Demonic Po*nstar System

Chapter 667: Momentary Retreat

Kaiden looked over his girls.

Calypso was still bleeding from four places. Luna’s Storm reserves were so low that her hair had stopped crackling. Aria’s eyes flickered at the edges, exhausted. Nyx was standing perfectly still, which meant her spatial awareness was costing her concentration just to maintain. Bastet’s tail wasn’t even making its usual, lazy swishes, limping behind her butt.

It was a bad omen if Kaiden ever saw one.

They’d won. They’d killed a level 79 boss nearly thirty levels above them, a gap so wide that most analysts would call the attempt a death sentence rather than a strategy. The system had rewarded them accordingly, millions of experience points each, the kind of haul that turned weeks of grinding into a single glorious afternoon.

But Lady Luck had a sense of humor, and pushing her generosity twice in quick succession was a good way to find out how funny she thought you were.

”We’re done for the time being,” Kaiden said. ”No more fights until we recover.”

Nobody argued.

Not even Luna, which told him everything about how depleted they actually were. On a normal day, the gamer girl would’ve pointed at the leaderboard or quoted just how much XP one kill gave them. Now, she just exhaled and nodded.

Then she grinned.

Nyx grinned.

They looked at each other.

Luna raised her hand. Nyx met it with a crisp high-five that echoed across the basin.

”Let’s go!” Luna grinned.

”I’m so happy!” Nyx cheered.

They’d skirted death. They’d triumphed. And the numbers on their status screens were proof.

After the tension of the Magnus confrontation, the reality of what they’d just accomplished settled over the group. They were alive, they were significantly richer in experience and nobody had suffered overly serious wounds.

Kaiden turned to his stream pickup and addressed the chat.

”As you heard, we need to head back to the Runewoven camp to get checked and recover. Also, eat something that isn’t dried rations.” He paused. ”Internet Wife, put up a vote. Do the viewers want a replay of our earlier fights in the week, or do they want to stay with us live?”

— [MOD] Kaiden’s Wife: 😳😳😳 Kai called me internet wife on stream again!! Write that down, everyone!

— [MOD] Kaiden’s Wife: One time is a lucky coincidence. But twice?!

— [MOD] PrincelessPrincess: ... You were given a task, damned woman.

— [MOD] Kaiden’s Wife: !!! One moment please!

— [MOD] Kaiden’s Wife: Vote is up!

The results were instant and overwhelming.

Ninety-three percent chose to stay live.

The chat had just watched their team kill a level 79 boss with a thirty-level disadvantage, witnessed a mysterious Conduit ability, and then seen their streamer tell Magnus Ashborn to respectfully fuck off. The viewers didn’t want replays. They wanted to be here, in the moment, dissecting every second with each other in real time.

— 44xStorm: Why would Ìi watch a replay when I just saw the greatest 20 minutes of streaming content in history?!?!

— MoonlitHeart: We’re not going anywhere. We LIVE here now, and you better not banish us!

— SinnerDevotee: I called in sick to work for this. I’m not leaving until Kaiden falls asleep.

They began the walk south.

...

The Pyrawalker Titan was still alive.

Kaiden’s group came upon the fight about two minutes into their retreat, rounding a ridge to find Ashbound locked in exactly the kind of grinding, brutal engagement that the Titan was designed to produce. The creature’s volcanic hide was cracked in a dozen places, molten light bleeding from wounds that should have been fatal on anything with less raw vitality. But the Titan was level seventy-eight, and level seventy-eight meant it could fight at full intensity for the better part of a week.

Ash’s team was giving it everything.

Brittany’s blade carved into the creature’s flank as it swung at Ash. Stacy had abandoned her shield entirely and was using both hands to drive energy bolts into the gaps in its armor. Trisha was limping, her left pauldron cracked, ranged attacks coming slower now as her mana flagged.

Ash himself was drenched in sweat, his armor scorched black from repeated exposure to the Titan’s heat aura. His grin was gone. The camera drones still orbited him, but he’d stopped performing for them about ten minutes ago.

He was just surviving.

Then he saw Kaiden’s group walking past on the ridge above.

Walking. Not running. Not fighting. Just six people and a halo, strolling south with the casual energy of a group heading to lunch.

”GREY!”

Kaiden kept walking.

”You baited us into this fight! Your team caused that eruption that taunted this thing onto me! You owe us!”

Calypso waved without looking.

Luna flipped him off.

”Help us kill this thing or I report you to the Association for deliberate interference!” Ash screamed, barely dodging a molten fist that cratered the stone beside him. ”I have it on footage! Your cat did something to the ground and this thing hasn’t left us alone since!”

Bastet stopped walking.

The Pharaoh looked down at the basin where Ashbound was fighting for their lives. She observed the Pyrawalker Titan with the same serene detachment she observed most things. Then she raised one foot, brought it down, and the ground beneath the Titan erupted.

A column of compressed stone exploded upward directly under the creature’s belly. The exact same attack. The exact same position. The same technique that had taunted the Titan onto Ashbound in the first place.

The Pyrawalker shrieked, staggered, and locked onto the closest source of pain.

Ash. Right there. Still hitting it.

The creature charged him with renewed fury.

”WHAT THE FUCK!” Ash dove sideways, the Titan’s molten fist obliterating the ground where he’d been standing. ”She did it again!”

Bastet resumed walking.

She hadn’t said a word.

— 44xStorm: I fucking love this woman 💀💀💀

— BastetThrone: THE PHARAOH DOES NOT EVEN ACKNOWLEDGE THE PEASANT.

— LunaRage: she didn’t even look at him 😭

— GigaAsh: ...yo what the fuck

Kaiden glanced at her.

Bastet’s expression hadn’t changed.

”Oops. I stumbled, Master. My apologies,” she said.

”Mm.”

They kept walking.

...

The Runewoven camp materialized out of the mountain terrain about ten minutes later, a sprawling but efficient forward operating base built into the side of a protected ridge. Reinforced tents, supply depots, medical stations, and the industrial cleaning area where enchanted gear was maintained by specialized teams. The camp served multiple Runewoven squads operating in the mountain range, and it hummed with the quiet energy of a well-oiled machine.

Renoa spotted them first. The fangirl Talia had assigned to Kaiden’s group, hoping her antics would charm the Sinners, making already good relations between the guild and the group even better.

The girl was already moving before they’d fully crested the ridge, clipboard clutched to her chest, her slight frame cutting through the camp’s foot traffic with the urgency of someone who had been glued to the stream for the last hour and had very strong feelings about everything she’d witnessed.

”Kaiden! Everyone!” Her voice cracked on the first word. She caught herself, clipboard dropping to her side, cheeks already flushed. ”I-I saw... I mean, I was monitoring the feed for logistical purposes, and the Borer Queen fight was... and then Magnus Ashborn showed up, and you said... the thing about the president, and I...”

She ran out of air.

Took a breath.

”Congratulations on the kill,” she managed, in a voice that was trying very hard to be professional and failing in a way that was almost impressive. ”That was the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen, and I’m including the Manifestation reveal stream!”

The ’logistical purposes’ excuse fooled exactly no one.