Chapter 813: Beasts from Below
*Bing-Bong!*
Again? What is it…oh. Okay. Fun.
…
We interrupt this chapter to inform the readers that the best way to enjoy the following scenes is by listening to the song, Bl@ck Betty.
Please pick your favorite version while you read.
Thank you.
*Bing-Bong!*
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“RUN LIKE HELL!”
“AO, AO AWOOO!”
“HISS! HISS!”
“CROOOAAAAK!”
Roused by the scent of fresh blood, and riled up by the howls and barks of hyenas and wolves, the once quiet menagerie exploded into a veritable mad house.
Not wanting to get caught up in all of the violence and expend precious time and energy, the Zhen Clan scions bolted across the room as quick as their aether enhanced legs could take them.
While the the Zhen Clan were specialists when it came to the handling, caring and the butchering of aether beasts, even they could recognize when a fight wasn’t worth it, especially when it involved unknown types of aether beasts that radiated more power than themselves.
Of course, this task wasn’t exactly made easy by all of the angry aether beasts trying to kill them in the process.
“ROOAAR!”
“GAAAOOO!”
“GROWR!”
“HOW MANY BEASTS ARE IN THIS PLACE?!,” Zhen Xing complained while running.
“I DON’T-DUCK!”
“WHOA!”
The various creatures in the menagerie proceeded to attack the running Zhen Clan scions as best as they could or were able to, launching all manner of innate aether attacks.
Balls of fire and stone, chunks of bone and jets of acid and wind flew towards the Zhen Clan scions at breakneck speeds. As trained aether warriors they were used to dealing with shit like this, but it was never this bad though.
Evidently, the scions were so busy running for their lives that they failed to notice that some of these attacks were a bit too calculated to just be the rampaging actions of wild beasts.
There were multiple instances where the attacks from these beasts seemed to be aimed at either their legs, heads or even just several feet in front of them. The former two targets were obviously meant to knock the scions into the pits or leave a fatal injury, while the lattermost target was so that the scions would simply run into the attack in the same manner that hunters would aim at where their prey would be, not where they were.
However, that was soon going to be the least of their worries.
In their midst of all their running, dodging and occasional counterattack, the sound of stone grinding against stone echoed throughout the room. Granted, the scions didn’t really notice this until they were about two-thirds from the exit.
“We’re almost there! Just keep running!,” Zhen Feng pointed out
“Really?! I was thinking of taking a nap right now!,” Zhen Tai sassed back out of frustration.
“Quit your sass and-wait a minute…does anyone else hear that rumbling sound?”
“Fuck hearing it, why is the-”
“GAAAAOOOI!”
“OH SHIT!”
“XIAO XING!”
Off to the right of Zhen Xing, a bear-like beast with glowing red eyes and covered in bone plating armor had somehow managed to climb up the side of their particular pit fast enough, so that they could then swing a massive arm directly towards the young man in a sweeping motion. This made it so that if Zhen Xing kept up his current momentum, he would be running headfirst into a paw that was big enough to crush a cow in one hit.
[Fox Fire Wheels: Boost!]
But before Zhen Xing could be rendered into a fine red mist or worst, he managed to activate his aether treasure, a pair of fox themed boots with built-in magic wheels, fast enough to jump over the bear’s paw without losing momentum in his run.
Unfortunately, this would turn out to be a temporary reprieve at best.
“Hah! Suck on-!”
“GAAAAOOOI!”
“SERIOUSLY?!”
Turns out, the bear being able to swipe at Zhen Xing wasn’t a fluke, it was by malicious design.
The rumbling that the Zhen Clan scions were hearing earlier wasn’t the sound of the room collapsing or an earthquake, it was the sound of stone platforms grinding against walls.
Evidently, the Zhen Clan scions were so focused on sneaking, then running, dodging and countering, that they all failed to notice that the pits containing the menagerie of aether beasts weren’t actually pits in the first place, they were moving platforms.
When that strange looking hyena-like aether let loose that howl from before, unseen mechanisms began to activate one after the other, lifting the beasts from their hidden alcoves and bringing them up to the surface.
This not only made the room significantly more walkable, but also allowed the beasts full access to the intruders that started this whole thing in the first place.
It may have been by accident, but such little details mattered little to monsters.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck! There are a lot of these guys!,” Zhen Feng cursed.
“What kind of beasts are these? I’ve never seen any of them before!,” Zhen Yue wondered.
“Who cares?!,” Zhen Hai exclaimed. “Just make for the exit before something-”
*BWAP!*
“SOMETHING LIKE THAT HAPPENS!”
The Zhen Clan scions were just a few feet away from finally leaving this psychotic zoo of room behind and get back into the labyrinth. They hoped that they could probably lose all of these beasts in the maze-like hallways, perhaps even pick them off if they could find the right opportunity.
However, that plan was tossed out the window when a giant ball of aether infused webs was lobbed over their heads.
Before the Zhen Clan scions could get through the door, the ball of webbing turned into a barrier of webs.
“Move!”
In a valiant attempt to break everyone out, Zhen Hai took out his shark tooth club-swkrd and attempted to slash through the webbing, only to to have it bounce back as if he was using a stick to hit a steel shield.
“It’s strong! I’m gonna need some time to cut through this!”
“Okay, so what do we do now?!”
“Battle formation! Tortoise shell!”
The Zhen Clan scions proceeded to take up a defensive formation, making sure Zhen Hai had plenty of space and time to cut through the aether infused webbing.
With their weapons drawn and aether circulating, they tensed up as they expected to be beset by a horde of angry aether beasts…only to be surprised when that didn’t happen.
Instead, the horde of beasts suddenly stopped a good dozen or so feet away from the young scions, forming a large circular space between themselves.
Needless to say, the Zhen Clan scions were confused at this turn of events.
“Wait a minute…what’s going on?”
“I don’t know, but I don’t like it…”
“Hang on…do you guys sense that?”
“Yeah…and I can see it too.”
As the Zhen Clan scions maintained their defensive positioning, a change occurred in the horde of beasts standing before them.
To be more precise, from the crowd of beasts, stepped forth three distinctive looking creatures that all had radically different auras to them. If the scions had to hazard a guess, these three could be considered the pack leaders.
“Croak…”
The first to step forward was a giant purple toad, covered in markings that carried the visage of several ferocious animals. The faint scent of ozone and lighting could be felt radiating off of the giant amphibian.
“Hiss…”
The second to step forward was a giant black spider with a vicious looking exoskeleton and legs that seemed to have eyes built into the joints. The scions couldn’t help but to feel that no matter what they did, this spider would be able to notice everything.
“Zzz…”
The last of the beasts to step forth was a giant lacewing insect that actually hovered in place. Despite looking the thinnest of the trio, the scions could recognize that the wings on this particular beast were probably much sharper and much more powerful than what they could see at a first glance.
“Oh boy…”
Making the whole matter worst though, was the fact that they could sense that all three of these pack leader beasts were at least Fourth Tier.
All it would take was coordinated attack from this group, and the Zhen Clan scions would be annihilated in an instance, even if they used their aether treasures and strongest arts.
However…that didn’t happen.
The three pack leaders simply stepped forth a couple of steps before pausing, lining up next to each other and waited.
It didn’t take too long for the Zhen Clan scions to realize what was going on.
“Hold on…are these guys challenging us to a fight?”
“I…I think they are…”
“What the hell…”
At this moment, the Zhen Clan scions all couldn’t help but to think that this day was really, really fucking weird.
“So…who’s up first?”
…
[Alright, what do you girls think? Should we make them work for it or let them off the hook a bit?]
[Well…for the last few weeks, I’ve had the pleasure of training the younger generation in the finer points of home making, assassination and fighting…but I have yet to see how the young master’s generation fare since they’re on the independent study track.]
[Honestly, I kind want to see if our little training sessions that helped them breakthrough stuck with them or not.]
[Training battle it is. Let’s see if these kids has surpassed their masters.]
[I think the preferred term here is “betters”.]
