Kaijin Fighter: So I Have to Make Monsters, So What?-Chapter 1303: At the mercy of others

Zhen Liu, back when he was Thomas Lee on a certain blue planet, used to partake in digital piracy.

He didn't think anything was wrong with it at first, since he was of the belief that anything posted on the Internet was fair game, but then he started actually working in those creative and digital entertainment spaces, befriended people who were a part of it, that he realized how incredibly harmful it was.

Well, how incredibly harmful it was to individuals and indie creators, he didn't give a rat's ass when it came to the stuff produced by giant corporations that nickel and dime everything basic.

Regardless, once he started to realize how harmful it was, he began to put in effort in supporting those original creators.

However, he never really felt or understood the rage that those creators felt...until now.

Granted, he had no idea if this counted since his creative output consisted of walking, talking anamolies of nature as opposed to pieces of art, but the principle was probably the same.

Maybe.

What was interesting about this feeling, to Zhen Liu at least, was that he didn't feel this way when he saw Buzza with the Grafted.

Maybe it was because Buzza didn't call himself "Kaijin Lord" at the time, or maybe because the Grafted were still overall human, but this other Kaijin Lord had been rubbing Zhen Liu the wrong way at every single interaction they had, directly or indirectly.

The callous way he treated his Kaijin, pissed Zhen Liu off.

The fact that most of his Kaijin were the result of incredibly questionable surgery, pissed Zhen Liu off.

That every single last [Core] of these Kaijin were the result of sapping away [Desire], sealing it in bars of Malevolent Gold in order to twist it into [Disgust], pissed Zhen Liu off to no end.

Evidently, it was a good thing that Zhen Liu had sent off the Kaijin when he did, because he was fairly certain that they would've acted upon his feeling by now and they would be the ones flying into a rage at this mockery in his stead.

But alas, they were busy with another task that he had bestowed upon them, so Zhen Liu had to deal with this feeling of rage all by himself.

Although, it did bring him some level of comfort knowing that things happening in the background were going to make this guy eat dirt.

"You know, my Kaijin have told me that you're unable to cultivate aether, like those slaves down there were unable to" the Kaijin Lord casually mentioned as he watched his new experiments fight the unusually clever Aetherii and swordsman. "If you'd like, I think I can fix that for you."

"How so? By turning me into one of them?"

"No no no! You misunderstand," the Kaijin Lord refuted. "The ones down there are experimental. I'm promising to bestow upon you the finished product once I work out all of the kinks."

"Kinks?"

"You saw how they mutated the moment they absorbed those other Kaijin cores, right? And how the Kaijin seemed to split apart? I'm aiming for all the power, but none of the drawbacks. Perfect fusion."

"Perfect...fusion?"

Zhen Liu had a good idea on what this psychotic motherfucker was on about, but he decided to let the man make his pitch. After all, he was playing the role of a "pigeon" for the time being.

"I plan to make it so that when the Kaijin absorb each other, only one consciousness will remain, no mutations will occur and that all of their powers will be multiplicative as opposed to additive. I managed to do this at least thrice, but I have yet to figure out the exact conditions needed."

'Okay, this motherfucker is using big words to sound smart, I just know it,' Zhen Liu inwardly commented while verbally feigning ignorance. 'Also, did he just casually mention he had an elite fighting force?'

"Multiplicative?"

"Don't worry about it," the Kaijin Lord dismissed. "All you should pay attention to, my dear guest, is whether or not you want to remain a frail mortal, or take the risk and evolve to a higher existence. After all, the ones down there are already showcasing their new power in spades."

Unfortunately, the Kaijin Lord's words wasn't inaccurate.

Olstenna and Lythero were viciously strong warriors, but these newly minted mutant Kaijin were something else entirely.

Zhen Liu visibly grimaced at the of his friends getting cornered.

'Come on guys, just try to survive...'

...Why he was grimacing...

'Okay, so it turns out my new fighting method has weaknesses. Great,' Olstenna mentally griped.

After he managed to get through the barrage of [Astra] daggers, Olstenna assumed that all he had to worry about was landing a couple hundred rhythmic punches on the mutated goose kaijin.

Unfortunately, that was easier said than done because of an unforeseen but obvious factor: the asshole had three, actively thinking heads.

Olstenna's fighting tactics required him to enter a rhythm based on a military cadence, that also had the great of dragging their opponent into it.

Unfortunately, as Olstenna learned in real time, this ensnaring effect weakened when spread out amongst multiple opponents. Apparently, having two demonic goose heads alongside a normal humanoid one counted as facing multiple opponents.

As such, Olstenna was forced to go on the defensive as he was being actively assaulted by two goose heads and the asshole they were attached to.

If Olstenna had a partner running distraction, he might've been able to take the bastard down in one hit.

Unfortunately, the only other fighter in the arena that could be of any assistance was getting his ass handed to him by a demonic elephant woman. Making matters worst, she was surprisingly verbose.

[Why don't you stand still and let Tusktara crush you already, little man?! I promise it'll feel nice]

^I would greatly appreciate it if you stopped talking, your faces are speaking in stereo and its freaking me out!^

[No!]

The elephant woman Kaijin had managed to regain enough of their mental faculties during this battle to, apparently, refer to herself by a weird mash-up of what was presumably was her human name and the kaijin she fused with. On top of that, the tactics and arts she was using became increasingly more complex, to the point that Lythero was forced to focus on evading, defending, and nothing else.

Then again, it probably didn't help that he was missing all of his swords at this point and could only rely on his [Astra].

As for the other fighters in the arena...they didn't do shit.

They couldn't escape because of the surrounding Kaijin, they couldn't interfere since their abilities did literally nothing against the Kaijin, and absolutely none of them had any support or healing abilities.

If anything, they could only pray that these two newcomers that were somehow holding their own against the Kaijin figured out some method of breaking through the barrage of attacks.

That or pray for a miracle to happen.

Unfortunately, these sorrowful souls had no choice but to rely on Olstenna and Lythero.

Well, them and the allies associated with the duo, but the onlookers didn't know this.

Hell, Olstenna and Lythero didn't know where their friendly Kaijin were either.

'Godsdamnit, I could really use some Kaijin power right now.'

Unfortunately, they were...elsewhere.

...Elsewhere...

^Alright, I know that we settled last night that you're definitely not a spy. But how the fuck did you manage to escape when there was all...that, to worry about?^ Zhen Xing asked Maggie as he gestured towards the biggest gathering of Kaijin he had ever seen.

^As I said, they're not exactly attentive when it came to the dead.^

^Fair enough.^

As Zhen Liu, Olstenna and Lythero were buying themselves by participating in the local death games, Zhen Xing, Zhen Tai, Antonio and Maggie had arrived to the actual [Mines of Malevolence].

Unfortunately, they couldn't just rush in due to the aformentioned presence of a whole mess of enemy Kaijin.

In total, they counted about four dozen or so Kaijin with varying power levels.

Zhen Liu's Kaijin were stronger, bar for bar, but the numbers were still an issue.

As such, they opted to go for the stealthy approach.

While the Kaijin took the less obvious, but significantly more hostile entry via the ventilation tunnel that Zhen Liu's zakonused as an exit tunnel, the rest of the group had no choice but to improvise an entrance.

Which was going to be significantly trickier than they thought.

The main reason why they were in eyeglass distance was because they knew that any closer would've set off the absurd large alarms these fuckers had it when it came to aether warriors in the area.

At least, that's what Maggie told them.

"Okay, so fighting is definitely out the window. Sorry, Xiao Tai," Zhen Xing noted.

"No big deal, I'm battle hungry not suicidal."

"And I don't think any of us have any good stealth techniques."

"No."×4

"Great, so now what?"

"Abuse the fact that there's an incoming trade wagon?"

"Say what?"