Chapter 875: While some places gamble…
In a jungle brush out of sight of both the Blood Mantis and the Wraith Mandrill, Zhen Liu, Zhen Yan, Jin Fang, Rianna and Razorstella, were silently watching the aforementioned aether beasts as they attempted to rip each other to shreds.
As members of a clan that handled aether beasts in a variety of ways, they weren’t exactly shocked or perturbed at the pure carnage being displayed at the moment. Rather, they were more worried about the aftermath.
If the Wraith Mandrill won, the fountain would be swarmed by a literal army of death aether aligned monkey aether beasts that, while weak individually, were numerous to the point that their attacks would be able to cause grave injury to the group. Plus, if the Wraith Mandrill managed to consume both the body of the Blood Mantis and the waters of the fountain, it wouldn’t be the greatest stretch of the imagination to assume that they would be able to recover back to full even after going through a grueling battle to the death.
If the Blood Mantis won, then the troop of monkey aether beasts that were under the Wraith Mandrill’s control would…hopefully scatter. Depending on how loyal these monkeys were to the Wraith Mandrill, they could either run away from the scene in hopes of finding some other powerful beast to pledge their allegiance to, or they would go out in a blaze of glory and attempt to kill the Blood Mantis for killing their boss in retaliation.
Both outcomes sucked, but…if they timed everything right, then they would’ve been able to take out the survivor and be able to lay claim to two Fourth tier aether beast corpses, the eggs of a Blood Mantis, who knows how many leftover cores and materials from the trooper monkeys and the fountain that they were aiming for from the start.
Granted, this timing hinged entirely on who won this fight to death.
Then again, there was one member of the group that was confident that they could just take out both forces like it was nothing.
…
[So…you really want us to wait here while those two rip each other two shreds like something out of a giant monster movie?]
‘Pretty much, yeah. Unless you think you can take on two Fourth tiered aether beasts by yourself.’
[I mean…]
‘Keep in mind that we have a cover to maintain.’
[Fine…I won’t go crazy without the okay…]
‘Good girl.’
…
“Xiao Liu, you okay?”
“Huh? Oh. Yes, father. I am fine. Just…not exactly having any pleasant memories pop up due to mandrills over there. Ya know?”
“Fair.”
Evidently, this was technically the first time he ever went on a proper hunting expedition with his own father, so it felt a little odd to Zhen Liu having him check on his well-being.
Normally, he’d be the one checking on…wait a minute.
“Hey…what happened to Rianna?,” Zhen Liu asked Jin Fang and his father, as he noticed the six foot albino amazoness was missing.
“What are you talking about?,”Jin Fang asked in a tone that suggested she was completely oblivious. “She’s right…uh oh.”
When the five of them got into hiding, they had all lined up behind a large group of bushes in order to have a clear view of the battlefield before them. The order had gone, himself, his father, Razorstella, Jin Fang and Rianna.
So the fact that Zhen Liu had noticed the latter was missing while Jin Fang did not, was surprising.
However, it wasn’t as surprising as when Zhen Yan noticed where she had gone.
“Seriously, how the heck did we lose her?”
“Because she decided to climb upwards.”
“Say what?”
“Look.”
As Zhen Liu and Jin Fang both craned their heads upwards, they saw their resident chitin wearing jungle Amazon in the midst of climbing some tall jungle trees with as much ease as a native monkey.
It was honestly impressive…as it was reckless.
Not because she could fall from that height, but because it was possible she would get spotted.
“What the heck is she doing?”
“I think she’s trying to get a better vantage point to…uh oh.”
“Xiao Liu, contact the others and tell them that we found the fountain, but that it’s currently being contested over by a pair of warring beasts.”
“On it.”
Technically speaking, Zhen Liu didn’t have to put in any effort to do this, since it wasn’t himself delivering the information. However, he could at least use this moment to check on the others.
________________________________________
‘Alright, y’all heard my father, things are about to get dicey where I’m at due to a territorial dispute. How are you guys handling things?
Screamira: [Things are about to get loud.]
Hurricroak: [Drunken dance battle.]
Frosttusk: [Monkey bullet barrage vs. Mountain Yetis.]
Nepherage: [Dragons are crazy.]
‘That’s a lot to unpack, what the fuck?’
Evidently, Zhen Liu and his group weren’t the only ones about to go through some crazy shit.
[By the way, we’ve been pretending to be you at certain moments when they ask us stuff. Just figured we should let you know about that.]
‘Uh oh.’
________________________________________
*Bing-Bong*
We interrupt this chapter to remind people of the roster for this treasure hunting expedition.
Treasure#1:Talisman Monument of Curing Rain
Participants: Zhen Long, Zhen Hai, Zhen Guo, Zhen Lao and Screamira.
…
Treasure #2: Eternal Spring Calabash Trees
Participants: Zhen Hou, Zhen Yue, Zhen Xi, Zhen Feng and Hurricroak
…
Treasure #3: Grand Oasis Teapot
Participants: Zhen Ye, Zhen Tai, Zhen Jin, Zhen Xing and Frosttusk
…
Treasure#4: Fountain of Furious White Water
Participants: Zhen Liu, Zhen Yan, Razorstella,Rianna, Jin Fang
…
Treasure#5: Tempering Spirit Pool
Zhen Shi, Zhong Wei, Nepherage, Princess Jinju Ren
…
We now return to your regularly scheduled chapter, starting with…Screamira.
Thank you.
…
Didn’t you say you were doing double writing duty? What’s going on with that other book?
|Hush you, I’m only human.|
Whatever….
*Bing-Bong*
________________________________________
Talisman Title Fight
“Okay, so we’re not the only ones dealing with an aether beast fight. Good to know.”
“Should we be finding that suspicious or just plain coincidental?”
“Probably the latter, since I’m pretty sure that a Wraith Mandrill has nothing to do with…whatever the hell is going on here.”
“Fair.”
When Zhen Long, Zhen Hai, Zhen Guo, Zhen Lao and Zhen Liu’s puppet(Screamira), arrived at where the talisman monument was located, they figured it would be a relatively simple encounter.
They’d find the monument, they’d fight the Long Armed Mist Gibbon, they kick its teeth in and leave with the monument in tow.
Ideally, Zhen Liu’s puppet, which had a weirdly strong concentration of death aether built in, would be able to negate, or at least mitigate, the healing ability of the monument so that they could take down the aforementioned gibbon with little to now issues.
However, things did not pan out that way.
They had arrived at the monument as scheduled, found the Long Armed Mist Gibbon as expected, but there were several other beast primates present that threw their entire plan for a loop.
“OOK, OOK!”
“OOH! OOH!”
“So…if that large white beast over there is the Long Armed Mist Gibbon,” Zhen Hai pointed out. “Then what’s that thing?”
“I believe that’s a Gravitational Black Gorilla,” Zhen Long answered. “You don’t see them outside of the Umbral Spider continent, so it’s unusual seeing them here. Then again, we are inside of a wandering ruin, so…”
“Okay, but why are they standing off like that?,” Zhen Guo said to bring the focus back to the matter at hand.
Unlike with what Zhen Liu and his group was dealing with, the primates present at the talisman monument weren’t actively trying to kill each other for dominance.
Instead, they found the two aforementioned aether beasts being surrounded by a group of other primates in an almost ritualistic, circular manner.
It reminded the group of students practicing sparring matches with one another, or a street fight where people placed bets on the participants for no reason other than they were drunk as hell.
Actually, scratch that, it was exactly that latter case.
As the group continued to watch, a smaller looking monkey carrying a crudely woven basket began to walk around the surrounding apes, as they all deposited various types of fresh looking fruits or chunks of fresh into it, before settling next to an older looking ape that reminded them all of a wise old sage.
“Ook! Eep!”
“OOOH!”
Once the round was completed, the old looking ape clapped it’s hand and the two apes in the center of the circle suddenly took up fighting positions.
The observing group expected to see the apes wrestle with each other, as was usually the case when these fights occur in the wild.
Instead, they were surprised to find them fighting in a manner that was more suitable to a gambling den than a jungle.
“Are…are those primates…boxing with each other?”
“Yes. Yes, they are.”
“Do…do we get involved in this or not?”
“I mean…we could, but I also want to see where this goes…”
“…”
“…”
“Gibbon.”
“Gorilla.”
As the only mortals in this group began to discuss who they thought would win in this strange boxing match, the only non-mortal one just watched with a mildly judgmental expression in her eyes.
[Why…why does this feel familiar?]
