potential death was avoided as could be expected from anyone looking out for their own wellbeing.

Aveksen was too slow. Or perhaps too late. The difference being whether it was his fault or not. Perhaps it was an impossible task. He ran through the one who slit the woman's throat, feeling his weapon bite into flesh. He felt her fade from life as her body was destroyed by energy piercing through her. It was possible to block the feeling out, but today he wouldn't. It was disrespectful.

The Numerological Compact had ships in this battle. Hulking things full of slaves. They had likely expected the hivemind to jump at the opportunity to take them out, and the desire was there. However, there were simply individuals better suited to the fight.

A hivemind member surrounded by the ship when slaves broke free might go into mental shock. There were a few individuals powerful enough to withstand it, but it was better to be spread out around it and to share the load. It would be convenient if they could put off the integration of people until later, but there was only really one perfect opportunity. They could save as many as possible… if they could bypass the ships self-detonation systems.

Unfortunately, those systems were powered by the very people they wanted to save, using their own energy to attack their meager bodies. Fortunately, if they did it right that energy wouldn't come against them and they would be safe. But the hivemind didn't have to be the ones.

Sometimes, certain restrictions could be bypassed in interesting ways. A massive force flew past Aveksen. Not quite a Domination cultivator, and yet in some ways more terrifying for not. Terrifying for foes- because the hivemind had experienced Durff. The man was not to everyone's taste, but it was impossible to dislike him as a whole. Straightforward in word and deed were the core of his cultivation, and he used that to break through the barriers around one ship, straight to the core.

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Then he batted the middle straight out of the structure. Sometimes, they were rigged to detonate when the cultivator in question died, or if things were somehow separated. However, Durff was taking advantage of the ship captain's self preservation instincts. They didn't want the ship to explode around them, and they weren't dead. So they would reach out and hold onto that connection until they couldn't, bypassing the automatic responses of the formations around them.

They wanted to live… so they did. At least for the moment. Durff was smacking them all in a particular direction, where they would later be gathered up. But not immediately dying was enough for them to see what was happening and follow through with their own self preservation. The Numerological Compact wasn't a reincarnation sect. Their few powerful cultivators didn't want to die.

The other thing Durff did was take a single swing with his hammer and instead of sending the middle flying, he would push every part of the ship away from every other segment. That tactic also had a reasonable likelihood of success, as the overall flow of energy was meant to have them connected.

Though Durff didn't come up with any of the plans, he certainly implemented them. He was extremely good at not crushing things if he chose to. Aveksen was glad to see it. Keeping the Western Mirage Sect and their illusions away from the man would be for the best.

Then there was the other option. Formations were made by humans, and thus they had flaws. If they were meant to detect invasive energy, they could do that. They could also detect people. At least for certain definitions of people.

Aveksen's definition overlapped with theirs… but they weren't precisely the same. For example, he considered all humans people. They considered only humans people. They might have expanded to Akrysians- or at the very least anything with flesh- for the purposes of how their formations reacted if nothing else.

They weren't ready for plants. Bear Hug didn't have to fight. The multividual fulfilled quite a number of non-combat roles throughout the Scarlet Alliance- and in the lower realms. But nobody was going to refuse a strong entity, and Bear Hug made friends easily. Aveksen and Durff shouldn't be the only ones here today that Bear Hug considered a friend. Even if Bear Hug couldn't befriend literally everyone, there were probably still hundreds on this one battlefield.

The flow of energy should have still been an issue, but Bear Hug was good at just letting energy… stop. Then there was a mass of algae floating in space, before it was suddenly filled with Bear Hug again. Aveksen had no idea if it was some sort of concealment technique or actually severing the connection. Whatever it was seemed consistent, though.

Then some ship 'captain' was covered in Algae with the power of Enrichment, defenses bypassed. And as much as the Numerological Compact didn't want anyone else to get their way, hair trigger detonations had grown out of style as they saw how many of their own died before they should have. That meant opportunities to react, to cut off the flow of energy in a productive way.

It didn't seem the Exalted Quadrant would be making any progress here today. And from what Aveksen had heard, they probably wouldn't be making much progress elsewhere in the neighboring regions, despite incomplete spatial distortions. In fact, making use of particular locations that were unprotected by the spatial distortions, they could focus more resources on some of the obvious targets.

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Juli had engaged against several powerful cultivators with planetary cannons. More modestly sized ones fit on orbital platforms and were a mainstay of Scarlet Alliance defense. The larger versions were more powerful and rare, though if her production of mixed tech weapons worked out properly they might become standard as well.

Unfortunately, at the moment they required careful monitoring and control by overly qualified individuals, such as herself and her brother Misi. To some extent they could expect to always require a qualified cultivator, but the issue was what cultivation rank they needed. They didn't have Augmentation cultivators everywhere, but they could expect to have sufficient Integration cultivators for any project.

At the moment, their best working versions required specifically Misi and Juli. They were difficult to transport between systems as well. But if the two of them could operate the cannons, they could perform with amazing efficiency.

Despite their size, the cannons weren't meant to wipe out whole fleets but instead to focus energy in a particular area, often targeting individuals. Part of the design was necessary for spatial bypass- being limited to the speed of light would be too slow for the reactions of powerful cultivators. They also had the ability to redirect the beam, not only firing in straight lines.

"We're taking down that Augmentation cultivator first," Misi commented. The particular one he was referencing was made clear to Juli.

"Got it," she said. "Resonance of the Disciples of the Beyond. Adjusting energy parameters."

If everything went well… it wasn't a very spectacular thing to look at. A small beam of energy that could be adjusted to various elements if necessary. Only when they misaligned the energy type did they get a great clash of power. Otherwise…

Their target just fell. It might not work on Domination cultivators- they hadn't had the opportunity to test- but focusing energy on a single point from a safe position should at least be able to cause some damage beyond their cultivation level.

The Augmentation cultivator they targeted tried to slip into subspace as they sensed the attack. But it was already meant to target the easily reachable layers of subspace, since they had properly adjusted for cultivation style. A quick moment and their target was gone.

The downside was that the cannon was out of power for the moment. And that it could probably be destroyed by determined attackers, if they recognized its danger level early enough. Speaking of which, they were going to have to protect it as now there were some significant energy projections incoming. But they took down one significant foe with not too much of their own energy, so it was already a success.

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