Chapter 885: Match-Up, Switch-Up
*Bing-Bong*
We interrupt this chapter because it has come to our attention that our readers may be confused as hell as to why this abomination appeared as if out of thin air or due to misinterpreting the fountain as being sentient.
As such, we will be doing a short explaination of what had occurred on a microscopic scale…literally.
…
When Zhen Liu grabbed into the Blood Mantis’s claws in order to stop the latter from slicing off the head of the lover of the former, he had done so in a manner where his palms had made contact with one of the many, many spikes that went up and down the Blood Mantis’s arm.
As such, when the Blood Mantis was suddenly attacked, the aforementioned spike had managed to slice open Zhen Liu’s palm with just enough force to cause it to bleed but not hurt.
This moment shouldn’t have technically been possible due to Zhen Liu being coated in his [Regalia], but the protection of a [Regalia] is dependent on a person’s emotional and mental state. Needless to say, Zhen Liu wasn’t exactly emotionally stable over the idea of his girlfriend almost getting decapitated. This small outburst of fury was just enough for his palm to get injured, but not enough for him to notice this fluctuation in protection.
Then again, it was kind of hard to notice anything when the instigating Blood Mantis got it’s shit rocked in a moment’s notice, being turned into materials for a kaijin in that exact second.
Zhen Liu’s blood was the catalyst, the Blood Mantis was the material but the thing that allowed the abomination to form in the first place was the waters found within the [Fountain of Furious White Water].
[Chaos] is highly receptive to emotions and a fountain that constantly spewed out [Fury,] was entirely too compatible with this energy.
When the Blood Mantis’s body and Zhen Liu’s blood made contact with the water, a [Core] of fury and revenge had suddenly appeared in the former’s chest and got to work.
In other words, if the Zhen Clan warriors had taken out the Blood Mantis in a manner that didn’t send it flying into the damn fountain, the abomination known as Kamakiller, wouldn’t exist.
…
TL;DR, Zhen Liu’s [Chaos] infused blood reacted to the pure [Fury] found within the [Fountain of Furious White Water] and the nascent desires of revenge in the dying Blood Mantis to create an abomination named Kamakiller.
We now return to your regularly scheduled chapter.
Thank you.
*Bing-Bong*
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“Xiao Liu, disengage!”
“I…am…trying!”
When Zhen Liu decided to engage with the abomination calling itself, “Kamakiller”, he assumed he would’ve been able to overpower the bastard based on a combination of his own strength and quality of [Chaos].
As such, Zhen Liu’s initial plan was to intercept her claws with his weapons and then use them to break her guard before unleashing a barrage of blunt blows.
However, Kamakiller was much stronger than anticipated and had made it nearly impossible for him to break her guard in any normal manner.
Razorstella couldn’t even assist this time around due to Zhen Liu being too close to Kamakiller, in a physical manner.
One wrong move and there was a chance that she could slash through Zhen Liu in the process.
Thankfully, Zhen Liu wasn’t out of options.
‘Fuck it, time to fight dirty. Spring Brawler! Blazejudicator!’
[Aye, aye Ringmaster!]
[As you wish, Executor!]
With a mental command, Zhen Liu called upon the proto-kaijin and spirit body kaijin to break this stalemate for him.
This stalemate breaking came in the form of Spring Brawler partially manifesting one of his spring-like arms to gut punch Kamakiller, while Blazejudicator’s response came in the form of a pillar of flames that was capped with a fist made of bones.
Intentional or coincidental, both of these arms of [Chaos] filled might, came flying out of the sides of Zhen Liu and made it appear as if he had four arms for a brief moment before sending Kamakiller flying.
Zhen Liu had mildly hoped she would’ve been sent impacting into a tree or even the fountain again, but the abomination proved to be more resourceful than anticipated.
[H-hateful!]
When the moment was right, Kamakiller used her arms to stab into the ground and forcefully drag across it as a means of killing her momentum. This took time however, and gave the Zhen Clan warriors time to reorganize…and share some things.
…
“Wait, what?! What was that flame arm? When could you do that? Did you make even more puppets on the down low?!”
“Father! I can ex-wait, down low?”
“I heard one of your cousins use it and it sounded appropriate for the situation. Did I use it wrong?”
“No, that was right, just…weird hearing it,” Zhen Liu said while shaking his head and making it a note to throttle Pathos later.
“Regardless! Father, we’re going to have to adjust our plans a bit. Do you or one of the girls have the array scroll?”
“I believe Jin Fang has it.”
“Excellent.”
Of the four treasures that the Zhen Clan was tasked to collect, two of them were too…large, to extract through normal means. As such, Hermit Zhong Wei had provided the Zhen Clan with a pair of temporary spatial storage array scrolls that were meant to uproot and store the [Fountain of Furious White Water] and the [Eternal Spring Calabash Tree]. Unfortunately, they were only good the one time, so the Zhen Clan had to be damn sure they had the thing secured before activating the array. Or at the very least, distract whatever beast was guarding the thing long enough for someone on their team to do the extract.
Based on the current circumstances, it appeared Zhen Liu and his “puppets” were going to have to run interference.
“Father, I need you to-”
“Oh no you don’t,” Zhen Yan interjected. “Don’t think I don’t recognize the ‘I will handle this myself ‘ speech, I’ve been in enough battles to recognize that fatalistic tone from anywhere.”
“Wait, what?”
“You’re currently running five different aether puppets at the same time, right?,” Zhen Yan pointed out. “I may not know that much about aether puppets, but I do know that running one during battle is already draining enough as it is. I can’t imagine how you’re running… I’m assuming seven at this point.”
“That…”
On the one hand, Zhen Liu wanted to correct his father’s mistaken assumption…on the other, he couldn’t help but feel a little fuzzy that his father was still worried about him despite not being as powerful as he was.
Then again, that could’ve been the remnants of the former Zhen Liu talking, so who could be certain.
“So whatever it is you’re going to suggest, forget it. I’m going to help you take down…whatever the hell this freaky mutant mantis bloodliner knock-off is, and we’re going to go and rob the rest of this fucked up jungle blind,” Zhen Yan declared while taking a fighting stance. “My first attack may have done nothing, but I’m certain it won’t happen again.”
“Huh…”
Inspired by his father’s conviction(stubbornness), and understanding where he got it from, Zhen Liu came to a conclusion. One that involved him summoning the [Possesstol].
…
‘Well…if my grandfather is anything to go off of, I think father should be able to handle the truth as well, a version of the truth at least. Blazejudicator?’
[Oh? It’s my turn to give this a go?]
‘Yup.’
…
“Father, do you trust me?”
“Huh? What kind of question is-”
“I repeat, father, do you trust me?”
“Of course I trust you! You’re my son, why wouldn’t I-”
“In that case, apologies in advance.”
“What are you-”
Thoom!
“BAH! WHAT THE-?!”
With incredibly little warning and basically zero prep time, Zhen Liu proceeded to blast his father in the side of his head with a Blazejudicator loaded Possesstol shot.
“Oh, that’s different.”
Since Blazejudicator was technically a permanent hitchhiker to Zhen Liu’s soul/formula, the feeling of using him for a [Possession] was remarkably different from the times he loaded and fired any of the other kaijin.
There probably wouldn’t be any consequence to this, but if there were any…oh well.
It took his father five seconds in real time for him to adjust to the fact that he had a new friend in his head, but even Zhen Liu knew that he was probably seeing and experiencing something else entirely.
FWOOSH!
“WHOA!”
Whatever happened in Zhen Yan’s head though, the changes to his [Regalia] were incredibly obvious.
His father didn’t break through to the Aether Lord stage like his grandfather, since he had only become an Aether Grandmaster very recently, but he did appear and feel a lot stronger.
Then again, anyone wearing lion themed armor suddenly developing a mane of rainbow colored flames, would definitely appear stronger in anybody’s eyes.
Zhen Yan looked at his own hands in disbelief before turning to his son.
“Did you just-”
“No time to talk, we got company!”
[DIE!]
“Wait, I understand her now?!”
Evidently, this was going to be a weird day.
