Chapter 903: Princess (and Kaijin) v. Monkey
‘Kaijin, sit rep. Estimated times of arrival?’
[Frosttusk and company is about three minutes away.]
[Hurricroak and the band is two minutes away.]
[Screamira and the crew, three minutes away.]
‘Excellent, in that case, I’ll be sure to not miss my landing.’
[Ey yo, what?]*3
[Remember when I got launched back at Willow Scale? That.]
[Uh oh.]
<=By the way, the creature you're going to be facing is now what we're calling a Dragon Thief Monkey.=>
‘Why?’
<=Because it has evolved beyond just copying people's moves.=>
‘Great…’
________________________________________
[Mistress, throw a kick in my direction!]
“What?!”
[Just do it!]
“Fine!”
At this point in time, Jinju Ren and Nepherage were essentially flying towards each other in the same direction, meaning that they would’ve eventually collided with one another anyways.
Which is why Nepherage suggested that they make this collision on their own terms.
Following Nepherage’s direction, Jinju Ren managed to correct herself midair long enough to point both of her feet towards the jade kaijin. At the same time, Nepherage corrected herself in a similar manner so that her feet were lined up with the dragon princess’s feet.
[And…now!]
FWOOM!
“Oh!”
Jinju Ren kicked against her feet as hard as she could, sending herself and Nepherage flying in opposite directions. Nepherage was sent hurtling towards the ground while Jinju Ren was given more airtime.
Regardless of the directions they were sent in though, the sudden kick had given them enough space to avoid a sizable crescent shaped blast of aether that had almost bisected the two of them.
Fortunately(?), the energy blast had bypassed the two of them and slashed down several trees of a nearby treeline instead.
It was also during this time that both princess and kaijin noticed that Hermit Zhong Wei and Patriarch Zhen Shi were both rendered unable to participate in this combat any further.
“Oh no…”
Jinju Ren wasn’t sure how or when it occurred, but both Hermit Zhong Wei and Patriarch Zhen Shi had both been rendered unconscious and were now being held captive by some strange looking aether art that took the form of large growing trees that entangled the two of them.
The weird thing though was that their [Regalia] were still intact, suggesting that they might not actually be unconscious.
Regardless, both Jinju Ren and Nepherage recognized that while the situation was less than ideal, there was still an opportunity to turn this around.
After all, it’s a lot harder to block an attack from above and below than it was to defend against one coming from the left and right.
[Cyclone Dragon Viper Dive!]
[Erupting Uppercut!]
The two warrior knew full well that it was risky to use aether arts in front of this mimicking monkey beast, for fear that it would copy and use it against them.
However, that concern kind of flew out the window when they saw that two of their heaviest hitters got taken out.
At this point, attempting to hold back was probably gonna be a bad idea in the long run, so they might as well go all out and hope to the gods that they could overpower this bastard faster than he could overpower them.
Or at the very least, keep his ass occupied long enough for the others to come and assist.
As such, while Jinju Ren focused her aether into causing the green gem on her [Dragon Dominating Saber] to glow and releasing the shadowy form of a feathered serpent to surround her, Nepherage proceeded to dive into the ground like it was water and surged through the dirt like she was a shark or a sea lion.
The Dragon Thief Monkey became apprehensive as he felt the aggressive energies being directed towards him at this moment.
Unlike the attacks of those old men that were powerful but didn’t have anything fatalistic to them, the energies from these women were…different.
The one from above felt as if he was facing down another dragon, one that demanded fealty or death.
While the energy from below felt…wrong. As if the energy being directed towards him was his natural enemy, one that should not exist as long as he existed.
However, before the Dragon Thief Monkey could even comprehend why this was the case, the two warrior women were upon him.
“[Die!]”
Jinju Ren came down on the Dragon Thief Monkey like a spear from heaven, her blade being encapsulated in a twisting cyclone of energy that threatned to drill a massive hole into the monkey’s skull.
Nepherage, on the other hand, came popping out of the ground like an erupting volcano, her fist literally glowing with heat and power, and aimed at the monkey’s chin.
While this wasn’t a rock and a hard place situation, this was a situation that could result in the monkey beast’s head looking like what happens when one attempts to take a power drill to a pumpkin.
But alas, that wasn’t meant to be.
Despite coming in hard and heavy against the Dragon Thief Monkey, the aforementioned beast managed to dodge in such a way that had Nepherage and Jinju Ren bypass one another and expose their backs to him for a counterattack. On the plus side, the Dragon Thief Monkey wasn’t able to dodge completely and ended up taking a burning uppercut to the chest while avoiding Jinju Ren’s blade entirely.
POW!
BAM!
“Ow!”
[My back!]
In response to being nearly double teamed to death, the Dragon Thief monkey retaliated by using a dragon force enhanced tail against Nepherage while using the claws on it’s feet to scratch at Jinju Ren.
The former felt as if her back was just subjected to a barbed whip covered in salt, while the latter managed to defend herself with her saber in time. If it had landed, Jinju Ren’s pretty face wouldn’t be so pretty anymore. Evidently, a part of Jinju Ren couldn’t help but to feel that it might’ve been intentional.
‘Alright, I had wanted to see if I could make this thing my subordinate…but fuck that! This asshole is going into the ground!’
…
[OW, MY FUCKING BACK!]
‘I’m not even gonna ask if you’re okay because I can feel what you feel…so I’m just gonna ask if you can still fight?’
[Well, your grandfather and your fiancee’s teacher appear to be trapped and getting sapped, so I don’t really have a choice. Side note, feeling pain sucks.]
‘Think you can last another minute?’
[Yes, and I think I can buy more if necessary. Might lose my zako though.]
‘Just do what you can and try not to die.’
[Yes, milord.]
…
[Mistress, I’m gonna try and create an opening. Can you keep that monkey busy while I do a thing?]
“On it! Hah!”
“Ookie!”
After deflecting the scratch that was about to tear off her face, Jinju Ren decided that instead of creating more distance between herself and the beast, that she would just stay close and wail on the bastard with a barrage of slashes, stabs and the occasional pommel whack.
It had not escaped her notice that the Dragon Thief Monkey seemed more worried about her blade moreso than anything else everyone had used until now, including the [Astra].
Everytime that blade had gotten close it, the Dragon Thief Monkey did all it could to just avoid touching it, including earlier when it willing took an uppercut from Nepherage.
Jinju Ren had seen Zhen Liu practice with the kaijin, she knew just how hard Nepherage could punch on the regular.
Then again, it did make sense that something with dragon blood would freak out instinctually against a sword designed to subjugate them…
Either way, Jinju Ren was taught a long time ago that if you know an opponent’s weakness, you exploit the hell out of it. This advice also applied to the bedroom, but that was a conversation for another time.
[Just a couple more seconds…]
As Jinju Ren did her best to keep the Dragon Thief Monkey occupied, or possibly outright kill it, Nepherage was attempting to use one of the more complicated aether arts in her arsenal, which was taking longer than usual.
It should be noted that in terms of knowing what to do, it wasn’t an issue.
As a kaijin, any aether arts placed into her repertoire could be performed in the most efficient and devastating way possible.
The issue was that while she was in the process of channeling her aether and [Chaos] into performing the art, she also had to deal with the fact that dragon force was currently festering in her back wounds and throwing off her ability to focus.
She could’ve stopped performing the art right there and then to try and remove the dragon force on her back, but doing so left Jinju Ren more vulnerable than she already was.
On the flip side, if she ignored her wounds completely, she could finish the art but risk causing further damage to her own body.
Which is why, in a form of foolishness, Nepherage was trying to do both actions at once.
And it wasn’t going well.
[Hurry up guys, I don’t know who’s gonna break first here…]
