Chapter 635: Fighting for real
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Zhen Liu and Ren Jin Yan had been teleported to their designated arena almost simultaneously.
Just like yesterday, the two of them had a couple of seconds to talk before the actual fighting began.
A part of Zhen Liu had expected that Ren Jin Yan would’ve attempted to continue the conversation he had started yesterday from back when they ran into each other, but thankfully that didn’t happen. Instead, he just had to deal with small talk.
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Small talk that just turned awkward.
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Unfortunately, it didn’t really work. In response to Zhen Liu’s weakass attempt at deflection, Ren Jin Yan shot him an oddly cute look that screamed judgemental.
Wait…why did Zhen Liu find another guy’s expressions cute?
‘Godsdamn androgyny,’ Zhen Liu thought to himself as he shook the previous thought out of his head.
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At this point, Zhen Liu’s expression became a touch more serious as he could feel Ren Jin Yan’s aether starting to climb and his attitude a touch more aggressive.
And as if the universe was approving of this behavior, the countdown for the fight to beging started at that exact same moment.
<{"THE FIGHT WILL BEGIN IN THREE..."}>
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<{"TWO..."}>
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<{"ONE..."}>
‘And maybe I’ll finally find someone in my generation who I can call an equal.’
<{"FIGHT!"}>
[Crescent Slash!]
As if a fire was lit under his ass, Ren Jin Yan immediately went rushing towards Zhen Liu, swinging his sword at his neck with a Corporeal grade aether art all ready to go.
This moment appeared to be a repeat of the last time someone tried to take a blade to Zhen Liu’s neck, but there was a massive difference between that previous attempt and this current one.
The previous attempt was a simple aether art that used normal aether from a normal assassin type fighter. This current attempt, however, was being done by a warrior who made use of dragon force. In other words, Zhen Liu would be in for a bad time if he summoned a zako or kaijin to tank the blow for him and an even worse time if he tried to block the attack with his bare body.
‘Fuck!’
Meaning, for the first time in a while, Zhen Liu had to make use of the [Veteran’s Demon Bone club] in an actual fight and not just when he practices with that Damned Drunkard.
‘Let’s hope I remember what I’m doing…’
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*Bing-Bong*
In order to better convey how this fight goes, the perspective of the battle will be changed to that of a completely outside point of view, while the language indicators will be just standard quotation marks.
Thank you.
*Bing-Bong*
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*CLANG!*
“Oh?”
“Hah!”
From his hips, Zhen Liu drew forth his [Veteran’s Demon Bone Club] and used it to block Ren Jin Yan’s slashing attack.
The bone club turned out to be sturdier than expected, because it didn’t just block Ren Jin Yan’s attack, but it also caused his sword to bounce off of it.
“Step off!”
[Scale Guard!]
*BAM!*
Using the momentarily stun created by Ren Jin Yan’s sword bouncing off of his club, Zhen Liu decided to press the advantage and use a side kick in order to create some distance between himself and Ren Jin Yan. This ended up working, but he couldn’t do much damage as he wanted due to Ren Jin Yan throwing up a defensive aether art moments before getting kicked in the stomach.
Once this distance was created however, Zhen Liu took this opportunity to summon forth some of his “puppets”.
“Come and dance you two!,” Zhen Liu shouted as he pulled off of his off hand a red jade bracelet and a metal ring that seemed a bit too jagged to be comfortable to wear and threw them both into the air towards Ren Jin Yan.
While the accessories were airborne, Zhen Liu channeled aether into them and activated them, causing the two accessories to glow with power moments before exploding midair.
“Whoa!”
*Groan…*
*Click!*
“You wanted me to hold nothing back, right?! Well, this is me not holding back!”
From the smoke appeared two distinctive looking aether puppets that were in very sharp contrast not only to each other but to the ones that Zhen Liu had summoned yesterday, namely due to them looking significantly more humanoid.
From the bracelet came forth a demonic looking warrior woman made of black and red jade with a fierce, mouthless visage. As soon it appeared, its fists began to glow with the same color as burning lava and radiate heat so potent that the air around it began to form mirage lines.
From the ring in the other hand appeared a strange mechanical woman that seemed to be modeled after a ballerina, a type of elegant dancer commonly associated with the icey regions that made up the boarders between Roaring Tide and Soaring Gryphon. However, unlike those elegant dancers, this mechanical ballerina had large blades for legs, that when looked at the right angle, seemed to mimic a starry night sky.
Either one of these two puppets could be considered magnificent pieces of art, due to their strange yet beautiful designs. However, to those one their receiving end of their violent machinations, these two puppets would be more like something straight out of one’s own nightmares.
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[I go left, you go right. Alright?]
[No problem!]
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“Oh ho! Now things are getting interesting!,” Ren Jin Yan shouted as he looked over the two puppets that were rushing towards him in a pincer maneuver. He could sense that both of the puppets were well pass the power of a standard Bronze tier aether puppet, but by how much, he wasn’t entirely sure.
All he knew for certain was that if he didn’t block or counterattack, he’d be in trouble…a thought that made him grin wide.
“If we’re showing off our respective skills, then allow me to show you something absolutely absurd! [Mountain Dragon Shield!]”
“Growl…”
Instead of lashing out at the encroaching puppets or even attempting to get out of the way, Ren Jin Yan took a very different approach and held his sword in front of himself, bringing the hilt to eye level and pumping the blade full of dragon force.
In response to this massive influx of energy, a green colored jewel in the sword’s hilt began to glow with a bright light moments before releasing an energy construct that took the shape of a large, Mountain Crusher Brute Dragon that surrounded Ren Jin Yan’s form and blocked the coordinated puppet attack!
“What the fuck?!”
The demonic jade puppet’s fiery fist impacted the dragon construct first, causing the heat to simply disapate across it’s massive surface, while the starry blade dancer puppet’s sword leg spin simply scraped across it’s hide.
With their coordinated assault failing, the two aether puppets proceeded to bounce back towards their puppeteer to try and prepare for another attack.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t going to be that easy.
[Mountain Dragon’s Charge!]
“GROOOAAA!”
Sensing the opportunity to counterattack, Ren Jin Yan thrusted her sword forward and launched the dragon construct, that was previously acting like her shield, towards Zhen Liu like it was a giant dragon shaped cannonball.
“You gonna dodge or block it?!”
“Neither!”
“What?”
*BAM*
“WHAT?!”
When Ren Jin Yan launched his attack, he had expected Zhen Liu to either roll out of the way or summon yet another puppet to try and block the attack.
Instead, Zhen Liu took his bone club in both hands and swung it directly at dragon shaped construct’s head.
And what happened next, blew his freaking mind.
[Aether Out!]
*THWACK!*
“Are you kidding me?!”
In a moment he had to see in order to believe, Zhen Liu used his [Veteran’s Demon Bone Club] to deflect his attack back at him.
Zhen Liu for his part looked rather proud of his achievement and even taunted Ren Jin Yan as he did so.
“Turnabout, baby! You gonna dodge or block?!”
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‘HOLY FUCK THAT ACTUALLY WORKED!’
<=YOU DID THAT WITHOUT EVEN KNOWING IF IT WOULD?!=>
‘HEAT OF THE MOMENT!’
