Chapter 510: (Good/Bad) Touch
Meanwhile, at another part of camp away from Zhen Liu’s steamy situation…
“So…any particular reason why we’re roasting this damn thing over a spit instead of like…making it into a stew?,” Zhen Lao asked his brother Zhen Xi as he continued to cook one of the Ravager Otters they were preparing for dinner, “I feel like it would be less…unsettling.”
Like several of the others members of the caravan, the Zhen Clan branch elders thought it was a worthwhile plan to prepare some of the slain Ravager Otters for dinner that very evening.
As such, the Fourth Elder Zhen Xi took it upon himself to help prepare the meat, due to having experience handling otter meat before.
On a side note though, the worry of the Third Elder of the Zhen branch clan was well warranted given that fact that the aforementioned roasting Ravager Otters still had a very angry look on its face.
The sharp stick coming out of its mouth and the eyeballs not being removed for some reason, didn’t help either.
“Seriously, I think our dinner is trying to curse me to death, while in death.”
Zhen Xi for his part just rolled his eyes at his brothers comments while focusing on the task at hand.
“Yes we have to roast the damn thing,” Zhen Xi confirmed, “any other preparation methods and Ravager Otter meat goes from a tasty meal that just needs the right seasoning to a…gift for newly weds and childless couples. That or a tasteless mess…”
“A gift for-oh.”
Zhen Lao had a shocked look on his face as he just learned that the meat they were going to eat tonight doubled as an aphrodisiac under the right circumstances.
However, this shocked look soon gave way to a perplexed one as a single question popped into Zhen Lao’s head.
“Wait…why do you know this? I thought the most relevant thing you’ve prepped in this regard was Desert Otter meat. Which…now that I think about it, you boiled that batch for hotpot…”
“Well…yeah,” Zhen Xi agreed, “because the one time I did roast it, I ended up spending an entire day with Lon Lon in bed. That’s actually how Zhen Feng was conceived.”
“Too much information.”
“Right, anyways,” Zhen Xi continued, “it was after that little incident that I read up on Otter type aether beasts for a spell and learned about how otter aether beasts across the continents had different prep conditions for food or aphrodisiac usage. As much fun as that evening was, rather not go through such an affair again if I ever had to eat otter meat again. Like right now.”
“Huh…”
Zhen Lao and Zhen Xi was silent as the former mentally digested this new information.
“So…how common is this knowledge known to people?,” Zhen Lao asked.
“That…”
But before Zhen Xi could answer…
“Gods I am hot!”
“Yes you are!”
“Hey! We should totally wrestle! Lemme ditch my shirt first…”
The sound of several dozen yells, moans and everything in-between suddenly echoed across the camp.
Evidently, the sources of those exclamations thought it was a really good idea to make Ravager Otter hotpot.
Zhen Xi just let out a sigh at that sound and said as plainly as possible, “there’s your answer.”
“Huh…should we do something about that? Feels like this could cause more delays to the trip…,” Zhen Lao asked as he counted the sources of shouting. There weren’t too many, but there were enough that it made the whole thing worrisome.
“Well…depending on the situation, I’m pretty sure nothing will happen except maybe some high intensity wrestling matches…but if you are worried in anyone in particular, just grab a bucket of water and…”
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“Scatter!”
“Look out!”
“Duck…”
Despite having basically born for battle and tempered further by all the battles they’ve been through, it was surprisingly tricky for the kaijn to dodge the strange being’s attack.
This was due to the fact that while they could visually see this being move and act, their bodies failed to recognize anything akin to movement coming off it. If anything, it was like trying to pick up the movements of a hologram that could only become physical when in contact with someone or something.
“D’aww! What’s wrong?,” the textureless being called out as her rush attack failed to make contact with any targets. She would’ve just swiped at empty and air probably fall over, but in a surprising show of grace, the being proceeded to turn her miss into a whole necessary cartwheel turn flip landing, entering the oh-so famous superhero landing.
As her hand dragged across the floor to slow her movement, a strange phenomena began to occur.
Wherever the textureless succubus’s fingers touched, the stone began to flicker as if they were actually projections on a screen.
This effect only lasted for a brief second though before returning to normal.
“Don’t you want to experience the sensual touch of a…of a…hmmm. I’m not an abomination…”
Being caught up in this sudden mood shift from combat readiness to introspective thoughts, the kaijin and Pathos couldn’t help but provide their own suggestions to the unusual being on what to call her.
Hopefully this was a one time encounter and they would never have to deal with whatever this was ever again, but they still needed to label this thing, just in case.
“A specter?”
“No, I am fully tactile.”
“A glitch?”
“Tsk! This isn’t cyberspace.”
“A parasite?”
“Oooh, that’s close…”
“There we go!,” the textureless being accepted with a happy smile and snap of her semi-existent fingers, “but I think I prefer the term…Parasinner.”
After fully accepting this label, the parasinner proceeded to stand up straight, arms spread out as a weird distortion began to occur in the space around her hands.
“Now then, my comely compatriots, who wants to feel the pleasure of my oh so subtle touches first? Don’t worry, it’ll only tingle for a bit…at first.”
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[Yeah…I do not want to touch that,] Hurricroak pointed out.
[Agreed…]
[So how the hell do we fight her?]
Evidently, due to how serious of a threat they felt this parasinner was, the kaijin had decided to switch over to their mental communication for additional speed.
The kaijin didn’t know why, but the longer they stared at the weird distortions forming around the parasinner’s, the more and more nervous they became.
Every instinct in their cores told them that this parasinner and her bad touch could threaten their very existence, or at the very least, it was something that would fundamentally change who they were and not in a good way.
[Y’all think ranged attacks might work?,] Hurricroak asked, [she might not really have a body but maybe if we angle it right, we can hit the core? If she has one anyways, wait no, she is one…]
[I don’t think so,] Nepherage replied, [you saw how she distorted the library’s floor with her barehands. This place is technically made of energy, so I imagine that even if we used ranged attacks, she might just deflect it or…somehow do something perverted with them.]
Pathos interjected, [Of fucking course…] [Wait, music aether arts… y’all think that stuff might work on her the same way it works on us?,] Hurricroak thought. [Worth…a…shot…,] Frosttusk supported. [What do you have in mind?,] Nepherage asked. [Well…how about a little lullaby?] _____________________________________________ “D’awww, still want to come all over me?,” The parasinner teased, “in that case, I’ll come all over you!” The parasinner rushed forward once more, ready to get her hands all over the kaijins’ bodies. (Un)fortunately, just like last time, she missed. Unlike last time though… [Swamp lullaby!] “What the-oh…” The kaijin had a counterattack in mind. As the kaijin narrowly avoided getting bad touched by the parasinner, Hurricroak proceeded to blast the textureless glitch in reality with a full frontal blast of aether enhanced music to try and sedate them. If musical aether arts caused them to act funky, surely it would have an equally if not stronger effect on a being that seemed to be predominantly [Desire Core]…right? [I think it’s working,] Nepherage observed as the parasinner suddenly stopped in place and acted as if it was about to fall asleep…however… Just as the parasinner was about to pass out, a weird fluctuation of energy occured and the parasinner suddenly perked back up and looked ready to fight once more. “Whoo! Almost fell asleep, somnophilia is fine and all, but I prefer to be an active participant.” [What the-what the fuck happened?,] the kaijin collectively thought at this sudden turn of events. None of them had sense the weird energy flux that had occurred when the parasinner was about to fall asleep, but if they had…well… _____________________________________________ ‘Huh…why am I feeling…drunk?,’ Zhen Liu thought to himself as a sensation of sleepiness suddenly overcame him. As it did though, he thoughtlessly ended up clasping his hands a bit and… “Ah!” “Ahn!” Elicited a pair of moans from a certain pair of nubile young woman that had still haven’t released his…personal dragon, from their grasp. But at this point, they might find a better way to grip it…
