Kaijin Fighter: So I Have to Make Monsters, So What?

"Huh...why the heck did the overseer Kaijin decide to leave? Did we just luck out?" Zhen Xing wondered.

"I don't know, but I'm going to guess it had something to do with that weird announcement from earlier...think Zhen Liu had something to do with it?" Zhen Tai asked.

"Maybe."

In the span of time that Zhen Xing and Zhen Tai were brought in and processed as being slaves for the [Mines of Malevolence], not a lot had occurred on their end.

The duo had hoped that at this point, they would've reunited with any of Zhen Liu's Kaijin and get to work in turning this fucked up mine of horrors into their stomping ground, but alas, they hadn't seen claw nor questionably sexy curve of any of them.

Instead, they had to deal with several hours of digging through veins of [Malevolent Gold] while being watched over by a bunch of Kaijin that were just...nightmare fuel.

If Zhen Liu's Kaijin were unsettling at best, than the ones made by whomever own this mine were nightmare inducing at best. It was honestly a small miracle that their newly minted compatriots didn't soil themselves out of fear yet.

Then again, it probably helped that Zhen Xing and Zhen Tai warned them about these monsters.

"Hey, I just heard from one of the older slaves here that this rumbling is due to the overseer organizing for a hunt. It's a regular occurrence but this was the first in a while it's been this loud."

"Alright, I retracted my earlier statement. Zhen Liu definitely had something to do with this," Zhen Xing corrected.

"Thanks for the info, Sandak."

The prisoners turned slaves that Zhen Xing and Zhen Tai managed to convince to go along with their absurd plan of internal sabotage consisted of a pair of Grandmasters, one with three rings and another at five, a trio of Aether Masters alongside the two Zhen Clan scions, six or so Aether Acolytes and a dozen or so mortal slaves with varying degrees of health issues.

Zhen Xing and Zhen Tai, for the time being, discounted this last group as being useful in combat but at least useful in information gathering.

Then again, they could double as good possession targets for the Kaijin...assuming they could stage a reunion soon enough.

"By the way, have you or any of the others managed to spot those little figures we told you about?"

"No, but that might've been due to your description of them being incredibly vague," Sandak retorted. "A toy-like dancer, magician, bone demon, jade devil, fireball, a tiny corpse doll and a porcelain doll are...actually those are incredibly obvious in a place like this, how the fuck have we not spotted them yet."

"Yeah...",

In order for the two of two of them to convince this discordant group of slaves to follow their lead, they had given them information about [Chaos], the enemy Kaijin and how they could fight back.

What they didn't tell them was that the only reason they knew any of this was because they had a cousin who was the real Kaijin Lord.

They had learned from Logos and Pathos that this piece of information was one of those "need-to-know" type of things, and a bunch of random people in the middle was fairly low on that list.

Regardless, they did at least spin a tale that their cousin had managed to sneak in and that he released a collection of tiny aether puppets that could act as communication and observational relays.

Unfortunately, they didn't have any luck in finding any of these puppets.

But now that most, if not all, of the enemy Kaijin had gathered in some unseen central cavern, an opportunity had presented itself.

Not one for escape, but one for intelligence gathering.

"Alright, with most of the enemy Kaijin all bundled up like that, this would be the perfect opportunity for about...two to three of us to sneak around the rest of the mines, depending on their stealth skills. I would ask for volunteers, but keep in mind that any aether-based skills may not or work properly around these guys, so...who's confident in their physical ability to hide?" Zhen Xing asked the group.

"Wait, you're not volunteering yourself and your cousin?" one of the other aether warriors asked.

"I mean...between the two of us, my stealth technique is better than his. But neither of us are really adept at using stealth skills. So, I'll go if we can't get three people together to sneak around."

"Fair enough."

Unfortunately for Zhen Xing, he was going to be one of the three.

After several moments of debating, discussing, and some arguments over suitability, the final composition of this stealth squad consisted of Zhen Xing, the mid-tier Grandmaster and one of the other Aether Masters.

Zhen Xing recalled that the name of the former was Alefa, who was a warrior from Soaring Griffon, while the latter was known as Joseph, who was a native from Umbral Spider.

"Alright, the point of this mission is for us to find an exit route in case shit goes sideways, ideally find my cousin's puppets somewhere in this shitty mine, and determine if the rest of the slaves here are willing to rebel at best or at least not get in the way of the fighting at worst. Any questions?"

"Why are you cussing so much?" Alefa asked, a look of paternal concern on his face.

The Grandmaster was maybe a year or two younger than the patriarch of the Zhen Clan's real age, so the concern was genuinely intergenerational.

"Force of habit and a side effect of cultivating [Chaos]. Makes me and my family members significantly more casual in our speech and mannerisms."

"That...has got to be the least detrimental side effect to cultivating an unusual energy I have ever heard," Joseph commented. "I knew a guy who could only eat rocks after cultivating the [Green Spring Emerald] in his soul."

"Does...does he like eating the rocks?"

"He once told me that sulfur stones were the closest to boiled eggs he could get."

"That's depressing."

"Yeah..."

After this exchange of words, Zhen Xing, Alefa, and Joseph proceeded to activate their respective stealth techniques and run out of their cave.

Joseph had cloaked himself in a fleeting shadow, Alefa had essentially transformed into mist, while Zhen Xing had turned into a mix of smoke and embers.

Out of the three warriors, Zhen Xing's stealth technique was technically the weakest, but the added element of [Chaos] made his ass nigh imperceptible by practically every mortal in the mines and even a majority of the Kaijin.

However, this only applied to the Kaijin who hadn't seen him suddenly disappear into smoke.

...

Hidden in shadows and ignoring the call of the false lord, Snatcher the Fox Kaijin was watching the stealthy warriors with a strange expression on his face.

More specifically, he was watching Zhen Xing the most.

A look of bemusement appeared on his face as he watched Zhen Xing dart about, staying out of the mortals who, handling since lost the ability to care about anything other than feeding and working.

'The scent of [Chaos] is deep on him, like that of a true Lord. But he's clearly not him,' Snatcher noted as he watched Zhen Xing dart about, the veil of [Chaos] forcing the fox-like kaijin to put in effort in order to keep track of him. 'But he's clearly related to the current Lord. Is he friend or family?'

As Snatcher speculated in the relationship that Zhen Xing had with the current Lord of the era, the sound of his "fellow" Kaijin began to reverberate throughout the caverns.

'Ah, it appears our false lord has decided upon who is going to hunt with him. I pity those fools."

The hunter gathering was a short-lived but regular affair in the mines. It gave the slaves the smallest bit of reprieve from the abuse of the Kaijin, but it wasn't long enough for this reprieve to mean anything.

As the Kaijin returned to their usual post, probably feeling surlier than before due to being rejected, the warriors that had been sneaking about all began to duck into caves that weren't their original ones.

'Hmm. Not a bad plan, but definitely not a good one...'

Not everyone in these caverns was broken to the point of extreme apathy; there were actually quite a few people who were still rowdy enough to put up a fuss when something unpleasant happened to them.

Needless to say, the sudden appearance or presence of people they were unfamiliar with might lead to issues.

~Wait a minute, what the fuck?! Why is someone from Umbral Spider here?!~

^Why is one of the featherbrained here?! Get out, you flighty fuck! Get out!^

'Well, that's two out of three in sticky situations. Now what about the one that smelled of a true Lord?'

...

'Oh fuck me sideways,' Zhen Xing cursed as he saw that the enemy Kaijin were returning...and that his allies got caught by some slaves that were more hostile than friendly.

'Now what do I do?'