Chapter 489: A Wild Serpent’s Dance
“HISSSSSS!”
“Father?”
“Zhen Ye?”
“Ree?”
As Zhen Tai, Zhen-She Yang and the Ravager Otters turned to see what was the source of the roaring hiss, all of them were surprised to find it to be a middle-aged man. However, the reason for the surprised reaction were for very different reasons.
“I have never heard father be that loud before…”
“Me neither…”
For Zhen Tai and Zhen-She Yang, it was shocking for them to see the normally quiet father figure of their family to suddenly make a sound so loud that the latter swore she heard glass breaking on one of the nearby rafts.
She had only seen this occur in person one other time, and it was at the performance of a visting opera troupe.
“Ree?”
“Arfhehe?”
As for the Ravager Otters, they were confused at hearing what sounded like the cry of a giant snake aether beast, aka their favorite meal, coming from a small human warrior.
Due to this contradiction, three main questions ran through the minds of Ravager Otters.
“Was the real snake hiding from them?”
“How could a mere human make so much noise?”
And last but not least, “how tasty is it going to be when we finally get to eat this guy wholesale?”
Granted, while those perceiving Zhen Ye had all sorts of questions in mind in regards to his behavior, the man himself was busy thinking about something else entirely. Or to be more accurate, Zhen Ye was trying to figure out his next move by talking to a particular voice in his head.
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[Ahahaha! Now that’s how you grab someone’s attention!,] the automaton laughed in Zhen Ye’s head as she witnessed Zhen Ye’s performance.
‘Thanks I guess, but I have no idea what to do now,’ Zhen Ye told the automaton voice in his head in a somewhat sardonic tone, ‘just because I grabbed their attention, doesn’t mean I know how to keep it on me. Any suggestions?’
[Of course, of course so lemme just…]
Immediately after Zhen He had decided he would kick up the theater room worth of Sound Eater monsters that would have very loved to eat his face for waking them up, his perception of reality had distorted itself again during the process, sending him back to the river rafts from whence he came.
When his perception finished returning to normal, Zhen Ye was smacked with the realization that everything that had happened until that moment was essentially in his head, including the overly dramatic automaton which he was assuming was his repressed creative/attention seeking side given form.
He had no idea why it was a mechanical person and not like a colorful snake person, nor did he know why it was still speaking to him despite no longer being in that weird mind theater, but he didn’t really have time to think about that.
Right now, he was attracting the ire of a whole pack of giant murder otters but he needed their total attention and focus in order to get them away from his family.
How he would go about doing that, well…
[Hmmm. Two questions. First, are you able to manipulate your aether to make illusionary images? Second, do you mind if I take over a small portion of your body, more specifically, your legs?]
‘I think I can make an illusion? What do you have in-wait, what did you just say?’
[Perfect! Here’s what I have in mind!]
A series of images soon flickered across Zhen Ye’s mind as he tried to figure out what exactly the automaton had in mind for him to do in order to solidify all of the Ravager Otters eyes on him.
A mixture of embarrassment, dread and anticipation bubbled in his stomach as response.
‘Oh that’s what you have mind…alright, fuck it, you’re a repressed part of me, so I might as well roll with it…’
[…yes, I am. Now then…let’s see if you can dance, snake man!]
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“HIIIISSSSSS!”
“What the hell? Who’s making that sound?”
“I think it’s the sixth elder of the branch clan…don’t know why the fuck he’s doing it though.”
“I’m not sure either…but I can’t help but look in his direction…”
As Zhen Ye’s roaring hiss continued to echo through the area, more and more people began to notice this strange action of his.
Evacuated non-combants watched from their perch in the trees, while those being actively evacuated paused their running in order to see what was going on.
Those who were locked in combat with the Ravager Otters also paused to stare in confusion, as their respective beastial opponents stopped to stare in the same direction.
While this would technically be an excellent to make sneak attacks, something about the echoing hissing sound made everyone want to stop fighting for some reason.
A reason that soon became evident as the crowd kept watching.
As the hissing continued, Zhen Ye manipulated his aether and produced the illusionary projection of a giant serpent with feathers over himself, placing the head where his body was.
Once the projection had completely taken form, Zhen Ye did something even more inexplicable: he started dancing.
“What the fuck?”
For reasons beyond everyone’s understanding, Zhen Ye began to do this strange, rhythmic stomping dance while hissing, leaping from raft to raft as he did, causing the feathered serpent projection that was overlaying him to dance and move in an equally strangely rhythmic way.
At first, nobody understood why the sixth elder of the Zhen branch clan began to do this. They were in the middle of an active battle and dancing was definitely going to get oneself killed while on it.
“Why the fuck is dancing now? Is it because he knows he’s going to die? Is he celebrating the impending death of his wife and kid? If so, that’s fucked up.”
But then, one of the on-lookers of this dance noticed something strange, the behavior of the Ravager Otters.
“Uhh, am I going crazy or is that guy’s dancing starting to attract all of the Ravager Otters to him?”
“I…I think they are! Look! All of the Ravager Otters are just…going towards him.”
One by one, group by group, every single Ravager Otter that was originally attacking someone or causing general mayhem had stopped whatever they were doing and began to make movements towards the dancing Zhen Ye and his feathered serpent illusion.
None of the other people present could determine an exact reason why this was happening, but some people did notice the bits of saliva dripping out of the mouths of some of the Ravager Otters.
It was highly possible that Zhen Ye was using the fact that Ravager Otters loved to eat snakes as a means of luring them in same manner one uses a dead rabbit to catch wolves.
Luring them to what exactly was…unclear.
“Wait a minute…”
As entranced as most people and otters were at Zhen Ye’s strange serpent dance, those with cooler heads and shorter attention spans realized something important, none of them were being attacked anymore.
“The Ravager Otters aren’t attacking us anymore…ey yo! Everyone not in a safe zone, get your asses moving now!”
“Somebody grab Zhen Tai and Zhen-She Yang, now!”
Spurred to action by these cooler heads, the rest of the carvaners were quickly extracted from their dangerous positions and we’re brought to safety. Meaning that as of this moment, the entire fleet of caravan rafts were empty, save for a few subjects of interest.
First, a pack of Ravager Otters entranced by the illusion of a dancing feathered serpent.
Second, Zhen Ye who was still maintaining his first and strangest performance in his life.
Last, but certainly not least, a certain mammoth-based ice puppet.
A mammoth-based ice puppet that had been holding back a giant ball of lighting this entire time, so that the carvaners that were originally behind him could escape to safety.
And now, thanks to a certain dancing snake man, everybody had escaped to safety at this point.
Meaning…
“Zhen Liu! Drop the ice shield, now!,” Zhen Ye shouted out with his aether. He didn’t know where his puppeteering nephew was, but he was sure as shit that he was going to hear that shout at least.
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“Zhen Liu! Drop the ice shield, now!”
“Wait, what?!”
At this point in time, Zhen Liu was still standing at the same spot at which he blasted his Sixth Uncle in the back with a Razorstella Possesstol round, because he was curious as to how and what the bladed kaijin would do to influence his uncle
Zhen Liu had not expected the dance number, but he probably should’ve seen that coming given the kaijin he used.
However, he didn’t expect his uncle to suggest something as suicidal at letting dragon force lightning hit his position, so he had words to share with Razorstella.
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‘Razor, what fuck, I already have one kaijin acting suicidally reckless, why are you?’
[Don’t look at me director. The dancing was my doing, but the shield drop is all on him. He thinks he can escape this plan unscathed.]
‘Wait, what? How?’
[Well…]
