Chapter 589: The Nation Destroyers

(In theory, there will be audiobook preorders available this week, but as I schedule these chapters it isn't ready. Hopefully that will change and it can occupy the Wednesday slot.)

After that initial impact of meeting, Kai had come to know his enemy. He and the nation-destroying monster clashed over the Frontier again, their blows making the ground tremble.

The monster was heavily tainted, so it resisted his spiritual sight, but he'd come to think of it as a Deepclaw. Its body shape was roughly similar to a mole, but that was where the similarities ended: the beast had at least a dozen arms around its body ending in sharp claws. They could either hug close to the body as armor or claw forward to help it dig through the ground. Fighting it at melee range would be a nightmare, especially since it tried to grasp anything near and pull it into one of several mouths.

It didn't have any particular special abilities, but it was tough and it hit like a mountain. Kai needed to focus not just on beating it, but on preventing it from reaching the Frontier wall or any major battle, since the collateral damage from their battle could easily wipe out defenders. Fortunately, the monster wasn't smart enough to exploit this, it just wanted to eat him.

Which, he had to admit, was fair, since his plan was to eat it.

When Kai and the monster struck one another, they both rocked backward. The thing was incredibly strong even by his standards: if he hadn't moved in Direboar's Strength alongside all his other supporting essence, it would have overwhelmed him. Even with that, it recovered from their clash with surprising speed, reaching for him with multiple claws.

But, before they threw themselves at one another, Kai had prepared a Tyrant's Claw. He held back until this moment, even though it hurt him in the clash, to unleash the technique against his opponent at point blank range.

The Deepclaw was thrown backward, one of its claws severed, and it smashed into the ground. He'd successfully knocked it back before, but it had always dug its way into the ground to attack him from a new angle. This time, Kai was ready.

Before the monster could get up, Kai fixed it in place with Void Gaze. He reeled a moment later, surprised by the monster's resistance. The Deepclaw wasn't just physically strong, it had the spiritual pressure and distortion resistance of the worst monsters - he didn't think that a cultivator could have fought it effectively and it would have shrugged off presence techniques.

Kai, however, had been testing Void Gaze against strong opponents for a long time. He still bound the monster in place and he managed to walk closer, one step at a time. So far, he'd been battering it with blunt, cutting, and piercing attacks, managing to cause injuries but never actually cripple it.

Now he stared at the Deepclaw, especially the little eyes tucked under the front claws. Frozen in its current position, those eyes weren't shielded. Kai got closer and saw hunger flash in those eyes: the Deepclaw put out even more resistance, trying to lock him in place.

Too late. It had stopped him from walking closer, but he could still make spines grow from his shoulders. He made sure they were intense, then launched two Manticore Spines from his body. They pierced deep into the monster's eyes and it spasmed backward in pain.

He needed to drop back too, rubbing his aching eyes. The Deepclaw had definitely taken the worse of that exchange, though, having lost its vision. It thrashed blindly, practically causing an earthquake that proved that it still had plenty of raw power... but without the ability to apply that strength, it might have lost the battle.

Just in case it had vibration-based senses, Kai hovered into the air, then began attacking from a distance. He launched Tyrant's Claws from one side, then flashed to the other and shot a Manticore's Spine into its undefended flank. Little by little, he would cut the monster down, then he could feast.

It stopped trying to lash out and huddled up, closing the heavily armored hands over its weakest points. Kai had to admit, that was a good defensive tactic, and he couldn't afford to waste a lot of time when there were thousands of monsters across the continent. After landing some more blows from random angles, he leapt overhead and, completely silently, shot straight down for a finishing blow.

Somehow the Deepclaw twisted and it was too late to dodge. Pain shot through Kai's entire body and he smashed across the wasteland, creating several craters before he came to a halt.

When he pushed himself upright, he saw the Deepclaw charging... and it was staring at him with both eyes. Its face was covered in blood, but the eyes had regenerated. If the monster had healing abilities, no wonder it hadn't gone down despite all its wounds.

Fuck. Kai took a deep breath and threw himself back into the battle.

.

..

.

Anoqa Hiryla had survived one incursion, so she had thought she was prepared for another. Learning that she was wrong, especially as the mammoth beast thundered to crush her, was a colder sensation than she had expected.

What she hadn't understood was that the previous incursion had been extremely well-managed in Irun. She had heard there was chaos in Krysal, and some issues in Goralia, but her home nation had followed its policy and weakened the hordes in phases. By the time she needed to do her part, the hordes had been thinned, the strongest defeated, and everything prepared for her and other young hunters to defend Irun.

And so, even though she was far stronger than she had been seven years ago, Anoqa felt even weaker. There had been so many fast or armored monsters, ones that could evade or break out of her ice techniques. They could be injured by Irunian steel, but often if they got that close, they began taking out defenders.

All of those battles led her here, standing in the shadow of a nightmare. It was an enormous squat thing, vaguely like a flippered toad except that the front of its body was composed almost entirely of a maw of ringed teeth. Some had been damaged, but far more of them had been covered in the blood of those it had consumed.

"Buy time!" one of the commanders shouted from the fort behind her. "We'll contact the elites!"

It didn't matter. The monster was going to trample the defenders and those jaws could probably eat the fortress whole. At best they could warn the others as it carved a path of destruction through Irun.

Despite that, Anoqa automatically drew herself up to attack. She knew, without question, that she couldn't stop this thing, but she might be able to slow it down.

The first thing she did was draw on her Goralian Class, producing the sharpest icicles she could and driving them down into the monster's flippers. She didn't even draw blood, and she saw fragments of ice already on it - a more powerful ice user than her had tried and failed to slow it down, so what chance did she have?

But meanwhile, Anoqa channeled power into her spear. It was made of good Irunian steel by her superiors, and she occasionally used it to channel ice. Now she instead imparted as much mana as she could into it, forming a spear of ice around the metal, hoping that it would be enough.

Only a few lumbering steps before the monster crushed her, if it didn't devour her whole. Anoqa let out a cry and hurled her spear.

The monster's beady eyes along the sides of its maw had a moment to look surprised before her spear plunged into them. It didn't pierce far, but at least she saw blood. For a moment Anoqa thought it had only caused an injury... then the monster groaned and slumped to the side.

"You did it!" One of the commanders was shouting at her, but Anoqa only stood in shock. The monster had outranked her by so much, surely it couldn't have such a weak point...

Then something twitched inside the beast's corpse. Everyone turned and cried out, fearing that it was returning to life. Instead, something moved underneath its skin, growing stronger, then pierced out the side.

Hit by shock after shock, Anoqa didn't think she could be surprised again, yet she was: the side of the monster had been pierced by a hand with immaculately done nails.

That hand, covered in slime and gore, tore open a wider hole and then a woman emerged from the wound. She was so covered in the monster's viscera that it took Anoqa a moment to recognize Omilaena, the foreign woman who had revolutionized so much of Irun. When she climbed to her feet and leaned back, dangling a knife in one hand and a huge monster core in the other, she looked more like a savage goddess than the elegant woman of her reputation.

"Any more like that?" Omilaena asked. It took Anoqa a moment to realize that the question was directed at her.

"Umm, no," she answered. "That was the strongest on the Irunian front, as far as I know."

"Well, good, because I don't have another one of those in me." Omilaena groaned and sat down on the side of the corpse - she'd dropped her knife, but she was still holding the monster core for some reason. "Listen, I need to rest a while. Can you put me in contact with Tusquo?"

"Tusquo is at the wall. I don't have a way t-"

"Fuck, we went further than I thought." Omilaena grimaced as she stared over the horizon. "Alright, then just tell your commander to contact Quinta or whoever is closest. This is getting serious."