Chapter 315: Abominable Battle
“GAAAAAH! I’M HURT?! ME?!,” Frederick screamed indignantly as for the first time in literal decades, he had felt pain.
True, proper pain.
It was at this moment that he determined that he actually did have some type of regeneration factor, as the severed arm began to heal itself, but it still fucking hurt having every neuron regrow itself.
‘This…this is impossible! The messenger told me so himself! Nothing in this world should be able to hurt me! Unless-!’
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Circa ten years ago from this moment (don’t worry, this will be quick…maybe…damn this arc has a lot of flashbacks.)
“Burp! Ah, another successful meal…,” Frederick hummed with satisfaction as he finished devouring the last of some adventuring trio that were more moxie than brains.
He of course made sure to leave at least one person alive to tell the tale of his terror.
Something about being considered a subject of rumor and speculation pleased Frederick immensely, but he wasn’t all too sure why.
Frederick had just about to settle in for a nap, in order to digest his latest gains, when a familiar face came in for a visit.
“You look to be well, dear mazzzter.”
“Festeroy!,” Frederick greeted with glee, “Ah wait, you go by Pesterus nowadays, yes?”
“Either izz fine by me,” the insectoid abomination replied. He was about to ask about how his counterpart was fairing these days, when he paused as he sniffed the air.
“My friend…have your zkillz in [Chaos] uzage increased?”
“Why yes it has! Thank you for noticing! I have learned how to produce a rather noxious gas that can sap the life and aether from any who inhale it by merely compressing it a bit less than when I use it as an energy blast. The way they twitch is very amusing!”
“Hmmm.”
The insectoid abomination let out a contemplative hum as he scratched his chin in thought.
“Frederick…do you make zzzure to kill anyone who breathezzz in thizzz…miazzma of yourzz?”
“Normally yes, but they do have a tendency to die before I have to. Why do you ask?”
For the first time in years, Frederick’s counterpart had a decidedly serious aura to him.
“Frederick…while many of this world’s more…conventional warriorzz may not be able to harm you, uzz, there are exceptionzz to thiz rule, namely those three stages above you.”
“Obviously.”
“But there is another case.”
“Oh? Pray tell, whom?”
“Those able to wield [Chaos] of course,” Pesterus explained, “I will not zzpeak of the leazzt likely zzcenario of…them appearing, but you should know that those exposed to [Chaos] and zzurvive, have a chance of being able to wield it themzelves.”
“Just like us?”
“No. It variezz from perzzon to perzzon, hell even objectzz. However the chancezz are miniscule, one in a million even, but it’z good to be aware regardlezzz.”
“…noted,” Frederick nodded in a perfunctory manner.
The man felt that even if these so-called “threats” emerged, he’d be able to handle them with little to no issue.
He was massive, he was powerful and he had been doing this for decades.
So what if someone else shows up with he power of [Chaos], he was unmatched!
…
It was too bad no one ever taught him about the story of the frog in the well.
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As Frederick stared at the adventurer he spared all those years ago, he realized that this bastard had somehow won that lottery of one in a million and was now wielding a power that could harm him.
A power that he himself spent years perfecting.
Frederick watched for a moment, face still twisted in pain as he watched the middle-aged man checked upon the little girl’s condition.
Was she his daughter? Is that why he came?
‘And he’s…ignoring me?!’
This old man had managed to harm him, cut off his arm, and instead of some heroic speech or some revenge-filled dramatics, he ignored him.
Did this bastard not know who the fuck he was?!
“This…THIS CANNOT STAND!,”Frederick screamed as he swung down his uninjured arm down towards the father-daughter duo.
He was the biggest thing in this room before literally and metaphorically, and he would not be ignored!
“DIE!”
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{Looks like baby girl’s head is a mess right now. Fucking buggy bastard seems to know a few hypnosis tricks. She should be okay though, once we get her out of this shit hole.}
“Uhh…yeah…again, who are you and why are you in my head?,” Rocko asked quietly.
He didn’t know if this weird voice could hear his thoughts, so he thought it’d be polite to ask aloud.
After he asked that, he swore he felt eyes roll inside his head.
{Oh geez, it’s not like I’ve been your partner for the better part of ten years…}
“What? Ten years? But all my friends at that time were-”
{How have you not noticed that you’re literally holding me?}
“Wha-oh! What in the-when did this happen?!”
{About five minutes ago, you rock head!}
It took Rocko a moment to realize that the voice in his head didn’t belong to some disembodied spirit or maybe his own sanity splitting, but instead, it was the trusty saber he started his adventuring career that was talking to him.
Granted, his trusty saber looked very, very different than what he remembered about five minutes ago.
Last he checked on it, it was an ordinary iron saber that he bought at a discount years ago from a rookie blacksmith.
There were no special aether materials mixed in, there was no secret techniques involved, it was as average as any other iron saber could be.
But not, for some reason, it was red, it was glowing, it had a very elaborate design to it and it was back-talking him.
{To answer your questions in no particular order: Yes I’m alive now, no I don’t know why I’m alive now and I highly suggest you swing me upward right the fuck now or else we’ll be pancakes.}
“Wait, what?”
{SWING ME UPWARDS NOW!}
“Oh shit!”
SWISH!
“GAAAAAAHHHH!”
Under his new weapon’s instructions, Rocko swung upwards and had done a repeat performance of what he did earlier, namely, chopping off the giant insect monster’s arm off. Only this time, his new friend had a follow up in mind.
{Maiming it like this can only get us so far. That abomination is gonna keep regenerating unless we cause some permanent damage.}
“Uhhh, okay…what’s an abomination and how do we do that?”
{No idea, presumably what this bastard is,} Rocko’s saber answered back while somehow forcing Rocko’s hand to gesture, {but back to the matter at hand, are you seriously asking me that? Aren’t you the one who spent several years down here hunting giant insects for sustenance?}
“Yeah…”
{And isn’t that guy, technically, just a bunch of giant insects stitched together like a demented ragdoll?}
“Uh…”
Taking his saber’s advice, Rocko began to stare up and down the same monstrosity that had wiped out his teammates all those years ago.
“Huh…”
The “abomination” was indeed made of several different types of insects, that were molded into a vaguely human shape…and Rocko had personally hunted several of the species that made up this bastard for his dinner, many times over.
“I…I think I know where to hit him.”
{Exactly,} his saber agreed, {Now, I don’t know about you my friend, but I think we should dismantle this bastard and then burn him to the ground for daring to touch our little girl. So…shall we?}
“Yeah…let’s do this!”
Having been reminded about why he was down here in the first place, a burning sense of passion and power to seem to ignite in Rocko’s being.
If Rocko wasn’t so caught up in the moment, he would have noticed that this surge of emotion was causing his body to spike in a power unlike aether or anima. It was… something new.
“You killed my friends, and now you try to hurt my daughter? I don’t care how big or terrifying you are, I’ll burn you to the ground!”
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“GET YOUR SLIMY TENTACLE OFF HER, LOVECRAFT MONSTER REJECT!”
“HuH?!!”
SCCRRIITCH!
Just as the creepy ball of insect flesh known as Grub was about to life and devour Nausicaa like an octopus eating a clam, Zhen Liu leaped from his hiding spot and slashed down against the tentacle made of centiepedes through sheer brute force and a rusty machete. Nausicaa was unceremoniously dropped to the floor, as the tentacle made of centiepedes lost it’s strength. Unfortunately, she was still unconcious.
“REEEEEEEEEEE!”
The abomination let out a blood curdling scream as a blade that was way too blunt, and way too rusty, slashed through it’s flesh and essentially sandpapered the resulting gash with particles of rust and few jagged pieces of metal.
While Zhen Liu didn’t know if abominations could get tetanus, he vaguely hoped this one could at least… especially this little attack made his arms sore as all hell.
‘Mental note….either get a sharper blade next time or pack a lot of whetstones…I really hope this guy doesn’t have a Phase two.’
CREATORS’ THOUGHTS
Mizako
So…you might have noticed the new paywall bits…not to worry, this just means I’ll be pumping out more chapters to justify it.
