MTLNOVEL Chapter 1317: Primitive Communication
"ALL KAIJIN, HEED MY CALL! WE ARE GOING ON A HUNT!" Dante called out. "Ah, wait. Maybe I should wait until after I create some new generation kaijin before doing so."
'Welp, that confirms it. This man isn't truly connected to his Kaijin,' Zhen Liu mentally snickered as he watched Dante call out to his monsters in a manner befitting a clumsy tyrant than a true Kaijin Lord.
Evidently, the sight of this clumsy commanding reminded him that he had Kaijin to coordinate.
'Huh...this connection of mine hadn't been muted, so why haven't I been making use of it more? Damn, this place must've been affecting me more than I thought.'
After this brief moment of self-reflection, he contacted the only full Kaijin that was still in his head.
'Blazejudicator, are you and Nepherage okay?'
...Moments ago...
[Greed Gatling!]
[Magma Ram!]
[Bah!]
[GUH!]
With a thrust of his palms, Blazejudicator released a barrage of yellow fireballs that sent an iguana-like Kaijin flying off the edge of a cliff.
With a swing of her fists, Nepherage fired off a ram-like shield of magma that slammed a wildebeest-like Kaijin into a wall.
[I think that was my fifth defeated opponent,] Blazejudicator commented. [How many are you at?]
[Also five,] Nepherage answered. [But I don't think just the two of us will be enough to fight them all off.]
[No kidding...]
When Blazejudicator and Nepherage initially set off the alarm, they had been expecting to fight off maybe a dozen or so of these knock-off Kaijin before being able to escape.
None of them were particularly strong, in comparison to Nepherage and Blazejudicator, but they were numerous enough that it took effort to fight them off.
To be more precise, they were outnumbered two to...about thirty, maybe more.
And that number was excluding the fact that some, if not all, of these Kaijin had fucked up cores that could get stronger from devouring each other, or just straight up replace who was in charge of fighting.
It was actually for these latter two reasons that Blazejudicator and Nepherage had to hold back a bit when they were attacking.
[Oh fuck, that toucan-looking motherfucker from before it back again!]
[And so is the fucking squirrel, come on!]
If they smacked an enemy Kaijin too hard, it would create an opportunity for another to devour them and become an even bigger problem to deal with, or just get replaced by someone who was at full-power and may or may not have an ability that would cut their escape.
The duo had entertained the thought of just straight up killing an enemy Kaijin, shattering their cores in a single blow, but they stopped themselves from doing so for two reasons.
First, it would take too much power on their end to do so. It was more efficient for them to send five enemy Kaijin flying than it was to take one down in a decisive manner.
Second, and more importantly, they didn't want these guys to know that they knew how to destroy them just yet.
The moment they expose the fact that they could kill them, the enemy Kaijin would obviously change their patterns to try and be more protective of their vulnerable cores in future battles.
In other words, they didn't want to exploit this weakness unless they needed to.
Thankfully for them, they wouldn't have to exploit this weakness just yet.
[I think I see an exit,] Nepeherage informed Blazejudicator as she shoulder-tossed an ostrich-like Kaijin into one that resembled a gazelle.
[You said that last time, but then we got intercepted by a four-armed gorilla Kaijin that looked like the recolor of an orangutan-like kaijin from earlier,] Blazejudicator chided while launching a spinning back kick that launched a kangaroo-like Kaijin into a wombat-like one.
[Yes, but—]
Before Nepherage could finish her retort, a booming voice empowered by [Chaos] echoed through the cavern they were in.
ALL KAIJIN, HEED MY CALL! WE ARE GOING ON A HUNT!
[Ow! What the fuck?!]
[Gah! That hurt my non-existent ears!]
To Nepherage and Blazejudicator, this call was the equivalent to hearing nails scratch against a chalkboard.
Something about the application of [Chaos] in this yell was crude and painful to the point of causing obvious earache to them.
To the enemy Kaijin, though, the effect was... profoundly different.
[Wait a minute...did those assholes stop chasing us?] Nepherage asked as soon as she realized that the stomping sounds of dozens of Kaijin suddenly stopped echoing behind her.
[I think it's a bit complex than that,] Blazejudicator answered. [Look.]
The Kaijin that were chasing after Blazejudicator and Nepherage were running, crawling, flying, using all sorts of manner of locomotion to chase after them.
They weren't coordinated in the least bit, resembling a mad horde rather than an organize front.
At this moment though, they resembled a statue garden of nightmares.
[Are they...frozen?]
[Looks like it. But it seems...more absurd than that.]
Several of the enemy Kaijin at this time were in mid-flight or mid-pounce before that call echoed out.
However, once that call came out, those aformentioned Kaijin were suddenly frozen in the air as if they were puppets being held up by strings.
As for the ones on the ground and on the walls, needless to say, they were frozen in place as well.
Encapsulating these enemies of theirs, Nepherage and Blazejudicator could make out a thin and glowing layer of [Chaos] that seemed to ensnare them body and soul.
A few minutes passed before the Kaijin suddenly turned around, and began to march out of the cavern in a strangely stiff manner.
[What the fuck...]
The only other times the two kaijin had seen unnatural movement was when they had seen aether puppets be put into action, or when their Lord decided to practice coordinating the zakos to perform military movement.
In other words, the enemy Kaijin were moving like stiff automatons that had very little evidence of having a semblance of life behind their eyes.
[Okay...]
[Can we ever just...have a straightforward battle to the end?] Nepherage asked her counterpart as they watched their former pursuers walk away like mindless drones
Shortly after this turn of events, Blazejudicator received a message from Zhen Liu.
...
'Blazejudicator, are you and Nepherage okay?'
[We're fine, Executor. Just...we're little stunned.]
'Because of the oddly unnatural way, even by our standards, that those enemy Kaijin suddenly about face and began to march?'
[Precisely.]
'Yeah, I'm still in the process of figuring that out. But for the time being, just use this as an opportunity to either escape or grab Lythero and Olstenna and then escape.'
[That's the plan, Executor. That's the plan.]
...
[Was that our lord?] Nepherage asked.
[Yes. He wanted to make sure we're okay and determine whether or not we would go and rescue his allies. Er, the one ally and the one guy who wanted to smash his head in for the sake of glory,] Blazejudicator answered.
[You know, I can't help but feel incredibly jealous that you're the only Kaijin that's still in direct contact with him.]
[If it makes you feel any better, he said that he didn't want to make any additional Kaijin until he managed to fix whatever was wrong with him.]
[...kind of does.]
After this short exchange of words, and now that they didn't have to worry about any more enemy Kaijin, Blazejudicator and Nepherage made the way back to where Olstenna and Lythero were ditched once that whole chase scene happened.
As they walked back, they could see the marching Kaijin leave in the direction of the exit, walking like mechanical soldiers.
However, that was only the case for most of the enemy kaijin.
[Bah! What the hell? Why can't I move my fucking legs?!]
[What the fuck?]
[No way...]
On their way back to their goal, Blazejudicator and Nepherage saw that amongst the crowd of marching enemies, the Kaijin they recognized as Arbalest was doing his best in attempting to resist marching alongside his fellow enemy Kaijin.
Evidently, Nepherage and Blazejudicator were shocked by the sight of this one kaijin rebelling for one reason.
They could sense Zhen Liu's [Chaos] coming off of him.
As they continued to watch, Arbalest eventually noticed their staring...and the [Chaos] they were radiating.
[Hey, wait a minute, you two work for that other Kaijin Lord, right?! Would you two mind giving me—us, a hand in getting out of here?!]
Nepherage and Blazejudicator exchanged a look, suggesting that they thought this porcupine-like bastard was talking crazy. That is, until they heard the mention of "us".
[What the hell are you talking about? I thought you Kaijin made by this Lord were all selfish and cannibalistic,] Blazejudicator pointed out.
[Well, that was the case, sure,] Arbalest admitted. [But your Lord, the one who I helped sneak in, did something to us and now we're not as...well, we're no longer like them.]
[What do you mean by that?]
[We mean...we don't want to inflict any more needless suffering.]
[...huh.]