Chapter 596: A Different Sort of Frontier City

As Kai transitioned to the second phase of the incursion, his personal risk decreased, but his tension increased. There were no more monsters as dangerous as the Deepclaw, so he wasn't challenged on a personal level. But he couldn't be everywhere at once, and Krysal falling apart tore at him.

He arrived at one of the evacuated eastern cities and immediately understood the problem: the defenders who had been intended to thin out the monsters had been surrounded by the unexpectedly large hordes and trapped there. Now they looked in bad shape, trying to hold the damaged city on all sides, without hope of reinforcement.

Until he arrived, anyway: Kai circled the city, breathing out a wall of Baleful Breath.

Technically Krysal had performed better than anyone had expected, since many had predicted it would fold without crystalliers. The core of the new army was tough, with powerful Physiques built in the mines and then further refined, so they hadn't experienced as many losses as expected in the normal fighting. So far, according to Gunjin, the strongest monsters had been handled by elites.

But in between there was a problem, a tier of monsters too strong for the average Krysali but too numerous for the elites to handle. Those were where Kai had to admit the new Krysal fell short, lacking the highest tier crystalliers who had played this role in the past.

With his wall of fire supporting them, Kai judged that these defenders would manage well enough. Since they were cheering instead of begging for help, Kai turned away and began flying at top speed toward his next rendezvous point.

That isolated group would be fine after his help, since he judged that they had a pretty balanced group. They had a whole squad of new crystal shielders to hold back monsters, and their ex-crystalliers had done a good job of keeping them alive, so their defenses weren't bad. Since they also had a full squad of acid cultivators, they could finish off the remaining monsters and survive the incursion.

Some other groups hadn't been so lucky. The acid cultivators had done better than expected, but they couldn't fight without support, and Kai had seen groups of them take heavy losses when they weren't defended. In other places, ex-slaves and ex-crystalliers had failed to collaborate properly, leading positions that should have held to collapse.

He hoped that in the future this would teach them to work together, but in the present, he was furious about their failure cascading to all the city-states around them.

As he swept up toward the next position, Kai saw that the fortress had one of the great crystals of Yulthens, which was sending down a beam that devastated the approaching horde. Unfortunately, it was currently under assault by a flock of flying monsters, and the defenders weren't keeping up.

As Kai arrived he used Void Gaze: he only bound the monsters in place until he flew past, but with their flying disrupted followed by the shockwave of his passing, the flying horde practically exploded. Kai put them out of his mind and focused on the next inter-city fortress, which looked like it had survived its own horde.

The defenders weren't in good shape, though, and when he landed on top of the fortress he saw that Gorndron of Granitecrest was bandaging a wound across his shoulder.

"I'm not a real fighter," the man complained to Kai. "The fact that I'm having to take a hand is a sign of how much of a clusterfuck this is."

"You're the only fighter these people have," Kai told him. "What's the situation?"

"The northeastern evacuation went smoothly, but apparently the horde hit Teraklis and it was bad. I don't know the situation, so I'm going to send you in."

"Fine." Kai looked away from him and soon spotted the Windborn woman who handled a lot of the teleportation aside from Gunjin. Their transportation specialists were usually working alongside coordinators like Gorndron, so they usually served as rendezvous points.

As he prepared to be taken to Teraklis, Kai tried not to worry about what he might find. Teraklis occupied a strange place in his mind, filled with both positive and negative memories. It had been a fairer city-state than many, and during the revolution he had been able to take it out of the fighting without killing a single person.

Upon his return, he'd discovered that the agreements signed back then had actually stuck - he wasn't sure whether it was real cooperation between factions or fear of his vengeance. The problem was, in the middle of that scheme he'd had several dalliances with local women, which led to problems in the modern day. Presumably they had bigger problems now, since the incursion was still rolling over the continent, but the reminder of his youthful follies bothered him.

When he arrived, the assault on Teraklis didn't look as bad as many others. There was a carpet of monsters, certainly, but the rocky terrain and defenses of the city seemed to have held. He didn't see any particularly strong monsters... but he also didn't see any strong defenders. Years ago there had been an older pair of crystalliers, where were they now?

On his way in, Kai flew low over the monstrous hordes, letting his shockwaves take out more of them. As he landed on the walls, he launched a few Manticore's Spines from his back to kill the armored monsters that might be trouble for the defenders. But unlike so many cities he'd arrived to defend, the soldiers didn't cheer, they looked panicked.

"Get to the center!" one of them cried, pointing backward. "We almost lost them!"

"It's going to hatch!" another soldier insisted.

"Don't worry about us, save them!"

Kai didn't have time to sort through all the contradictory shouts: the one thing that was clear was that they thought the real problem was within Teraklis itself, at the Mercantile Hall. He remembered the location clearly, though it looked as though it had been remodeled somewhat.

As he flew there, Kai checked the city for monsters, but only confirmed his initial impression: the defenses had held. Throughout the city, he observed untrained people doing their part: carrying food and water to the soldiers, clearing out rubble, and otherwise assisting in the defense of the city. He saw a good mix of former slaves and merchants, working together, so at least the peace here had held.

Yet something was rotten in the heart of it all. When Kai reached the Mercantile Hall, he finally got a whiff of monstrous power, but the stranger thing was that there was a ring of fighters around the center.

"There's a monster in there!" one of them shouted when she saw Kai. "Kill it before it hatches!"

"He won't let us!" another person yelled, which wasn't exactly helpful.

No one got in his path as he strode forward, past the ragged defenders... until he reached the door. Kai found his way blocked by the middle-aged man he remembered, a crystallier who had tried to treat the workers fairly and had reluctantly stood up to Kai to defend Teraklis.

<

Name: ???

Total Power: 256

Crystal Cultivation: 16,500 (142)

Acid Cultivation: 425 (25)

Physique Level: F-9 (48)

Soul Level: 4 (16)

Crystal Dantian (+25)

>

In the years that had passed he'd reached over 250 Power, which was a good increase for a crystallier. Kai was even more impressed when he saw that little of it had come from qi crystals: he'd learned a degree of acid cultivation and built a strong Crystal Dantian based on Omilaena's model.

So why was he facing off against all the other defenders?

"Kai Clanless..." The man stared at him in shock, then shook himself and moved to block his path. "Don't kill her. I can't stop you, but..."

"I just arrived," Kai told him. "What happened?"

"There was a monster, a far greater threat than anyone expected. My wife and I took it out, but..." As the man trailed off, his eyes flickered back into the room behind him.

With a firm grip on the old crystallier's shoulder, Kai used his overwhelming strength to move him aside and entered the room. It was somewhat dark, which no longer impeded him: he saw that the man's wife lay face down on a messy sheet. She was still lean and strong for her age, but there was an ugly mass growing from her back.

"The monster launched its eggs," the husband explained. "They would... burrow into soldiers' bodies, then spawn out. We lost almost a dozen people that way before we managed to intercept the eggs. We thought we could kill it together, but at the end..."

Now Kai could discern the details: the mass was a slug-like "egg" with several tentacles that seemed to pierce the wife's back. She was trying to resist, channeling her qi into Physique, but it was burrowing deeper into her.

<

Name: ???

Total Power: 270

Crystal Cultivation: 14,100 (135)

Acid Cultivation: 650 (35)

Physique Level: F-9 (50)

Soul Level: 5 (25)

Crystal Dantian (+25)

Monstrous Spawn - IV (delta)

>

Kai could see it on a spiritual level as well - apparently the monstrous spawn had burrowed in enough that it had a connection to her soul. With more instinctive senses he could feel its hunger, wanting to convert her flesh into more monsters. If they were based on her strength, that could be a problem.

"Why haven't you attacked the mass?" Kai asked.

"When I cut it, that hurt her too." The husband looked nervously behind him. "The others say that it's hopeless, that leaving her alive will just create more of them. But I can't..."

"Alright, let me try something."

Striding in, Kai bent down beside the woman and the pulsing spawn. She looked barely conscious, locked in a mortal struggle that she was clearly losing. There was no time to waste, Kai only saw one potential solution: consuming the monster in an instant. If their bodies were already so merged that this would kill her, then it was truly hopeless anyway, and the longer he delayed the worse it got.

With no time to rearrange monstrous essence, Kai focused on Legion Bite. This would need to be a focused use of it like never before, consuming the egg without eating the woman. The hunger within him wanted both... but it could discern different types of prey.

Kai took a deep breath, then took a thousand bites at once.

The monstrous spawn vanished into the spiritual mouths, all of it vanishing in a flash. He didn't stop the bites at the woman's skin, making sure he consumed the tentacles as well. Kai could taste human flesh and blood in his mouth, but not much.

After a cry of pain, the woman sagged, her back bloody... but she opened her eyes. Her husband rushed to her, grasping her hand in disbelief. Kai didn't have time for their reunion, he just focused his spiritual senses and confirmed that he couldn't find any trace of the monstrous spawn.

"Glad you two are still alive," Kai said with a smile. "Can you handle the defense from here?"

"I have to stay with her," the husband started, but Kai cut him off by tossing one of Juray's potions toward him.

"This should put your wife back together. The monster is gone and I'll handle the others, but I need you to defend Teraklis. There are too many places I need to defend for me to stop here."

The man nodded grimly and helped his wife swallow the potion. On his way out, Kai glowered at the gathered fighters and pushed them all to get back to defending the city. He was fairly sure that he'd gotten through to them, considering his role in the city's history, and once recovered the couple could take care of themselves.

As he flew toward the next rendezvous point, Kai thought back to the couple... he still didn't even know their names. If they'd met at a different time of life, they might have become friends. Zae Zin Nim might not be wild about it, but he could even imagine having a couples' dinner with them. But he was already stretched so thin, he had no more time for more relationships, not with the entire continent at stake.

While still in midair, Kai sensed something flying toward him. Not an attack, a human woman. He instinctively reached out, grabbing her by the neck when she intercepted him and driving her down to the ground.

Then he hesitated, as he realized he'd grabbed Nirka.

"I needed to reach you," she said tersely. She gripped the hand at her neck, but he didn't see fear in her eyes, just urgency. "There's a problem."

"What is it?" Kai asked as he let go and pulled her up. "Where have you been?"

"I was contacted by the most radical faction of former slaves. I actually agree with them about some things, and we were working together, but..." Nirka shook her head. "I had to come tell you. As soon as the incursion is over, they're planning a slaughter of crystalliers. It might have already started."