Chapter 483: Punching even more otters!
“Grrr…”
“Grrr…”
“Grrr…”
Deep below the river depths, a gang of Ravager Otters lurked beneath this inky blackness, waiting for their matriarch to finish slaying the annoyingly powerful humans, or for her attack to at least hits its mark.
The Ravager Otters weren’t used to sitting around in such a manner, but their matriarch’s attacks were the type to wreak untold devastation regardless of her intent, so they could do little else but wait until the deed was done. They couldn’t wait until they could return to the surface and feast upon the charred remains of their matriarch’s fury or the scattered survivors that were sure to appear.
It was only fair, since these foolish mortals had the gall to not only interrupt their hunt, but also tempt them with their favorite meals locked in puny metal cages.
It was almost like these humans were asking to be attacked by Ravager Otters, and they were more than happy to oblige.
As the Ravager Otters continued to wait, hunger and violence gnawing at their patience, they heard a sound.
“Click…click…click.”
One that they did not expect to hear at this particular point the battle, for it was a signal sent by their matriarch.
“Click…click…click.”
A signal that excited them and sent them into a frenzy.
“Click… click…click.’
A signal that told them it was time, causing several members to break away early and rush to the surface ahead of everyone else.
“Click…click…click.”
A signal that could be summed up in a single, glorious word, a word that was just oh-so fun to repeat!
“Click… click…click.”
Kill.
“Click…click…click.”
Kill!
“Click…click…click.”
KILL!
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“Out of the water! Out of the water, now!”
“But what about the cargo?”
“What’s more important, profits or your life?! Move!”
“Wait, but you’re dragging out aether beast cages!”
“That’s different!”
In the world of Valresta, it is considered a good rule of thumb that when warriors of the Grandmaster level and above are fighting, or when a conflict involves a high tiered aether beast, it is usually a very good idea to get the fuck out of the way due to all of the possible collateral damage involved.
The sheer amount of aether used by high staged warriors in conflict is enough to cause to localized disturbances in the environment, so much so, that it is an unspoken agreement that any battles between these warriors must happen in the wilderness and/or specialized fighting arenas in which they can exercise their might without causing mass casualty events.
There was actually a very infamous incident where two Aether Emperors broke this agreement and ended up wrecking five different kingdoms on both of sides of their respective alliances, which lead to them getting killed by their own allies, but that is a story for another time.
The moment the Thunderscale Dragon Otter had launched its lightning ball attack, and Patriarch Zhen Shi subsequently moved forward to block it, basically everyone that wasn’t at least an Aether Grandmaster proceeded to evacuate the caravan rafts in order to give them all room to fight.
The only exception being Zhen Wang of the main branch clan, who was busy escorting everyone else out of the way in conjunction with the remaining four elders of the Zhen branch clan, Zhen Xi, Zhen Hou, Zhen Jin and Zhen Ye, as well as the two prodigal young masters, Zhen Hai and Zhen Yue.
Thankfully, this process wasn’t too difficult due to the Ravager Otters that had initially been harassing them having screwed off when the Thunderscale Dragon Otter performed its attack.
Despite being subordinates to this dragonic beast of an otter, not even they would be spared from any attacks she performed due to the domineering nature of dragon force.
However, this was a danger instinct that they would gladly throw away if it meant getting their fill of blood and meat, and if their beloved matriarch commanded otherwise…
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“Come on! Come on! Let’s go!,” Zhen Xi shouted to his clansmen and the carvaners as he leaped from raft to raft to help those who weren’t as nimble to get out of the area, “sooner we get out of the way, the sooner the others can-”
“Pops, look out!”
“Huh?”
“ARFHEHE!”
“Shit!”
However, just as they were about to leap to another raft, a Ravager Otter suddenly leaped out of the water and attempted to rip out Zhen Xi’s throat with aether enhanced teeth.
Fortunately, Zhen Xi was alerted in time to use a defensive art to prevent such an event from occurring.
[Rock Guard!]
“Arfeck!”
A stone coating made of aether suddenly manifested around Zhen Xi’s neck, blocking the attack and causing the Ravager Otter to chip a tooth in the process.
Had it not been for Zhen Feng, Zhen Xi’s son, call for danger, it would have been very likely that the former would have been left bleeding in the water with a missing throat.
Instead, he could now counter attack.
Taking the moment that the Ravager Otter was stunned from having bitten stone, Zhen Xi grabbed the beast by the neck and tossed it away, that way he had time to follow up with his own attack.
[Hill Crushing Boar Tackle!]
*BAM!*
“REEE!”
In the span of a few seconds, a pauldron of red jade in the shape of a boar’s head formed around Zhen Xi’s shoulder, at which point he launched himself forward and slammed it into the Ravager Otter’s back, sending it flying even further with additional injuries on top of that.
‘Wait…I’ve used this art before and the pauldron never looked this…pretty before,’ Zhen Xi briefly wondered.
Unfortunately, he did not have time to think about this unusual change further, due to even more Ravager Otters, this time a pair, leaping out of the water in an attempt to kill him, this time with their claws instead.
Evidently, this wasn’t a situation unique to him, as all over the now mostly evacuated fleet of rafts, Ravager Otters started popping up everywhere and judging from the red tint to their eyes, these bastards were aiming for a slaughter, not a hunt.
“Alright you river rat bastards, you want to kill my clansmen, you gotta go through me!”
[Hill Crushing Boar Tackle!]
Of course, it should probably go without saying that the rest of the Zhen Clan fighters were equally adamant in fighting, albeit, some had it a bit trickier than others.
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[Fury of the Iron Bear!]
*SMASH!*
“GAH!”
“Nice shot, elder brother!”
“Thank me after we get out of here alive!”
“ARFHEHEHE!”
“AND AFTER THE REST OF THESE OTTERS FUCK OFF!”
Out of everyone under attack during this sudden resurgence of Ravager Otters, nobody had it worst than the Second and Sixth elders, Zhen Hou and Zhen Ye.
The reason being? The aether beast cages they were protecting.
“Hiss!”
“Hiss!”
Snakes, especially snake-type aether beasts, turned out to be a favorite food of Ravager Otters. As such, when the call to go wild and kill everyone in the carvan went out, a majority of the Ravager Otters decided to bumrush the raft carrying all of those tasty caged snakes.
Unfortunately for them, there was a very protective caretaker of these snakes on the raft at the time of their attack, accompanied by his equally strong, if not stronger, older brother.
Granted, it still wasn’t an easy task.
“Hiss! Hiss!”
“I know babies, I know, papa’s gonna make sure you’re protected,” Zhen Ye told the caged serpents, while at the same time, ripping the eye out of an attacking Ravager Otter.
[Cobra’s Ripping Fang!]
“Just keep yourselves curled up and away from the bars.”
“Why couldn’t you specialize in something that wasn’t the favored prey for murderous otters?!,” Zhen Hou complained as he had to smash in the face of her another attacking Ravager Otter.
[Cratering Bear Paw!]
“Why couldn’t you specialize in like…lizards or owls or something?”
“Lizards freak me out and owls are too much of an overlap with peafowls!”
“That makes no sense!”
Speaking on a practical level, neither of the elders had to stick around in order to protect these cages snakes, in fact, they could have used them to serve as distractions elsewhere.
One good toss and the Ravager Otters would have been too preoccupied fighting each other for the right to eat the snakes as opposed to try and eat everyone else.
However, Zhen Ye didn’t roll like that.
Out of all of the elders in the clan, he was arguably the one closest with his preferred aether beast type.
Part of the reason for this was due to how snake type aether beasts had to be raised from egg to adulthood in order to be loyal to their handlers, but the other reason was touch a more…personal.
‘I don’t mind not standing out, as long as I got my snakes…’
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[Huh…why do I suddenly feel like someone is going to need my help in order to stand out of the crowd and make the spotlight theirs?]
