NOVPUB'Well...crap,', Zhen Liu mentally cursed as soon as he saw Olstenna deliver that fatal blow to Splatter's spine. 'I don't know if I should be impressed or deeply terrified for my future.'
As far as Zhen Liu knew, he and his Kaijin had several specific weaknesses that were all about imposing some form of "order" to [Chaos], the manipulation of [Desire] or both.
An example of the former was Dragon Force and, funnily enough, [Chaos] itself.
Dragon Force was an energy all about "natural" order, elemental balance as it were.
'Huh...just realized that this weakness could be related to Daoism, in a way...'
As for [Chaos], that was good ole fashion [Dominance], or law of the jungle in action.
The innate nature of Buddhists, true ones anyways, negated [Chaos] through the paradoxical desire of [Nirvana]. In other words, the removal of [Desire], the main motivator of [Chaos].
As for musical aether arts, Zhen Liu always assumed it was a simple application of manipulating [Desire]. Music makes on lose control after all.
After seeing how Olstenna was able to use a military marching to be able to bypass Splatter's defenses, though, Zhen Liu came to realize that there was probably a lot more to [Chaos]'s weakness to musical aether arts than he thought.
Especially since he was able to see what Olstenna had done.
'So...either Olstenna managed to force the [Chaos] composing Splatter into following his lead via that military tune and create moments of weakness, or his humming allowed him to identify moments where the Kaijin were particularly vulnerable due to their ever fluctuating nature,' Zhen Liu thought to himself. 'I'm leaning more towards the former than the latter.'
Then again, this weakness could be entirely unique to this other guy's Kaijin and Zhen Liu was freaking out for no good reason.
'It is possible that this is a problem unique to...wait a minute...why is he so quiet?'
As Zhen Liu turned his head slightly to stare at the Kaijin Lord of the [Mines of Malevolence], he saw that the man had a very strange expression on his face while leaning forward in interest.
He wasn't entirely sure what it was, but he was fairly certain that he couldn't make out a lick of rage behind those eyes. If anything, all he could make out was sadistic glee.
^So there was another way to get those monsters to fall in line. How pleasing...^ the Kaijin Lord mumbled in a strange voice.
'Wait, what the fuck?'
It should be noted that Zhen Liu's exclamation of confusion here was attributed more to what was said than how it was said.
Regardless, once the Kaijin Lord had made this observation, he sat back down into his seat and began to muse on the battle before him.
"Well, I can understand why this Aetherii was able to defeat one of my Kaijin in the first place. But I wonder if he realized he just made his life more difficult...and much shorter..."
'Okay, this guy has to have noticed that his Kaijin just had his core...wait a minute...why am I sensing three of them now? Wait, no... there's something else on top of that...'
As Zhen Liu did his best in pretending to be interested in the battle happening down below, he couldn't help but notice that the other Kaijin Lord was starting mobilize his [Chaos].
'But...why?'
...On the arena floor...
After Olstenna had delivered his devastating stomp, he assumed that Splatter would disappear into particles of energy like the zakos when they were defeated.
At least, that's what he hoped would happen this time around.
Unlike last time, Olstenna made sure to target the kaijin's [Core] directly as opposed to their corporeal form.
While he enjoyed fighting as much as the next guy, he didn't want Splatter to just suddenly cycle into another Kaijin.
Fortunately, that didn't happen.
Unfortunately, things got...weirder.
^Hmmm? What's that rumbling sound?^
From beneath his feet, Olstenna could feel Splatter's chimeric form starting to rumble, shake and distort like a balloon being filled with liquid and live fish.
^Hmmm.^
Sensing that standing where he was was an incredibly bad idea, Olstenna proceeded to lift himself off of Splatter's back by jetting flames from the bottom of his feet. Evidently, his decision to fly upwards was a smart one.
Shortly after he had done so, Splatter exploded and transformed into three different balls of fire.
Once these balls manifested, the kaijin in the stands let out multiple surprised gasps.
[The Splatter just...split apart?]
[That can happen?]
[Wait, doesn't that mean...]
[Those other two guys are back?!]
While the mortals left in ring, well...they weren't happy.
^More of them?!^
<OH COME ON!>
"Wait...why do they feel noticeably weaker than the original though..."
The fireballs continued to burn for a solid minute or so before finally snuffing out and revealing to the crowd, three distinct looking and heavily injured Kaijin.
One resembled a humanoid goose, another a demented elephant-man while the last resembled bipedal toad.
That lattermost Kaijin was none other than Splatter.
[What the fuck... I'm...I'm back?!]
[My head is... spinning...]
[No, no, no! What did that bastard do to me?!]
Huh... unexpected.^
Floating above the confused trio of Kaijin, Olstenna stared down with amusement plain on his face. The same, however, could not be said about Olstenna's friend.
^Oi! Berseker!^
^Huh?^
^I don't think you did it correctly,^ Lythero shouted at Olstenna. ^Weren't you suppose to take out the cores first?^
^Honestly, I thought that I could just skip that part,^ Olstenna answered back. ^Don't worry, I'm about to fix the issue.^
^The fuck does that mean?^
^Just watch!^
While hovering above the confused Kaijin, Olstenna condensed a swirling vortex of both purple and black flames into his hands before swinging them downwards.
As he continued to do so though, Olstenna realized something important.
...
'Wait...will this attack still work without me humming those military songs? Fuck it, let's find out.'
...
[Rain of Fire!]
A rain of purple and black fireballs flew forth from Olstenna's hands and roared towards the trio of injured Kaijin.
An attack of this magnitude would absolutely destroy three regular aether warriors of Olstenna's caliber.
Unfortunately, their targers weren't regular aether warriors.
As the purple-and-black flames fell down on Splatter and the other two Kaijin, the three of made active efforts to try and block or avoid the attacks...only to fail in a miserable manner as they tripped over themselves and failed to bring up their arms in time to defend themselves.
However, that turned out to be unnecessary.
Before the eyes of everyone present, they could see that Olstenna's attacks disappeared the moment they made contact with the skin of the three Kaijin.
The elephant-like and goose-like Kaijin both looked bewildered at the sight, as they were somewhat conscious inside of Splatter and were well aware of this Aetherii's strange ability to negate their defenses.
As for Splatter, he was just angry and annoyed.
[Oh, what the fuck, now my defenses work?!] Splatter roared indignantly as he became surrounded by black and purples flames. [This doesn't make any—]
^Hi there!^
[GAH!]
Before Splatter could finish his complaint about the unfairness of the universe, Olstenna appeared behind him.
Once again, Splatter felt the shadow of death approaching him.
^Looks like I was right,^ Olstenna observed while almost singing out the words for Splatter to hear, causing the Kaijin to visibly flinch. ^Looks like I still need to sing.^
[Sing? Why would you need to sing?^ Splatter asked...moments before realizing the answer himself. [Wait! That's how you've been able to—?!]
^But as for you, my froggy foe^ Olstenna interrupted while landing a punch on Splatter's abdomen and causing the frog to double over in pain. ^You won't get to share this tune.^
[Oh you mother—] 𝑛𝑜𝑣𝑝𝑢𝘣.𝘤𝑜𝘮
As soon as Splatter attempted to insult Olstenna, the aetherii performed a combination move that, for reasons only he understood, sounded like the rhythmic hammering of a blacksmith at work.
...
CLANG!
The first strike knocked Splatter into the air.
CLANG!
The next one sent him bouncing to the ground.
CLANG! CLANG!
Two more strikes blew open Splatter's chest.
CLANG!
And the last strike sent him to the grave.
...
[Gah!]
Destroying Splatter's [Core] was not a clean affair, and was spectacularly gruesome.
It wasn't often one sees a Kaijin get their torso burnt through by a mix of blacks and purple flames, after all.
Especially when it gets followed up by the visual of an Aetherii ripping out a golden [Core] from the burnt out torso and then crushing it like a piece of sugar candy in a vice.
When Olstenna finally destroyed Splatter's [Core], the crowd of rowdy Kaijin went dead silent.
After all, this was the first time any of them had seen a true death occur amongst their numbers.
Although...the reactions were a little different than what Olstenna had anticipated.
[Are...are you fucking kidding me?]
[What a waste of a core!]
