Chapter 1027: Measured Response, Atypical Reaction
[Ink Gardna!]
As the ball of [Chaos] came flying towards her head, Zhen Xun Tian responded by empowering the kraken tattoo on her back with her own flavor of [Chaos]. Once it had been saturated enough, she willed the tentacles to cover her arm in a gauntlet made of ink and smacked away the ball of [Chaos] like it was a volleyball.
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[Death Ripper!]
Zhen Hai wasn’t entirely sure why the possession in his head compelled him to draw his [Berserker’s Fang], but he was more than happy to obliged. In the process of drawing it, and swinging it down towards the ball of [Chaos], Zhen Hai channeled a small bit potent amount of death into his sharktooth club. This action caused it to hum and vibrate like a chainsaw and violently tear into the ball of [Chaos].
On top of that, Zhen Hai swore he could feel the club starting to devour the offending ball as well.
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[Graviton Chop!]
Zhen Feng had never used his newly acquired butcher’s knife aether treasure in combat before, due to him finding that his large bulk and brute strength was more than sufficient to dispatch of most foes.
However, his recent experience of having a ballerina made of blades shoved into his spiritual skull, caused him to reevaluate such notions.
Compelled by [something] in his head, Zhen Feng drew his [Ogre’s Knife] and infused it with an energy he was only tangentially familiar with. Once it was saturated, he brought down the significantly heavier blade and sliced the encroaching ball of energy like it was a ripe watermelon.
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[So what’s the plan here, Executor?]
[Burn it down? Block it? Something else?]
‘Descions, decisions…’
At this moment in time, Zhen Liu’s mind was running a bit higher than normal as he had a glut of options to choose from in order to deal with this incoming attack made of [Chaos].
Immediately, he threw out the possibility of merely tanking the hit with his body. He understood that while his innate defenses made him nigh impenetrable to most aether based attacks, it did jackshit against attacks made of [Chaos] and/or dragon force. There might’ve been more, but he had yet to learn about them.
Zhen Liu also threw out summoning one of the Kaijin to deal with the attack for him. Something in Zhen Liu’s gut told him that this attack was meant to expose him as being the Kaijin Lord of the era. However, he had no idea if the people behind such a plan were doing so out of malice or hope, and he didn’t want to figure out which just yet.
With those two options out of the way though, this meant that Zhen Liu only had three possible choices in how to deal with this incoming threat.
He could simply dodge out of the way, a bit cowardly but it would allow him to paint the picture that he has no greater abilities and hide behind the facade of ignorance and weakness.
He could also mimic his cousins and Aunt and channel some external Kaijin power to deal with the attack. This would allow him to blend in with the rest of his family and still allow himself to keep the focus off of himself.
Or…he could do something stupid and spiteful. Stupid in the sense that it would cause a good chunk of the attention that was about to generated by this moment to be drawn to himself anyways, spiteful in the sense that he was going to find out who thought it was a good idea to attack him and his family. And all he would have to do to draw it was to draw the bone club on his hip.
‘Fuck it, let’s boogie.’
Which is exactly why he did that.
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[Chaos, out!]
Smack!
“Holy shit!”
“Gah!”
Like his cousins, Zhen Liu whipped out a weapon in order to channel his energy better. Unlike his cousins though, he wasn’t aiming to merely knock away or destroy the incoming attack. He wanted to find out who launched it.
As such, he drew forth his [Veteran’s Bone Club] and smacked the attack like a baseball, right back towards its source.
Evidently, nobody expected this to happen, so it came to a surprise to everyone when the attack was sent flying back towards its sender and knocked the guy out of the air.
[Turnabout is a fair play, jackass!,] Zhen Liu shouted as he ran towards the plummeting attacker with his club drawn and ready to swing downwards like he was about to smash open a downed pinata.
(Un)fortunately, his fun was interrupted.
Ka-clang!
“Huh?”
[Hold up, young master! I can’t have you do that!]
Just as he was about to get his cheap shots in, Tortallion had managed to wedge himself between Zhen Liu and his target just in time to block it with his turtle shell shield.
One would think that bone impacting a turtle shell would lead to a hollow sound, but when Zhen Liu’s club made contact, it sounded like a ton of metal impacting a steel wall. Evidently, this sound caused Zhen Liu’s cousins to instinctively flinch.
“By the heavens…”
“I’d hate to be on the receiving end of something like that.”
[Little Luka. Are you alright?]
[I-I’m fine, Guardian. Thank you for saving me.]
‘Little?’
The warrior that Zhen Liu had smacked out of hiding, turned out to be an Aquarum man that looked to be in his mid-30s, physically speaking. However, he seemed to be radiating the same amount of power as a peak Aether Grandmaster.
[Alright, good.]
Seeing as how Tortallion wasn’t gonna let him smash in this Luka guy’s skull in, Zhen Liu pulled his club back. This in turn, allowed Tortallion to get to his feet and assist Luka in the process.
[Are you sure you’re okay, Luka?]
[Yes, guardian. Just a little shook up.]
[Okay, good…]
PATERNAL SLAP OF ANCESTRAL WORRY
[Gah!]
Once they were both on their feet though, Tortallion proceeded smack the back of Luka’s head in the same manner a grandparent smacks their grandkid.
[What were you thinking?! Attacking guests in the middle of the day like this, your parents raised you better than this! Hell, I raised your parents better than this!,] Tortallion admonished Luka. [So explain yourself.]
From an outsider’s perspective, this was a very strange scene to witness. As, it wasn’t everyday one sees an old man getting scolded by a turtle man.
[W-well, it wasn’t just my idea,] Luka defended himself. [We all agreed to-]
[Oh, that reminds me,] Tortallion interjected. [THE REST OF YOU, GET OUT HERE THIS INSTANCE.]
[…]
[Now!]
[Fine…]
One by one, three other Aquarum warriors appeared from the rafters of the castle, all sporting various looks of guilt.
From their outfits and auras, Zhen Liu and the others could tell that they were definitely what constituted as elites or elders down here in Undertow. However, at this moment in time, they all looked like children being scolded by their turtle shaped caretaker.
[Seriously, how old are you by now? Seventy or seven? What kind of terrible first impression is it to suddenly attack someone out of nowhere!,] Tortallion continued to scold the four attackers. [You’re lucky that they knew how to use Chaos, otherwise, you could’ve seriously injured someone. Actually, you’re also lucky I intervened when I did or else you lot could’ve seriously been injured.]
“Why do I feel like I was given a backhanded compliment?,” Zhen Feng whispered to Zhen Hai.
“I don’t think that’s the case…,” Zhen Hai whispered back.
[Now, whose idea was this? Because I know your four didn’t come up with this idea on your own,] Tortallion asked sternly.
Like children being caught doing something that they shouldn’t have done, the Aquarum warriors stayed silent and looked in other directions. However, this turned out to be for naughty.
Tortallion kept staring at the group until settling one that looked a touch more guilty than the rest.
[Meng Zhu…is there something you want to tell me?]
[…]
[Meng Zhu…]
[…it was my idea,] Meng Zhu eventually relented.
[Okay…stand up.]
Like a child, Meng Zhu reluctantly got to his feet, only for Tortallion to grab him by the arm and brought him forward to the Zhen Clan delegates.
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Four out of five of the Zhen Clan delegates were flabbergasted at the sight of a man, who was clearly stronger than them, apologizing like they were a seven year old who just stole candy from a counter shelf. However, Zhen Xun Tian was more than ready to work with these strange circumstances. Hell, she was probably older than all of these warriors anyways.
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‘What the surreal fuck?’
[Can I comment that it’s still jarring to know that the Matriarch is older than our lord, despite looking way younger?]
[Yes.]
