"Oh, and look for any crowns," Zae Zin Nim said. "There are certain magical artifacts that can enhance your ability to sense qi."

Kai sighed and nodded, yet again. "It's starting to sound like just about everything can be enhanced. Do I just need to write down every object I see?"

"We prefer to integrate our enhancements into our clothing on Cloudspire instead of using bulky equipment." Her lips twisted in frustration. "But if you draw too much attention, they might think you're the thief, and trust me, they'll try to kill you. There's still a small chance that they aren't searching for me, so we can't risk causing a conflict that would draw attention."

"I'll do my best, but remember, we're not even going to meet the cultivators. This is just about bringing in Omilaena."

"I wouldn't trust them not to get involved. Be careful, Kai."

They had already been over this conversation, just with slightly different details. Zae Zin Nim had no intention of getting anywhere near a conflict that would draw the sect's attention, so she seemed to convert all her energy into worry. She'd given him an endless list of potential attack vectors, magical items, and qi techniques the cultivators might use if things went bad.

The whole process managed to make him both more and less anxious at the same time. On one hand, she gave him specific preparations to think about, but on the other, her worry about the upcoming fight was starting to infect him.

Nothing had changed over the previous two days: Omilaena was almost certainly the thief and she had fortified herself within an estate. Tareth had just sent the message that they would be making the attack that very night. Even though almost no one knew the truth, the city itself seemed to be holding its breath.

In a strange way Kai was too hungry to eat that night, desperate for something more substantial than food. He said farewell to Zae Zin Nim with a few final warnings, then went to join the others in the strike force. Tareth had yet to arrive, but Kai saw the old woman and young crystallier from the previous fight, as well as a few others, mostly young and relatively weak.

Not long after, Graetri walked in to join them. He glanced at Kai, then looked again with a sharper gaze. Even though Kai was using his shroud, he suspected that his new strength shone through on an instinctual level. It looked like Graetri was about to argue with him, but at that moment Tareth arrived.

"Omilaena the Maneater has holed up in an estate near the docks district," he explained. "She was seen investigating the city earlier, but after being headed off by merchant forces seems to have fortified her position. We're going to go in peacefully, in hopes that she'll cooperate, but you should assume it will end in a fight."

"How strong is she?" one of the new crystalliers asked.

"Unknown, but assume Diamond Crystallier. The good news is that she kicked out all servants yesterday, so there should be no one else in the estate to get in the way. Use your strongest techniques, and so long as you don't hurt anyone else, it doesn't matter how much damage you do."

"What's she trying to do?" Kai asked. "Surely she knows that she's surrounded, is she just planning to fight her way out?"

"We can't say for sure." Tareth rolled his shoulders as he took off his tunic and pulled on his Direboar pelt. "Most likely she thought she could get away with it, but she overstepped when she stole from the foreigners. They have her pinned down in the city, so it's just a matter of bringing her in before she tries anything desperate."

"Do you have anything to work against her poisons?"

"Do you think there are universal anti-toxins that magically work against everything? She's presumably using chakra-based poison from Rosemount, so they'll be difficult to counteract. I've prepared techniques to resist or avoid being impacted by the poisons and I've urged everyone else here to do the same. It should be enough unless she's beyond Diamond rank."

The others asked more questions, mostly about her abilities, and not much was known except that she used poison. They all finished their preparations and then headed out, walking down the street as a group. Most of the others looked confident, which only made Kai tenser.

As they walked along the river, he saw that the docks seemed unusually deserted. He thought that would only alert Omilaena about the attack, but then again, maybe she already knew and it was worth having bystanders cleared away. Without the bustle of activity, he had a chance to look at the ships. There were vast wooden galleons, various crystal vessels, and more different kinds of sails than he had known existed. But what drew his attention was the ship from Cloudspire.

It floated over the river as if it didn't want to be associated with the vulgar boats beneath. He couldn't tell what it was made of, other than that the smoothly flowing lines of the vessel glistened like lacquer. The shape resembled some cross between a fish and a bird, elegant and sinuous. Qi flowed through metal ridges along the sides, so subtle that it made the various crystal mechanisms beneath look clumsy.

Elegant as it was, Kai was more worried about the potential occupants. He couldn't sense any cultivators inside the ship, but he had to assume they were capable of erasing their presences since Zae Zin Nim could. With any luck they wouldn't get involved with the attack... but if they did, he needed to find out exactly why they were here and how much they knew.

Soon their group turned away from the docks themselves, instead approaching the wealthier district just beyond. There were entire estates available for visitors to rent, another display of Krysali wealth, and Omilaena was allegedly waiting in one of them.

The estate was utterly silent, even the trees in the courtyard not daring to drop leaves. Tareth led the group, muttering under his breath while approaching the doors, and they opened themselves silently. Most of the buildings were completely dark, which only directed them to the single lit room that glowed ominously.

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When Tareth opened the last door, some sort of steam or mist emanated from within. A table had been set with food and drinks, but only one person sat on the other side: Omilaena was waiting for them. She was wearing a different dress than before, this one a bright blue to match her hair. As they stared at her, she took a long breath from a thin pipe she held in one hand, then exhaled more of the smoke.

"Welcome, welcome," she said in her throaty voice. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"I want to believe this was a mistake that got out of hand." Tareth walked in but didn't sit, instead looming over her from the other side of the table. "Just planning a little malfeasance and went too far. If you give back what the foreigners want, we can still end this with a conversation instead of violence."

"I'm sure we can come to an agreement. Why don't you all sit down and enjoy yourselves while we talk it over?"

"Do you think we're fools?"

"Well, one can hope." Omilaena executed a languorous shrug that seemed to roll through her body all the way down to her legs, which stretched and flashed in the slit of her dress. "See, I'm not so sure I believe your offer. Seems to me that it'd be safest to just leave the city, and I'd hate to have to go through you fine specimens of masculinity. And femininity, of course, I don't discriminate."

"We aren't here to play games." Tareth rolled his shoulders and gestured to the others, who started to edge to the sides to encircle her. "If you aren't willing to cooperate, we'll have to take you in by force."

"Let's not be too hasty now. It's true that I took an item or two from the auction house, but if you think I stole from the Cloudspire group, you're mistaken. Here, let me show you."

Omilaena reached beneath the table and then tossed an arc of coins into the air. One of them flew at each of the fighters surrounding her, and a few automatically reached up to catch them. Before they could arrive, Tareth let out a shout and the coins were blasted backwards. Most embedded themselves in the walls and one nearly hit Omilaena, who dipped her head to the side.

She sighed and took another long drag on her pipe. "You think I'd even poison the coins?" More smoke wafted from her blue-painted lips with each word, then those lips curled in a smile. "Of course I did. I actually didn't even poison the food, since that would be too obvious. There was a contact poison on the door, and I am dying to know if you suspected or just wanted to play around with your ability."

"I've had enough of this," Tareth snarled. "Take her!"

When he took another step forward, Omilaena abruptly kicked the underside of the table, sending the entire thing flipping through the air toward them. Tareth let out a shout and the table exploded away from him, but that meant the two halves and all its contents crashed into the others. Some defended themselves with crystal armor, while others were struck and fell back.

Kai saw the whole attack coming and ducked underneath. But as he did so, he noticed Omilaena's expression and hesitated.

No more coy smile, no half-lidded eyes, no posture designed to exaggerate her charms... Omilaena looked ready to kill. Her eyes flickered over everyone as if analyzing them down to the smallest scrap of flesh and finding them wanting.

Her free hand flickered and Kai barely even saw the steel fly from her sleeve. She had thrown the coins to make them think they knew her speed and now she unleashed the real thing. There was no time for anything else as Kai desperately swiped in front of him.

He knocked a needle to the floor, where it rang against the stone, but it had barely started to rebound when a second needle hurtled at him. Somehow he managed to deflect it with the other hand, which was when he felt a pain in his arm and realized that she'd gotten him with the third needle.

"The smoke is only half a poison." Omilaena blew out a long stream of smoke and Kai realized that she hadn't puffed on the pipe in her hand first. "Completely harmless in and of itself, so brute defenses tend to ignore it, but when combined with the poison on the needles..."

The surprise attack had worked - all around the room, the crystalliers were groaning if they weren't already slumping to the ground. One or two had managed to block the first needle and simply been hit by another, like he had. Kai felt an ache spreading through his arm and struggled to move. His heart was pumping wildly, but it seemed like he couldn't shrug off this poison so easily.

Even Tareth seemed to have been pushed to his knees, with a dozen needles in his chest. Omilaena walked toward him slowly, her high heels keeping her above the mess from the table and her hips rolling from side to side.

"I'm going to leave most of you here, but I need one or two toys to play with on the ride back." Omilaena put one long fingernail to her mouth as if thinking. "Hmm, who will I choose...?"

Abruptly Tareth leapt to his feet, his fist flying for her head. As he moved, the needles fell away from his chest, glittering with a thin layer of crystal. Had he intentionally taken the attack and coated them with qi? Kai hadn't known that was even possible.

The punch missed as Omilaena glided backward, all business again. But a moment later Tareth let out another shout and a shockwave radiated in all directions, sending Omilaena skidding backward.

Everyone else could only watch as the two of them began to fight. Kai didn't feel like the poison was overwhelming, yet his head was rushing and his spiritual sight was blurred. He wasn't sure what was happening, he only knew that his heart was hammering against his chest like it wanted to break out.

Omilaena was fast, scarily fast, and it didn't feel like mana-fueled charging or qi-fueled grace. Instead she seemed to move by her own rules, pivoting and twisting in fractions of a second. She stayed ahead of Tareth's attacks and then, when he opened his mouth, darted in and slashed his throat with one hand.

He stumbled back, clutching the injury. His Physique had prevented a fatal wound, but Kai could see black veins expanding from the cut. They began to spread over the rest of his body... and then Tareth began to hum. The sound seemed to resonate through the floor and the black veins retreated and faded.

"Did you just shout away the poison?" Omilaena laughed as if honestly delighted and then kicked off her heels. "Everyone else is critical of Deadwaste, but I find your abilities so much more charming than cultivators. Alright, let's fight."

With his head spinning, Kai was having trouble following the details, but he thought that Tareth was losing the battle. Not immediately, just slowly and surely. If only he could pull himself together, he might be able to tip the balance, but the throbbing was filling his head...

And then suddenly it was gone. Kai nearly wobbled and forced himself to remain frozen in place to pretend that the poison was still overwhelming him. He realized that Behemoth's Heart hadn't been strong enough to simply resist such a dangerous poison, but it had somehow pushed the toxins through his system. He was covered in sweat and his heart was still beating in a frenzy, but he could move again.

More importantly, Kai used his spiritual sight on Omilaena.

<

Name: Omilaena

Total Power: 627

Heart of Poison: Level 54 (216)

Lethal Artisan: Garnet Rank (175)

Physique: D-0 (200)

Soul Level: 6 (36)

>

After so long dealing with crystalliers and other familiar powers, Kai was almost taken aback to see symbols that were completely new to him. Whatever "Heart of Poison" and "Lethal Artisan" meant, the Power ratings didn't lie, and her D-rank Physique was downright troubling. Omilaena was one of the strongest people he'd ever met outside the Frontier.

He had one chance for a surprise attack, but he wasn't sure it would be enough.