Demonic Po*nstar System

Chapter 663: Baited

"Kaiden Grey! Don’t you dare run away!"

Ash’s voice echoed across the basin, raw and furious. The Pyrawalker Titan swung at him mid-scream and he barely dodged, the molten fist cratering the stone where his head had been a second prior.

"You baited us into this fight! You planned this! Get back here and HELP US!"

— GigaAsh: bro... nobody forced you to jump in

— BigAshEnergy: he literally just walked away and you chased him into the death zone. this is on you

— AlphaViewer: "help us" is crazy work for a man who’s been stealing kills for a whole day

— CuckWatch: the secondhand embarrassment...

Ash’s chat was turning on him in real time.

They were there to watch their gigachad streamer with a harem of hot and obedient girls kill mighty monsters and live the life they wished they could lead.

This... This was not it.

Kaiden didn’t hear any of Ash’s screeching.

He was already a hundred meters northeast with his girls, closing on the Crevice Borer Queen’s position. The Pyrawalker’s roars faded behind them, punctuated by the distant crack of Ash’s weapon against volcanic hide and Brittany’s voice screaming something about formation.

...

It had started the evening before.

Kaiden had contacted Talia.

"You want the veteran track reports for the northern deep zones," she said.

"How did you know?"

"Because I know what was happening, and I think I know you well enough by now." A pause. "I must apologize, Kaiden... I’m almost certain you’re being watched by a very high-tier scout. I sent my men to flush the perpetrator out, but they couldn’t locate them."

"..." Kaiden remained silent at that for a good bit. Talia reached the same conclusion as he had, and even acted on it rapidly without Kaiden having to ask her to. Talia was turning out to be a truly great ally to have, though that much was already certain in his head.

"I’ll have the full briefing sent to your artifact within the hour. Monster species, confirmed level ranges, behavioral patterns, terrain hazards, and engagement reports from every veteran squad of ours that’s pushed past the extreme caution markers in the last week."

"Thank you, Talia."

"Don’t thank me. Just come back alive. Kaiden... This whole competition. Don’t let it get to your head. Your future is far too bright to risk it all here."

"... You’re right. But I still must try my best."

"I knew you’d say that," the guild leader of Runewoven smiled softly.

The reports arrived in a dense information package.

Aria had organized the data by threat level and cross-referenced it with their own combat capabilities. Luna had memorized the terrain maps with the obsessive focus of a woman who treated preparation like a competitive sport. Nyx had identified chokepoints and escape routes. Bastet had studied the behavioral profiles and flagged which species were aggressive on sight, versus territorial, versus migratory.

Even Alice had contributed, cross-referencing the mana density readings from the veteran reports with what she’d been sensing through her Conduit awareness. The currents flowing north. The convergence patterns. The zones where the density spiked high enough to interfere with communication artifacts.

They’d gone to sleep knowing exactly what lived in the deep northern range. The species. The levels. The attack patterns. The weaknesses. They knew the Pyrawalker Titan’s volcanic hide was thickest on its back and thinnest under its forelimbs. They knew the Crevice Borer Queen’s chitin was lightning-resistant but vulnerable to sustained piercing damage at the segment joints. They knew which monsters pursued retreating targets and which lost interest after fifty meters.

Kaiden had chosen the Pyrawalker specifically because it pursued. Once engaged, it wouldn’t let Ashbound disengage cleanly. The creature was aggressive, fast for its size, and treated retreat as an invitation to charge.

He’d chosen the Borer Queen because it was territorial. Stay in its zone, and it would fight. Leave, and it would burrow back into its fissure and wait.

Two monsters, two hundred meters apart. One to trap Ash. One to fight alone.

Ash had never read the veteran reports. Why would he? He’d never planned to come this deep. He’d spent his evenings filming content, reviewing engagement metrics, and strategizing about how to maximize the parasitic kill-stealing approach that had served him so well in the mid-range zones.

He didn’t know what a Pyrawalker Titan did when you tried to run from it.

He was learning now.

...

The Crevice Borer Queen sensed their approach and erupted from its fissure with a piercing screech.

[Crevice Borer Queen — Lv. 79]

Kaiden activated Wrath.

’Let’s see if the reports were accurate.’

The veteran data said the segment joints were the weak point. Piercing damage. Sustained pressure on the same spot until the chitin cracked.

Kaiden drove his blade into the first joint he could reach.

The edge bit. Caught. Slid two inches into the gap between segments before the Queen flexed and nearly ripped the weapon from his hands. He pulled back, and the wound oozed dark ichor.

It worked. Barely. But it worked.

"Aim for the joints between the segments!"

Calypso, for once, didn’t charge in.

She knew what this fight was. A single boss monster, level seventy-nine, against a team of level fifties. In a swarm fight, her job was to throw herself into the chaos, soak aggro, let Carnage feed on the punishment while her allies carved through the herd with room to breathe. That was where she thrived.

This was different. One creature with enough raw power in a single strike to kill any of them outright, Calypso included. Carnage couldn’t feed if the first hit turned her into a corpse.

So she planted herself between the Queen and her team, axe low, stance wide. Primary frontliner. The shield, not the sword.

The Queen’s mandible came down like a battering ram.

Calypso caught it on the flat of her axe, and the impact drove her boots six inches into the stone. Her arms screamed. Carnage drank the shockwave and converted it into raw durability, hardening her body just enough to keep the next hit from shattering her guard.

"Go!" she snarled.

Luna went.

Storm flooded her legs, and she launched forward in a blur of violet lightning. For once, it wasn’t a blade of storm in her hands, but a traditional shortsword.

She did so because of the reports saying the creature was resistant to her element. Bolts of lightning wouldn’t penetrate the chitin, but the electricity running through her own body turned her into the fastest thing on the battlefield. She hit the Queen’s flank at full speed, drove the blade into a segment joint, twisted, and pulled out before the creature could react.

Ichor sprayed. The wound was shallow but real.

Luna was already gone, circling for the next pass.

The Queen thrashed toward her and Calypso threw herself into its path, catching a segment slam across her torso that launched her backward. She hit the ground rolling, came up spitting blood, and grinned.

Carnage hummed louder.

"Again!" she shouted, already charging back in.

Aria rained moonlight from above, thin concentrated beams aimed at the joints Luna had opened. The projectiles punched into the gaps like needles, piercing deep where blunt force couldn’t reach. The Queen shrieked and burrowed its front half into the stone to escape the aerial assault.

Bastet was waiting for that.

Dominion seized the exposed rear segments and superheated the stone beneath them, cooking the chitin from below. The Queen shrieked in fury, a sound that shook loose rocks off the surrounding formations and ripped itself free with enough force to crack Bastet’s field. But the chitin where she’d cooked it was discolored now, brittle.

Nyx couldn’t move a level seventy-nine monster. She didn’t even try. Instead, she ripped a boulder the size of a horse out of the basin wall with spatial force and slammed it into the weakened section.

The chitin cracked.

"There!" Kaiden shouted.

He and Luna hit the crack together at full speed. Greatsword and shortsword in, twist, out. Deeper this time. The wound gaped open, and dark ichor poured from the breach.

The Queen went berserk.

Its entire body whipped sideways in a thrashing spiral that turned the immediate area into a kill zone of flailing chitin and snapping mandibles. Calypso grabbed Luna and Kaiden mid-retreat and took the hit meant for them, a segment edge catching her across the back hard enough to send them all tumbling.