Chapter 1665: Two Down
Misery comes in pairs.
A lot of people believe that when one bad thing happens, it will be immediately followed by another more terrible event.
Some simply call this "misery."
Others call it "karma."
Personally... I prefer the butterfly effect.
Because sometimes, one’s misfortune is another’s jackpot.
Or in some cases, the misfortune of others is exactly what someone else is looking for.
-The words of someone who once burned down a kingdom by playing a simple game of marbles...and nothing else.
...Before we get to the actual meat, here’s a mental convo shared by some of the kaijin...
<= Attention all kaijin, Rianna has managed to defeat one of the False Crusaders. We repeat, they have managed to defeat one of the False Crusaders! =>
[Impressive.]
[Not bad.]
[FUCKING HOW?!]
[...come the fuck again?]
=She said it stupidly, but you have to separate the body parts and then nail them with a second attack while they’re regenerating. It gets them stuck in a loop. =
[Deadass?!]
<=Deadass.=>
[Godsdammint...]
...Now let’s get physical...
One of the greatest advantages that the kaijin had over other enemies was the fact that they were able to share information with one another at the speed of thought without needing to pause during a battle.
As such, Frosttusk, Razorstella, and Hurricroak were all able to learn how to deal with their False Crusader problems simultaneously.
What followed could best be described with the words "immediate victory"...mostly.
Razorstella did her own version of Rianna’s teardown method, where she sliced her opponent into pieces with her sword-like legs before using a bit of [Chaos] to create iron knives from her claws and pinning the pieces down.
After the deed was done, Razorstella got to experience firsthand what Rianna had to deal with after her victory
Namely, a very whiny decapitated head.
"H-hey! Put my body back together!"
[No.]
Frosttusk, on the other hand, didn’t have to deal with such annoying behavior.
Once he had received the information, Frosttusk immediately used [Echoing Frost] and froze his opponent in a solid block of ice before slamming into it with the same amount of force one would use to take down a castle wall.
Needless to say, Frosttusk’s opponent was rendered mute and unable to keep fighting.
[I can’t tell if I find this conclusion is satisfying or the prelude to something worse,] Frosttusk muttered as they held the frozen head of the defeated Magnarus
Now, it would be safe to assume that after Hurricroak had finished blasting the ever-living shit out of her opponent with her impromptu [Chaos] art’s symphonic smackdown, she would just pin the smoldering remains with a fuckton of giant hornet stingers.
Unfortunately, and unexpectedly, that didn’t happen.
In fact, Hurricroak wasn’t even able to fully finish her attack against the undead fucker.
Her orchestral attack had reached a midpoint, a lull in the music while she charged up the most powerful portion of the attack, [Thunderous Percussion], when the False Crusader did something that went against the pattern it had established during the fight.
Without warning, or perhaps because it sensed the fate of its compatriots, the False Crusader suddenly regenerated three times faster than before and immediately got to fleeing like a reborn phoenix being chased by a giant demon frog.
[You motherfucker, get back here!] Hurricroak roared as she gave chase and concentrated [Chaos] and aether into her eyes in order to keep track of the disappearing corpse warrior. Unfortunately, this had the effect of forcing her to end her attack early.
As Hurricroak chased after the False Crusader, the pursued corpse warrior suddenly began to flick and glitch like a shadow until suddenly disappearing.
[What the fuck?!]
Hurricroak stopped as she tried to use her other senses to locate the False Crusader. Unfortunately, nothing seemed to work.
She couldn’t hear any sounds associated with the undead warrior, nor could she smell anything remotely like the guy either. On top of that, her own electromagnetic senses and aether senses couldn’t pick up any energy in the slightest.
It was almost like they had teleported...wait a minute...
[Logos, Pathos. Did that smooth-talking asshat teleport elsewhere into the library or is he just gone?]Hurricroak asked the curators once she had managed to calm down long enough to realize the possibility.
The answer she received though wasn’t satisfactory in the slightest. In fact, it was actually kind of worrying.
Pathos answered first.
=Unfortunately, they’re now just...gone.=
[Are you...FUCKING KIDDING ME?!]
Hurricroak wouldn’t normally get this upset over losing a target. However, the False Crusader and their sweet lies had been plaguing her brain for the past fifteen or so minutes in a non-stop manner. She had wanted to personally put an end to such nonsense.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t going to be happening quite yet.
[Fucking hell...] Hurricroak grumbled. [Maybe if I just use a lot of sonic attacks I can echolocate the—]
<=Don’t do that,=> Logos and Pathos interjected. <=The library is already stressing out over the battles and we don’t need someone going nuts because they have a deeply personal beef with one of the invaders. If anything, we suggest you retreat and meet up with the others. There’s a very real possibility that after retreating and regrouping, that particular False Crusader will appear like some kind of shitty twist boss at the end. You can have your vicious catharsis then.=>
[...tsk! Fine!]
Hurricroak let out a snort that turned into a tiny storm cloud before listening to Logos and Pathos and retreating to meet up with the other kaijin.
From what she had managed to glean from the others, they were already on the right track to winning this entire battle.
There was, however, one unfortunatel hiccup that had the potential snowball. Especially since it could very much involve the missing False Crusader.
... Perspective switch...
’Gone. Perfect.’
Once that blasted frog woman had left the area, the False Crusader reappeared like a stain suddenly showing up on a plain white canvas.
The False Crusader maintained a neutral expression since they were first caught, during the battle, and even now when it had all but ended.
However, if one were to examine the False Crusader’s aura at this time, they would notice a feeling of annoyance coming off of them.
’Bolandra, Magnarus, and Vitani were some of the most powerful warriors in the mercenary armies when they were alive. I suppose even with the infusion, that their skills would degrade. Then again, it probably didn’t help that I concentrated most of the power into this vessel...oh well.’
The False Crusader immediately disregarded his defeated allies and focused on the ones that were still capable of fighting.
Which, depressingly, referred to Abbot Hulna and Abbot Feroxxa.
Closing their eyes, the False Crusader focused on the sparks they were implanted into the souls of his mortal allies to determine if they were still alive and fighting.
’Ah. There you two are.’
In that moment, they confirmed that they were both alive and fighting. However, they also determined that they were fighting in an uneven scenarios.
If the False Crusader didn’t assist one or the other fast enough, they were both going to lose.
’I don’t mind if one of them falls and fails, but I can’t lose them both quite yet,’ The False Crusader eventually determined. "So which should it be."
In their senses, Hulna was directly closer. If they flew as fast as an arrow, they would be able to intervene before any real damage could be inflicted upon the preacher of love, peace, and rampant orgies.
On the other hand, while Feroxxa was farther, they could sense that the Abbot of War could easily defeat their opponents as long as he had back up. The man may have had an "honorable" reputation, but the False Crusader knew that they were more than willing to play dirty as long as it ended in victory.
’If the others hadn’t been captured, then I could’ve worked with them to overpower the kaijin and then assist those two stupid priests of mine...’ the False Crusader thought to themselves before finalizing their course of action. ’But I suppose, sacrifices must be made.’
Knowing which of the priests was going to be better in the long run, the False Crusader turned back into a fleeting shadow and ran down the halls as quick as they could.
For a brief moment, they thought about the fact that the Erupting Dawn Elites and the princes were actually closer and that they could make decent allies of opportunities.
But alas, they shot down that idea as quickly as they thought about it.
’I don’t need the competition for ownership of this place, and besides...if they happen to die in glorious battle, then I could use their corpses for glorious conquest. It’s a win-win for me.~’
Little did the False Crusader know, this decision was going to bite them in the ass.
Hard.