Chapter 1080: A Moment of Weakness
‘Interesting…so this is what happens during a breakdown,’ Gao Ao Long mused as he continued to dodge Tortallion’s powerful, yet increasingly more reckless swings.
When Buzza first informed him about how a majority of Kaijin who lose their lord become mindless monsters, he assumed he was exaggerating.
But now that he had a front row seat to such a phenomenon in front of him…he couldn’t help but to become fascinated.
‘Such power, such ruthlessness! There has to be a way to tame it…right?’
As this thought danced across his mind, Gao Ao Long decided to readjust the original plan… just a little bit.
‘I’m fairly certain the matriarch would appreciate it if I brought back a more…potent piece for her to graft, right? But first…I think I should try to hide away from that big attack of his, no?’
…
‘Wait a minute this feeling…’
As Terra continued to watch her father live and fight through memories that had long since pass, she began to notice a strange feeling in the air around her.
Due to all the fighting, the [Chaos] and aether in the atmosphere had become a giant mess, making everything feel fuzzy and dense. As such, when both types of energy began to move in a strangely coordinated, singular direction…she noticed.
‘Oh no…’
And the only other time she remembered feeling such a thing, was several decades ago.
When her father had to sink an entire fleet of pirates who had somehow figured out Undertow’s location…alongside the fortress they had erected when they tried to take root in the [Abyssal Lands].
‘If father attempts to use that attack here, it would definitely destroy this thief…but it would also destroy all of Undertow! I have to put a stop to this, now!’
…Memory Erasure:Fifty-seven percent…
Heeding Tortallion’s words, M@rLan3cr took —- and got away from the slave ship as fast as he could.
The ambushers did their best to try and stop him, but he was moving too fast for them to even touch his fins.
“Damnit, they’re getting away!”
“Forget about them for now, right now, we already got one of them to take care of.”
Realizing that chasing after M@R£@ncer and the injured —- was pointless, the ambushers redirected their attention to Tortallion.
To them, even taking out one of the dreaded Storm Knights was a victory onto itself. Besides, if they were heading back to Undertow anyways, then that just meant that the Khan would take care of them and the rest of the city with his secret weapon.
Regardless, with all eyes on the ship now focused himself, Tortallion began to let out a low, unnerving chuckle.
“What’s so funny?,” one of the leader of the ambushers asked, compelled by the [Chaos] being extruded from Tortallion’s form.
“You lot seem to have this look in your eyes I have seen over a dozen times before,” Tortallion began to answer. “A look of complete confidence that you’ve already won the battle, just because of some insignificant factors that you believe gives you an edge.”
“Insignificant factors? Insignificant factors?!,” another leader repeated, feeling insulted Tortallion’s flippancy.
“Look around, you Storm Knight. We have you outnumbered and we all have Dragon Force infused weapons. Just because you have a hard shell, doesn’t mean it won’t shatter once we begin our assault.”
At this statement, Tortallion began to laugh even harder.
“Ha! If you truly believed that, then you lot would’ve tried to hunt for my head the moment my companions left. Instead, you sat around, nervous to take the first move because of your decapitated friend here.”
As if the universe was agreeing with him, the body of the ambusher, whose head he smashed in earlier, twitched ever so slightly.
“Tsk! Bastard…”
Evidently, Tortallion’s observation wasn’t entirely off its mark.
The ambushers were afraid of making the first move, because none of them wanted to end up like their smashed-in friend. Then again, that could’ve just been the aura of [Chaos] messing with their heads.
However, if none of them were going to make the first move, then Tortallion was more than happy to oblige.
“You know, just because I’m the strongest shield of the Storm Knights, doesn’t mean I don’t know how to do any big offensive moves,” Tortallion began to taunt as he circulated his [Chaos] around his shield, causing a faint vortex to form. “In fact, out of everyone in the fellowship, I was the only one compatible with this art.”
Once he had made this declaration, Tortallion strapped his shield to his back and raised his mace into the air as he circulated [Chaos] and aether into a swirling vortex that would surely sink the vessel and enemies down to the bottom of the drink.
Needless to say, the ambushers were starting to panic
[Now witness! Chaos Art: Chary-]
[Father, stopped!]
[What?!]
But before he could bring down his judgement, the headless corpse suddenly jolted to life and grabbed his arm, interrupting his attack entirely.
This wasn’t how this memory played out…
…Memory Erasure…Interrupted…
[What manner of necromancy is this?!]
[Father, stopped! You’re going to sink Undertow if you don’t!]
Before Tortallion could finish his attack, Terra had suddenly jumped in and grabbed the arm holding his mace.
At this point in time, Terra had yet to deactivate her kaijin form, so from the outside looking in, it appeared a strange eel monster was attacking a strange turtle monster.
[Unhand me foul corpse! I have to defeat these dastards so I can go back to Undertow and defend it from the Khan!]
[Father, please! That already happened,] Terra pleaded, knowing full well the words Tortallion were going to say next. And how much pain they caused him everytime he said them
[No! No it didn’t! If it did, then that means I failed! That I, the shield of the Storm Queen, failed to defend her in her hour of need! That…that I failed to be there to protect my brothers and sisters as they…as they…]
The [Chaos] and aether in the area suddenly froze, as Tortallion’s mutated form began to show signs of regressing back to his original state.
As he shrank, tears began rolling down his turtle-like face.
[We…I was too slow,] Tortallion said, having repeated these words a thousand times before. [I was too slow, I couldn’t make it back in time to do my duty. I couldn’t make it back in time to save her. I couldn’t make it back in time to act as the shield for the others.]
At this last statement, Tortallion began to stare outward, away from the city of Undertow. He gazed at where the gates to the city’s harbor were located and seemed to stare even beyond that…but only for a moment.
Once the moment had passed, he stared back down at Terra.
[Ah…my precious pearl…did I lose myself again?]
[You did, papa. You almost-]
[DEEP CUTTER!]
[TERRA, LOOK OUT!]
Just as Terra and Tortallion were about to have a heart-to-heart about the latter’s latest episode, a forgotten about Gao Ao Long decided to make his presence known.
When Tortallion was preparing to fire off his big attack, Gao Ao Long decided to make himself scarce for a couple of moments. Coincidentally, this was at the same time as when Tortallion remembered Marlancer having to bail from a fight.
But, now that Tortallion was distracted by his doting daughter, Gao Ao Long took the opportunity to strike.
Based on his angle, Tortallion assumed that Gao Ao Long was aiming to strike down Terra from the back and slash her open using his axe. As such, he made the decision to fling Terra away from danger.
He would’ve used his shield, but he had made the decision to strap to his back earlier due to his memories acting up.
However…this turned out to be exactly what Gao Ao Long wanted.
[Thanks for the arm!]
[Wha-GARRRRGGHHG!]
In one fell swoop, Gao Ao Long chopped off Tortallion’s weapon wielding arm, disarming the kaijin in more ways than one.
After performing the act though, Gao Ao Long didn’t stick around for long.
Instead, he took the arm and proceeded to beat a hasty retreat.
[So long, pitiful creatures. Your contribution to our rise is greatly appreciated.]
[You bastard!]
Out of rage, Terra attempted to blast Gao Ao Long out of the sky with a bolt of [Chaos] infused lighting. But alas, now that Gao Ao Long was focusing on fleeing, many of her shots simply went too wide to even matter.
Terra eventually got to the point where she wanted to give chase and tear her father’s arm out of Gao Ao Long’s charred corpse…but stopped when she heard the aformentioned parental figure cough behind her.
[Papa!]
With the love for her parent overpowering her animosity, Terra immediately flew over to Tortallion’s side.
Physically, he looked like shit.
[Papa, are you okay?!]
[Heh…could be worse.]
[But he took your arm!]
[Not my good one though.]
Mentally…he was oddly fine…
