SWNOVELXO Chapter 1358: Wasteful Tactics
'Oh. That's not good.'
Due to his decision of wanting to intercept Dante at where he was going to crash instead of where the bastard was flying, Zhen Liu was unable to react in time to Dante's actions.
Not that his actions made sense in the first place.
Zhen Liu wasn't entirely sure why Dante had randomly grabbed some poor turtle-like schmuck, but the surge of [Chaos] surrounding them was probably a bad sign.
Either way, Zhen Liu figured that he was probably going to need to use a little more power than necessary to deal with whatever the fuck Dante had planned.
As such, Zhen Liu began to draw power not only from his own [Chaos] cultivation but from Blazejudicator and Nepherage as well, concentrating all of it into the blade head of the latter's [Taboo].
The concentration of so much energy in the crimson jade blade caused the whole thing to glow with cracks that made the whole thing to appear as if someone took a chunk of lava and molded it all into a vaguely blade-like structure.
That said, it was still incredibly sharp and the heat radiating off of it was enough to melt steel like it was butter.
...
'Ready?'
[Of course, Executor!]
[Whenever you are, milord.]
'Excellent.'
...
[Ignition Splitter!]
Once the [Taboo] was fully charged, Zhen Liu proceeded to position his hands so that he was holding the [Taboo] with a single palm and placed near the bottom so he could increase the force behind the swing. In a way, it was like he was holding a baseball bat but with significantly more weight and danger behind it.
With an upward swing, Zhen Liu released a blade of flames that ripped through the air with the intention of splitting Dante right down the middle.
Unfortunately, before the deed could be done, Dante had finished preparing his defenses.
[Stigma, reveal!]
'Dafuq did he just say?!' Zhen Liu mentally exclaimed in shock.
Moments before the fire slash made contact, Dante had finished forcing the turtle-like kaijin in his arms to forcibly transform into the shoddiest looking [Stigma] Zhen Liu had ever seen.
'Wait a minute...what the fuck?'
It was like someone piecemealed a bunch of different armor styles together into a single mess and called it a day.
Not even on just a visual level, Zhen Liu could detect that this [Stigma] was full of holes and weaknesses that could be easily exploited.
Characteristics that seemed to be emblematic of multiple kaijin trying to be the dominant force in a single [Stigma].
Even when Dante combined this shoddy [Stigma] with his [Regalia], having apparently figure out how to do so during their battle, those weaknesses were still present.
'Wait a minute...'
As Dante's [Regalia] mingled with the [Stigma], he could see that multiple characteristics strengthened and weakened dozens of times over before settling on one that seemed to focus exclusively on defense.
[Stone Shell!]
BANG!
As evident by the fact that Zhen Liu's fire slash was rendered impotent by the sudden appearance of this aforementioned [Stigma] of crap.
It went without saying that this much [Core] power at once made Dante's [Chaos] exponentially stronger than before.
[Bahahah! With this much Chaos, I am invincible!]
However, this feeling didn't last long.
Dante moved to flex in order to show off how easily he mastered yet another ability that was only known to the Kaijin Lords, only to have his [Stigma] disappear due to the Kaijin being used suddenly breaking down into a shower of literal golden dust.
[What?]
'Huh...'
'Can he only use kaijin as a [Stigma] once?' Zhen Liu thought to himself, 'or is this a soul connection thing?'
Needless to say, though, Dante was wondering about that exact same thing.
...
^What the fuck?^ Dante cursed as he felt the kaijin's life force slip away alongside the [Stigma]. ^I thought turtles were supposed to be tougher than that.^
[They usually are, my lord,] Obsidious suggested. [Perhaps this one was a soft-shelled turtle?]
^That...^ Dante trailed off as he forced his brain to consider all of the possible scenarios as to why this occurred. ^Or it's a sign of the poor quality of Kaijin I've been truly working with...Obsidious, act as my [Stigma].^
[At once.]
Under Dante's command, Obsidious began to retract the various weapons covering Dante's form.
Before Zhen Liu's eyes, all of the rockets, explosives and flamethrowers began to shrink down into armor plates that merged with Dante's [Regalia] in a manner significantly more seamless in comparison to his prior [Stigma].
That stated, it still looked incredibly shoddy and slapdash. Albeit, this time there was a unified theme of Dante looking like a mechanical rat king.
Not only that, but the [Chaos] surrounding Dante at this time definitely felt a lot denser and more effective.
^Interesting,^ Dante mumbled as he flexed the fingers in his new [Stigma]. ^You're still relatively solid after transitioning. I guess this means...hmm.^
...
Not that Zhen Liu cares about know this bit of information, he needed Dante defeated ASAP.
'Fuck it, let's try and take him out before he figures this shit out!' Zhen Liu thought to himself and his kaijin before rushing towards Dante with the aim of slashing through him.
Unfortunately, in the time it took for Zhen Liu to get up in Dante's face, the bastard managed to not only swap in Obsidious to be his [Stigma], but he managed to grab yet another kaijin to act as his [Taboo].
Dante managed to grab the poor bastard by using his whip-like [Astra] and reeling them in like a fish.
Which was wholly ironic due to the kaijin in question resembled a mutant piranha.
'Oh...fuck.'
Under Dante's manipulation, the kaijin in question has transformed into a [Taboo] that was vaguely shaped like a sawtooth saber. Although, there were significantly more embellishments around the handle that resembled various animal parts smashed together in a haphazard fashion.
Once Dante had this new [Taboo] in hand, he proceeded to release surge of water aether and [Chaos] that was compressed into a crescent blade towards the charging Zhen Liu.
[Ha!]
In response to the attack, Zhen Liu ignited his glaive and evaporated the attack in an instant.
...
[That...was oddly easy.]
'Yeah...I don't like this implications of this.'
[Especially since the Taboo that Dante just formed is starting to disintegrate into golden dust like the Stigma from earlier?] Blazejudicator asked.
'Yeah... exactly that.'
...
^I see...^
After using the newly formed [Taboo] to force Zhen Liu to defend himself, the aformentioned weapon began to disintegrate into gold dust...again.
However, Dante didn't allow the weapon to crumble into nothingness for no reason this time around.
^Do it.^
[Of course, my lord.]
'Oh...fuck.'
Instead, Dante had Obsidious absorb the [Taboo] before it could break down into nothingness.
The process only took a few seconds, and the results were exactly what Dante hoped and Zhen Liu feared.
Dante's [Stigma] began to change and transform until it had fully accommodated a new piece of armor that vaguely resembled a piranha biting down on Dante's wrist.
Needless to say, the man's power went up as well.
[Interesting...very interesting!] Dante repeated with a yell. [It appears that unless I use a Kaijin of high enough quality, they immediately fall apart after being used. How...disappointing. Oh well,at least I can have my stronger Kaijin absorb them before they fully disappear.]
[...]
Zhen Liu had significantly better and stronger words on what he thought about this revelation, but he kept it to himself .
Especially since, in a couple of seconds, Zhen Liu was going to have to put in a lot more effort in fighting.
^But if this is the case, then I should probably go and use one of my other demon knights if I want to fight you in equal footing,^ Dante informed Zhen Liu while directing his attention to the battlefield below them.
At this point, the fighting was still in a fever pitch, and the palanquin they were using as the initial stage had become entirely pointless.
It was also at this point that Zhen Liu had the worst feeling in his stomach on what was about to occur.
^Hmm. It appears that all of my remaining knights are busy fighting against the champions of this rebellion,^ Dante observed. ^Guess that means I'm going to have to free one of them up!^
With no warning or indication, Dante proceeded to fly away from his original position in the air T breakneck speed while circulating [Chaos] for an attack.
'Godsdamnit!'
Zhen Liu had no idea who amongst his allies that Dante was aiming to take out, but he had the feeling that unless he or one of the kaijin intervened, something bad was going to happen.
As for how bad this something was going to be...Zhen Liu didn't want to find out in the slightest.
...
'Please tell me I still have kaijin that are available for fighting purposes.'
[We're free, Caretaker!]
[And ready to intervene at any moment.]
'Alright then!'