Chapter 880: Teamwork, ba-waitaminute…
CLANG!
“CLAWS OFF MY GIRL!”
“Xiao Liu?!”
…and proceeded to do nothing as she rescued at the last minute by Zhen Liu in full [Regalia].
The moment the Blood Mantis was about to cross it’s raptorial claws and decapitate Jin Fang much in the same manner one can decapitate a doll with a pair of scissors, Zhen Liu had managed to place himself in a spot that allowed him to intercept the insect’s attack by simply spreading his arms wide open and holding on tight to the first thing his hands caught.
Judging by the fact that the Blood Mantis had jerked in a manner that was clearly an attempt to free itself from Zhen Liu’s grip, this wasn’t the first time someone tried to use this particular tactic against it.
Alas. unlike those other times, they didn’t have Zhen Liu’s built-in brute force.
“Hiss! Hiss?!”
“Nuh uh.”
When the Blood Mantis attempted to extract its arms from Zhen Liu’s grips, seesawing in a manner so the claw would eat into his flesh, it found that unlike the primates that would fall for this little trick, they would not flinch just because their hands got torn up at the palms.
Making the moment even more horrifying though, was the fact that it could feel the sheer mechanical force being pressed down on it’s carapace.
The Blood Mantis had fought with gorillas, chimpanzee and even orangutan aether primates before, so it wasn’t a stranger to dealing with powerful grips being used against it.
This boy, however, felt… different.
It’s senses, the ones tuned to detecting the aether quality and levels of it’s opponents, believed Zhen Liu to be a tier weaker than itself, perhaps even as weak as the little girl that they almost decapitated.
However, the Blood Mantis’s instincts told it that the boy that had their claws in a vice grip was stronger than itself by an entire tier instead. It honestly didn’t know whether or not it should’ve been angered, scared or just plain confused at this baffling opponent.
It did, however, come to one conclusion.
“HISS!”
“INSECTS CAN GET HALITOSIS?!”
The Blood Mantis opted to try and eat Zhen Liu.
In battles past, this was the follow-up for whenever the Blood Mantis found its claws being caught by other aether beast primates.
First, it would rip open their palms to cause them to recoil out of pain, and then use that momentary lapse in pain to rush forward and take a massive bite out of it’s flesh. Depending on the size of the primate, it would either bite into their necks and force them to bleed out or devour them wholesale. While the Blood Mantis wasn’t entirely sure if it could bite through this weird child with a stupid strong grip, perhaps it would be able to at least swallow it whole.
(Un)fortunately, it would never get that chance.
“CAN SOMEBODY JUST ATTACK THIS THING WHILE I HAVE IT LOCKED IN PLACE HERE?!,” Zhen Liu shouted in frustration as it was honestly taking quite a bit to hold the Blood Mantis in place. He had originally wanted to use this opportunity to lift the Blood Mantis, swing it around and then slam it into the ground, but the force it was exerting in this moment was surprisingly intense. In fact, he was so focused on holding the thing in place, he didn’t notice that a tiny cut had actually opened on his palm and that the tiniest bit of his blood had stained the raptorial claws in his hands.
‘Well…at least those praying mantis vs lizard clips make more sense now,’ Zhen Liu thought to himself.
Shortly after he made this plea for assistance, and had that tangential though, an aether enhanced arrow from Rianna slammed into the side of the Blood Mantis’s head and knocked its mouth away from Zhen Kiu, a spinning Razorstella sliced through the raptorial claws and immediately relieved Zhen Liu of all the pressure that was being placed on his person due to a tendon being sliced somewhere down its arm, and then Zhen Yan came charging in with an aether art that made it appear a lion made of red flames was encapsulating his whole body.
Due to the Blood Mantis’s body being bent at a weird angle because of the sudden mutilation and headshot, Zhen Yan’s attack ended up splitting the Blood Mantis in half.
Evidently the attack from Zhen Liu’s father was so forceful, that both halves of the Blood Mantis went flying into the [Fountain of Furious White Water], with the top half landing into the water, while the bottom half lay next to it.
Surprisingly, the group of Blood Mantis eggs that were laid in the water prior to this battle were left unscathed as the decapitated halves landed safely away from them all.
“Holy shit.”
With the battle now over, Zhen Liu proceeded to plop his ass onto the ground as it took a bit more effort than anticipated to suddenly launch himself forward and act like a human car jack.
Mantis jack?
Either way, having to actively work against a vice grip was not a fun experience.
“Xiao Liu!”
“Hey, Jin Fang. Sorry I took so-oof!”
But the rewards was kind of worth it.
Despite not yet powering down from wearing his [Regalia], Jin Fang proceeded to give Zhen Liu a big ole hug.
Did she actually needed to be rescued?
No, not really, she had a back-up plan in her pocket.
Did she appreciate being rescued anyways because people generally enjoyed being rescued at the last minute by someone they cared about?
Yes, yes she did.
[Oh, barf. Can you please keep the romance to a minimum, director? I can feel the blushy-crushy feelings from here,] Razorstella teased in a lighthearted manner.
‘Oh, screw off.’
As Jin Fang continued to hug Zhen Liu, Zhen Yan, Rianna and Razorstella proceeded to gather around them. On their faces were expressions of pride, mild jealous and neutrality, respectively. Although, that last one has actually carried traces of hidden annoyance.
“Haha! Good on ya son!,” Zhen Yan openly praised Zhen Liu while patting his head, a rather strange sight given that they were both clad in full [Regalia]. “Reminds me of the time your mother and I had to fight a mutant Sandstone Crab! Dangerous bugger, but very tasty.”
“With all due respect father, I have no desire to eat the Blood Mantis.”
“Fair enough, it smells like a stale butcher shop when we were fighting it.”
“Yeah…oh! Rianna! Thank you for making that opening shot. Without, I think things would’ve gotten a lot more…”
“…”
“Rianna?”
As this conversation was occurring, Rianna remained silent as she proceeded to sit on the ground next to the hugging Zhen Liu and Jin Fang.
Without saying a word, Rianna then grabbed one of Zhen Liu’s free arms and placed his hand on top of her head.
“What are you…”
“Now praise me.”
“Ah.”
Without needing any further context or prompting, Zhen Liu proceeded to give the six foot something albino amazoness dressed in insect shell armor, a good ole head pat and prompting the woman who had just nailed three decisive arrow shots to release a mewling noise that one would expect to hear from a child half her size.
It was honestly kind of adorable.
“My son…when did you become a play boy?,” Zhen Yan asked his son with a weird expression on his face.
“I don’t know, father. I really don’t,” Zhen Liu answered honestly. He was just about to change the subject to worrying about securing the fountain and Blood Mantis eggs, until…
“Okay, I should probably let you guys go now so that we can-”
[Wait a minute, director,] Razorstella interrupted as she took on a fighting stance, surprising Zhen Yan in the process since he was still under the impression that Razorstella was a puppet under his son’s command, [something’s off.]
________________________________________
=I don’t see why we would change our terminology now after all these years. What brought this up?=
=Ah…I see what you mean now…hmm…perhaps it would be better for us to change the names a bit. It had been said that names carry powers onto themselves…what you have in mind?=
=Hmm?=
=Uh oh.=
________________________________________
Half submerged in a fountain that radiated fury and power, the Blood Mantis’s consciousness was starting to fade.
The thing about insects is that they’re surprisingly hardy when mutilated or injured in certain ways, maintaining some semblance of consciousness even when dying.
But alas, that was both a curse…and a blessing.
…
Did…did I die?
No…this can’t be happening.
No.
No!
NO!
NOO-!
{What do you desire?}
Wait, what?
