Chapter 598: Through the Voidshell

As she flew south, Zae Zin Nim knew that others were concerned for their lives, but her primary fear was that she would be disappointed. Many people did not understand the huge gulf of power between the average level on Deadwaste and her current strength, so a monster that was a threat to them might be trivial to her. If it wasn't strong enough to have a meaningful monster core, then she wouldn't have a proper gift for Kai, which was what really worried her.

When she saw her target, those fears disappeared.

The creature was roughly the size of a house, not nearly as large as some monsters, but what struck her was that it seemed invulnerable to the attacks coming from all sides. It was crawling toward the walls of Wontiir, one of their major bases for acid cultivators. Streams of acid poured over it and only dripped off a glossy dark shell. There were crystalliers flying around it, hurling crystal javelins that shattered harmlessly.

All that saved them was the fact that the monster didn't move particularly quickly. Zae Zin Nim floated down to land beside the acid cultivators atop the walls. She waved a hand for them to stop and they looked toward her in relief.

"What have you tried so far?" she asked them.

"The Voidshell seems immune to everything," one of them told her. "Of course, we're limited to acid, but no one else has succeeded either."

Now that the attacks had stopped, Zae Zin Nim could get a clear look at the Voidshell. It was reminded her of a snail with a nearly spherical shell, which was made of a glossy dark material. Unlike a snail, no head emerged from the front, only dozens of sinewy claws that dragged it forward. Just the feel of it was far stronger than the other monsters in the horde, which were mostly being killed around the base of the walls.

"Zae Zin Nim!" The familiar voice proved to be Yurwa, who emerged from a lower level, waving to her urgently.

"What is it?" Zae Zin Nim asked.

"Not everyone can keep up," Yurwa told her in a low voice. "Unless you think you can defeat that thing immediately, some of the areas will be overrun. There could be serious losses..."

"Evacuate them." Zae Zin Nim reached into her spatial bracelet and pulled out another Krysali ship. "Pull out anyone who can't keep up in this battle - take them north to help there. I'll handle this."

"That is generous, but there are quite a few of us..."

Zae Zin Nim's only response was to pull out another crystal ship, then another and another, until they stopped complaining. Some of the acid cultivators looked inept to her, but Yurwa could be trusted to follow instructions. The weaker fighters could clear out, letting her properly fight this monster one on one.

It was getting close to the walls, so Zae Zin Nim leapt out to go face it. She drew back a hand and prepared an intense Coldfire Palm, with fully phased qi. Yurwa hadn't expected her to finish the battle instantly, but she intended to do her best.

The palm of blue fire struck the dark shell... and was snuffed out.

That made Zae Zin Nim raise her eyebrows in surprise. Even Sky Soul cultivators would have been shaken by such an attack, but the Voidshell had simply ignored it. The beast had only tilted back slightly... no, it had done that intentionally, turning the opening toward her.

Claws lashed out, stretching many times the monster's body length to scratch at her. Zae Zin Nim was overly cautious at first, incinerating them with a Coldfire Corona, but the claws didn't seem particularly strong. She let one grasp her and she was able to tear out of the grip easily enough.

If its shell deflected energy, the next thing to try was brute force. Zae Zin Nim dodged aside from all the grasping claws and flew down, landing beside the monster. Before it could redirect itself toward her, she thrust out her best palm strike.

The blow resonated with the shell... but didn't break it, and didn't destroy any flesh within. Frowning, Zae Zin Nim turned her palm into a fist, then used the Pure Yin Shroud to punch the side of the shell with all the raw force she could muster.

Now the Voidshell finally flew backward, thrown by her blow. Yet after sliding across the ground, it smoothly rotated back to the proper orientation so its claws could begin pulling it forward again. As far as she could tell, the shell had taken no damage from her strike.

She frowned and went out to try again, testing the shell for weak points. The Voidshell slashed at her with numerous claws, but she easily dodged or destroyed them. Unfortunately, her blows were equally useless... they were at an impasse, unable to penetrate one another's defenses. Normally she might retreat to reconsider her options, but though the Voidshell's attacks weren't a threat to her, they could easily tear apart the acid cultivators and their fortress if it reached them.

Obviously the remaining potential weak point was the hole in the shell, filled with slashing claws. Zae Zin Nim focused on it, fighting through the swarm and hurling qi and flame into the opening. No matter how many claws she destroyed, no matter how deeply she cast her flame, the Voidshell didn't stop.

In fact, it wasn't trying to defend the opening at all, just using her attacks as an opportunity to target her. Maybe that would change if she plunged straight inside, but Zae Zin Nim wasn't so superior to this thing to take that risk. It was very possible that the shell itself was the source of its power, or the core inside was equally durable, so she wouldn't do that yet.

Instead she flew back to the fortress, noting that many of the acid cultivators had wisely retreated in her vehicles. Those who remained were doing their best to keep up the fight against the other monsters at the walls, though they struggled.

As she flew down, Zae Zin Nim annihilated all of them with a storm of qi, then landed with her arms folded in her sleeves. "Its defenses are strong," she said. "How are things here?"

"We've sent away the weak," one acid cultivator reported, "but we don't want to lose this position, we're using it to defend three different city-states..."

"You will not. If I do not find a solution, I can knock it away." Still, to be stymied against this glorified snail irritated her.

As the Voidshell continued to crawl toward them, Zae Zin Nim began using various techniques she knew but hadn't polished. For example, she tried a Brightwind air burst as well as a flame burst from the Brightphoenix Sect. Perhaps a true use of the technique would be enough, but as far as she could tell, all energy dissipated against it.

Actually, it occurred to her that matter wasn't negated: the Voidshell didn't damage the ground, weapons bounced off, and the acid dripped off instead of disappearing. Perhaps there was something to be done there...

She shot upward, arcing into the clouds before coming down like a meteor. Zae Zin Nim destroyed a massive section of the ground and then shot her qi downward, carving out a larger hole beneath her foe. The Voidshell clawed at her as it tumbled in, but she struck it down to the bottom and then kicked the side of her new pit, triggering a landslide.

That finally trapped the monster, but didn't stop it: dark claws began to emerge, pushing through the rubble to pull the Voidshell out of the hole. Irritating.

"Acid could do it!"

The unexpected voice was Gundle, his voice breaking but determined. Zae Zin Nim looked over and saw that Yurwa was still present as well - they were using the crown of Yul Wei Ren to fight on the wall and keep back the other monsters. Since they had made their decision, Zae Zin Nim flew over to hear what they had to say.

"You believe a strong enough acid would damage the shell?" she asked. "Why?"

"I've been watching," Gundle said defensively. "Qi is negated, but not the crystals or acid containing it. The crystals land, they just aren't sharp enough to break the shell. So if we can generate strong enough acid..."

"I suppose it is worth a try. Yurwa, you take point, while the others should gather here..."

Yurwa moved to the wall to hold off the monsters. She was a decent acid cultivator, but not fast or powerful enough to hold off the horde. However, thanks to the crown, when the monsters reached her they failed to damage her phased barrier. While she flinched a little at their strikes, Yurwa didn't let that stop her and continued to burn through them with waves of acid.

Meanwhile, Gundle led the other acid cultivators in building a sphere of concentrated acid. Even though his soul was still too immature to do it himself, she recognized that he had been working on the technique he had used back in the Battle of Yulthens. It was, even to her high standards, actually becoming a sophisticated qi technique that concentrated acid in a potent sphere.

However, the gap in power was simply too great: cultivators with a few hundred Power couldn't create any effect that would damage such a monster. Fortunately Zae Zin Nim was not completely inept with acid cultivation herself, so she stepped forward.

Taking the sphere away from the formation, Zae Zin Nim began to intensify the acid within, using phased qi that would harm even a Sky Soul. It was half a cultivation technique and half essence, using her power to strengthen the potency of the acid until it was far more dangerous.

As soon as she was done, she grasped the sphere in her qi and leapt overhead. The Voidshell had nearly clawed its way out of the pit when she hurled the acid sphere down.

It definitely felt that impact, which slammed it back down in to the rubble. When the acid collided with the shell, it lost its compressed form and exploded into a small sea that completely filled the hole. They saw a few claws above the acid, but they fell underneath and the ripples stopped.

"Did that... get it?" one of the acid cultivators asked. Gundle watched with a grim expression and shook his head a little after Zae Zin Nim realized.

A claw burst from the acid and the Voidshell began to pull itself out... but it was not untouched. Its claws were ragged and damaged now, and it moved far slower than before. That dark shell, which had been so untouchable before, had lost its luster in places and even showed pitted areas.

Zae Zin Nim soared toward it one more time, burning away the claws that reached for her. As soon as she arrived, she delivered all the force she could in a single hard strike, and this time she felt the shell crumble. She battered it over and over, cracking the shell and driving the monster back into the acid until at last she could reach inside.

The search was disgusting, but in the end Zae Zin Nim pulled out a monster core, pulsing with new power. Around her, she saw that the assault on the fortress was faltering, and the stream of monsters approaching had become intermittent.

Very good. She had acquired a suitable gift before the incursion ended.