The Nightwing war vessel slowed, its hum dropping to a low thrum as it hovered just outside the main engagement range of Sorrow's Peak. The scene before them was a nightmare.

Tens of thousands of Xylarri swarmed the base of the massive peak/ It was a pale and writhing tide of chitin and corrupting purple energy. The monastery's defensive barriers were gone, shattered and consumed. The ancient sacred buildings were being actively destroyed, the Xylarri drones seemingly "feeding" on the latent spiritual energy left in the stone. They were leaving grey dust-like patches in their wake.

Standing among the swarm were larger and more terrifying figures: bulky, insectoid 'Juggernauts' radiating mid-Core Formation power and whip-thin 'Hunters' flickering with near-peak Core Formation speed.

At the very summit, guarding the main monastery hall were three towering, vaguely humanoid Xylarri, their pale skin glowing with an almost regal purple light. Their auras touched the very threshold of Soul Formation. Not the extreme purple that the cultist described but clearly they were special. They were an elite sub species called the Praetorians.

The 100 elite warriors on the deck of the Nightwing felt their morale, which had been artificially inflated by Li Yu's earlier performance plummet in an instant. This was not a disorganized swarm; this was an occupying army.

"By the ancestors..." Grand Elder Corvus whispered. His face was pale, his hands gripping the ship's controls. "There are more... so many more... How can we possibly take that?"

"We strike hard and we strike fast," Zaltar's deep voice rumbled. He turned his burning gaze to Corvus. "We follow the plan we discussed on the way here. We are the spearhead. Your role is support. You have ten percent of our forces to help out wherever needed. Keep everyone alive." His eyes narrowed. "I trust you will not only prioritize your human disciples."

Corvus shot Zaltar an angry look, insulted by the implication but he bit back a retort. "My orders are to support the entire strike group. I will save who I can, human or demon. Now, prepare yourselves."

Jian Xuan stepped to the front of the vessel and had to steel his resolve to face such overwhelming forces. After just an instant, his face alight with a terrifying ecstatic battle-joy. He drew his blade..

"Warriors of the Human Realm! Warriors of Xul'Thar!" he boomed, his voice rolling across the deck infused with Soul Formation power. "Behold the unholy tide! An army of soulless abominations! But they are nothing! They are nothing before our might.”

“For we are led by the chosen of the Crab God! Today, we will offer a mountain of sacrifice! Today, we feast on their corruption! Follow me! Follow Commander Little Crab! And witness divine glory! PRAISE THE GOD CRAB! His mighty claw!"

With a final exultant roar to boost his own morale, Jian Xuan leaped from the ship, a golden meteor aimed at the monastery's peak.

"A madman," Zaltar grunted, though a spark of approval was in his eyes. He turned to his demons. "You heard the human. Let us show them the strength of Xul'Thar! Charge!" The demon lord and his fifty warriors leaped. They advanced forward like a wave of dark chaotic energy.

Li Yu was already long gone, following Jian Xuan in his charge. He had simply rocketed off the ship, moving even faster than Jian Xuan. The remaining forty human elites, their blood pumping from Jian Xuan's speech and their own words of comfort to themselves followed close behind. They were a mix of grim determination and desperate hope.

The moment Li Yu was within range of the massive swarm, he acted as before.

His Koi martial spirit's devouring ability was unleashed at its absolute maximum. Simultaneously, his black Abyssal Sentry orb materialized and was already firing. It unleashed a continuous barrage: silent Abyssal Javelins picked off elite Hunters, blasts of freezing mist slowed the insectoid Juggernauts and other water techniques to slow and bog down the enemy. All while Li Yu himself plunged into the thickest part of the swarm.

He was the vanguard of the vanguard. His staff was a blur, his monstrous physical strength amplified by his peak Core Formation Qi. He was determined to kill as many as possible to ease the burden of those around him.

A Xylarri Juggernaut, its movements already sluggish from the draining field, lumbered to meet him. Li Yu didn't slow down at all. He slammed his staff into its thick carapace. CRACK! The creature's armor, which it had always relied on, was simply shattered. Li Yu followed with a void-infused strike that erased its head.

Jian Xuan hit the line a bit after him. "Soul Dominion!" he bellowed. A wave of his Soul Formation spiritual pressure washed over the swarm. The weaker drones froze, their primitive souls stunned before his 'Singing Blade' reaped their lives in a beautiful arc.

Zaltar and the demons and human cultivators following him crashed into the other side. Zaltar himself was a sight of pure terror. His four arms moved and each was wielding a different technique. One hand formed a fist of crackling demonic flame, another a shield of dark energy, a third a long corrosive whip and the fourth simply tore a Xylarri drone in half with brute strength.

Gor'ath was a four-armed whirlwind of pure physical might, smashing Xylarri left and right. Malix flickered through the shadows, her daggers slitting the throats of Xylarri elites that were trying to organize a counter-attack. Malix was disrupting the flow of the swarm, easing pressure in the area. The demons worked as a well oiled machine.

The Xylarri drones with their strength and speed sapped by Li Yu's drain were cut down with an ease that shocked the allied fighters.

A human disciple from the Stone Binders Sect, Marcus, roared as he activated his martial spirit, a 'Colossal Aegis Wall.' A massive spectral tower shield materialized, protecting a small group of Skyfire Academy disciples who began to unleash coordinated elemental qi attacks from behind it.

Beside them, another Skyfire disciple, Rhys, activated his own more unusual martial spirit: a 'Phantasmal Mirror.' It pulsed with illusory light. As a Xylarri Hunter drone sped towards their group, Rhys's spirit flared. The drone suddenly staggered and was confused, As the world around it seemed to warp from its viewpoint. The monastery walls were shifting and twisting, disorienting it. Marcus seized the opening, his own physical shield slamming into the confused drone and crushing it.

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The battle raged as the team of elites stayed in a group to help protect one another. Li Yu and Jian Xuan were doing their best to draw the focus of the majority of the force's attention. The group pushed up the mountain, a relentless wedge of steel, demonic Qi and void energy. They were leaving a trail of grey dust in their wake.

Then, the Xylarri true elites counter-attacked. The three Soul-Formation-threshold beings from the summit began to move.

One was a seven-foot-tall humanoid with skin like pale purple-veined marble, leaped into the center of the human force. Its speed was so fast that besides the other soul formation experts the rest of the ground didn’t see how it got there. It ignored the heavily-armored Marcus and targeted the weaker spellcaster, Rhys.

"Rhys, look out!" Marcus bellowed as soon as he realized what was going on. Rhys tried to activate his Phantasmal Mirror spirit again. But the Praetorian was too fast. It unleashed a silent psychic attack. Rhys's illusion shattered and he froze. His spiritual sea was in turmoil and it completely stunned him. The Praetorian's long crystalline claw, shot towards Rhys's chest.

From the Nightwing hovering above, Grand Elder Corvus saw what was happening and acted. A beam of golden light shot from one of the ship's mounted artifacts, trying to intercept the attack. But another Praetorian, an insectoid monster, leaped into the sky to block the attack from the ship. Its own body was wreathed in purple energy, taking the full force of the blast. It was only slightly wounded and those wounds were healing at a visible rate.

The Praetorian's claws met the spectral shield of the defensive artifact that Rhys had but it did little to stop him. The shield shattered like glass. The claws plunged through Rhys' armor. His eyes went wide, not with pain but with the horror of feeling his life force, his Qi and his very soul being drained away in an instant. He collapsed a desiccated husk.

A 9th-Level Core demon brute named Volk, who had been fighting alongside Rhys roared in rage and fear. He had found a grudging respect for the human who fought with a demon's courage.

The Praetorian glowing with the stolen life force of Marcus turned to find his new target. Its speed was simply too much. It quickly appeared before Volk, its claws flashing. Volk was a powerful warrior but he was simply outclassed. He was impaled and drained in seconds as well.

The Praetorian turned on the next group of cultivators.

"Damn you vile creatures!" Zaltar roared, seeing his forces and his new allies being slaughtered. He quickly finished off the one he was fighting and shot towards the Praetorian. Corvus, seeing that the battle was going to be determined here and now, piloted the Nightwing closer.

His support force leapt down to reinforce the lines of the group. They had intended that this reserved force would help out where needed and save as many lives as possible but the battle required them all to come at this time. Their true force acted right away and now it was time for the leaders of their group to do the same. Corvus himself shot towards the insectoid Praetorian engaging it in an aerial battle.

Meanwhile, the third Praetorian had found Jian Xuan. Jian Xuan's 'Singing Blade' was a golden hurricane but the Praetorian was just as fast as he was. Its pale crystalline limbs blocking his every strike and its own attacks fueled by corrupting purple energy that corroded Jian Xuan's sword Qi.

The allied line, hit by these three monsters, was beginning to buckle. "Gor'ath! Malix! To me!" Li Yu bellowed, his voice cutting through the chaos. He pointed his staff at the first Praetorian. "We take that one. NOW!"

He didn't wait for a response and he shot forward. Gor'ath and Malix followed after Li Yu. They followed him with hesitation. They had seen Li Yu’s work against the Xylarri, knew of his strength in their spars and Zaltar was over there. They could help by reducing the number of lesser opponents around them.

Li Yu's devouring field that had been spread across the entire swarm was now constricted and concentrated. He focused his entire siphoning power onto that single Praetorian. The creature in the middle of a brutal exchange with Zaltar suddenly felt itself becoming weaker. Its movements became slightly more sluggish, its purple aura flickering as Li Yu's Koi Martial Spirit violently ripped its energy away.

Zaltar seized the opening. "NOW, DEMON!" he roared and all four of his arms blurred, smashing into the Praetorian's chest. Simultaneously, Li Yu's staff, wreathed in Void Qi, struck the creature's head.

Gor'ath and Malix were keeping the lesser creatures away from their fight. Creating a perimeter so they could fight freely. The Praetorian some shrieked without a head, like the shriek came not from his voice but from its very soul. Its body was convulsing before it was torn apart.

Li Yu's spirit instantly devoured the massive potent burst of energy. Along with that energy was an energy he had never felt before. He felt it was related to the soul, like a form of soul energy he’s never experienced or seen before.

Li Yu felt his cultivation base shudder. That unknown "something" in his Ocean of Qi surged, hungrily absorbing the massive influx of purified purple energy from the Praetorian and some of that new soul energy. It was also growing stronger but he still couldn’t detect what it was with his spiritual sense.

"Corvus! Jian Xuan! To us!" Li Yu roared. He charged towards the insectoid Praetorian. That Praetorian had launched an attack that pushed Grand Elder Corvus away and into the ground. He was only slightly hurt, with his pride hurting more than anything else.

With itself freed, the Praetorian landed a devastating blow on two demon warriors, Xil and Gorv, twin shadow-casters who had tried to bind it. Their chests caved in and their life force drained instantly.

Li Yu's focused devouring field hit the creature just as it killed them. This focused approach meant that the others had a harder time against the thousands of creatures but it was necessary to counter these leaders. Zaltar, Li Yu, Gor'ath and Malix all descended on the creature in a four-pronged overwhelming assault. With Li Yu and Zaltar there, it was annihilated in seconds.

Two down. One to go.

The final Praetorian, the one that had been dueling Jian Xuan, saw what happened to the two others like him. Its intelligence recognized the sudden catastrophic shift. It screeched and used some sort of focused soul attack. This staggered Jian Xuan for a brief moment and it tried to flee back towards the rifts.

Li Yu unleashed his version of 'Void-Lattice Cage.' Threads of void energy snapped into existence, forming a 3D prison around the fleeing Praetorian. It slammed into the invisible wall and nearly broke it. Thankfully, the void cage held. Trapped inside the Praetorian was screeching in desperation as Jian Xuan descended upon it. With it now trapped and weakening, Jian was able to finish it off.

With the three Praetorians dead and Li Yu's devouring field now active across the area, the remaining Xylarri swarm lost cohesion. Their leadership was gone so their own instincts took over. Some broke and were fleeing away where possible as Li Yu and the others turned their attention to purging as many as possible.

The monastery was theirs.

Exhausted, the allied cultivators and demons slumped to the ground after they had cleaned up the area. They were panting amidst the grey dust and purple ichor. Corvus got back on the Nightwing and landed the ship down. His face was slightly pale as he began directing survivors to fortify the monastery's damaged walls.

"Casualties," he ordered, his voice hoarse. The count came back. It was low, miraculously low given the scale of the fight but each loss was a hammer blow. They would need everyone they could to win this war. Four dead. Four elites went down in a single fight. One human: Marcus, the brave Stone Binder. And three demons: Volk and the shadow-caster twins, Xil and Gorv. Four lives, for a mountaintop fortress deep in enemy territory.

Many others were wounded during the battle but they were going to be okay after some healing pills.

Li Yu stood on the monastery wall and his devouring field receded. He looked down at the small retreating Xylarri tide. This was just one stronghold. The very first step. The war had just begun.