Kaijin Fighter: So I Have to Make Monsters, So What?-Chapter 1371: Out of Sight

The funny thing about mass conflict was the sheer impersonality of it all.

While individual stories of heroism and grandeur had a habit of manifesting after the fact, once all the fighting had died down and the survivors returned home to their lick their wounds, these same stories tended to be ignored during battle.

One can only notice their surroundings when they’re not fighting for survival, after all.

As such, the battle between Dante and Zhen Liu was mostly ignored by the rebels and kaijin, as they were busy fighting each other.

However, there were a few groups that had witnessed this battle unfold and understood that there were probably some unforeseen consequences to its outcome.

Amongst those, there were even fewer people who knew what those outcomes were.

As for how they reacted, the differences were quite drastic.

... Those who merely watched ...

[Well now...I guess we’re finally in uncharted territory.]

[Yup...and in the worst way possible.]

A fox and a box were still watching from their ledge, anticipation and anxiety mixing in their stomachs in ways that they hadn’t felt in years.

Sixteen times they had watched as people rebelled in these mines, sixteen times they had hoped for someone to overthrow the overseer, and sixteen times they had watched them fail.

However, in those sixteen prior times, there had never been a Kaijin Lord involved.

There had never been people who were able to hurt Kaijin.

There has never been someone who could hear their little prince’s voice until now.

[They’re both falling into the old caverns as we speak,] the box eventually noted. [Shouldn’t we be intervening by now?]

[I don’t think we need to,] the fox answered. [Besides, don’t you find it oddly appropriate?]

[Appropriate?]

[Those caverns are where this all started.]

[Ah.]

...Those who were going to go down swinging...

[Well, shit.]

[This ain’t good.]

’Okay, it’s a bad sign when it’s you two who are the ones saying that,’ Zhen Xing immediately commented. ’What happened?’

Due to Delictum ditching them, Zhen Xing and Zhen Tai, alongside Screamira and Springerdermain, had no choice but to go and fight off the enemy Kaijin instead.

They had been achieving pretty decent results so far, but they were still worried about whether or not the enemy lord or any of their champions was going to be a problem.

Evidently, they weren’t wrong for feeling like this.

[The enemy lord just blocked up Zhen Liu in the smelter room, and he had done with so a method that has destroyed the floor beneath them,] Screamira explained. [He’s about to plunge into an abyss that leads to the caverns directly beneath us.]

’Is...isn’t that where all the other slaves are hiding?!’ Zhen Xing pointed out.

[Yes.]

’Oh, balls,’ Zhen Tai added.

Aside from the ethical concerns of wanting to prevent needless casualties, the Zhen Clan scions had the more practical worry about what would happen if Dante decided to try and turn all of those civilians into zakos and kaijin.

They had witnessed firsthand the vicious method in which he turned the corpses of both beast and man alike into mindless zakos that were somehow more vicious than Zhen Liu’s.

Then again, Zhen Liu usually limited himself to bones and other bits of scraps and not full-blown people.

Yet.

Regardless, the Zhen Clan scions knew that shit was primed to go sideways...that is, unless they did something about it.

At least, that’s the vibe they got from the kaijin in their heads.

Despite their comments of it not being a good thing that their creator being dropped into an abyssal cavern, they seemed oddly calm about the whole thing.

No...not calm.

Absolutely livid.

’You two are unusually calm right now,’ Zhen Xing pointed out. ’Why?’

[Well, we could be pissed and panicking. Alternatively, we know that Dante is currently attempting to turn the contents of the corpse pit into a new collection of Kaijin. And unlike our lord, he is significantly more vulnerable during the creation process,] Screamira answered. [Get what we’re saying?]

’Yeah...I do,’ Zhen Xing nodded as he got himself psyched up for possibly the most insane fight in his life so far.

Zhen Tai, on the other hand, was a touch more hesitant due to Springerdermain’s influence.

’Wait, are you sure this is a good idea?’ Zhen Tai asked. ’We had trouble fighting that fucking owl by ourselves; how the hell are we supposed to fight him, his weird-ass master, and those other three freaky-ass knights?’

[And that’s why we’re going to go grab our resident fire dancer and heroine.]

’Ah.’

...Those who were about to face doom...

^Oh...well, this ain’t good.^

^Huh? What’s wrong, Taurna?^

At this point in time, Lyona, Taurna, Maggie, Lythero and Antonio had managed to reconvene during all the fighting and after taking out most of the debris.

They were about to retreat as a group, due to varying injuries accrued by the latter three people, until Taurna received an unexpectedly unpleasant update from Razorstella.

^The Kaijin Lord on our side of this conflict just got sealed up behind a cave and is now plummeting into the non-combatant caverns,^ Taurna reported.

^Oh shit!^

A major reason why Lyona and the others managed to convince the slaves to rebel against Dante and his ilk was because they had promised that their friends and family would be safe from all of the fighting that was going to take place.

Now that there was a fairly high possibility that all of the fighting was going to spill downwards and sweep up the sick, elderly, and young...there was a very high chance for everyone’s morale to plummet.

And in a situation like this, where the enemies were essentially nigh immortal, high morale was mandatory.

Alternatively, they could nip the problem in the bud before it could become one.

[Apologies, Taurna. But we’re going to have to end your dancing lessons here for the time being.]

^Huh? What are you—BWAH!^

Before Taurna could finish asking what Razorstella was about to do, the star-like dancing kaijin suddenly popped out of Taurna’s chest like a little fairy, albeit one that could slash out your eyes faster than one could blink.

Lyona and Maggie were more or less used to the sight of the strange kaijin at this point in time, but even they were still somewhat shocked at Razorstella’s sudden appearance in such a manner.

^What the—why are you out and—^

[No time to verbally explain this shit, lion queen!] Razorstella interrupted Lyona, [You’re going to have to settle for the mind dump version.]

^Wait, no! I am not a big fan of—BAH!

Razorstella proceeded to transform into a ball of light before flying into Lyona’s chest, possessing the lion Bloodliner and informing her of the battle that was about to come.

This information dump happened in mere seconds, but to Lyona, it felt a lot longer than that.

Either way, once the information was inside of her head, Lyona immediately got back to her feet and began to make her way towards the corpse pit’s direction.

^Huh? Lyona, where are you going?^ Maggie called out.

^I’M GOING TO JAM A SWORD INTO DANTE’S STUPID FACE!^ Lyona called out as she manifested a [Taboo] that resembled a great sword.

With Lyona charging ahead, Taurna, Lythero, Anotino, and Maggie were left behind with flabbergasted expressions upon their faces.

Well...they weren’t going to be left flabbergasted for long though.

^So...what do we do now?^

^I think we should just stick to our original plan and go find somewhere to...hold up.^

Before the group made any attempts to leave the battlefield just yet, Maggie dropped to the ground and placed her ear against it.

Her expression was quite serious as she listened to the ground for a few moments...only for that seriousness to melt away and be replaced with a look of extreme worry.

^Big sis...What’s that expression on your face?^ Taurna asked, remembering that Maggie only ever looked like that if something incredibly terrible was about to happen.

^Taurna...Razorstella told you that Dante had unleashed a volley of rockets to trap her creator behind a cave-in that then led to the ground collapsing, right?^

^Yeah...^

^Did she also mention whether or not the cracking stopped at the smelting cavern, or if the cracks were starting to spread?^

^I...^

Before Taurna could even get out a single word of confirmation or denial, the sound of cracking earth echoed throughout the cavern and took her attention.

None of the other fighters noticed this sound, though, because they were assuming it was the sound of their opponents breaking.

^Bollocks...just...bollocks,^ Maggie cursed.

...The one who had no idea what he was going to do...

When the rebels attacked Dante and his hunting party, they had done so under the premise that he wasn’t going to be able to get reinforcements from any of the homebound kaijin.

This confidence namely came from the fact that they had managed to lock down the caverns where most of the kaijin were squatting.

Amongst these ranks, though, was...an odd exception.

[Oh man...what am I going to do?] Arbalest groaned.