Chapter 367: Honeymoon Hunt

Kai paced through the caverns, determined to finally catch his quarry. For a long time he’d been certain that there was something powerful in the caves with him, both based on his hunger going wild and instincts he couldn’t put his finger on. There was something there, something deadly.

But it must be avoiding him, or perhaps waiting for its moment, because he still hadn’t tracked it down. Even though there was no reason that they needed to leave, Kai felt like time was running out. Maybe he just couldn’t live without deadlines, or maybe...

As he hunted, eating the occasional Direcrab, he thought about his wives and their work.

Zae Zin Nim hadn’t mentioned it, but he knew her qi so well now that he could tell that she had stalled on her path to Sky Soul. She was shifting to work on her Coldfire Corona, but he didn’t think that he could get her to 99 and she wasn’t likely to break through unfamiliar mana arts on her own. Considering her other bottlenecks, she was at risk of stagnating.

Meanwhile, the other day he’d discovered Omilaena all the way outside the island, experimenting with the razor coral. They’d had sex out there, which was fun, but he could tell that she was getting increasingly desperate for new materials to experiment with. Darkmist Island had provided fodder for growth for a long time, but it was running dry.

His thoughts were interrupted by the click of chitin on stone - strange, the crabs were usually completely silent. When Kai passed into the next room, he spotted it: an enormous, heavily-armored crab almost as large as the chamber itself. It let out a roar and charged at him.

The armor was bright purple and might have some sort of poison, so Kai decided to start cautiously. He tore off the nearest thick stalagmite and hurled it like a missile. It broke through the armor, but the monster kept coming, roaring again and revealing several massive claws that snapped at him threateningly.

Kai unleashed the strongest Tyrant’s Claw he could and the chitin armor shattered. The monstrous crab let out one final roar as it died and then collapsed to the floor.

Sighing, Kai walked closer to analyze the corpse. The thing had just been big, not really strong compared to him, but he was used to such disappointments. Strangely he couldn’t get an exact reading in his spiritual sight because there was some distortion, similar to the Frontier. Could there be a pit somewhere in the ocean floor? He wasn’t sure how to interpret that, but maybe eating the monster would help him figure it out.

As he bent down, he saw something in the broken chitin shift and jumped backwards on instinct.

The mangled body slammed closed around where he had been standing, and for a moment Kai didn’t even know what he was looking at. It was as if all the broken pieces had curled up into some sort of massive mouth, which had rolled over to ambush him. So it had faked its death? Or was there some other-

Stone gave way underfoot and Kai felt jaws close around his ankle.

A burst of Thunderbird’s Wings took him to the roof of the chamber, and that was all that saved him. He looked back as he struck the stone and saw that the stone where he had stood was now opening into a glistening purple-black maw. Just how much of the cavern was really the monster? Kai experimentally struck the stone behind him, but it seemed to be normal. Still, that double ambush... if not for Thunderbird’s Wings, he would have been seriously injured.

Even now, his leg was bleeding, but Behemoth’s Heart could easily handle such injuries. The bigger problem was figuring out just what the hell he was dealing with.

The mangled body of the fake giant crab was reorienting itself and joining with the false floor. It wasn’t any kind of body like he understood, just a mess of purple-black matter. Every place the flesh parted or opened, there were lines of sharp white teeth that gnashed mindlessly. Those were sharp enough to pierce his defenses, as he’d found out, and getting swarmed by the entire thing could have been dangerous even for him.

Kai leapt to the other side of the cavern and tore off a stalactite, then hurled it at the mass. Immediately a larger mouth opened and it chomped down on the stone, smashing it to pieces that disappeared into the darkness. Whatever this thing was, it wasn’t likely to go down easy.

Jumping to a new position, Kai tore free two lengths of stone at once. He hurled the first into the main mass, then as the jaws were biting down, swung the other overhead. This time he managed to club the side of the jaw and splattered part of the monster over the floor.

The rest of it surged to bite him from all sides, but he leapt away to grab another stalactite. Good, it was still vulnerable to force. He had his most powerful techniques set, but he didn’t want to use them yet, not when he was enjoying finally having a real challenge.

As Kai hurled a pair of stalagmites, he saw something slither out of the edge of his vision, on the other end of the cavern. His senses weren’t good enough to pick out the details, but his experience as a hunter made him immediately suspicious. Kai jumped in that direction and reached to grasp a particularly large stalagmite.

Just before his fingers touched it, the stalagmite exploded into jaws that closed around his arm. But before they could bite, Kai sent a Tyrant’s Claw bursting from that arm, shredding through the false stalagmite and sending more of the monster splattering over the cavern.

He realized that, unlike the fake crab, this creature made no sound except for closing teeth. No roars, no hisses, no sounds of its flesh reforming or growing... just teeth snapping together when its jaws tried to consume him. The monster was regrouping on the other side of the chamber, dozens of mouths flowing over one another as the ribbons of flesh gathered together.

Grinning, Kai prepared another Tyrant’s Claw as a challenge and hurled it across the space.

To his astonishment, the monster fused together with equal speed, all of the smaller mouths joining into a single enormous maw. It opened wide, and when the energy of the Tyrant’s Claw struck it, the energy was swallowed whole.

"Damn." Kai hesitated just a second - if this was a human opponent, he would have respected it, but this monster knew only hunger. "Alright, then let’s see if you can handle this..."

It surged toward him, but Kai exhaled Baleful Breath faster. The monster flinched for an instant, then burst apart in several directions, dodging the cloud of fire and darkness.

So it wasn’t able to consume enough energy to stop Baleful Breath, but it had proved it was smart enough that he wouldn’t be able to just pin it in in a tunnel and destroy it. Hell, this monster might be the tunnel if he wasn’t careful.

The pieces of the monster had split into several tunnels, but he was confident that it wasn’t fleeing. No, if he had seen correctly, it had covered his routes back. After its ambush had failed, it planned to consume him now. And it was right to do so, because given time he could have come up with better traps and plans to take it out.

Kai moved down one of the corridors, focusing on all his senses and ready to move at a moment’s notice if the floor proved treacherous. Then again, it might be smart enough not to try the same trick twice. Would it attack from a different angle, or would it mimic something else entirely?

Fuck, if he didn’t take this thing out now, he’d have nightmares about one of his wives transforming into it. He had to end this.

Though he had all his best techniques ready in his soul, that meant he was lacking utility essences like Mutefang’s Stealth or Sahagin’s Soul. Probably for the best. Following this thing into the water seemed risky, and he wasn’t confident that Mutefang’s Stealth could compete against a predator as advanced as this. The one technique he had prepared that he hadn’t used was Void Gaze, so that was his next move.

Without warning, the monstrous maws attacked from out of a crevice too narrow for him - no, it was the crevice. But as the jaws streaked toward him, Kai fixed them with Void Gaze and the entire mass froze to a halt.

Good, he would have been worried if it had somehow swallowed the gaze. Kai advanced closer carefully and opened his jaws wide enough to swallow the spear tip of the mass. He got a strong sense of a mouthful of blood and teeth, and beyond that, immense power. This thing was definitely a potent monster, by far the strongest he’d seen on the island.

He didn’t blink once, but suddenly the lower mass of the monster lashed out, biting deep into his stomach.

Kai stumbled back as jaws slammed around him from all sides. He expelled a burst of Baleful Breath in panic and slammed backward, crushing one jaw between his back and the cave wall. The rest had to retreat, but not far.

The blood pouring from his stomach would have been a mortal wound for anyone else, but Behemoth’s Heart kept him going. When he fixed his gaze on one set of jaws, he managed to freeze it, but the other parts continued to slither away. Not only could it partially resist the technique, it was smart enough to pretend that its entire body had been frozen.

This thing was dangerous... but he’d proved that he could eat it.

Kai focused all his attention on Isulfr’s Bite, then hurled himself into the nightmare of jaws. He took the largest bite he could, wiping out its central mass, but of course the remaining parts lunged to bite him from all sides.

But now he was fighting smart, so he dodged some and used Void Gaze to freeze those that got within range. A few got through, but these were much smaller, and their bites barely slowed him down. Especially because he was eating it faster than it could eat him. This monster had no way of dealing with something that couldn't be overwhelmed in a straight fight, so it flailed and began to retreat. He ate the last of it before it could get away.

The essence was good... but it wasn’t enough. That had only been roughly a quarter of the mass and he wanted to eat the rest.

If he could have hunted down the other quarters, that would have been increasingly easy, but he only saw monstrous jaws retreating from him. Soon he saw why: they were all gathering in one of the larger caverns. The mass wasn’t as large as it had been at first, but this was still its best chance of taking him down. Kai grinned as he stepped into the room.

This thing was trying to outplay him, so he wanted to fight back on the same terms. It was vulnerable while it was biting, and implicitly more vulnerable to his own bite while it was bunched up. If he waded in directly, it could probably take him apart and even Behemoth’s Heart couldn’t save him from a swarm like that. Instead...

Kai grabbed several stalagmites - checking to be sure they weren’t more fakes - and prepared to hurl them. Mouths shifted in anticipation. But before moving his arms, Kai exhaled, shooting out a line of Baleful Breath that enveloped half the cavern in flames and forced the mass of jaws into a narrower corridor.

Then he began hurling his projectiles in quick succession. The first two were gnashed apart, but on the third movement, Kai only faked his throw and instead launched a Tyrant’s Claw. After a surprised twitch, the monster reformed a larger maw, managing to consume the energy of his technique.

But Kai was already moving: he’d launched a Tyrant’s Claw from his other hand at the same time he hurled the last stalagmites. He’d timed them all to arrive at the same time, battering the mass of jaws together, pushing them into a smaller and smaller knot.

Which he froze in place with Void Gaze. Then he was across the room in an instant via Thunderbird’s Wings and his jaws opened wide.

His first bite consumed the majority of the bunched-together mass, and though the remnants didn’t bleed or suffer, they shook wildly. Smaller jaws tore into him from all sides, as he’d known would happen, but it was too late: Kai had consumed the majority of the monster’s essence and the rest couldn’t keep up with him.

In fact, as he chewed through the remaining jaws, he was so flush with new strength that he was already healing. By the time Kai hunted down the very last remnants of the monster, he was covered in his own blood but had no visible injuries.

The essence settled into his soul as a "Voidmaw", which seemed an appropriate name. He wondered if it was finally time to feed or replace his Isulfr’s Bite ability, but that was a decision for another day. For now, Kai was just happy to have finally finished his hunt - he doubted that the caverns held any greater threats with the Voidmaw gone.

As he walked back to the mansion, he realized that he was covered in gore and tattered clothing, which wasn’t exactly the ideal conditions to return to his wives. Yet when they saw him from their position in the sitting room, they only smiled.

"Did you finish it?" Zae Zin Nim asked.

"I think so," Kai said, grinning despite himself. "It was close at times, but fuck, I feel so alive."

"Congratulations. Please take a bath."

"Oh, definitely take a bath first," Omilaena said, "but after that I’m thinking you deserve a reward. Both your wives are very impressed with your hunting prowess, aren’t we? I think we can make this victory memorable in an entirely different way."

Part of him immediately reacted to that promise, but another part of him noticed what might have been a slight shadow in Zae Zin Nim’s eyes. Was she uncomfortable, either with Omilaena volunteering her or with the idea itself? She seemed entirely happy with their relationship, but he did worry about her boundaries at times.

"I don’t know, let me see if I can even get all of this off me." Kai scratched at the mess of his hair. "I really do need that bath."

As he headed out, Zae Zin Nim gave him a slight smile and he wasn’t sure how to read that either. The confusion finally cut into Kai’s sense of triumph: their relationship had come this far, how were there still any problems between them?

He hadn’t come to any conclusions when he dropped into the mansion’s bathing pool. Despite what he’d said, most of the blood and gore melted off of him. After draining the filthy water, he replaced it with a pool full of water heated by a chakra conduit. When he sat back, it was partially to soak and erase the last traces, but partially to think.

Before he could, Omilaena walked naked into the room and stepped into the pool with him, which wasn’t exactly conducive to clear thinking.

"What exactly is wrong with you?" she asked conversationally. "You eat your monster, you’re clearly on top of the world, then I suggest a little celebration and you get all awkward. Is this some kind of weird Goralian hangup I never heard about?"

Kai sighed and leaned back against the side. "No, I’m actually worried about Zae Zin Nim."

"Why would you be? Honest question." She shifted up against his side, now more curious than irritated.

He sighed again as he tried to pull his thoughts together. Omilaena looked amazing in the bath beside him, so he wrapped an arm around her to pull her closer. She wasn’t shy about nuzzling up against him, either, which made it harder to think, but he managed to articulate what he wanted to say.

"Zin Nim has told me about her father’s harem," Kai said slowly, "and I think that still casts a heavy shadow on her. She seems happy with us, but she has to be conscious of the fact that she’s one of two wives. Whenever you suggest something for my benefit, I’m afraid it will bring up those insecurities."

"Pfff, I should have known." Omilaena rolled her eyes. "You have two women passionately in love with you and you manage to make it into a problem."

"Can you blame me? My luck is so bad, I feel like the universe had to punish me for this eventually." Kai gave her a squeeze to keep her from mocking him further. "But I’m serious about this. She’s spoken about how the women in the harem were forced to perform for her father. I guess I don’t know the details, but I get the sense that it was for his benefit, not theirs. Does that make sense?"

"It does, and I do know the details. There are some things that women can do to each other that actually satisfy, and some that just look pretty but don’t do a lot for us."

"Then you understand the concern."

"You’re not wrong about the baggage she’s carrying, but you’re being ridiculous in this case."

"Why are you so confident?"

"Because I know a woman’s heart."

It was Kai’s turn to roll his eyes. "Fuck you."

"I wish. Kai, you’re very considerate in some ways, but oblivious in others." Omilaena flicked him in the forehead and stood up, producing a glorious shower of water over her body. "Finish cleaning up and come to the bedroom. Let’s crush this problem for good."

.

..

.

Zae Zin Nim sat on their marriage bed, trying not to fidget. She wore her favorite bedroom robe, one thin enough to be inappropriate in any other context. It wasn’t as daring as some of the clothes Omilaena wore, which were translucent, but it draped over her body in a way she thought was flattering. Her logic was that her husband and wife knew what she looked like naked, so wasn’t it more appealing to wrap herself up for them than to reveal everything?

By all rights, they should have a good night to look forward to, but her spouses were making her nervous. Kai was being awkward for some reason and Omilaena implied there was some issue to deal with before sending her here. As a whole their marriage had been remarkably free of problems, but it seemed there were always new issues to work through.

They entered not long after, both dressed. Kai wore a simple wrap around his waist, while Omilaena had put on a diaphanous blue gown that showed a great deal. Zae Zin Nim had to admit that it looked appealing flashing around her legs - Omilaena seemed to emphasize them for Zae Zin Nim ever since their conversation about legs. Well... maybe she did like them.

"Alright, emotions first!" Omilaena announced. "Kai, tell her what you told me."

"Uh..." Kai shifted his weight awkwardly before blundering forward. "I just know how much your father’s harem disturbed you and I don’t ever want you to feel the same way here. And I guess that makes things awkward sometimes."

She blinked several times as she stared at them and put together some of the strangeness in the past. Now his curiosity, which had seemed on the edge of lascivious, was revealed to actually be concern. It was really very sweet of him, but unnecessary.

"This is completely different, Kai," Zae Zin Nim told him. "What matters isn’t the number of people, but how they treat one another. Even a man with only one wife can treat her poorly. The fact that you have two doesn’t make you my father, not when you treat us as actual partners."

"Oh, but he’s still worried." Omilaena slid up beside her, wrapping her arms around her and teasing as she always did. "He’s afraid that when we do things together, it’s just a performance."

"Absurd." Zae Zin Nim didn’t squirm away from the clever fingers, but glowered over her shoulder. "No one would ever doubt your lust."

"Okay, bad example. But you still need to soothe his stupid conscience about this. If it’s wholesome for someone to find their spouse attractive, isn’t it wholesome to find two partners attractive? Be honest, I know you’ve watched the two of us fucking and enjoyed it."

Stating matters so bluntly made Zae Zin Nim flush... but she realized that it was true. She hadn’t put it in exactly that way before, because for her it was all a cloud of intimate pleasure, yet the suggestion immediately brought many heated thoughts to mind.

All she said was, "I... do enjoy watching you sometimes."

"And like you said, you both know I enjoy it," Omilaena purred. "I’d give you the details, but I think that would make this much less romantic."

"Yes, there is no need for that." Zae Zin Nim put her hand over Omilaena’s, both to touch her and to keep her from getting too bold too quickly. "But Kai, please don’t worry. You do so many things to make us happy, I would be glad to make you happy, even... even if I didn’t like it too. Which I do."

"See, you got Zin Nim to confess how much she loves sex. If that doesn’t convince you, I don’t know what will."

"Alright." Kai held up his hands in surrender. "Sorry if I made things uncomfortable."

Zae Zin Nim shook her head. "No, you understood my old fear. But I’m not afraid of that here. And I... I would very much enjoy doing something to celebrate your monster hunt."

Omilaena looked between them, raising her eyebrows. Zae Zin Nim held her robes, trying to communicate all her sincerity in her eyes. Kai hesitated one last time, then smiled and went to join them. He pulled both his wives into an embrace and the honeymoon really began.