[Speaking of clever, how goes our Lord's plan with dragging Dante and his n on a wild goose chase?] Nepherage asked.
[Not great, the zakos he made for the trip had sohow beco hijacked by the land and have beco evolving mutants.]
[Fucking what?]
[On the plus side, he had managed to acquire crucial data on how those knock-off demon knights fight and—]
[No, no, no. Back the fuck up,] Nepherage interrupted. [What the fuck do you an that the Lord's zakos have been hijacked by the land.]
...Yes, it's as bad as it sounds...
^Well, this is mildly infuriating. Is it normal for these...what did you call them? Zakos?^
[Zakos, yes.]
^Is it normal for them to disappear when defeated like this?^ Dante asked while looking mildly annoyed at best.
[Yes,] Zhen Liu answered while thinking, 'What's not normal is that these guys are sohow evolving on their own.'
Zhen Liu had honestly lost track of ti when all the fighting had began, partially due to him being upset about his carefully laid plans blowing up in his face, partially because he was too busy focusing on recording every little detail he could on his future opponent's kaijin.
Every weakness he could exploit, every bad habit he could take advantage, and every possible tactic he could record in this mont would pay off in spades once Zhen Liu and his allies sprung into action.
The only problem was that he was hoping to do this over ti, as opposed to cramming everything all at once like he was back in college the night before the final.
Regardless, now that the cat was out of the bag and attempting to eat his throat, he might as well try and make the best of it.
'I just wish I had Logos and Pathos here to try and explain all of this weird shit.'
Aside from the combat data generated by the enemy kaijin, Zhen Liu also gathered the data of what happens when zako are allowed to freely absorbed curse energy.
So far, he wasn't impressed and deeply concerned.
The mutated zakos were...weird, in Zhen Liu's eyes.
They were stronger than regular zakos, maybe even stronger than a proto-kaijin, but they were sohow even dumber than the average zako.
If the regular zako was as smart as a well-trained dog, these mutants were about as bright as hamsters that had been infected with rabies.
And disturbingly, they were just as nurous as hamsters.
Zhen Liu was fairly certain he didn't make that many zakos, about six dozens or so, but the number of mutant zakos that Dante and his horde had been fighting was greater than that.
The number of enemy zakos was actually so great that Dante's kaijin were actually starting to get tired.
If this assault didn't let up any ti soon, then it was very possible that the kaijin would get overwheld...and actual casualties would start to mount.
[Where the hell are all these bastards coming from?!]
[I don't know, but I'm starting to run on fus over here.]
[—wait, what?]
'DAMNIT!'
(Un)Fortunately, that didn't happen.
At so point, the mutant zakos suddenly dropped whatever fighting they were in the middle of and imdiately retreated.
Most of them did, anyways.
A small portion of the zakos had actually been captured by the kaijin during all of the fighting and were rendered incapable of retaliating.
These hostages would make excellent sources of information for Dante and his horde.
Alas, that was not ant to be.
[Hey, do we chase after those weird combatants or not? They seem to bailing in random directions.]
[Nah, leave them. We already got several hostages that the boss can—]
BANG!
[FUCK, MY CLAWS!]
One by one, each of the captured mutant zakos began to actively explode in energetic bursts that injured the kaijin that were foolish enough to stay close to them.
Which was all of them.
While none of these wounds were particularly fatal, the sensation of bone fragnts, giant splinters and stone shrapnel ripping through skin and embedding flesh was still incredibly unpleasant.
Many of the kaijin were used to the sensations of pain when fighting each other, but outside sources still stung like hell.
[Bah! If we ever find that other Kaijin Lord, I'm going to personally jam these bone fragnts down his throat.]
[Too easy. Shove it up his ass, instead.]
[You are so fucking nasty.]
Now, one would think that Dante would be incredibly pissed about this situation.
The goal of the hunt this ti around was to locate the "other" Kaijin Lord and claim whatever legacy he had for himself, which required a lead.
One of the mutated zako would've been the perfect way to track the bastard down, since these artificial soldiers carried traces of their creator's [Chaos] and scent.
All Dante would have to do was to capture one, have his trackers pick up the scent, and then easily slaughter the bastard and his kaijin in one fell swoop.
But alas, the self-destruction of the zakos had nipped this idea in the bud.
Then again, it probably didn't help that Dante's elite warriors had actively neglected capturing the enemy zakos whenever they could.
Needless to say, none of these bastards took responsibility for their reckless actions, they simply started blaming each other.
[Boss, I didn't an to stomp in their heads like overripe waterlons. I just figured Delictum would be the one to secure so zakos.]
[Screw off with your feigned ignorance, you fat catfish!] Delictum shrieked with indignation. [I heard you snickering about relying on the rest of us for making up your slack.]
[Tattletale!]
[Boss, I apologize,] Slavina said with a voice as sweet and sickening as honey. [I just didn't think my love would be so caustic to those little darlings. Who knew that there is was a limit to how much one of those zakos could take?]
[Probably around the ti you lted four of them in a row,] Obsidious critiqued. [Maybe you should stop playing with your food so much.]
[Oh? Do my beautiful ears deceive ?]Slavina asked with a voice that was positively dripping in sarcasm. [Am I being judged by the burning bastard himself? The one who regularly, deliberately burns people like they were roasted pigs while they still live and breathe? Is such a fool, judging ?]
[Yes, I am,] Obsidious answered earnestly while his flas began to grow hotter. [And I hate it when you talk to in such a manner.]
[Then why don't you make stop you—]
"Enough."
With a single loaded with [Chaos], Dante forced his arguing knights to cease their useless prattling and fall to their knees in submission.
Gone were the haughty attitudes, replaced with visages of submission.
Well, for three out of four them, at least.
'It doesn't matter whether or not we secure one of these "zakos" now," Dante began to lecture his kaijin,"what matters is what information we can gleam from this attack."
After making this statent, Dante eased up the pressure to allow his kaijin to speak.
[Like what, boss?] Gumba asked, first.
For example...the fact that these monsters attacked us so quickly implies that this other Lord knows where we are.
As soon as he made this statent, Dante directed a pointed gaze in Zhen Liu's direction.
In response, Zhen Liu did...nothing.
Only soone with a guilty conscience or had sothing to hide, would react towards such a gaze with imdiacy.
As such, Zhen Liu deliberately acted as if he was slow on the implication.
[What?]
Are you certain that your...current master...is unable to detect where you are?
[Yes.]
Then how did those zakos know where and when to attack?
[Did you seriously forget what I said?] Zhen Liu asked in order to reverse the situation, a hint of annoyance in his voice to help solidify the act.
[Zakos are rather susceptible to environntal influences. This entire blasted region is cursed beyond belief, yes? Hence why you have so much Malevolent Gold on hand?]
What does that have to do with—
[Think for a second,] Zhen Liu interrupted. [It's more than likely that those zakos had sohow absorbed the cursed power of this land and have changed as a result, becoming wild and vicious. Or did you not notice the fact that the injuries on so of your kaijin carry the marks of curses?]
What?
Confirming Zhen Liu's words, Dante directed his attention towards the kaijin that had been injured from the self-destructing zakos from only a few minutes ago.
Scanning over them with his eyes, he could make out that every last one of them indeed have cursed wounds.
[If I had to hazard a guess, the region itself is sick of you and your horde digging up so much ore all the ti. It probably saw those zakos as being it's way of retaliating,] Zhen Liu pitched, unknowing or caring if it was an accurate statent to make.
'That, or life just likes to screw with .'
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