Moments before...
Hurricroak wasn't satisfied with just slowly breaking the Marquis's armor, she wanted it gone.
'Twenty seconds until hand off time, so the Maestro can have a thirty second power up time...,' Hurricroak thought to herself as she kept dive bombing and slowly taking part the Marquis's defense, 'it's a good thing I picked the duet edition for this. Give me more time to crack this bastardo for what he did.'
At this point, the song was reaching the final few notes that involved vocals, and Hurricroak wanted it so that this fight ended on the guitar solo in an incredibly flashy manner. And as if the the universe was hearing her out, the Marquis's armor had completely stop materializing at this point.
'Brilliant!'
Hurricroak proceeded to divebomb one last time, this time curling herself up as if getting ready to tackle the Marquis. She made it very obvious that she was charging headfirst towards the Marquis's own.
"Accursed amphibian! Deciding to offer your head as penance for the besmirchment of my person? Then I shall take it!"
[Decapitating-]
[Accelera-electra!] Boom!
Before the Marquis could finish firing his technique, Hurricroak launched herself forward and crashed into the ground a few in front of the Marquis, kicking up a sizeable cloud of dust. Within this cloud of dust, Hurricroak went back to her default frog woman form, but it was during this process the Marquis saw a familiar silhouette.
A mixture of happiness, rage and confusion roared with in his heart.
"What?! No! It can't be!," the Marquis cried in despair, "Why are you-"
[Thunder Hop!]
Lightning and sound aether condensed and collided in Hurricroak's legs and head, moments before she launched a jumping headbutt towards the Marquis's middle, sending him skywards as a force of sound and electricity impacted him.
Needless to say, Hurricroak made sure to time it to the ending parts of the vocals.
[Now, maestro!]
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The music playing from the belt suddenly stopped as Zhen Liu pulled the lever, which also had the effect of stopping the fortune wheel that was spinning in his head. A feeling of overwhelming power soon came over him
~Harmonize: Max! Eruption!~
Nepherage was resummoned at the exact same moment as this announcement was made, but the summoning felt different this time.
Zhen Liu could feel that his bond with Nepherage had become a lot stronger in this moment. So much so that a literal chain of white colored energy formed between the two of them, acting like a connection. This was all a temporary affair, at least he hoped, but he felt as if he and Nepherage were now one soul but two bodies.
The next thing he knew, a vision of what he and Nepherage were supposed to do next came to him in his mind's eye. The actions were a tad extravagant, but the results spoke for themselves.
'You ready, Nepherage?'
[Of course, milord!]
'Alright then!,' Zhen Liu replied as he lifted up one of his feet. Nepherage perfectly mirrored this action on her side as well.
'[Open the road to glory!]'
BOOM!
Man and Kaijin declared their intent, and stomped down on the ground in perfect unison, causing a shock of energy to ripple beneath them.
FWOOSH, FWOOSH!
As if awaken by their sudden action, several platforms of molten rock shot out of the ground and began to hover in the air, forming a clear path to their target.
Not wasting another second, Zhen Liu and Nepherage launched themselves towards the first platform and proceeded to move upward in perfect unison. While they did, the chain between them began to change color from a glowing white color to that of a fierce red flame. If one were to focus on the pair, they would feel the sheer amount of heat and fire aether becoming increasingly radiant. The shadow of a fierce giant began to form behind them as they moved.
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"Stupid! Fucking! Bitch! Frog!," the Marquis yelled as he tried to focus his energy to stop his forward momentum.
Hurricroak's headbutt to the stomach did more than just send the Marquis flying with a satisfying smack, it also ended up stunning his ability to make use of aether.
He wasn't sure if it was the electric shock, the weird energy or the freaking song that's been doing a solo instrument play for several seconds straight at max volume, but right now, the Marquis was beyond pissed and beyond exhausted.
'I just need to...there!'
The Marquis managed to gather enough aether to stop short of hitting the ceiling and enable himself to float in that spot for a few moments to catch his breath.
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[Float] was the other of the innate abilities that warriors gained when they reached the Aether Grandmaster level.
It allowed the user to move through the air with surprising grace, but the conversion of aether to actual movement was kind of...shit.
Float could be used for traveling and maybe to show off, but to use it in battle was not the best idea, due to the aether being used could be put to much better use.
Using [Float] in a battle, was a bit like painting a massive bullseye on your back...assuming the other guy had a method to reach the floater.
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As the Marquis hovered midair to try and catch his breath, he attempted to think of a way to snatch a victory from this atrocious battle.
'As tempting as it is to claim the power of the Demon Archive as my own here and now, perhaps I should just cut my losses and kill him. That woman of his probably knows something, so I can just-wait...why does it feel like there is a meteor aiming straight for my head?'
Confused by the sensation of heat coming over him, the Marquis looked up.
"What the fuck?!," the Marquis screamed in abject horror.
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Zhen Liu and Nepherage had followed the "glory road" platforms all the way to the very top of the room, positioning themselves well above the Marquis's head. When they got there, they had a brief moment before the Marquis had stopped his upward momentum, for some "idle" conversation.
[Milord, how did the Marquis not notice us maneuvering above him? We weren't exactly quiet.]
'Don't know, don't care,' Zhen Liu replied honestly, ' I'm just hoping he doesn't bullshit a way to escape this attack.'
Once the Marquis had stopped his upward movement and began to float midair, Zhen Liu knew the time had come.
'Nepherage, let's go!'
[Of course!]
Using the force of gravity behind them, Zhen Liu and Nepherage proceeded to flying kick towards the Marquis.
'Huh...where did all this heat come from?'
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"What the fuck?!"
Looming above the Marquis was a fierce looking giantess with fire-like hair in obsidian armor, wielding a giant lance made of molten rock that appeared to be spinning like a drill, and a strange looking buckler.
He thought for a moment he saw that this giantess was only an illusion and that there were actually two people inside it about to flying kick him, but right now his more immediate concern was survival.
'Shit! I need to throw up a shield now or else I'm-'
"[Muspelheim Piercer!,]" the giantess yelled in a strange dual sounding voice, moments before jets of flame ignited behind her and launched her forward.
A roar like an erupting volcano echoed through the room, as the giantess charged forward.