Chapter 1654: Battle Royale (1)
’Frosttusk. Blazejudicator. Quick question: can either of you find an opportunity to come and assist me against Prince Lofarro? Turns out the man has a kind of dragon force that’s fire-aligned, er sun-aligned, so I need either ice power or better firepower.’
[Can’t do that, minn jarl,] Frosttusk answered with surprising alacrity in his voice. [This False Crusader is proving tougher than anticipated.]
[I also cannot assist,] Balzejudicator followed up. [Abbot Hulna is proving to be a surprisingly desperate enemy.]
’Oh boy.’
...It’s better to show than tell, so here’s Frosttusk first...
[Ha!]
"HA!"
BOOM!
Frosttusk circulated aether and [Chaos] around his fist, creating an aura of intense cold that could instantly freeze a target on contact. And if the aura wasn’t enough to stop someone in their tracks, then he would simply follow up by stealing the heat from their bodies directly after piercing whatever miniscule defenses they had with the power of [Chaos].
On the flip side, the False Crusader known as Magnarus had transformed his fist into a mechanical one that seemed to have a turbine built into the wrist. While this didn’t give his fists any additional elemental effects, it did multiply his base destructive power by a factor of three. Combined with a bit of the special aether flame inside of his body, Magnarus was more than ready to match Frosttusk blow for blow.
Which is precisely what happened as the two warriors’ fists collided with one another and created a massive explosion of kinetic force and ice in opposite directions of one another.
The force was enough to force both of them to take several steps backwards as they were forced to assess the damage that they took during the exchange.
[Hmm?!]
"Gah! My arm!"
Frosttusk was made of Fenrirtite, one of the strongest metals in the world of Valresta and the reason why he was able to absorb heat so much more efficiently than anyone else with his formula.
However, in this short exchange of blows with Magnarus, something borderline impossible happened.
Magnarus had managed to dent one of Frosttusk’s fingers.
This didn’t seem like much to most, but this was the first time in a long time since anyone had managed to even partially injure the mammoth of a kaijin in conflict.
That said, the False Crusader had gotten away from this situation in a much worse state.
The corpse warrior’s arm had become encased in ice from fist to elbow, rendering the limb somewhat useless unless the man decided to use it as a bludgeoning instrument.
If this attack had been used on someone with living flesh and blood, this would’ve been a case of instant frostbite.
However, neither side took this damage lying down.
[Hmmm...]
Channeling the power of [Chaos] from his surroundings, Frosttusk concentrated it around his hand and essentially buffed out the dent in an instant. That said, he could still feel that the finger wasn’t going to bend quite how it used to just moments ago.
On the other side, Magnarus took a more...draconia method of fixing his frozen arm.
The corpse of a warrior ripped off his frozen arm, ignited it in the flames that kept his dead beating to melt away the ice, and then proceeded to reattach it as if it were the most natural action in the world.
Frosttusk was mildly shocked at the sight but not by much, given his own kaijin brethren being of...similar constitution.
However...he couldn’t help but to notice that the False Crusader performing the action had oddly dead-looking eyes as he did. Almost as if he were doing it unaware of what he did.
The words that followed this moment confirmed this fact.
[It’s not often I see someone other than my fellow kaijin perform impromptu surgery on themselves in such a manner. The ease in which you performed suggests you’ve done this before,] Frosttusk noted.
"Huh? What are you talking about?" Magnarus asked with a weird expression on his face. "I just performed a simple infusion of aether to the afflicted limb."
[I...I don’t think ripping off your limb and lighting it on fire is a standard procedure for aether warriors.]
"I did what?!"
[Huh...]
Needless to say, Frosttusk was now even more confused when it came to the nature of these False Crusaders.
...Well, that’s how the grunts are technically fighting; what about the elite?...
[Spear of the Sun Piercer!]
[Whoa!]
[Dodge it!]
As Hulna charged forward, righteous fury burning his chest and madness in his eyes, Goldie and Silvie made moves to the left and right in order to dodge the attack. However, they weren’t the main targets for this assault.
[Oh?]
Blazejudicator was more or less still sitting despite Hulna’s aggressive actions because it was his duty as a judge to preside over the whole affair...at least, as long as he wasn’t directly involved.
The moment Hulna decided to attack him, though, all bets were off.
[Flame of Chastity.]
The moment the spear attempted to run him through, Blazejudicator summoned a barrier of light blue flames that were the conceptual opposite of whatever the hell Hulan was attempting to pierce him with.
"What the fuck?!"
As such, Hulna’s attack more or less fizzled out as he felt as if he were trying to stab a brick wall with a rotten stick.
This, in turn, left him wide open for a counterattack.
[Punishers?]
[On it!]
[Die, motherfucker!]
Blazejudicator didn’t act, instead allowing Goldie and Silvie to get in the first blow instead.
Goldie manifested a lance of gold that carried with it the power of the deep blue sea, while Silvie summoned a silver scimitar that was engulfed in blazing red flames.
The coordinated attack came with such speed and ferocity that even though Hulna was an Aether King, he had no choice but to tank the attacks with his [Regalia].
"Gah!"
The double strike knocked Hulna’s ass several steps back and left rather noticeable marks on his armor.
A deep spiraling wound like a whirlpool appeared over his chest where Goldie’s lance had struck, while a long burning gash appeared where Silvie’s scimitar had slashed him.
The wounds, however, didn’t last for too long.
Before the eyes of the kaijin and protokaijin duo, the wounds on Hulna’s body suddenly ignited with the same strange flame that he had attempted to use to attack Blazejudicator with just moments ago.
In a matter of moments, the wounds disappeared, and Hulna looked...oddly aroused.
The aura he was giving made Goldie and Silvie feel uncomfortable; the words he used after healing cemented that feeling.
"Oooh, such exquisite pain..." Hulan said in a voice that sounded wrong on multiple levels. "Let us indulge in this suffering even further!"
[What the fuck?]
Before Silvie and Goldie could process Hulna’s words, the abbot proceeded to perform a leaping spin smash with his [Astra].
[Dusk Smasher!]
...Now what do the overseers think?...
<Hmmm. Should we be worried about our lord about having to face someone who is actually stronger than him for once, or nah?>
=Meh. We’ve seen him get out of worse before, = Logos answered as she watched Zhen Liu summon zakos to run cover for him. =Besides, I think Lady Jinju Ren might be able to help with this soon.=
<Fair enough. How is everyone fairing against their respective opponents? >
=So far, so good,= Logos answered his counterpart as they changed the displays to the various battles happening all over the library. =All parameters appear to be in the green, and the Kaijin are more or less keeping up with their opponents. Although there is some weirdness in regard to the warriors originating from the Sacred Flame Theocracy, it is nothing too out of the ordinary. =
<Excellent...actually speaking of weirdness from those Sacred Flame fuckers...>
Pathos snapped a finger, and the display showing Hurricroak still searching for the missing False Crusader suddenly became the most prevalent of the displays.
From what they could see, Hurricroak was searching through an area of the library that had been transformed into a swamp, as per the order of the Kaijin Lord to turn the library into a dungeon of insanity.
Of course, none of these places were to transform until the enemy was present...which meant that this was a good and bad sign.
<Hurricroak, how are you holding up? Did you get a trace on him? >
[Kind of?] Hurricroak admitted. [It’s weird, because I am picking up his signal every now and then, but then it gets scrambled and changed into another being entirely. He’s either incredibly adaptive or is doing this on purpose. Either way, the only reason I know I’m on the right path is because of the library activating its defenses.]
=That’s...oddly worrying,= Logos noted. =So this False Crusader has enough of a presence to set off the library’s defenses but not any of our sensors? Weird...=
[Didn’t you one time tell us that the library also has a tendency to act on its own independent of you two? Is this a case of that?]
<No, we said that those of appropriate disposition and power could influence the library to....hmmm.>
[...]
=...=
<Okay, we may need to find this false crusader sooner rather than later.>
Comments