Depthless Hunger

"Stay."

Kai had just moved his legs off the side of the bed, ready to begin what was sure to be a trying day, when Omilaena's hand gripped his arm. Not gently - her fingers dug into his muscles like claws. He looked back to find her sprawled across their bed, tempting not because she was trying to be seductive but because she wasn't. This was Omilaena stripped of all pretense, urging him back.

"If you go out there," she said, "all our problems will start. Just stay."

"Our problems are going to mount up even if we ignore them." But despite his words, Kai shifted back onto the bed, propped himself over her on one arm and leaning down to kiss her. Omilaena tangled a hand in his hair and kept him there for a long, hungry kiss.

"I'm glad you came back early. It was just a month, but I go off track without you two."

"Off track?"

"I started getting bitter, but it turns out I just really needed to get laid." Omilaena smirked and tried to pull him down again, so he let himself rest just a little longer.

He didn't think she had been entirely honest at the end, but that was how Omilaena usually was and he thought she'd be more open in time. Besides, he'd missed this too. More than physical needs, when he'd been traveling on his own he'd missed having someone just relax beside him. The entire world was brutal, and Cloudspire especially seemed to be filled with backstabbing, so simple companionship meant a lot.

"Alright, fine." Omilaena groaned and twisted underneath him, but she still wasn't trying to distract. "I know we need to get started, so run cover for me."

Kai kissed her again and then got up. The Beggar King's Robes slithered around his body automatically, comfortable in seconds, and transformed to Manticore tribe robes. He hadn't realized that they had shifted to gray in private and wondered about that. Omilaena muttered something unflattering about his magic clothes and rolled herself into a bundle of sheets.

When he stepped outside the sun hadn't risen above the horizon, but the activity in the camp made him feel like he'd overslept. Clusters of Manticore tribesmen huddled together, whispering to one another. For every one who was doing some sort of useful work, three shuffled to no real purpose and six cultivated desperately.

He wasn't sure how much information had gotten out, and in fact still wasn't sure what it meant for them. It was a victory, but far from a complete one.

"There you are!" Kulha trotted over to him, but he had a bandage across his chest and favored his left leg. "This is looking bad. Maybe if Feida had lived..."

"You aren't happy?" Kai asked, harsher than he'd intended. "I thought that was what you wanted."

"I might have been able to take over the Claw faction at the beginning, but now?" Kulha grimaced as he stared over the feverish camp. "They're already whispering, and the splinters that lost Earth Souls are basically ready to flee. Unless we do something, they could scatter to the winds."

"Isn't our most dangerous opponent gone?"

"Gone for now, but if I try to lie about that, it will just raise questions about the patriarch. And letting that information get out would be the worst possible choice for us. If they don't have some sort of hope before they find out, we don't have a chance."

"What's stopping us from seizing the patriarch's house?" Kai asked. "We have one of the largest armies, and if you can keep the Claw faction, we have half the tribe. The Quill faction's top cultivators are gone, so who's left to stop you from declaring yourselves the official tribe?"

"That mercenary could always come back, but worse, the Head faction seems to have stopped its infighting. They have a pretty good force too, enough to pull some of our cultivators away and scare off others." Kulha rubbed at his bandaged wound. "I'm telling you, if we don't take action, the alliance is going to scatter."

There didn't seem to be a good solution as far as Kai could see. Over time the Tail and Claw factions had come closer together, but Kulha was right that they wouldn't actually unify, not without Feida to lead them. Because it had been a secret night mission, there would always be rumors that Kulha had killed her. And with a Sky Soul mercenary around and the Head faction gathering, there was plenty of reason for doubt.

It made him think back to the revolution in Krysal, but the social environment was completely different. In Krysal, the people had been fighting for more than their lives, striving for a cause they believed in. In Cloudspire, there was no reason for them not to prioritize themselves and just leave.

"Has there been any sign of Jackal Thirteen?" Omilaena spoke as she emerged from the tent, calmly placing one of her earrings. Her eyes were sharp, her legs flashed in her skirt, and there was generally no trace of the vulnerability he'd seen earlier.

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"That's the Sky Soul?" Kulha could only shake his head. "I set up a lot of guards, like Kai ordered, but no sign of them and no deaths. Maybe the mercenary... got what he wanted and left."

"That's possible, but we shouldn't count on it."

"You're probably right. Some of the other Earth Souls are afraid he went to the Head faction and that's why they've regrouped. That would certainly do it, and it'd put us in a bad position. Given... who he controls... he could wreck the tribe's morale at will."

Kai still didn't see a solution, but to his surprise Omilaena took his arm to pull him aside. She raised a single finger to Kulha, and the Manticore leader nodded meekly. Once they were out of hearing range, Omilaena leaned closer to him.

"How much do you care about the Manticore tribe?" she asked. "Have you gotten too attached?"

"I've been fighting with them for months," Kai said. "You both mock me for this, but isn't it just reasonable to form a bond with people like that?"

"I'd kill them all if it would help you or Zin Nim."

"I mean, I'd definitely choose you over them, without question." Kai scratched at his chin and realized that he needed to shave after all his traveling. "Forget about that part of it. You wouldn't ask if you didn't have something in mind, so what are you thinking?"

"I see two options: we abandon them, or we go all in." Omilaena raised her hands one at a time. "I'm confident that we can get Zin Nim past 999 with the vault materials, so we don't need this tribe for much else. We can just leave." She clenched one hand, then flexed the open one. "But if we stay, we make sure they're a useful resource. That means keeping them from falling apart."

"Can we actually do that?"

"You need to use that big voice of yours and tell them that they have a future."

"I really don't think that sort of thing will play well on Cloudspire."

"What I mean is that you need to show them they have power backing them." Omilaena poked his chest with one sharp fingernail. "You told me that they were practically trying to make you their leader before. Take off your shirt, show them a big manticore tattoo, and they'll follow you. You're looking for chances to take your shirt off anyway, right?"

He barely even considered her joke, instead staring at her. "I thought the tattoo might be limiting, and it sounded like you agreed. Did you change your mind?"

"No, I spent a month training with their tattoo artists." Omilaena flicked a needle into existence and began spinning it around her fingers. "I think the most likely problem isn't a tattoo limiting you, it'd be your body consuming all the power. So what I could do is modify the methods they use and create a temporary manticore. It will look good, you can impress everyone with your shirt off, but in the future you can leave them behind."

"Huh." Kai tilted his head back to think about it, but immediately realized there wasn't much to think about. He trusted Omilaena was right about the power side of things, and in that case there was no real question. "Let's do it."

So Kai told Kulha to keep the tribe together while Omilaena went to gather supplies, then they met in one of the empty tents. Kai lay down on his stomach, and when Omilaena touched his back, her fingers were cool and clinical. Whatever had been going on with her before, she'd definitely been restored to the venomous woman he knew and loved.

"First let me see how you react." She pressed a needle into his back and he was surprised that it barely hurt at all, in fact it was barely even noticeable. "That's not great. Your body starts absorbing the mana almost instantly, so the tattoo would be faded within a week."

"Can we just use more ink? I know the leaders sometimes strengthen their tattoos by adding more."

"No, what I think I need to do is add chakra. In fact, I probably need to do that anyway, or you might end up wiping it out the first time you transform with the Savage Heart. In that case..." She continued muttering to herself, considering the variables and only occasionally asking him a question.

Several experiments later, Omilaena seemed to be satisfied. She inked something across his back, then gestured for him to roll over. When Kai shifted onto his back she leapt up to straddle his stomach, and despite her smirk, her eyes were completely business-like.

"Here's the plan: I'm going to do a fancy tattoo across your chest, and it's going to go deep. You'll need to focus, or your body might heal it away. But in theory, I can create a stable mana formation. It will start weak, but it should be able to accumulate mana. I don't want to give you a false impression this will result in a big powerup, but it will definitely do its job here."

"How is that going to fit into my soul?" Kai asked.

"We'll have to find out. Now hold still."

The process took over an hour, despite Omilaena's swift fingers, and by the end she was sweating from the energy drain. Kai could feel the power spreading across his chest, though, similar to the Manticore tribe's but subtly different. He realized that it was a bit like a Goralian Class and that Omilaena must have integrated what she'd learned on Deadwaste.

She rubbed her forehead and sat down to recover, but she'd taken him far enough. As he prepared to leave, Kai looked down at the bright red manticore spreading across his chest. He'd never been one for tattoos, but he thought that Omilaena's was better than the others, with greater detail that made the ferocity impressive instead of strange.

As he stepped out of the tent, the Beggar King's Robes obediently stayed around his waist, baring the new tattoo. Kai began walking into the camp and saw the news ripple out from him as the cultivators began to notice.

When Kulha approached, he breathed a heavy sigh of relief. Kai reached out and grabbed his hand, shaking it firmly. That wasn't the cultivator way, but he wasn't here to be a cultivator, he was here to be their strange barbarian champion. Whatever they thought about him, they knew that he was strong, and the symbol across his chest was undeniable.

"Are you a bunch of frightened juniors?" Kai shouted the question and drew the entire camp's attention to him. "Are you going to flee to stronger sects? Disappear into the Western Wilds? Run and be picked off one by one? Or... are you the Manticore tribe?"

It wasn't much of a speech, but the cultivators responded with a roar of approval. Kai raised his hands, accepting their praise, even as he knew the colors across his chest wouldn't last.

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