Kaijin Fighter: So I Have to Make Monsters, So What?

After making his suggestion, Zhen Liu mentally prepared himself for the best and worst case scenarios.

The best-case scenario was that Dante accepted Zhen Liu's batshit insane excuse and allowed himself to be carried further into the wilderness. This way, Zhen Liu didn't get his hands dirty, and it allowed him opportunities to further study both Dante and his horde.

Zhen Liu was fairly certain that the zakos that had been stolen from him would be coming again. At least, that was the impression that he got.

As for the worst-case scenario, where Dante doesn't believe a word coming from Zhen Liu's mouth and attempts to capture or kill him instead, Zhen Liu was more than ready to go down swinging.

More specifically, after Zhen Xing made his thoughts known, he had already placed both of his hands on the handles of his hammer and club.

While he wasn't entirely sure if he could smash in the [Core] of one of these kaijin, he was at least certain that he could crack in Dante's skull before bailing.

Zhen Liu had a couple dozen tricks up his sleeves, so he was confident that he could probably escape the notice of these enemy kaijin when the time was ripe.

^Alright, I believe you.^

[Oh?]

Thankfully, it didn't come to that.

^I know better than most that the land around here definitely has a mind of its own,^ Dante began to elaborate. ^Hell, I wouldn't even have access to all these [Cores] or whatever that strange metal sculpture is without the power of this land. So now that it's attacking me and kaijin like this...I can't help but feel that it's testing our stewardship. Or perhaps...it's deeply upset over the presence of that bastard owner of yours and wishes to make these feelings known. Either way, I know exactly what to do.^.

[Oh?]

Dante redirected his attention towards his kaijin, all while circulating [Chaos] through his body.

Attention, reprobates. As you have just experienced, these beings known as zakos are the main backbone of the false lord's forces. While they are significantly inferior in comparison to you all on a dueling basis, they still hold a significant number advantage. In a drawn out fight, we'd lose.

'That doesn't like an inspiring speech to me,' Zhen Liu observed, 'sounds more like one meant to instigate fear...and yet...'

[Hateful wretches!]

[Where's the honor in relying on numbers? That's our thing.]

[Not even worth the kill!]

'Why does it look like it's working...'

Dante went on like this for far longer than what was necessary, causing his kaijin to become more and more unhinged by the second.

'Anxiety begets anger begets hatred...how disturbing.'

Eventually, Dante concluded his demented speech to give one last order.

Now, we don't know when or where they'll attack, but it'll do us a benefit to find them before they find us. Scatter you nightmarish punks. Go and find your lessers. Time be damned!

[ROOOOAAAAARRRR!]

As the kaijin left, Zhen Liu decided that now was the perfect time to play devil's advocate.

Sometimes, is a person is dead set on doing something, they're more than likely to be invigorated by the delivery of negative criticism.

[Are you sure it's a good idea to send out your kaijin in such a manner? What if splitting up creates more opportunities for the zako to ambush them?]

^Oh that's the point,^ Dante answered with a grin. ^The higher the likelihood of them getting ambushed, the more chances we get in securing some hostages. Isn't that a grand idea?^

[Indeed...]

'Speaking of plans...'

Now that he was certain that Dante was going to act like an obsessive stalker, Zhen Liu decided that now was a perfect time to update Blazejudicator about the plan.

Of course, he needed just one more little detail.

[Is it safe to say you'll keep chasing him to the ends of the world?]

^Until the end of time,^ Dante answered. ^But I doubt it will take that long.^

'Yeah, I'm not that fucking lucky,' Zhen Liu thought to himself as he began to open his mind up to talk to Blazejudicator.

...

'Good news, I got Dante to commit to a wild good chase.'

[Excellent.]

'Unfortunately, the zakos are going wild so...get ready for that to possibly bite us in the ass.'

[...okay, I owe Nepherage a soda when we get back to the library.]

'What was that?'

[Nothing important. On our end, we managed to find an appropriate "hero" and she even came with a sidekick.]

'Well, that's helpful. Who'd you find?'

[A crazy lioness with innate psychic powers.]

'Perfect.'

...Speaking of the Lioness...

After Zhen Xing had flashbanged the enemy kaijin, he and his allies had extracted Lyona and Taurna through an unexpected method.

Fwump! Fwump!

"Holy shit!"

"Told you it would work! Hahaha!"

Manipulating Lyona's foot, Nepherage had willed the earth beneath their feet to move and create a hole directly under them.

This hole led down a tunnel that the zakos had created when Zhen Liu first broke into the [Mines of Malevolence].

He had figured that a discrete method of travelling through the mines was going to be mandatory, given the sheer amount of enemy kaijin running around the place.

Now, it was probably a bad idea to use underground slides that criss crossed in the cursed earth, but that was a long-term problem.

The kaijin and the Zhen Clan scions had estimated that it wouldn't take more than a few months at worst. Then again, that didn't factor in the fact that the magic voice in Zhen Liu's head implies that there was a specific time that had to be achieved before they could make a move.

Regardless, it took Zhen Xing, Sazira, Taurna, and Lyona about three minutes of sliding to finally land in the middle of an abandoned mining tunnel.

At least, it was presumably abandoned given the sheer amount of decayed skeletons laying about and the pieces of cloth that looked to have decayed due to moisture and time.

"How the hell did your cousin even find this place?" Sazira asked Zhen Xing.

"That is a loaded question," Zhen Xing replied with zero hesitation. "Something you should know, is that every single beneficial thing my cousin finds, usually come with a caveat."

...

[...]

[...]

[I mean...he's not wrong.]

...

"Caveat?" Sazira repeated. "What kind of caveat comes from an abandoned cave?"

"How the hell did you guys find this place?!" Taurna shouted with genuine shock.

"Told you," Zhen Xing followed.

Lyona and Taurna had landed in the cavern with a little less grace than Zhen Liu and Sazira, causing them to not notice any details about their new location for a few moments due to being stunned.

Once they got their wits back about them, though, they immediately began to frantically take in every last detail about the cave. Well, Taurna did anyways.

Lyona was looking rather introspective about the whole situation.

"I don't know what you guys are talking about," Zhen Xing seriously answered. "We've just been hiding down here in order to—"

"This cave belonged to the Gallop Brothers! They were the ones who first rebelled against the monsters and this was the place from where they planned it," Taurna explained in a rather manic manner. "How the hell did you find this place?!"

"Ah," Zhen Xing nodded. "And you know this because..."

"Those three were out adoptive brothers," Lyona answered after she had walked over to the aged fabric in the room and kicked it open, unveiling a symbol in the shape of a rearing stallion. "Without them, Taurna, Maggie and I would've all died in these mines without knowing any better. With knowing that there was a whole wide world beyond these cavern walls."

"I see...wait a minute, did you just say the name, 'Maggie'?"

Ignoring the question, Lyona walked over to the aged banner and proceeded to lift it higher.

Once it was eye-level, she proceeded to sue a bit of aether to nail the fabric to the cavern wall, allowing it's former splendor to be a bit more viewable to the rest of the people in the caves.

There wasn't any aether or anything infused into the banner, but the people present couldn't help but be oddly inspired by the sight.

Especially Zhen Xing and Lyona, who were picking up something a little more from it due to their ability to use [Chaos].

"Now, I'm assuming you didn't save us and drag us down here for no reason," Lyona stated as she started standing a little taller than before.

"What is it that you want from us?"

"Well..."

________________________________________

*Bing-Bong.*

We interrupt this chapter to inform the readers that upper management has decided that we should use a time skip here because the next few scenes are... incredibly boring.

It's two to three months of prep for a rebellion shit, y'all don't need to see that.

As such, the next chapter will be a bit of an...anthology of sorts?

Basically, we're gonna list the day and the moments of interest.

That is all, thank you.

*Bing-Bong*,