Chapter 588: Hordes of Exhaustion

Kai won, over and over again, and he had no idea whether or not they were losing.

Any given location he arrived at, he could easily annihilate the monsters in his path. Now that they had spread out somewhat, by distance as well as the work of the elites, he could decisively win a battle. The problem was, there were hundreds of potential fronts, eventually becoming thousands, and he couldn't see the overall picture.

The danger had actually increased, somewhat: some of the more powerful monsters were emerging, including some as strong as the behemoth he'd fought so many years ago. They weren't real threats anymore, but they actually required concentrated focus from him in order to kill, or made him go to some effort to block or dodge while eliminating them. And that meant attrition.

He screamed along over the ground, actually using the full speed of Thunderbird's Wings and letting shockwaves pulse out from him. The shockwaves themselves crushed some monsters, but the greater effect was on morale. Kai could just see the Frontier wall to his right, its defenders beginning to face the monstrous hordes. When he flashed past, he cut a swath through their enemies and reminded them that they had support from the elites.

Sometimes he got cheers, but he was moving too fast to hear them.

Actually moving at full speed would drain him eventually, so he needed to be intelligent about how he used it - the problem was that he was wasting time here. Yes, he was killing a large chunk of monsters, but now that he had blunted as many in the initial rush as he could, this was a poor use of his strength. He needed to be fighting the monsters that could kill all the normal defenders, and they seemed to be scarce on this part of the battlefield.

A portal of green mana ahead caught his attention, as it was no doubt intended to. It dropped someone to the wall, someone he couldn't see at first, but recognized as he got an entire second closer. Kai changed course and stopped causing shockwaves so that he could land on the wall beside his old mentor.

"You've done enough here," Gunjin Granfian told him.

"Where to next?" Kai was taking some deep breaths now, but he wasn't really tired yet. To his surprise, the old man waved a hand vaguely and didn't create another portal.

"Take a moment first. We should discuss the overall state of the incursion first."

It felt wrong to be standing there, merely talking, while monsters assaulted the wall and the defenders were fighting for their lives. But the truth was that no large-scale conflict involved just smashing power together, so judicious actions could have a greater effect. Gunjin's teleportation abilities were a far greater force multiplier than fighting on his own, and Kai had just been thinking about how he was wasting time looking for greater threats.

"So how does it look?" Kai asked. "Does the incursion match your predictions?"

"I won't know until later when we have all the data." Gunjin folded his arms as he looked over the field of monsters. "But so far... the dangerous monsters haven't appeared in as large of numbers as some years, but some truly dangerous ones have come out early. They say there's a nation-destroyer out by Irun."

"What?" Kai turned instinctively east, as if he could see it. "Is that where you're sending me?"

"Perhaps, but we lost track of it on the other side of the wall. It would take a while to pin down."

That was frustrating, but Kai had no choice except to hope that the others could handle the problem. If his presence wasn't immediately needed, Kai's gaze instead shifted inward. "What about the center? Is this a good time to check on the abyss?"

"Absolutely not." Gunjin jerked out of his reverie to shake his head. "There are still monsters pouring out, though less densely. Any attack on the pit now risks inciting more. The outpouring usually lasts a full day, and I'd be more comfortable waiting longer."

"If we wait until the end, it will be too late. But fine, we still need to get things under control. Do you want to find that dangerous one?"

"Perhaps, but..." Gunjin trailed off as he pulled a scroll from his robes and frowned at it. His eyes only widened slightly, but to Kai it looked like shock. His mentor began to summon another portal, being slow and careful with this one.

"What is it?"

"We have a second nation-destroyer in the south. It was spotted toward the center and apparently burrowed, and since then it's moved faster than information about it. We can't assemble elites in time without teleportation, and our resources are limited there. This one might be able to destroy the wall."

"Then send me." Kai glanced back to the battlefield and accepted that he wouldn't see it again. "That's the obvious solution, isn't it?"

"Without question, the problem is locating it..." Gunjin grimaced. "I'm going to make a bet that it will target the damaged portion of the Goralian wall. If that bet is wrong, we'll need more time."

His portal became fully formed then, so Kai plunged directly into the mana. He emerged on a different portion of the wall, one that seemed to have the horde well under control: there were monsters visible on the wall distantly to the east, but the defenders in this part were resting and bandaging wounds. It seemed almost as if Gunjin, who stepped out of the portal after him, had made a mistake.

"It made a visible burrow at first," Gunjin said, "but then it dove deeper and disappeared. That was how it escaped our people earlier. Can you check if it's underground?"

"Huh. I can try to smell for it." Kai bent down and placed one hand on the wall, trying to attune all his senses. He was smelling, yes, but what he really needed was his monstrous hunger. The small horde to the east gave him a faint whiff of meat, and the air was filled with the feel of monsters, but beyond that...

Then Kai sensed it: something powerful moving deep underground. He expected to see the ground shaking, or a line of dust where it moved, but when he opened his eyes he saw nothing. The monster was plunging south, to go under the wall... or smash through it. They weren't far away from the portion that had been damaged and the repairs were still visible on the back.

Waiting could be a terrible mistake. Kai leapt into the air and fully armored his body, since he'd have to do this with force. Wings extended from his back as his subconscious prepared to use Thunderbird's Wings. As soon as he pinpointed the monster, he shot down.

Directly into the rock. His body smashed through, driving deep to intercept the burrowing monster.

His plan had been to slash into its side, hopefully taking it out before it realized that anything could attack it underground. But as Kai sensed something moving through the rock, it moved violently, flesh pulsating and striking him.

An instant later, Kai found himself back in the sky, tumbling end over end. How long had it been since he'd been hit that hard? The monster had sensed his arrival and struck back, knocking him into the air hard enough to stun him for a while.

It was emerging, though, having sensed something worth eating. He caught sight of a body much larger than him, dragging itself to the surface with dozens of skeletal arms that clattered over its nightmarish body.

Kai oriented himself, his wings spread further, and he hurtled downward.

.

..

.

In the early stages of the incursion, Zae Zin Nim had taken to the air and showed Deadwaste what a cultivator could really be.

She had, admittedly, gained more respect for the elites and other warriors of the continent than she had once imagined possible. They could cause destruction of their own, and their strategies for the incursion were well-developed. But they had never seen the raw power of a cultivator fighting on their side, and so they had not been prepared for her to take action.

There was no need to use the Coldfire Palm, not against rabble like this. Zae Zin Nim raised one hand and unleashed pure qi in a simple but refined attack, raining death down on the countryside. Monster after monster perished, their very beings incinerated in her power.

Yet the horde of monsters rushed on, heedless. Seeing it as a challenge to her efficiency, Zae Zin Nim released a more concentrated rain of thinner qi bolts that simply punctured through the monsters. Instead of being incinerated, their bodies hit the ground, forming piles that became hills. For all the thousands that rushed toward her, they had yet to take a single pace of ground.

The monsters rushed up the corpses of their comrades, some even leaping at the top, trying to reach her.

Zae Zin Nim frowned and pulled backward, further out of their reach. These monsters were still pathetic, and could not harm her even if they arrived, so the only real concern was to watch for the more powerful ones that would emerge. Yet the fact that she was slaughtering so many of them without actually stemming the tide gave her pause.

As the battle stretched for hours, she ceased to feel triumphant. She was only doing her part - more than would be expected of any of the elites, yes, but simply the role she was expected to play. All her might could weaken the incursion, but she couldn't stop it, not alone.

It was strange to realize, but Zae Zin Nim admitted to herself that even one of the great sects of Cloudspire would be unable to defeat the incursion. Oh, they would have no chance of being destroyed, as Earth Souls and Sky Souls would crush even the stronger monsters. They would survive easily... but as they flew away on their swords, they would forsake their peasants and their lands. Their ability to rule was too dependent on fear and opponents that could be overwhelmed.

Monsters couldn't. For all that she was slaughtering them, she was seeing the limits of slaughter.

Eventually she felt a grim limit: her own reserves of qi were beginning to ebb. She had obliterated all the monsters rushing toward her location, but she could not fight like this forever. In order to do this, for her spouses and all the others, she needed to change her tactics.

And so Zae Zin Nim descended to the earth, prepared her reserves, and let the horde rush at her.