Chapter 229: …with a ROAR
A majority of aether arts tend to work on the principle of “one and done”.
Charge up, do handseals and/or chants if necessary, do the move, hope to the god it was enough to defeat the opponent, rinse and repeat.
However it is not uncommon for some arts, even in the lower levels, to have multiple parts to them, combo moves essentially. These multipart arts tend to be a lot more powerful than their single use counterparts, but are also harder to master as a result.
For example, on the Soaring Gryphon continent, there is a Corporeal aether art called [Hurricane Crow Palm], which involves the practitioner to learn six specific moves: Formation, Disturbance, Depression, Storm, Hurricane and Dissipation.
Each of these moves by themselves are pretty powerful, but when strung together, it leads to devastating results.
It should be noted that this fact holds true even in World class and Universe class aether arts, but the difficulty curve in mastering them is less of a steep incline and more of a…sheer fucking cliff wall.
That’s because World and Universe aether arts, especially multipart ones, were less a series of moves and more…moments in history manifested into present reality or forces of nature lashed together.
[Echoing Frost] is a multipart World class art composed of three “simple” parts: [Declaration], [March of Giants] and [Ice Age].
It is, in essence, the retelling of a kingdom that fell to an army giants, or rather, the moment the giants came.
The first part, [Declaration], is the first verse, a tribute and a mimicry of the howling winds that served as the warhorn for the arrival of the giants.
[March of Giants] is the second verse, an imitation of the rumbling song the giants sang as they marched onward to exact their rage upon the arrogance that insulted them.
[Ice Age] is the final verse, it is the sound of the quiet breeze that blew when the giants had finished their task and rendered the land an artic wasteland with naught but the snow and glaciers serving as the remnants of what was once there.
Now, for the most part, it is considered necessary for the practioners to have heard, as in listen to, or witness events similar to the events that compose this art.
The first and third part weren’t hard to imagine or hear, one could just go to an artic biome and listen to a blizzard howling while the latter could be found by listening to the wind whistling through any old ruins. That middle part was…tricky.
Giants were once prevalent on Valresta, but they all upped and vanished centuries ago. Whether it was due to outside intervention or they all got out of dodge is debated to this day, but there are instances where warriors have run into them in wandering ruins. The problem was that these moments were far and few in-between.
In essence, it would be normally impossible for a warrior to truly master [Echoing Frost] without having witness giants in action.
However…it is a known fact that many a warrior will occasionally modify an art they have learned to suit their preferred fighting style, or they will try and substitute another experience to mutate the art into something else. That being said, it was significantly easier to change mutate arts that were of the Ethereal grade and below due to being less energy intensive.
Granted…this was under the pretense that the one mutating the art wasn’t a…”glitch” in the fabric of reality…
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Zhen Shi didn’t know who or what “Jormungandr” was, but the moment Zhen Liu’s spirit did…whatever it did to Zhen Shi’s head, he understood everything about this “world serpent”.
‘Huh…serpent so grand it held the world together…’
The serpent was cast out of heaven and forced to become a pillar of a world it knew little about, and foretold to die in a battle that would end it, against a warrior who’s name meant thunder.
The warrior and them would die together, as it was foretold, and the serpent’s name would only be remembered as “belonging to a monster that killed a god”.
…it did not want this ending.
It wanted to live, it wanted to see the other side of tomorrow it wanted to defeat this so-called divinity and prove to the world, the universe, that it’s fate was its own and no one elses!
On the day of its fated battle, it’s roar was not one lamenting a predetermined death, not one produced by rage against a fated for and not one of angry acceptance.
No, this was a roar that seeked to defy fate.
It was going to defeat this divinity without dying, it would storm the halls of heaven and take it’s place as a new god among its brothers.
At least… that’s what it hoped…
‘You could not defy your destiny in your lifetime, but at least your rage has inspired me to defy mine, and I’m sure others that will hear your story through this tribute of mine, will also be inspired. So let this world now hear, a roar that made the gods run in terror!’
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[Echoing Frost: Jormungandr’s Roar!]
“BOOOOAAAA!”
A forceful, concentrated blizzard of ice and rage flew forward and collided with Harold’s [Holocaustic Hellfire Seal], stopping the attack dead in its track.
Harold was shocked when he saw his most powerful attack getting blocked by this unusual art of Zhen Shi’s, which became utter terror when he saw his attack being pushed back.
“I will not be denied!,” Harold yelled in indignation.
Before his attack could be fully overwhelmed, Harold flew forward and slammed his [Wasteland Executioner] against it, reinforcing it with even more of his aether and increasing the power of the seal by at least twofold.
Now reinforced, the hellfire Seal began to push back against the blizzard and approach Zhen Shi’s position.
“Looks like I’ll have to burn you and cut you down at the same time!,” Harold gloated.
Unfortunately for Harold, this was exactly what a certain pachyderm hiding in Zhen Shi’s head was hoping for.
[Echo Chamber: activate.]
With the command given, Zhen Shi’s chains began to rapidly coat themselves in a thick layer of ice, solidifying the image of the giant serpent shadow they were trying to mimick and creating a giant echo chamber in the shape of the serpent’s head surrounding Zhen Shi’s form.
Harold had initially thought this construct to be a shield, a last minute effort to try and block his attack, until the sheer volume of Zhen Shi’s attack had suddenly amplified after the construct had finished building itself.
‘Hateful mother-wait, my seal!”
In that moment, the roar had become so powerful that Harold’s [Holocaustic Hellfire Seal] began to to break under the strain of trying to resist it.
First the edges began to crack, then the crack began to spread into the center, until after several agonizing moments, the seal shattered entirely and the black flames that composed it were extinguished into nothingness.
‘I-impossible!’
When the roar had finally hit his body proper, Harold didn’t think he was being smashed by a force of sound, he swore he saw a giant serpent made of ice colder than the darkest parts of hell, swallowing him whole.
CREATORS’ THOUGHTS
Mizako
So…WSA 2022 is starting now… thinking of coming up with something for it…any thoughts?
