Chapter 131: Today’s Music ain’t got that same funk…
‘What..who am I looking at, and why does she feel…so familiar?,’ Draigo asked himself as he watched the newly created humanoid figure descend from the air like some kind of angel sent from above.
After that giantess played that final note, the room had filled with light and Draigo was blinded…again. But this time his eyes recovered much faster, allowing him to see this new…creature, forming from the figure of light and transforming into this being before him.
Zhen Liu had also returned to normal at the same time as the sudden creature was summoned, but Draigo was too entranced by the newly formed being to notice/care.
The humanoid in question had a shape akin to that of a human female, but she clearly was anything but human. In fact, she seemed like five, no six, things at once, at least that’s the impression he got.
‘Such vivid colors…no mere toad has a skin tone that colorful,’ Draigo thought to himself.
Overall, Draigo felt as if he was staring at “just” a frog woman, in the sense that someone took the attributes from both but somehow merged them into a visually pleasing yet alien design, all wrapped up in bright, colorful patterned skin. However, there were details from other animals mixed in as well, at least he thought there were.
Starting from the top of her head, he thought he saw a pair of fox ears poking out. When he moved his gaze down toher arms, he saw forearms and claws similar to predatory beasts, one like a tiger and one like a bear. Finally settling upon her back, he swear he could see wings and armor like that of a giant wasp on the upper part of her back and giant crab claws jutting from her waist like secondary arms.
But when he blinked, all of these out of place parts disappeared and the uniform look of a frog woman took their places. However, he did notice a bunch of markings on her body depicting various animals on her shoulders, back and neck. (Un)surprisingly, they depicted the animals he thought he saw parts of on her.
“Gero, gero. What an awful stage, is this seriously where my debut performance is supposed to take place?,” the frog woman said in a melodic tone as she stared up and down the echo chamber while walking about. Draigo and Zhen Liu both swore they could hear musical notes as she walked, sounding off in rhythm with her steps.
“I figured my debut would be somewhere with more people on a grand stage with an ocean view or at least in front of royalty,” the frog woman grumbled, which sounded a lot like subtle thunder, “But alas, a true artist must make do with what they have. Time for the formalities.”
With unusual grace and ease, the frog woman proceeded to twirl like a stage performer before bending down on one knee and placing a fist on a ground, her head bowed like a faithful warrior.
“Hurricroak heeds the call of the Kaijin Lord. Now then maestro, what kind of performance would you have me put on?”
“Well, you can start by-”
“GRAAARRRR!”
“Oh godsdammit.”
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“GRAARRR! RELEASE ME YOU FOUL DEMONS! I MUST CLAIM THAT POWER AS MY OWN,” the Marquis roared as he pulled against the chains being held by Nepherage and Frosttusk. Unfortunately for him, the aforementioned chains were being held in place.
“You okay Razor Maiden?!”
“Kinda!,” she growled in response as her legs began to drag through the floor.
After having deliver a kick to the Marquis’s head, which didn’t do a lot, the Razor Maiden proceeded to help Nepherage and Frosttusk hold him back by securing the chains to the ground with her legs. She didn’t exactly have grip strength or actual hands, so jamming her legs through the chain loops and acting like an anchor was the next best thing she could of think of doing.
Through their combined efforts, the three of them managed to hold the Marquis back long enough for Zhen Liu to add the finishing touches to their new comrade. Unfortunately, the Marquis was still stronger than the three of them combined.
The Marquis began to wildly circulate aether throughout his body, causing his physical capabilities to shoot through the roof. A horrible grinding sound could be heard as the Marquis dragged the the kaijin trio by the very chains they were using to hold him back.
“Can’t last…anymore! Bah!”
“Ah!”
“Ouch…”
“GRAAAAAAARRR!”
The Marquis let out a violent roar as he broke the chains and blew the kaijin away with the force of his pull. Without wasting a moment or energy, the Marquis proceeded to rush towards Zhen Liu with murder and greed plain in his eyes.
As the Marquis got closer and closer, he began to condense the aether in his fists until they took on the shape of wolf heads and developed a density that was akin to war hammers
‘I may have been too late to stop the creation process, but who cares! That brat is still weaker than me. Once I break him, I can spend my time squeezing every little secret from him. The secrets of the Demon Archive will be mine!’
In the span of an eye blink, the Marquis was upon Zhen Liu and was ready to strike.
[Howling Hammer!]
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‘Aw shit!,’ Zhen Liu cursed as a pair of wolf head hammers made of aether came flying towards his own head from the left and right of him.
‘God I hope this works.’
Zhen Liu made moves to intercept the incoming blows, a weird feeling spreading to his arms as he attempted to “channel [Chaos]” as it were to act as a shield. However, this action soon proved to be unnecessary.
Just as the wolf hammers were about to make impact with Zhen Liu’s arms, a pair of giant crab claws manifested out of nowhere from behind the Marquis and grabbed both of the man’s arms mid-swing.
Zhen Liu quickly followed the claws back to their source, seeing that it was none other than his recently minted kaijin, Hurricroak, who was holding back the Marquis. The giant crab claws were literally growing out of the of her hips along side her entire lower half now looking segmented and armored like a crab shell. Her upper half was still a frog woman, but she was doing a belly dancer pose.
“What the fu-”
“WHO DARES INTERRUPT MY DESTINY?!,” the Marquis screamed as he tried to break the grip of the claws. Unfortunately, the claws had his arm locked tight and more ominously, they began to crack his armor the longer they held on.
“Oi! Bastardo! You know it’s rude to interrupt a musician before they have a chance to get their set list, no?,” Hurricroak growled while maintaining the pose and giving the Marquis a mean look. “So why don’t you just piss off!”
[Bass Drop, Backdrop!]
Hurricroak began to move her hips in a rhythmic, clicking fashion. The claws began to swing the Marquis around in time with her hip clicks. The surrounding aether began to literally hum with anticipation until Hurricroak abruptly did a hip check.
The giant crab claws then swung backwards and slammed the Marquis straight into the ground.
A booming bass drop could be heard echoing through the chamber as she did.
“How’s that for an intro, maestro?”
