Demonic Po*nstar System

Chapter 662: Pest Control

[Mirecrawler Alpha — Lv. 74]

[Venomfang Matriarch — Lv. 75]

These were lounging in a valley to the east, unbothered by the human teams that gave them a wide berth. The Matriarch’s paralytic aura was visible even from this distance, a shimmering distortion in the air around her that made Kaiden’s instincts itch.

[Ashwalker — Lv. 76]

[Shellback Gorger — Lv. 76]

[Glasswing Swarm — Lv. 77]

The monsters grew larger. Stranger. Species that had no business coexisting stood side by side on the slopes, their aggression directed only at things that crossed their path. Everything else, including each other, was ignored. The migration pattern was more obvious here.

<Big brother.> Alice’s voice was quieter now. <The mana currents are getting really strong. Everything is flowing in the same direction.>

"I know."

Aria moved closer to Kaiden as they ran. "The levels are outpacing what we’ve been grinding. If we engage anything above seventy-five, we need full focus and even then..."

"Agreed."

[Pyrawalker Titan — Lv. 78]

[Crevice Borer Queen — Lv. 79]

Luna had stopped ahead of them, perched on a ridge overlooking a wide basin. When the group caught up to her, she pointed north.

The basin stretched for half a kilometer before rising into a series of jagged peaks that disappeared into low-hanging clouds. Monsters dotted the landscape in numbers that made the rookie zones look like a petting zoo.

Dozens of species, all of them high-level, all of them moving in the same direction.

And in the center of the basin, half-buried in black stone that pulsed with veins of dim light, a creature Kaiden had never seen before raised its head, adorned with six burning eyes.

[Convergence Warden — Lv. 80]

’There it is.’

Kaiden looked at his girls. They looked back.

They were deep.

...

Kaiden didn’t engage.

He stood on the ridge overlooking the basin and studied it. The monster positions. The terrain. The spacing between clusters. The paths that connected one zone to another. Where the slopes narrowed. Where the sightlines opened up.

While the association did its best to showcase monster positions themselves, it was always best to observe with one’s own eyes.

Ash caught up with his girls in tow. He wasn’t breathing hard, and neither were they. Whatever Kaiden thought of Ashbound’s ethics, their physical conditioning was real.

"So?" Ash walked up beside him, camera drones framing the basin behind them. "Are we fighting or are we sightseeing?"

Kaiden didn’t answer. He was watching a Pyrawalker Titan shift its weight on a slope about four hundred meters northeast. The creature was massive, wreathed in heat distortion, its volcanic hide cracked with glowing fissures. Level seventy-eight. Sturdy. Aggressive. The kind of monster that demanded sustained commitment once engaged.

About two hundred meters past it, partially obscured by a rock formation, a second creature grazed. A Crevice Borer Queen, level seventy-nine. Alone. Unaware.

Two monsters. Close enough to scout together from this vantage point. Far enough apart that engaging one wouldn’t aggro the other.

Kaiden filed the positions away.

"Getting cold feet, Grey?" Ash grinned at his camera. "Because if you dragged us all the way up here just to stand around-"

Kaiden moved.

He dropped off the ridge and headed northeast toward the Pyrawalker Titan with his girls flowing into formation behind him.

Ash scrambled to follow.

The Pyrawalker saw them coming. It reared up, volcanic heat billowing outward in a wave that scorched the stone beneath it. The temperature spiked. The air shimmered.

Kaiden engaged.

He hit the creature with a Wrath-fueled opening strike that carved a line across its forelimb. The Titan roared and swung back, a molten fist the size of a car slamming into the ground where he’d been standing a half-second prior. Luna followed with a Storm barrage that cracked against the creature’s hide. Calypso dodged a sweeping tail, keeping her distance. At level fifty-one, a clean hit from a monster of this power wouldn’t feed Carnage. It would simply kill her.

The fight looked intense. From Ash’s vantage point on the ridge, it would have looked like Kaiden’s team was giving everything they had. Luna’s Storm barrages crackled across the Titan’s hide. Calypso weaved between strikes, snarling. Nyx compressed the space around the creature’s legs, slowing its pivots. Aria circled from above, moonlight beams probing for weak points. Bastet held center, Dominion field keeping the Titan from charging freely.

It looked like a team at full stretch against a superior opponent.

It wasn’t.

Kaiden was pulling his strikes. Landing them in non-critical spots where the damage looked impressive but wouldn’t meaningfully weaken the creature, but in exchange, he, too, wasn’t in extreme danger.

Luna’s barrages hit the thickest parts of the hide where they’d crack and spark but barely penetrate. Nyx’s spatial compression was firm enough to be visible but loose enough that the Titan could push through it. Even Aria’s moonlight probed without committing to the gaps she’d already found.

They were performing, not fighting.

The Pyrawalker was angry, engaged, and very much at full strength.

Ash saw what Kaiden wanted him to see: a team struggling against a monster that was being stretched thin, fighting so many enemies at once.

’Now.’

Ash launched himself off the ridge, weapon blazing, and drove a full-power strike into the Titan’s exposed neck.

It should have been a kill shot. Against anything they’d fought in the mid-range zones, it would have been. Ash was level seventy-three with an S-tier class and the raw stats to match. His attack could cleave through monsters without slowing down.

The Pyrawalker’s neck cracked. Fissures of molten light split across the wound.

But the creature didn’t fall.

It screamed.

A wall of volcanic force erupted outward from the Titan’s body, a fiery shockwave that launched Ash backward through the air. He hit the ground rolling, armor smoking, and came up snarling.

The Pyrawalker turned on him.

Brittany, Stacy, and Trisha rushed in from behind, committing to support Ash before the Titan could follow up. Brittany’s blade caught the creature’s flank. Stacy drove a shield bash into its knee. Trisha opened fire from range, energy bolts hammering its body.

All four of them were in the fight now.

The Pyrawalker lunged at Ash with the fury of a creature that remembered exactly who had tried to take its head off. Ash blocked, the impact driving him back across the scorched stone, boots carving furrows in the rock.

Kaiden watched the moment arrive.

’Now.’

Bastet moved.

The ground beneath the Pyrawalker erupted. A column of compressed earth and stone exploded upward directly under the creature’s belly while Ash stood within arm’s reach, hammering its flank. The Titan staggered, shrieked, and locked onto the closest source of pain it could find.

Ash. Right there. Already hitting it.

The creature’s rage focused like a lens. Everything else ceased to exist. There was only the man in front of it who kept swinging.

The Pyrawalker charged Ashbound.

Ash had no time to question why the monster had suddenly looked like it was taunted onto him. He was too busy surviving.

And Kaiden’s group ran.

There was nothing clean about it.

Luna grabbed Bastet by the waist and broke into a dead sprint, hauling the Pharaoh off her feet with the grace of a woman stealing a couch from a burning building. Bastet’s expression was magnificent. Absolute indignation compressed into a single frozen glare directed at the back of Luna’s head, legs dangling, dignity in tatters.

"Put me down right this instant! I can run!"

"Yeah, at the leisurely pace of a granny."

Aria grabbed Nyx and took to the sky. Kaiden and Calypso just ran. Raw muscle and long strides, no magic, no finesse, just two people with strong legs and a healthy appreciation for not being near an angry volcano monster.

Calypso was grinning the entire time.

"This is the worst plan you’ve ever had!" Luna hissed over her shoulder while feeling Bastet try to claw through her armor.

"Desperate times call for desperate measures..." Kaiden grumbled.

Behind them, the Pyrawalker was fully committed to Ashbound. Ash’s weapon clashed against the Titan’s molten hide. Brittany was screaming spell names. Stacy was trying to create distance. Trisha’s ranged attacks pounded the creature’s armor to no visible effect.

It was time to begin fighting monsters above level 75, granting significantly higher rewards - both XP, Dungeon Master Points, and competition points.

But it came at a giant risk.

These monsters... They were beyond powerful.

Evidenced by Ash screaming, "Kaiden Grey! Don’t you dare run away!"