Kaden watched with Korkud, Harsol and with some other passers by how his two slaves were rushing towards the human side in the darkness of the night. It was merely passing amusement for most.
"Demand to see your commander saying you have important information", Kaden said to the man he had enslaved first through a communications formation. Then he turned his attention to the other man. "The fortifications should have received some damage. Seek out formation masters and wait."
While Kaden did agree with the targets Korkud had requested, he might have used the other slave to blow up a supply store and kill a few more soldiers in barracks or some other place where they were resting or relaxing. Inciting some terror was always a good move.
Kaden had also wondered whether he could infuse the crystals Harsol had provided with his Devouring Flames, but he decided against it. That attack was very specific. Kaden had never seen or heard anyone else using anything matching it. He did not want to risk anything bringing suspicion towards himself. Someone might pay enough attention. While the risk was very small, the exploding slaves were an experiment and there was no reason to make anything big out of it.
Korkud smiled and watched as the two men were let in after a moment of questioning. They were not able to say anything odd. They explained that Cari had started fighting with each other and broken their holding cells and were able to escape.
"I must see the commander immediately!" The enslaved man said. "I saw things!"
"The beasts are up to something?" One of the soldiers said.
"Yes, this cannot wait!" The man said strongly.
Kaden wondered for a moment what he would say, if someone pressed for details. He was pretty certain this wasn't attempt at causing a flaw at their act since it was a sensible reasoning.
Kaden still noted it. There could have been a problem, if the desires of the soul bound inside the body matched with the command, but deviated only slightly. Such as in this case the slave needed to see the commander and likely also wanted to attempt reveal what was happening. For that a likely story was required.
While that slave was going to see the commander the other one quietly started looking for the formation masters.
All was going fine.
First signs of problems came at the command building.
"I must see the commander immediately!" The man still repeated.
Yet, the guards were not inteding to let him in. They wanted to have him wait.
"Hehe", Korkud laughed as he watched the scene through Kaden's formation. "Should we have him detonate there."
"Let me try something", Kaden replied. He then said to his communications formation an order. "Start ranting and shouting loudly. Attract the commanders attention. Have him come out personally."
Kaden then watched the man start screaming loudly.
"It was his fault! He did it!" The slave shouted. "I demand to see him. He sent us to die! My friends died because of him!"
"What... who?" The guards holding him back were quite confused by the sudden change. "Who are you talking about."
"Come out!" The man continued ranting.
The door opened.
"What is this racket?" It was the commander. Kaden could tell from his uniform.
"Trigger the detonation and go to your target", Kaden ordered. He repated the same order to the other one now hiding near some formation masters fixing the fortifications. "Throw all caution to the winds. Rush past. If you can, grab the commander."
It would take some seconds for the explosion to occur after triggering it.
"What are you...", the commande stepped backwards as the man, now a bomb, rushed past the guards using all his strength to push the aside.
The suddenly Kaden's formation lost connection. A bright flash could be seen far in the distance at the human side. Then soon after another.
"Hahaha", Korkud laughed loudly. "Are you happy with your experiment?"
"I am", Kaden answered. "I was mostly concerned that there was some difference between how humans and we handle mana that weakens or breaks the formation I used. I noticed no such problems."
"Most here dislike phoenixes because they arent here fighting and only toss around their power and wealth", Korkud told Kaden. "But you aren't bad, but if you aren't going to stay and fight, I'd prefer you get out of here."
Kaden frowned, but didn't mind.
"I personally don't like how this all works", Kaden decided to say anyway. "Perhaps I wouldn't demand loyalty, but that those who work here actively detest those who fund you seems odd to me. Yet, it seems to work and I'm not the one deciding these matters. The clan surely know and choose to keep it that way. Its not my business to care so I don't care as long as it doesn't cause problems to me."
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"It is how it is", Korkud said with a nod. "Its in many ways same in all sections of the fortifications. Those clans able to offer the support have no reason to be fighting here themselves. They won't come until it truly matters. It seems to me that will be happening within century. Possibly sooner."
Indeed. Things were heating up but Kaden knew the situation wasn't ready to explode yet.
"We will see", Kaden replied. "At any rate, my experiments are done and are succesful. I shall be continuing on my way."
Korkud just shrugged. He simply didn't care. Kaden had probably been passing entertainment for him. Perhaps he spent most of his time being bored. That didn't matter to Kaden much, though.
Kaden left the border towards east. He would take a long way around. As Kaden flew away he noticed someone was missing. Ciner had gone away and Kaden had not seen her. She wasn't even there during his last experiment.
"Perhaps she, in her lunacy, isn't an idiot", Kaden thought to himself. "She does not have a way to go to human territory and expect to survive."
Kaden kept his distance to the fortifications at the border. While he expected most of them were barely acting in favor of whatever clan supported them, he did not really want to interact with them. The said clans might not like phoenixes and the warriors at the fortifications might just send out information of him passing by.
The fortifications continued a bit longer on Cari side than human side. The access towards north was important to Cari. As such, they wanted to keep the area,which allowed them to go there, in their control. For humans to build such an extended fortification would have been merely inefficient overreach. It was enough fo humans to keep the area as a hunting ground.
"As long as I can avoid any hunting groups, I can move relatively freely inside Centralean Forest", Kaden thought to himself. "Yet, I believe the best move would be to annihilate some of these hunting groups and gather my first slaves that way."
Kaden hoped the end point for where the black pentagon was pointing at did not lie inside human territory. He was certain he would have be there personally. At least it still kept pointing roughly north.
Eventually there was less and less defenses built. Once the fortifications ended, there were still some guards, but that ended too. At that point Kaden turned and flew towards the deeper parts of Centralean Forest.
He was now out of Cari territory. Technically it wasn't human territory either. Both sides existed there at some capacity. One could even find mana creatures, but that required some special conditions.
While Kaden had his plans, he wasn't completely certain how he should continue. He did not want to go to the No Man's Land until he had better idea where to go. He could simply disapear randomly. Otherwise he could have continued all the way into the area and search. He also had things to do inside human territory.
"I'll start by finding some hunters and defeat them", Kaden decided. "I can always discard them, if needed."
Hunter's needed to become the hunted.
Kaden was well aware that he should be careful since, as the hunters were his quarry, he was theirs. On his way to Frika, he had already ran into a well prepared group that nearly got him.
"This time I will be the ambusher, not them", Kaden decided.
There was basically no one on the way. Kaden noticed quite a lot of High Beasts and lower, but number of Cari was low. As for humans, Kaden found none. It was very far. Not many hunters hunted that deep inside the enormous forest. Yet, they would get more common the closer Kaden got to the human civilization and, as such, Kaden remained cautious. Any human who saw him would have to die or become a slave.
"I will also need a hidden base not too far from human cities and towns", Kaden thought. "I will hide it with layers of formations and boost the communications formation to my slaves. I will need to spend time encrypting that connection. Even if someone notices it, it cannot be traced back to me."
That and all sort of backups. Such as connection leading nowhere or fake locations with alarms to alert him, if someone did try.
If Kaden could increase his security, he would do so. He was going to be rather paranoid with it. Phoenixes were basically one of the highest grade yet the most rare targets for hunters. Even a fluff or feather fallen off along with preening or something could trigger a major hunt for him. It would be easy for anyone to have such materials examined. Even if that said person wouldn't personally attent the hunt, they would get well paid for handing out the information.
Kaden would have to be extremely careful with each action he took. This was the reason he had wanted either some clones or slaves. As things were, he could not act personally.
In fact, Kaden stopped flying after a while when he felt he was getting too close to the human territories. This slowed down his speed, but Kaden was patient.
In fact, after a few weeks, Kaden was able to find a good location at the suitable distance. He found a cave that had clearly been used by some beast in the past. Possibly by some past territory owner since it was rather large. Aside from old dried up bloodstains on the rocks inside, there was no sign that anyone had been there in a long time.
"This will have to do for now", Kaden decided and started to build formations to conceal his presence.
Last time Kaden had made something to hide his things as well as what he set up around the cave was when he assembled the black pentagon. This time he added a few extra layers too. Even so, Kaden considered it as just basic setup.
What he was doing was dangerous!
"I'll need to arrange a sensory network for the local area", Kaden decided.
He wanted to know who and what was moving nearby. That also would act as a way to find passing hunters he needed.
As for defeating them and keep them alive at the same time was not actually a problem. For that he only needed a trap formations. For example something basic such as stun formation or perhaps even his own like the one that immobilized its target.
"I only need to make them bigger and load some extra power", Kaden continued his thoughts.
Hunters usually moved in small groups. Kaden would have to disable the entire group. If one got out, that hunter would come back with even more people to investigate.
"After I get a group of enslaved hunters, I can send them back where they came from", Kaden pondered on his plan. "They can join other groups and trick more people here to be enslaved. They can act normally and no one should notice while they do my bidding. They can bring me materials to cultivate. Perhaps even people to eat..."
With that last part there was merely a problem of hiding the deaths. The enslaved hunters would easily be able to lie and say they lost one or two over time, but someone would notice eventually that certain groups of people were losing more of their companions than was common.
"I might be able to have them bring people who no one will miss", Kaden thought.
That was hardly efficient. People who were worth eating for cultivation purposes were too strong that they wouldn't be missed.
At any rate, funneling resources to him was something that would work.