Chapter 422: Always remember to lock the door behind yourself
[You do know only one of us had to be here for corpse removal duty, correct?]
[Si Amiga, but I was incredibly bored. That and I wanted to rifle through everybody’s stuff.]
[Of course you do…what’s Frosttusk’s excuse?]
[Feeling…stiff… boiler’s…off…]
[Ah.]
While Zhen Liu was busy doing questionable shenanigans involving a magic gun and the newest fully formed kaijin to their group, Nepherage, Hurricroak and Frosttusk were tasked with dealing with the rat corpse turn garden bed in the cargo hold.
Technically only one of them had to be down there to either burn, steal or throw the damn thing overboard, but the kaijin had gotten used to being in each other’s company. That and it was more entertaining than just sitting in their lord’s lapel waiting for something to happen.
As of this moment, Nepherage, Hurricroak and Frosttusk were all standing around the little patch of plants growing out of a wolf sized steampunk cyborg rat, noticing how the once green lush plants were slowly turning into plants made of metal.
This ongoing transformation elicited a hum of mild concern from Nepherage and a slow “uh oh” from Frosttusk, but Hurricroak found the entire situation to be rather fascinating and a part of her wanted to see what would happen if they just left the corpse as is in the hands of the Zhen Clan. Evidently, she was so amused by the idea that she decided to try and make a case to do so.
[So…I’m gonna be honest, I don’t know why our lord wants us to destroy this thing,] Hurricroak said as she pointed at the cyborg rat corpse with increasingly mechanized bamboo growing out of it, [is it really so bad that we leave it with his relatives? I’m pretty sure they’d all benefit from a good ole dose of Chaos energy to the systems. Granted, they might end up a bit steampunky because of it, but I mean, we’re already possessing and influencing them anyways. We might as well let them have access to an unfiltered version of the energy we use.]
[That is an absolutely terrible idea,] Nepherage disagreed.
At this particular observation made by her froggy counterpart, she couldn’t help roll her eyes before providing an answer as to why it was probably a terrible idea to do what she suggested.
[Our lord wishes to avoid another “Grub” situation as much as possible, especially when his own family members are involved,] Nepherage explained, [that and he doesn’t want to paint an even bigger target on their back on the off chance they don’t turn into abominations and gain the ability to use Chaos. Our lord and us are able to wield Chaos safely because we’re basically made of the stuff. I really don’t want to imagine it being used by people who aren’t us.]
Nepherage had been exposed to the Zhen Clan the most out of the three kaijin, by virtue of being made first.
While her impression on her lord’s relatives were relatively positive, she didn’t think any of them would be handle the burden/benefit that comes from [Chaos]. By her estimation, they were too orthodox in their cultivation to include an element as random as [Chaos] to their repertoire.
Granted, she did have other reasons why she was opposed to the idea.
[Pbbbt! Spoilsport,] Hurricroak said as she blew a raspberry at Nepherage. [I’m fairly certain they’ll be able to learn how to use it just fine. Assuming they actually figure out a way to consume the Chaos in the corpse and plants growing out of it…oh, wait! What about the animals? The Zhen Clan’s whole schtick is animal taming anyways, why not have their loyal beasts eat this thing? That way they can get the benefits of Chaos power without adding the randomness to themselves!]
[That’s an even worst idea,] Nepherage retorted.
A this point, Nepherage and Hurricroak were about to enter full argument and had turned to face each other away from the corpse, leaving Frosttusk the only witness to what was about to transpire.
[ A small bit of Chaos was enough to turn a common ship rat into the aforementioned cyborg corpse before us that is, again, mechanizing the plants growing out of it. You really want to see what happens if we feed unfiltered Chaos to something like the Fourth Uncle’s giant boars or even Tiny?,] Nepherage asked, fully oblivious of the bamboo trees becoming fully mechanized at this point.
[Uhh…guys…]
[Oh come on Nepherage, it’d be interesting!,] Hurricroak reiterated, ignorant that the now mechanized bamboo trees were now bending like spider legs, [and besides if things go sideways, you can swoop in to be a hero like your core encouraged! It’ll be fine.]
[Guys…the corpse…]
[Okay just…no. We’re going to destroy this corpse and that’s that,] Nepherage said firmly, unaware that the corpse was no longer really a corpse.
[Okay…taking…care…of this…]
At this point, Frosttusk was done trying to get the others’ attention, and started charging up an attack.
[That’s that? That’s that??,] Hurricroak repeated with incredulity, [who made you in charge?]
[Our lord, seniority and might,] Nepherage argued back while counting down on her fingers.
Fully riled up, Hurricroak prepared to respond.
[Oh please! Our lord treats all three of us equally, I’m fairly certain I can beat you in a fight and if we’re talking seniority, I at least-]
“PAAAAOOO!”
“SKR-“*CRICK*
[WHOA! WHAT THE FUCK?!]
[Frosttusk?! Why are you- what the fuck is that?]
[Y’all…should…talk…less…]
Before Hurricroak could fully present her response to Nepherage’s points, Frosttusk had released a loud trumpeting sound that the group associated with him freezing something, be it people, beasts or places.
Nepherage and Hurricroak were initially confused as to why he did so, until they turned towards his direction and notice the now frozen mechanical spider-plant thing that was in the middle of extracting itself from the cyborg rat corpse.
[What the fuck is that?]
[I don’t know…]
With their argument now essentially put on ice, Nepherage and Hurricroak turned their attention towards the robospider popsicle.
[What the fuck is this thing?,] Nepherage reiterated. She was just about to contact Logos and Pathos for information, but stopped when she realized something important.
[Wait, no, shit. Frosttusk’s attack was incredibly loud, we must’ve waken up the whole ship!]
[No no, we should be fine] Hurricroak refuted as she kept staring at the frozen spider from different angles, [don’t you remember how surprised that captain guy was when he was informed a fight occured in the cargo hold? I’m pretty sure unless someone was right outside the door when Frosttusk did his thing, we’re in the-]
“Who goes-! What?”
[And I fucking jinxed us, great…]
Standing in the doorway to the cargo hold, mouth agape and eyes wide, was a young man in his late teens to early twenties. Judging by his uniform, he appeared to be a member of the ship’s crew, and judging by the growing wet spot in his pants, he was originally planning to use the restroom before stumbling upon a trio of literal monsters standing around the frozen corpse of a fourth and technically fifth.
[Of all the fucking times for us to get caught by another human and it’s not even one we know,] Hurricroak cursed, [how did he even get in here?]
[The…door…?]
[I can see that, but did none of us think to lock or block the damn thing?]
[No…everyone…sleeping…]
[Right…]
[Quit talking and keep your eyes on him. We don’t want him to suddenly bolt and wake up the whole ship!,] Nepherage instructed.
“Wha-what the hell are you guys?,” the young man whispered in terror, in fear that if he was a decibel too loud, they might get spooked and attack him.
Locked in what was essentially a stand-off of sorts, the singular human and the trio of kaijin stared at each other, waiting for someone to make a move as the tension between grew so thick that it could be sliced open with a-
[Tazer Tongue!]
[What the fuck?!]
*Stick.*
Before anyone could react or get a single word in, Hurricroak suddenly launched out her tongue and latched it on to the poor boy’s chest. The boy for his part, understandably, started freaking out.
“Gah! What the f-”
*ZAP!*
“FUUUBRBEKRBRJNENSBN!”
Before getting electrocuted into unconciousness, and flopping to the floor in a very unceremonious manner.
*Thud.*
The kaijin stared at the unconcious boy, the smell of lightly singed hair filling the air.
[Well…that was easy,] Hurricroak casually commented, causing Nepherage to simply palm her face.
[I’m…I’m going to call this in…]
________________________________________________
[Milord? We got into a situation…we might have, accidentally, hopefully, knocked someone unconciousness while we were performing the corpse removal task. We might need some assistance in hiding the body somewhere.]
‘Well… that’s coincidental.’
[Huh? What do you mean?]
‘I might have accidentally murdered someone in the process of doing my task.’
[…what?]
‘Well…’
