"Oh joy...an actual Aether Master," Zhen Liu mentally griped as he stared the bandit chief up and down. Unlike the mooks he had just taken out, Aether Masters were a whole another level of trouble. Literally, an entire level above them
The one standing before Zhen Liu was one of the leaders of the Bloody Boilers, Fergus von Blüt. How did he know? Because this dude's wanted poster was circulated everywhere back in Stone Claw City.
Originally an outer disciple of the Blood Burners main branch, Fergus made a name of himself due to his high compatibility with the Blood Boiler Body formula and killing at least ten other outer disciples. For his crimes and accomplishments, Fergus was sent out to lead the Bloody Boilers sub-branch. Some would see this as a promotion, others punishment, but Fergus didn't really care. He just enjoyed being able to kill people with impunity.
Standing at six foot four, clad in blood-red form fitting leather armor and appearing to have more muscles than an average gorilla, Fergus made for an intimidating sight. Combining all that with the clear evidence of his high mastery of "Blood Boiler Body", i.e. the glowing red body parts and thick jets of steam rolling off of his body, Fergus looked like something straight out of the pits of hell.
Fergus stared down at Zhen Liu, sniffing the air for a few moments before taking a deep breath. A cruel smile began to form on his face.
"You did a real bad number on my boys. Impressive for someone clearly new at fighting. After all, a real man would have finished the job," Fergus said while clenching a fist, "But that's enough of that."
"Die!," the giant of a man commanded.
Fergus drew back a fist as he began to rapidly circulate aether. Heat and steam radiated from the drawn fist as it began to glow a horrible red color like heated iron.
"Oh shit!"
[Crimson Boxing: Bloody Straight!]
Fergus swung a heavy fist down at Zhen Liu's head, but Zhen Liu managed to sidestep the blow before it could make contact. As the fist impacted the ground, an explosion of steam and heat blew Zhen Liu away.
"Aiesh!"
Zhen Liu was sent flying from the attack's shockwaves, but he managed to catch himself on the "branch" of a jade tree before he could hit the ground. Unfortunately, this gave Fergus time to charge up to his position.
[Crimson Boxing: Hemophilic Barrage]
Zhen Liu let out a small yelp while jumping off of the jade tree branch.
Fergus landed a flurry of blows on the jade tree, causing all the moss, "bark" and "branches" to explode in a shower of detritus, dust and ash. Surprisingly, the jade pillar that made up the "tree" was still in-tact despite taking the full brunt of the attack. While the display of power was rather intimidating, Fergus had inadvertently given Zhen Liu some rather effective cover.
"Where'd you go little monkey?," Fergus shouted as he began looking for Zhen Liu through the dust cloud.
Zhen Liu's reply came in the form of a double cartwheel kick to the face that came out of nowhere. Unfortunately it didn't do as much damage as Zhen Liu hoped it would. If anything, it made Fergus even angrier.
"You are surprisingly durable," Zhen Liu commented as he watched Fergus nonchalantly stand there despite taking two kicks to the head, "freaking Master's endurance."
Fergus didn't bother to respond, instead he circulated aether into his arm and agitated his blood vessels until they blasted open. The aether-enriched blood sprayed into the air for a moment before turning into a vicious-looking spiked gauntlet that covered Fergus' arm.
"How many blood weapon aether arts are there?!", Zhen Liu asked in exasperation. Fergus just punched at Zhen Liu's face as an answer.
"Enough."
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"Bleh, get off me!", the Bloody Boiler that had a blood kama complained as he pushed his unconscious companion off of himself, "Now where did-oh."
The Bloody Boiler could see that his boss was going toe to toe with the annoying interloper, but that the fight had devolved into a standstill. While his boss clearly had a power advantage, the annoying would-be hero was naturally faster and good at avoiding hits.
He knew he had to somehow tip the odds to the chief's favor, but how?
The bandit looked around and a sinister grin formed on his face.
"Wanna play hero so badly? Fine then. Time to make a choice~"
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"Die!", Fergus yelled while slamming a gauntlet downwards at Zhen Liu.
"Sure, how about in a couple centuries?", Zhen Liu retorted while narrowly avoiding yet another blow. He also made sure to land another kick on Fergus' head for good measure.
Fergus and Zhen Liu had been stuck in a rather annoying deadlock for the past five minutes. Fergus clearly had an overwhelming power advantage, but he was too slow to catch up with Zhen Liu and his freakishly high agility. On the other hand, Zhen Liu had the speed and wit to not only avoid Fergus' freakishly strong attacks but also land a few counter attacks in response. The only issue was that without any arts at his disposal, Zhen Liu's attacks were about as effective as using wet tissue paper to forge steel.
This battle had been rendered into a battle of attrition where the victor would be determined by-
A familiar scream rang through the air.
Or you know, outside forces cause a sudden tip in the balance. Which in this case was a massive A-hole holding a razor sharp blood katar up to a girl's throat. While this situation did nothing to affect Fergus, it did cause Zhen Liu to momentarily hesitate when he saw the hostage situation. A fatal mistake when one is locked in the heat of battle.
"Hah! Now you die! [Crimson Boxing: Bloody Straight]!"
"Shit!", Zhen Liu exclaimed as he hastily brought his arms up to block the attack.
A burst of blood red aether exploded from Fergus' elbow, accelerating his fist and increasing the force of his punch by an unprecedented factor.
Despite somewhat mitigating the blow, Zhen Liu was still sent flying into a jade pillar that had been stripped of plant life earlier and had been thoroughly embedded within it. An explosion of dust and aether made it rather hard for others to see his status.
"So long, little hero", Fergus said with a smug grin and an insidious laugh, "Now on to more... lucrative matters."
Fergus turned away from his handiwork and began to walk towards his clansman and their reclaimed hostage.
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"Ow...I think that bastard broke a rib", Zhen Liu grumbled as he lay embedded in the jade pillar, "Huh...this entire pillar is made of red jade? Wonder if it's still worth money in this wor-"
[I want to live.]
"What the what?", Zhen Liu asked himself as he tried to figure out where the voice came from.
A moment later, his head pounded as he saw the image of that wounded woman from earlier, crying as the douche with the katar was holding her hostage as Fergus was making his way towards them. The woman maintained a silent facade, but Zhen Liu could hear her inner thoughts.
[Please. Anyone. Save me], she begged.
"Godsdammit", Zhen Liu cursed, "how am I going to save her by my-"
"What's with all the voices in my head?!"
"What words?", Zhen Liu growled in annoyance.
"...Oh," Zhen Liu groaned.
"Alright ominous brain ghost. Desperate times call for desperate measures."
With the answer given, Zhen Liu made a hand seal as a strange, jagged diagram began to form around him.
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Fergus paused as he felt a strange disturbance in the aether.
"What the hell?"
But before Fergus could see what was causing the disturbance, a strange, grinding, growling voice echoed throughout the area and sent a chill up his spine. He didn't know what kind of monster or warrior could make that kind of sound, but he knew it wasn't good.
"I heed the call of the Kaijin Lord".