Chapter 820: A well-timed knock…
*Bing-bong*
We interrupt this chapter to inform the reader that this chapter will technically be a two parter, so feel free to wait until both chapters release before purchasing, thank you.
*Bing-Bong*
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“Alright, I think that’s enough prep time.”
“Finally?”
“Really?”
“I feel like now is not the time to sass Lady Daria, especially since she summoned whomever that is!”
For a couple minutes straight, Zhen Liu’s mother, Daria Nerissa-Zhen, has been doing nothing but maximizing the power of a [Chaos art] that she had learned a long, long time ago.
This particular [Chaos Art] involved concentrating [Chaos] and Terraqi aether into the form of a giant rhino-like warrior kaijin that was armed with a double headed spear. The chant Daria used while making this happen wasn’t actually a necessary component to perform the art, rather it was a means to empower it.
Every art, from the weakest Corporeal art to the most dominant Universe art, actually came with a chant that was meant to help get the practitioner into a particular mindset in order to help maximize the aether circulation of any specific art.
Most warriors don’t memorize the full chant outside of training, because attempting to say the full chant for any given art during battle was just asking to get interrupted with a well timed headshot.
That said, it’s still a proven fact that any aether art performed alongside their full chant tended to be exponentially more powerful than an aether art done without it.
Once everything was in place, Daria proceeded to pause for a brief moment to look over her work.
[Hmmm.]
She wasn’t exactly jumping for joy over being able to pull off this move still after so many years, nor was she disappointed that the rhino-man kaijin didn’t look exactly how she remembered him looking.
Instead, Daria was looking at the rhino-man kaijin construct with a look that seemed to scream…fondness.
‘Has it seriously been this long since I last saw that big lug?,’ Daria thought to herself as she stared at the construct. ‘Hard to believe I’ve gotten married and had kids since then….and now I need your help again, I guess.’
Once she got over her moment of nostalgic remembrance, Daria proceeded to take on a horse-stance with her fists curled to her side. As she did, the rhino-man kaijin construct proceeded to mirror the stance but hold the double-sided spear in a manner suggesting he was about to stab forward in a powerful manner.
As the duo stood there in a preparatory state, waves of energy began to radiate off the two of them, causing visible movement in the dust and water below their feet.
Needless to say, this prompted a response from the observing group of young women.
“Godsdamn, is most of the Zhen branch clan just full of hidden dragons or something?,” Jinju Ren asked. “Because if so…I got some half-siblings that would probably into at least half of darling’s cousins.”
“Wait…if I practice with my saber enough, does that mean I’ll be able to do something as absurd as this? If so, I guess I need to find somewhere empty enough to not burn down the city…”
“These are all wonderful responses and I can totally see where you’re coming from,” Jin Fang interjected, “but I think our time is better spent finding someplace to take cover.”
“Groa!”
“Kuu!”
“Or that, that works too.”
Shortly after Jin Fang made this statement of alarm, Tiny and Mini proceeded to pool their aether together to make a small shelter out of aether enforced mud, and drag the girls to safety…by literal dragging them behind the cover.
Tiny quite literally grabbed all three of the girls by the scuff of their collars with their massive hippo teeth and pulled them behind the mud wall.
In a moment of perfect timing, once all the girls were someplace safe, Daria proceeded to let loose the [Chaos Art].
[Chaos Art: Cosmohorn’s Knock!]
Both Daria and the rhino-man kaijin construct struck forward at the exact same time, causing the air in front of them to visibly distort and release a loud knocking sound that seemed to do nothing despite all of the build up.
Well…that’s because the effects of this attack was working elsewhere.
“Wait is tha-”
*SOUND OF AN ANCIENT BUILDING GETTING IT’S SHIT ROCKED*
“Never mind.”
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The Scions get Wrecked: Interrupted
*Schink!*
“Ah!”
“Zhen Hai!”
The giant spider beast(Archanidame) stabbed right through Zhen Hai’s shoulder just as he was about to grab his giant shark-toothed club back up.
The wound wasn’t fatal, but pain still shot up and down his arm like the world’s worst yo-yo.
“Dammit! I was so close!,” Zhen Hai cursed as he saw his weapon just out of reach, as literal sparks of electricity jumped between his fingertips and the club’s handle..
Moments ago, Zhen Hai achieved some kind of mental breakthrough when he realized he could channel lightning attributed aether through his shark-toothed club as a means of cutting through the weird webbing that the spider beast had been flinging around.
While he wasn’t entirely sure why this was the case, Zhen Hai wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. That said, he couldn’t help but feel like that the weird giant purple toad alpha beast was looking at him with a weird sense of pride when he started using his lightning abilities to cut through all of the webs.
This moment in the sun, however, didn’t last for too long.
Despite Zhen Hai’s best efforts, the spider beast turned out to be a lot faster and trickier than he had anticipated, which eventually led to him getting disarmed when the spider managed to perform a feint with its legs.
On the plus(?) side, Zhen Hai now knew what not to do when dealing with an opponent that can attack with multiple weapons at once.
‘Not that I’m going to live long enough to digest that sort of understanding though,’ Zhen Hai thought to himself with a hateful grimace on his face as the spider beast loomed over him like a guillotine.
Zhen Hai was just about to prepare himself for the inevitable when something {str-}really fucking weird happened.
*Knock.*
‘What the fuck?’
*KNOCK!*
“What the fuck?!”
Moments before the spider beast was about to sink its fangs into Zhen Hai’s soft and squishy neck, a powerful force appeared out of nowhere and literally knocked the giant spider off of Zhen Hai to the side.
Making the moment even weirder though was that this knock had somehow knocked loose the elevator platforms around the room so that they descended back into being pits, while also knocking all of the aether beasts that were in the room back into these aforementioned pits.
Needless to say, the Zhen Clan scions were all sharing a collective look of utter shock and disbelief at this sudden turn of events.
“What…what just happened?”
“I don’t know…but I swear I saw a shocked expression appear on the face of those monsters…”
“Fuck it, I’m marking this as a win,”Zhen Hai called out in exhaustion.”Can someone help me up please? Everything hurts and my butt is vibrating!”
“Gro-wait…why do I feel that too?”
…
[WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!,] Hurricroak complained. [It was going to be my turn next!]
[Did…did the whole building just slide? How?!]
[I don’t know but I was about to w-ait a minute…why does it feel like the whole building is ascending?]
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Olstenna gets Rocked: Interrupted
*Clang! Clang!*
*Clatter!*
*Fwoosh!*
“BAHAHA! YOU GUYS ARE A LOT TOUGHER THAN THOSE RINKY DINK STATUES FROM EARLIER!,” Olstenna shouted with battle hungry glee.
In the middle of a now ruined statue garden, with the damage so severe that there were now holes in the ground leading to an entirely different floor, Olstenna was burning bright like a purple sparkler in the dead night as he was surrounded by multiple animated statues that looked surprisingly pristine despite being covered in obvious scorch marks.
Well, most of them were covered in scorch marks.
The statue of a warrior woman made of red jade actually looked to be even fiercer and more energetic than before this fight started.
Not that Olstenna really cared, since he was just having the time of his life.
But alas, all good things must eventually come to an end.
Olstenna took on a fighting stance and circulated his aether to the utmost limit, preparing himself to launch his biggest attack.
“Alright you motherfuckers!,” Olstenna shouted as his flames grew even hotter.
“Get ready for my finishing-”
*Knock!*
“-huh?”
Unfortunately, before he could do anything, the entire room suddenly shifted and Olstenna ended up falling into a hole in the ground that he failed to notice before he decided to do his big move.
…
[Did…did he just fall into a hole?]
[I…I think he did.]
[Wasn’t…wasn’t that hole the holding cell we kept Paralust in?]
[Yes.]
[What…what’s gonna happen if we put her back into that cell with Olstenna?]
[I…I don’t know and I don’t want to find out.]
[…]
[…]
[Time to go find the director’s bastard offspring before things go sideways?]
[Amen.]
