Chapter 748: Rodeniatrip
*Bing-Bong*
Okay, I was wrong, this is the worst title you have ever come up with.
|Shove it, and stick to the script!|
Yeah, yeah…*ahem*.
The following is technically a bit of flashback with a majority of the narration being done via a third person POV, but with commentation from Rodenia, since she is also regaling the kaijin with this exact same story.
You’ll know it when you see it.
Thank you.
*Bing-Bong*
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“Rodenia…I love it! I never had a name before this, so this is great!”
Rodenia was apparently the name of an Aether Saint that was once a member of the Order of the Tri-Colored Serpent in their early days.
She apparently had the moniker of the “Crimson Shield”, due to how many enemies would die in an attempting to break her defenses.
The current Rodenia was thoroughly impressed by this name and embraced it wholeheartedly as her own. After that moment though, was when their adventures together truly began.
…
“We went through a lot of things together, honestly, I didn’t know travelling was so hectic!”
…
Over the course of a couple weeks, which was about the length of time the Zhen Clan was traveling to Roaring Tide, Rodenia and her two new human friends went on quite an adventure.
Well, a series of adventures.
Leon and Isa were actually in the middle of a pilgrimage to some holy site that was just pass Spider Hell, called the Serpent’s Oasis, so they asked Rodenia if she wanted to come along with them.
Their reasoning for asking was partially because she seemed like she needed a goal since she had no idea how the world fuc tion, partially because she was also the most dangerous thing they had met on this entire journey and needed some form of protection from every other dangerous thing.
Luckily for them, she said yes.
…
“I didn’t have anything better to do and the idea of seeing what was beyond the jungle pit I originally called home sounded interesting, so I agreed to go with them.”
…
The journey to the Serpent’s Oasis was mostly peaceful, due to Rodenia being able to punch out most bandits and low tier aether beasts that attempted to attack them.
This was also around the time that Rodenia learned that her favorite methods of fighting were punching and throwing. Which made a lot of sense, given that she had four huge arms and heavy looking legs.However, there were a few times they came across some strange occurrences that couldn’t be resolved by pure violence.
…
“One time, this rhino looking beast was charging straight for us and almost speared Leon like a fish, but I managed to stop it dead in its tracks by grappling it like this and slamming him into the ground like a rubber ball! I wanted to keep it’s whole head as a trophy, but they told me to just settle for the horn. Which was still cool, but I really wanted that head! Let me tell you though, that monster was a lot easier to deal with than this one guy who tried to use a hypnotic flute to con us of all our stuff. I mean…I don’t have stuff, but still!”
…
The trio eventually made it to the Serpent’s Oasis, where they discovered something that absolutely shocked and horrified Leon and Isa. Their holy site had become…a tourist destination.
…
“Well, they advertised themselves as a tourist destination, but there were like…a lot of bandits and slavers in the area, it was honestly kind of absurd even by my standards.”
…
What once a pristine, natural wonder of the world, characterized by a beautiful blue water spring, surprisingly hardy fruit trees and a small, but important shrine where the initiates of the Order of the Tri-Colored Serpent went to pay their respects; was now a shanty town of sorts called Vulture Town, that seemed to host merchants of both the normal and black market variety. Making matter worst, that aforementioned shrine had been converted into a small fortress for the guy running this show, a local bandit boss by the name of “Vulture King Joe”. Needless to say, Leon and Isa were not happy about this turn of events.
…
“Incredibly uncreative name I know, but that’s not the important part. The important was when I came to the realization, not only did I not like it when people tried to hurt my friends physically, I also didn’t like it when they got hurt emotionally. So I decided to do something about it.”
…
Instigated by the tears of frustration and pain from her human friends, Rodenia proceeded to (unknowingly) follow in the footsteps of her creator and predecessors and do something incredibly stupid.
That incredibly stupid thing being, raiding the fortress of Vulture King Joe.
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“Not gonna lie…first time I ever got injured.”
…
In the initial stages of Rodenia’s raid of the Vulture King, things went surprisingly well.
Most of the defenders were caught with their pants, both literally and metaphorically, which gave Rodenia plenty of time to go on a rampage.
A whole bunch of bandits, killers and slavers ended up crumbling after one or two punches from Rodenia’s righteous fists of fury, so much so that their leader, Vulture King Joe had to show up to try and at least stem the bleeding. If not by negotiation, then by his own brand of violence.
Which is when, for the first time in Rodenia’s new life, she actually got injured.
The Vulture King had this weird claw-like aether treasure that radiated this energy that was similar to Rodenia’s own innate energy, which he used in conjunction with this series of strange aether arts that made him almost untouchable.
During the fight, the Vulture King had raked this claw across Rodenia’s forearms, causing a nasty wound to form and greenish blood to spill.
Instead of freaking out over this realization that the Vulture King had something that could hurt her though, Rodenia actually got excited.
…
“I wasn’t entirely sure why that moment intrigued me. Maybe I was getting bored about everything not being able to touch me up until that point? Who knows!”
…
After that initial attack though, that’s when the fighting got serious.
Rodenia managed to get in a pinch just before the Vulture King landed another hit, almost caving in his chest in the process.
Aside from making him cough up some blood and maybe breaking one of his ribs, the Vulture King was still raring to go.
The two ended up in this deadly dance of sorts where one wrong move would spell certain death for one or the other.
Punch, strike, punch, strike, sudden kick and sudden grapple attempt.
The battle kept going until Rodenia decided to do something she thought was very clever at the time.
She simply stood there with her arms wide open.
…
“In retrospect, that was a really really stupid idea. My chest still hurts from that day.”
…
Perhaps influenced by bloodlust or desperation, the Vulture King took this obvious trap and tried to plunge his claw into where he assumed Rodenia’s heart was located.
This proved to be a fatal mistake.
When Vulture King Joe went in for the kill, Rodenia reacted like a giant bear trap and locked him into a massive, four armed bear hug.
With her enemy now at her mercy, Rodenia did offer the Vulture King a chance to surrender, since the alternative meant death.
The Vulture King, however, refused to surrender and had even cursed her and her friends out like a hateful man on his deathbed.
Rodenia decided to comply with the Vulture King’s death wish, not opting to do any fancy moves or striking him down in a single blow. Instead, she decided to simply…hug him.
Hard enough that everyone in Vulture Town could hear an audible popping sound.
Shortly after this bloody turn of events, Leon and Isa were able to finish their pilgrimage to the shrine and Rodenia came to an epiphany.
…
“After that moment, I sensed someone who I know realized was the coach and decided to go in the direction where I sensed him. A boat ride later and a run-in with Kit and that’s when we ended up staying here until coach arrived for real!,” Rodenia finished regaling the other kaijin. “Man, who knew storytelling could be this fun!”
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“Huh…so it sounds like y’all have been through a lot together,” Zhen Liu commented.
“It has been a wild ride, I will readily admit that,” Leon agreed while Isa nodded along. Evidently, the two of them were close enough to the point that only one of them had to speak in order to convey both of their feelings on a matter.
Zhen Liu could tell that Rodenia had found a place within the hearts of these two would-be holy people and he could see that the feeling was mutual. Of course, this got him asking one simple question.
“Why did you guys decide to tag along for Rodenia’s journey here? And don’t just say it’s because you’re her friends. I know that’s part of it, but what’s the other part?”
