Chapter 317: Outnumbered…
‘BLOCK THE ATTACK AND GET HER ASS TO SAFETY, NOW!’
“Grroooann…”
It took a few seconds for the [Chaos] to completely suffuse into the shards of rusted metal, but the results turned out to be surprisingly worth it once it did.
“Grooaann…”
The shards had transformed into rusted metal soldiers that Zhen Liu recognized as having a conquistador look to them, complete with the pointed helmet. Granted, they were also wielding jagged plates of rusted metal like shield and short swords that were equally rusted and jagged, but now wasn’t the time to focus on asthethics.
“Groaaaan…”
Once the rusted soldiers manifested, they immediately went to work to defend against the incoming balls of bile, namely by stacking on top of each other and connecting their shields together like they were the pieces to a puzzle.
*Click! Crunch!*
The sheets of metal broke into each for a bit, they had eventually formed into a solid, if rusty, sheet of metal that deflected the ball of bile.
Evidently, the rust zakos had enough brains to not make their rust wall rigid as to absorb all of the kinetic force of the bile, but instead opted to angle it so that it acted as a ramp for the bile to hit the wall behind them.
That or it was completely coincidental, all Zhen Liu could pick up from these guys were vague, borderline feral instincts.
Also the desire to just take a nap, but that probably due to the rust.
With the immediate threat of the bile out of the way, two for the rust zakos broke away from the shield wall and made their way over to Nausicaa’s semi-concious form.
“Grooaann…”
“Clank!”
Making use of their shields once more, the two zakos made a makeshift stretcher for Nausicaa to lie upon as they absconded from the vicinity, their compatriots acting as defense, moving back with them in a phalanx formation.
However, they failed to keep track of everything on Nausicaa’s person, since they allowed her saber to fall out of it’s sheath and drop to the side.
Honestly, though, it was fairly impressive.
‘Huh…why don’t I abuse the fact that I can summon zakos like this more often?,’ Zhen Liu asked himself when he saw just how effective they were in blocking the ball of bile and rescuing Nausicaa, ‘wait…right, trying to maintain a low profile and an army of literal disposable soldiers is the exact opposite of that…good thing any witnesses involved are about to be dead…man this still feels weird morally.’
*PLORP!*
“Whoa!”
Zhen Liu had narrowly dodged yet another cannonball of bile that was fired randomly in his direction, unfortunately, he also dropped the rusted machete he was using materials for zakos.
‘Shit! Now what am I going to use as ma…hold up.’
Now that he was in the mindset of using zakos to fight this creepy abominable bastard, Zhen Liu came to the realization that this creepy ass chamber was chock-full of skeletons, various insect remains and a whole fuckton of discarded weapons and armor.
Zhen Liu had a funny look on his face, as he confirmed for the second time tonight, he was kind of an idiot.
The first time he admitted it was when he rushed in here with no plan and no back-up.
But now he was gonna have both, and in spades.
Zhen Liu crouched low as he concentrated [Chaos] into both of his hands and planned out a pathway around the chamber that would put him in the grabbing distance of what he hoped was some skulls with loose teeth, some breakable insect bites and chunks of scrap metal.
‘Welp…looks we’re gonna be playing P*kmin…although, Overl*rd might be more accurate? RTS, let’s go with RTS.’
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Meanwhile, back at the entrance/around the same time Grub was about to release his disgusting barrage attack…
“FUCKING!” *BANG!* “STUPID!” *BANG!* “BARRIER!” *BANG!*
The kaijin, despite being informed that they had to wait for Zhen Liu to somehow weaken the abomination by himself before they could help, did not relent from their attacks against the force repelling them from entering the tunnel and subsequent chamber. Instead, they kept up the aggressiveness.
Well, Nepherage specifically.
Frosttusk didn’t have the heat to keep going, Hurricroak figured it would be smarter to wait until Zhen Liu did his thing, while the two proto-kaijins were tuckered out at this point, with Spring Brawler straight up snoozing at this point.
It was a bit strange that the normally stoic Nepherage would be so aggressive right now, but Hurricroak chalked this up as it being separations anxiety or something like that.
“Nepherage, chill,” Hurricroak told her hot-headed companion, “you heard the Library gremlins, we can’t do shit until the Maestro does something to shake-up the abomination mentally or physically. So we just gotta-”
*Vwoop!*
“Gah!”
“Wait until that happens and the repelling force breaks down, what the fuck?”
Just as Hurricroak was about to Nepherage to stop attacking because she was wasting energy, the aforementioned invisible force blocking them had suddenly disappeared.
The group was confused as all hell when this happened, but quickly rallied around the situation once they felt a spike in energy that they were all very intimate with.
“Is…is that [Chaos]?!”
“Did…say… abomination…was there”
“What are we waiting for then?! Let’s go! We’re coming milord!”
Nepherage rushed down the hall, her aether flaring up wildly as she prepared to face down the monstrosity that was attacking their lord head-on.
Hurricroak and Frosttusk however waited a bit before going down themselves, because they wanted to watch Nepherage for a bit…and also talk about her a bit behind her back.
“Never…seen…her…like…this…”
“I haven’t either, but I have met guys and gals that act like that in similar situations. Very loyal, kinda like murderous dogs.”
“In…pop culture…section?”
“Nah.”
“Ah…”
With that out of the way, Hurricroak and Frosttusk followed suit.
(Un)surprisingly, Razor Maiden and Spring Brawler didn’t go down the corridor next.
Spring Brawler was still napping like a tuckered out toddler, while Razor Maiden…well…
‘I may be new to this whole “wanting” things, but I do know I don’t want to deal with whatever the fuck that thing is. Ick!’
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=It appears our connection to our lord is picking back up! I think we can start communicating with him again.=
=What, the abomination? It’s nothing we haven’t seen before, I mean it’s uglier than the whole Skunk King incident, but it’s still just another abomi-=
=What are you on abou-oh. Oh that ain’t right.=
=Someone broke the taboo.=
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“Black-Wing Hercules Beetles it is! Then that means I just have to…”
With practiced precision, Rocko slipped his saber into gap between the torso beetle’s plate and jammed it into the muscles. Once it was firmly in place, Rocko’s saber friend immediately release a jet of burning red flames in order to cook the insides.
“Gaaaaaaah! Why won’t you just die already?!,” Frederick cursed as he attempted to crush Rocko in retaliation for stabbing him in the chest. Unfortunately for him, Rocko had struck him in such a way that his reaction time and ability to move had dropped by a full thirty percent. This gave Rocko plenty of time to not only retract his saber, but also leap away from the attack in a leisurely manner, complete with some sass.
{Tell him, “fuck you, that’s why.”}
“Fuck you, that’s why!”
“RAH!”
Frederick was pissed at this moment for a myriad of reasons, but the most pertinent one was the fact that this two-bit elderly adventurer known as Rock was somehow that one in a million chance of being the type of warrior that could hurt him.
‘I can’t even land a fucking hit on him because of those stupid flames! It’s like I’m fighting two minds in one body…wait!’
When Frederick thought about how annoying his opponent was, he realized that this fight wasn’t just a one on one…it was one on one with a handicap.
A dark chuckle left Frederick’s mouth as he thought of his next course of action, his severed arm starting to undulate as several, razor-sharp tentacles began to form at the stump.
‘While I don’t like wasting food in a such a vicious manner…I don’t mind if it means seasoning the next meal with the sweet taste of despair!’
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‘Holy shit, we’re actually winning.’
{No shit bro, when the two of us work together, nothing can stop us!}
‘Fuck yeah! Wait….do you even have name?’
{I’m not entirely-wait, THAT BASTARD IS TRYING TO KILL RIANNA!}
‘What?! BABY GIRL, NO!’
{Shit! If you swing at the tentacle she’ll…SWING ME BACKWARDS, NOW!}
