Chapter 796: Demon Riot: Kaijin POV
*Bing-Bong*
We interrupt this chapter to inform the reader that this and the next two chapters will be perspective chapters of the exact event.
While it is highly recommended to read these chapters sequentially it is technically possible to read all three at once.
We now return to your regularly scheduled chapter.
Thank you.
*Bing-Bong.*
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Off to the side of the Stone Claw Arena, Hurricroak and Screamira were watching the battle between Zhen Liu and Olstenna with a surprising amount of dread in their non-existent stomachs.
[Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck,] Hurricroak muttered while pacing back and forth.
[Wait a minute, you’ve dealt with this kind of shit more times than me,] Screamira pointed out while doing her best to not get caught up in Hurricroak’s packng. [Why are you the one panicking?]
[Because I am a thousand percent not equipped enough to handle this sort of situation!,] Hurricroak readily admitted.
Hurricroak and Screamira’s original plan was to drop off the kids somewhere safe, rush back to the arena’s main fighting floor and then assist Zhen Liu in taking out, and subsequently kidnap, Olstenna the Ignarii.
However, literally moments before they could put this plan into action, something went sideways.
For reasons they didn’t understand yet, their connection to their lord suddenly went from lively and active to a bare minimum tether.
If they had to make a comparison, it was like someone had switched their Internet connection from being based on fiber optic cable to being based on dial-up. In other words, the connection slowed by a large margin and the information being exchanged between kaijin and Kaijin Lord was now extremely limited.
Thankfully, the connection the kaijin had with each other and library was still going strong. Which meant that Hurricroak could get some answered about what the fuck was going on.
[Logos, Pathos, what the fuck happened down there?!,] Hurricroak asked in a panicked tone of voice. [One minute, our lord is more or less even with this Olstenna guy, the next, he swallowed that weird ball of purple flames and is acting like a top out of hell!]
Thankfully, this was one of the few times Logos and Pathos weren’t being smart asses or cryptic.
=Long story short, I made a miscalculation in regards to our lord being able to absorb Olstenna’s [Violet Berserker Spring Flame] safely. It’s been so long since we’ve actually met and aetherii that I forgot that shit gets weird with them when they make use of aether treasures like that flame.=
[The point please,] Screamira interjected. [Get to the point please.]
∆You know how you guys can infuse bits of [Chaos] into your arts to make them hit a little harder and a little weirder than normal aether arts? It’s the same concept, aetherii can add a little something something extra to their attacks that our lord has an adverse reaction to.∆
[Wait a minute, are you saying he’s allergic to aetherii energy? The fuck?!]
=Not exactly, Hurricroak. It’s more like…our lord’s formula normally has a safeguard in place that allows him to absorb and use natural aether treasures of opposing dispositions without the usual adverse effects occuring. Unfortunately, Olstenna’s flames had something in them that weakened that safeguard and made it possible for the [Ghost Flame] and the [Violet Berserker Spring Flame] to mix and well…=
[KILL, KILL, KILL!]
=Do that.=
[Oh…]
[That’s not good.]
With a better understanding of the situation, Hurricroak and Screamira now knew the objective wasn’t to take out their lord’s opponent, but save their lord from himself in the event that he does something stupid and self-harming
Rephrasing that last statement, in the event that he will do something stupid and self-harming.
Unfortunately, they had no idea on how to do such thing…sort of.
∆To be fair, a big factor in that bloodthirsty rage down there is all of the heat attacking his soul right now. If we can siphon that off, he’ll be right as rain…mostly. We’ll still need to get him back to the library in order to apply a full treatment, but yeah.∆
[Wait a minute, heat? Doesn’t that mean Frosttusk can help with this sort of thing?,] Screamira pointed out.
=Yes, exactly. That’s why we’re currently dialing down the connections for all of the other kaijin so that more of it can be used to boost Frosttusk’s connection so that he can siphon off the heat.=
[That’s great!]
∆Unfortunately, the amount of heat being produced by our lord’s soul is much higher than the maximum bandwidth of Frosttusk’s connection. Meaning that what you’re seeing right now is the best we can do until Frosttusk gets his big fluffy ass in here.∆
[Goddammit!]
[Well if that’s the case, where are they?,] Hurricroak asked. [If Frosty is getting a massive heat infusion, he should be moving at light speeds at this point. So shouldn’t they be breaking in here by now and cooling the maestro off?]
∆=Yeah,funny thing about that…=∆
[Fuck me sideways…]
_____Literally at the same time…___________
[Well, shit.]
[That’s a lot of people…]
Having been boosted by the sudden surge of heat into his soul, Frosttusk(currently disguised as a human named Frederick) had proceeded to grab Nepherage (Nicole) and ran all the way across Stone Claw City.
The oldest kaijin under Zhen Liu’s command had opted to play the roles of wandering mercenaries for the day and had ended up in a part of the city that was much further than their lord’s location than anticipated. Then again, none of them had expected their lord to suddenly go toe to toe with some mysterious warrior who knew what a kaijin was and subsequently go insane from a soul-induced heat stroke.
Regardless, after the dealing with the issue of distance between themselves and Zhen Liu, Nepherage and Frosttusk had to deal with an even greater issue.
A big ass crowd of people.
[Just to double check, the jarl doesn’t want us to just murder people willy-nilly, ja?]
[Yes, he doesn’t want us indiscriminately killing people.]
[Damn…]
In a moment that could only be labelled as “ass timing is ass”, Nepherage and Frosttusk had arrived at the exact same moment as all of the bystanders in the arena had opted to escape with their lives intact. Unfortunately, this made it significantly harder for the kaijin to get to Zhen Liu in a timely manner. Not that they couldn’t come up with anything.
[Wait a minute, we can fly. Why don’t we just fly over these guys and get to the lord that way?,] Nepherage suggested.
[It wouldn’t be fast enough and we’d draw too much attention. There’s a non-zero chance that Olstenna would just take that opportunity to blast us out of the sky like a goose with a firework and make it so we can’t assist,] Frosttusk replied in a weirdly rapid manner.[We could try using our miniature modes, but that comes with it’s own issues.]
[Really?]
[Because we’d be smaller, we’d be proportionally slower and we can’t exactly move all too well in those forms either. If we try to go through this crowd like that, we’d either get stepped on or swept away by the crowds,] Frosttusk elaborated. [Hell, if we try to fly while small, we might get swatted like flies.]
[So what, we’re fucked?]
[Well, no. If any of us had any movement based arts installed at the moment we’d be able to get by this crowd with no issues,] Frosttusk pointed out. [But I don’t think you or I have any of those installed right now?]
[No…I opted for a Corporeal aether art mix for the day because I thought today was going to be relaxing.]
[Same.]
[Ey yo, why the fuck are you two just standing out here?]
[Huh?]
As Nepherage and Frosttusk were in the middle of lamenting their current aether art load out, they were interrupted by the rival of Razorstella and Spring Brawler.
Granted, the two of them were under the guise of a pair of young students named Rachel and Springer.
Nepherage and Frosttusk looked a touch more relieved now that more of their kindred had arrived to help, since it gave them more options to work with.
[Razorstella! Spring!]
[Y’all look…smaller.]
[Shut up,] Razorstella retorted. [The word you’re looking for is “youthful”.]
[Legit though,] Spring Brawler piped up,[why are you two just standing out here? I figured you two would be busting through and helping our the ringmaster by now.]
[We would be, but there’s this big ass crowd,] Nepherage gestured. [And our lord doesn’t want us to kill our way through. Also, don’t suggest flying or shrinking, Frosttusk here figured out the cons of doing either.]
[Not gonna lie, I’m not used to being this talkative.]
[Neither are we.]
[Wait… y’all need a quick way to get to the director, right?,] Razorstella reiterated. [I think I have an idea on how to do that…]
[Really?]
[How?]
[Spring Brawler.]
[Y-yeah?]
[Remember how we broke into that prison to rescue Screamira from becoming a grafted set of limbs?]
[Yeah. I was the one who…ooooh. Yeah, alright.]
Spring Brawler soon changed back from his human into his marionette spring limbed form.
[Frosttusk, Nepherage, follow me. We’re gonna do something dumb.]
[Uh oh…]
