Chapter 595: The Horde's Treasures

Zae Zin Nim fought against the incursion with a scowl, considering her failings as a wife. Ordinarily, that was an unpleasant accusation cast on her from the outside, but this concern came from within. Her marital relationship was far more wonderful than she had anticipated, which meant that she needed to be correspondingly wonderful, and she had fallen short.

How could she have failed to consider gifts? Omilaena had obtained an extremely powerful monster core for their husband, an extraordinary gift that would benefit all of them. Though Zae Zin Nim believed that she would have retrieved a core if she had encountered such a dangerous monster, she had fought many others and extracted none of their cores.

On top of that, it sounded as though Kai had been a pillar of support for Omilaena, serving another critical role as a spouse. By the time Zae Zin Nim arrived, she hadn't been able to do the same, and Kai no longer needed assistance. Unacceptable.

She vaulted over the lines of the pseudo-crystalliers trying to defend some other Frontier city, aiming for the hulking giants within the horde. All the others could be taken down by crystal shards, but the giants had tough skin that the crystal edges failed to pierce. More importantly, they might have useful monster cores.

When she arrived, Zae Zin Nim plunged her hand directly into the monster's chest. It was humanoid and it proved to have its core in the usual place, so she tore out the core, leaving the monster's body to collapse. This process was somewhat disgusting, but she had changed into a short-sleeved robe for this very purpose.

Jumping from one to the next, she eliminated all five giants on the battlefield, then placed all of their cores into a sack. They were moderately large, but she doubted that they would actually form a useful essence for Kai, not given how easy they had been to defeat. Another disappointment.

Still, she placed the sack of cores into her spatial bracelet alongside the others that she had found potentially worthy. It pleased her to think that she was being a good wife by gifting her husband bags of monster guts. None of her adolescent instructors would ever have advised her to do such a thing, and indeed they would have been horrified, which pleased her as well.

None of the other monsters had any potential, so Zae Zin Nim annihilated swaths of them with qi in order to help the defenders. She noted that the defenders made no effort to retrieve the monster cores, which were ordinarily valuable, and then realized that was actually quite reasonable. For one, they were busy surviving against the onslaught. For another, there were so many monsters that the value of cores would plummet in the time after the incursion. Only those that could be used as materials, or in Kai's case as essence, might be worth extracting at a time like this.

Realizing that her mind was wandering, Zae Zin Nim decided that it was time to move on from this battlefield. The only positive of such a wide-spread disaster was that the Frontier elites were everywhere, transporting themselves and others to the most critical locations. Zae Zin Nim flew until she spotted one and got him to transport her to the south, where the monster horde had pushed unfortunately deep.

From high in the air, she could see several points of conflict: the city, a vanguard to the east, and a mess to the north. It looked like someone had moved east from the city and set up a defensive point, blunting the flood of monsters with a fort of steel and crystal. There was also a group fleeing to the north, drawing off some of the monsters. Despite both of these mitigating factors, the break in the Frontier wall had concentrated so many monsters that there were still plenty that reached the city walls.

Only one monster attracted her attention: a large scorpion that appeared to be releasing blobs of poison against the defenders on the walls. Very promising.

Zae Zin Nim dropped toward the scorpion at full speed and was sad when she instantly broke its back. The monster's dying flailing tried to stab her with the tail, but she ripped it off. Unfortunately, size didn't always correlate to strength, and this one had been a great disappointment.

The monster core was too weak to be worth bothering with, but Zae Zin Nim placed the tail into her spatial bracelet. At least she might have a gift for Omi - new poisons always cheered up her wife.

Defenders on the walls were shouting approval at her, but Zae Zin Nim didn't recognize anyone and didn't remember this particular city. She extended her hand to them, because that was what she was expected to do, while thinking about how to leave. Technically she could have remained to help them defend, but they'd have to handle things themselves, especially while there were more interesting places for her to go.

One leap took her over the horde to the vanguard fortification. It was cleverly constructed, crystalline beams being used as a lattice to move rocks into place, creating a fortress without exhausting crystal cultivation. There were metallic pieces armoring the weak points as well, and that led Zae Zin Nim to look at the top, where she saw the reason for the fortress.

There she recognized two of her husband's students: Tori Quondan and Bonto Birtaegali. It seemed that Tori had raised the knife-like defensive structure using her powers, and many monsters broke themselves on it. Bonto was brawling in front, trying to stop armored monsters who might shatter the crystals, while Tori and a few other defenders took down those who climbed up the side.

With a wave of her hand, Zae Zin Nim incinerated a broad swath of the monsters around their fortification, just so there would be time to talk. Some of the defenders cheered, while Bonto saw her and cheerfully clambered up the side to stand beside Tori.

"Thank you for your assistance," Tori said with an Irunian bow.

"You seem to have this under control," Zae Zin Nim said. "Have there been any highly dangerous monsters here?"

"No, not beyond that ones you see."

"That is a pity."

Her comment made Tori look at her strangely, but at that point Bonto climbed up beside them, laughing. "That's cultivators for you, eh? Always looking for a challenge, right?"

"...yes," Zae Zin Nim said.

"There was a large armored creature that went further south, toward Wontiir," Tori said. "We attempted to engage the beast, and I wasn't able to damage its armor, so we only diverted it."

"But it will take a while to get to the next city," Bonto pointed out. "We could really use your help here. You saw those people to the north getting overrun, right?"

That was irritating, but Zae Zin Nim accepted that she couldn't go after the other monster just yet. She needed to get to what mattered to her without completely abandoning other responsibilities, so she considered the situation briefly and then nodded as she decided on her solution.

"I am entrusting this task to the two of you," she told them. "You need to bring back those who foolishly evacuated and lead them all in a united defense."

"Uh, it's a bit late for that," Bonto said. "They ran before the gates closed, and the ground in between is covered with the horde. Running is their only shot at survival."

"We would also struggle to leave this position." Tori lowered her eyes apologetically. "I fear we are not as mobile as you are, and cannot treat these monsters as equally trivial."

"Use this." Zae Zin Nim pulled a large wooden platform from her spatial bracelet, a vessel that the Brightwind Sect used to transport lower tier cultivators. "You can use it to rescue the foolish evacuees, then as a platform to help defend the city. Tori, is it acceptable if I destroy your structure to buy you time?"

"I... of course. It was only temporary."

Zae Zin Nim nodded and then gestured impatiently for them to climb onto the platform. While Tori and Bonto helped the other defenders get on board, Zae Zin Nim considered the fortress, which was a jumble of spikes and razor edges. The bonds were relatively weak by her standards, so she could use it for more destructive force once the others were clear.

As soon as the flying platform pulled away, Zae Zin Nim leapt into the air and prepared herself. She focused her qi into a single concussive palm strike and brought it down against the spiked platform as she landed.

It exploded in all directions, sending the shattering fortress into the monstrous hordes. Even the stones could serve as lethal obstacles at high speed, and the crystals became lethal skewers. In seconds, a massive circle of monsters between the three defensive points had been annihilated, leaving a hole on the battlefield.

Which made it easy for her to land in the empty space and consider the region one more time. The city wall defenders had been given a reprieve, and the students now had a vessel to rescue the fools who had run off. With the horde weakened and their forces combined, it seemed likely that they would be able to continue to defend this position.

Meaning that she could leave them. Zae Zin Nim turned away toward the south, seeking monsters threatening enough to be a gift for her spouses. She would serve as a decent defender of Krysal, but she would be a better wife.