Chapter 1637: Practice makes Perfect
*Bing-Bong*
Are you serious?
|Weh?|
For the first time in...heaven knows how many Chapters at this point, you’re making it so that our protagonist, a guy whose whole schtick is knowing what the fuck everyone is doing thanks to a network of homemade monstorisities, is not getting the complete picture and acting on it?
Deadass?
|Yeah.|
Why...?
|Because...I want to see what happens.|
...fair enough.
|...|
...
|...|
So...where are we picking up this Chapter?
*Bing-Bong*
...
"I hope you’re ready for my next big attack!" Zhen Xing shouted as the spiritual shadow of a nine-tailed fox began to form around him.
"Bring it on!" Zhen Tai retorted as a giant two-headed fire snake began to form around him.
Due to the immense size of Emberona and the variety of religious sects running the place, the concept of zoning laws or building regulations was...considered mildly laughable.
As such, Zhen Liu and his companions were able to train and practice their abilities in relative privacy by renting out an arena from one of the more martially inclined sects. Granted, they did have to beat up the leaders of said sects first in order to prove themselves, but that was a relatively easy task given recent developments.
Namely, the fact that Zhen Xing and Zhen Tai had both reached the very limit of Aether Master and were now on the cusp of becoming Aether Grandmasters.
Already, one could see the faint outline of [Regalia] forming around their bodies as they continued to trade blows in the training arena.
From the outside looking in, Zhen Xing’s Regalia had a fox-like finish to it and could vaguely resemble a samurai and a shinto priest mixed together.
As for Zhen Tai’s, his had a vaguely Southeast Asian vibe to it, completed with a pair of gauntlets that greatly resembled a pair of snake heads.
Of course, these details were in flux due to the wielders not being at the Grandmaster level where they could be fully realized and take proper shape.
Regardless of this ephemerality, the two young warriors could still at least take a step into that level of power that has eluded them thus far.
[Five-Tails: Crushing Flame Coil!]
[Boitata’s Hunt!]
The shadow surrounding the two young scions flared to life when they attacked, unleashing a burning rage that could scorch the hairs off a man’s brow in a matter of seconds.
Zhen Xing’s attack took the form of a five-tailed fox that released a flurry of flaming tails that aimed to ensnare and crush Zhen Tai like he was a metal goblet.
Zhen Tai’s attack, on the other hand, took on the form of a giant flaming serpent that wanted to swallow Zhen Xing’s body and soul.
These attacks were technically only at the intermediate-rank Ethereal grade, but the power of [Chaos] infused in them allowed the attacks to reach the middling part of the major rank.
In other words, if any regular Aether Master tried to match them attack for attack, that poor bastard was going to be in for a very bad time.
A cacophonous roar rang out as the arena filled with heat the moment the two attacks made contact with one another.
Both Zhen Xing and Zhen Tai clicked their tongues in dissatisfaction as they found themselves evenly matched.
"One more time!"
"Agreed!"
Both Zhen Xing and Zhen Tai began to charge up their aether once more in preparation for another exchange of blows.
Unfortunately for them, their training session was technically a timed affair. And the people set to replace them had arrived.
"Hey! Time’s up! Let someone else have a turn."
"Yeah!"
"Awww."
Off to the side of where the Zhen Clan scions were fighting, Rianna and Jinju Ren had entered so that they could have their turn in the ring.
There was technically a power discrepancy between the two, with the latter being a newly minted Aether Lord while the former had broken through to Aether Grandmaster; however, they weren’t going to be pulling out all of the stops for this practice bout.
The purpose of their training was a bit more focused.
"Clear out, boys; the girls need to practice how to pincushion someone and how to prevent such a fate from befalling us," Jinju Ren declared as she entered the ring. The aforementioned boys wanted to protest, but they did as requested and powered down their respective attacks.
Although, they did take the opportunity to whine in the process.
"But we’re super close to breaking through ourselves; I can feel it!" Zhen Xing complained. "I mean, we just reached the limit of the Aether Master rank recently, but still."
"Yes, and you’ll still be there after this training session," Jinju Ren assured the two scions of her beloved’s clan. "Now do me the kindness of allowing Rianna to try her best in punching me full of holes. You can watch to get some pointers on how to reach the next stage yourselves."
"Fair enough..."
Zhen Xing and Zhen Tai did as suggested and exited the arena to watch as Rianna and Jinju Ren underwent their own training session.
The former stood at one end of the arena, preparing her bow and arrows and practicing to make sure she could infuse the ammo with [Chaos] and aether.
As for the latter, she simply began to perform some stretches and readied her saber.
However, this wasn’t the full extent of their preparations.
"You ready to enter the first stage?"
"Ready!"
[Regalia, on!]
Jinju Ren had been an Aether Grandmaster longer than Rianna, so hers manifested rather quickly.
The familiar form of a Pearl Scale Imperial armor formed around Jinju Ren’s form, transforming her into the dragon-blooded war goddess that rarely graced the vision of the Zhen Clan warriors. Thanks to her recent breakthrough, the armor looked even more regal and was even denser when it came to its aether concentrations.
Rianna’s [Regalia] though was no less majestic, but in a different way.
Due to her history of living in Insect Hell for most of her life, Rianna’s [Regalia] had a decidedly insect-like charm to it.
Her aether had condensed not into a singular dragon before transforming into armor as it did with Jinju Ren; instead, her aether took the form of a swarm of various types of insects that engulfed her before transforming into a suit of armor that looked a lot like chain mail or scale mail. However, if one were to take a closer look at the composition of the ringlets, they would notice that they were actually small insects with various patterns to their bodies.
Completing the look, Rianna was wearing a helmet that vaguely resembled a grasshopper in a way that made a certain boy in her life let out a funny sound that caused her to giggle.
Once both the warrior women had fully donned their [Regalia], they prepared themselves for a "friendly" spar.
"Ready?"
"Ready."
"Go!"
Rianna was the first act, as she notched an arrow in her bow and fired off a shot in a matter of milliseconds.
The arrow flew with such power and speed that it broke the sound barrier with a loud cracking sound and almost nailed Jinju Ren directly in the shoulder.
However, the dragon-blooded warrior princess was faster than that.
With a quick swing of her saber, Jinju Ren slashed the arrow in two without somehow breaking its momentum. Instead, the arrow fragments ended up impacting the ground and forming two tiny craters directly behind her.
Sensing an opportunity, Jinju Ren proceeded to charge forward with her saber positioned in such a way that it could be used in the same way one might use a lance and attempt to stab at Rianna’s abdomen.
At the last second, though, Jinju Ren missed.
Why?
Because moments before the blade could make contact, Rianna proceeded to roll to the side in a very...odd manner.
She had essentially fallen directly onto her back and somehow slid across the ground in such a way that it gave her time to reload her bow and aim a new arrow at Jinju Ren’s back.
The only reason why she was able to pull off such a weird move was because of her [Regalia].
The myriad of tiny insects that composed the ringlets weren’t just for show. If one were to somehow examine Rianna’s movements during this time, they would be able to see that the tiny insect-like ringlets could move on their own with tiny little legs.
Now that Rianna was in a better position, she decided that now was a good time to actually attempt to use an aether art.
[Charging Atlas Shot!]
After charging the arrow with enough aether, she let loose with the aim of nailing Rianna directly in the back. As the arrow flew, the aether empowering it caused it to transform into a huge Atlas beetle with wickedly sharp horns.
The horns looked sharp enough to pierce through steel, while the force behind the show was enough to pulverize stone.
In other words, this attack of Rianna’s would be more than enough to pierce through Jinju Ren’s [Regalia].
