Chapter 1084: Biological Point Defense
“Screw it, I’ll think about the implications later,”, Gao Ao Long eventually concluded when he realized that his matriarch and his benefactor were under threat. “Can we send any of our own men to extract them?”
“Negative, War Elder. All of our forces are still in the process of retreating. And any of the forces that can interfere anyways were either captured or inside the citadel already. If we send any of the latter out, we might expose our position.”
“Hmmm…”
The only way to possibly satisfy the conditions of “preventing the enemy from knowing their location” and “rescuing the matriarch” was to bank on Torture Elder Gao Dau defeating the opponent that had dragged him away for a duel. Unfortunately, it wasn’t looking too good for the aforementioned elder.
This new spring-bodied gentleman was surprisingly evasive and chaotic enough to throw off Gao Dau’s usual fighting style. In other words, it was highly unlikely that he’d be able to interfere in any reasonable time frame.
‘Fuck it, I’ll do it myself,’ Gao Ao Long eventually concluded after seeing that Gao Dau wasn’t going to win anytime soon. However, just as he was about to leave the observation deck, a subordinate walked in with some delightful news.
“Ah! War Elder, there you are sir! I have good news.”
“Oh? Is it something that can rescue the matriarch?”
“And possibly kill the people attacking her, yes.”
“Really? Tell me more.”
“It’s like this…”
…Perspective shift for drama…
“Huh. They’re lasting much longer than I thought either of them would in this situation.”
“To be fair, they’re still warriors.”
“Fair.”
At this point in time, Zhen Liu, Jin Fang, and their new cohort of kaijin were just about to make contact with the former’s cousins, the Fallen’s Matriarch and that weird rogue kaijin, Buzza.
That stated, the only way that they could reach this point was thanks to his cousins, with the assistance of Razorstella and Screamira, running interference.
Sure, he may have had to partially expose his secrets, but it was better that than the possibility of death coming to-
[Captain, look out!]
“Huh? Whoa!”
Just as Zhen Liu was about to fly forward and get to attacking Gao Shen Yuan, a bolt of pressurized water suddenly shot upward and had almost nailed him in the face. Luckily for him, Wavebreaker managed to grab him at the last second and prevent him from getting his head blown off.
Normally, a jet of pressurized water wouldn’t do anything to someone like Zhen Liu, but he could sense trace amount of [Chaos] in the water bolt. While it wasn’t enough to overwhelm his defenses, it was enough to leave a small yet noticeable impact on them.
And needless to say, Zhen Liu had a really bad feeling about this situation.
Especially when he overheard this conversation taking place behind him.
[What the fuck was that?,] Slug-at-arms asked aloud.
[I’m not entirely sure, but I think there’s going to be more coming,] Shellvalier
“What? Why?”
[Because, my liege, the ocean appears to be boiling!]
“Say what?”
Directing their gazes downard, the group could indeed see that the [Shadow Water] below them was starting to roil and boil in way that was unnatural to say the least. Not only that, but they could feel an uptick of [Chaos] activity coming from those aforementioned bubbles.
It didn’t take the group much to realize that these bubbles were due to outside intervention.
[Well, that’s not good.]
[What are your orders, big sis?]
[Arm yourselves, get ready to block!]
Anticipating the need to defend themselves and their lieges, Wavebreaker, Shellvalier and Slug-at-arms readied their weapons.
As for those aforementioned lieges, their attention was directed elsewhere.
“Jin Fang! We gotta get my cousins out of here!”
“Right!”
Just as soon as Zhen Liu and Jin Fang came to this conclusion though, all hell broke loose.
Bolts of [Chaos]-infused [Shadow Water] began to shoot upward one after the other, their trajectory appearing wild and unruly…on the surface.
If one had a chance to observe this moment from an outsider’s perspective though, they would realize that these water bolts were aimed at practically everyone except Gao Shen Yuan and Buzza.
Regardless of this design though, the barrage of water bolts forced Zhen Liu and his group to go on the defensive.
[Incoming!]
[I got it, I got it!]
Despite having only been created moments ago, Wavebreaker, Shellvalier and Slug-at-arms showed a surprising amount of coordination as they knocked away and smashed most of the incoming bolts of water with their respective weapons.
Unfortunately, despite their magnificent coordination, a couple of attack still managed to get pass them.
“Zhen Hai! Zhen Feng! Dodge!”
“Huh? Whoa!”
“Crap!”
The bolts of [Shadow Water] forced Zhen Hai and Zhen Feng to disengage from Gao Shen Yuan and Buzza respectively, allowing the latter two to escape from the battlefield.
[It zzzeemzzz we have an opportunity.]
“Bail, now!”
Zhen Liu and Jin Fang would’ve given chase at this point in time, but the amount of water bolts suddenly shot up dramatically the moment Gao Shen Yuan and Buzza managed to get far away enough from the literal splash zone.
‘Alright, where the fuck are these bolts coming from?,’ Zhen Liu thought to himself for a hot minute before remembering he had a way to check. ‘Wait a minute…’
From his person, he pulled forth several recently made zako marbles, alongside a handful of fish scales.
‘Alright, let’s see what lurks beneath the waves…’
…Meanwhile, at the source of these bolts…
“War Elder! Are you sure you can keep up this assault?”
“Please! A little parlor trick like this is nothing for me!,” Gao Ao Long boasted.
At this moment in time, he was currently seated in the middle of a strange looking array located in the heart of the Darkshell Citadel, channeling [Chaos] and aether into it.
The good news that the subordinate had shared with Gao Ao Long, was that they had managed to get a number of the secondary and tertiary cannons, that covered the exterior of the citadel, up and running again.
These cannons were designed in such a way that they could compress the surrounding [Shadow Water] into projectiles, and fire them at speeds that amplified their destructive potential tenfold. And as an added bonus, depending on the aether used to empower the arrays connected to the cannons, the resulting projectiles would exhibit behavior related to that type of aether.
It was due to this special reason that the subordinates requested permission to use the stored aether crystals that were necessary to fire off these cannons at the enemy.
Gao Ao Long didn’t approve of this measure, instead, he volunteered to be the power source instead.
“If this array can infuse aether into those water bolts, then it should be able to infuse [Chaos] as well. No normal projectile will be able to harm someone calling themselves Kaijin Lord, so allow me to do so instead.”
The rest of the Fallen were unsure if such a move would work, but were pleasantly surprised when it actually did.
A feeling of relief and joy filled them as they saw their matriarch and special guest manage to escape from the hands of those wretched kaijin and their hateful Lord.
That said, they didn’t release any sighs of relief until they saw Buzza and the matriarch submerge themselves in the water and began to make their way back to the citadel.
“We did it, War Elder! Now we can move on to…War Elder? What’s wrong?”
“That kaijin lord…he did something weird.”
“Weird?”
While everyone else was keeping a watch of the matriarch and Buzza’s progress as they escaped from the fray, Gao Ao Long was keeping a close eye on the kaijin and their lord.
As a survivor of many conflicts, both external and internal, he knew better than to doubt his opponents until they were dead and buried.
Which is why he noticed that during his barrage of attacks, that the Kaijin Lord dropped a handful of random crap into the water beneath.
Handfuls of random…wait a minute.
“Oh no…”
As the realization struck Gao Ao Long like a bolt from the blue, his face began to turn pale. Evidently, this change was noticed by the subordinate in the charge of the weapon array.
“War Elder? What’s wrong?”
Snapped out of his thoughts by the attendant’s question, Gao Ao Long immediately went into action.
“We need to send out a party to escort the matriarch and Buzza, now.”
“Huh? But why? The Kaijin Lord and his forces appear to be remaining in the air, fending off your attacks.”
“That’s because that’s only part of their forces. Can you get me visuals of the waters directly beneath the enemy party?”
“Uh, I think so.”
“Then do so, now!”
“Right away.”
Confused by his orders, the Fallen attendants did as instructed and changed one of their displays to show the view from some nearby waters.
Once they did though, they understood why Gao Ao Long was paranoid.
“Uh oh…”
“What…what the hell are they?!”
Because swimming towards them at this moment was an army fish-men.
