Chapter 1054: Order of Operations
*Bing-Bong*
We interrupt this chapter in order to provide the readers with a brief list of all of the match ups occuring across Undertow during this war.
Feel free to skip if you remember.
Thank you.
…
Across the city: Zhen Clan soldiers with Zhen Hai(Screamira powered) and Zhen Feng(Razorstella powered) vs Fallen raiders.
At the front: Tortallion and Terra vs Fallen War Elder Gao Ao Long.
Above the city: Nepherage, Frosttusk and Hurricroak vs. Grafted Warriors Gao Su, Gao Kan and Sophita.
Storm Castle Interior: Matriarch Zhen Xun Tian vs Hu Ken and his men.
Tomb of the Storm: Zhen Liu and Jin Fang vs Buzza and the Fallen Matriarch Gao Shen Yuan.
Uninvolved(for now) combatants: Spring Brawler, Jinju Ren, Cornelius, Grafted Alain and Grafted Gao Dau.
…
Holy mother of retcon and abridgement, that’s a lot of fighting…did you actually plan for all of this to go down or-
|Hush you. I actually do have some deeper things planned, it’s just…gonna need some fanagling.|
Ominous
*Bing-Bong*
________________________________________
[Terra, get behind me! Now!]
[Okay!]
Normally, Terra would be against putting any additional strain on her father’s health, but even she wasn’t foolish enough to think that she could take hit from Gao Ao Long’s [Astra] and come out unscathed. Especially when it was actively being enhanced by the power of a Kaijin that all the records state was the strongest of the Storm Queen’s retinue.
Even if it was corrupted and weakened.
Once Terra got behind Tortallion, the turtle kaijin charged up his shield with as much [Chaos] and aether as he could manage before bringing it forward to block the incoming attack.
[Kaijin Art: Gardna Shell!]
A dark green light radiated off of Tortallion’s shield as he pushed against an attack that had the same weight behind it as an entire pod of blue whales.
However, Tortallion wasn’t someone who would break so easily to an attack so simple.
[You think this is enough to crack my shell?! Fuck off!]
Crack!
With a roar, Tortallion pushed against the axe strike and shattered the attack into a thousand little pieces.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t the end of the fight in the slightest.
Gao Ao Long didn’t stay in the same position after launching his initial two axe strikes. Instead, he had chosen to immediately dive into the [Shadow Water] once his attack had made contact with Tortallion’s shield.
To most people, this was an incredibly stupid idea to the properties of [Shadow Water]. However, thanks to having the arm of a Kaijin and an access to a whole lot of [Chaos], Gao Ao Long was actually able to weaponize the [Shadow Water], as opposed to being consumed by it.
Which is exactly what he did.
Shortly after Tortallion smashed away his opening assault, Gao Ao Long decided to follow up with another heavy attack from a tricky angle.
[Geyser Guillotine!]
With a swing of the axe with his whale arm, Gao Ao Long fired off a massive jet of pressurized [Shadow Water], empowered with [Chaos] and shaped in such a way that it would bisect both Terra and Tortallion right down their middles.
In days long past, this tricky attack wouldn’t be an issue for Tortallion, the strongest shield in the [Abyssal Lands].
[From below?! No matter! I got thi-GAH!]
Unfortunately, that was back when he wasn’t injured and running on fumes. Just as he was about to pivot downward to use his shield once more, another episode overtook him that caused his body to glitch and spasm.
[No time to block. Roll!]
Sensing the impending doom, Terra decided that instead of trying to block the attack,it would be smarter to simply dodge out of the way. As such, moments before the blade made contact, Terra grabbed her father under his armpits and proceeded to backflip with him in tow.
A small sense of stinging pain occurred in her arms when she grabbed her father, but it was merely a fleeting moment.
On the ground, this wouldn’t be feasible. But up in the air with nothing blocking them, it was the most effective means for them to dodge this large scale attack. It did, however, also leave them open to yet another follow-up.
As the surge of water rose pass them, Gao Ao Long had actually rose alongside it, timing his exit out of the water column in a way that allowed him to rush directly towards Terra and Tortallion in the exact moment they chose to dodge.
At this point, Gao Ao Long didn’t opt to use any aether or [Chaos] to perform any fancy moves, he just decided to go for pure brute force and violence.
Unfortunately, this commitment to attacking would leave him vulnerable as well.
[Rising Thunder!]
“Huh?!”
Terra wasn’t one of the top mercenaries in Undertow for no reason.
The moment she performed that back flip, she had made sure to unspool her steel chain and ball, and swing it in such a manner that it would start at the top of her flip, swing downwards and then upwards. Additionally, she pumped the chain up with enough electrical aether and [Chaos] to make sure that once it made contact with the Fallen War Elder, it would deal a lot of damage in the process.
She wasn’t aiming for Gao Ao Long’s chest or head with it, after all.
“Shit!”
Not wanting to deal with the high impact damage that would surely injure his family jewels, Gao Ao Long pivoted himself so that he could knock away the steel ball with his axe…exposing his back to his opponents in the process.
In an unexpected change in rhythm, Tortallion and Terra decided to actually go on the offensive.
[Terra!]
[Of course, father!]
In one fluid motion, Tortallion strapped his shield to the front while retracting his arms, legs and head in the way tortoises do.
As he did, he began to circulate what [Chaos] he had left to reinforce his shells, causing his entire body to glow with a dark green light as runes appeared across it.
[Tidal Palm!] + [Spiral Shell Smash!]
Terra gathered a swirl of Aquarii aether in the palm of her hand before pushing it against Tortallion’s back and launching the turtle kaijin forward at breakneck speeds.
Part way through his flight path though, Tortallion began to force himself to to spin at high speeds, turning himself from a thrown rock into a spiralling turtle shell shaped bullet.
And this time, the War Elder didn’t have time to react.
“Bah!”
Tortallion’s impacted against the Fallen War Elder’s back, sending him flying as he was essentially impacted with enough force to level a mountain. Evidently, as a result of every action having an equal and opposite reaction, Tortallion found himself inert after launching Gao Ao Long backwards.
[Damn… haven’t done anything like that since the old days,] Tortallion mused as he popped his head and limbs out of his shells and restrapped his shield. [Reminds me of the time Clobstar and I-$(+_;_!$;]
[Papa!]
…
‘Accursed…turtle! Blasted…eel! How dare they…ha!’
Before Gao Ao Long could fly too far away though, he managed to release a force of aether that was strong enough to stop his flight path and gave him time to recover.
‘If I didn’t have to follow Buzza’s orders, I’d…wait…what the fuck?’
Just as he was about to fly back to fight his opponents again though, he noticed something was…off.
‘This change in the atmosphere…why is it so heavy…’
…
Before Tortallion could finish his trip down memory lane, his entire body began to seize and glitch again just as it did moment ago. Unlike last time though, this episode seemed even more severe.
As evident by the fact that as Terra got closer, she could see [Tortallion]••••• starting to flicker[change into] between himself[and a beast].
[No, no, no! Not yet, papa! Not yet!,] Terra pleaded to the universe. [I gotta get you back to the shack or maybe even the tomb so you can-]
[NoOOo! $tay b@ck!,] Tort@lli0n shouted in defensive fear and horror over himself.
Evidently, all of this fighting has exacerbated 70rtallion’s already unstable form and caused him to get closer and closer to having a [Breakdown].
Unless he stopped fighting soon, there was a very high chance he was going to be on the road of no return|to the endless void|.
However, he wasn’t going to let himself fall apart that easily.
[N33d to remember…Y… I am…still…here!,] the turtle kaijin(a…..) roared for himself to remember.
Closing his eyes and forcing himself into a meditative pose, Tortallion dug deep in order to remember moments from his past.
Moments that reminded him of not his greatest act of [Duty], but for the acts of [Duty] that mattered to him.
[Miavora…Shockheel…]
And as he did, his form began to stabilize.
…
[Papa…]
Terra looked on with worry, as her father entered his healing pose. Once he got like this, it would be impossible to rouse him again until he had stabilized. Which was… significantly better than the alternative.
But alas, there was no time to worry about such things.
‘I got to get papa to safety or else-‘
Spwish.
‘…that will happen.’
