Chapter 616: Against the Abhorroid

With an enemy this powerful, potentially the most powerful his spiritual sight could currently understand, Kai had no intention of ramping up slowly. By the time he flew anywhere near the Abhorroid, he had already fully transformed into his Savage Heart form.

As he approached, he wasn't sure if the monster was even aware of him: it had dozens of eyes, but none of them were particularly focused on him. If it actually didn't think he was worthy of attention, that was almost insulting. Still maintaining his distance, Kai flew overhead, building up the strongest Tyrant's Claw that he could, then shot downward, throwing his full speed into the attack.

His spiritual claws tore three massive slices through the Abhorroid, rupturing eyes and mouths across a swath of its body. Yet even that, his broadest attack, only looked like a normal cut when compared to such an enormous creature. It almost could have continued pulsating onward, ignoring him completely.

It didn't: eyes all across the enormous mass began to turn toward him. For a moment they both hung in the air, staring at one another.

That moment ended in a torrent of crimson beams shooting from the eyes, nearly instantaneous to Kai's view. Only his instincts allowed him to spin through the air, evading the onslaught. It wasn't just a single assault, the Abhorroid continued throwing out beams like it intended to continue forever. One of them nearly clipped one of Kai's wings and he realized that he was barely staying ahead of it.

In desperation, he focused directly on one of the eyes and used Void Gaze before it could unleash a beam.

.

..

.

He opened his eyes tumbling through the air and realized that he had blacked out. Kai's head ached and the very idea of trying Void Gaze again was painful. The Abhorroid floated in his direction, one of its eyes smoking but the others very much ready to continue their assault.

The spiritual weight of this thing... Kai had seen that it was ranked omega, but he had underestimated just how much that meant. If he had tried that trick before creating Dragon's Might, he might well have killed himself in the attempt. Even now, he realized that trick definitely wasn't going to work and began considering other options.

When the Abhorroid got into range again, Kai took to the air at a greater distance, giving himself more time to evade the crimson beams. He retaliated with Tyrant's Claws, but even when the monster was dripping blood across its underside, it wasn't slowing down. Switching to Manticore's Spine, Kai tried to create the strongest spines he could and land them directly in the eye sockets.

Sometimes the Abhorroid distorted so that the spine hit nothing, practically disappearing into its shifting flesh, but he managed to take out several eyes. As strange and unnatural as they appeared, those eyes could be injured, even disabled. Kai did his best to destroy more and more, trying to limit the Abhorroid's offensive ability.

Once he had part of the surface covered with scar tissue, Kai began shifting his strategy. He didn't think he could bleed out such an enormous monster, especially since it was likely regenerating, but this had given him an opening.

Taking a deep breath, Kai shot toward the surface. More than the gnashing teeth and deadly beams, it was the size that intimidated him: it wasn't like approaching a beast, he felt like he was flying next to an entire world. But he pushed through that, drawing up the most powerful Baleful Breath he could before he found one of the largest open wounds and prepared to exhale.

Before he could, the wound opened further: The flesh split open, revealing a pair of jaws that hadn't been there before. The maw was larger than his body, but it wasn't trying to eat him: instead it exhaled a breath of its own, a sort of dust that set off all his instincts.

Kai instinctively used Baleful Breath in response, but the techniques passed through each other. Even as his fire and darkness tore into the Abhorroid's body, the dust struck him, and immediately his body began to burn.

His retreat wasn't planned, wasn't even conscious, he was just hurtling backward, roaring in pain as his body seemed to dissolve. He reached up and tore armor plates off his own body, ignoring the pain and the blood, just desperate to escape the effect. Behemoth's Heart hammered like never before, desperately trying to keep him alive.

He regained control at a distance, flooding qi around himself to suppress the fatal dust that had been trying to dissolve him. Across the wasteland, he saw the Abhorroid drifting, a crater in its flesh smoking. Baleful Breath had actually done some damage, but...

As he looked down, Kai saw that his leg was covered in scar tissue, and he realized that he could barely move one of his arms. His body was so damaged that even Behemoth's Heart was struggling to repair him, and worse, his stamina wasn't recovering like normal. The simple fact was that he had come out of that encounter worse off, despite deploying his best skills.

Of course he could push himself to keep fighting, but he didn't think he had it in him to finish off the Abhorroid... if it was even close to finished. Because while he had dealt it serious injury, it still floated like an abominable planet, and eyes were beginning to emerge from the twisted flesh. In fact, those eyes might be larger than before, as if it was reacting to him.

This wouldn't be the end. Kai shifted his monstrous essence, took a deep breath, then threw himself back into battle.

.

..

.

Kai lay on his back in the wasteland, staring up at the sky, and realized that he couldn't do it. No strategy or shift in abilities was going to let him beat the Abhorroid.

He'd tried everything in his arsenal, and he wasn't completely outclassed. All his serious abilities, like Famished World, had a significant impact, just not enough. But the others... its eyes had remained fixed on him when he tried to use Mutefang's Stealth, and Legion Bite barely took off a tiny fraction of its outer layer. Isulfr's Bite might have some effect, but the risk was too high, given its black breath technique whenever he got close. Any weaker skills would be utterly crushed by its overwhelming power.

What did he have left? Kai had time to think because the Abhorroid was floating some distance away from where it had blasted him, moving slowly but inexorably closer. The one obvious advantage he had was speed and mobility, otherwise he could well have died.

Since he had time, Kai took inventory of his own soul, hoping that he would somehow find something that he had overlooked.

<

Name: Kai Clanless

Total Power: 1207

Monstrous Hunger - XVI (pi)

Cultivation: Nascent Foundation 85% (267)

Savage Heart: 31 (314)

Physique Level: B-6 (530)

Beggar King's Robes: +3 (15)

Soul Level: 9 (81)

Dragon's Might - V (epsilon)

Behemoth's Heart - XIII (nu)

Thunderbird's Wings - XII (mu)

Tyrant's Claw - XIII (nu)

Manticore's Spine - VII (eta)

Baleful Breath - IX (iota)

Void Gaze - X (kappa)

-

Famished World - VII (eta)

Mutefang's Stealth - XVI (pi)

Isulfr's Bite - XII (mu)

Sahagin's Soul - XV (omicron)

Greatshark's Presence - III (gamma)

Monstrous Tail - VIII (theta)

Legion Bite - VI (zeta)

Wallcrawler's Feet - V (epsilon)

Abominalgum - III (gamma)

Slime's Immortality - II (beta)

Silver Demon - III (gamma)

Voidmaw's Bite - III (gamma)

Bloodtail's Armor - V (epsilon)

Deathmaw Essence - III (gamma)

Voidshell Essence - III (gamma)

>

The fight had pushed him past his limits: the Savage Heart had improved, he'd risen to Physique B-6, and most shockingly his Monstrous Hunger had finally risen from the 15th to 16th rank. Almost all his monstrous abilities had grown in the battle, matching their potential from all his human growth. But given the enormity of what he was facing, it wasn't enough.

Fine, if he accepted that, what did it mean? Kai was the only person on the continent, possibly in the world, that could fight the Abhorroid and live. Did he need to keep engaging it, keeping it within the Frontier? If it got to civilization, its slow pace would become a horror show, annihilating countrysides and cities in an unstoppable wave. But even if he could keep this up forever, was that any sort of solution? It wouldn't get them any closer to stopping the invaders, who were spreading out across the world.

"Hey." Without warning, Omilaena was on top of him, straddling his hips. "That's a hell of a monster, huh?"

"Be careful," he mumbled through burned lips. "It's strong. Even you..."

"Believe me, I'm not going toe-to-toe with that thing. Or... whatever it has in place of toes. But I think I have an idea to at least slow it down, if you'll let me work with you."

"Alright, what is it?" Just having Omilaena there gave him a little strength, so Kai sat up, instinctively putting a hand on her hips.

"Don't panic, but... I have a sample of the Whispering Death." Omilaena pulled away from him and they retreated further from the Abhorroid, just in case. She didn't sound like she was joking anymore, so she must really have found it on Lostwreck.

Omilaena removed an ice sphere from her spatial satchel, then opened it with extreme care. He'd never seen her that cautious, even amid all her experiments. Within he caught a glimpse of the Prana Jewels, which he realized she wasn't wearing, and then she closed them up again. She took out only a single earring, which she promptly encased in ice again.

"This is a phased illness from the outside world," Omilaena explained. "I can't guarantee it will take down a monster that big, but it's the best shot we have."

"It's a good idea," Kai said, "but I don't know how we'll deliv-"

"I'm not going to assume that even the Whispering Death is enough. I want you to make one of those Manticore's Spines, one with the most intense venom you can. I'm going to apply this sample to it, then you launch that thing as fast as possible. That's the only idea I could come up with."

"Right... wait, how did you find me?"

"Kai, you have been fighting that thing for over three days." Omilaena gave him an odd smile. "I had time to come here and meet up with the elites, who caught me up. Zae Zin Nim is going to Cloudspire, by the way. But we don't have time for that now."

He nodded, accepting that she was right. If he couldn't kill the Abhorroid alone, combining his power with Omilaena, and then an Insanity on top of that... well, he didn't see how he could top that.

Kai floated into the air, staying opposite the Abhorroid. Omilaena hung around his neck, not playing around as they faced off with those eyes and teeth. When he began to grow a solid Manticore's Spine, directly over his heart, Omilaena reached down to grasp it. She applied her own poison to the tip while she maintained the earring in ice.

"Now!" she cried as she pulled her hands back. "Now!"

When he unleashed the Manticore's Spine, the force knocked them both back through the air. The stinger shot out like a thunderbolt, plunging deep into the Abhorroid. It disappeared into that enormous mass, and as Kai righted their tumbling movement, he saw it keep moving forward, wondering if there had been no effect...

But then the monster began to slow. Jaws hung slack, eyes closed, and it began to sag toward the ground.

For a moment Kai felt a surge of victory, but then black dust began to waft from all of the mouths simultaneously. As the Abhorroid struck the ground, it was surrounded in a cloud of the fatal dust, and then something lighter began to emerge from its jaws. The substance floated above and hardened into a misshapen shell, which eventually became a dome larger than any building Kai had ever seen, enclosing the Abhorroid within a strange lump on the ground.

"Should we try to finish it now?" Kai asked. He could hurl a lot more techniques, but he wasn't confident they'd be enough.

"Do you think you can kill it in one hit?" Omilaena asked back.

"Almost certainly not."

"Then I don't suggest it. I think that thing can keep fighting, and if it's threatened, it will get even more dangerous. Right now it seems to be isolating itself... that might be the best outcome for us."

"So we're just buying time." Kai's lips parted and his monstrous teeth gnashed in irritation. "I know, we can use the period it's asleep to get strong enough to kill it, but I don't like this. It could wake up at any time. The risk..."

"One of many." Omilaena touched his neck ruefully. "Kai, if an Insanity can't bring it down, we aren't going to do it. Not now... you'll have to become an Insanity yourself."