Chapter 702: A shark by any other name, bites just as hard
[Y’all remember where he stuffed that mirror right?]
[Funky…ring…in…box…]
[Box’s got a seal, but I think we got this.]
[Hold up…]
As the hidden kaijin descended on Zhen Jun Yao’s room like a swarm of colorfully collectable locusts, Spring Brawler paused for a moment to stare at a spot on the floor. More specifically, Spring Brawler was staring at a footprint that was left behind as Zhen Jun Yao left his room.
[Hey…this is gonna sound weird, but do you know which direction the ringmaster is relative to our own?]
[I…think it’s…that way,] Hurricroak gestured in a vague direction that just so happened to be in the direction of the footprint that Spring Brawler was staring at.
[Well…that can’t be a coincidence…I’m gonna go follow this. Y’all got the box?]
[Yeah, yeah. Go, go.]
With the go-ahead given, Spring Brawler left the room and went into pursuit of Zhen Jun Yao’s tracks.
[I can sense the ringmaster is close, but I can’t communicate with him…freaking hate pocket spaces…]
Speaking of pocket spaces…
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‘Did…did you guys know that would happen when-‘
<=Only partially.=>
‘Of course…’
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“What the hell…”
“That’s…new…”
“How is she doing that?”
“Told you that it was the best of the lot,” Zhen Liu said with a hint of forced smugness.
Honestly, Zhen Liu had no idea how Zhen Yue’s aether would react with the [Belt of the Mother Bear]. All he knew was that Logos and Pathos made a suggestion, and that their suggestions never steered him wrong before.
Granted, he wasn’t expecting giant totemic versions of a bear, a pangolin, an owl, a jaguar and a rabbit, made of moon aether, to be mingling with one another while a literal moon maiden channeled their spirits like something out of a folk tale. On the plus side, he could detect that whatever was going on was beneficial to his cousin.
“Is…is Zhen Yue okay, or-”
“Wait, look. Those weird animal totem things are starting to go away.
Under the curious yet shocked gazes of the branch clan scions, the totemic animals began to disappear into Zhen Yue, one by one, like genies returning to their bottles. Zhen Yue, for her part, was entirely conscious while this unusual event played out. She was, however, rendered silent because she felt that such a moment required silence.
Once the last of the animals had disappeared, Zhen Yue was left standing there, cradling the [Belt of the Mother Bear] in her arms while a strange look was evident in her eyes. It was the kind of eyes that someone would gain after seeing something…mind blowing.
The others were just about to ask if that belt was the aether treasure she was going to take, all they got in response was a singular word.
“Mine.”
“Okay…,” Zhen Guo nodded while leaning back a bit from the now slightly feral Zhen Yue. She was probably going to recover once they got out of this vault, but for now, she was acting like a wild dog.
“Who wants to try and-”
“My turn!”
“Yeah, that’s fair. Go for it, Zhen Hai!”
Excited over the fact that his cousin got an incredibly powerful aether treasure on basically her first try, Zhen Hai was more than ready to knock the socks off of everyone in the room by grabbing an aether treasure that was even stronger.
“Alright, so circulate aether into my hands like this and…fire!”
Copying Zhen Yue’s movements, but achieving different results, Zhen Hai released a pulse of aether that carried with it, the scent of the sea and the smallest hint of ozone. The sound of thunder could be heard, echoing throughout the space.
“Huh…I was expecting another corona,” Zhen Xing commented.
The pulse traveled through the entirety of the void-like space, causing several of the star-like aether treasures to react, but not in a manner that would suggest movement towards Zhen Hai’s direction. The pulse eventually died down and the chamber returned to being silent.
Not a single one of the distant stars began to move in Zhen Hai’s direction after this pulse had died out. Needless to say, Zhen Hai was a bit disappointed at sight of none of the aether treasures even slightly inching towards his direction.
“Really? Is that it? I figured at least one of those stars would-”
*ROAR!*
“Ai! What in the nine hells?!”
For all of five seconds.
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‘What the fuck was that?!’
=So do I. Milord, you may want to take a step back from Zhen Hai at this moment.=
‘But…I’m already like ten feet away from him?’
<=Not far enough.=>
‘Oh, come on…’
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The branch clan scions were stunned at the sudden roar that echoed out in the chamber, but also curious as to what kind of crazy aether treasure could produce such a terrible sound.
ROAR!
From a distant point in the void of stars, a blue and yellow point of light became brighter and bigger by the second, a clear sign that it was approaching at a rapid pace. Once it got close enough though, the scions couldn’t believe their eyes.
Rushing towards them at a breakneck speed, was an ancient looking shark monster that seemed to be the embodiment of a living storm cloud.
“Is…is that a giant shark?!”
“Not sure, but it appears to be made of concentrated aether, like some kind of phantom or a sentient aether art!”
“First a council of animals, and now a shark. Is this going to happen with all of our treasures?”
“I don’t know, but we need to clear away now, because it’s coming right at us!”
“OH SHIT!”
Sensing the imminent danger coming from the shark-shaped storm cloud of rage and death, most of the branch clan scions decided to embrace caution, aka the better part of valor, and get out of its line of sight.
The only one who didn’t move was Zhen Hai, because he was embracing the worst part of valor: recklessness.
“Oh ho ho ho!,” Zhen Hai laughed as he saw the encroaching shark cloud. “I got a really, really good feeling about this one! I got no idea what kind treasure you might be, but I’m gonna enjoy kicking your teeth in and making you mine!”
The funny thing about this observation of Zhen Hai’s, was that Zhen Liu had no idea either. When he tried to use the little trick Logos and Pathos taught him, all see was that this storm shark wasn’t the actual body of the treasure, but a technique that the treasure could be used for, called: [Shark Tooth: Stormthresher].
Zhen Hai took on a fighting stance while floating in the direct line of the cloud shark’s path. None of the others knew if he was preparing for an attack or counterattack in this moment, but they could feel the excitement and aether radiating off their elder cousin like a torch in the night. They had no idea whether to think of this moment as being comforting or worrying.
Regardless of their feelings, the moment of truth arrived as the storm cloud shark was now a mere ten feet away from Zhen Hai, making it now obvious that the cloud in question was at least six times his size.
Most people would cower in fear at this type of moment, staring into the certain doom that came in the form of a mouth big enough to swallow someone whole. But, Zhen Hai was not most people.
At the sight of the encroaching shark shaped storm cloud, Zhen Hai’s smile grew wider. Because in his eyes, he saw something that could only be seen when facing down the maw of a monster such as this.
An obvious weakpoint.
Zhen Hai didn’t even bother to say anything as he sprung into action, rushing towards the maw of the storm cloud shark and then rolling to the side at the last minute in order to use the momentum of the incoming shark to his advantage.
The branch clan scions were stunned at the sheer recklessness of Zhen Hai’s actions, only to be awestruck by the way he nimbly dodged certain death. However, he wasn’t done yet.
As soon as Zhen Hai was at the tail end of the storm shark, he struck out his hand and grabbed directly at the tail fin. However, instead of grabbing a fistful of storm clouds, Zhen Hai grabbed what appeared to be a handle made of rich, solid wood.
Once his hand was on this wooden handle, the shark made of storm clouds jerked as if it was a relatively shark being pulled by the tail.
“Now, I’m pretty sure you and I are going to get along quite swimmingly,” Zhen Hai addressed the shark related aether treasure, “but you’re going to need to behave yourself. Otherwise, you’ll get one of these!”
In the moments after these words were said, the branch clans scions soon learned that it was possible to slam someone or something against the vacuum of space.
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[Alright, you sneaky bastard. Where are you heading exactly?]
