Chapter 1056: Fight [Time]
‘Alright, if my memory serves me right, there should be a secret passage to the throne room here…’
Sound of distant explosions…
‘Hopefully, I find it before that gets closer…’
True to his word, Cornelius had made a beeline to the [Storm Castle] after being called here by Zhen Liu.
His mission: help the Undertow leadership council get to somewhere safe, while also assisting the Zhen Clan’s matriarch so that she could go deal with the Fallen War elder.
Unfortunately, that was easier said than done.
‘Ah-ha! I knew it was this bri-wait…wasnt it actually a sequence of bricks? Bah! This is why I hate this new incarnation shit!’
Due to the main gates being locked, and not really wanting to accidentally give the Fallen a chance to invade via the front gate, Cornelius opted to take a secret route he remembered using in one of his past lives.
This passageway was established around the time Miavora was first building the [Storm Castle] and was designed in case she needed to escape the palace for whatever reason, in a safe and obscure manner.
That or she wanted to sneak in somebody without making a big fuss about the sort of guests appearing at her front door.
Regardless, Cornelius had been taught about how to make use of this door a long time ago, but his recollection was incredibly sketchy due to the circumstances of his entire being being…subjected to the whims of time and space.
That said, he was making progress…sort of.
‘Wait a minute, wasn’t there supposed to be patterns etched on the-‘
CRACK!
THWOMP
“Buh…”
“What the fuck?”
All of that stated though, it would appear that Cornelius wouldn’t need to find a way into the throne room, due to the timely defenestration of what appeared to be dragon blood infused warrior.
“You know…I probably shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth and just…get up there.”
And with that observation made, Cornileus used a bit of aether to float upwards and see what was going on.
…Several moments earlier…
“Five of you and one…wait, Xiao Xun Po. Are you participating or protecting the councilors?”
“The latter, mother. I don’t want the Fallen trying to pull some underhanded bullshit to win an unfair fight or make our situation worse.”
“Fair.”
“You know, most people consider it rude to have side conversations when they’re about to have a battle to the death,” Hu Ken growled as purple miasma rolled out of his mouth.
Under normal circumstances, sassing an Aether Emperor was usually a death sentence for those of a weaker cultivation level.
Hu Ken may have been a third ring Aether King, but that was still miles beneath the power of an Aether Emperor like Zhen Xun Tian. However, the power of the pill he had just consumed had bump him up to hit as hard as a first ring Aether Emperor!
While it wasn’t enough for him to form an [Avatar], it still made him strong enough to be on fighting terms with Zhen Xun Tian. Especially since dragon force had the edge over [Chaos].
On top of that, the soldiers he had brought were initially Aether Masters, but the pills he gave them were enough to empower them to hit as hard as Grandmasters. In other words, the Fallen warriors had absolute confidence they could take down the Zhen clan matriarch due to their newly acquired powers that could essentially nullify the Zhen Clan’s matriarch greatest defense.
There was just one teeny tiny detail they forgot to account for.
“Oh this is gonna be fantastic!”
Zhen Xun Tian was a battle junkie who, purposefully, tried to get herself into situations where was either outnumbered or outmatched.
“Ya know, you’re not the first set of warriors with dragon force who thought they could take me in a brawl five,well, four to one,” Zhen Xun Tian stated while bouncing between her two feet, a classic method for fighters to warm themselves up, as she stared down the soldiers and Hu Ken. “And you’re probably not gonna be the last group to do so.”
After making this claim, Zhen Xun Tian decided to activate just her [Astra], which took on the shape of a pair of knuckle dusters. “But I will say, I’m probably just gonna need my fists to take all of you down. So please, try not to bore me.”
With this final provocation, Hu Ken had enough.
“Soldiers! Attack!”
“Raah!”
“Oh, let’s FUCKING GO!,” Zhen Xun Tian Toan roared with joy as she leaped towards the charging soldiers,bypassing their spears and kicking one of them through a window with a well-executed flying scissor kick.
“Five!”
“What the fuck?!”
But she wasn’t done there.
Using the momentum of her kick, Zhen Xun Tian flung herself towards another Fallen dragon soldier and punched him square in the face, causing a sickening in crunch to echo throughout the room as her target’s skull was crushed in an instant.
“Four!”
Seeing two of their comrades go down in an instant, the Fallen warriors dug deep and willed themselves to try and use some spear based aether arts to impale Zhen Xun Tian from behind. Unfortunately, her instincts were too well-honed for those sort of tricks, and she managed to leap out of the way with a backflip.
Which is when she saw that Hu Ken was actually trying to be a sneaky bastard and attempt to attack her son and the unconscious councillors!
“Oh no you don’t!”
Technically speaking, Hu Ken should’ve been leading the charge as the actual fighter that could’ve put up a fight against Zhen Xun Tian, so this was considered a dick move.
“Three! Two!”
Landing behind the two soldiers who attempted to speak, Zhen Xun Tian did a sweeping kick to knock them both of their feet before grabbing them by the collars and actively flinging them directly towards Hu Ken’s direction.
“Bitch!”
The first soldier impacted the wall in front of Hu Ken, causing him to pause. As for the second soldier, they were flying directly towards him, so Hu Ken responded by swinging his fist and knocking the poor bastard off to the side. This, however, also left him wide open for Zhen Xun Tian to follow up with a right hook to the solar plexus, sending the psuedo-dragon bastard right through the walls behind him.
Of course, just because she basically performed a ring out, didn’t mean she was done yet.
“Imma go after him, you get the others to safety.”
“Right.”
And with that, Zhen Xun Tian proceeded to chase after the guy she just punched through a wall.
“I ain’t done with you yet!”
…
“And…there goes, mother. Great…now how do I get these guys out of here?”
Having fought alongside his mother before, Zhen Xun Po was used to taking care of external factors that could’ve impeded her ability to exercise her abilities to the fullest.
However, in those prior moments, he would usually be accompanied by subordinates that could help him move people, change the terrain, etcetera. Or at the very least, he would have access to an aether treasure that could assist in these matters.
But due to various circumstances, read: the sudden turn of events that occurred over the span of the last hour or so, he only had himself to rely on in terms of moving a whole bunch of people at once.
“I mean the worst case scenario is that there are even more Fallen-”
“Holy shit, what the hell happened in here?”
“Huh?”
Just as Zhen Xun Po was lamenting the moment, a young man he had never seen before suddenly appeared out of nowhere and began to poke his head through the window that his mother had just shattered moments before when she kicked a man out of it.
Needless to say, Zhen Xun Po wasn’t going to sit idly by.
“Man it’s like a war-whoa!”
“Who are you and where did you come from?,” Zhen Xun Po said in a calm tone of voice as he took a spear from one of the defeated soldiers and pointed it at the young man’s throat.
Perhaps it was a touch heavy handed and aggressive on his part, but there was a war going on and it was very possible for the Fallen to employ child soldiers…or worse.
“Hey, chil! I’m a friend of Zhen Liu’s! The name’s Cornileus and I can help you get these guys somewhere safe.”
“Wait, what?”
Zhen Xun Po’s confusion was twofold. First, how the hell did this boy know about the [Storm Castle] and Undertow in the first place when it was supposed to be a secret. Second, how the fuck did he know Zhen Liu when it was shared amongst the family that most of the people around Zhen Liu were either puppets or women who fell in love with him?
Needless to say, Zhen Xun Po was suspicious as all hell.
“Look, if you doubt me, pull the right torch on the fireplace over there. It’ll open a secret passageway.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes!”
Keeping an eye on Cornileus, Zhen Xun Po did exactly that…and had all doubts blown away when the fireplace actually opened.
“Huh. Okay, then.”
“Cool…now, let’s get these old fogeys somewhere where they won’t be hostages, yeah?”
