Chapter 791: New opponent, who this?
‘Screamira, intercept!’
[Don’t have to tell me twice.]
[THANK YOU, SCREAMIE!]
[There has to be a better nickname for me!]
________________________________________
*Bing-Bong*
If it wasn’t made completely obvious, Mad Ink was Jasper’s stage name, while Janices’ stage name was Mad Stitch.
Thank you.
…
Seriously?
|It’s either I doubt the literacy abilities of my readers or I get complaints about leaving plot holes.|
Then write better and keep better notes of your own plot!
|Screw off!|
*Bing-Bong*
________________________________________
“Dammit!”
“You’re not going anywhere. Ha!”
Despite wanting to intervene, Hurricroak was stuck with having to deal Olstenna, who had opted to engage in melee with the disguised frog kaijin so that his own attack could charge at the children unimpeded.
[Chaos Stitch: Plushadillo!]
[Chaos Paint:Nautilus Guard!]
Despite being surprised by the sudden attack being aimed in their direction though, Jasper and Janice managed to react fast enough to throw up some quick defensive measures.
In the blink of an eye, a giant plushie in the shape of an armadillo and a living painting of a large nautilus appeared before the two children in an attempt to block the charging construct of flames.
Unfortunately, this would turn out to be a rather bad idea as both Jasper and Janices’ respective abilities were bad match-ups against Olstennas’ purple flames.
“We gotta try and intercept it!”
“Right!”
As the triceratops shaped construct came charging in, Jasper attempted to manipulate the tentacles of his nautilus painting into smashing the flaming beast into pieces while Janice willed her plushie armadillo into rolling straight at it.
*Fwoosh!*
*Fwoosh!*
“Oh no!”
“My plushie!”
As soon as the tentacles of the nautilus made contact, the ink composing it’s form evaporated into nothingness. As soon as the plushie armadillo made contact, the fibers burned into ashes and smoke.
The flaming triceratops continues to charge at the children, undeterred by the latter’s attempt to defend themselves and the smoke that resulted from their failed attempts in defending themselves.
“Oh no!”
“Big bro!”
“Cover your ears!”
“Huh?!”
On the plus side though, the children’s attempt to defend themselves had provided Screamira with just enough smoke to keep herself hidden and just enough time to get in front of the two of them.
“AAAAAAHHHHH!”
Before the triceratops of flames could charge into the children and kaijin, Screamira proceeded to let loose a powerful, aether enhanced scream that caused the burning construct to explode into a burst of smoke and heat.
The sudden explosion has mitigated most of the damage that would’ve occurred, but had the downside of filling the entire arena with enough smoke to blind nearly everybody. Granted, to a certain young warrior and a certain disguised frog, this smokescreen was an overt blessing.
________________________________________
[Oh thank Chaos for the smokescreen! This Ignarii guy is fucking nuts.]
[Construct destroyed, manager! Extracting kids now!]
‘Excellent! Looks like it’s time for me to get involved then…man it’s been awhile since I actually had to use this.’
[It’s only been a few weeks, though.]
‘Statment stands.’
Obfuscated by smoke and hidden in a corner, Zhen Liu proceeded to concentrate his aether and [Chaos] into the shape of the [MY Driver]. Once it had fully manifested, he double checked to make sure he was pulling on the right lever before doing so.
Once he did, ominous sounding music that was significantly heavier on the brass and percussion instrumentals began to play.
|MY Driver! Maoh, standby!|
From his belt came forth a demonic looking shadow that vaguely looked like a stereotypical demon king from fantasy novels.
Once Zhen Liu let the song play out for a bit more, he pulled the lever once more.
|MAOH MODE, ENGAGE!|
|Desire leads to Vice. Vice leads to villainy. All hail the king of desire, the master of vice and lord of villainy! All hail the MAOH!|
‘So I have both a hero drive and villain driver rolled into one…why does that sound familiar?’
As this thought played through Zhen Liu’s head, the demonic looking shadow proceeded to merge with Zhen Liu.
Jet-black pieces or armor then began to manifest upon Zhen Liu’s body, giving him a decidedly more…demonic looking aesthetic.
All he needed was a large cape and an equally intimidating weapon to complete the look.
Once the armor was fully manifested, Zhen Liu began to psych himself up for a slugfest.
‘Alright, all I need to do is go out there, kick that asshole into next week and possibly extract some answers from if-wait a minute…fuck!’
However, just as Zhen Liu was all excited to get fighting, he realized something rather important. He would technically have to go out there, completely unarmed.
The reason being: his cousins were watching.
And to add to this miserable realization, Zhen Liu couldn’t ask Logos and Pathos for advice on what to do at the moment, because they were deep diving into who or what this Olstenna was exactly. That or they were screwing with him, both were very real possibilities.
‘If I use either my bone club or my hammer, there is a very high possibility of them noticing that the big bad demonic looking motherfucker out there is actually their cousin, and I am nowhere near emotionally ready to-‘
[…!]
‘Huh? What’s that?’
Luckily for him, the [Hammer of the Dearly Departed] started acting up.
[…]
‘You want me to…smash you into the bone club? Why?’
[…]
‘Oh. Oh! Yeah, that tracks.’
[…]
‘Oh hush. A lot has happened since now and then. I can’t help it if I forget some things. Now…let’s do this thing.’
Before going out and fighting Olstenna to the possible death, Zhen Liu proceeded to draw both his [Veteran’s Bone Club] and [Hammer of the Dearly Departed], and began to channel his aether and [Chaos] into the latter.
An eerie green glow began to radiate from the hammer as it became saturated with Zhen Liu’s weird brand of energy.
‘I really hope this works…’
*Clang!*
Once the hammer was fully saturated, Zhen Liu slammed it into the bone club, causing a sudden surge in power…
________________________________________
“Fuck off! [Thunder Hop!]”
“Bah!”
Thanks to Screamira’s scream causing an impromptu smoke bomb of epic proportions, Olstenna was distracted enough that Hurricroak was able to disengage from the Ignarii warrior and disappear from his field of view.
A part of her wanted to continue fighting, but the other part of her knew that this was technically a bad match up for her.
As for Olstenna himself, he was feeling rather indignant.
‘Blasted kaijin! How dare they disrespect this challenge by running-huh?’
Just as he was about to complain about being snubbed by his opponents, Olstenna sensed a sudden surge in energy near him.
‘Another kaijin? No… there’s something…more to it.’
It felt exactly like the weird energy that the kaijin were known for, but Olstenna could also sense the slightest hints of death aether being mixed in as well.
‘What in the-‘
[Imperial Crusher!]
‘Whoa!’
Olstenna was just about to go and investigate who or what the source of this strange energy mix was, until that exact same mix of energy was fired at him in the form of an energetic slash that seemed to scream like a banshee.
Olstenna managed to jerk his head out of the way at the last minute, but the attack still managed to leave a nasty, necrotic looking cut on his face…and a very large hole in the arena walk behind him.
A magical smile began to form on his face, as he realized that this might be the challenge he was hoping for.
[Impressive. I’m surprised you managed to dodge that attack at the last second. Not many people are able to detect it,] a surprisingly deep voice commented from beyond Olstennas’ vision.
Something about this voice caused Olstenna’s skin to feel unnaturally chill, as if some specter of pure terror was calling out to his very soul. That said, this feeling of fear wasn’t enough to stifle his excitement in the least bit.
[Where I’m from,] Olstenna addressed the voice in kaijin-speak, [they told tales of ancient, monstrous warriors whose very existence was an affront to the Will of Heaven. That they were natural disasters in humanoid form.]
[An apt description, I’d say.]
[They called these warriors, the kaijin. Is it safe to assume that you’re also one of these fabled warriors of the damned?]
[Hmmm. Close.]
[Close?]
Before any further conversation could take place a sudden surge in energy occurred once more, blowing away the surrounding smoke in an instant.
Olstenna, instinctually, shielded his eyes at the sudden surge of power, forcing himself to look away. Once the wind had stopped, however, he was given a chance to see who exactly he was addressing.
[Well…you look a lot more like how I imagined the legends to be.]
Standing before Olstenna was an imposing figure dressed in a strange black armor that shined like oil and tar. The warrior’s head was decorated with a pair of golden horns that seemed to curve into a crown-like structure, while in his hands was a massive great axe that appeared to be made of bone.
Running his senses over the figure, Olstenna could confirm that this guy was the source of that attack.
[Your legends forget to mention one important detail,] the black armored warrior said before Olstenna could get a sentence in.
[That those damned warriors swear to fealty to exactly one figure…me.]
With those words of challenge, the warrior lifted the great axe with one hand and pointed it at Olstenna.
[You have the honor of challenging the Kaijin Lord. Please, make it worth my while.]
