Kaijin Fighter: So I Have to Make Monsters, So What?-Chapter 1235 : Pause for Unwelcome Attention
As the Zhen Clan fought themselves, and a certain protokaijin made friends with themselves, a group of unwelcome guests had arrived to the [Gallery of Cloaked Mirrors] a little after them.
^How peculiar. An entire gallery of mirrors and yet every single one of them remains covered... well, I suppose that's why this place was referred to as the [Gallery of Cloaked Mirrors].^
^Maybe they're all broken?^
^No, they're probably cursed.^
This group of unwelcome guests consisted of three eclectically dressed individuals who clearly came from different walks of life and only had a single unifying facet that indicated that they were affiliated with each other. This facet was a silver medallion, depicting a strange dragon casted in silver vines, dangling from somewhere off of their individual person's.
In other words, these three were allies of the Silver Jungle Dragon Shipping Company.
^How do you know they're cursed? It could just be a design choice.^
^Because unlike you, who spends their days knocking over caravans and successful wandering ruins raiders, I actually put in the effort of going into these types of places and braving the dangers to rob someone blind. Once you see one cursed trap, you start to notice a trend between all the cursed traps. And nothing in ruins tend to be just for the aesthetics.^
^Huh... I'll take your word on that.^
The ones currently having a discussion about the nature of banditry and the various dangers that each of them face in their particular method of skullduggery were known on the bounty boards as "Phantom Thief" Lupao and "Thundering Horn" Rebaba.
The former was an Anima Wielder of ill-repute, whose main claim to fame was being able to steal the treasures from under the noses of other aether warriors whenever and however they pleased.
His method of doing so wasn't based on anything interesting like turning invisible or being incredibly nimble; rather, he used his anima abilities to convince others that he was all of those things... before outright stabbing them and stealing all of their stuff.
As for the latter, Rebaba was a Bloodliner whose ancestry could be traced to the infamous Blood Thundercloud Rhino.
Like his ancestor, Rebaba had a special horn growing from his face that was able to concentrate dense amounts of blood and lighting attributed aether into a deadly explosion. An explosion that could be forcefully injected into any target, living or otherwise.
This content is taken from fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm.
^If you two are done gawking, we have a gallery to explore and scions to bring to heel. The simple act of walking through is dirtying my kasaya, and I hate having the outer disciple clean them so often.^
^Yes, Abbot Longhorn.^
^Apologies for the delay.^
However, both of those reputations fell short in the face of Abbot Longhorn, the proud leader of the Luxurious Horns Monastery
Funnily enough, Abbot Longhorn wasn't supposed to be here at the [Gallery of Cloaked Mirrors], he was supposed to go to the [Hall of Glass Warriors].
However, once the group assignments had occurred, Abbot Longhorn opted to switch places with his disciple, Barina.
On the surface, he said he wanted to make this switch in order to better balance their forces.
This sounded off to the leader of the expedition, Alonzo,but Abbot Longhorn had made use of flowing prose and sage words to get his way on the matter and convince the others that this swap was a good idea.
Not exactly caring about this odd request, the expedition leader agreed and allowed Abbot Longhorn to lead the team going to the [Gallery of Cloaked Mirrors].
As for the reason why he insisted, well, it was the same reason why the other two members of his party were ecstatic about going; they wanted to meet the infamous Zhen Clan warriors too.
^I hear traces of an ongoing battle.^Abbot Longhorn told his two companions once they were deeper into the gallery. ^Shall we investigate further and see if there are any benefits to be had in this encounter.^
^Yes, let's!^
^I want to see if they're as infamous as the rumors.^
Rumors could travel faster than the speed of light, especially among the mercenary and criminal elements of the world, and the ones that involved the Zhen Clan were strange to the say the least.
From stopping the usage of a dirty bomb, to stopping a Beast Tide, and a young master suddenly coming back from the dead, such events would normally be chalked up as being aether warrior business if these events happened to a big organization or super sect, or if they had occurred on an individual basis to multiple branch clans.
But the fact that all of these events happened over the course of months to a single, frontier clan that nobody heard of unless they were from Stampeding Bison, unless they were from the frontier, was enough to rouse both suspicion and interest.
Especially when such arousal was being used encouraged by one of the largest underworld organizations in the world, but that wasn't relevant to Abbot Longhorn.
Abbot Longhorn, this vicious old monk, was interested in one of the lesser known rumors being circulated about the Zhen Clan; the one pertaining to a young master being born crippled, dying in the desert, only to come back from the dead as the master of strange esoteric aether puppets.
To others, this rumor didn't mean much aside from being an interesting curiosity.
Miraculous geniuses occurring weren't as common as clouds, but they were just as fleeting.
To Abbot Longhorn though, and others like him who had been bestowed knowledge from the direct disciple of the Honored One himself, it meant a bit more than that.
'Best case scenario, he's the one I'm looking for, and I become the one to unite all of the branches of Buddhism under my banner,' Abbot Longhorn thought to himself as he and his companions got closer and closer to the sound of conflict. 'And in the worst case scenario, I will at least have a direction about where to possibly look...and I will lessen the world of one more upstart who might threaten my dominance.'
Eventually, the trio from the Silver Jungle Dragon Shipping Company got close enough to start making out individual voices.
All together, they could hear three young men shouting and fighting against three unknown opponents.
^It appears that we have arrived just in time,^ Abbot Longhorn observed.
^Should we pretend to be friends and then stab them in the back?^ Lupao suggested to his companions.
^I think we should just get in there and attack right now,^ Rebaba replied. ^They're probably weak enough that we can just take them and their opponents out in a single ambush.^
^That would be a more efficient plan of action,^ Abbot Longhorn agreed. ^Let's go and reap what the others have sowed.^
^Yes!^
But before the Silver-tongue's allies could get involved in the action, the action came to them instead.
[Underworld Conflagration!]
^Look out!^
A ball of evil-feeling of fire suddenly came blazing down the hallway and almost turned Abbot Longhorn, Rebaba and Lupao into burnt corpses, had they not managed to jump out of the way in time.
Unfortunately, they were about to learn that the smarter move would've been to intercept the attack and prevent it from touching the environment, at all.
^Holy shit!^
^Well that could've ended-why am I suddenly sensing a surge in aether behind me?^
The massive fireball they had just avoided, impacted the ground that was directly behind them.
Bits of ember and burning rubble was kicked up as a result, and these little bits of fire were just enough to cause the clothes covering the mirrors to catch fire, one after the other.
^Oh...fuck.^
The trio of warriors soon found themselves surrounded by multiple mirrors that were now fully exposed to the elements, and had all three of them reflected on their surfaces.
At first, nothing happened and the warriors felt rather relieved.
^Okay, nothing too bad. Our reflections look weird but that's about it.^
Crack! Crack!
^Oh...shit.^
But then, one after the other, every single mirror that reflected them began to wobble and shake as the surrounding aether became more and more disturbed.
Before their very eyes, dozens upon dozens of imperfect clones, imperfect reflections of the trio began to crawl out of these mirrors and stand up on to their feet like shambling corpses that had suddenly been given the ability to live again.
In this exact moment, the allies of the Silver-tongues understood three things.
First, that the opponents that the Zhen Clan were fighting must've been weird clones like they were facing down in this instant.
Second, that the reflections were imperfect copies not just on the physical level but spiritual level as well. Abbot Longhorn alone could detect that some of his copies were much weaker than himself.
Last, but certainly not least, they understood that they were incredibly outnumbered and could feel that these guys weren't up for negotiations.
^Oh fuck.^
^One, two, oh, there's a lot.^
^Well then, I suppose I'm going to have to go all out for this,^ Abbot Longhorn determined. ^Time to show them why you don't confront a bull head-on.^
