Chapter 1063: The Eel’s Legacy
When Tortallion entered into his meditative state, he had effectively removed himself from the battlefield but kept himself as a liability.
In his current state, any attacks inflicted upon him would not only be fatal, but the consequences would be dire for everyone and everything around him. As is the nature of all things kaijin.
Thankfully though, he wasn’t alone.
[Well now! I figured that I would be able to overpower you with just my Astra! But I suppose that Chaos is a great equalizer than I thought,] Gao Ao Long mocked.
[Seeing as you’re fail to even use the most basic applications of Chaos, I can see why you would think that,] Terra retorted while preparing her chain for another swing, amplifying it with as much aether and [Chaos] as she could.
Despite being rendered a floating target, his daughter Terra made damn sure that the Fallen War Elder Gao Ao Long would be unable to lay a single finger on him.
Granted, this wasn’t an easy task, despite her condescending words.
In terms of raw cultivation, Terra was only an Aether King while Gao Ao Long was an Aether Emperor.
The differences between aether stages became increasingly larger the further one goes down the path of cultivation. But to put it in perspective, the gap between the two of them was akin to a large but very deep lake. It was technically possibly for Terra to bridge the gap and match Gao Ao Long blow for blow, but one wrong move and she would be drowning at the bottom.
Also, while she wasn’t wrong that Gao Ao Long’s application of [Chaos] from his stolen arm was incredibly simple and straightforward by Undertow’s standards, the man had an absurd amount of the stuff at his disposal.
A single rock may not take down a plane, but a million rocks might.
‘Father should be recovering soon. His last episode was only a minute at most. Hopefully, this will only be as long…’
Regardless of this shower of metaphorical stones though, Terra was going to go down in a blaze of glory if she had to.
That was the kaijin way, anyways.
‘Live free, die gloriously…and take as many fuckers with you!’
It should be noted, that Terra added that last bit herself.
Emboldened by her own words though, Terra finally began to retaliate in earnest.
[Chaos Art: Tesla Eel Hunt!]
And what better way to begin than to use a technique she inherited from her mama.
As she swung out her chain, the image of the giant bastard child between a moray eel and an electric eel,with strange metallic coils all over its body, manifested over it and made the whole ensemble even more ominous and formidable.
[EAT MY LIGHTING, BITCH!]
The tesla eel surged towards Gao Ao Long, ready to make a meal of the lopsided bastard and put an end to this farce of a fight. However, Gao Ao Long was going to be prove to be a tougher chew than anticipated.
As Terra’s eel was mere seconds away, Gao Ao Long began to circulate a whole mess of aether into his arm, causing it to pulsate, twitch and grow in size as [Chaos] flooded every vein and cell.
[You want a more sophisticated application of Chaos? Fine then. Chaos Art: Grand Blue Buster!]
Gao Ao Long’s action consisted of a simple, straightforward punch, but the results were anything but.
A construct in the shape of a giant whale manifested from Gao Ao Long’s fist, dwarfing the charging eel by a wide margin.
However, this did not mean his attack was superior to Terra’s.
BOOM!
As the two attacks made contact with one another, a series of shockwaves and arcs of lighting were generated as neither side was able to bring the other down low.
Of course, this was under the assumption both sides were going all out.
In truth, neither had actually brought their full force to bear.
As an Aether King, Terra had yet to bring forth her [Icon].
As an Aether Emperor, Gao Ao Long had yet to manifest his [Avatar].
This wasn’t because they felt these abilities were unnecessary at this time, rather, they both knew that this fight was only a small part of a much larger war.
If they went all out now, they could easily exhaust themselves and become easy targets for opportunistic enemies on either side.
Alternatively, if they managed to defeat their opponents with minimum effort, they could go and assist their allies better in later fights.
But alas, reality was different.
As the stalemate between their attacks continued, both Terra and Gao Ao Long began to understand that they had to bring their powers up a notch in order to overpower the other.
As such, they both decided to invoke their [Icons].
“[Icon], appear!”
FWOOM!
Upon their chests, their personal symbols of power, the manifestation of their [Ideals] and how they wanted to present themselves, appeared.
On Terra’s chest, her [Icon] came in the form of a coat-of-arms consisting of a turtle shell and a pair of intertwining eels. Her [Icon] was a representation of the knighthood she wished to pursue, while following the footsteps of her parents and predecessors.
On Gao Ao Long’s chest, the symbol of the Gao Clan overlaid with the image of a demonic whale appeared. This [Icon] was a manifestation of the loyalty to his clan as well as a symbol for his desire to overwhelm all who stood in his path.
With their [Icons] now present, both warriors began to channel more and more aether from their surroundings, causing the area to become more and more unstable. Eventually, this led to the creation of a rather unnatural storm.
Normally, such a storm wouldn’t be an issue for aether warriors to worry about. Natural disasters were just a byproduct of what happens when powerful warriors fought. In fact, many notable landmarks across Valesta were created due to the clashing of aether warriors.
However, this time was a little different due to the presence of a cityscape directly behind Terra and Gao Ao Long’s battle theater.
The latter couldn’t give two rats ass about the place being destroyed, since he and his clans were the invaders anyways. While it might’ve been a pity for the place to fall, it would make things easier for them to loot and profit from the wreckage.
Terra, on the other hand, cared a great deal and was already noticing how the occasional stray lighting bolts was hitting buildings and causing fires.
She had yet to detect any citizens getting struck by a lighting bolts yet, but she couldn’t imagine that happening the longer this stalemate was maintained.
As such, she came to a rather ballsy decision.
‘Fuck it, I can already tell that I’m only just barely able to match this asshole pound for pound in a straight fight like this, but I don’t think I can do another sneak attack…unless…’
A part of her wanted to try doing the rising chain trick again,dropping her attack so that she could redirect her ball and chain to hit Gao Ao Long below the belt, but she had the distinctive feeling that it was going to get repelled again by that axe [Astra] of his.
That all said though…there was one trick up her sleeve that she hadn’t used in a real long time.
‘On the one hand, I risk exposing a very potent secret to this Grafted asshole…on the other, it probably wouldn’t matter if I kill him fast enough? Fuck it, let’s do it.’
Having come to a rather heavy decision, Terra dismissed her attack freeing up a lot of her aether and [Chaos], but she was now at risk of being rendered into meat paste.
Especially now that Gao Ao Long sensed weakness and took the opportunity to double down on his attack.
[Oh? Are you accepting the inevitably of your demise now?!]
[Hardly!,] Terra growled in a significantly more monstrous tone of voice. [I just realized that I should be proving who’s the bigger monster in these waters!]
Shortly after this declaration, Terra’s aura took on a noticeable shift from being a balance of aether and [Chaos] to heavily leaning towards [Chaos]. This change in aura was so heavy and sudden that Gao Ao Long’s attack ended up getting annihilated in the process.
[What the fuck?!]
However, that was just a side effect for the real show.
[First comes the thunder…]
During this change in aether, Terra’s [Regalia], [Astra] and [Icon] all disappeared one after the other, leaving her with nothing but the clothes on her back. However, not even those clothes were safe.
As her [Chaos] raged to greater and greater heights, Terra’s body began to grow, distort and mutate in strange and unusual ways.
Her pale skin began to take on darker hues and develop literal glowing spots, her external teeth became even longer and sharper while her flowing black hair began to mimic the movements of a fish tail.
On top of that, her face went from looking relatively human, to looking significantly more monstrous.
[…then comes the lighting!]
At the end of this transformation, Terra looked less like a human, and more like a full fledged kaijin.
And she was ready to strike.
