Chapter 1095: Darkshell Raid
After the sudden appearance of the Fallen Clan’s forces, the team in charge of breaking into the Darkshell Citadel had gone from seven in total to five.
(Technically it was ten to seven, but for the purposes of keeping track, we won’t be counting the kaijin that are currently inside of human hosts, i.e., Razorstella and Screamira…yet.)
While this wasn’t a massive reduction in combat power, this was a massive reduction in the ability to gather active intelligence and coordination.
Zhen Liu’s brain was directly connected to the [Library of Nowhere], and while the Kaijin could technically relay this information as well, their somewhat erratic behavior made it a bit harder for them to come up with plans that didn’t boil down to “break everything then run”.
On the other hand, Jin Fang, despite her incredibly flashy outfit at the moment, was…well, Zhen Hai and Zhen Feng had no idea what she did under Daria Nerissa-Zhen’s tutelage, but she had this uncanny habit of being able to pop out of nowhere with information in hand that was incredibly relevant to any situation.
She was either a spy, an assassin or both.
Either way, this meant that Zhen Hai and Zhen Feng would have to count on the kaijin known as the Neo Storm Knights for this fight.
At least, that’s what they thought would be the case until the one called Wave Breaker made the following declaration.
“Scion Zhen Hai, Scion Zhen Feng. Have you determined a possible point of entry into the citadel?”
“I haven’t been paying attention to that,” Zhen Hai admitted. “I was too busy focusing on whether or not we’re going to get attacked again.”
“Vaguely?,” Zhen Feng answered. “Screamira mentioned something about using echolocation and found a couple weird holes scattered on the surface that appeared to be entrances, but they’re covered up by thick layers of shell.”
“Excellent, in that case…” Wave Breaker paused as she stopped in the air and readied her sword. “You two are going to go in while the rest of us go about breaking this clam’s defensive array on the outside!”
“Wait, what?!”
While none of the warriors present were dumb enough to suddenly stop mid-flight due to a sudden change in plan, Zhen Hai and Zhen Feng still stuttered a bit while flying.
[Hey, whoa!]
[Keep your minds focused!]
“Sorry, sorry…”
Thankfully, Screamira and Razorstella were present to provide course correction.
Which also gave Wave Breaker time to elaborate her reasoning for her decision.
“Our seniors are currently the only ones able to deal with that giant mechanical lizard building up power, but they can’t do that when they’re being pelted with crystal shards.”
“Seniors?”
…
[QUIT FIRING AT US AND SUCK MY CHIMERIC THUNDER DICK, YOU STUPID CRYSTALLINE WHORE!]
[FOCUS IN DEFENDING, NOT INSULTING!]
[THIS IS HOW I FOCUS!]
[INCOMING TOURMALINE!]
[SHIT!]
…
“Them,” Wavebreaker said as she pointed at the [Storm Queen’s Galleon], and kept the fact that they were cussing like teenagers to herself.
“Unfortunately, it’s going to take all three of us to ease up the pressure, meaning you guys will have to take down the defenses from the inside.”
“And fight off any defensive forces they have inside by yourselves,” Slug-at-arms unhelpfully added.
“Great…”
While Zhen Hai was more than willing to take on the challenge, being a battle hungry maniac that was empowered to the nines, Zhen Feng was less thrilled.
Partially due to the fact that he wasn’t much of a fighter in the first place, but also due to the fact that they were by themselves.
The last few times they were involved in a big battle like this, they had back-up in the form of their other cousins, their elders and the family soldiers.
Now, they were essentially going to go raid an enemy stronghold that had them outnumbered ten to one at minimum.
This was the kind of thing that someone like their elders could pull off, or Zhen Liu since he had a literal army at his beck and call.
Zhen Hai and him were only Aether Masters, and could only punch up to Aether Grandmaster level due to the kaijin stuffed into their skulls.
Souls?
He still wasn’t sure where these kaijins were stuffed into exactly that allowed them to mess with his formula and cultivation, and frankly, he was scared to ask at this point.
Eventually though, while still in the midst of these troublesome thoughts, Zhen Hai tapped in Zhen Feng’s shoulder.
“Hey man, I know this shit seems really fucked up, but chin up. We got a lot of power at our fingertips, and we just gotta point it in the right direction.”
“I guess…”
“And besides, like Zhen Liu said, just gotta ask the kaijin for guidance.”
“…huh.”
…
‘Any advice?’
[You’re kind of like your father.]
‘Eh?’
[Too timid for your own good. Your crest is that of a wild boar, ain’t it? Sometimes, you just gotta charge in…and keep going.]
‘Huh…’
[And if you need help getting into that mindset…allow me.]
‘Eh?’
…Meanwhile…
“What the hell is the Matriarch thinking? Why is she putting in so much faith in those Grafted weirdos and that monster, but not us?! The War Elder, I at least understand, but still!,”a burly member of the Fallen complained while punching his palm.
“Calm down, Po Kang,” a glasses-wearing member of the Fallen chided his counterpart. “You and I both know that weren’t our there because of this [Chaos] stuff. All of our attacks and defenses would be useless against those literal monsters.”
“Bah!”
Throughout the halls of the Darkshell Citadel, various members of the Fallen were absolutely annoyed over the fact that they were being sidelined of what was probably the most important, and conclusive, battle of this entire affair.
And honestly, they wanted some kind of win at this point.
Their attempt to take over Undertow was thwarted by the sudden appearance of the Zhen Clan, their highly anticipated Grafted warriors got stomped by actual monsters who were apparently working with the aforementioned Zhen Clan and now their ultimate weapon was almost destroyed by those same monsters.
And now, after all this bullshit, they were forced to play guard duty by patrolling the halls of the citadel.
Honestly, it was mildly insulting.
The Darkshell Citadel hadn’t been penetrated since the day they found this place, and there was absolutely no way in this world or the next that that fact was going to-
FWEEEE! FWEEEE! FWEEEEEE!
“What the fuck?”
“Wait a minute… that’s the intruder alarm? Holy shit, are we actually being boarded?!”
“No fucking way!”
A razor sharp whistle soon echoed throughout the entire citadel as various members of the Fallen began to brandish weapons and ready themselves for the announcement on who was dumb enough to an invade a fortress under these trying conditions.
[Attention all warriors,] an aether enhanced voice echoed out shortly after the whistling alarms had died down. [Intruders are about to breach the upper halls! I repeat, intruders are about to breach the upper halls!]
“Wait, what?”
That announcement confused the hell out of the Fallen warriors, because the top shell of the citadel was considered impenetrable by most means.
The scholars of the clan had estimated that it would take something as strong as a seventh tier dragon or an especially skilled elite Aether warrior to break through such defenses.
To say they were skeptical was… understandable.
“Wait a minute, aren’t we currently in the upper halls?,” Po Kang asked his friend.
“We are…but there’s a chance that we aren’t-”
SOUND OF A BIG ASS AETHER BLADE BREAKING THROUGH THE CEILING!
“HOLY SHIT!”
Before the warrior could finish his sentence, a blade that appeared made of the night-sky had suddenly stabbed through the ceiling and had almost domed one of the Fallen.
The blade proceeded to stab through the ceiling a couple of times before retracting altogether.l
Unsurprisingly, to the Fallen at least, the ceiling held up despite being stabbed through an absolute fuckload of times.
“Okay…we should probably report back-”
BOOM!
“Fuck, again?!”
The next thing either of the Fallen knew, a pair of unusual looking warriors came crashing through the ceiling.
The cause for crash was a large, rotund warrior that appeared be wearing a boney [Regalia] with a boar’s skull for a helmet.
As for his companion, they appeared to be wearing a [Regalia] made of a starry knight sky while clearing having the motor of a shark.
The two unusual looking, yet powerful warriors stared at the Fallen guardsmen for a couple of seconds in complete silence…until the boar-looking warrior decided to break it.
“We’re looking for the center of the defensive array outside,” the boar warrior said in a deep gravelly voice. “Tell us where it is and we won’t hurt the two of you.”
“Excuse me?!,” Po Kang roared in an offended voice. “We are proud members of the Fallen and-”
BANG!
“Buh…”
Before Po Kang could finish his sentence, he got slammed into a wall.
“Now, where is the control room?”
