"Go with the flow and...THERE!"RJ exclaimed as he successfully reflected a flame rat into another one.
Instead of letting the bagua mirror rapidly spin around like an out of control top, RJ had been continuously trying to figure out how the [Reflect 1] skill worked exactly. Eventually, he learned that the skill took about three to five seconds for the mirror to fully "reflect" the attacks it had managed to absorb and that if he wanted to redirect the attack in a particular direction, he had to move his body with the motion of the spinning mirror until the release.
Evidently, this led to RJ doing a ton of weird, aerobic exercises along with core strengthening. In essence, boy was outta shape and the mirror was not helping with that.
"Hah! Suck it mother-Oh crap"!
Evidently, his lack to exercise led to him almost slipping up like a chump and almost falling into the soup. This led to him flailing his arms like an idiot in order to stabilize himself...which was then proven pointless thanks to the Wolf-Headed Ogress showing back up and pulling him in.
"Careful", she grunted as she delicately pulled him back via her fingertips. She pulled a little too rough, however, and RJ ended up landing on his butt.
"Pshh...thanks", RJ said between gasps of air.
"Welcome".
"Meow".
The Zouyu cub came bouncing off to the side and landed in Rj's lap, an expression that said "Pet and praise me" plain on it's face.
"Hey little guy. Looks like you got rid of those fire rats no problem too", RJ said while scratching the Zouyu's head, "wait, where's that Huoshu thing? And more importantly, where's Tatterhood"?
Before either the Zouyu or the Ogress could respond, the woman herself came flying in on her sea-goat with a huge shield made of liquid in front of her. Bellerophon the sea-goat let out a snort before slamming his front hooves down on the broth like it was solid ground to stop their momentum. After the two had stop sliding, Tatterhood swung her monk spade to the side and sent the liquid shield back into the broth.
"Well then, looks things are about to get a lot more interesting!", Tatterhood exclaimed, a mildly manic smile on her face.
"Tatterhood! You're o-waitaminute", RJ said initially relieved until he fully processed Tatterhood's words, "What do you mean by interesting"?
"That", Tatterhood said while pointing towards the direction she came flying from. A moment later, the Huoshu came bursting from the steam, but looking remarkably different from before, namely larger and more grotesque looking.
The Huoshu's physique had changed from an arguably sleek, runner-like build of about 1.8 meters to one more akin to a gorilla but even more muscular and standing at about five meters. It's once brilliant red pelt now took on more of an orange hue as the disgusting orange flames now seemed to come from deeper within the beast, while the distinctive black lines that decorated it had been replace with several sharp protrusions poking out of it's skin. To complete this rather devilish image, a pair of pitch-black devil horns had grown from the rat's forehead.
"Oh that ain't right", RJ commented as he took an involuntary step backwards, "what the hell happened? Why does it look like something from my nightmares"?!
"Take a look for yourself",Tatterhood replied while readying her weapon.
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"Pain, Pain, Pain, PaaaainnnNNNNn!", the Huoshu thought as a burning sensation encroached it's throat and mouth.
Out of instinct, it suddenly spat up a mucous glob of orange flames at a floating piece of meat that was nearby and instantly burned it into smoke.
"FoOooDDDdd?!", it thought as it watched The smoke float there for a while.
A moment later, the smoke suddenly flowed straight into the Huoshu's stomach area. After having fully absorb the smoke, the Huoshu glowed for a brief moment before suddenly doubling over.
PaaINNNNnnNnnNNn!
The Huoshou's body began to convulse as several bony spikes suddenly shot out of it's back like pin needles being pushed out of a cushion. A strange cavernous feeling began to develop on it's stomach as it felt flesh rip and bones break around there. Unseen by others, but felt by itself...himself, his stomach had turned itself into a new, larger mouth.
pAaiiiIIiNNnnnn, Paaainnnn, Paiiiin...Pain...I am hungry.
I am hungry.
"I...am...HUNGRY!", he shouted to the heavens in chorus with his new mouths. In the next moment, he launched a pillar of orange flames towards his prey.
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"Oh shit!", RJ exclaimed as he saw the pillar of flames rushing towards him and his group. He was about to tell everyone to scatter...up until he saw the Zouyu rush towards the flame pillar!
"What are you doing"?!