Chapter 904: One-on-ones are for fools and heroes
[Wait a minute…that’s it!]
As Nepherage was about to deal with a good old fashioned heroes’ dilemma, she soon remembered that this kind of crap only happens in one on one situations, where the hero is the only one able to do anything.
Nepherage, however, was not really a hero, she was a monster with the ability to summon minions!
As such, while she was still preparing an aether art while actively fighting dragon force festering in her back, Nepherage managed to spare a thought and some [Chaos] towards a little copper bead that just so happened to be embedded into the side of the body. A bead that just so happened to look a lot like the zako marbles that Zhen Liu always kept on hand.
The one in Nepherage’s hip appeared to have a lot more details etched into its surface than even the modified ones that Blazejudicator could make.
That, however, could be easily attributed to the fact that this marble was an assigned zako. In other words, a direct subordinate of a kaijin.
[Sieg, help me out!]
[Aye..]
Manifesting from Nepherage’s hip, a warrior made of copper appeared and stood ready to heed his mistress’s command.
Luckily for Sieg, he didn’t have to wait too long.
[I need you to channel Chaos into my wound while I finish up this art. Understood?]
[Aye!]
[Good.]
With the command given, Siege proceeded to position himself behind Nepherage, placed his hands on her back and began to channel whatever miniscule amount of [Chaos] his body could muster.
As the energy began to flow between himself and her, Nepherage could physically feel herself feeling much lighter.
‘Hard to believe you used to be a giant golem not too long ago…no wonder milord likes working with a team,’ Nepherage briefly mused before returning to her task at hand. With someone else now being able to tend to her wounds, Nepherage proceeded to pour all of her focus into completing her aether art.
One that caused the ground around her to start cracking and glowing like a volcano about to erupt…
________________________________________
*Bing-Bong*
Oh my gods, an actual interruption that’s not needless recapping. I’m impressed.
|Shut up and read the script, please.|
Yes, yes…
…
We interrupt this chapter in order to provide the readers a brief reminder of what zakos are and how they relate to the hierarchy of Kaijin, UMAs and other [Chaos] related beings.
To summarize, zakos are what happens when an object, or material, that fails to meet the standards for normal kaijin production is infused with [Chaos].
Due to their unstable structure, zakos are unable to accommodate any aether formulas or aether arts. Additionally, their mental capacity is equivalent to that of either a very smart dog or a very dumb toddler.
In other words, if they’re asked to jump, they’ll just jump.
Even into the mouth of a giant beast.
If one were to rank a zako’s ability to do things in comparison to UMAs, kaijin, proto-kaijin and whatever the hell Paralust used to be(Parasinner), the order, in ascending order of intellect, would go something like: UMA, Zako, Parasinner, Proto-kaijin and Kaijin.
However, what they lacked in spiritual abilities and initial brains are more than made up for by the following two, technically three, features.
Firstly, physical prowess. The average zako will always be physically stronger than the average human, especially at the same cultivation rank. If a mortal Aether Acolyte got into a boxing match with a zako of equivalent rank, the zako would win nine times out of ten. That last one being against those weird super geniuses that may or may not be a reincarnated ancient expert going for another go around the bend. On a side note, depending on what kind of materials a zako is made from, they may or may not be able to use certain weapons as well.
Secondly, learning capacity. Zakos are weirdly contradictory in the sense that they have absolutely no idea how to do anything, but the moment they’re taught a skill, they’re able to mimic that skill and improve upon it. This applies to things like cooking, drawing, sewing, anything that involves good hand eye coordination or physical labor. This does not apply to things like aether arts or alchemy, anything that would normally involve aether or other magical things.
Lastly, and something that could technically be rolled into the prior one, evolution capacity.
As coal can be compressed and heated to form diamonds, and iron can be refined into making steel, zakos can be molded from throwaway artificial lifeforms, into proper kaijin that could rival even the most powerful of warriors By absorbing information, rare treasures and a whole shit load of practice and time, a zako can refine their bodies into becoming the perfect vessel for a [Core of Desire] and develop a suite of skills and arts unique to them.
Of course, these features are all rather pointless, unless a zako can reach this evolutionary state.
We apologize for the interruption, we will now return to your regularly scheduled chapter.
Thank you.
…
Man, it has been a while since we’ve done one of these informational pauses. Why’d we stop doing them again?
|You’re the one who said I needed to stop doing these tangent things for the sake of plot progression.|
Well, yeah…but I meant irrelevant tangents.
|…|
What?
|Nothing, nothing…|
Actually, speaking of zakos, do you plan on making the rest of them relevant to the story?
|Eh…there’s one I got a design for, but it’s from an artist that may or may not be a scam…|
Oof…wait, like they took the money and ran, or-‘
|It’s real, just…pretty sure I fed some sort of new scam machine.|
Ouch.
*Bing-bong*
________________________________________
Meanwhile, as Nepherage was adding the finishing touches to her aether art, the close combat encounter between the Dragon Thief Monkey and Princes Jinju Ren had suddenly taken a rather dramatic change in pace.
‘I can’t tell if I should be impressed or insulted by this thing suddenly learning how to counter my swordplay…or take it as a sign that I should be surpassing myself right fucking now!’
Initially, Jinju Ren was able to pressure the Dragon Thief Monkey with a barrage of sword attacks that caused the latter to be on his back foot. After all, attempting to block a name with bare hands was usually an incredibly stupid thing to do, especially when the blade itself also happened to be designed to hurt the target in ways unimaginable by mortal man.
However, at some point during this barrage of attacks, the Dragon Thief Monkey eventually figured out the concept of a weapon and proceeded to pick up a series of tree branches in order to counter the blade, or at least prevent his flesh from touching whatever cursed steel caused him to flinch with so much vehemence.
This led to a series of somewhat comedic moments as the Dragon Thief Monkey did it’s absolute best to try and copy Jinju Ren’s sword moves using tree branches that would get cut down and chopped to pieces one after the other.
That is, until the monkey finally got smart enough to consider that if he infused the tree branch with enough dragon force and aether in a particular way, that it could rival the sharpness and hardness of Jinju Ren’s sword…mostly.
When the sound of steel clashing against steel echoed throughout the immediate area, Jinju Ren knew that things were about to get hairy, while the Dragon Thief Monkey knew things were about to get fun.
What followed was an increasingly hectic exchange of sword blows between a princess who had been training for the better of a decade to master her craft, against a mimicking monkey that was slowly becoming better and better every time they crossed blades.
As an imperial princess, Jinju Ren knew damn well that there were records of these perverse genius young warriors that were able to evolve during the course of a single battle, so she wasn’t too surprised about being on the receiving end of such treatment. However, in contrast to most other people not wanting to fight such opponents, Jinju Ren was actually looking forward to such an encounter.
Jinju Ren had yet to face an opponent that used a similar swordplay, due to being a bit of a self-taught type of warrior and her teachers not wanting to injure her, so this thieving monkey was more or less what she was looking for.
But alas, a good time can only last so long.
In the midst of locking blades with the Dragon Thief Monkey once more, Jinju Ren suddenly heard Nepherage whisper in the back of her mind.
…
[Mistress Jinju Ren, I highly advise that you disengage immediately.]
‘Huh? Why? Things were finally getting interesting!’
[Because I’m about to release an art that’s going to hold this monkey down long enough for milord to come in and kick its head in or off.]
‘Huh…okay then.’
