Chapter 638: Enemies, both natural and made
Zhen Hai vs. Alvis de Howlite: Hoof Speech
[Megalodon Thrash!]
[Desert’s Distortion: Sand Shark Thrash!]
“Quit copying me!”
“Haha! This is fun!”
On opposite sides of a square arena, two young warriors fired off very similar looking techniques at the same time, that collided into each other with incredible force.
On one side was Zhen Hai, a Stampeding Bison born Roaring Tider with an Aqaurii affinity formula known as [Abyssal King’s Grace]. In this moment, he fired off a giant shark made of aether-condensed water. This move had become his go-to after it had been provided by Zhen Liu’s mysterious master, since it was just so unusually compatible with Zhen Hai.
Meanwhile on the other side was Alvis de Howlite, a young nobleman from the Crystal Blossom Kingdom of House Howlite, with a Terraqi formula known as [Sculpting Sandstorm]. In response to Zhen Hai’s shark attack, Alvis had basically done a near perfect recreation of it as a means to counter it.
This strange reflective back and forth gone for quite some time, to the point that Zhen Hai was starting to lose his cool. Well, more so than how he loses cool.
“If this is how you defeated my uncle, I would honestly be impressed…at how weak he actually turned out to be.”
“I…what?!”
“Wait…I think I’m crossing memories again…was it my distant uncle or distant cousins that destroyed by a Zhen Clan…,” Alvis thought aloud while scratching his head. “Ah! Now I remember, it was my distant cousins you defeated! Or maybe not?”
It also didn’t help that Alvis was unintentionally provoking the man with every other sentence that came out of his mouth.
A part of Zhen Hai assumed that Alvis was doing this on purpose, intentionally angering one’s opponent was a tactic he and his cousin both enjoyed using themselves after all. However, the way the man said everything with this strangely sincere tone, gave off the impression that he was completely unaware about how infuriating his statements were.
Alvis de Howlite was, in essence, the type to run their mouth despite the hole it dug them.
“Wait…,” Alvis suddenly paused as he realized there was now a lull in the battle. “Maybe…I have you confused with a different Zhen man?”
“Zhen man?”
“Hey, are you actually a member of the Zhen Clan here? Or a member of the Zhen Clan from Stone Claw City?”
“Huh?!”
The moment Zhen Hai heard that particular name coming out of Alvis’s mouth, his hairs began to stand on end.
“My servant, my tutors and my parents all told me that we had some super distant relatives that were living in a frontier city called Stone Claw,” Alvis explained, completely unaware of Zhen Hai’s growing discomforted. “Apparently, they were going to try and claim the place as their own little fiefdom. I would’ve called it a kingdom, but it’s too small of a place for a fancy title like that.”
“You don’t say…,” Zhen Hai trailed off while creating a little more distance between himself and Alvis. He had no idea if the man had anything else up his sleeves other than copying whatever he did, but if he did, Zhen Hai wanted as much space as possible for his next move.
Luckily for him, Alvis just kept running his mouth without bothering to notice Zhen Hai’s actions in the slightest. Whether this was a testament to his confidence, assuredness of his skills or he was just plain stupid was completely up for debate. Regardless of what the reason may have been, the man just kept talking like there was no tomorrow.
“But they failed to do so,” Alvis continued in a tone that suggested sadness and pity, “they had thought they were the local hegemons because one of their leaders broke through to the Overlord rank and assumed he could just dominate everybody through brute force. Which should’ve worked, but…”
As Alvis trailed off on this sentence, he directed a strange gaze towards Zhen Hai, one that reminded the latter of a child staring at a pet animal that had caught his interest in the worst ways possible.
“But then they got defeated by their rivals, the Zhen Clan. So tell me, Zhen Hai, are you a member of the Zhen Clan that defeated my surprisingly weak cousins, or are you the member of the Zhen clan that I’ve come to curry favor with?”
At this question, Zhen Hai took up a boxing stance and began to circulate his aether in such a way that the floor beneath his feet began to freeze over.
“How about I just show you which! [Echoing Frost]!”
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[Director, shit is about to get really spicy up in here! I can feel the curtain calling for me, holy shit!]
‘I know Razorstella, I know. Spring Brawler, pull her out! Frosttusk, ice that kitty!’
[At once, ringmaster!]
[Aye…minn…jarl…]
‘And once you two are done, attack!’
[Of course!]
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“Burn for me!,” Ren Jin Yan shouted as the flame construct shaped into a dragon-jaguar hybrid, flew directly at the bladed ballerina puppet and was just about to turn the delicate looking killer into molten slag.
“Don’t think so!,” Zhen Liu shouted in response as he threw down two more accessories, one being a mammoth tusk earring and the other a ring with a spring-like design, and summoned two more puppets in a great cloud of smoke and aether.
*BWUM!*
*VUUUUU!*
“What the fu-you can summon even more puppets?!”
Just as the bladed ballerina was about to get hit, a large metal hand attached to a massive spring appeared out of nowhere and pulled the ballerina puppet out of the line of fire. A part of Ren Jin Yan thought this action seemed unnecessary, weren’t aether puppets supposed to take hits and sometimes get destroyed in the process?
Moments after this has happened, a loud vacuuming sound started to occur and seemingly redirecte it towards a different direction entirely before it got unceremoniously absorbed by a giant of a puppet that had this metallic cyan sheen to it and a viking mammoth asthethic going on. Ren Jin Yan stared at the giant puppet, noticing something about it that caused her to feel uneasy…until the realization hit over the head like a sack of bricks.
“Wait, this feeling…Fenririte?!”
It took a moment for Ren Jin Yan to realize that these two events were the result of two more aether puppets being summoned, and just like the last pair, these newer more masculine looking puppets looked incredibly distinct from each other, as if they were made by different designers.
*Wug-wug.*
*Pao…*
The one that appeared out of nowhere and “rescued” the bladed ballerina puppet was this strange, almost clown looking puppet with springs subsitutiong its arms and legs and heavy looking hands and feet. Ren Jin Yan wasn’t entirely sure why, but they could swear they feel this particular puppet staring at them up and down, as if it making plans and methods to defeat them. An absolutely silly motion since aether puppets can’t think like that at all. Hell, they couldn’t even think.
The new puppet that made Ren Jin Yan feel uneasy however was this strange viking shaped into a mamnoth-like giant complete with leather and furred bits to make the thing look even more lifelike. The reason for their unlease was the fact that this particular puppet was made from Fenririte, an extremely rare metal known for its hardness and ability to absorb heat.
“Wait a minute…”
Actually, now that Ren Jin Yan thought about it, all of Zhen Liu’s puppets so far had either been made from mundane materials or straight up treasured materials that would cause most other people they knew to go crazy with jealousy. Hell, they were feeling a touch jealous that Zhen Liu could somehow afford to make puppets out of these materials!
Of course, Ren Jin Yan didn’t exactly have time to think about such things when there was a battle going on.
“Get ’em!”
*Sproing!*
*PAOOOO!*
Under Zhen Liu’s direction, the spring-limbed clown puppet and the mammoth viking puppet proceeded to charge towards Ren Jin Yan with reckless abandon.
To be more precise though, the spring-limbed puppet had used the weight of its fist to launch itself upward before launching its feet upward in order to perform an incredibly deadly axe kick, while the mammoth-man puppet had released a vicious amount of cold air that froze the floor beneath it and used it to slide towards Ren Jin Yan, as if it was compensating for its large size and slow movement by using intricate means to move about faster.
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‘Wait a minute, Frosttusk, when did you learn how to do that trick?’
[Borrowed a…comic book…from Pathos. Learned some…tricks for my ice. Like…this!]
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*Pao…*
As the viking mammoth puppet got closer and closer to Ren Jin Yan, it began to release a steady stream of cold and made a war hammer out of ice appear in its hands.
In coordination with the spring clown, the viking mammoth began to swing horizontally.
“Oh what the fuck?!,” Ren Jin Yan cursed as they realized they were being pincered.
However, in a sight that seemed to contradict this cursing, Ren Jin Yan was smiling like a loon.
“How am I supposed to counter this?!,” they seemed to laugh.
