Chapter 65: …then the avalanche hits!
“I have been blinded, deafened and almost killed one too many times today,” Sullivan complained,”this is the last time I ever decide to work for anyone who wants to go deep diving into a wandering ruins. Just aether crystal mines from now-”
“PAAAOOOOO!”
Before Sullivan could complain further, a loud echoing elephant’s trumpet interrupted him and grabbed his attention to see what was the cause.
“Whoa! That thing is as big as, no…It’s even bigger than me! Zhen Liu wasn’t kidding about his puppet making ability.”
Standing before Sullivan was a large, metallic humanoid creature standing at least 8 feet tall with a muscular build and a strange looking beard that seemed to split into three distinct braids. Upon closer inspection however, he noted that the middle braid looked to be segmented and of similar color to the puppet’s body, while the the ones to the left and right looked more solid and were as white as bone. As he took in more details of this strange new puppet, Sullivan was reminded of the foreign warriors he’d seen from Soaring Gryphon and of the strange “elephant” beasts he saw the caravans from Dozing Salamander use to pull their wagons. The only thing that didn’t make sense to him were all of the unusually shaped holes that dotted up and down it’s body.
As he looked downwards, wondering how the little islets could support such a massive puppet, his eyes went wide.
“The lava is…frozen over?!”
Despite living in essentially a desert, Sullivan was familiar with ice due to the existence of underwater caverns and weird ice aether crystals and metals. Granted such caverns tended to not have pools of lava in them, so seeing burning hot lava being cooled to stone and covered in a layer of frost was incredibly unsettling.
Sullivan could only imagine what this strange humanoid puppet was truly capable of,but Zhen Liu was finding out for himself.
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“You…are…my…jarl?,” the mammoth-like kaijin asked in a deep voice akin to slamming glaciers.The huge sized kaijin stared down at the Zhen Liu, not out of disdain mind you, but literally stared down at him due to being several feet taller than him. Normally this would be intimidating as all hell, but Zhen Liu spent the better part of a month with an ornery giant hippo. If anything, he felt right at home.
[That I am,] Zhen Liu replied with a nod. [And I suppose you’re Frosttusk, right?]
“Aye…,” Frosttusk answered, “Frosttusk…heeds the call…What is…your command?”
As if on cue, the mechanical centisnake let out a booming roar of challenge towards Zhen Liu’s and Frosttusk’s direction. Apparently it was irritated that yet another interloper decided to show up in it’s domain out of nowhere, and it was starting to getting sick of it.
The feeling however was mutual this time as Zhen Liu stared at the horrifying mechanical monstrosity and where as he was scared the last time he saw it, this time he felt nothing but irritation. It took him about a second to realize that part of this irritated feeling originated from Frosttusk’s emotional feedback!
“It’s…noisy…,” Frosttusk growled, his fist clenching with rage, “Can I…kill it?”
Zhen Liu quickly shot a glance at Frosttusk then back to the centisnake who was tensing up for battle, sizing up how the match up would go. By his estimation…it was gonna be a one-sided slaughter.
“Be my guest,” Zhen Liu said approvingly while waving an arm forward, “But there are people inside of it. Make sure to rescue them in the process.”
“An easy…task.”
Once he was given the go-ahead, Frosttusk began to take heavy lumbering steps towards the centisnake.
*Fwssh, fwssh, fwssh.*
Every step he took froze the lava beneath him back into solid stone, but unlike what Zhen Liu and his family did earlier, this solidification wasn’t surface level.
“Hark…vile…serpent…your doom…approaches.”
“ROARRRR!”
Displeased by the kaijin’s provocative words, the centisnake charged directly at Frosttusk, ready to swallow this arrogant beast whole. The centisnake wasn’t sure why, but it felt that if it could devour this new interloper, it’s strength would increase by leaps and bounds.
*Swish!*
The centisnake was only meters away when all of a sudden, the mandibles in its mouth suddenly extended and slashed towards Frosttusk like a pair of demonic scissors, ready to cut the kaijin in two.
“Pa…thetic…”
*WHAM! GRIIIINNNDD*
Frosttusk spread his arms outwards and grabbed the two encroaching mandible blades, stopping them in their tracks. The horrible sound of gears grinding on each other filled the room as Frosttusk began to push back against the mandibles.
“Loud…,” Frosttusk growled as he tightened his grip on the mandible blades. While he did, various holes that decorated his legs and arms began to rapidly suck in heat from his surroundings. This in turn caused the lava around his feet to turn stone at a rapid pace, and the mandibles in his hands to suddenly grow a lot colder.
“Freeze…,” he rumbled as the holes on his arms stopped sucking in heat and began releasing cold air that rapidly caused ice to form on the centisnake’s mandibles. By the time the centisnake noticed what was happening, it was too late.
“Shatter!”
When the ice reached a suitable point, Frosttusk slammed a heavy foot into the centisnake’s and ripped the mechanical mandibles out of its mouth! Shattered gears, torn metal and frozen oil scattered about as a result of the mechanical carnage, causing the centisnake to recoil in pain. As for the mandibles, they kept freezing in Frosttusk’s hands until they were completely covered in ice. The kaijin just gripped his hands a little tighter to shatter the jaw blades completely.
“Grrooooaaarrrrr!”
The centisnake roared in rage at its sudden injury. It had been punched at, kicked at, slashed at, bitten once or twice and had all matter of energy attacks thrown at it over the course of it’s lifetime. But no one has ever managed to truly injure it to this day, and it did not like that one bit.
The centisnake proceeded to dive backwards into the lava, creating some distance between it and Frosttusk. One would expect that the latter would give chase, keep the pressure up. Instead, Frosttusk just stood there, his arms crossed.
Once the centisnake was far enough, it’s body started to glow as it began to circulate Ignati aether in a violent fashion, causing a ball of concentrated fire to build up in its mouth. As the ball grew bigger, the lava that the centisnake was submerged in began to grow hotter and more violent.
The sight of the roiling lava caused Sullivan to step back in fear of the centisnake’s attack, but as for Zhen Liu and Frosttusk, the two of them had manic looks on their faces.
“Finally…something fun…”.
