Kaden watched things unfold for a moment. The thunderbird that was leading the current enemy group was still staying behind and raining lightning bolts. Yet, Kaden's own leader was fighting directly with the thunderbird so most of the bolts of lightning were not directed at the weaker group members.

For a moment Kaden's eye twitched as he watched Ciner fight. He had hoped the boar would die, but that was not happening. She was fighting alone against two or three opponents. Basically blocking movements of others while concenrating on one. The mist was extremely powerful weapon. Despite his deep dislike for Ciner, Kaden had to admit she knew how to fight.

"I will eventually grow past her and get rid of her", Kaden thought to himself as he charged back into the fight. He felt the lunatic wouldn't bother him as long as he was tied to the phoenix clan.

Kaden ignored his secondary worries such as Ciner. His only worry at the time was to fight and survive the battle.

Alone against any single of the opponents Kaden would have had a fight. On average most of the enemies were at or nearly mid Lower Cari. Kaden's group was roughly similar, but their numbers were fewer. Yet, Kaden's formations were still mostly functioning and there were no intruders inside after the first initial clash. There were also several phoenixes who were generally stronger. Perhaps the thunderbird on the opposing side was on similar power level.

In general, the fight was in stalemate.

Also the remnant kept changing periodically from an element to another. Water changed to earth. Everything dried up and all things seemed to get covered in layers and layers of rock. Then later the earth cracked open and floated up as lightning crackled in between the fragments.

The thunderbird got really greedy around at that time and started to furiously attack the phoenix it had been fighting, but was not able to get past. After a while Kaden wasn't even sure if it would have been able to do anything. One of the mercenaries was able to seriously injure one of the attackers. Specifically a paw was torn off. At that time it seemed a test was in order and the paw was tossed into the rift.

At first nothing happened, but the electric currents floating between objects started connect to the severed body part just like everything else. One might assume the paw would be burned to scraps, but it instead seemed to change and became more like some metal through which the currents could pass through easier. It became less like living matter and this process seemed to progress as time passed.

"It seems, despite the elemental variety, the concepts inside are probably too strong and probably even lacks many others", Kaden thought.

This didn't mean the remnant was useless. The severed paw was separated from its owner. Someone might be able to last much longer and resist the mana for a while. Even stronger people might be able to resist it completely. Even if no one would be able to go inside, some things could be siphoned from outside. It did reduce the remnant's value, though.

"I do wonder how far this escalates", Kaden wondered.

It was technically a good idea to keep the situation as it was. It was still possible for Kaden to generate contribution, but if he was to be moved on the backline, if too strong opponents came, it would be bad. As it happens, beyond his formations, he was actually on the weaker side when compared to those around him. He needed to work hard to get to the same levels of contribution as everyone else. Excluding the formations, only reason he had not fallen behind already was due to him being a phoenix, at least as far as anyone cared.

Kaden did his best to repair and refill mana inside the formations when he had the chance. Building new ones was far more difficult. There was rarely enough time to do so.

The fight continued on. Kaden was able to avoid any major wounds, but situation was getting worse. The defense was getting exhausted. Phoenixes obviously were still going due to the extreme endurance, but most others were experiencing results of the lengthy battle.

Luckily there was only one thunderbird on the opposing side. They were not quite known for their endurance, but the local storms they could generate served as an energy source. They only needed to trigger it and it would absorb mana from atmosphere with very little upkeep. Hence, the leader of the opposing group was able to keep fighting with a few breaks flying inside its storm. The number of its group was still larger so they were able to last longer and even rest as they maintained the siege.

"I wonder how soon we will retreat", Kaden thought to himself as he fired a Fire Beam at an approaching opponent. "Thunderbirds seem to have invested more forces here than us and we won't last forever. Despite what was said, I doubt we will stay and die here pointlessly."

Not long after Kaden had these thoughts an oddly colored shadow that he could barely see appeared from somewhere. The shadow was like a dark colored flame that struck the thunderbird.

There was a loud screech as it fell backwards and was unable to fly back to the storm cloud.

Immediately afterwards more roars and screeches could be heard nearby. For a moment Kaden was observing the situation, but then concentrated back to finishing the fight. Yes, finishing. It was reinforcements. This was somewhat unexpected. Overall situation must have changed.

Kaden watched the now wounded thunderbird figth the phoenix and a firefox. The dark fiery shadow had been a firefox. They were fire and shadow attuned and were good at ambushes and assassinations.

The attackers soon started to retreat and the fighting died down.

Finally there was time to rest properly.

The firefox met up with Caark. Kaden was close enough to listen.

"I didn't expect reinforcements anytime soon", Caark questioned the appearance of the firefox and its group.

"It seems several more remnants have appeared a bit further away from here", the firefox replied. "This area needs to be stabilized so that we can fight without having our backs open for attacks. This also allows us to gain this remnant."

"Its insides are not stable", Caark replied. "Concepts are also unbalanced. It will take some effort to get anything out of it despite its very special and useful properties. Are we expected to stay here or come along?"

"You were able to hold this place so there is no point leaving it for the taking", the firefox said. "Leave half of the mercenaries here and the rest should follow."

Kaden hoped Ciner would be left behind.

"We should take the strongest", Caark said with a nod.

Yet, unfortunatly it was not to be. Ciner was one of the stronger fighters around. No ... there were those who had barely kept up. They were eventually chosen to be left behind.

Kaden noted that the changes in various conflicts in Madakar were rather quick, if his first one was to be considered as an example. For a while Kaden had expected he would have to stay and defend the rift, but now he was just going to go elsewhere. Probably repeat the same or be on the role of an attacker.

This was indeed only the first one. Kaden hoped that the future ones would allow him to gain cores and flesh to eat. This was defensive fight where no one had commited to truly deadly moves. It had been about sieging and weakening opponent before attacking or hunt down after a retreat attempt.

Kaden's group joined a larger force. This time it was to gain control of an entire area. He himself never even saw the remnants. Yet, it was far more useful for Kaden since this time he got to kill things properly and eat.

Additionally, Kaden couldn't really even tell how many factions had a stake in Madakar. It wasn't just the faction with the phonixes, firefoxes and thunderbirds. There appeared to be many more, all of which had same interests. Many of the higher clans were involved. If it wasn't a smaller border skirmish or remnant at similar location, you could probably never tell who your enemy was going to be. Often the opponents were also just random Cari from weaker clans working as mercenaries. A group, like what Kaden was part of, with several phoenixes that would point to the faction were rare.

Madakar was basically a perfect battleground confined to the small area. Kaden wondered how many times actual fights on Frika happened, if larger conflicts and all sorts of clans showing their strength was handled in such separate area seemingly reserved for it?

The more he saw, the more Kaden felt the entire arrangement seemed rather convenient. He had already noted the peculiratity before, but it was now becoming more clear.

Was it influenced by someone or something? Unfortunately Kaden lacked knowledge required to be able to determine such matters. Would it be possible to draw out remnants from some spatial folds or 'concept spaces'? If it was possible then why were humans not doing so and only Cari? Was the seemingly endless conflict between the empires enough so those with ability to arrange similar things didn't care to do so?

Externally nothing seemed out of place and Kaden felt it extremely unlikely that there was a gathering of High Cari hidden somewhere and pulling out remnants just to grow the lower ranked Cari.

There were secrets. Humans had them, but so did Cari. Kaden decided it wasn't his place to be concerned of these matters at least for the time being. His concern was to make use of it and grow. Whether it was natural or not didn't matter at this point.

Considering he was part of the fresher group joining in, he got to fight basically near constantly. He did his best to gather as much resources as possible. Fighting was the best way to grow stronger.

Yet this privilege was reserved for those who were strong. The weak were the stepping stones and died away somewhere along the path. Despite all the training, despite his phoenix body and all the benefits tied to it, Kaden knew he was still weak.

Kaden also had a constant companion. That being Ciner. Kaden would have prefered the crazy boar would stay away, but Ciner seemed to be glued to Kaden and was impossible to escape from. In fact, Kaden started to use her as meat shield during the more intense combat. He wasn't sure, if she noticed since she was more than happy to fight 'together' with him.

Indeed, the assignment to Madakar was both extremely benficial and yet grinded Kaden's nerves.

---------------

For next year Kaden was bounced from skirmish to skirmish within Madakar. As a constant annoyance, there was Ciner who persistently followed him everywhere and babbled something about how fun it was to be finally together or something. Kaden wasn't certain how the lunatic was able to convince those deciding all the movements to keep her with him when there was obvious trouble tied to it.

Despite the time and kills Kaden racked up, he was not yet able to advance to mid Lower Cari. His predictions of required amounts of mana had to be slightly off. He blamed his special body structure as the predictions had based on knowledge based on ordinary records.