Kaijin Fighter: So I Have to Make Monsters, So What?-Chapter 1536: Poor Sods and Dead Sods

'Just to double-check something, real quick, can I just send out the zakos to go out there and either destory or hold down these parasites long enough for me to do my thing, or nah?'

<=No.=>

'Why?'

<Unless you want to deal with even stronger parasite warriors, don't fucking do that.>

=What she meant to say is that the zakos don't have much spirit in the first place, so the moment one of those parasites latches on, they'll immediately turn hostile and become a significant pain in the ass to deal with. =

<Think hyper-evolved zombies from Resident Evil.>

'Lovely…'

…

[Regalia on!]

[Stigma, manifest!]

Understanding that shit was about to get dire, Zhen Liu and his allies, at least the ones capable of doing so, donned their Regalia and Stigma respectively and prepared for battle.

As for those who had neither, Zhen Liu whipped out the [Possesstol] quicker than sharpshooter and had his Kaijin load themselves up. He had no idea who was where, but that didn't really matter at the moment.

He only needed three shots anyways.

"Zhen Xing, Zhen Tai, Antonio! Grit your teeth!"

Before any of the aforementioned three could complain or make requests, Zhen Liu shot all three of them with Kaijin power before bringing his attention to the front.

'Okay...what the fuck?'

From the information dump that Logos and Pathos had given Zhen Liu, he was fully expecting to see a bunch of puppeted bastards being used like cannon fodder, which was mostly the case.

However, mixed into these poor sods that were being manipulated like puppets on strings, there were some that clearly appeared to be corpses that some of these Armor Puppet Parasites simply used as a mode of transportation.

'Huh…if I had a nickel for every time I've had to deal with undead monsters…,' Zhen Liu mused as he tapped into Blazejudicator's power. 'I would have way too many to count. Actually would I get more from enemies that were originally parasites?'

Feeling it necessary to practice his more powerful abilities, Zhen Liu directed Blazejudicator to merge with his [Regalia], [Senbonzuru].

Under Blazejudicator's influence, the multi-patterned scarf began to take on a more uniform pattern of flames depicting various scenes from a mythological underworld. Whether it was on purpose or not, the flames just so happened to be the same colors as the various natural aether flames he had absorbed, as well as the [Flames of Vice and Virtue] that composed Blazejudicator's being.

For this moment, though, he just needed the [Ghost Flame].

"Can you guys handle the corpses?" Zhen Liu asked. "I get the feeling this next little trick of mine isn't going to do jackshit against them."

"Dare I ask what you mean by trick?" Lythero asked, fully expecting something absurd to happen.

"This! [Hellfire Locust Swarm]!"

While performing a questionably necessary handseal, Zhen Liu converted his scarf-like [Regalia] into a thousand origami locusts cloaked in [Ghost Flame]. With a wave of his hands, he sent the locust swarm flying towards the charging horde of parasitized warriors, with his focus being on the ones that were still living and breathing.

The information dump he received from Logos and Pathos stated that these poor sods were "stage 1" victims of the Armor Puppet Parasite and were vulnerable to attacks that targeted the "spirit."

Why?

Because at this stage, the parasite and the host were still considered separate entities, and the former had a much weaker spirit than the latter, regardless of their cultivation levels.

The origami locusts cloaked in green flames flew towards the incoming horde of parasitized warriors and began to gnaw on the living armor parasites.

Howling shrieks of pain followed by the thudding of paralyzed mortals dropping onto the ground filled the space as Zhen Liu's trick did wonders in thinning out the horde.

Alas, this only took out a third of the horde.

The rest of the horde, for reasons Zhen Liu really didn't want to figure out, consisted of those freaky living corpse Armor Puppet Parasites, aka, stage two parasitized warriors.

At this stage, the line between host and parasite had blurred into one being, creating a monster that had converted all of the host's original cultivated strength into a physically more powerful meat puppet. To put it another way, a parasitized aether warrior at the Aether Master stage would transform into an Armor Puppet Parasite warrior with the strength to match an Aether Grandmaster.

And from what Zhen Liu could see and hear, there were about a good thirty or so of these guys charging in at the same time like a pack of wolves with rabies.

"Divide and conquer!"

That stated, the vicious nature of these parasitic warriors was no match for the coordinated efforts of Zhen Liu's allies.

Understanding that fighting head-on was just asking for trouble, they decided to break into three groups to better fight the incoming horde in chunks.

[Get the guys on the right!]

[Right!]

Wielding the power of Razorstella and Screamira, respectively, Zhen Xing and Zhen Tai leaped into the fray while tapping into their borrowed sources of [Chaos]. Combining the kaijin's power with their own led to devastating results, and this time wasn't an exception.

The two scions of the Zhen Clan released flaming animalistic constructs enhanced with the power of [stars] and [death, that tore through the parasite warriors like they were paper dolls.

They weren't the only ones getting such potent results, though.

<<Come forth,my friend. Tear through these parasite soldiers with your thunder and lightning!>>

Dragon-Taming Saber in hand, Jinju Ren tapped into the power of the Thunder Dragon-Otter she had tamed not that long ago and summoned a giant thunderbolt in the shape of the aforementioned beast.

With a yell and a powerful thrust, the giant dragon-otter made of lightning scorched through the parasite warriors, leaving them burnt out husks with sparks of lighting jumping through their bodies.

"Take that!"

"Look out!"

"Huh?"

Jinju Ren had a bad habit of focusing too hard on the enemies in front of her, to the point where opportunistic bastards, like say a group of Armor Puppet Parasites, could sneak up behind her.

THWANG!

Thankfully, she had some acting as over watch for this sort of behavior.

"Thank, Rianna!"

"You're welcome!"

Just because she was outside, didn't mean Rianna couldn't provide support. In fact, it was because she was out of range from the parasitic horde that she was able to fire off her arrows without worry.

"I always hated the taste of parasites," Rianna grumbled. "They never cook right."

As for the last group, which consisted of Olstenna, Antonio, and Lythero, they were working together like a well-oiled machine.

As the largest and toughest of the group, Olstenna took the lead as vanguard while Antonio and Lythero acted as flankers.

[Berserker's Fire Cannon!]

[Sunfire Slash!]

[Mad Claw:Magma Edition!]

Empowered by Nepherage, Antonio's [Chaos]-infused claws looked as if they were made of burning magma.

A brilliant collage of colorful flames illuminated the underground fortress as the trio of warriors from the Dozing Salamander continent coordinated their attacks and burned the parasitic warriors before them into ash and cinder.

...

[So, how do the Maestro's cousins and friend handle?] Hurricroak asked the lucky trio of kaijin given possession privileges.

[I think there's something in the Zhen Clan's blood,] Razorstella commented. [Every time we possess them, they seem to accommodate us better and better.]

[I was going to say that, but it sounded crazy to me,] Screamira added.

[I'm fairly certain it's just Chaos exposure,] Nepherage suggested. [Antonio seems to accept my power fairly easy.]

[Really? You don't think it has to do with the fact that the man has an innate affinity for...hold up, something big is coming.]

...

It didn't take too long for the group to wipe out the horde of parasitic warriors.

It was easy.

In fact, it felt a little too easy.

A couple of well-timed aether blast attacks, a few explosions and poof!

What once was a horde of manipulated corpses and poor bastards had become a pile of burnt bodies and groaning bastards too tired and grateful to move.

There was just one problem.

Well, two problems.

First, that ominous ass aura from before was still present despite all of the defeated enemies laying at their feet.

"Was that the last of them?"

"Think so." 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

"Then why is that aura still looming over us like an oppressive mother-in-law?"

Second, and more importantly, they couldn't find anyone amongst the defeated higher than Aether Master.

In a city like Rainbowden, an organization of the Redoxa Family's size required an Aether Lord at minimum or an Aether King in order to be considered stable.

Lo and behold, Smoker Redoxa, from what Axer told Zhen Liu and the others, was at least at the first ring of the Aether King stage.

This revelation meant one of two things.

One, either Smoker Redoxa left his men behind like a coward and left them to become essentially parasite food.

Two, he hadn't shown up yet.

Skree!

"Fuck."

And judging from the ominous aura that immediately followed the screech, it was the case of the latter.