Chapter 814: Tactical…Statues?
“HA!”
*FWOOOSH!*
“GROCK!”
…
[Oh shit, I guess we’re both wrong.]
[Unexpected, but not unwelcome.]
…
*Clatter.*
“Looks like I’m still going to have that fight after all!,” Olstenna shouted with glee as he took on a fighting stance.
Moments ago,Olstenna was attempting to wrestle a key out of the hands of a statue that had an unusually strong grip on the accursed hunk of metal.
In the midst of pulling against the key though, several of the other statues near Olstenna had suddenly come to life and were sneaking up on him with ill intentions.
More specifically, these statues were aiming to smash his head in with their stoney fists.
(Un)fortunately, Olstenna had much sharper instincts than anticipated, and he managed to attack before he could be snuck upon.
Just as one statue, in the shape of a nobleman, was about to bring his fist down on the back of Olstenna’s skull, Olstenna launched a backwards kick that turned into a jet of purple flames and blasted the stoney bastards backwards.
In the midst of performing this action though, he had released the metal key in his hand and had accidentally gave an opportunity for the statue holding it a chance to escape.
Not that Olstenna really cared, because he finally got what he was looking for: a fight.
“One, two…five…twelve! Oh I am definitely going to enjoy this!,” Olstenna said with glee after he had finished counting the total number of statues coming towards him.
None of the statues had any expression other than stone-cold silent judgment, but that didn’t change ether fact that Olstenna could feel the pure rage radiating off of them.
Then again, that could’ve also been the weapons in all of the statues’ hands talking.
“I’m going to need five, no, two minutes to take you all down!,” Olstenna shouted as purple flames began to manifest all over his body. “Try to not break apart too easily!”
…
[You really think he’s going to take two minutes to take down all of those zakos? There’s kind of a lot of them.]
[Probably…but we’re still going to have to get involved ourselves soon.]
[What makes you say that?]
[Intuition.]
[Huh…oh! Should we send in our own zakos too? I know Castor and Pollux are just dying to test their metal against real opponents!]
[Perhaps. I know Talos is aching for a chance to prove his…wait a minute, don’t you mean mettle?]
[Probably, but we’re made of metal, so…]
[Fair enough.]
…
Olstenna had no idea whether or not his words were actually understandable to the statue warriors, but it didn’t really matter.
Shortly after Olstenna had issued his taunt, he could feel that all of the statues that were aiming to smash his head in at this moment were circulating their aether in a rather energetic manner.
The strange thing though, was that all of the statues seemed to be circulating their aether in different ways.
Some were channeling a bit more into their limbs, others channeled it into their surfaces while a couple of others were channeling aether into their weapons.
Granted, this channeling was subtle to the point that Olstenna didn’t even notice, that or he was too bloodthirsty in the moment. All he noticed was that these statues were looking a bit more combat ready than the one he had defeated just moments ago.
“GROAA!”
“Hell yeah!”
An observation that turned out to be true, as the statues began to rush towards him like a horde of angry barbarians.
A smile of maniacal glee formed on Olstenna’s face at the sight of the incoming horde.
“I get the feeling that y’all are simply cannon fodder and that the really dangerous ones are hiding…well then, I might as well give them a little preview of what to expect!”
Not content with just waiting for them to attack him, Olstenna proceeded to charge at the statue horde.
____________________________________
*Bing-Bong*
The following battle scene between Olstenna and the horde of statues(zakos) will be told from the zakos’ perspective.
If you’re wondering how this is different from the previous narration, it’s because we’ll be using the actual names, not just perspective names.
That and it won’t be as Olstenna focused as the previous one.
Observe.
*Bing-Bong*
________________________________________
[?]
[??]
[!]
[!!!]
(Un)surprisingly, the zakos had an inkling of a plan when it came attacking Olstenna.
Despite having less active thinking ability than the average toddler, the zakos at least had some instinctual understanding when it came to fine art of kicking ass and taking names.
They didn’t charge forward on hazardous fashion for no reason, rather, it was meant to confuse Olstenna’s senses.
The zakos assigned to the “Garden of Living Statues”, weren’t just any old random zakos that Zhen Liu manifested out of random knick-knacks and pieces of junk, rather they were a group of zakos that had managed to last long enough to be able to understand the concepts of “specializations and “roles”, hence why they had differing looks in terms of build and weapon preferences.
Then again, they basically learned about this from the memories generated by the “Bone Squad” zakos, the ones who had been regularly fighting in the arena.
As chaotic looking their attack against Olstenna looked, there was actually a method to the madness.
[$t@b!]
The first of the zakos to attack were pair of stone-like ones armed with short daggers made of the same material.
Normally, stone blades don’t have any edges to them, but the charging zakos had infused the blades with enough aether that they’d be able to puncture through an iron door with relative ease.
In order to maximize the force of their attacks, the dagger zakos opted to stab forward, since most daggers were meant for stabbing and not slashing, and coated the very tip with a small bit of innate [Chaos].
No zako could leverage [Chaos] in the same manner as their lord or proper kaijin, but they could still use enough to break through most normal defensive measures.
The dagger zakos knew that, instinctually, most warriors would attempt to dodge or block such obvious attacks, which would allow their compatriots to follow up since the defending warrior would be otherwise distracted.
This was where the zakos behind them would come into play.
[$m@$H!]
Immediately behind the dagger wielders were a trio of zakos wielding heavy looking canes that might as well have been maces or clubs. Their roles were to serve as the follow-up, smashers as it were, and unlike their compatriots in the front, these zakos focused their aether into their arms and legs since their weapons were all about momentum and weight.
On top of that, they also made sure to circulate aether into their skin in order to buff their defenses since their role was to, not only deal devastating follow-up damage, but act as interference as well.
[$h00t!]
To round out the group, and situated several feet away from the melee zakos was a quartet of statue zakos armed with what looked like crossbows, but were actually tools meant to help them focus their aethers into energy blasts.
Their roles was to act as fire support for all the zakos engaged with melee, as such, this quartet of zakos infused most of their aether into their eyes and fingers, oddly enough.
Technically, none of the tools the ranged zakos were holding actually had a trigger mechanism, but the zakos couldn’t help but imagine it existing, hence the finger empowerment.
On paper, their tactics were flawless.
They had a pair of initiators that would force their target to move or act in a certain way, they had tanks and smashers that could deal a shit ton of damage if coordinated correctly and a ranged team that was ready to add the coup de grace to the whole thing and lead the group to a flawless victory.
In practice, there was an unforeseen hiccup.
Most aether warriors were still fairly squishy and would desire minimizing the amount of wounds they sustained in a fight, hence why this particular tactic of the zakos would normally work.
The target would notice the daggers, proceed to dodge or block, get attacked by the smashers and either get their skulls caved in or defend themselves from that particular attack, only to be blasted by the coordinated group of snipers.
Either one of these attacks or all of these attacks would hit and the zakos could celebrate in taking down a nasty opponent
*SCHINK, SCHINK!*
[???]
What ended up happening instead, was that Olstenna allowed himself to get stabbed by the zako’s daggers directly into the stomach, which messed with the momentum of the other zakos for about a second.
That momentary stun, however,turned out to be crucial.
If the zakos had kept up their attack, they might’ve been able to render Olstenna unconscious with a few well placed blows to the head.
Instead, that second was used by Olstenna to lock the dagger wielding zakos in his grasp, using the two of them as shields or prevent the other zakos from acting.
Making matters worst, the daggers in the zakos’ hands began to melt as Olstenna willed his flames to burn brighter and hotter.
“My turn.”
