Chapter 212: Fighting Kaijin
As Zhen Liu was busy becoming an essentially impossible nightmare to the people trying to kill him, the kaijin were dealing with their issues, read: soon-to-be defeated enemies… hopefully.
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[Do something original, you copyroach!,] Hurricroak mentally yelled as she leaped backwards after breaking a lock with Leech.
Evidently, the bloodliner had quite a few tricks up his sleeve, or rather, he copied the tricks that were up Hurricroak’s sleeves.
Earlier, Hurricroak attempted to use a bear arm empowered lariat to try and break him, only for Leech’s arm suddenly turning into a not-so-complete bear arm that looked like hers and proceeded to use her own art against as a means to counterattack.
She initially thought it was just a fluke or maybe he had a locked limb situation, being able to copy her abilities but only to an extent, but no. When she attempted to use a crab claw to grapple and strangle the bastard, Leech had managed to lock the claw instead in a hold.
Repeating the trick she saw back in the tunnel, Leech began to siphon Hurricroak’s aether from her locked claw arm and began to develop characteristics similar to her own, albeit, more mutated. Thinking fast, and noticing the drain, Hurricroak switched back to her slimy frog limbs and slid out of Leech’s parasitic grasp, the latter now looking a tad neon like Hurricroak as well.
[I’ve heard that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but I’m pretty sure there’s a difference between a cover and plagiarism,] Hurricroak grumbled as she eyed Leech up and down.
“Interesting, interesting, interesting! You have a flavor similar to that fish, fish, fish from the tunnel! Does that mean he’s you or that you’re him, him, him?,” Leech asked. Hurricroak didn’t know if he knew what she really was, but something in her core said not to try and clear up that misunderstanding.
Instead, she just thought of a way to beat this guy.
[Hmmm. I could try to overload him like in those “cartoons” Pathos showed me, but that could backfire and empower him way more than before. I also don’t want this guy plagiarizing more of my look than he already-wait.”
A look of pleasant realization dawned upon her as she came up with a more devious plan.
[Wait…he can copy my abilities…but not my memories…Rhythm Combo.]
Hurricroak immediately leaped forward, brandishing fox claws, causing Leech to mirror in turn.
However, as the two got closer to one another, the uproarious sound of strange music began to fill Leech’s ears.
“Huh, huh, huh?! What is this strange cacophony? Sounds like horns?”
[Oh? Not a big fan of “Boogie” by Brockhampton? Too bad copycat, because your face is about to get beat up all night long~ And shot down, kick down, twice!]
Punctuating her point, Hurricroak jabbed her claws into Leech’s sides and head-butted him with a crab shell covered forehead, all in perfect rhythm.
________________________________________________.[Hunting Wolf Star!]
AWOOOOOO!
CRASH!
[How annoying!]
Back at the Zhen Clan estate, Nepherage and Zhen Yue ended up getting separates from one another in order to deal with their respective dueling opponents.
Nepherage was locked into a rather hectic duel with the enforcement elder of the Wolfe Family, Gregory Wolfe, and things weren’t looking too great.
“You wanted me at my best, huh?! Well here’s my best, and once I break your opponent, I’m going to shove it down your throat!,” Gregory taunted. It should be noted that he was still under the impression that it was Zhen Liu who had said all those things to him earlier, and not Nepherage doing it on her own volition.
[Guess I did want him fighting better,] Nepherage thought to herself as she dodged the wildly flailing iron ball for the sixth time tonight, [but now I can’t seem to get close enough to punch him again.]
If Nepherage was up against someone like Sieger, or anyone with a decidedly “rigid” weapon, she would have easily one hit KO the fucker before they knew what hit them. Unfortunately, Gregory’s iron ball and chain was a surprisingly more tricky than anticipated.
When the fight first started, Gregory was using essentially very wide and easy to avoid swings that were enhanced with aether, meaning they were the attacks were a lot faster and stronger, but straightforward. However, after Nepherage managed to bat away the swings a number of times, and even managed to crack the ball in one of her deflections, Gregory realized he couldn’t beat her in a straight up power match.
He did however notice that the puppet(kaijin) seemed to be using nothing but close range arts, so he decided to switch tactics from straightforward smashing to tricky movements. Now, Nepherage was being forced to dodge as the attacks came from weirder and weirder angles.
Evidently, these weird and random angles were causing Nepherage to get a bit hotheaded.
[It goes left, suddenly I’m dodging an attack from my right. It goes up and I need to juke left! I’m getting fucking tired of this, just attack me straightforwardly!]
Oddly enough, she was about to get her wish.
“Gah! Fucking hate this war of attrition shit,” Gregory growled as he began charging up aether for an art, “This art drains a lot of aether…no matter! For the Wolfe Family! [Hunting Wolf Star!]”
Gregory’s iron ball took on a wholly different characteristic once he used this art and focused aether into it. The shadowy image of a large, spike covered wolf appeared over the iron ball and once Gregory threw the aforementioned iron ball, the wolf took over.
The aether wolf leaped and pounced about the area, acting like a mad beast on the hunt, making it unclear where and when it was going to strike.
“I don’t care if you’re clan specializes in aether beasts! Once my hunting wolf sinks its fangs in, I’ll swing you around and break you like a doll!”
Nepherage for her part didn’t fire back verbally, but instead, kept her eyes focused on the leaping beast made of aether and the iron ball it was encasing. As she kept her eyes on the art, she began to notice a method to the mad movement.
[An idiot swinging around an iron ball: unpredictable. An idiot using an art in attempt to be clever: predictable.]
She wasn’t sure when, but the moment that Gregory attempts to use complete his art, that was when she would win!
[When your enemy makes a mistake, let them.]
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[What do I do? I can’t get involved yet…right?,] Frosttusk asked himself as he poked his head out of the rim of the brazier he was sitting in.
Out of all of the battlefronts going on this unexpectedly violent evening, the one happening between the leaders of the Wolfes, the Zhen Clan and the Diggers was the most…explosive.
[Serpent’s Crush!]
[Earth Threader!]
[Cyclone Devil Slash!]
[Dust Devil Strike!]
BANG,CLANG, BOOM!
In a mere matter of seconds, the four fighters had exchanged blows that were strong enough to kill thousands of people at once and level buildings at least twice the size of the Wolfe Family Manor.
The reason simply being that the participants in this particular fight all had access to [Aether Armor].
