Chapter 604: A Costly Retreat

As soon as Gunjin told him about the mysterious invaders, Kai had intended to attack. After hearing about the disastrous first attempts, he managed to restrain himself - the elites said they likely would have performed worse without his training with them, but they were emphatic that these opponents were like nothing they'd faced before.

Then he heard that Zae Zin Nim had gone alone, and the planning didn't matter, he forced Gunjin to take him to the Elemental Nations.

From above, the invaders looked like thugs bloated on too much power, yet he couldn't deny that strength. They had Zae Zin Nim almost surrounded, with the weaker invaders circling around behind her position, so he couldn't wait longer, he dropped down to reinforce her.

And the invaders had reacted by transforming.

When they charged, Kai instinctively exhaled a wall of Baleful Breath, intending to halt their attack and give him a chance to regroup with Zae Zin Nim. Dull gray eyes not blinking, the invaders charged into the cloud... and out the other side.

They weren't untouched: Baleful Breath had incinerated pieces of their clothing and left some of them with horrible burns. But they were the most powerful people that he'd ever tried to use the technique on, and now they seemed to be surrounded by a protective gray aura. Above all, they simply didn't seem to care that they were injured, all of them still focused on him.

Their aura and the grayness in their eyes were vaguely similar, and Kai found himself stunned by it. He hadn't seen anything quite like it before, couldn't even pin it down, he just knew that it felt wrong in a way he couldn't explain. Not at all like the distortion of the Frontier, if anything, this was the opposite...

The horror of that gray-eyed charge might have overwhelmed him, but Zae Zin Nim was more alert: she grabbed Kai and pulled him skyward at top speed. Their opponents continued pursuing them, some taking to the air and some keeping up on the ground. No matter how either side moved, their heads pivoted so that their eyes remained locked on him.

"We need to go," Zae Zin Nim said tersely.

"Do they do that normally?" he had to ask, even as he took over his own flight. How were the invaders keeping up so easily?

"No. Who teleported you?"

Unfortunately, at this speed Gunjin wasn't all that far away. Kai wanted to yell a warning to him, but it was too late: they were already coming up on his position. Gunjin had never mastered a speed phase, so he could only watch the chase in horror.

They needed distance. Kai trusted Zae Zin Nim to keep up and arced down, grabbing a nearly frozen Gunjin around the chest and pulling him into the air. Then he pushed to the full speed of Thunderbird's Wings, trying to put some distance between himself and his pursuers. Zae Zin Nim kept pace, pointing out a southeastern direction that took them over several rivers and some small hills.

When they landed, Kai dropped his phase enough to talk, though he kept it ready a moment's notice.

"That bad?" Gunjin had been momentarily shocked by the abrupt movement, but recovered quickly.

"We need to get out," Zae Zin Nim said. "Don't delay, just teleport."

"I tried as soon as I recovered," he said grimly. "This whole area is locked down."

Five pairs of gray eyes appeared... evenly spaced in a pentagon around them. Instead of chasing in a row as they had at first, their enemy had split up and - with apparent silent coordination - moved to surround them from all sides. Kai could feel the oppressive power choking the air, enough to require real power to punch through.

He and Zae Zin Nim glanced at one another, wordlessly acknowledging the difficulty of their position as well as their only option. Their opponents fought with mechanical precision, but their monomaniacal focus left them with weaknesses, even given their overwhelming power.

Kai leapt in one direction, unleashing a Tyrant's Claw at the cultivator. The man stopped it with startling ease, just pointing his finger and exploding the technique with a surge of qi. All of the others targeted Kai as well, their techniques converging with such speed that even the full use of Thunderbird's Wings barely kept him ahead of the overwhelming blows.

But while they attacked him, Zae Zin Nim had prepared a Coldfire Palm and struck in the opposite direction. She hit one of the five, knocking him through the nearby hill and opening a hole in their encirclement. Kai reversed direction, grabbing Gunjin and fleeing through the opening while Zae Zin Nim followed and intercepted further attacks.

Now that they had broken free, their opponents shifted into a line again, pursuing them. If anything, they seemed faster than before. Kai could have tried to use Baleful Breath again, see if they would keep running into it, but their aggression was too logical. If they had the intelligence to surround him, he shouldn't assume they would mindlessly fall into traps. But gaining ground on them was difficult, and they'd only be taking the invaders into populated areas of the Elemental Nations.

Someone was in their path, fully phased. Kai braced himself for combat before he recognized Sheiri, standing atop a hill in their path and waiting for them.

It could only have taken them a split second to pass one another, yet Kai felt almost as though he'd entered a second phase in that moment. He remembered Sheiri with surreal clarity, saw the determination in her eyes and the sad smile on her face. She knew exactly what she was doing, coming here to buy them time. As they passed, they had long enough to lock eyes and understand one another.

Then he was past, far past, streaking over the earth. Kai could feel that Gunjin was recovering and knew that he was straining to teleport them as soon as they got out of range, but instead Kai turned back.

He caught a glimpse of Sheiri uncoiling a second whip, bringing out her full power as five unstoppable opponents rushed down at her. Then the portal's mana engulfed him and Kai didn't see her again.

.

..

.

Sheiri Kagskan lay on the ground, strangely cold and warm at the same time. She realized that the legs she was staring at were her own, lying severed not far away. So this was how it ended.

Beating them had never been an option, but she had thought she might be able to escape, buy more time, or at least deal more injuries. In the beginning they had been incredibly focused on Kai, allowing her to land several effective strikes, but when they had turned on her with gray-eyed efficiency, it was all she could do to survive for a few seconds.

Kai's departure had saved her, since the invaders had suddenly been disoriented. Sheiri hadn't hesitated, lashing her whip around the neck of the thin man called Fodajix, intending to kill him before he could recover. But even with Irunian steel, even with a full phase, she hadn't been able to finish him - he had a nasty cut all around his neck, but he lived.

And that had been her last real chance. After that, Sheiri had been faced with five overwhelming opponents who used phases as easily as she breathed. They were still confused, but they turned all their anger on her, and it was only a matter of time before she lay dying.

"What the fuck?" Fodajix clutched his throat, but his eyes were searching the heavens. "What was that? What happened to us?"

"Where did they...?" The cultivator seemed the most disoriented of all, staring at her as if he was still confused about what had happened.

"They're even uglier blown up." Jonijix knelt down beside her, looking her over with a hideous gaze. "I was gonna have some fun, but I might as well just put her out of her misery."

Sheiri gave a bloody chuckle. It had been a very long time since anyone had looked at her lustfully, not since she had become an elite and dedicated herself to an endless war. Returning to such youthful immaturity at the end of her life could have been bitter, but she found it strangely funny.

She wasn't going to let him touch her, of course, not even to kill her.

As the hand reached down toward her, Sheiri thought about Kai and Zae Zin Nim, who she'd given her life to save. They'd be reuniting with Omilaena now, and hopefully the three of them could find a way to save Deadwaste. If they didn't, she wasn't sure who could. How strange that they, who had been so much of a headache, were now their only hope.

But Sheiri didn't think about them for long. A few memories of home slipped through her mind, then she focused on her blood and she thought of steel.