Chapter 241: Shocking Resolve
[Now try to hold on, hero! The power and the pain is only going to increase from here, especially since I can bypass all that pesky flesh and grounding an shock your soul directly, meaning you won’t get the relief of numbing and burnt flesh,] the woman cheerfully said as the timer and meter behind her kept counting.
40 million volts…20 seconds.
70 million volts…16 seconds.
120 million volts…14 seconds.
260 million…13 seconds.
‘AGGGGGGGGGHHH! IS THIS SERIOUSLY WHAT LIGHTING IS LIKE?! WHAT THE FUCK?!,’ Zhen Hai screamed. This entire time he had been trying to use aether to try and reinforce his insides and stem the flow of electricity, but couldn’t. It was like his aether was purely stagnant.
[What’s wrong, heroic one? You don’t have much time left on the timer. Only about a measley twelve seconds seconds, and you’re already at 400 million volts! Just another six hundred to go.]
‘It’s only been that long?!,’ Zhen Hai yelled as the tingling gave away to pure jolts of pain jumping across his skin like a million sores, bursting open all at once.
Zhen Hai desperately wanted to do nothing more than release this accursed hand of this weird monster woman and cut off the flow of this atrocious electricity. But if he did, he’d be quitting this test, trial, challenge, whatever the fuck this torturous ordeal was.
And mama didn’t raise a quitter!
That said, he swore the amount the voltmeter was going up had suddenly slowed once it hit the 900 million volt mark.
[You’re almost done! I’m gonna give you a count down now!,] the woman who now looked like a frog demon said with a happy smile and a snap of her fingers, [Just know, it gets worst from here!]
As if to mess with him further, a pair of big glowing numbers appeared in Zhen Hai’s vision.
In his left eye was the number “6”, while the right eye had the number “940” followed by the word “million”.
[Now then…five.]
*Blip* “5”, “950”.
‘Hrk!’
[Four.]
*Blip.* “4”,”960″.
‘GAAAAAAAAAHH!’
[Three…]
“3”,”970″.
‘GODSDAMMIT!,’Zhen Hai cursed.
Despite having been subjected to possibly the worst pain in his existence over the course of twenty five seconds, for some reason, those last few seconds hurt the most.
‘Just focus man, think about why you’re doing this…,’ Zhen Hai told himself as the voltage increased even further.
[Two…]
He was doing this in order to save someone’s life. Who’s life?
The life of one Telana Corrada, a cranky old woman who basically hated his guts and existence.
Why did he want to save this life?
For her sake?
Perhaps, no one deserves to die in such a painful manner. Then again, he wasn’t exactly fond of her…
His sake?
No, he had no strong feelings about her any which way…but then again…there was someone she was related to that he did care deeply for…
[One…]
A girl who acted as prickly as a rose made of steel and silk.
A girl who was toxic as she was intoxicating.
A girl who despite having a haughty persona, had an unexpectedly sweet side like a sour plum.
A girl who could…kick his ass.
[Zero.]
A girl he’d be willing to dominate a fucking hurricane for.
[Congratulations, Zhen Hai. You can now tap into a little of my power and earned some very important know how. Let’s go save your future mother-in-law? Comprende?]
Surprisingly, Zhen Hai knew how to answer.
“Bueno.”
________________________________________________
Precisely five seconds after Zhen Liu had shot Zhen Hai in the face, the latter suddenly snapped back into focus, his eyes now being distinctly electric blue color.
As Zhen Hai flexed his fingers to make sure everything was still there, small arcs of electricity danced between his fingertips.
Deciding it was wiser to ignore Pathos for the time being, Zhen Liu directed this focus to his now…slightly possessed cousin.
“Hey, Zhen Hai…you good? Think you can defibrillate someone with your hands?”
The aforementioned cousin balled his hand into a fist, sparks surrounding it in a rather showy fashion.
“Si, I mean uh…yes,” he replied, “I know exactly how we can save Telana’s life. But next time, warn a guy before you do…whatever you just did to me.”
“I promise nothing.”
“Fair enough.”
With he pleasantries out of the way and the knowledge confirmed, Zhen Hai and Zhen Liu went to work doing what was most likely this world’s first case of aether-base defibrillation.
“First off, we gotta open up her dress to access to her chest,” Zhen Hai stated with authority, “I’d say to go grab a knife or something from that desk, but there’s no time for that. Let’s up I know how to do this.”
Zhen Hai pointed a single finger down at the hem of Telana’s dress before he started to channel aether into it. As he did, the shadowy image of Hurricroak began to appear behind him.
‘Huh…neat,’ Zhen Liu commented.
Small sparks of electricity began to form around Zhen Hai’s finger tip, moments before arcing forward and essentially burning the dress in a strategic manner, opening it up and exposing Telana’s torso to the world.
“Alright~ we got no gel pads to stick, so I’m gonna have to get even more creative~,” Zhen Hai suddenly sang-talked as he held his hands in front of him.
Zhen Hai concentrated even more aether around his hands, causing them to become coat in a thick bubble of water. The distinct scent of salt water filled the air as these two bubbled of water completely covered Zhen Hai’s hands.
“Zhen Liu?”
“On it.”
Without further ado, Zhen Liu proceeded to hold Telana down to the ground by pressing weight against her shoulders.
This action may have seemed excessive, but Telana Corrada was still an Aether Grandmaster. If she freaked out and lashed out mid-defibrillation, then there was a good chance this possible medical casualty would turn into a double manslaughter with a side of heart attack. Not exactly the best way to go.
With his hands fully coated in what smelled like sea water, Zhen Hai placed his hands on the part of Telana’s chest where it would leave her heart in the middle between the two
Now that he was ready, Zhen Hai closed his eyes and began to lean his head down in order to listen for a heartbeat…only for a certain froggy woman whose name he didn’t know, suddenly piped up in his head.
[Yeah, for something delicate like this, leaning down ain’t gonna help much. So allow me to do a little trick.]
‘Wait, you’re still-ah!’
Zhen Hai’s ears began to feel all sorts of tingly as aether and an unknown energy seem to flow into it. He wasn’t sure what was going on, but he could guess that his hearing was being messed with, hopefully for the better.
‘Why does everything you do seem to cause funny-hold up.’
Once the tingling had subsided, the next thing he knew, he could hear Telana’s heartbeat perfectly without placing his head to her chest…which is why he could tell that her heart had essentially stopped.
‘Shit! I need to defibrillate, now!’
The air around Zhen Hai began to distort as he began to build up lighting aether in his body. He didn’t dare build it up in his hands, for that could lead to an accidental overdose of electricity that could do more harm and good.
‘Its all about control and patience…man, that’s the exact opposite of how I fight,’ Zhen Hai mused as he kept gathering aether.
It only took him a second to gather up the energy he needed, now was only the matter of delivering it.
[Shock Palm – 3k shock!]
