Chapter 1073: Back-to-Back Buffs and Debuffs

<Mazel tov! It appears Spring Brawler has evolved into...Springerdermain? The hell kind of name is that?>

=I think it’s a play on the word, "ledgerdemain". Hence the whole new Spring-Heeled Jack the magician get-up.=

<I was going to make a Tuxedo Mask joke, but same thing I guess.>

=They’re really not.=

<Anywho, do ya think this sudden kaijin evolution will be enough of a power boost to get our lord back on his feet?>

=Seeing as it happened right after Nepherage, Frosttusk and Hurricroak fused into a brand new Kaijin that drained then of most of their [Chaos]? I’m gonna go with...no.=

<Fair enough, we’d need three kaijin being made to fix something like this. Granted, we definitely don’t have the proper materials at the moment.>

...

{Inheritance protocol is at seventy-five percent...stopping. Pausing protocol until Kaijin Lord input can be received. Kaijin Lord input is mandatory.}

...

’Shit, shit, shit! I gotta warn Jin Fang, right now!,’ Zhen Liu told himself as he tried and failed to get his body moving again.

In the span of time Zhen Liu’s body had hit the ground and Jin Fang had tagged in and was about to deliver a home run hit on Gao Shen Yuan’s skull, a lot of things happened. To be more precise, his kaijin were undergoing a lot of changes that he could feel were happening, but wasn’t able to fully see due to his injured state. He did feel the results though.

For a brief moment, he felt that Nepherage, Frosttusk and Hurricroak had somehow combined into a gestalt kaijin or something, and proceeded to beat the everliving shit out of the Grafted warriors. Surprisingly, none of the Grafted died and one got away, but the remaining two were easy to capture.

Unfortunately, as a result of this amazing fusion trick, Zhen Liu’s [Chaos] got drained to an absurd degree. It felt like the time he fired off the [Godoku Gourd] back in Insect Hell, but twice as draining.

In other words, Zhen Liu didn’t even have enough power at that point in time to fire off even a small ball of [Chaos].

However, two minor events happened shortly after that allowed him to recover just a small modicum of his drained power supplies.

First, he wasn’t entirely sure what was going on with Screamira and Razorstella, but the two kaijin he sent to look after his cousins had somehow received kaijin focused medical treatment and were now slowly recovering.

Thanks to the feedback, he received some of the benefits but not enough to get moving again.

Second, and more importantly, Spring Brawler had somehow evolved into becoming Springerdermain.

The last two times a protokaijin had evolved into a full blown kaijin, Zhen Liu received a massive power spike that made him hit a lot harder, made him take way more brutal hits and even caused his cultivation to progress in leaps and bounds.

Unfortunately, that really didn’t happen this time around.

Due to the soul shredding injuries caused by Buzza, being quickly followed by massive changes in his [Chaos] levels thanks to kaijin feedback, Zhen Liu was now in a state where his mind was fully awake but his body was basically useless.

Which was why he was now internally freaking out.

Because he was now fully cognizant to the fact that Jin Fang was putting herself in a very precarious situation. By focusing her attack on the Fallen’s Matriarch, she had completely forgotten to take into account that there was an enemy kaijin in the form of Buzza.

Granted, that might’ve been on purpose.

Zhen Liu’s mind might’ve been fuzzy for most of this encounter, but he saw how the insect-like kaijin had been holding himself back for most of this fight. Other than Jin Fang’s initial surprise attack, Buzza didn’t really need to defend himself against Jin Fang’s subsequent attacks.

If anything, it appeared that he was trying to figure out what Jin Fang was able to do... and waiting for an opportunity to strike.

But not just any opportunity.

If Zhen Liu understood anything about Buzza at this point was that he was the type of crazy that cared more about his questionably scholarly pursuits and making sure that the people who were bankrolling his endeavours were more than willing to pay the price of whatever he needed.

Even if it meant their own lives.

As such, moments before Jin Fang’s bat made contact with Gao Shen Yuan’s head, Buzza finally made his move.

[Been awhile since I used this trick. Chaos Art: Beelzebub’s Parasite Bolt!]

’Wait a minute, what the fuck did that guy just say?’

After declaring his attack, Buzza proceeded to expel from his mouth, a fat looking bolt-shaped worm directly towards Jin Fang.

If this worm made contact with her, things would get ugly incredibly fast.

If that bolt made contact with Jin Fang, not only would she end up getting blasted into a nearby wall, but the nasty secret of the bolt would kick in.

The parasite would dig deep into her skin and flesh, until it managed to worm it’s way into her spine and take over her nervous system.

Then, over the course of several minutes, she would mutate into an abomination very similar to a certain Grub. Unlike Grub though, the parasite would make Jin Fang into Buzza’s slave.

Fortunately, this didn’t come to pass.

’Damnit, I can’t move!’

[But I can! Temperance Bolt!]

Before the parasitic bolt could nail Jin Fang and cause a heartbreaking tragedy, Blazejudicator managed to manifest part of his arm from out of Zhen Liu’s body and fire a bolt of deep blue flames.

Fortunately, the bolt was fast enough to intercept the parasite bolt and destroy it.

BOOM!

’Yes!’

"Ah!"

"My eyes!"

"Bitch!"

[Meh, still works.]

’Damnit’

Unfortunately, the resulting explosion caused by the bolts made of [Chaos] impacting each other was strong enough to knock away Jin Fang from her attack path anyways. On the plus side, it also knocked away Gao Shen Yuan into Gao Dau again and sent them both tumbling to the floor again.

"Tsk!"

|Batter up! Mist Glamour!|

With her attack now interrupted, Jin Fang attempted to disappear from view again.

Unfortunately, Gao Shen Yuan was now done with all of this bullshit.

"You know, I was saving this for if that crazy tattooed bitch showed up...but I think now is as good a time as any."

From a spatial treasure ring around her waist, Gao Shen Yuan summoned forth a strange looking trinket that was shaped like

a dragon’s head wrapped in chains.

"Oh balls."

It took Jin Fang and Zhen Liu all of one second to sense the Dragon Force coming off of it, and another second to mentally complain that everyone they’ve been meeting lately seems to use Dragon Force.

’Maybe I am cursed,’ Zhen Liu griped.

"Ensnare! [Schwartz Drachen Kette]!"

’Was that German?!’

[I think that was Umbral Speak.]

As soon as these words were said, the chains wrapped around the dragon head figurine broke apart. Moments later, the figurine open it’s mouth and countless other chains began to pour out like a waterfall and surge towards Jin Fang.

"Too fast! I can’t -ah!"

Jin Fang couldn’t even attempt to dodge as the chains moved to cocoon her like spider.

’Okay, that’s not good. But maybe I can-OOP!’

Surprisingly, not even Zhen Liu was spared from being bound in chain.

Second later, both Jin Fang and Zhen Liu were now entirely wrapped in Dragon Force empowered chains and made to dangle in front of the Fallen warriors and Buzza.

Neither of them struggled against their bonds though, as Jin Fang knew doing so would be a waste of energy while Zhen Liu was still more or less tapped.

With their most obvious forms of interference now out of their way, Gao Shen Yuan, Gao Dau and Buzza took this time to recover and reconvene. Granted, the latter was no staring at the former two out of concern.

"Matriarch, that treazzzure..."

"Powerful, isn’t it?," Gao Shen Yuan asked with a smirk. "I found this in the possession of a merchant from Umbral Spider. Supposedly, they would use these as a means to hunt dragons in Radiant Feather, using Caligos dragon force to counter Luxarii dragon force. Ever since you mentioned how Dragon Force was one of the main weaknesses of [Chaos], I figured I could use this to bind that painted bitch. But, I guess using it on the current Kaijin Lord and his consort works just as well."

"I zzzee..."

"Don’t worry, Buzza. I won’t use this treasure against you. After all, I now you owe my life."

"Thank you, Matriarch," Buzza bowed.

Once this exchange came to an end, Gao Dau decided to speak up.

"Matriarch, do I have your permission to execute these two interlopers? I’ve been meaning to see if this new eye of mine can truly cause someone to die mentally before they do physically."

"Not yet, Torture Elder. For now, we should claim our prize, yes?"

"Of course, Matriarch."