Demonic Po*nstar System Chapter 719: Bait

Kaiden gazed upon Selena atop the ridge. Then he turned to the twins positioned at her sides, relaxed and without rush, two youths who once pulled at his sleeve growing up and who now loomed over him like executioners poised for gravity to claim its toll.

The stampede slammed into the obstructed path behind them, parting around it like water bypassing a dam, beasts crashing into the stone, clawing atop one another, some already swiveling toward the only living presences in the corridor that weren't fleeing.

Luna seized his arm. "Move!"

They bolted.

Sideways across the mountainside, threading a narrow opening between two rock outcrops that led to a sharp incline. The ground consisted of shifting gravel and sparse brush, treacherous for sprinting, even worse for combat, yet the sole route free of blockages or swarming monsters.

Calypso and Bastet dropped back to guard the rear where the fangs lurked. A huge lizard beast burst from the herd and charged Bastet; she evaded it gracefully, stomped her foot on the rock, and a stone spike burst up underneath, clamping its jaws and hurling it off the slope. Calypso's axe cleaved the skull of the next beast before it could leap the boulders.

Aria soared through the air, moonlight condensing at her fingers, sniping the monsters outrunning the pack and risking to block their way. Her projectiles pierced scales and shells with precision, but their numbers overwhelmed, each takedown granting mere moments rather than true security.

The dark halo hovering over Kaiden’s head ignited fiercely.

<I see them.> Alice’s voice sliced through his thoughts like a dagger. <I see those fucking cowards up there hurling rocks at us while they cower on their safe ledge. I can strike them from here, Kaiden. Let me strike them.>

<No. Focus on the monsters.>

<But ->

<Alice.>

The halo throbbed, seething and golden, unleashing a ray of light from overhead that incinerated a rushing predator forty meters away. Then another. Then a trio flanking toward Nyx’s side. Alice fumed with rage, sharpening her aim, and the beasts perished in golden bursts that scorched afterimages into the mountainside.

The initial strike from the ridge arrived midway across the traverse.

A deafening mana explosion roared down from Selena’s spot, smashing into a group of beasts closing in from the rear, near enough that the blast wave knocked Nyx aside and showered debris over their trail. The monsters vaporized. The route ahead vanished beneath rubble.

"You’re welcome!" Selena’s voice echoed from the ridge, light and theatrical.

— [MOD] Lady Leia: Oh so NOW New Dawn sends their Golden Spoon Kids to "help"?? I know that bitch. She is the heir apparent to the whole Empire.

— [MOD] Kaiden’s Wife: She just buried their escape route and said "you’re welcome." this is retaliation!! They can’t beat Kai on the scoreboard so they’re trying to kill him instead!!

— [MOD] PrincelessPrincess: Three veteran-track fighters just happen to show up right when a stampede hits? Yeah, this is BS!

— xStormborn: Nyx got thrown off her feet by the shockwave. That was way too close to be an accident.

— GigaAsh: "you’re welcome" she says after burying their only path out lmao. time to grab popcorn guys!

— [MOD] PrincelessPrincess: I’m calling the association.

Nyx sprang back up. She locked eyes with Kaiden and gave a single, firm head shake.

"They want you to attack them." Her tone stayed hushed and urgent. "That’s the entire scheme. We strike New Dawn veterans, we’re disqualified and imprisoned like Ash. They keep blasting monsters near us, and if we perish, it’s collateral. If we fight back, it’s assault. They triumph regardless."

"The association is a joke!" Aria snarled. "How are they allowing this?!"

"What do you mean? We’re returning the favor. You helped our rookies, we help you. Fair is fair." Cassian yelled.

Kaiden’s face grew stormy.

"We have to run," Nyx urged. "That’s how we beat this."

Yet another ridge blast hammered a swarm of beasts clambering the slope overhead, dislodging massive boulders from the cliff. They rolled by, and Luna dove flat to dodge one that nearly decapitated her. The mountainside crumbled around them as the siblings methodically wrecked their getaway paths.

A fresher route appeared, harsher and more vertical, angling sharply upward to sear their lungs. The monsters trailed relentlessly, propelled by some power herding them from the peaks above, and those peeling off to pursue Kaiden’s group faced Calypso’s axe, Alice’s beams, or Aria’s moon shots, yet they pressed on.

Luna darted all over. Lightning sparked along the incline as she blinked between spots, her Stormblade slicing anything nearing, her velocity alone preventing the sides from buckling. Fueled by wrath, adrenaline, and defiance against dying by others' design, she led every detour from ridge blasts, scouting new ways first and abandoning old ones last.

<I always knew they were trash but I never thought they’d actually try to murder us!> Alice’s mental voice quivered with fury unrelated to the beasts.

Another golden ray fired, reducing a pouncing predator to dust.

A third ridge explosion tore through a beast wheeling toward Kaiden’s right side, the blast flinging Bastet down. Calypso gripped her arm and yanked her up without slowing.

"Another one in your vicinity!" Calix taunted from above. His tone dripped smugness and ease. "Stay alert down there! This zone is dangerous for rookies!"

Kaiden’s hands trembled. Mana boiled under his skin, scorching and shadowy, its red tint bleeding into his sight, funneling his world to a pinpoint of wrath where nothing else registered.

Nyx noticed. As they ran, she clasped his arm. "Kaiden. Look at me."

He met her gaze.

"We survive this. That’s the win. Don’t give them what they want."

He drew breath. The red haze withdrew. Just.

They climbed higher. The slope grew sheerer, thinning the monsters as it proved too steep for the bigger ones. The tinier foes persisted, clawing over scree with blind tenacity born of terror beyond starvation, and the squad felled them while ascending.

The ridge holding the siblings lay across from them now, divided by roughly sixty meters of void and a plunge lethal to any lacking flight or spare mana.

Selena poised at the brink, arms crossed. The twins guarded her flanks. They appeared at ease, refreshed, unscathed. Three elite hopefuls observing weary rookies claw for survival on a devouring mountain.

"You’re running out of mountain," Selena noted. Her words rang crystal clear. "And the herd isn’t stopping. How long do you think this lasts?"

Luna coughed blood and shot her a venomous glare. "Come down here and find out, bitch!"

Selena smirked. She lifted a hand, mana pooling at her fingers with a glow strong enough to throw shadows over the chasm. Her gaze followed a pack of monsters topping the ridge beneath them—three bulky brutes with plated skins bulldozing smaller prey and gaining rapidly.

"Let me help with those," Selena offered.

The strike shone with elegance. A white mana sickle launched from Selena’s palm, howling over the gulf toward the three tanky beasts trailing and below Luna’s spot. The path flawless. The moment impeccable.

Luna spotted it inbound. She blurred into motion, body melting into lightning for evasion, the electric shape exploding across the cliff in azure-white sparks.

She rematerialized three meters leftward as the sickle whooshed by.

Then it arced.

The mana twisted in midair, a sly adjustment bending its curve enough to veer from the beasts toward Nyx, whose back faced it.