Demonic Po*nstar System Chapter 693: Reunited

The canvas flap of the tent ripped apart abruptly, unleashing five women who surged inside like a torrent restrained by a barrier of fabric and sheer resolve.

Calypso arrived at his side ahead of the others.

The Valkyrie collided with him at maximum velocity, her arms encircling his midsection with power sufficient to snap the bones of an inferior man, while the steel seat he'd occupied offered no resistance. It overturned rearward, carrying Kaiden along until his spine met the surface with Calypso atop him, and prior to any chance to inhale, the remaining four figures added their weight to the stack.

Bastet nuzzled into the crook of his neck. From the side, Aria's limbs clamped around his hips. Luna rested her brow on his shoulder, clinging with a hold that betrayed no nonchalance. Nyx arranged herself over the entire group with the poised precision of someone who had determined the ideal position to connect with him amid the cluster of overly desperate females already surrounding him.

The steel chair rested tilted on the floor. The recording device teetered upon its stand.

Not one of them paid it any mind.

"You’re okay!" Aria whispered against his torso, her voice laced with relief so intense it could flay layers from walls.

"Darling’s okay!" Calypso repeated, her tone booming, cheek mashed into his shoulder blade.

Bastet’s ears lay pressed flat, her tail wound firmly about his leg, and the rumble emerging from her was a blend of purr and snarl, akin to a feline’s claim on a possession nearly stolen away. She raised her chin slightly to utter words.

"I’m going to kill that woman."

Kaiden blinked. "What woman?"

"The one with the folder." Bastet’s gaze was slit-eyed and blazing with rage. "She claimed she tortured you. She grinned while saying it. Does she believe that’s amusing?"

"Bastet, she was joking. She made me tea."

"I don’t care. She should die."

Kaiden glanced toward Luna, who remained molded to his shoulder without shifting.

"Is everything okay, girls?"

"... Now it is," Luna muttered.

Kaiden let out a breath.

He found himself sprawled supine on the chilly rock surface inside an Association command tent, trapped beneath the collective mass of five women gripping him as though he might dissolve into thin air.

He maneuvered his limbs to embrace as many as possible, drew them nearer, and furrowed his brow.

"The ground."

Nyx raised her head. "What about the ground?"

"It’s cold. And dirty." His tone held the insistent edge of someone freshly aware of an intolerable surrounding. "You’re all stretched out on frigid, grimy stone. This won’t do."

He attempted to rise, achieving zilch since the five atop him united in opposition to the effort.

"We need to move. You’ve been waiting out in the mountain breeze for nearly sixty minutes, you haven’t dined, you haven’t relaxed, and now you’re sprawled on icy flooring."

The worry was sincere and wildly overstated.

Calypso elevated her head from his collarbone and fixed him with a stare. Bastet’s ears perked ahead. Aria supported herself on one arm.

Luna withdrew and examined his expression, where the anxiety that had seized her since the tent’s entrance parted, yielding to affection and irritation.

The strain departed them simultaneously, as if a cable had been severed. The coiled tension from the moment Eleanora’s tent sealed shut—the battle posture, the dread, the wrath—all drained off, supplanted by something tender, craving, and far too cozy for a hard rock base.

Aria snuggled tighter to his flank. "Kai."

"What."

"We’re high-level awakened warriors." She articulated it deliberately, like instructing an overly fretful young animal. "Chilly ground and some soil won’t harm us."

"That’s not the point."

"What’s the point, then?"

"The point is that you deserve better than a grimy floor." He repositioned his limb along Calypso’s spine and adjusted to let Bastet nestle more snugly against his side. "You deserve cozy bedding and plush covers and food beyond camp provisions, and until I can supply those, the minimum I can manage is ensuring you’re not on frigid rock."

Luna shook her head gradually, wearing the expression she saved for instances when Kaiden Grey displayed protectiveness so outrageously extreme that debating it resembled challenging the elements.

This defined him. He’d dispatched her racing solo across a valley teeming with beasts over level seventy armed only with her defiance, relied on her to endure a clash that would slay most combatants in seconds, and then, mere moments later, agonized over the chill of flooring.

The inconsistency formed the essence.

He regarded them as the formidable, skilled fighters they truly were. He assigned missions that honored their power, tested their boundaries, and never demeaned them by guarding against peril. He’d assembled a squad of females capable of battling beside him at peak tiers and anticipated their excellence at that standard, always, without fail.

Then he pivoted to fret over their warmth.

It was inconsistent and absurd, but not a single one had ever objected.

They rose with hesitation, disentangling from the heap on the floor akin to felines pried from a warm ray of light. Aria lingered last in releasing him, her digits gliding along his limb as she stood, her grin small, intimate, meant solely for him.

Smiles adorned them all. Genuine and radiant, the sort that lit their gazes and lingered.

Kaiden got to his feet, straightened the toppled seat, and flashed a broad smile.

"Let’s check the rankings, shall we?"

He activated his wrist device, and the contest projection ignited over his arm, ethereal figures and group labels forming a tall roster. The interface updated live, in the moment, as the women clustered near to observe it fill.

"Just a few hours ago," Kaiden noted, "the top five appeared like this."

He selected a panel, and the standings prior to the assault displayed.

1st — New Dawn: 101,880

2nd — Iron Halo: 91,900

3rd — Ashbound: 89,410

4th — Silver Talon: 69,640

5th — Runewoven: 65,590

The figures floated amid them. Position five. Trailing first by thirty-six thousand points.

Kaiden selected the display once more.

"But now..."

The present rankings appeared.

The cheerful expressions faded.

The coziness that had warmed the tent moments prior vanished like dew from a sword, replaced by something icy, keen, and vastly more gratifying. Five women eyed the digits suspended over Kaiden’s wrist, and each transformed.

Calypso raised her jaw. Bastet’s irises constricted to thin lines, the hunter’s intensity of a being witnessing evidence of a triumphant pursuit. Aria’s mana sparked briefly over her shoulders, an unbidden surge, her pride manifesting through her sole physical outlet.

Luna’s lips formed what passed for a grin but served as a warning.

Nyx remained still, her immobility the deadliest indicator among them. She merely regarded the rankings with serene, total contentment, like someone assessing a scheme that had unfolded precisely as intended.

"Sucks to be them~" she purred.

The updated rankings gleamed over Kaiden’s wrist in crisp, see-through lettering.

1st — Iron Halo: 92,200

2nd — Silver Talon: 69,840

3rd — Runewoven: 67,990

4th — Ashbound: 54,860

5th — New Dawn: 52,780

Silence held for three heartbeats.

New Dawn, the alliance that had dominated the event from the start, whose title had crowned the board since the beginning, now occupied fifth. Rock bottom of the leaders. Beneath Ashbound, beneath Silver Talon, beneath Runewoven, beneath the squad it had unleashed a full unit to quash.

Forty-nine thousand points erased.

"How," Calypso voiced. "Shouldn’t they be lower...? They had seven deaths!"

It arose not from doubt, but from calculation. She noted the figure. She sought the details.

Kaiden selected New Dawn’s entry, and the projection swelled into a detailed record. Score increases, deductions, times, incident types. The penalties appeared in stark crimson, one entry each.

Member Death (Monster - Colossus): -10,000

Member Death (Monster - Colossus): -10,000

Member Death (Monster - Slasher): -10,000

Member Death (Monster - Slasher): -10,000

Member Death (Monster - Slasher): -10,000

Five fatalities. Fifty thousand points. The beast slays notched by New Dawn’s combatants prior to perishing scarcely offset the shortfall.

Aria scowled. "As Cali said, more than five died."

Bastet reached beyond Kaiden’s limb and swiped downward with a digit.

Two further lines lay under the beast fatalities, styled distinctively.