Chapter 906: Against the Dragon(Monkey)[1]
‘[Taboo]? We’re calling that [Regalia] enhancement thing, [Taboo]?’
=The terms, [Omen] and [Stigma], have also been submitted for two other aether cultivation abilities.=
‘For what and what?’
<=Well...=>
…
Zhen Liu’s initial plan was to have Nepherage hold the Dragon Thief Monkey long enough for him to come in and impale the bastard with the assistance of Razorstella’s [Taboo].
Then again, it probably didn’t help that her [Taboo] replaced his normal legs with slightly more blade-like ones that made it hard to maneuver. At least he looked sexy AF with his new star motif though.
Unfortunately, the Dragon Thief Monkey didn’t appreciate the sexiness and had also managed to muster enough power to not necessarily break free from the giant hand of volcanic rock, but just enough to wiggle away from the flying human dart that was Zhen Liu, and suffer a glancing blow instead.
Then again, it probably didn’t help that Zhen Liu realized about mid-flight that he should probably inform the others about what was going on and got distracted as a result.
“I have made contact with grandfather, I repeat. I have made contact with grandfather,” Zhen Liu’s “puppets” said in chorus as soon as Zhen Liu himself landed at a spot about twenty feet away from the Dragon Thief Monkey, and next to Jinju Ren and Nepherage.
[Milord!]
‘Hey, Nepherage.’
“Darling!”
“Hey, Jinju Ren.”
“When did you get a new form?”
“Oh, it’s Razorstella.”
“Ah.”
[Tell her I said, “hi”.]
“She says hi.”
This action wasn’t completely necessary on Zhen Liu’s part.
He could’ve easily just started fighting and allow his family to roll in without them knowing about what kind of situation they were dealing with, but that would’ve been defeated the whole purpose of him assigning the kaijin to everybody as a means of communication.
That stated, Zhen Liu didn’t want them to come and assist him, because there was a very likely possibility that this fight could end badly and defeat the whole purpose of them coming into this accursed jungle in the first place.
They had managed to secure four out of five objectives, while they technically only needed one.
Also, their presence would require him to hold back…and right now, holding back wasn’t an option.
On the way here, he saw how his grandfather was rendered incapacitated due to a weird energy sapping tree and felt Nepherage’s pain as she was fighting against the Dragon Thief Monkey. Jinju Ren had yet to be injured during this fight, but he could tell that if he hadn’t interfered when he did, it was very likely that this monstrous monkey was going to overpower her with her own moves.
Reckless recognized reckless, and he could tell that she was just as much as a hothead as he was.
In retrospect, that might’ve been why she proposed marrying him in the first place…
Regardless, knowing full well that if his cousins and uncles showed up that he would be forced to hold back in order to act like a normal Aether Grandmaster, Zhen Liu opted to give the rest of his family slightly more…level headed reminders.
Well, that and give the kaijin completely different instructions that were more aligned with his current thoughts and feelings.
…
What he told his family…
“Grandfather and Hermit Zhong Wei have been rendered incapacitated and are being actively drained of their powers by weird looking trees. They need extract and medical attention, but unsure on how to approach either. The cause of injury is a seventh tier dragon blooded beast, I repeat, seventh tier dragon blooded beast. I’m going to try and distract it for as long as possible so please secure the elders and head for the exit. Also, if any objectives other than the [Tempering Spirit Pond] has been secured, please also proceed to extract. I repeat, I’m only distracting this thing, please retreat to extract.”
…
What he told the kaijin…
‘Get my family’s assess to safety and get here as quick as you can. I can literally feel the dragon force off of this monkey and it’s making me panic. I can feel the shadow of death breathing down my neck, help me!’
…
“Alright, that should serve as a decent warning,” Zhen Liu said aloud to himself and the others, while maintaining a false mask of confidence and kind of forgetting that his reckless behavior was a bit genetic. “Nepherage, do you need a minute or-”
[Sieg is helping me to recover, milord, but I don’t think I’ll be much help for the moment.]
“Alright. Princess, would you mind lending me a hand here?”
“Oh? What do you have in mind?”
“You ever heard of the saying, ‘forgetting the forest of the trees’? We’re going to be changing the words to that.”
“To…”
“Staring at the stars while getting stabbed.”
…
“OOKIE!”
Shortly after Zhen Liu delivered his rather shitty warning to the rest of his family, the Dragon Thief Monkey had managed to muster enough strength to finally break free from Nepherage’s aether art with a violent roar.
The beast didn’t appreciate being turned into a sitting duck and looked for either the wreteched rock woman that forced him into that situation, or the sharp bastard that took advantage of that moment to injure him.
[Star Wheel Cutter!]
(Un)Fortunately for him, the latter had shown up to try and finish the job.
Zhen Liu had infused his arms and legs with aether and propelled himself forward like a cartwheel, causing his body to spin as fast as a buzzsaw, and aimed himself to the Dragon Thief Monkey’s left side due to noticing that this was the beast’s non-dominant side. At least, that’s the impression he got from seeing the dragon force enhanced stick in it’s right hand.
Of course, he also infused the edge of this spinning wheel with a bit of [Chaos] to cause additional pain against the Dragon Thief Monkey.
“Ookie!”
Sensing the danger from the incoming attack, the Dragon Thief Monkey proceeded to use its wings to avoid the incoming Zhen Liu and dodge to the right.
Unfortunately for it, this was in Zhen Liu’s plans.
“BOOMERANG, BITCH!”
Zhen Liu had purposely aimed himself at the Design Thief’s left side, because he knew that most people and beasts would instinctually dodge in the direction opposite of a projectile’s trajectory. Meaning that they would be left wide open to any attacks that would suddenly appear from behind.
Ideally.
Using a small bit of aether, Zhen Liu redirected his trajectory to aim for the Dragon Thief Monkey’s side.
When the Dragon Thief Monkey avoided the initial strike, he had to use its wings to propel itself in the direction opposite of the attack, meaning it had a sideways view of the incoming attack.
Seeing the boomeranging Zhen Liu, the Dragon Thief Monkey’s mind raced for a solution to avoid what he could sense was gonna be a rather damaging attack.
A part of him wanted to try and full-on counterattack, using the palm move or finger trick it learned from those two old fogeys from before, but another part of him told that trying to counter that spinning blade with such moves would end badly.
Either his palm would get split open or his tail would be bisected right down the middle, both were not pleasant outcomes, despite being able to somewhat heal from such damage.
As such, the Dragon Thief Monkey opted to dodge again, using its tail as a means or propelling itself and giving his wings time to recover.
As luck would have it though, this was the start of a very annoying pattern.
“I’LL KEEP COMING AND COMING AND COMING BABY!,” Zhen Liu yelled in a painfully loud voice.
“Ookie…”
Everytime the Dragon Thief Monkey avoided one of Zhen Liu’s spinning attacks, the stubborn bastard came swinging around back like it was nothing.
It had actually gotten to the point that the beastie wanted to copy the move for itself and start spinning in retaliation, but it couldn’t because it noticed something…weird.
Unlike the previous warriors the Dragon Thief Monkey had opied, Zhen Liu’s art was incomprehensible to his senses.
For starters, the amount of aether he was using was way higher than what this move should be using, to the point that the Dragon Thief Monkey was certain that if he tried to mimic, he’d be completely drained of aether in at least two to three rotations. This bastard had somehow done six!
Even stranger, the Dragon Thief Monkey couldn’t even track exactly how Zhen Liu was channeling his aether.
The main reason Martial Mimic Monkeys, the previous form of the Dragon Thief Monkey, could copy the aether arts of mortals was due to their ability to see how aether channels flow.
By mimicking this flow when observing aether warriors, this particular breed of primate is able to copy any move.
However, that didn’t seem to work on Zhen Liu.
As far as the Dragon Thief Monkey could tell, the man’s aether channels seemed to appear and disappear at a moment’s notice, changing and entangling like vines in the wind.
This was honestly so perplexing to the Dragon Thief Monkey that it failed to notice that directly below him and the spinning bastard, a whole mess of dragon force was being concentrated.
The origin?
The dragon girl who had almost sliced his head off, moments ago.
…
“On the one hand, this feels painfully obvious…on the other, it’s working so who am I to look a gift horse in the mouth?”
