Demonic Po*nstar System Chapter 802: Badass Girls

With a flash of crimson lightning, she was snatched from the ground and reappeared instantly beside the Wraithstride, Stormblade humming with power in her grasp. The next Calamity strike targeted the vulnerable neck, precisely where the dorsal plating gave way.

This time, the explosive force detonated within the beast's body. The Wraithstride's spine snapped at the base of its skull, its head tumbling to the floor as its lower body spasmed and collapsed.

[Companion Kill: invading Wraithstride (Level 95). +820 DMP.]

Just then, the Brute entered the Safe Zone.

A quadrupedal monstrosity with hide like stone slabs across a body as massive as a delivery truck, its four legs thick as pillars. It possessed no discernible neck, its flat, broad skull thrusting forward like a battering ram. Each thunderous step sent tremors through the ground, palpable even to Kaiden twenty meters away.

The colossal creature planted its forelimbs firmly and stomped.

A shockwave radiated outward in a perfect circle, the rock before it fracturing in a fan pattern that swallowed Calypso's initial lunge whole. Her footing vanished as the ground beneath her dropped six inches mid-swing. The axe narrowly missed the Brute's appendage.

She rolled, dropping to one knee to evade the second stomp, her shoulder dipping low. Driving upward from below, her axe struck the forelimb's joint, her full weight propelling it. The blade sliced through the stone plating along the seam and plunged into the bone and tendon beneath, creating a gruesome two-foot gash. Black ichor spewed up the haft, coating her arms. Her own ribs groaned under the impact and the subsequent ground tremor. The Carnage Feast's siphon effect activated, bathing her in light.

Her grin widened, morphing into a full Manifestation of Carnage, alight with fierce energy and devoid of fear. Blood trickled down her chin from where she’d bitten her lip during the impact, already sizzling as it met the air.

Yet, the Brute's forelimb remained attached.

As she watched, the stony hide sealed over the wound, the slabs sliding back into place. The bone and tendon beneath began to reknit itself in real-time.

“It… it repairs?!”

“Use your eyes and cease with the obvious questions, horned brute,” Bastet's voice cut through, emanating from her established perimeter. The debt she owed her favorite rival was momentarily suspended by a regal calm, her strategy already mapped out three steps ahead. “Use your savage strength against the savage foe and assist me. Keep him occupied, and I will handle the rest.”

“Haha! This kitty’s ego balloons bigger with each passing day!” Calypso bellowed, though she complied.

Despite their sharp words, neither displayed genuine animosity. This was merely their customary, unmalding banter.

Their ongoing dispute over who was Kaiden's primary monster concubine was set aside the moment the Brute crossed the kill line.

Calypso surged forward.

She ducked low beneath the Brute's recovering swing, her axe connecting with the leg above the joint. Planting her weight, her body angled to draw the Brute's pivot towards the line Bastet required.

Bastet moved.

Having remained motionless since establishing her position, her right foot lifted from the abyssal stone for the first time in the entire confrontation. As it landed half a meter ahead of its previous spot, the bare sole on the rock produced a sound utterly alien to skin on stone. It was a deep, resonant pulse that echoed through the Cavern for three full beats, the very floor responding as court tiles acknowledge their sovereign. Then the radial crack leaped outward by a full meter in the wake of her step. Her left foot followed. The same echo. The same response. Her dominion field expanded with each deliberate footfall.

She advanced upon the Brute.

The pressure radiating from her caused the translucent, gold-threaded skirt to lift from her thighs, her gold anklets chiming softly. Her bare midriff caught the Cavern's amber glow, her chin tilted at an angle that signified the end of any discussion. Every unhurried step was a Dominion strike in itself, the ground bowing thirty meters in every direction beneath the woman who had abandoned her pedestal. The Brute's formidable weight seemed to triple, then quintuple, escalating as she closed the distance.

“Now.”

Calypso's signal and Bastet's next footfall coincided perfectly. The Divine Dominion field enveloped the Brute mid-pivot. Its forelimb, narrowly missing Calypso, slammed into the rock with a force beyond its own muscles' ability to arrest. The joint Calypso had wounded and Bastet now suppressed erupted outward from within the regenerating slabs.

Carnage Feast registered the second injury as its own and applied another stack to the buff.

“You’re amazing, kitty!”

“I know.”

Calypso sprang up from her kneeling position, the axe held high after her ribs bled crimson through the dissipating smoke. As the dominion field held the Brute immobile, she swung the axe down, striking the exposed shoulder joint. On the second blow, it sliced through the thick plating where it had previously deflected. A deep, guttural roar erupted from the Brute, shaking the Cavern’s murky atmosphere.

[Companion Kill: invading Crag Brute (Level 107). +2,800 DMP.]

The accumulated DMP surged past six thousand.

The spectating chat buzzed with excitement.

— Thirsty247: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

— LapdogOfTheEmpress: ⚔️⚔️⚔️⚔️⚔️

— NyxWorshipper: THE QUEEN PINNED IT FOR HER DEMONIC BESTIE WITH HER BARE FEET 😭😭😭

— TouchGrass: BROOOO

— Thirsty247: I need a monster girl lover in my life.

— Thirsty247: Curse you, Kaiden Ashborn!! Share the wealth! Stop hoarding!

— TouchGrass: Didn’t you beg him to be your master or something?

— Thirsty247: Yeah and I got ignored!!!!

Beyond the now-cooling corpse of the Brute, three more figures emerged from the entryway.

Two swift Wraithstrides, identical in form to the pair Aria and Luna had previously vanquished, entered the fray. Following them was a being that did not rush.

It glided.

Impossibly thin, draped in flowing dark robes, it lacked visible feet. Its featureless face, a blank expanse, swiveled towards the immediate conflict, lingering for a moment too long.

Observing its posture, Kaiden realized instantly: this opponent was a spellcaster.

Behind him, Nyx’s hands splayed outwards, a gesture she only made since their recent fusion. Her Spatial Drain ability extended beyond her immediate reach, probing the ambient mana within the chamber. This ability constantly sought out and siphoned mana, scanning every warp in space within a thirty-meter radius. It had detected two anomalies the rest of their formation had overlooked.

"Kai, its mana is doing two things simultaneously. It’s casting beneath us instead of launching an attack, and it’s weaving a veil-shield around its body..." Nyx’s voice was sharp, focused. "The weave will absorb incoming attacks. We must break through the shield first, or the body within won't sustain any damage."

Then, she tilted her head, a sly grin spreading across her face, "Or so I believe. My new powers are quite peculiar..."

The Veilbinder's robes responded instantly to her observation. The dark fabric coalesced into a layered shield encasing the spindly form, absorbing the surrounding haze and releasing nothing. Concurrently, a single black ribbon of mana detached from the veil's edge and seeped into the ground like spilled ink.

The floor beneath Kaiden instantly turned black.