Chapter 1671: Victorious Calm before the Storm
One of the most foolish things a general can do is to declare victory before a battle has properly begun.
Why?
Because even if every factor could be accounted for, every soldier trained to the absolute limit, and every weapon has been made to inflict as much damage as possible, there is still that minuscule chance that something or someone got looked over.
A traitor in the ranks, looking for a better lot in life.
A bout of bad weather fucking up a supply chain or two.
An unmarked path that one cared to place a guard against.
In other words, never take a victory for granted.
Because it could all be taken away by a single bad battle.
-The words of a general who failed to notice his sibling’s ambition.
...
"Damn, darling. You absolutely rocked his shit," Jinju Ren praised as she assessed the damage Zhen Liu had just inflicted.
Zhen Liu’s [Tiamat’s Dance] had broken in rapid succession Lofarro’s [Astra], then his [Regalia], and then the First Prince’s bones.
The attack, however, did not take the prince’s life as Zhen Liu had promised earlier.
He was, however, going to be needing bed rest for the next few weeks and a high tiered elixir.
"And yet, despite winning, you look as serious as a heart attack," Jinju Ren declared after she was done looking over Lofarro and directed her gaze at Zhen Liu.
The young Kaijin Lord hadn’t dismissed his [Regalia] after he had defeated Lofarro for one fairly solid reason.
Well, three solid reasons.
First, that False Crusader that Hurricroak was tracking had suddenly disappeared again to who knows where.
Zhen Liu had read a lot of stories up until this point in his life where people would accidentally release something dangerous in a place of great importance and then suffer due to a lack of proper preparation.
As such, he wanted to make sure that he wouldn’t be caught with his pants down.
"Logos. Pathos," Zhen Liu said aloud. "Have you managed to isolate where the hell that walking corpse went? The one that isn’t on our side, I mean."
<=We’re still having trouble locating the guy,=> the two answered simultaneously. <=But on the positive side, we have isolated the other three False Crusaders in the basement prison. We got seals in place so their ability to do anything in there has been rendered to being unable to jackshit.=>
"Good to hear. Same with the Erupting Dawn warriors?"
<=Yes.=>
"Excellent."
As for the other two reasons why Zhen Liu was keeping his guard up, they were in the process of being dealt with...mostly.
"Blazejudicator. Springerdermain. Are Abbot Hulna and Abbot Feroxxa giving you two any problems? Should I send in reinforcements?"
[Yes,] Blazejudicator answered first.
[That would be appreciated,] Springerdermain followed suit.
The fact that both of them requested back-up was interesting to Zhen Liu, since by the curstors’ calculations, even with the the power up from the [Flame of Ambition], they should both be fairly easy to handle.
Regardless, Zhen Liu knew better than to allow even a small chance of retaliation to bite him in the ass, so he didn’t question anything further until assistance had been sent.
"Understood. Any available Kaijin, you have my full permission to go and assist whomever you are closest to responding to. No need for fairness this time around, if anything, just bring down the Guillotine."
[Sir yes sir.]
[As you command, Minn Jarl.]
[Finally!]
[Let’s do this, sister!]
[Woo!]
Once he got confirmation that the Kaijin were in the move, Zhen Liu began to do the same. Before he left, though, he noticed Jinju Ren was giving him a strange look again.
"What?"
"I feel like it’s unfair to the rest of the universe that you have such an innocent face and yet can summon such a...commanding presence," Jinju Ren said with a flirtatious tone that was about as subtle as a freight train with no brakes. "Honestly, if I didn’t make Jin Fang that promise, I would be pinning you to that wall by now."
"Okay, I feel like-wait, we’re in the middle of a battle though?"
"I know, that’s what makes it hot..."
Zhen Liu stared at his hot-blooded fiancee for a couple moments in silence as he mentally arranged for the First Prince of the Erupting Dawn Empire to be brought to a specific room alongside the rest of the defeated enemies.
"I...I’m going to address that later..."
...Enough flirting, let’s focus on some fighting...
[Shield of Chastity!]
Before the pillar of flames could melt Goldie and Silvie into puddles of molten metal, Blazejudicator intercepted the attack with a swirling shield that was made of the [Flame of Chastity].
In prior moments of this battle, the [Flame of Chastity] proved to be more than effective against Hulna’s weird innate aether flame due to being made of energies that were in direct opposition to each other.
That didn’t happen this time around.
The fiery shield of [Chastity] did hold up against Hulna’s fire pillar, but it didn’t outright cancel it like it did last time.
In fact, the [Flame of Ambition] that laced Hulna’s innately magenta flames empowered it to the point of overwhelming Blazejudicator’s shield.
In a couple of moments, Blazejudicator, Goldie, and Silvie would be consumed by the flames and that would be the end of them.
Well, the end of the latter two due to them being mere protokaijin, but Blazejudicator would still end up becoming horribly injured.
But as luck would have it, reinforcements had arrived.
[Coming in hot!]
[Freeze!]
"What the fuck?!"
Nepherage and Frosttusk dropped down from above in order to rescue Blazejudicator and the two protokaijin.
To be more precise, Nepherage dove to the spot where the Kaijin were huddling behind the fire shield and scooped the trio away. This, in turn, led to the fire shield being automatically dismissed.
The moment the fire shield died out, Frosttusk became the new target, and he did his thermoacoustic thing.
As Hulna’s flames washed over him, Frosttusk’s entire body began to work overtime to convert the thermal energy into icey air.
Once he had reached full charge, Frosttusk used the power against Hulna by empowering one of his attacks.
[Echoing Frost!]
Frosttusk released a huge wave of cold air that extinguished the flame pillar and washed over the voyeuristic religious leader.
The pervert didn’t even let out a yelp before becoming entirely encased in ice.
[That...was unexpectedly easy,] Frosttusk thought to himself as he looked over the frozen priest. [Why is this feeling the beginning of something stupid?]
...Speaking of Stupid...
"Die for my sins!" Feroxxa shouted as his [Astra] was mere inches from decapitating Serena in a single strike.
[Fuck off, weirdo!]
[I’ll blow your eardrums clear out your skull!]
"Cantankerous whores!"
Before Feroxxa’s [Astra] could make contact, Razorstella dropped down and intercepted the slash with her sword-like legs. Her legs proved to be stronger than Feroxxa’s arms.
The priestly veteran attempted to retract his sword and perform another attack with the goal of severing Razorstella’s limbs. Unfortunately for his ass, there was still a third kaijin to worry about.
[Skull Rattling Scream!]
Stopping directly above Feroxxa’s head, Screamira let out a powerful scream that was empowered with enough [Chaos] and death-aligned aether to either wake up the dead or send them back to the grave.
"Grk!"
Feroxxa was, understandably, stunned by the skeletal banshee’s wail happening directly above his head. So much so that he ended up dropping and dismissing his [Astra] by pure instinct.
As he was being stun locked by Screamira; Springerdermain, Razorstella, Serena, and Copper regrouped a couple feet away to figure out their next plan of action.
[Are you guys okay?] Razorstella asked.
[Mostly.]
[Thanks for saving milady, lady!]
"Wait, I thought you and the other kaijin were busy fighting the False Crusaders and Erupting Dawn Royals," Serena pointed out,"not that I’m complaining."
As she said that last comment, Serena began to unconsciously rub the side of her neck.
While she had faith in her [Regalia] and the power of the [Sacred Flame], she still didn’t like the idea of her head being removed by a rogue strike to the neck.
[We figured out some ways to deal with the False Crusaders and the Erupting Dawn guys are getting their asses kicked in as we speak,] Razorstella explained before turning towards Feroxxa. [So, do you and Copper wanna do the honors, or do you want us to do it?]
"That depends,is Hulna dead or captured?" Serena asked.
[Captured.]
"Then go ahead, because I’m fairly certain that I’m going to kill this man if I get the chance."
[Understandable.]
Razorstella shared a brief look and a nod with Springdermain before the two of them immediately prepared their finishing move against Feroxxa.
It sounded fancy, but in practice, it was very... straightforward and simple.
Razorstella simply ran and leapt towards Springerdermain, the spring-limbed magician then used himself as a platform to slingshot Razorstella at incredibly high speeds.
Needless to say, Feroxxa wasn’t able to properly defend against such an attack while in the middle of being stun locked.
"How the fuck is that supposed to not kill him?!" Serena understandably asked.
[Wait for it.]
The sound that followed wasn’t one of razor blades cutting into flesh, but of a loud this that was accompanied by crunching bones.
[Razorstella coated her blades in aether.]
"Oh..."