Chapter 585: Multitudinous Jaws

(Cognosticon here, back from hiatus. The Audible release is still November 4, but prep and announcements may come sooner than I expected. Things may be hectic, but I promise not to take another hiatus here since I just took one. May need a break at the end of the year, though.)

Of course Kai didn't sprint off from the dinner the instant he had an objective. Throwing ideas at one another was actually commonplace for them, from Zae Zin Nim giving suggestions about everyone's cultivation to Inafay and Orotaisin offering Omilaena perspective on souls unified around a single theme to all-around discussion of Physique.

Eventually, however, they had to part. When they established that they'd be fighting on different fronts, there were many embraces, more than he had expected. They'd be seeing one another during the incursion, most likely, and soon after if not, but it still felt like a significant parting.

With that done, Kai found himself impatient with the rest of their tour. When Kai contacted the elites, he had only a single question:

"Are there any monstrous piranhas on Deadwaste?"

While they conferred, Kai joined his wives visiting another city to prepare them for the incursion. Fortunately, they didn't make him wait long, and they reported that there was actually a strong possibility in the mountains of the Wind Union. There he would allegedly find a mountain pool where an aggressive type of piranha monster had been trapped by some past flood. They were isolated enough that they were no threat, and before this point even Kai hadn't had any use for some random monsters.

After everything else he'd done, the Wind Union didn't even discuss compensation, and if anything they seemed to think it was an honor for him to hunt monsters in their realm. All he needed to do was spend a little time there, encouraging the local hunters while they checked their records and arranged transportation. Exactly what he was doing anyway, so he graciously accepted their terms.

Kai shifted as he waited in a random Wind Union village, wishing he could just fly there himself. He'd definitely be faster than their ship, but he needed their expertise to find the exact pool, and it would be rude if he flew off so soon after meeting with the local leaders. Instead he tried to tell himself that they were saving him lots of time by bringing him straight to monsters he couldn't have afforded to hunt on his own.

While he waited, Kai noticed that a young man was staring at him. That alone wasn't too unusual, but this one wasn't Windborn, had a determined expression, and was vaguely familiar. The young man eventually forced himself forward to greet Kai. Nothing about the lean young man was ringing any particular bells...

"Do... do you remember me?" he asked. "A couple years ago..."

"The Hundred Zephyr Rings." Kai snapped as the memories connected: he'd participated in a local competition to get elite attention, and in the process he'd helped a kid who had been striving against the odds. "How did that ring work out for you?"

"I got more than I deserve. Once I realized who you were, I realized you must have let me..." The boy lowered his head. "Thank you. My name is Aniogun, and I can never repay you."

"Don't worry about that. I'll consider myself repaid if you make something of yourself... I'm guessing the elemental test didn't work out for you? Me neither."

Aniogun explained about how he had used the resources he won to train his Physique, earn some money, and try to purchase chakra from overseas. The result had gotten him to around 70 Power, which wasn't much to Kai, but he recognized that was an accomplishment. After Kai's little nudge, he hadn't gotten anyone to help him, not like Kai's students or even a Gunjin.

"Listen," Kai said during a break in the conversation, "I need to hunt something now, but fight the incursion as best you can. If you survive, talk to the elites and mention my name. They might see the potential that your elders couldn't."

That prompted a huge flood of gratitude, enough to make Kai a little uncomfortable, so he was grateful when the Wind Union officials finally showed up. After saying farewell to Aniogun, since the meeting meant a lot more to the boy, Kai headed off to hunt these piranhas.

For a while they simply soared over mountain ranges, which were beautiful but inhospitable. Kai reflected that it might be nice to live in an austere environment far from everyone like this. They could build a house atop one of the mountains and they'd have whole valleys to themselves. Of course, that sounded like a dream of retirement, and he wasn't likely to be able to retire soon if ever.

The pool was eventually found on an obscure peak in the west, but once Kai got in range, he could smell the monsters. He jumped over the side of the ship, not even using Thunderbird's Wings, just dropped straight toward his destination.

From the air he couldn't spot the actual monsters, but the shape of their souls resolved for him in familiar characters. Nice to have a monster that was easily understood by spiritual sense for once.

<

Monster: Deadwaste Piranha

Threat: Delta (IV)

>

Only delta-ranked threats... he was going to need to eat a lot of them.

When he plunged into the water, his impact alone sent many of the piranha blasting out, dying against the rocks. But those who survived by chance immediately rushed at him: they might not be able to starve to death, but their hunger grew while isolated until they were desperate for human flesh.

As the piranhas futilely bit at his skin, Kai snapped them up whole with Isulfr's Bite. He had to admit that Inafay had a point - even with all his speed, even with experience, he couldn't bite as quickly as the swarm did. If they had actually been able to pierce his skin, that might have been a problem.

In the end Kai needed to leave the pool and consume the dead monsters as well in order to build up enough essence, but he managed to resolve a new coherent ability in his soul.

<

Deadwaste Piranha - IV (delta)

>

The new biting ability wasn't particularly strong, but it was a perfect match for the essence he'd absorbed from piranha swarms on Rosemount and Cloudspire. They all used roughly the same tactic of numerous small bites, they just did it in slightly different ways, having manifested in completely different environments.

<

Deadwaste Piranha - IV (delta)

Rosemount Piranha - IV (delta)

Cloudspire Piranha - IV (delta)

>

Merging them was more of a strategic question than a challenge. Kai seriously considered trying a super-merger that would incorporate Isulfr's Bite, since he hadn't gotten much use from it lately. But the more he contemplated the exact essence, the more that felt wrong: Isulfr's Bite was an intense piercing ability that had saved his life on occasion, so he should find a way to upgrade it eventually, not feed it into a secondary ability.

So in the end he merely fed all the piranhas to one another, creating a swarm in his soul that easily cohered into a single ability.

<

Legion Bite - II (beta)

>

When he tested out the new "Legion Bite" ability on the mountainside, dozens of small holes were gouged from it instantly. What surprised him was that he still got the taste of stone, even from a distance, and his body processed it all into his monstrous self. Eating stone was immensely unsatisfying and he wanted to test the bite on living flesh.

This one was going to be tricky to experiment with, because it would be downright torturous on people. He guessed that for someone like Zae Zin Nim, the miniature bites would glance right off her defenses, but they should take chunks out of monsters.

With his new ability in tow, Kai thanked the Wind Union officials and teleported back to the Frontier to polish his new essence. Truthfully, however, he didn't spend much time with it, because he became preoccupied with several new developments.

First and most importantly, all of his training with the elites had made Behemoth's Heart finally raise a level. It wasn't capable of regenerating phased damage instantly, but such injuries no longer hindered him the way they once had. With this done, plus his increasing phase mastery, there was less reason to train with the elites and he focused on final developments of his own.

When Kai broke through to B-4, he decided to temporarily delay Physique training in order to maximize cultivation time. Ever since his breakthrough on Cloudspire, he had been dutifully building his dantian through the Nascent Foundation stage. Sometimes it had seemed pointless, the cliff between cultivation stages too high to be relevant, but he'd kept at it.

Now he had somehow reached 80% of the way, and Zae Zin Nim became convinced that if the incursion kept being delayed, he could make it. She had techniques for intensive cultivation, pushing him along with unparalleled speed. If he did manage to make it, the next stage was Earth Soul, which would give him a huge boost in Power and a lot more monstrous potential to work with, so he dedicated himself to it.

Then, one night he raced on a thousand feet, tasting blood in his mouth, swelling with the throb of an eldritch heartbeat.

He woke up covered in sweat, his mouth full of monstrous teeth and his hands transformed into claws. All he'd done with those claws was clutch Zae Zin Nim and Omilaena, pulling them close with almost violent force. They were concerned at first, then as they made eye contact, they knew.

"It's happening?" Omilaena asked.

"I felt it," Kai said, still feeling the resonance with the abyss at the heart of the Frontier. "The incursion is beginning."