Chapter 384: Two Manticore Factions
Now that the battle was over, the Manticore tribesmen didn't seem inclined to start murdering one another again. Kai spent a while cultivating atop one of the stone outcroppings, just watching both sides while they prepared, but they had retreated to treat their wounds and otherwise recover from the battle. Other than burying the bodies, they didn't seem particularly concerned with their losses.
Eventually the large tribesman from earlier approached, with only a bandage over one of his injuries. The Manticore tribe must have been decent at healing, even though they weren't known for it. After catching Kai's gaze, the man bounded forward to stand beside him.
"Never introduced myself before," he said with a quick bow. "My name is Ahn Rit Kulha, head of the Tail faction."
"One of the main branches." Kai nodded as he glanced to either side. "Is this the whole branch? Does that make you one of the four strongest people in the tribe?"
"Hah! We aren't quite as strong as we used to be, but we haven't fallen that far. No, this is only a part of the Tail faction. I'm our strongest Earth Soul, but we have half a dozen more with the other groups. I suppose we need to talk about all that."
"You implied the tribe is in decline?"
"Enough talk out here in the cold." Ahn Rit Kulha gestured toward the tents, which were beginning to light up as the sun set. "We've prepared a whole feast for you, so come back and enjoy first."
It seemed like even tribes that were called barbarians by others had a sense of hospitality. When Kai entered the largest tent alongside the faction leader, he was surprised to find that it wasn't slabs of meat in every direction. Clearly that was his bias: instead the tables were covered with hundreds of different dishes.
They proved to be similar to those he'd eaten elsewhere in Cloudspire, though they were much spicier on average. Some of them looked to see if he would be surprised, but Kai could eat essentially anything by that point and didn't flinch. Mostly, he was just glad that there wasn't any shellfish, which had been a daily food in the Bloodcoral sect.