{By the gods rookie, if you're gonna use my Daemon's Bone, at least freaking counter attack. It ain't meant for blocking!,} a gruff yet somehow familiar sounding voice suddenly shouted in Zhen Liu's mind. He wasn't sure why, but he felt compelled to take the phantom voice's advice on this.
Just as Donovan's claws were about to pierce Zhen Liu's stomach, Zhen Liu swung out the bone club in an attempt to knock them away. Evidently, he managed to do that and then some.
Donovan fully expected the bone club to break apart due to coming in contact with his claws, while his aether art would bypass the feeble defense and blow Zhen Liu away. Instead, both the claws and the art were somehow being pushed back by the club. Donovan felt as if he was pushing back against a charging beast.
Donovan wasn't the only one bewildered by this turn of events, the owner of the club was even more bewildered!
'How the hell is this thing-'
{Alright you managed to catch his attack on the first try, not bad!,} the gruff voice piped up again, {now shout "Aether Out!" and put your soul into it!}
{You heard me, now say it fast or else that beclawed dork is about to overpower your catch.}
Proving the voice's point, Zhen Liu suddenly felt his bone club getting pushed back. When Zhen Liu threw his gaze towards the aforementioned beclawed dork, he saw that Donovan's face had switched from bewildered to happy realization.
"Looks like whatever you claimed from the ruins was a bit tougher than anticipated. Doesn't matter! I'm just gonna tear you apart eventually."
The club began to get pushed back even further as soon as he said that.
{See? Like that. Now say the words!}
"Alright!" [Aether Out!]
As soon as those words left his mouth, Zhen Liu suddenly felt that he wasn't pushing back against Donovan's aether, rather, Donovan's aether was pushing him forward. He wasn't sure how, but the bone club in his hand had switched from resisting Donovan's aether to straight up reflecting it back at him. The claws however still managed to scratch the club and for some reason let out the telltale screeching sound of metal against metal, but Zhen Liu didn't really care about that right now.
Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, Zhen Liu used this sudden gain in momentum to swing outward and blast Donovan away. The latter let out a surprisingly satisfying exclamation of pain as he was sent flying from his own aether.
With no one attacking him now, Zhen Liu proceeded to land on the ground with relative ease...moments before falling onto his back. That counterattack wasn't necessarily draining, but it was mentally shocking.
"Well that happened," Zhen Liu muttered to himself as he stared towards the sky. He lifted up the bone club to his field of vision and began to wonder how it managed to reflect the attack, what this thing was exactly...and why it suddenly went from bone white to metallic silver.
'How did I not notice that happening?'
{Don't worry about it too much.}
'You're still here?!'
Evidently, Jeremiah and Richter did not expect their boss to get suddenly blown away while they were busy dealing with Zhen Hai and Zhen Yue. Then again, neither Zhen Hai nor Zhen Yue expected Zhen Liu being able to do that either.
The Wolfe team and Zhen team proceeded to break away from their fights in order to check on their respective teammates.
"Alright, how did you pull that off?," Zhen Hai asked as he and Zhen Yue helped Zhen Liu to his feet, "Because I've only seen counter style arts being able to do what you just did and, well..."
"What, I'm not wrong!"
"It's cool, it's cool," Zhen Liu answered while dusting himself off. He held the now silver bone club up for his cousins to see. "It was this thing we got from the ruins. Not sure how, but it was able to reflect his attack."
Zhen Liu's cousins looked shocked at the appearance of the unusual weapon. Not because it was strong, but because they had initially wrote it off as just a random piece of junk. While they mildly cursed themselves at not claiming it when they had the chance, they tossed those concerns aside since it was already too late for take backs and they had more immediate concerns to deal with.
"Alright the Wolfe team has been dealt with for the time being," Zhen Yue told the group, "now all we have to do is reclaim all of the scattered Ifrit Fire Heart Crystals."
"You mean the ones being taken by other teams?," Zhen Liu asked.
"Yes the ones being take-wait, what?"
Without saying any additional words, Zhen Liu pointed towards the flatlands that the Ifrit Fire Heart Crystals had fallen, and the several or so rival teams that were now digging up these aforementioned fallen crystals.
Evidently, while the Zhen and Wolfe teams were busy dealing with each other, even more people decided now was a good time to exit the ruins. On top of that, once they saw that the treasure they were fighting over had been scattered about due to their conflict, they figured it'd be wiser to play the vulture while the lions and hyenas fought.
It took a few moments for these rival teams to notice that the Zhen Clan heirs were now staring at them, but they slowly began to stop digging once they felt the latter's gazes upon them.
An awkward silence soon fell across the area as the two groups stared at each other, waiting for someone to make a move or say something.
Like a fire was lit under their bottoms, the rival teams ran off in various directions while hauling off several pieces of the Ifrit Fire Heart Crystal. Some were pocketed, others were hauled away in large chunks, either way, the Zhen team had to think fast before their loot was absconded.
"Get those guys, they got the biggest piece of the lot!"