Feeling the giant hand's killing intent, both the leaders of the Corrada and Wolfe families began to circulate their aether and enter fighting stances.
Jacob Wolfe proceeded to tighten the grip around his cane, ready to strike out, while Telana Corrada began to glow with a toxic purple light.
Grand Digger Orgo was just about ready to lead the charge, hammer in hand, when he noticed out of the corner of his eye that the leader of the Zhen Clan had remained seated and had even brought out a cup of tea with complementing cookies. A look of obvious confusion became evident on his face.
"What the hell are you doing, you old sea snake? Do you want to get smashed to pieces?!"
"I think he finally lost his nerve," Jacob chided, "the famed 'Mad Shark' has finally lost his taste for blood."
"Oh shove it you toothless mongrel," Zhen Shi fired back before sipping his tea, "I just find it a waste of energy trying to knock away an echo."
"What? An echo?"
"Just watch," Zhen Shi replied as he began to munch on one of the cookies he brought.
"PAOOOOOO!"
Due to the distraction caused by Zhen Shi's actions, the giant hand was now directly in front of the other three leaders while they were only half prepared to strike it back. They were too late.
The three of them prepared their defenses the best they could, waiting for the impact...only for nothing to happen save for a gust of wind that blew right pass them as the elephant's trumpet grew dimmer and dimmer with each second.
"Huh?"
The three Grandmasters looked confused at what had just occured and were racking their brains for an answer. It was in that moment, that Zhen Shi took an audible sip of his tea.
"Mmm! Who knew that Silver Cactus Flower tea paired so well with camel milk almond cookies, I should get another box later," Zhen Shi laughed to himself. Orgo, Telana and Jacob all stared at him in silent disbelief, until Orgo decided to break it.
"Alright, how the hell did you know that that giant hand was a fa-"
"The Doom Criers."
"Pardon?"
Zhen Shi took one last sip of his tea before placing it down and letting out a deep sigh, the kind old people used when they were remembering something from long ago.
"The Doom Criers were a tribe of cultivators that specialized in vocal and auditory arts and formulas," Zhen Shi began to explain, "While such things aren't uncommon, the strange thing about the Doom Criers was that they had an incredibly high and strange affinity towards them."
"High affinity? How so?," Telana asked.
"From what I recall, I think it was said that even the weakest members could double the strength of these arts, while the strongest could quintuple it."
"Impossible!"
"Oh my..."
"Well that's the high part...what of the strange?"
Zhen Shi gave the other grand masters a mysterious smile.
"You just saw it. The Doom Criers could create powerful illusions whenever they used those arts. I recall it was due to their vocal chords being of divine blood, but it has been a while since I last had to recall this information," Zhen Shi mused while scratching the back of his head, "perhaps it was due to how they train their warriors...regardless, the fact that the illusion disappeared here means that the warrior who made it is most likely miles away from us."
The grandmasters were both shocked and relieved when they learned of the true nature of that giant hand, so much so that they proceeded to relax and return to their seats. Granted, they wouldn't have been so relaxed if Zhen Shi had decided to share the important details on those illusions.
'The illusions are only visible to those weaker than the maker of the sound...and the more detailed the illusion...the greater the disparity.'
Zhen Shi held his tongue as to not cause the others to panic, as well as one other reason.
'That trumpet...it belongs to a beast that is said to have gone extinct over five hundred years ago...how can it be here?'
As Zhen Shi stared towards the entrance to the wandering ruins, he thought of a strange descendant of his...
_________________________________________________
Back in the now frozen over lava chamber
Frosttusk let out a triumphant snort as he stared over his handiwork. He could feel it in his metallic bones that this was only the first of many victories to come.
[Hunt...completed...min jarl. Awaiting...for...more... instructions.]
[FOR THE LOVE OF WHATEVER DEITY RUNS THIS PLANET, WARN A GUY BEFORE YOU SET OFF A SOUND BOMB! ESPECIALLY ONE THAT COMES WITH A LIGHT SHOW!]
"My eyes are burning!"
Zhen Liu was currently blinking and rubbing his ears like there was no tomorrow, because they were both currently not working. Evidently, Frosttusk's usage of [Echoing Frost] was this weird mixture of getting hit with a flash bang that somehow had a blizzard shoved inside it. Everything as white from both snow and light, and his ears were ringing. Thankfully, this was a temporary affliction.
Zhen Liu and Sullivan eventually managed to get their bearings back together, but they were soon slackjawed due to an unexpected sight.
"HOLY SHIT!"
"The centisnake, it's...frozen solid?!"
Laying before the two humans and the kaijin was the mechanical centisnake, definitively above the now the frozen lava,frozen solid due to the stark white frost covering every crevice, gear and curve.The fact that the internals were still somehow glowing red gave the whole thing a very sinister look.
[Uhh, are the people in that thing still alive?,] Zhen Liu asked hesitantly. If Frosttusk had just smashed the thing to pieces, Zhen Liu could have at least been half sure that the people in it were still alive. But now that it was frozen over...hypothermia and frostbite were terrible ways to go.
[No...worries...min jarl,] Frosttusk answered while walking over to the centisnake,[Just...need...good...punch!]
Frosttusk made his way over to one of the body segments of the centisnake. Zhen Liu could barely make out the silhouette of a young man about his age, suspended in some weird liquid, locked inside the body segment.
Frosttusk proceeded to knock a knuckle against the segment until he heard a sound he was satisfied with. Once he had located the spot, he proceeded to straightforwardly punch it.
SLAM!
CRACK!
SLORP!
"Ughhh...."
Like a weird looking egg, the frozen body segment proceeded to shatter to pieces and spill it's slime-covered occupant. When Zhen Liu used his senses to look over the man, they found him to be alive, but still a bit banged up. It was kinda miraculous, if not a little a gross.
"Bleck... Where...am I?"