Chapter 941: An Improvised Test(2)
“Ladies, gentlemen, everyone in between and the allies of the Zhen Clan, may I have your attention, por favor?”
“Huh?”
The people that were still present in the room all turned their attention towards the source of the melodic voice and instrument that had called out for them.
What they saw was a tanned, blue haired woman holding a strange wooden stringed instrument that appeared to have metallic strings.
“Who’s that?”
“Looks like a musician?”
“Wait a minute…”
A majority of the people present, the main clan members, the Corrada, the Goldshires and the Ecaredies families, didn’t know who this mysterious musician. However, they couldn’t help but be captivated by her odd looks, her magnetic voice and those strange sounding notes that seemed to make their hearts sing.
As for the people who knew exactly who this mysterious thunder woman was, they knew better than to say shit to anybody. Granted, some of them didn’t hide their acknowledgement fast enough and had to lie on the spot.
“Wait, you know who that is?”
“Uh…yes. I saw her perform at a tavern once.”
“Really?”
And thankfully for them, Hurricroak knew exactly what to say.
“Courtesy of the Inked Devil herself, I am here to provide music for all of your listening needs. At least, that’s what I was told before being given a big bag of gold and brought here in a rather forceful manner.”
“Ah, that tracks,” a main clan member commented with a knowing nod, slightly concerning everyone who wasn’t used to the Zhen Clan’s Matriarch’s activities.
“So please, enjoy,” Harriet(Hurricroak) said before she strummed a chord on her guitar as the start to a song.
To all else in the room, this sound was quite pleasant and gave them the expectation that they were about to hear something… beautiful.
To Raquel (Razorstella) it was a signal.
“Well would you listen to that, music.”
“Huh? What are you-gah!”
A signal that prompted her to forcefully lock in the assassin by grabbing his hands, pulling him in by the waist and forcing the two of them into a dance pose.
A tango, to be more specific, to go along with Hurricroak’s guitar.
At this point, the assassin thought, “fuck it, I guess she’ll be collateral”, and proceeded to hold the woman who forced him to dance in a way that his ring would eventually cut through her dress, cut her skin and infect her.
Unfortunately for him, that wasn’t going to happen. Because the moment he did just that, this happened.
‘Alright you crazy bitch, time for you to-”
Skrrt
‘What the fu-ah!’
The sound of metal scrapping against metal rang through his ears for a split second as soon his hand touched Razorstella’s back. Before he could even think as to why or how that sound could occur though, Razorstella had locked in his other hand via a partial manifestation of her claws that she sunk into his skin and flesh before he could even notice until it was too late.
“Oh? Finally noticing something wrong?”
“You bi-gasp!”
And just as he brought his attention to Razorstella herself, he saw that her features had become even sharper and looked sinisterly metallic.
“Why don’t you just enjoy this dance,moya lyubov? After all, it’s gonna be one that leads us to hell and back,” Razorstella said in tone that was as sweet as honey, but dropped with killing intent as sharp as a knife.
…
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*Bing-Bong*
Hey…why are you ending these scenes with an ellipses at the end?
|You’ll see.|
*Bing-Bong*
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Scene#3: Never Doubt the Staff
[You nestled safely up there?]
[I am.]
[Good. Need a reminder for the plan?]
[No, but I have a question.]
[Shoot.]
[Why are you so cool about being used as bait? I figured you want to be the one to take care of these guys.]
[Meh. My abilities are too loud for this sort of thing. Unless I went with Hurricroak.]
[Ah.]
[Also, we wanted these guys alive and not bleeding from every orifice on their body, right?]
[Fair enough.]
…
Poisoning an enemy’s medicine may be considered dishonorable, inhumane and horrible by most people, but the results spoke for themselves.
Was it not the grandest feeling in the world to see someone that was already writhing in pain or suffering from illness, to suddenly and abruptly suffer from even worst maladies, despite treating the initial cause?
In fact, this particular tactic was a favorite for the Plague Birds sect. After all, most people would normally seek out some form of medicine when sick or injured.
And with none other than the infamous Inked War Devil, the Demoness with Painted Skin, the Zhen Clan’s Matriarch herself being injured, why this was the best opportunity the Plague Birds could ask for.
All they had to do was taint her medicine and she’d be as weak as baby fish in the desert.
Alas, it wasn’t as simple as anticipated.
“Messy, messy, so messy!”
Because at a time when everyone should’ve been asleep or partying, there was a maid cleaning up the medicine room.
The maid in question had long white hair, a curvaceous build and a demeanor that suggested that while she was somewhat bitter on having to work at this late hour, she was still appreciative of her employment.
These details, however, didn’t matter to the Plague Bird assassins since they had a job to do.
They had initially wanted to just let her finish her task so that they could then move in and poison the medicine supply…but then she got close to their hiding spots.
Uncomfortably close.
So close in fact that the assassins started to believe that this maid was about to expose their positions, so they decided right there and then to try and kill her.
Emphasis on the word, “try”.
The pair attempted to kill her as painlessly as possible, using aether arts that coated their palms in layers of poison that were meant to destroy a person’s senses as it corroded their flesh into nothingness.
Thunk
“Huh?”
Unfortunately, Screamira wasn’t exactly pure flesh.
The moment the two assassins launched their palms forward, their hands made contact with a boney exterior that seemed to actively absorb the poisonous aether from their hands.
“H-how…”
“Well, now that’s just rude. Didn’t your mothers ever teach you not to murder a woman while she’s doing a job?”
As the assassins stared on with surprised expressions, the maid before their eyes started growing a pair of large, curving horns that made her look similar to the devil statues that their leader liked to carve from time to time.
As this happened, the shadow of death began to creep up their spines.
“And you know something?,” Screamira whispered in a voice that resonated in their heads like a bell in an echoing hall. “My friend doesn’t appreciate your rudeness either.”
Pointing a singular finger upward, Screamira directed the attention of the assassins to the ceiling.
Before they could even let out a sound of acknowledgement or realize what was going on, Spring Brawler fell towards them with a pair of heavy fists lined up with their faces.
…
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Scene#4: Frost, Fire and Plagues oh my.
[Hey…Frosttusk, can I ask you some advice?]
[Huh? That’s.. unexpected…coming from… you. What’s up?]
[Well… I’ve been trying to train up my zako, Sieg, to try and get him ready to be a full fledged kaijin, but…I can’t help but feel that he’s…stuck.]
[Stuck?]
[Yeah. I saw how you and…what have you been calling her?]
[Petraguard.]
[Yeah, her. I saw how you and Petraguard have been progressing and I’ve been trying to figure out how you got there. So… how’d you do that?]
[Ah, well…it probably helps that alongside general combat skills, I tried teaching her life skills.]
[Life skills? Really?]
[Yeah.]
[Huh… I’ll keep that mind. By the way, do you want first crack at this weirdo or…]
[Go ahead. Baller.]
…
‘Hmmm, all is going according to plan. Good.’
At a point hidden from the prying eyes of the Zhen Clan and outsiders, a man wearing an outfit reminiscent of a plague doctor was sitting and waiting for his subordinates to finish their grim and gruesome tasks.
He would’ve done it himself, but he didn’t want to dirty his hands with the blood of lesser beings.
If he was going to kill, poison or plague, they at least had to be someone as strong as the Inked Devil herself.
That and in his experience, the most potent of plagues are those that appear to be innocuous…at first.
That stated, he did feel only the tiniest bit bored waiting all this time. Which is why he started humming an old comfort song from childhood.
~First the itching, then the scratching,then the blisters then the bleeding down to the bones and beyond.~
It was a song known as the “Itching Plague song”, it wasn’t popular beyond a particular region for…obvious reasons.
~Red scabs, yellow boils and black…hmm?”
That stated, he didn’t appreciate interruptions.
“I say…what is this energy I’m feeling? It’s so…chaotic.”
