’Tsk! Damn. Looks like Yue Tai Lung failed to live up to his own hype...then again, that kid was also marked by the matriarch as being a person of interest...no matter. Just because one little fluke occurred, doesn’t mean the rest of them will be able to pass. After all, we made sure to match up them with the worst possible opponents...’
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’I am suddenly reminded of my late night weekends of having multiple tabs open on the computer...,’ Zhen Liu thought to himself as he stared at the display showcasing all of the fights happening for the qualifier round.
For the (in)convenient reason of having all the fights divided by biomes and not lottery groups, Zhen Liu had to dart his eyes between six different spots all over the display, with the only plus side being that his cousins had somehow been divided between three biomes in groups of two.
Or rather, that was his original plan.
Just as he was about to make mental notes about which display was showing which cousin, Pathos interrupted his train of thought.
’What? I’m taking notes of how my cousins are doing in their qualifiers.’
If Zhen Liu could, he would roll his eyes at Pathos at this moment.
’Yes I know we can do that, but there’s a delay and it’s passive, remember? Unless I just go whole hog into the connection with one of the kaijin, which is only really useful for things like scouting tasks and stuff, and at that point I might as well just use my own eyeballs.’
=On it. Activating the simul-senses option.=
[Why am I seeing double?]
[Wait, I’m not even a full kaijin yet, why is this happening to me?!]
Before Zhen Liu, or even the kaijin, could even ask what the hell they were doing, Logos and Pathos did...something to the connection that bound the kaijin to their creator that caused the latter’s brain to feel like it was on fire.
More specifically, it felt like the back of his skull was burning up for a hot minute before suddenly subsiding.
’What are you-whoa...’
The moment Zhen Liu stared at the display, he saw it not as a uniform image from a single angle, but from six different angles including his own.
It took him a hot minute to realize that each angle he was seeing also happened to match up with where each kaijin’s accessory mode was on his body.
A part of Zhen Liu mused that this must be how spiders see the world, but then remembered he actually saw how spiders see the world via Archanidame.
During the voyage from Stampeding Bison to here, Zhen Liu would occasionally pop into Lacerage’s or Archanidame’s head to see how things were going at home. Thankfully, not much happened, but he was a touch concerned about some of the lessons Archanidame had been imparting to the children.
This was brand new territory entirely and it was weird. On the plus side though, he could now stare at six different displays at the same time.
[Uhh...director? Am I supposed to be able to see from everyone else’s perspective too.]
=Give me a minute, you can still watch the displays while I fix this.=
Knowing full well that this was probably going to take awhile, Zhen Liu redirected his focus to one of the displays he was looking at earlier. But before he did so...
’Do you guys mind if-’
[Already doing so, my eyes are on Little Snake.]
[Let’s go, Fox Star! This stage is only a stepping stone for a bigger one!]
[Come on Peacock Boy, we share a color scheme, you have to win this!]
[You...can...do...it...Zhen...Feng...]
[Yeah, I don’t exactly have an emotional attachment to anybody, so who do you want me to watch?]
’Keep an eye on Zhen Hai I guess, while I watch Zhen Yue.’
With the vision order delegated, Zhen Liu focused his own set of eyes directly on Zhen Yue’s battle.
If he had to sum up on how it was going...things weren’t going terrible, but they could be better.
’Out of all of my cousins, she is the only one that hadn’t been powered up by one of the kaijin...then again, it looks like she might not need it...assuming things don’t go sideways...’
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The following chapters are going to be a little confusing since these events are technically being viewed by not only Zhen Liu, but the kaijin themselves.
As such, there will be some color commentary in regards to how the kaijin view their respective battles, but the narration will be told from the perspective of the person actually fighting.
For ease of reading, each section will be headlined with the kaijin and the person they’re watching, :
[Kaijin]: "Person being watched".
We now return to your regularly scheduled chapter.
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"What’s the matter little lady? Can’t handle the heat?!"
’Don’t respond to his taunts, don’t respond to his taunts. Otherwise...’
"Oh I am getting close, I can feel it!"
[Good on ya cousin. The best way to deal with a ranged guy is to stay absolutely quiet...until you can stab them.]
From the moment Zhen Yue drew that crimson colored marble, she knew she was going to have to deal with some rather troublesome opponents that were handpicked from the main clan.
She just didn’t realize how much of a pain in the ass her opponent was going to be.
"Come on girlie! You already took out my men, so its just you and me now~!," Zhen Yue’s opponent taunted while notching another arrow in his Silver-grade aether treasure bow. As he did, the arrow’s head began to ignite with a strange cyan colored flame.
[Is his arrogance coming from his skills or the fact that he is over equipped? We are two for two in regards to these "qualifiers" being a bit too well-equipped...either way, Zhen Yue, I really hope you shove that bow where the sun doesn’t shine.]
Whether it was by luck or by rigging, the opponent Zhen Yue had drawn was an elite soldier from the Zhen Clan who went by the name of Sun Yang, his team of soldiers armed with much simpler bows themselves, with the decided arena being a [Forest] biome.
While the environment was fine for her, she was used to fighting aether beasts in a variety of habitats, her opponents on the other hand were troublesome to say the least because they all shared one commonality: they were ranged fighters.
From the moment Zhen Yue entered this marble space, she had been pelted with arrows from practically every direction, having only been able to take out the four Acolyte soldiers with a combination of surprise attacks and being plain stronger then them.
"Oh wait is that-oh never mind, that was just a little bug! You two look so similar!," Sun Yang taunted as he mockingly pulled his bow, much to Zhen Yue’s frustration.
Those same tactics however would not work on someone who was at least several rings higher than herself.
’Once this is over, I am bothering Xiao Liu for some ranged arts or at least one that can let me counter this shit!,’ Zhen Yue mentally cursed as she did her best to maintain her [Owl Form], which gave her a semblance of stealth in this forested arena.
’Why the fuck did I refuse to let him use that possession thing on me...why am I talking like him and Zhen Hai now?!’
As a consequence of having grown up with someone like Zhen Hou as her father, someone who was basically a bear in human form and learning how to fight from him, Zhen Yue had become a terror in close to medium ranged combat, while absolutely suffering at long ranged combat.
It also didn’t help that one of the key features of her formula, the forms that make up the [Totemic Maiden], weren’t exactly meant to deal with long ranged opponents.
"You have to know that there’s a time limit to this, right? So why don’t you come out and we can end this quickly, brackborn?."
Her [Jaguar Form] allowed her to hit hard, her [Rabbit Form] gave her speed, her [Owl Form] allowed her to be a bit more maneuverable in the air than most and her [Pangolin Form]-
’Hold up...,’ Zhen Yue paused as she went over her options again.
When she thought back on the [Pangolin Form], the one that gave her a very powerful defense, she remembered something else that particular form gave her: powerful, earth shredding claws.
’Huh...if this guy is expecting me to act all high-minded...then maybe I should just go for a low blow...’