[Now there's the Terrorcotta Lord I heard about!], Voxea told me with a smile, [And here I thought he was full of smoke]!
The Terrorcotta Lord - Piercer looked remarkably different once he had completely smashed away the outer layer of clay chunks that had covered it's form.
Gone was the standard armor that the other statues were wearing, gone was the faded clay texture from head to toe and gone was the stiffness that I had seen in the other majimonsters.
Standing before the two of us now was a strangely lean, intimidating figure. While the Terrorcotta Soldiers looked more like figures and dolls, moving with the same stiffness as such, the Terrorcotta Lord moved unnaturally fluid. Every subtle movement seemed a bit too... perfect.
Its armor looked less like clay and more like a strange yellow metal, ornate and decorated with all manner of embellishments from bolts of lightning to depictions of serpentine majimonsters with long whiskers and antlers. Coupled with the spear wreathed Lightning aether, I was reminded of those "storm gods" that I saw some people worship to back at the capital.
But the thing that freaked me out the most, was its face.
Now, I am aware of humanoid majimonsters and I can't really complain due to my association with Voxea, a literal human turned majimonster, but this was different.
The Terrorcotta Lord's face made me uncomfortable to look at directly. It had this weird mixture of looking human enough to make me think it was a person, but there were so many minute flaws that I unconsciously took a step back. The glowing yellow eyes full of power didn't help either.
The Terrorcotta Lord Piercer took a fighting stance as Voxea and I watched on, leveling his spear towards Voxea.
{Shall we dance?}, the smooth voice of the Terrorcotta Lord echoing in my head.
Voxea followed suit, taking her own stance and holding the ice glaive with grace.
[Yes], she replied, [Let us begin].
As Voxea and Piercer stood their ground, I could hear the aether becoming more and more agitated, alongside the sudden addition of newer, more discordant sounds.
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A furious clash of metal against metal echoed throughout the hall as Triton and the Terrorcotta Soldier locked weapon and shield against one another. The two were evenly matched...but not for long.
As the two kept exchanging blows, a sudden change occured in aether that set off Savina's instincts. In that same moment, she noticed that the Terrorcotta Soldier she was fighting was starting to glow a very strange color.
[Something's up. Triton, disengage and hunker]!
[Right], Triton replied as he shoved his opponent back and entered a defensive position.
Once the two were separated, the Terrorcotta Soldier stopped moving and went into a standing position. The glow enveloping the majimonster started to become denser and denser before completely covering it head to toe in a dense layer of aether.
Right before their eyes, the form of the Terrorcotta Soldier began to change, becoming larger, denser, broader and horns starting to grow out of the side of it's head.
As the light began to subside, the once humanoid soldier became significantly more bestial in appearance, a bull-like head replacing it's helmeted visage and a heavy great axe replacing it's sword and shield.
[What the-]
But before Silvia could finish her thought, the ox-headed soldier suddenly rushed Triton and knocked him straight into a wall.
[Ouch], Triton thought as he made impact with the wall. Chunks of clay and stone collapsed upon him.
[Triton! Are you okay?!], Savina shouted through the bond as she rushed over to her partners' side. Aether began to circulate as she willed it into a healing technique to restore his health.
A gentle light enveloped the Shellvalier before he managed to free himself from the rubble that had fallen upon him.
[Fine. Strong], he thought as he prepared his trident and shield to meet his newly changed opponent.
The ox-headed soldier let out a brutal snort at the Shellvalier's defiance.
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[Last one! Volcanic Stomp!], Bori commanded while slamming a fist into his open palm.
"SQUEEEE"!
Ulvor let out a bloodthirsty roar as he stomped down a hoof towards a Terrorcotta Soldier armed with a spear. The ground suddenly began to crack towards the soldier as Earth and Fire aether surged along with it.
But before the attack could make contact, a sudden change overcame the Terrorcotta Soldier.
The soldier inexplicably began crouching before glowing a strange yellow color. As the light became denser and denser, it's body began to elongate as a pair of long ears sprouted out of the top of it's head. The spear in it's hand breaking into two medium sized sticks.
Just as the technique was about to hit the transforming soldier, it suddenly leaped an inhuman distance into the air.
A small eruption of lava shot upward, but narrowly missed the leaping soldier.
As it sailed through the air, the light faded away, revealing that the Terrorcotta Soldier had become some kind of rabbit man. The rabbit man then proceeded to condense a chunk of Earth aether at its feet and use it as a platform to launch himself at the Eruptodon.
[Uh oh].
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[Smoke Double, now]!
[Of course...].
Indigo's form began to waver as the smoke composing her body suddenly dispersed into a thick cloud. The cloud quickly condensed into several clones of the Djinncense that began to fly around in erratic patterns.
Indigo's opponent, a Terrorcotta Soldier that suddenly took on the visage of a hawk-man armed with a whip looked incredibly annoyed at having to deal with multiple targets now.
With annoyed screech, the hawk-man flapped it's wings and launched a spray of clay feathers that pierced the clones like a shower of arrows.
However, he didn't expect that Indigo would not be mixed in with the clones, but had floated to a blindspot beneath.
[Bluster]!
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Alyra and Boleros had managed to aether one of the melee Terrorcotta Soldiers, leaving only one ranged and one melee one left for them to defeat.
They were feeling rather confident at this moment.
[Searing Bolt]! [Savage Fang]!
The Amphiboil glowed dark red before spitting out a glob of flame straight at the sword wielding soldier. At the same time, the Ferroena rushed toward the one armed with a crossbow, it's fangs glowing with Fury.
But as the two attacks were about to make contact, the two soldiers suddenly transformed.
The one Alto the Amphiboil was about to burn suddenly turned into a strange turtle-man with shells on it's arms acting as big shields. These shields effortlessly blocked the fire bolt like it was nothing but a spark on the ground.
On the other hand, just as Valdos was about to crunch down, a large snake tail made of clay suddenly whipped him across the face. The Terrorcotta Soldier he was aiming for had changed into a serpent man, complete with snake tail for legs.
[I don't remember learning that in class].