Chapter 218: Crystalliers to the Brink

Chapter 218: Crystalliers to the Brink

If it had been Ren Ziq Quen alone, Zae Zin Nim would have done her best to fight him to the bitter end. Seeing Yurwa and the others retreating to the tower, about to be crushed by the stone, had finally driven her to take a stand. She had to give this fight everything she had.

But they had only fought for a few minutes before Boreas appeared, floating on crystals that appeared to be embedded in his body. His qi might be derived from crystals, and he made no attempt to coordinate with Ren Ziq Quen, but he was as powerful as his title suggested. Between the two of them Zae Zin Nim could only retreat. She desperately wanted to get to safety, yet if she actually escaped them, they would only turn around and attack her allies.

Now that the primary armies had been broken and scattered, maybe she had a chance to use one of their plans. Her determination to stop them didn't extend to throwing her life away for no reason. So Zae Zin Nim retreated to the Yulthens Stadium, which was a hollow shell of itself without the audience.

There she could feel the pieces of the plan in place... but there was no time to think about that. Ren Ziq Quen and Boreas had arrived, both rotating around the outside of the arena and waiting for her to flee. This time she didn't make any move to escape and simply bowed toward the other cultivator.T/his chapter is updated by nov(ê(l)biin.co/m

"Ren Ziq Quen, I formally challenge you," she said. "If you believe you are truly superior to me, then prove it in a fair duel."

"You proved you were inferior when you allied with peasants," he responded, "and you forfeited your right to a fair duel at the same time."

"This isn't a game." Boreas clenched one fist, which began to glow brightly as he prepared another technique. "This is a war between crystalliers."

Except that it wasn't, not solely. If they had been paying more attention, they would have noticed the weak qi presences around the arena, but they were Diamond Crystalliers and peasants were beneath them. All their attention was on her, the true threat to their dominance.

So when the revolutionaries rose from the boxes and emerged on balconies, they were unprepared. Arrows swept into the arena like a wave, tipped with anti-crystallier spikes and acid spheres and monster fangs. Ren Ziq Quen immediately moved in an anti-projectile routine that sent them spinning away, but Boreas wasn't quite so fast.

Even though he put up defenses, these arrows were designed to punch through them. Several embedded themselves in his body and he staggered, the light within him dimming. Zae Zin Nim added her power to that of the peasants, hurling her own qi techniques to deflect his and drive him back. Another arrow struck, this one through his arm.

Boreas roared out and for a moment his body glowed so bright she could see a crystalline skeleton alight within him. He shot directly upward, tearing through the storm of arrows. It was a display of immense power... and he was fleeing. Retreating from a bunch of peasants who even now kept releasing arrows after him.

A palm swept toward Zae Zin Nim's chest.

She barely knocked it aside, but Ren Ziq Quen was too fast and already deep into his striking technique. The third blow clipped her arm and the fourth sent her flying backward, through one of the arena walls. When Zae Zin Nim staggered back to her feet, she had to wipe blood from her mouth.

Ren Ziq Quen walked in over the rubble, tearing an arrow out of his robe. "You wanted a duel? Looks like you'll get one after all, and see exactly how little you're worth."

.

Kai limped toward the docks, willing Behemoth's Heart to heal his leg faster. He had been in better condition before he needed to fight a couple Ruby Crystalliers to help Maggle and his allies escape. But Nirka was still down there, apparently critically injured, and she was being slowly hemmed in by the combination of Suortril and Traelisia.

When he'd had others with him, it had seemed like a winnable fight. But Zae Zin Nim was nowhere to be seen and Omilaena had been forced to engage with Boreas, so now he was the only one. Kai drank the one potion he had stored, wishing that it could knit him back together faster.

At his best, he might be able to take on Traelisia. Even a little weakened, he thought his odds were good if he kept track of her Elemental Nations skills and leveraged his own advantages. But with Suortril there, nullifying so many attacks with his damn prism, it seemed impossible. The merchant looked smug about it too, floating within his stone defenses.

What could break through that prism? If he had full access to the chakra that now flowed inside him, maybe he could pierce it, but all of that went to fuel raw force. Void Gaze seemed most likely to ignore the prism, but Kai didn't think that would actually disable Suortril, and as soon as he acted, Traelisia would be counterattacking. Infernotoad's Burst had fire, but the prism would no doubt stop the boulder. Acidic Lance would have seemed a bit more promising, except that acid cultivation had already proved useless.

He knew from experience that Tyrant's Claw wouldn't work, but what about Isulfr's Bite? It had always been his strongest technique, capable of piercing armor and even consuming raw power. The limited range seemed to make it surge from the very heart of his power, the most potent attack he could manage.

If he got close enough, he could try it. The problem was getting there.

As soon as Behemoth's Heart had basically restored his body, Kai began sprinting down the city toward the docks. Traelisia noted his approach and immediately identified him as the largest threat: she withdrew most of her attacks from the struggling army and instead began throwing spike after spike of stone at him.

Kai spun aside from some, leapt off others, slid between more, and made his way closer. The distance between them was vanishing fast, and Traelisia desperately tried to throw up a wall of stone. He hit the side with his foot and ran up it, launching himself into the air and closing in on Suortril.

Silver flames drove him backwards.

The next thing Kai knew, he'd slammed backward into the pavement. Stone leapt up to bind him in place but he clawed it aside, getting back to his feet barely in time to be hit by another gout of flame. It burned, almost as badly as when he had been struck by the golden dragon. Behemoth's Heart was pounding wildly, but it couldn't possibly build up his defenses in time for this battle.

"Is that all?" As the flames faded they revealed Suortril, stroking an ornate silver carving of a dragon's head. "When I heard you barely survived one dragon, I thought I'd find another. This sort of power isn't that difficult to buy, you know."

When Kai tried to dodge, stone closed around his legs. Traelisia unleashed several more spikes to impale him and he managed to knock them aside, but meanwhile the stone around his legs began crushing. If he hadn't reached D rank Physique, his legs might already have been broken. But desperately trying to defend himself in place, he couldn't possibly escape the next gout of silver flame.

It faded and Suortril shook his head at him while the dragon head recharged. "Still alive, but not for long. This is going to end exactly the way it did before. You could have saved us all the trouble by dying instead of bothering with this tiresome determination."

"No!" Nirka leapt from the water with a cry, her spear thrusting at Traelisia.

She didn't have a chance in hell of actually killing the Diamond Crystallier, but her abrupt attack took Traelisia's attention away from the fight. A moment later Cragrila leapt from above, her spear punching through Suotril's stone - and glancing off his prism. The spearwoman redirected, trying to drive Traelisia back. As her stone attacks ceased, Kai was left staring just at Suortril and the silver dragon carving, invulnerable inside that glittering prism.

It seemed hopeless... and then, all at once, he realized that he had been thinking too small.