James, upong hearing the Sect leader, rushed over to the nearest Elder who was handing out weapons. While they were all regular iron swords, they were far more useful than attacking empty handed. The disciples, now armed, spread out in a circle around the deck, each pairing up with a potential attacker, ready to attack at a moment's notice. The Sect leader waived his hand and using his mana, brought James over by his side.
"Stay beside me and don't do anything rash. You're the future hope of our sect and I will not let you fall into more danger than necessary."
After speaking, the Sect leader concentrated the boat's barrier, causing it to collapse inward until it covered James from all sides in a 2 meter radius.
"Wait Sect leader! I can help, i'm stronger than you think I am…"
"Quiet! You will stay put! No more discussions."
At that, he rushed out to meet the enemies. The other disciples and Elders already having started their battles with the demonic cultivators. James looked around, seeing explosions all around. Blood and body parts fell from the sky, dying the deck red, making the scene look straight out of hell. Screams of battle blended with agony, cultivators moving about in all directions fighting, bleeding, killing and dying.
James had flashbacks to when his family was attacked shortly after his birth. Though this scene in front of him was far more chaotic than back then. To be fair though, he hadn't seen any of the battle before they showed up at his home.
The battles were ongoing but it was slowly becoming clear that the demonic cultivators were winning. They had come prepared, bringing twice as many cultivators and had many artifacts to support them in their fight. The Sect leader and the 3 Elders were being held back by 6 Late stage Nascent Soul cultivators. The other disciples were fighting Foundation Establishment cultivators of equivalent strength but were outnumbered 2 to 1.
After 3 hours of back and forth fighting, the Drifting Cloud's sect was reduced to merely 10 disciples and the Sect leader. Over 20 disciples and the 3 Elders that came along had been killed. The demonic cultivators started capturing the rest of them instead of killing since they'd already pretty much won the battle. The Sect leader tried his best but being outnumbered he was quickly taken prisoner alongside the other disciples.
James watched all of this occur from within the barrier, unable to lift a finger to help. The demonic cultivators led the captured disciples and Sect leader away in chains imbued with mana and then surrounded James.
"Haha what have we got here? Seems you must be special if the Sect leader used the entire magic boat's barrier just to keep you safe. While it's true that with a barrier that concentrated we won't be able to break in, however, we can simply bring the magic boat with us and wait for the mana reserves to dry out hahaha."
The leading demonic cultivator then instructed the others to take control of the magic formations on the boat and piloted it towards a nearby mountain range. Upon arriving, James saw ancient structures and statues, the style of which showed no grace or artistry like the sect buildings he was use to. Instead they had jagged edges, dark red blood stains and carved depictions of demonic creatures.
It took a full day before the mana reserves of the magic boat finally gave out and the barrier protecting James was removed. As soon as he found himself free of the barrier, the surrounding demonic cultivators rushed at him with mana imbued chains. James still held the sword he'd gotten from the Elder and used it to fight back. He unleashed a barage of sword strikes, fully demonstrating the Tempest Strike sword technique. It was comprised of 12 sword moves and James had trained to proficiency in 7 of them with Liz. Normally it would take far longer but the Elementary Sword Intent that James possessed allowed him to learn and master sword techniques far faster than others.
The first sword move was used and a nearby demonic cultivator lost his head. James took a step forward and used the second sword move, another dead body fell. This continued until the ground was littered in Foundation Establishment corpses. Suddenly however, James felt an unberable pressure falling onto him, like the crashing of a mountain. He looked up and saw one of the demonic cultivators who had faught against his sect's Elders during the battle the day before.
'Late stage Nascent Soul…not good'
The appearing demonic cultivator raised his hand and a massive boulder nearby lifted to hover next to him.
"You seem quite skilled with the sword for a child, I wonder if you can survive this though."
With a dismissive voice, the demonic cultivator threw the boulder down towards James. James, still being encircled by enemies on all sides had nowhere to run. He immediately lowered his sword and prepared to meet the boulder with his Swift Fist technique.
'Here's hoping my physical strength is as outrageous as my stats indicate…'
When the Boulder was about to collide with him, James executed the Swift Fist technique. His speed of movement was boosted by the technique and the force of his fist moving unstoppably forward caused the air in the surroundings to disperse.
*BOOM*
With the sound of a massive explosion, his fist landed on the boulder, shattered it into a million tiny rocks and then sent them flying back towards the floating Nascent Soul cultivator. The force of the collision sent the surrounding Foundation Establishment demonic cultivators flying.
The storm of small rocks shot out like a flurry of bullets. They traveled so fast that the Nascent Soul cultivator barely had time for a single thought.
"Fu—"
*Boom*
*Splat*
The cultivator was riddled with holes, becoming completely unrecognizable. His lifeless body was thrown to the ground, lying in a pool of blood. The scene instantly became silent, everyone's gazes moved between the young Foundation Establishment cultivator and the now dead Nascent Soul expert. No one could believe their eyes.