Chapter 390: If there’s a riot in the woods, do the cops even care?
=I think the last one we saw was back when the Library was located in… Radiant Feather. I recall it involving rainbows. Lords above, I do hope this formula doesn’t come with weird conditions this time.=
=See, this is why I keep an album of appearances.=
=The Bejeweled-wait…that form? Weren’t you banned from using if after the Goat King incident?=
=Aish.=
_______________________________________________
[Ugh…guys? Is it just me or does it feel like we’ve been through a three day rager without any sleep and fueled by nothing but cocaine and coffee with just a touch of bacon?]
[No, Hurricroak, it’s not just you,] Nepherage answered, [that’s actually a fairly apt description given that the three of us seem to be laid on the floor. Frosttusk, you okay?]
[In…pain…feels like…overstretched… everything.]
[Fair.]
[Hey…my…brain(?) just caught up to this, but did Razor Maiden just mature into a full kaijin? Changed her name to Razorstella…which I think means “Razor star”, and straight up light bombed the area?]
[Yup.]
[Damn, you go girl…think we can get up before those other assholes do, or…]
[I don’t know, but I think I sense Lacerage and Archanidame coming to save us if we can’t.]
[Fuck yeah.]
________________________________________________
“Razor…stella…,” Jasper mumbled to himself as he stared up and in distance at the strange yet eye-catching sword woman who had comforted him just moments prior.
Granted, she had left him in the ruins of a destroyed warehouse, surrounded by monsters fighting assassins, with the respective leaders of both passed out and surrounding him like a terrible nap circle, but hey, he was alive at least.
At this point in time, Jasper had been subjected to a lot of bullshit, but this was arguably still the weirdest part of the day for him.
First, he and Janice received unexpected charitable windfall from a group of kind weirdos.
Then, they got kidnapped by a pair of goons who proceeded to drag him and his sister around Pearl Tusk Harbor like a sack of potatoes.
He almost fucking died when some jackass in a blue mask slammed his head into a wall, but he was saved when Hurricroak took over his body, somehow and healed it. This was also when he picked up some new and colorful vocabulary, including the term “kaijin”.
At which point, he somehow got a third person perspective of his own body being used to fake being a the prodigy of some fake elite family, proceeded to punch the lights out of the guy who almost killed him, and then got into a fight with that guy’s friends, up until he got unceremoniously dumped into a weird void, only to be saved by a dancing sword woman who somehow transformed into a dancing sword star woman.
If Jasper was any older to comprehend everything that had happened to him, he would have either checked out mentally at this point or just pass out from all of the excitement.
Thankfully he wasn’t, otherwise he would have also missed a spring-limbed acrobatic clown coming from above and landing in front of him.
From what he could recall from being possessed, this kaijin was called “Spring Brawler”.
The two stared at each other for a moment before Jasper decided to ask a question.
“Are you here to kill me or save me?”
“Save you.”
“Cool.”
Spring Brawler then proceeded to pick up Jasper and place him on his back, before leaping away, leaving the other kaijin to deal with whatever fallout might occur now.
‘Good luck guys.’
________________________________________________
The warehouse district was surprisingly far from the comforts of the inn that Zhen Liu and his family was staying at, but that made sense.
Not a lot of people wanted to live next to noisy/smelly industrial areas, not even for a temporary stay.
As such, Jin Fang and Zhen Liu found themselves running through several main streets, which were understandably empty at this hour.
While the duo didn’t mind the emptiness, Jin Fang made a small realization.
“Xiao Liu?”
“Yeah?”
“The kaijin tend to fight fairly…loud, correct?”
“Understatement, but yes, they tend to be rather flashy and mildly booming. Hence why I have them practice in an abandoned quarry.”
“Right…so why aren’t I hearing more screaming, seeing more flashing lights or people running in the same direction as we are?”
“That’s a…good question.”
Immediately after Zhen Liu’s brain stopped trying to break itself apart, he and Jin Fang proceeded to make their way as fast as possible to the warehouse district where the kaijin were either fighting or groaning in pain on the floor.
As far as Zhen Liu could tell, via his connection through their literal soul bonds, it was an even split of both activities for the group.
Nepherage, Frosttusk and Hurricroak were on the floor in pain, while Lacerage, Archanidame and Razorstella were busy fighting.
As for Spring Brawler, while he wasn’t fighting, Zhen Liu could feel he was busy doing something. Zhen Liu wasn’t sure what that something was though.
Regardless of their current status though, Zhen Liu figured all of the calamity that ensues when Grand Master level fighters get involved would have caused a commotion.
That did not turn out to be the case.
“Yeah, there aren’t a lot of people going this direction,” Jin Fang pointed out as they cleared another block, “actually, it looks nobody here is noticing at all.”
“That’s…weird,” Zhen Liu noted, “at this point we’re close enough to feel the fluctuations of aether in conflict, but nobody seems to be-oh wait, look. A guardsman.”
As far as Zhen Liu could tell, the world of Valresta, or at least the places he had been to, didn’t exactly have any law enforcement in place.
There were laws and codes of etiquette to be sure, but there weren’t any official policemen or thief-takers or enforcers.
If he had to guess as to the reason why, kind of hard to arrest a motherfucker able to flip mountains with a flip of a finger.
That being said, Zhen Liu did notice that there were at least a few guardsmen in place that seemed to enforce laws on regular, non-cultivated focused people.
‘Huh…I feel like this might be considered social commentary…but then again, there are literal beggars in this world that can beat the shit out of the rich just by being more powerful, so I guess it’s more might makes right…,’ Zhen Liu thought to himself.
Jin Fang and Zhen Liu stopped for a moment, noticing how the guardsmen was staring at the same direction as they were heading. The two looked at each other for a moment before the latter of the two proceeded to walk over to the guardsman to ask a quick question.
“Excuse me?”
“Huh? Oh, hello. Good evening.”
“Good evening to you as well. I couldn’t help but notice that awfully loud racket and sharp jumps of aether coming in that direction, is everything alright?”
“Oh that? Yeah, some Grand Masters I believe are having a dispute. Nothing to worry about.”
“Uh…you sure? It sounds pretty loud…and a touch destructive over there. Shouldn’t it be stopped?”
“Well…normally yes, but the Harbor master is the only one who could stop something like this right now, and he’s out currently. Also, nobody is suicidal enough to tell Grand Masters to stop fighting.”
“I see…”
“It should be fine though, the warehouses over there have something called ‘insurance’. I don’t know what that is exactly, but apparently it means that the owners can get a cash compensation due to damages.”
“Ah.”
Evidently, capitalism and laziness was a multiversal thing.
With the answers given, Zhen Liu returned to Jin Fang’s side and proceeded to leave with her to the warehouse district where the kaijin were fighting.
“So…why isn’t anyone coming to stock and stare?”
“Nobody wants to get caught in the crossfire.”
“Ah.”
________________________________________________
“Fucking…shit…my fingers feel…cold.”
“Make it stop, make it stop, make the screaming stop.”
“My legs…my legs…oh thank gods my legs…”
In the ruins of a destroyed warehouse, the four leaders of the Blue Shadows, Fili, Dane, Ogrim and Balos, were found to be gibbering madness as they began to readjust to the reality around them.
For gods knows how long, the four of them were subjected to a strange mental torture that seemed to crawl deep into their souls.
They didn’t know what it was, but they did know it sucked.
“Hey wait a minute…”
And they did know, they wanted revenge.
