Zhen Liu tried his best to maintain proper posture and stay standing upright, but the ability to convert aether from one affinity to another turned out to be too much for him in a physical sense. He soon fell over in a heap because his legs started to feel like jelly. Thankfully he didn't pass out this time.
'Ouch...I should invest in padded gear.'
"Xiao Liu!"
"Milord!"
Both Nepherage and Jin Fang quickly ran over to Zhen Liu's side as to make sure he wasn't hurt. Zhen Liu on the other hand, had other things on his mind now that he was done testing his new skills.
'Wait a minute...how did Nepherage get summoned? Can't I only have one active kaijin at a time?'
'Hurtful...wait, does that mean I can have more than one kaijin out the stronger I get?'
'Cryptic.'
"Xiao Liu, are you okay?"
Jin Fang was the first to reach Zhen Liu's side and proceeded to help him get to his feet. Nepherage followed shortly after her to provide additional support.
"Now you decide to help?," Jin Fang chided
"I sensed his distress, I came to aid."
"Wait you can sense that?"
"She is technically connected to my...soul?," Zhen Liu answered, "Besides I'm fine, mostly." He quickly attempted to separate himself from Nepherage and Jin Fang in an attempt to stand on his own two feet, but quickly fell back into their arms.
"Nevermind my legs are squishy...hey wait, now that I think about it, what happened orb thing from earlier?"
"Oh it's-"
"Over...here..."
"Oh hey Frosttusk-what the hell?"
"Hah! Nice."
"Who...where did this guy come from?"
"L-let me out damnit!"
The trio turned towards Frosttusk's voice, expecting to see him standing holding the orb, they did not expect to see standing next to a guy dressed in black like a budget ninja with his body partially frozen in a block of ice, with the orb being held up like a torch. It made for a rather humorous is worrying sight.
"C-can s-someone l-let me out? It's c-cold in here."
"Frosttusk...what happened?"
"Well..."
_________________________________________________
[Note: The following is flashback from the frozen guy's perspective and not Frosttusk, because he is too slow when there's not enough heat in the area.]
"Ow...what was up with that light show?," Gregory complained as he vigorously rubbed his eyes. While he was expecting the Zhen Clan heirs to be showing off some sort of hidden treasure to their respective companions, he wasn't expecting to get blinded today.
It should be stated that there was an unspoken second tradition of the Prospector's Challenge, namely, everyone spied on everyone to determine who pocketed what from the challenge. While a good chunk of the time it wasn't worth the effort, occasionally something valuable popped enough times that the various powers that be had to least try.
Normally around this time, a certain former right hand man of the patriarch would be providing information to enemies of the clans behind everybody's back, but due to recent events has become...indisposed (Read: Currently getting injected with various types of snake venoms and mauled by pigs).
Since this was the case, the powers that be decided to send actual spies to the Zhen Clan compound to take notes on Zhen Hai, Zhen Yue and Zhen Liu. They knew that at least one of them grabbed something good, and were now probably at least bragging about what they brought back to their clan to their friends, ergo the follies of youth.
"Well that hurt...huh? What's that kid doing now?"
Gregory watched on as Zhen Liu, his girlfriend and his puppets began to prepare a bonfire for some reason.
"Okay, that's...weird."
Watched as Zhen Liu stripped down to his underwear.
"Oh gods, in public?!"
And then run into the bonfire like a suicidal man-sized moth.
"What the fuck?"
Evidently he was surprised that Zhen Liu decided to throw himself into a bonfire, even moreso when the young master suddenly extinguished the bonfire by...inhaling it.
Gregory was stupefied by the sight, because he's only seen street performers doing something similar and only because they cultivated Ignati formulas. Last he heard, Zhen Liu's formula was definitely not an Ignati one.
"Wait...maybe it had to do with that or he was messing with earlier?,' Gregory postulated. His train of thought however was soon interrupted by the consecutive explosions caused by Zhen Liu.
He wasn't shocked by the initial two attacks, but his eyes went wide when he saw the weird mask thing forming on Zhen Liu's face and the massive conflagration. At this point, he was a hundred percent sure that orb had something to do with it.
"I need to get that orb! If I do, I'm gonna get rewarded for sure! I just need to wait for the right opportunity..."
And as luck would have it, the Fourth Young Master proceeded to collapse like a boneless blob. The young master's girlfriend, and for some reason one of his puppets, proceeded to rush over and help him get back to his feet. This left Gregory a golden opportunity.
"There may be a puppet by that orb, but that crazy young master won't be able to see me in time to stop me."
Gregory got to his feet and began to circulate his aether throughout his body, a black and murky aura surrounding him
[Shadow Flash Step!]
Gregory's body began to move at a crazy high speed, anybody below his level of strength would see nothing but a flying shadow and as a peak Aether Acolyte, there weren't many people in Stone Claw who could see him.
Keyword here: people.
'Almost...got it!'
A feeling triumph came over Gregory at this moment. Finally he would get rewarded for all of his hard work and get the respect that he so rightfully-
[Freezing Baritone!]
"Huh? BAH!"
But before he could get away, he was blasted by a sudden gust of cold air that froze his legs. Gregory was now stuck.
'Well shit, now what do I-'
"Over...here..."
'THE PUPPETS TALK?!'
_________________________________________________
"That's...what...happened..."
"Uh...huh," Zhen Liu went as he kept staring at the frozen dude still struggling to get out. Zhen Liu's eyes looked kinda glazed over due to how slow Frosttusk told the story. Jin Fang on the other hand realized a bigger implication.
"Wait a minute...this guy now knows you two exist," Jin Fang stated as she pointed at first as the half frozen guy and then towards the two kaijin. Nepherage and Frosttusk looked at each other in confusion for a moment before it had dawned on them.
"Oh...uh...oh. What...do we...do?"
"Well...," Nepherage began to answer, "we could eat him?"
"I'm sorry, what?!," Zhen Liu exclaimed in shock.
"Please don't eat me," the frozen dude protested, "I-I'm full of drugs! And I'm too skinny!"
"So...quicker high then?," Nepherage said without skipping a beat.
At this point Zhen Liu wasn't sure if she was kidding or not.