Chapter 1048: Father Daughter Fight
“When a unstoppable force meets an immovable object, Chaos ensues.”
-A rephrasing of the Irresistible Force Paradox
…
[You can’t keep this up forever!]
[Yes, I can!]
These two lines were exchanged a multitude of times during the battle between Tortallion and the War Elder of the Fallen.
Both warriors were of equal cultivation status, but their specialities were on polar opposite ends.
On one side, a turtle Kaijin infamous for having an unbreakable shield and being the last of an old lineage of warriors that had once sown chaos across the entirety of Roaring Tide. A master of defense, if ever there was one.
On the other, an elder infamous for leading the campaigns of the most ruthless clan in Pearl Scale Empire’s history. Who also happened to have the arm of one of the most powerful kaijin in history, Grand Blue, replacing his original arm. A living siege engine in all but name.
Throughout the battle, the War Elder would attempt to land a decisive blow on Tortallion’s head multiple times, which was common tactic in taking out enemies regardless of size or build. A solid punch to the lower jaw tends to cut off air flow to the brain. However, all of these attempts would end up getting blocked by the latter’s massive shield.
One would think a giant turtle man would be incredibly slow, but Tortallion proved to have instincts and reflexes faster than even the speediest of jackrabbits. Unfortunately, Tortallion didn’t have the offensive power necessary to properly counter attack.
Due to it being centuries since the Storm Queen’s fall, Tortallion hadn’t be able to access the [Library of Nowhere]. As such, he was stuck with the exact same repertoire of aether arts as what he had when the fall occurred.
Additionally, every time Tortallion attempted to retaliate with his mace, the War Elder was able to either dodge out of the way or outright block the blow.
Slowly but surely, this battle was turning from a brawl to one of attrition…and despite what Tortallion had said during the battle in response to the War Elder’s taunts, he honestly couldn’t keep this up for much longer.
‘Shit, shit, shit! Come on body, just last a little longer…,’ Tortallion thought to himself as he saw his mace arm beginning to glitch and fade for a brief moment before going back to normal.
The fate of all lordless kaijin was to fall into madness and turn into abominations. That was the truth inscribed into every kaijin at the moment of their conception.
Without the anchoring existence and the steady flow of [Chaos] that only a Lord could provide, every kaijin, regardless of their desire, will eventually break down.
This process could take hours, days, weeks, months or even years but it will eventually happen.
Hell, that was part of the reason why Marlancer had to leave all of those weeks ago. He could feel that his time as a kaijin was coming to an end, and wanted to end things on his own terms.
Or at the very least, he didn’t want to become something that Tortallion needed to put down. The old turtle looked tough, but his heart was softer than a jellyfish.
But back to the matter at hand, Tortallion could feel that every time he blocked, attacked, sustained an injury or exerted himself more than necessary, he could feel himself slipping away little by little, further and further, from his very existence as [Tortallion].
Meaning that for all intents and d purposes, this wasn’t just a battle between Tortallion and the War Elder, but a battle between himself and his remaining time in reality.
And it was battle that he would inevitably lose.
Unless…
‘I just need to last a little longer, then maybe I can ask…wait a minute…I know this aura!’
Tortallion had suddenly paused in the middle of the fight, leaving himself wide open for an attack of opportunity from the War Elder.
An attack of opportunity that the War Elder took with glee.
[Distraction means-]
[HANDS OFF MY FATHER, GRAVEROBBER! THUNDER HUNTER!]
[Huh? BAH!]
(Un)fortunately, before he could even take advantage of this momentary lapse in performance, Terra came barreling in full [Regalia] and with her [Astra] drawn for the sole purpose of kicking his ass.
While it wasn’t a decisive blow, the sudden shot of electrical aether taking on the form of a giant moray eel was enough to knock the War Elder down a few legs and several feet backwards.
This in turn, gave Terra time to look over her adoptive father’s wounds.
External or otherwise.
[Papa, are you-]
[I’m fine, Terra, I’m fine,] Tortallion dismissed with a wave of his hand. [But what of the rest of the city?]
While Tortallion was doing his damnedest to fight against the War Elder, he made sure to extend his senses now and again into Undertow itself to make sure nothing was going wrong. Unfortunately, he couldn’t get a clear picture other than several spikes of aether mixed with unknown spikes of [Chaos].
Thankfully, his daughter gave him some good news.
[Those Zhen Clan Scions are actually assisting in dealing with the issues in the city. I still don’t know who the current Kaijin Lord is, but he also sent out his kaijin to assist!]
[Truly?!]
[Yes!]
Now that he had a moment to catch his breath, Tortallion retuned his senses so that he could pick up the [Chaos] signatures of the kaijin he had met. Namely, Razorstella, Hurricroak and Frosttusk.
Spring Brawler was only a proto-kaijin, so his signature was a bit…weaker in comparison to the others.
[Ah! I see!]
With a quick sweep of his senses, Tortallion could detect that Hurricroak, Frosttusk and a third unknown yet similar kaijin had engaged with three of those weird [Chaos] signatures he’s been picking up. As for Razorstella, he could sense that she was in the middle of possessing and assisting the current Lord’s cousin, Zhen Feng.
As for the rest of the Zhen Clan, he didn’t have time to check on them.
Because, just a she was about to, he sensed a spike of aether and very familiar signatures of [Chaos] coming from in front of him.
Evidently, the War Elder didn’t appreciate the interruption or being ignored, so he decided to kick things up a level.
Granted, they couldn’t see him due to the sudden explosion of power creating a thick screen of fog that began to look like a pod of whales, swimming around like sharks surrounding a kill.
[Ya know…the Matriarch and Buzza said that they wanted me to try and take you out in the most delicate way possible, so that we could maximize the potential gains from harvesting your corpse,] the War Elder said in a voice that was sounding more distorted and bass heavy by the second. [But now that there appears to be yet another potential source of improvement, I think they would forgive me for roughing you up a bit harder. As such…Regalia, On!]
As soon as those words left his mouth, a giant whale maw made of energy appeared out of nowhere and engulfed the sphere of fog and the War Elder before exploding and revealing a now [Regalia] coated War Elder.
Everything aside from the grafted arm was covered head to toe in a dark blue armor that radiated cruelty and rage.
But the War Elder wasn’t done yet.
While extending his non-grafted arm, the Fallen War Elder made another a call.
[Astra, appear!]
A surge of aether coursed through the War Elder’s body while the surrounding aether began to coalesce and gather into his palm before forming into a large battle-axe that has the vague visage of an anchor.
Imprinted on the axe were designs of a demonic whale and tridents being wielded by demonic fishman.
For reasons that would be soon made clear to Terra and Tortallion, the axe gave them both an uneasy and infuriating feeling.
[Funny thing is that my Regalia used to take on the form of a rather ornate mace. But after taking on the arm of Grand Blue here, it took on this shape instead. Not that I’m complaining mind you, this new form feels more… appropriate to me.]
As he made this musing, he gingerly tossed the axe from his normal hand to the grafted arm, causing the axe to grow a couple of sizes as well, before tossing it back to his normal one and shrinking it in the process.
[But the best part about this whole thing, is that this axe of mine is even stronger when swung with my new arm than my old one. Observe!]
With a swing of the axe in his normal hand, a wave of crescent dark blue energy came surging out of the axe and directly towards Tortallion and Terra at breakneck speed.
The father-daughter duo were all set to defend against this axe strike with no problem and then counter.
But then, the War Elder switched hands.
And launched an even bigger attack.
[Oh…balls.]*2
