Chapter 1675: Fighting Fire With Everything
’Logos. Pathos. Before I admonish the kaijin for recklessly rushing in without my say-so, is it possible to separate the [Flame of Ambition] from Copper? The flaming fucker did just say that their consciousness was somewhere in there.’
=This is new territory, so we’re going to need to run some deep analysis on whatever the fuck is going on with Infernola. Fighting them would actually help to gather data, though.=
’Got it.’
...
The Kaijin always have, and always will be, outsiders.
Despite being made from the world’s materials and infused with the knowledge of aether formulas, they would never be truly part of the world.
As such, all Kaijin have a sense of kinship with one another,regardless of proto-status or realized-statue. Because, quite literally, they had no one else to relate to.
But...on the rare occasion that they were able to actually make friends with someone who wasn’t a kaijin, they proved themselves to be surprisingly loyal. Not as loyal as they were to their creator, but still relatively loyal.
At the same time, this was also why they innately didn’t like the concept of traitors, kin killers, or kin betrayers.
This was why Nepherage fought with such fervor back when Zhen Liu and Zhen Xing had beef.
This was also the reason why the kaijin were now attacking the artificial being known as Infernola with a level of ferocity Zhen Liu hadn’t really seen up until now.
Infernola, not only violated a proto-kaijin’s chance to exist before it could even fully do so, but had essentially admitted to murdering the sibling of someone they considered a friend.
And they really, really, didn’t like people who hurt their friends.
[We definitely outnumber his ass and we’re definitely more powerful than him,] Nepherage noted as she led the charge. [Work together and rip his ass apart!]
[Aye!]
Following this declaration of agreement, Razorstella and Hurricroak immediately sped ahead to get into fighting range with Infernola before everyone else could get in a blow.
[Nebula Cutter!]
[Thunder Vice!]
With coordinated rage, Razorstella swung one of her blade-like legs at Infernola from left while Hurricroak came in from the right with a heavy duty crab claw that was absolutely lousy with lighting-aligned aether and [Chaos]. Not only that, but Hurricroak had turned her other hand into her hornet sting launcher.
This meant that regardless of whether Inerfnola dodged or blocked the claw and blade, he would still at least take an electrified stinger to the torso.
At least, that was the plan.
What ended up happening was that Infernola used one of his hands to block Razorstella’s kick, her blade-leg sinking into Infernola’s hand by only a centimeter or two, while he used the other to technically bait the incoming claw and create a fulcrum point to prevent Hurricroak from properly firing her stinger.
[Oh that tingling sensation on my arms...is that what pain feels like? How interesting!] Infernola exclaimed with glee. [Now I wonder if you two can enjoy the same sensations!]
Suddenly twisting the hand that had caught Razorstella’s leg, Infernola grabbed her tightly by the limb and swung her into Hurricroak.
[Bah!]
[Bitch!]
The two lady kaijin were sent flying off to the side, clearing them out of the way as two more contenders tried their hands at attacking Inerfnola but at incredibly close range.
[Try to leep your eyes on the spring, firecracker!]
[Volanic Barrage!]
Springerdermain and Nepherage proceeded to close the gap and unleash a flurry of blows against Infernola with the speed of a machine gun.
They figured if big attacks weren’t going to work, then they would pepper the bastard with a thousand different impacts at a hundred different angles.
Springerdermain released hundreds of invisible blows, with the only sign of them being visible being the air distortion caused by their movements, while Nepherage’s fists were glowing with burning red rage like they were volcanic rocks being fired from an erupting volcano.
Infernola, unfortunately, proved to be faster than they had all anticipated.
[I think I saw your boss perform this trick earlier. I think I can do it better!]
In order to match with Nepherage’s and Springerdermain’s speed, Infernola proceeded to release jets of flames around his wrists in order to accelerate his own movements.
Infernola managed to catch, block, and redirect every punch thrown his way with an unerring technique that was annoying as it was impressive. Eventually, this annoyed the two attacking kaijin enough that they decided to try and change the rhythm of battle in a forceful manner.
[Hip check him!]
[Go high!]
Both Springerdermain and Nepherage leapt backwards the moment they made their plans, and they both began to charge themselves up with aether.
Nepherage was the first to strike.
[Magma Ram!]
Propelling herself forward with aether, Nepherage condensed her aether into the form of ram-headed shield made of magma and rushed towards Infernola with the intent of smashing them into molten slag.
[Meteoric Impact Palm!]
In response to Nepherage’s attack, Infernola performed a double palm strike that slammed against the magma shield.
The force blew both of them backwards several steps, but Nepherage was left a little worse for wear because her magma shield got shattered upon impact.
[Ha! That was my first—]
[Sacred Guillotine Smash!]
Before Infernola could praise himself on using his first aether art with his corporeal form, Springerdermain had positioned himself directly above Infernola and proceeded to use the power of his spring-loaded limbs to try and smash Infernola.
Unfortunately, the burning bastard was faster than anticipated and was able to avoid getting pulverized.
Springerdermain wasn’t one to give up, though.
Keeping his legs anchored, Springdermain stretched himself upwards in order to come in for another attack.
[Sacred Guillotine Smash!]
[I can’t tell if you’re insane or expecting an actual change in the results!] Infernola chided.
Springdermain stretched and slammed down over a dozen times, but Infernola stepped away with a gracefulness that would make a gazelle jealous.
As the two of them continued this dance of death, another pair of kaijin were busy moving to the left and right of Infernola’s position.
[Match me bar for bar!] Screamira said as she took a deep breath, the snarls of undead spirits seeming to overlap with her action.
[I was going to say the same thing!] Frosttusk replied while mirroring that exact action, but his breath was accompanied by freezing mist.
Springerdermain, for his part, tried to get in a parting blow before handing off Infernola to the power shriekers. Unfortunately, Infernola was proving to be the type to learn in the heat of battle.
[Buzz off!]
[Bah!]
Infernola waited until Springerdermain was seconds before impacting him to throw out a blast of fire that knocked Springdermain clear off of his feet and towards a collection of shelves.
The moment Springerdermain was cleared from the blast zone, though, was the exact same moment Frosttusk and Screamira unleashed frozen hell.
[Wail of the Damned!]
[Echoing Frost!]
[Hrk!]
On Infernola’s right, he was struck by a wall of sound that was infused with death aether.
On Infernola’s left, he was struck by an icy blast of wind that was cold enough to freeze normal mortal men down to the bone.
Combined, the two powerful yells created a perfect dome of ice and death that pressured Infernola from all sides, and forcing the newly minted metallic bastard to try and push back against the elemental forces with its own innate flame.
Clapping their hands together, Infernola began to focus the flame that burned within to create a protective shield around themselves.
[You know, you two are going to have to stop screaming eventually,] Infernola declared as he kept up the flaming shield.
Screamira and Frosttusk didn’t respond to Infernola’s obvious critique, that responsibility fell to the kaijin and protokaijin that were charging themselves up for finishing move.
In other words, that responsibility fell to Blazejudicator, Goldie, Silvie, and the Doll Twins.
Granted, they decided to wait until they had charged up a giant energy bomb infused with cursed aether, blessed aether, [Chaos], and enough fire power to rival the sun.
[And we’re pretty sure you’re not going to survive this anyways,] Porcelain Doll began to say.
[So shut the fuck up and die!] Corpse Doll finished.
[Karmic Fire Bomb!]
Combining all five of their powers, the Doll Twins, Goldie, Silvie and Blazejudicator threw the energy bomb down on Infernola’s head.
Not many beings could survive such an attack, especially when being held down by aether enhanced screams.
...Off to the side...
"Okay, I’m not gonna lie, I did not expect your kaijin to be this...brutally efficient in their attacks," Serena said with a mix of awe and fear at the coordinated murderball that was the kaijin. "I’ve seen warriors that grew up with each other show less coordination than the Kaijin."
"Welcome to the perks of telepathic communication," Zhen Liu commented with amusement. "That said, are you emotionally stable enough to fight this fucker or nah?"
"Huh? But your kaijin just—"
"I speak from experience," Zhen Liu interrupted. "Fuckers like them don’t die that easily."