Chapter 1710: The Inked Asura lives up to her name - Nepherage

[Yeah... I am looking at all that, and I’m fairly certain we don’t have to get involved like...at all,] Hurricroak commented to me as soon as I and Frosttusk met up with her alongside our respective battle groups.

[I mean...fair.]

After reuniting with my fellow kaijin and Milord’s family, there was only one battlefront that was of importance: the one between Zhen Xun Tian and the honored ancestor of the Tremorscale clan, a warrior named Tongora.

Tongora was a Bloodliner, like the chieftain of the Tremorscale tribe, but his bestial bloodline was of a higher pedigree, at least, that’s what milord’s grandfather said.

Tongora apparently carried the blood of the Cataclysmic Quake Tail Lizard King, an aether beast king who transcended the Hammer Tail Lizard’s innate limit of fourth tier to reach the very limits of ninth tier.

With this power flowing through his veins, Tongora rose to the peak of the Aether Emperor rank with a foot in the rank of Aether Overlord surprisingly early in his life.

The downside of this easy cultivation was that the man had now reached a plateau they required incredibly rare and powerful aether medicines to resolve.

In other words, he was someone who could technically match against Matriarch Zhen Xun Tian...at least, when it came to aether cultivation alone.

And from the looks of things, Matriarch Zhen Xun Tian was more than happy to just rely on aether cultivation for the time being, even if she had summoned her other four arms.

High above our heads, Zhen Xun Tian and Tongora were exchanging blows at speeds that required me to use aether on my eyes just to see what they were doing.

In that moment, I was reminded that despite the monstrous appearance of me and my kin, this world was home to humans that were definitely more monstrous than us.

<<Come on, come on, come on! Show me what you got, you fat fucking lizard man! >>

•What the fuck are you even saying right now?! Die!•

Evidently, Matriarch Zhen Xun Tian was so excited by the battle that she switched back to her native tongue.

[Smashing Spike Cannon!]

Annoyed by Zhen Xun Tian’s enthusiasm and sudden shift in language, Tongora charged his tail up with aether before swinging it around and launching multiple spikes made of aether that were accompanied by the chained sphere of an [Astra] attached to his tail.

As the [Astra] flew along the spikes, it transformed to resemble the skull of an ankylosaurus with its mouth wide open, covered in what appeared to be surging mud of all things.

It was an oddly terrifying sight, but the only reaction that it elicited from Zhen Xun Tian was that of laughing contempt.

<<Is that seriously all you got?! >>

Zhen Xun Tian didn’t even bother using her arms made of dragon bone to block or her arms made of inky [Chaos] to negate the attack in its entirety.

Instead, she simply charged up aether into one of her fists and fired a projectile of condensed aether that was shaped like her fist but about three times the size of her own body.

This wasn’t even a proper aether art; it was just a blast of pure force.

The attack eradicated the spikes but was stopped by the skull-shaped [Astra] after it had opened its mouth and swallowed it whole.

Zhen Xun Tian let out a laugh as she saw this moment play out, even if she was forced to further block the attack by using her [Astra]-covered arms.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t the end of Tongora’s attack.

[Seismic Hammer!]

The moment that Zhen Xun Tian caught the skull-shaped [Astra], Tongora jerked the chain it was attached to in such a way that it propelled him forward without him having to use any additional aether.

This would’ve been the moment that Frosttusk, Hurricroak, and I would’ve made moves to intercept the attack and then punish them with a beatdown... but our assistance wasn’t necessary.

Evidently, the big bastard forgot that even though she hadn’t used them yet, she had two other sets of arms.

BANG!

•What the fuck?!•

<<Woo! You almost got me there, big boy! Forced me to use my secondary arms! >>

Before Tongora’s hammer swing could complete its arc, Zhen Xun Tian’s dragon-bone arms finally lashed out and grabbed the enemy Bloodliner’s swinging fists.

Those arms were aether treasures, so they didn’t get stronger naturally like the matriarch’s real arms or ink arms. However, she had apparently learned from the [Library of Nowhere] some runes that helped her gain better control of them.

As such, they were just as good, if not better, than her primary arms.

<<Haha! Judging from your movements, this seems to be a favored combo move of yours.>> Zhen Xun Tian laughed as she continued to push back against the skull and fists coming down on her. <<I suppose its only fair I show you mine!>>

As soon as she had made this declaration, I could see [Chaos] beginning to condense and form around her like a cloud of ink. More specifically, they were forming around her tertiary arms that were made from her tattoos.

Even from this distance, I could see the look of surprise and mild terror appearing in Tongora’s eyes as he wasn’t able to sense what this power was in the slightest.

/What foul power is this?!/

Zhen Xun Tian didn’t even bother to answer Tongora, opting instead to go for "showing" rather than "telling."

[Wait... I don’t recognize that art,] Hurricroak commented as she and I continued to stare up at Zhen Xun Tian. [Is that something from the inner parts of the library?]

[No, that looks...new,] I commented as I dug through my own memories of what [Chaos] arts we currently access to.

The way Zhen Xun Tian was circulating the [Chaos] and the way she was forming her hand signs looked like nothing I had ever seen before.

In other words, this was probably something that the matriarch came up on her own.

[You know...you ever wonder what would’ve happened if the matriarch found us instead of milord?] I asked my fellow kaijin.

[We’d probably wouldn’t exist,] Frosttusk bluntly stated. [That, or we’d be covered in a lot more tattoos.]

[Ooooh, I could totally rock a tramp stamp,] Hurricroak added.

Speaking of tattoos, it only took a couple of moments for Zhen Xun Tian to reveal her technique and honestly...it was an oddly sweet one.

[Keep your eyes on the ink, fuckface. Because you’re not gonna want to miss a single sight!] Zhen Xun Tian declared in [Chaos] speech.

•What the fuck are you saying and why can I understand you?!•

Her inky tattoo hands had finished condensing the [Chaos] around her and had shaped into the form of a large turtle shell that looked quite familiar in the eyes of everyone present.

In fact, it had actually brought a tear to Lady Terra’s eyes.

"Dad..."

[Chaos Art: A tribute in Ink!]

Thrusting her hands forward, Zhen Xun Tian fired the turtle made of tattoo ink like it was hockey puck aimed at Tongora’s abdomen.

Tongora would’ve leaped out of the way, but he had essentially threw himself to the wolves when he tried to combo attack Zhen Xun Tian.

His arms were being locked down by her dragon bones, while his tail was being held in place by her real arms.

As such, the big bastard has no choice but to try and tank a spinning turtle made of [Chaos] to the stomach.

In real time, I could see the look of confidence, confusion, despair, and pain happen in real time as Zhen Xun Tian’s attack impacted Tongora’s stomach.

Confidence because he was certain that his [Regalia] would be strong enough to tank even the weird attack from the crazy inked bitch’s hands.

Confusion once he realized that his [Regalia] was being torn to pieces by the [Chaos] that composed the attack.

Despair as he realized that his almighty defenses had just been turned into the defensive equivalent of fucking butter...only to have it replaced by pain as the dense puck of [Chaos] slammed into their abdomen and forcefully pushed them back in such a way that I could the breaking of both of his arm joints and part of his tail as well.

But only for a moment.

Zhen Xun Tian didn’t hold Tongora long enough for him to be bisected by the ink shell, but she did angle the poor bastard so that he would slam into the ground before her ink shell used the poor fuck like a plow...aimed at us, no less.

[Oh shit, looks like we are participating,] Hurricroak commented as she eyeballed the incoming ancestor before directing her attention towards our resident viking mammoth. [Frosttusk?]

[On it.]

Before Tongora could crash into us and make our day annoying, Frosttusk immediately blasted him with a massive wave of cold air.

Zhen Xun Tian’s ink shell disappeared as a result, but the Tremorscale ancestor was now sealed in ice.

[And thus...we have won.]