The battle between Omilaena and Tareth moved aggressively around the room, but Kai thought she had the edge. She was primarily using her pipe as a blunt weapon, somehow reinforcing it with chakra so that it could equal his blows. As strong as Tareth's Spellword Class was, she seemed to be adapting, taking fewer impacts from his shockwaves with each exchange.

Eventually Tareth let out a shout, shattering the air all around him. Omilaena leapt out of range... toward Kai.

He'd been thinking about how to use his moment of surprise, so he was ready. Kai threw a weak Tyrant's Claw with his left hand, and as expected Omilaena dodged even though she had her back to him. But she dodged predictably and he grabbed her arm with his right hand, binding her in place.

"Tareth, now!" Kai knew he couldn't hold her long, but he hoped it would be enough to turn the fight.

During his planning he'd considered dozens of responses from Omilaena, ranging from grappling to stabbing to emitting more poisonous smoke. He hadn't ever imagined that she would instead back up into him, bumping her ass into his crotch.

"I remember you." She smiled over her shoulder. "Mmm, you got stronger, but h-"

She was trying to distract him, but Kai was fully in combat mode and wouldn't be lead astray by a pretty face or pretty anything else. After the brief surprise, he clawed at her throat, intending to make her pay for toying with him.

Somehow she raised her pipe in the way, knocking aside his fingers before he could complete the technique. At that moment Tareth completed his technique and let out another shout that looked like it would strike them both, but Omilaena threw herself backward faster than Kai could have reacted.

He realized that he'd been smashed partially into the wall. Omilaena was still grinding back against him, despite having just hip-slammed him across the room. "What's interesting is that I know that poison should have fully paralyzed you, but you managed to process it somehow," she said mildly. "Curious."

When he began preparing a Tyrant's Claw at full power, she laughed and stabbed him in the shoulder with another needle. He staggered, struggling to resist the poison, while she flipped across the room to resume her battle with Tareth.

"Get out of here!" The Diamond Crystallier was bleeding from more wounds than Kai had expected and waved roughly in his direction. "Take the others, save them before she uses them as hostages."

"Oh, but I haven't threatened them once!" Omilaena clapped her hands on the sides of her face. "Would you like me to start?"

Dragging out all the poisoned fighters seemed impossible and Kai refused to be dismissed so easily. He let Behemoth's Heart beat against the poison while concentrating all his monstrous power in his other arm. When he finally unleashed a Tyrant's Claw, they both took notice.

The technique failed to connect, but it tore through one of the walls of the room. Tareth paused and glanced back at Kai, as if reconsidering again. Omilaena landed in the corridor outside the room, examining the severed end of her pipe. Then she laughed and ran away from them - no more sauntering, she was fast.

"Dammit!" Tareth lunged after her and Kai was right behind him. "We can't let her get away. Go left, cut her off at the docks."

Kai pivoted left, smashing through a door he didn't have time to open. He kept his stride out of the estate, even as he saw Omilaena leap to the wall with Tareth behind her. His best bet was to go a little southwest, position himself somewhere she couldn't easily circle around him.

Tareth managed to redirect her into Kai, who met her with another Tyrant's Claw. Omilaena managed to evade it, but she no longer looked so playful. They had her pinned on a narrow street with only a few options for escape. Kai was most concerned that she would start attacking the walls and the citizens who might be within, but so far she hadn't really caused any collateral damage. He decided that he wouldn't be the first and tried to focus his power.

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The fighting continued in an intense melee and Kai started to think that they might be able to bind her in place. Even if none of the crystalliers could resist the poison, surely someone else had noticed them by now. Every second they kept her from getting closer to the docks was a second that reinforcements came closer, which would mean their victory.

She still managed to push them and Kai realized that he had no idea what her final goal was. The Cloudspire ship was blocked from their sight by tall buildings and she didn't seem to be heading for the largest ships. Yet the little city boats he saw behind him didn't seem like they could possibly be escape vehicles.

Before Kai could figure out the plan, someone interrupted.

"You think your poison can stop a Dragontouched?" Graetri emerged from another street, panting but glaring. "Take this!"

He took a deep breath and all his necklaces began to glow golden, almost as if he had actually gained a draconic technique. While he was still inhaling, Omilaena hurled a small pouch directly into his mouth. Graetri choked and clawed at his lips before suddenly keeling over with his eyes rolling back in his head.

"Dammit!" Tareth cast a glance over at him. "I said-"

In his moment of distraction, Omilaena displayed a burst of speed beyond anything she'd shown before. She had crossed the distance in a heartbeat, stabbing a needle into each of his shoulders. Tareth opened his mouth to shout, but she grabbed his head and leaned in, almost as if she was going to kiss him.

Normally Tareth would have stopped her, but the battle must have worn him down too much. Omilaena exhaled a thick stream of smoke directly into his lungs and the massive man started to slump. She caught him over her shoulder, not even slightly troubled by his weight, and then leapt off the dock.

Kai followed, expecting Omilaena to fall into the water, and instead saw her land on a strange flat ship that he hadn't been able to see from his previous angle. Unlike the fishing boats and creaky little ships, this one was made of sleek wood studded with crystals. Had she planned to lead the fight here in the first place? But if she had a getaway vehicle, why would she wait for them to come attack her?

He should have attacked then, while she was setting down Tareth, but the missing pieces made Kai pause too long. Omilaena leapt off the boat at him without warning, this time sinking some sort of syringe into his chest. Kai swiped at it, but all his power seemed disrupted, flowing too loosely.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to kill you." Omilaena leaned closer and smiled. "I just need you to rest for a while."

His vision began to swim as he struggled to avoid falling and sank to one knee. Something still didn't add up, especially as he saw Omilaena return to the boat and set up something near the front. It began to move and continued accelerating, even when she jumped back to the dock. She hopped out of it and touched something at her side, which made a glimmering crystal appear over the top of the boat.

Even though Kai still didn't understand, he opened his mouth to call some sort of warning. Before he could, he saw Omilaena flashing toward him and smelled sweet smoke.

.

..

.

Kai awoke from a deep sleep, unbelievably relaxed. He didn't remember the last time he had slept so well, but it put him in a content mood. As if he wanted nothing more than to settle back and go to sleep... no. No, his memories started to filter back and he forced himself to open his eyes.

There was a roof jolting overhead, and the motions were consistent with a carriage. Yet when he managed to overcome the lethargy and look to the side, he saw that he was in a surprisingly large room. He was tied to one of several tables, each of which contained a bound crystallier. That alone would have been worrisome enough, but she was there.

Omilaena stood over one of the bodies and something about her had changed. She was still wearing the elegant dress, only a little cut up from the battle. That showed off curves that should have been attractive, yet she wasn't standing to emphasize them.

"You again." She glanced toward him and to his surprise she was wearing goggles, which other than being blue-tinted completely clashed with the rest of her look. "You feeling alright?"

"Not... dead...?" He could feel that Behemoth's Heart was restoring him quickly, but guessed it was better to pretend to be weak for now.

"Oh, I wouldn't benefit from killing any of you, at least not in battle." Omilaena walked toward his bed with a syringe in hand. "All the same, I'm going to need you to stay calm, because you could disrupt the plan now."

"We're going overland." Kai had to swallow some sort of gunk in his throat, but he was more alert now that he put it together. "You sent the ship off as a decoy, then circled back."

"And not stupid, either! There are tunnels out of the city that they didn't know about, so those were always the escape route, but I needed something to throw the cultivators off my tail. And it doesn't hurt to get so much fresh material."

"That's what we are to you? Material?"

Omilaena pulled off her goggles to prop them on her forehead, then gave him a narrow smile. "Maybe the others, but you... well, that's what we're going to find out soon enough."