Chapter 1738: Finally, Headliners - Hurricroak

[Twin Thunder Tiger Cannon Palm!]

BOOM!

"Grk?!"

After Pechi-Pechi had presented an opening by overextending on one of his attacks, I immediately took advantage of it and slammed a pair of empowered palms right into the center of his mass.

I could feel the aether treasure birdcage/ribcage buckle and bend underneath my paws, and I could feel the aura of this Affixed fucker suddenly waver and flicker like I had hit something vital.

Hearing that sound and feeling that flicker finally made something click in my head.

[Wait a minute...these treasures are actually your weak points! What the actual fuck?!] I yelled in mild disappointment.

I figured that it was going to be the case that the core of these Affixed guys were going to be their aether treasures, but it was still wild to me that it was that bone-dead, straightforward, and simple.

Then again, the Collectrix herself was some weird aether treasure obsessed freak of nature, so it was par for the course.

Either way, by the time I had defeated Pechi-Pechi, Rhythm had finished helping Blues recover some of this strength and get back on to his feet.

Regular aether medicines didn’t really work on us, but we could still infuse some of our [Chaos] into the stuff to make it at least somewhat effective.

[Thanks for the assist, teacher,] Blues said in a gruff, thankful tone. [I didn’t expect birdbrain over there to be as tough as he was.]

[Ain’t no thang, Blues,] I assured my donkey-headed apprentice. [Even though we embody the idea of why one should never judge by appearances, it’s hard to do that in the heat of-]

BWOOM

[What the fuck was that?!] Rhythm yelled.

Before I could finish my thought, a discordant note rudely interrupted me, accompanied by a surge of power that I instinctually defended against by throwing up a barrier made of [Chaos].

’Oh...somebody interesting for once?’ I thought to myself as a smile formed upon my face.

From the floating ball of rubble in the center of the encampment, I began to sense a level of [Chaos] that was significantly more potent than that Pechi-Pechi guy I had just rocked.

[Well, isn’t that fucking cliche?] I laughed as I started to sense my distinct auras of [Chaos] coming out of that floating hunk of junk. [Looks like the big bad Collectrix has some favorite toys after all.]

I counted about six or so auras of [Chaos] that were the equivalent of the Aether King level with an additional being that of an Aether Emperor.

I was just in the process of scanning one when it was suddenly interrupted by the target himself. The damn poser decided to snap back at me and when a counter scan in my direction. Needless to say, I responded in kind by amplifying the interference.

This prompted the guy to veer off and fly toward little ole me.

[Oh, now this is interesting...]

As the aura got closer and closer, I could feel that strange artificiality that I sensed in the Affixed from before wasn’t a bug but was actually a feature.

Why?

Because the motherfucker that landed before didn’t look like some surgical horror movie monster. This motherfucker looked like a proper sci-fi thriller cyborg villain.

Although, a lot of the cybernetics that would normally be sleek and chrome looked significantly more...clockwork and tribal.

Either way, the sheer anachronism of this motherfucker made it more than clear that the Collectrix had received outside assistance in gaining her [Chaos] powers. Which led to the question: who the fuck helped her?

Regardless of these thoughts, I had more pressing matters to deal with.

Like fighting a cyborg whose mechanical components definitely resembled a series of amps and a musical soundboard.

"Are you the noisemaker that made all of that racket earlier and caused this mess?" The cyborg fucker said with a voice absolutely dripping with vocoding and autotune.

[I’m responsible for part of it, but I’m not exactly a solo act,] I responded. [Who the hell are you guys? Because y’all definitely look a bit too futuristic science fiction for a place like this.]

"Science?" The cyborg repeated before answering the question. "Something about that word appeals to the new me...but regardless, I am Dissonance one of the Blessed under her Ladyship the Collectrix."

[I heard three other mother fuckers say that exact same thing, but you’re definitely looking a bit more sleek in comparison to those bozos,] I pointed out while physically pointing to the Affixed I had defeated prior to his arrival.

"The ones you have faced so far are merely those who only had the capacity to merge with a single treasure in her collection. I am one who proved not only capable of merging with multiple treasures, but was able to withstand her ladyship’s blessing even further."

As he said this, Dissonance’s form flickered for a brief moment, showing a tribal warrior with various aether treasures merged into his body just like how I’ve been used to seeing until now. Not only that, but I could see from the markings that this guy used to be a Rot Feather warrior. Once he flickered back to his more unified look, I readied myself for battle.

[So how long has she been keeping you and the other weirdos in hiding? You must’ve been a recent developments since I remember rocking the absolute shit out of you Rot Feather fuckers only a week or so two ago.]

Dissonance didn’t immediately answer my question. Instead, a strange smile appeared on their artificial face.

"It has only been a few days for you, yes. But I’ve had years to perfect myself under the ladyship’s guidance."

[Oh...I don’t like that sentence.]

Shortly after making this ominous ass statement, Dissonance’s body suddenly began to open up in a manner very reminiscent of a certain mammoth amigo of mine.

Except, these openings didn’t reveal any vents that would absorb heat and expel cold air.

I knew speakers when I saw them.

"And you know what else? I’ve been thinking about you for a real long time, and I just wanted to show you what I learned from the last time we fought."

[Discordant Cannon!]

Before I could even get out a quip, Dissonance launched a blast of sound that I could clearly sense was infused with enough [Chaos] and aether to blast through even the trumped up defenses of an Aether King!

In the face of such a powerful wave of force, there was only one way to respond.

[Hey, hey! Two can play! Roaring Resonance!]

Concentrating aether and [Chaos] into my throat and lungs, I released a powerful roar that sounded less like a singular beast and more like a chorus of wild animals that wanted to eat their pound of flesh and then some.

These two attacks exploded upon contact with one another but produced no sound.

In the wake of this explosion, I made the first move to close the gap between us.

Correction: "we", made the first move.

[Rhythm! Blues! Left and Right combo!]

[At once!]

[You got it, queen!]

Charging forward, I readied my stinger arms to jam it right into the cyborg’s center, using my power to cause them to resonate at a high frequency. Meanwhile, Rhythm attacked from the right with her flipper arms and Blues attacked from the left with a smashing kick. Both of their attacks were humming that exact same tune as mine.

[Constructive Wave Combo!]

This attack was something that wasn’t actually an aether art, but was something I had cooked up with my apprentices on the chance that the three of us would have together against the same opponent.

Ideally, one of us would land the first blow and cause waves of aether and [Chaos] to rock through them before the rest of us followed up and caused the power to explode.

The finish was always different depending on who landed the final blow, but the build up was the same.

As such, we could technically have some delay between the attacks as long as those waves were still rocking inside them.

Unfortunately for our asses, the rock and roll cyborg before us was apparently built for crowd control.

Just as Blues was about to land the opening kick, I could hear the telltale noise of feedback.

[Oh fuck!]

[Feedback Blast!]

The high pitch wail of a feed backing amp ripped through the air and blasted all three of us back a couple of steps. Not only that, but the wail just so happened to be the right frequency needed to annihilate the waves we were building up inside our attack.

It was frustrating to have our combo attack cancelled out before it could actually do anything, but it was also oddly invigorating.

"You seem oddly happy about that attack failing," Dissonance noted with a questioning note. "Have you gone insane, monster?"

[Oh no,] I refuted with a wicked grin. [I’m just happy that in the first time in awhile, I get to fight a real headliner!]