Chapter 153: Yulthens vs Rosemount

Chapter 153: Yulthens vs Rosemount

The battle between Omilaena and Tareth moved aggressively around the room, but Kai thought she had the edge. She was primarily using her pipe as a blunt weapon, somehow reinforcing it with chakra so that it could equal his blows. As strong as Tareth's Spellword Class was, she seemed to be adapting, taking fewer impacts from his shockwaves with each exchange.

Eventually Tareth let out a shout, shattering the air all around him. Omilaena leapt out of range... toward Kai.

He'd been thinking about how to use his moment of surprise, so he was ready. Kai threw a weak Tyrant's Claw with his left hand, and as expected Omilaena dodged even though she had her back to him. But she dodged predictably and he grabbed her arm with his right hand, binding her in place.

"Tareth, now!" Kai knew he couldn't hold her long, but he hoped it would be enough to turn the fight.

During his planning he'd considered dozens of responses from Omilaena, ranging from grappling to stabbing to emitting more poisonous smoke. He hadn't ever imagined that she would instead back up into him, bumping her ass into his crotch.

"I remember you." She smiled over her shoulder. "Mmm, you got stronger, but h-"

She was trying to distract him, but Kai was fully in combat mode and wouldn't be lead astray by a pretty face or pretty anything else. After the brief surprise, he clawed at her throat, intending to make her pay for toying with him.

Somehow she raised her pipe in the way, knocking aside his fingers before he could complete the technique. At that moment Tareth completed his technique and let out another shout that looked like it would strike them both, but Omilaena threw herself backward faster than Kai could have reacted.

He realized that he'd been smashed partially into the wall. Omilaena was still grinding back against him, despite having just hip-slammed him across the room. "What's interesting is that I know that poison should have fully paralyzed you, but you managed to process it somehow," she said mildly. "Curious."

When he began preparing a Tyrant's Claw at full power, she laughed and stabbed him in the shoulder with another needle. He staggered, struggling to resist the poison, while she flipped across the room to resume her battle with Tareth.

"Get out of here!" The Diamond Crystallier was bleeding from more wounds than Kai had expected and waved roughly in his direction. "Take the others, save them before she uses them as hostages."

"Oh, but I haven't threatened them once!" Omilaena clapped her hands on the sides of her face. "Would you like me to start?"

Dragging out all the poisoned fighters seemed impossible and Kai refused to be dismissed so easily. He let Behemoth's Heart beat against the poison while concentrating all his monstrous power in his other arm. When he finally unleashed a Tyrant's Claw, they both took notice.

The technique failed to connect, but it tore through one of the walls of the room. Tareth paused and glanced back at Kai, as if reconsidering again. Omilaena landed in the corridor outside the room, examining the severed end of her pipe. Then she laughed and ran away from them - no more sauntering, she was fast.

His vision began to swim as he struggled to avoid falling and sank to one knee. Something still didn't add up, especially as he saw Omilaena return to the boat and set up something near the front. It began to move and continued accelerating, even when she jumped back to the dock. She hopped out of it and touched something at her side, which made a glimmering crystal appear over the top of the boat.

Even though Kai still didn't understand, he opened his mouth to call some sort of warning. Before he could, he saw Omilaena flashing toward him and smelled sweet smoke.

.

..

.

Kai awoke from a deep sleep, unbelievably relaxed. He didn't remember the last time he had slept so well, but it put him in a content mood. As if he wanted nothing more than to settle back and go to sleep... no. No, his memories started to filter back and he forced himself to open his eyes.

There was a roof jolting overhead, and the motions were consistent with a carriage. Yet when he managed to overcome the lethargy and look to the side, he saw that he was in a surprisingly large room. He was tied to one of several tables, each of which contained a bound crystallier. That alone would have been worrisome enough, but she was there.

Omilaena stood over one of the bodies and something about her had changed. She was still wearing the elegant dress, only a little cut up from the battle. That showed off curves that should have been attractive, yet she wasn't standing to emphasize them.

"You again." She glanced toward him and to his surprise she was wearing goggles, which other than being blue-tinted completely clashed with the rest of her look. "You feeling alright?"

"Not... dead...?" He could feel that Behemoth's Heart was restoring him quickly, but guessed it was better to pretend to be weak for now.

"Oh, I wouldn't benefit from killing any of you, at least not in battle." Omilaena walked toward his bed with a syringe in hand. "All the same, I'm going to need you to stay calm, because you could disrupt the plan now."

"We're going overland." Kai had to swallow some sort of gunk in his throat, but he was more alert now that he put it together. "You sent the ship off as a decoy, then circled back."

"And not stupid, either! There are tunnels out of the city that they didn't know about, so those were always the escape route, but I needed something to throw the cultivators off my tail. And it doesn't hurt to get so much fresh material."

"That's what we are to you? Material?"

Omilaena pulled off her goggles to prop them on her forehead, then gave him a narrow smile. "Maybe the others, but you... well, that's what we're going to find out soon enough."