Defiance of the Fall

the living tree would have been ripped to shreds in an instant.

He only had one seed just like the first cultivator, and it wasn’t even a fragment.
To challenge the three dryads who had grown up with access to the Pond of Tranquility was to ask for a beating.
But the young ent had already said he was mostly joining the fun to gain some experience, so he took the defeat in stride.

Only when the 5th warrior, a local scion of another powerful faction from the looks of it, stepped to the plate did Zac see Dao fusions come to play.
Not only did the man, who seemed to be some sort of nymph, fuse two different Daos into a mighty beast that pounced on his enemies, but both seeds were Peak mastery.

The dryad wasn ’t to be outdone though, and he created an image of a hunter wielding a bow covered in leaves.
The hunter deftly dodged the rabid assaults of the animal until it finally managed to land a lethal strike with an arrow that shone with the green light of some nature-related Dao.

It was an interesting display, but Zac felt it was a bit lackluster compared to a real fight that brought shockwaves and explosions that could be felt from hundreds of meters away.
It almost looked a bit like level 20 warriors and beasts were fighting to the naked eye, though it looked a lot more spectacular when viewing it with [Cosmic Gaze].

Finally, it was Zac ’s turn to the plate, and he was eager to try out his might.
He was pretty confident by this point as none of the fights had showcased any Dao Fragments, and he had two he could bring into play.
He might not be able to fuse them, but summoning two Fragment Avatar should be able to handle any trouble that came his way.

’

Zac jumped up on the platform, and after a nod at his competitor he placed his hand on the control crystal and started to imbue it with his Dao.
He felt a prickling sensation in his mind as he tried to conjure his avatars, like his brain had suddenly grown two sizes inside his skull.

He understood what he needed to do since connecting with the control crystal provided him with a burst of information, but there was an almost insurmountable resistance when forcing his Fragment of the Axe into the elusive mists hiding inside the platform.
It felt like he was trying to grab the haze with his bare hands.

The only solution he could come up with was to steady himself and forcibly push even more of his spiritual energy inside the array, and it finally worked.
Eight warriors emerged through the mist, each one of them radiating a palpable killing intent and a force that caused the ground around them to be cut.

However, there were no exclamations of excitement or envy coming from the audience, but rather confused murmurs and subdued snickers.
And even if Zac didn’t want to admit it, he could understand why.
Things had seemed pretty smooth and simple from the stadium, but he had barely managed to create the avatars in line with his imagination.
Anything more was beyond his ability.

The eight soldiers looked mighty, but they twitched and flailed about in an extremely uncoordinated manner.
It looked like they were string puppets controlled by the world ’s worst puppeteer.
Zac also knew it wasn’t some trick by the array, but rather due to his limitations.

Just conjuring the eight warriors was even more taxing than when he infused the Skeletons of [Undying Legion], but Zac had never gone any further than that with the skill.
The skeletons didn’t require constant commands, though Zac could order them about with a few simple thoughts.
But these avatars didn’t listen to mental commands but were rather moved by manipulating them with his spirit.

This was just like when he tried to control his spiritual energy and have the two Daos fill the fractal for [Cyclic Strike].
The Daos turned into spaghetti in his hands and it all turned into a big mess.

The dryad cultivator had frozen in confusion for a second, but when she noticed that Zac’s fumbling wasn’t an act she sneered and pushed the small critters looking like walking radishes she had summoned forward.
They didn ’t look as mighty as the hunter, but Zac could see that they were created with the help of two Peak Dao Seeds.

Zac tried to think of a solution to his embarrassing situation, and he could only come up with one course of action.
If he couldn’t control so many warriors, then he would just have to reduce the numbers.
Seven of the axemen dissipated into smoke just before vines shot out by the radish soldiers struck them, but one soldier stayed behind and cut the attacking vines into shreds with one swipe.

’

Things became a bit easier with only one avatar to control, and the power forced into its diminutive size was far beyond anything that had been seen so far during the battles.
The axe warrior roared as he stumbled forward, his axe madly flailing in the air.
A wave of destruction rippled out in an instant, destroying most of the seed warriors who couldn ’t muster a working response to the random strikes.

Zac breathed in relief as he tried to cajole his avatar to move forward, but he stopped when he saw that the pale-faced dryad dissolved her remaining radish warriors.
He first thought that he had won, but he quickly realized she was just changing tactics as a centaur wielding a simple spear appeared to replace the small vegetable avatars.

The centaur immediately galloped forward, and a wild exchange of strikes took place between the two solitary avatars.
Truthfully it was mostly the axeman getting hit over and over and Zac infusing even more spiritual energy to keep it standing, while occasionally releasing a massive, but random, swing that either completely missed its mark or grievously wounded its target.

He also tried to incorporate the Dao of the Coffin into the mix, but the only solution he could find was to completely swap out the Dao in the avatar.
It changed him from an axe-warrior into an axe-wielding skeleton climbing out of a coffin, and the stone box helped protect its sides from attacks.

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It did help with the defenses a bit, but Zac eventually gave it up since swapping back and forth in some sort of pseudo-cycle only helped him drain his mental energy a lot faster.
He had already landed a few pretty nasty hits with the avatar powered by the Fragment of the Axe, and one more was likely all it would take to completely destroy it.

But the power of the spear-wielding centaur suddenly shot up by a noticeable degree, and its previously unattuned spear lit up with a color of attunement, this one looking a bit like steel.
Not only that, one shape after another started to appear on the dryad ’s side of the arena, each one of them emitting a respectable amount of power.

It was a literal army of forest critters wielding various weaponry as they approached Zac ’s solitary avatar.

Zac couldn’t help but look up from the crystal to see what the hell was going on.
Had the Matriarch suddenly jumped into the mix, or did his opponent go easy on him before? But his eyes widened in realization when his gaze swept across the three youths standing on the platform on the opposite side.

The ‘Enlightened Three’ were actually cheating.