Chapter 464: A Matriarch's Last Stand

This would work. It had to, or she would fail everyone.

Zae Zin Nim judged that their success this far was only partially due to their own strength. A significant portion was Nymidria, who had planted and nurtured sources of power for decades as she worked with the Verdant River sect. Now she was burning through all of those in minutes, producing a truly heroic effort that could keep so many enemies at bay... and couldn't possibly be enough.

The other main limitation of their enemy was that they failed to coordinate properly. Too many of them were patriarchs, unused to working together with others. Those who served under the Masterful Crown clan were at least taking orders from the same place, but her father, Xir Xan Khan, the mercenary, and others didn't even share the same objectives.

So she had a limited amount of time to find a solution for her Physique, before their opponents either banded together or got lucky and destroyed the shell protecting her. Zae Zin Nim took a deep breath and began drinking the familiar resources, willing herself not to back away this time, to finally take that final step that was keeping her from finding a real solution.

How long did she have? It all depended on her father, and whether he would be willing to work with the others... her father...

No, she couldn't think about that. Couldn't think at all. The only thing that remained was for her to do.

.

..

.

Even though the duel was technically two against many, Kai was surprised how well he and Omilaena fought together. Xir Xan Khan might have hired Jackal Thirteen, but the two of them had no combat experience together, in fact didn't even trust one another. By contrast, he and Omilaena worked together like a well-oiled machine, sliding around one another as they fought.

Going toe-to-toe with Xir Xan Khan never produced a strong result, since the cultivator was too polished to be simply overpowered, while he couldn't cause a deep enough injury to truly inhibit Kai. Meanwhile Omilaena and Jackal Thirteen endlessly circled one another's weaknesses: her ice qi could freeze his threads, but her poison did little against his puppets.

Continuing like this wasn't an option: they might be able to win this match-up, but all the patriarchs and other opponents would eventually destroy Nymidria, then they wouldn't have a chance. Kai decided that he had to take a gamble and leapt in between the two enemies, ready to take the inevitable hits.

Instead, a shockwave swept over the battlefield, sending them all tumbling wildly. Kai was completely off balance as he bounced over the rubble and Omilaena leapt on his back, practically riding him and urging him to move onward.

Since the impacts against the ground barely hurt him, Kai let the shockwave carry them further, some distance away from the sect headquarters. That meant being further away from Zae Zin Nim, but maybe they could draw fire away from her. It also gave them space to figure out what had happened to cause such a shockwave, and when he looked up, at first he wasn't sure what he was seeing.

Zae Clen Ban hovered in the air opposite the Masterful Crown patriarch, his palm pressing against a wall of gold qi. The two were shouting at one another as their power clashed and lesser shockwaves rolled over the battlefield.

For a moment Kai hoped they had turned on one another and the enemy coalition would fall apart, but that would have been too lucky. For anyone, much less him. Instead he checked on Xir Xan Khan and Jackal Thirteen, who had been knocked in different directions, and then glanced to Omilaena.

"Did you see what happened?"

"Zae Clen Ban was going to strike Nymidria," she explained tersely, "and Patriarch Yul accidentally hit him with his presence technique."

"Too much to hope they'll fight?"

"Definitely. We only have a little longer to prepare."

What could he even do, given so little time? Omilaena appeared to be preparing another injection for herself, but Kai was running out of new tricks and didn't dare switch essence in a battle like this. Instead he took stock of the other patriarchs scattered around the battlefield, who were also looking nervously at the two powers clashing. It seemed like they had realized they were far from invincible in a battle like this, which made them more cautious than they would otherwise be.

Finally the two split: the Masterful Crown patriarch released his aura and Zae Clen Ban withdrew his hand. It seemed that they had dealt with their egos, because they turned away from one another to the rest of the battlefield to end things.

And in that moment, Nymidria struck.

More roots tore from the ground, making the sky tremble with their power. Kai could see that the dryad matriarch's leaves were dissolving into qi as she burned her life essence, but she unlocked an almost horrifying level of growth. As the roots flickered blue many of them punched directly through the golden shields, while others assaulted the enemies around her.

One even managed to wrap around the man who had unleashed the globes of acid, and he let out a scream as the roots penetrated his body. An enormous amount of qi began draining from him, flooding down the roots into the earth, and in the same moment Nymidria glowed with new strength. One of her roots rose like a serpent and then split open, blasting the two central patriarchs with an onslaught of chakra, qi, and mana.

Against such a flood of power, even the two of them were halted... but not injured. Zae Clen Ban protected himself with another sphere of wind, while the Masterful Crown patriarch relied on his presence technique to shield him.

It was only a matter of time. They needed to make that time count.

"Now?" Kai asked. Omilaena just nodded and leapt away from him.

They flew across the top of the battlefield, ignoring their old opponents in favor of the patriarchs who still hovered overhead. Omilaena leapt off Kai's back, so light he barely noticed, and flew toward the matriarch. She unleashed bolt after bolt of lightning, but Omilaena wove in between them agilely as she closed the distance.

Meanwhile, Kai reversed direction with Thunderbird's Wings and exploded toward the patriarch summoning another blue sphere. This time Kai focused his full power on a half-phase, and when he arrived he didn't try to dodge or run: he struck the sphere with his bare hand.

His hand, transforming into a claw and reinforced by the half-phase, barely managed to survive the impact and sent the sphere flying toward the two lead patriarchs. The old man stared in shock as his technique smashed into them, as if he feared their retaliation.

He should have feared Kai instead.

Now that Kai had closed the distance, he tore into the cultivator with raw strength. The old man tried to throw up qi barriers, but Kai clawed those apart until he began cutting through flesh. With so little Physique, once he was struck, the old patriarch crumpled and fell from the sky trailing blood.

The sphere impact left Kai covered in minor qi burns he hadn't even noticed in the heat of the moment, so he took a moment hanging in the sky to catch his breath and heal. Across the battlefield, he saw that Omilaena was retreating to the ground, apparently injured... but the matriarch above her wasn't summoning any more lightning, she was clutching the syringe embedded in her neck.

As the sphere-user fell and the matriarch retreated, the battlefield swung wildly again... but Kai knew that it was far from over. Zae Clen Ban and the Masterful Crown patriarch were still almost untouched, despite the explosions and the constant flood of attacks from Nymidria.

Kai regenerated his wings and started to move, but he was too late. Zae Clen Ban slipped out of the onslaught, spun through a swarm of razor leaves untouched, and reached Nymidria.

When his palm struck her trunk, the crack sounded throughout the battlefield. Nymidria let out a scream and her roots began to wither.

She retaliated with a burst of enraged strength, but the Masterful Crown patriarch began creating more golden barriers, deflecting her attacks and boxing her in. Zae Clen Ban calmly evaded her thrashing attempts while he summoned a spear of green qi, then he drove it through her heart, impaling both human body and trunk.

The last of the dryad matriarch's leaves began to fall away as her life force ebbed. Kai slowed down as he realized that he was too late, and getting close would only put him in range of all the remaining enemies on the field.

"You should never have betrayed me," the Masterful Crown patriarch said scornfully. "We took you in when you were nothing, gave you qi and a place to stay, and you undermine us? This is what the Verdant River sect gets for trusting non-humans."

"And this is... what I get... for trusting you..." Nymidria's mouth was filling with blood now, but she only sounded sorrowful.

"You think it was worth it? Even as we speak, my son is making you pay for your crimes."

A new fear awoke in Nymidria's eyes. "Wait... no..."

"Yes... in fact, let's bring him here now!" The patriarch hurled down a talisman and a swirl of teleportation energy began to form.

Even before Kai made out the bodies within it, he knew that they wouldn't be allies.