Chapter 884: An Enemy of my Own Making
So…is this the last side chapter?
|It was…but then we decided to skip.|
Good, because I am getting…wait a minute, what?
|The entire chapter was going to be just about Jinju Ren, the two elders and Nepherage poking and prodding what was essentially a dragon beast’s cocoon the entire time, which can be condensed into a paragraph or half a chapter. So, we’re going to go back to Zhen Liu because he’s about to deal with something more interesting.|
Which is…
|Check the script.|
Alright, let’s see here…oh.
Well then…this is going to be interesting…
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{In mere moments, the last vestiges of your life will disappear, so I ask you again. What is it you desire?}
Besides living, you mean?
{That should go without saying. Yes, besides living.}
…how about revenge on the squishy humans that forced me into this situation?
{…}
No good?
{No…more than enough.}
Good…so now what?
{Now? All you need to do is…focus.}
________________________________________
The moment Zhen Yan saw his son’s puppet take on fighting stances, he opted to follow suit. Especially after he began to sense a very strange, yet familiar, energy spiking in the area surrounding him.
‘Wait a minute…I know this energy…’
It was an energy that he felt radiating off of that crazy old woman back on Roaring Tide, an energy he felt his father occasionally released whenever he cultivated nowadays and an energy he remembered his beloved wife used once or twice before in their younger years
And it was this exact same energy that he was now feeling was coming off of his own son, and this puppet of his.
This revelation opened a whole litany of questions for Zhen Yan…but alas, now was not the time to address such concerns.
Right now, he had to help his son deal with…whatever was going on.
‘Fuck it! I’ll ask him about all this later, but for now, let’s see what’s causing this-‘
*SLORP!*
“WHAT THE HELL?!”
Just as he was about to make a personal declaration of bravery, he saw the [Fountain of Furious White Water] suddenly turn red, become a lot more slime-like and swallow the severed halves of the recently slain Blood Mantis.
Needless to say, shit was about to get weird and he had no idea why this was the case.
Thankfully, someone else did.
Sort of.
…
[Director, what the fuck?]
‘Wrong entity to ask that, Razorstella. Logos, Pathos, what the fuck?’
<=Remember that Grub abomination from the Spider Hell Jungle? Think that but smaller scale, and mix it up with that incident involving Amazona.=>
‘I…why am I two for two on Insect type abominations trying to kill me? I’d rather not get rule of three’d here!’
=I…I don’t think that applies here…=
‘You know what I mean!’
‘Really?’
‘That…explains some shit. Wait a minute, what does that have to do with…oh no.’
=Yes, in other words-=
[Hold up, you mean to tell me that by sheer coincidence, and unforeseen spiritual reactions, the director had unknowingly provided the raw ingredients to just…cook up a kaijin?]
<=Kind of, yes.=>
‘It is quite literally an enemy of my own making…’
[Huh…well then, looks like I get to really cut loose for once!]
‘Oh boy.’
…
“W-what just happened?”
“I don’t know, but I get the distinctive feeling, I really don’t want to know…”
Due to the sudden changes in the surrounding aether, Jin Fang and Rianna had decided to stop flirting with Zhen Liu and take on battle ready stances. If it wasn’t completely obvious, so did Zhen Liu.
After swallowing the body of the Blood Mantis, the water of the [Fountain of Furious White Water] began to take on a redder hue as it started to release a strange and violent energy.
A violent churning and sloshing sound could be heard originating from the fountain. As this went on, a small sack of eggs was suddenly pushed out of the fountain in a gentle manner before being settled on the nearby ground. Evidently, this sight worried them more than the energy, because it was a clear sign that the reason for this change was sentient in nature.
And if there’s one thing more dangerous than a powerful aether beast, it was one that was intelligent.
“Oh gods, here it comes!”
Eventually, the weird energy began to become more and more active until it reached the point that the group recognized as being a sign that whomever or whatever was causing it, was about to go on the attack.
But then…it stopped.
For reasons beyond the understanding of three of the four mortal warriors present, the weird violent energy that had been saturating the area had suddenly disappeared…for all of five seconds.
SPLASH!.
“What the-?!”
“Look out!”
“Xiao Liu!”
After those five seconds were up, the group didn’t even have the time to comment on the sudden change before a strange mutant humanoid creature, with large scythe-like arms and a head with a demented mantis motif, came jumping out of the fountain and attempted to decapitate Zhen Liu in one fell swoop.
Unfortunately, the mantis abomination proved to be faster than Zhen Liu and had managed to close the distance fast enough to get within striking distance before Zhen Liu could react and block the blow.
Fortunately, the mantis humanoid wasn’t that fast.
CLANG!
[En garde, you silly insect!]
‘Thank you, Razorstella!’
[This is nothing, director!]
Just as Zhen Liu’s neck was about to get double tapped out of existence, Razorstella managed to block the blow with a swift kick of her sword-like legs.
The grinding sound of blade-like objects colliding against one another reverberated in the immediate area as Razorstella went leg to arm against this mantis abomination.
Beneath this obvious visual though, both Razorstella and this newly minted abomination were circulating [Chaos] in their respective limbs in an attempt to overpower the other. (Un)surprisingly, they were evenly matched.
The mantis humanoid looked rather pissed off that its power wasn’t working as intended, while Razorstella was somewhat elated at this turn of events.
While it was rather fun to pound the hell out of arrogant blowhards that thought they were hot shit because they underestimated her, her comrades or the director, there was something equally satisfying about fighting someone on equal footing.
Pun fully intended.
Off to the side, Jin Fang and Rianna immediately bounced back a couple of steps as Razorstella and the mantis abomination collided with one another. They understood that this wasn’t their fight, well, technically it was but their only means of doing so was something they wanted to keep under wraps for the time being.
Partially due to wanting to maintain secrecy, partially due to embarrassment.
As for Zhen Yan, he was running pure paternal instinct so when he saw that the creature that had almost decapitated his son had ended up stalling due to timely intervention, he saw it as an opportunity for a flanking attack.
[Blazing Lion Fist!]
“What? No! Father, wait!”
As such, he rushed to the mantis abomination’s side and punched forward with an Ignatii aether enhanced fist that was coated in a lion-shaped aura.
“Die!”
Against any other opponent, this major Corporeal aether art would be strong enough to crack their armor and the bones underneath it.
Thunk!
“Ah! What the hell?!”
Against a [Chaos] infused abomination, this attack didn’t do jackshit.
While the Seventh Elder’s fist managed to physically land against the mantis abomination’s body, the aether surrounding his fist had suddenly dissipated into nothingness, significantly lowering the lethality of his attack. This led to Zhen Yan’s actions amounting to him knocking the mantis abomination away from Razorstella’s legs, drawing its ire and dealing very little damage in the process.
Enraged by this blatant assault, the mantis abomination turned its attention towards Zhen Yan and attempted to decapitate him instead.
“Oh shit!”
“Father, look out!”
Clang!
Fortunately, Zhen Liu was able to react fast enough this time around.
Knowing damn well that attempting to use his [Regalia] as means to block an abomination’s attack would probably be a terrible idea, Zhen Liu drew both his [Veteran’s Bone Club] and [Hammer of the Dearly Departed] and used them as a means of intercepting the abomination’s scythe-arms.
‘What the-its heavy?!’
Evidently, Zhen Liu had gotten a bit used to his super strength, to the point that finding physical resistance was unsettling to say the least.
[Gkk…gk…]
‘What the…’
Although…it was less unsettling than hearing the abomination talk.
[Gkk…gik…Kama…killer…gonna…kill ya!]
‘Oh…shit.’
