Chapter 335: An Unexpected Performance
The sound of steel strings and drums ripped through the senses of Jin Fang and Rianna, disorienting them for a moment before reality corrected itself.
Granted, reality as they knew it had changed.
“Guh…my head…,” Rianna complained, “what was…whoa! What?!”
“Yeah, you’ll get used to the outfit changes later,” Jin Fang comforted her, “now come on. I learned last time not to stand next to the speakers.”
“The what?”
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[Huh? Hey, do you sense that?]
[Feels…like…family…members…?]
[Should we do something about that?]
[Probably not.]
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In that familiar state of consciousness and sleep, Zhen Liu stared forward as he watched the namesake of Hurricroak’s formula play a song that seemed to rouse one’s heart and inspire both bravery and fear all at once.
‘Thunder God’s concerto…I understand the drums, but electric guitars too? Is that because of me?’
Regardless of the images though, Zhen Liu could at least understand what the point of this formula was now…sort of.
‘Passion. Be as passionate as a storm, and let your soul make the instrument sing…poetic or dumb?,’ he wondered.
‘…meh! Whatever, let’s rock and roll baby.’
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“Guuuh, my head…,” Zhen Hai groaned as he rubbed his temples, “is it just me, or did the sound of a pair of mad Thunder Beasts rutting just ripped through our ear drums?”
“Is everyone okay?,” Zhen Yue asked.
“Yeah…I think so,” Zhen Xing answered first, “but why do I feel like my body’s heavier than before?”
“I don’t know,” Zhen Guo answered as he blinked away the grogginess out of his eyes, “but that better not be actual rutting Thunder Beasts. It would take weeks just to get the smell out of our…uh…Zhen Yue?”
“Yes?”
“When did you change outfits?”
“What? What are you-BWAH?! WHAT THE HELL?!”
Initially confused by Zhen Guo’s question, Zhen Yue looked over her outfit only to find it had completely changed in an incredibly obvious manner.
“What happened to my dress? Am I wearing pants?! I mean, I kinda dig it, but-wait, why am I wearing so many chains?”
As today was Zhen Yue’s leisure day, she had decided to go with a casual cotton dress that had a nice blue color to it.
Now she was wearing a pair of black cargo jeans, a crop top complete with a jean vest jacket that had a crescent moon emblazoned on the back and silver chains hanging off her pants as an accessory. In essence, she looked like a K-pop idol…not that she knew what that was.
A Zhen Yue continued to look over her outfit to make sure nothing else was changed, the others began to look over their clothes too.
“WHAT THE FUCK?!”
And equally freaked out over the sudden change.
“I…is this made of leather? How is it black? What are these metal things?”
“At least you got sleeves, I think mine is like…two shirts? Wait, ain’t blue dye super expensive?”
“I was going to complain about my hair suddenly changing, but this looks good. Also this hat, I don’t know what it is though.”
In no particular order, Zhen Hai got a new biker bad boy look, Zhen Xing looked like a punk rocker and Zhen Guo got a rocking new white suit complete with a hat, making him look like a smooth criminal.
As the Zhen Clan heirs tried to figure out why they got new outfits, the sound of a clearing throat caught their attention.
[Ahem?]
“Huh? Whoa!”
“That’s a big…bear.”
“Wait, that’s not a bloodliner?”
“Nah, that’s just a straight up bear in a tuxedo…why do I know that word?”
The four of them were caught off guard as they stared up and down a huge bear dressed in a black and white suit and darkened glasses. Weirdly enough, they questioned the bear moreso than the gate the bear was standing in front of.
[Tickets?]
“Huh? Tickets? For what?,” Zhen Yue asked.
[The concert of course.]
“We…don’t have tickets?,” Zhen Xing added.
[Then what are those?]
“What are-huh?!”
Appearing in their hands without any warning were golden concert tickets that simply said: “Admission One – The Storm Kings”.
“I…guess we have tickets then,” Zhen Hai concluded while having a massive case of deja vu thrown in his face. He wasn’t entirely sure why but a familiar feeling of electricity seemed to flow through his hands as he held the tickets.
‘It…can’t be…’
[Oi. Are y’all gonna come in or not? The show’s about to begin.]
“Uh…okay.”
The Zhen Clan heirs gave their tickets to the bear bouncer, one by one, who carefully ripped the ticket’s body from the stub before handing the latter piece to them.
[Consider them souvenirs.]
“Uh…thanks.”
Zhen Hai took the lead, followed by Zhen Yue, Zhen Xing and Zhen Guo, as the four of them passed through the weird gate the bear was guarding and into a long hallway.
“What are these walls made of?”
“Don’t know, but I ain’t seeing a single brick or wooden plank in sight.”
[H…k]
“Hey…do you guys hear chanting?”
[Hurri…]
“Yeah…it sounds like…a name?”
[Hurricroa-]
As the four of them reached the end of the hallway, they were shocked to see a massive stadium as big as the colosseum in town, filled end to end with people chanting a single name.
[Hurricroak! Hurricroak! Hurricroak!]
“That’s a lot of people…,” Zhen Xing muttered.
“I don’t think they’re people,” Zhen Guo pointed out, “look.”
At the entryway they were in, they were able to see at least several audience members standing and chanting.
While it was rather dark in this “concert hall”, they could at least make out that the audience members weren’t human or bloodliners despite looking humanoid. From what they could see, the audience members appeared to be made of rusted metal or bones and then stitched together in forms that vaguely resembled humans. It was a rather surreal sight to be sure, but none of them seemed to radiate any killing intent.
The weirder part to them though was the fact that the changing humanoids could chant in the first place…since none of them had any mouths.
The rest of the group began to look around to see if they could find any other details about this place, until Zhen Yue made an interesting discovery.
“Hold up…down at the front…I think I can see Jin Fang, Rianna and…is that Zhen Liu’s pu-whoa!”
However, before she could share this discovery with the others, they all suddenly started walking again as a mysterious force took over their bodies.
“Hey! What’s going on?”
“I don’t know, but I can’t stop my legs from moving for-oh hey, we stopped…weird.”
Whatever that force was, it had caused the scions to merely exit the entryway they were loitering around in and caused them to stand in front of several strange looking objects covered with a red fur-like substance on them. When Zhen Xing pushed against the object, it opened into a seat.
“Huh…neat.”
*CHOOM!*
“I DIDN’T DO ANYTHING!”
“Don’t scream,” Zhen Yue chided, “I think this concert is starting.”
By pure coincidence, a little after Zhen Xing confirmed that there were seats behind them, the lights in the stadium went out as the cheering crowd gradually quieted down and the sounds of people sitting down could be heard all around them. Going with the flow, the cousins naturally took their seats as well.
*Bwom!*
“See?”
Once everyone was seated, several spotlights came came to life and pointed at the stage, revealing who these performers were…not that it really helped the Zhen Clan heirs to figure out what was going on.
“Why do they all have masks, except for that blue one?”
“I don’t know, but it works with their suits. How do they get it to shine like that?”
“A hornet, a fox, tiger, a bear, a crab…and a toad? What a weird group, right Zhen Hai? Zhen Hai?”
When Zhen Xing turned to see why his cousin had froze up like a deer in a hunter’s crossbow, he found that his eyes were wide open in shock.
Zhen Hai was dead silent when he saw the eclectic group of performers because despite being so far away, he recognized one of them right away.
Granted, it helped that she was also bright neon blue!
“That’s her.”
“Her?,” Zhen Yue asked, “her, who?”
“Her! That’s the muse thing that helped me save Telana Corrada’s life!”
“Wait, what?! That’s her?!”
“I seriously thought you were joking on that.”
“Huh…”
Zhen Xing had heard from the others how Zhen Hai unexpectedly developed the ability to use lighting aether at a significantly more efficient rate than before after meeting this “muse” and was very tempted to rush down the stage to ask for guidance.
But before he could do anything of the sort, the performance began.
And they were all spellbound.
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Even if heaven were to cast us all aside to die.
Go forth young boy, defy their expectations!
