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

...Meanwhile, at the [Library of Nowhere]... =Well, this can't be good,= Logos commented as he monitored the data being delivered from the zako and Kaijin. =You know how our lord and his group are currently scattered about and are facing obstacles that are unique to each of these locations?= =It appears that the longer they stay at each location, more and more aether appears to be flowing from them to...somewhere.= =I'm in the process of tracing it, but the data we're working with is limited, remember?= =Old friend of—wait, did you say black glass mirrors?!= ________Now back to the Garden__________ "Come on, girls! We're almost at gazebo and we can finally have more room to-" ^Join us!^ ^Join us!^ "Oh no you don't!" Alicia, Harriet and Bellona were about three steps away from stepping on to the gazebo, and having significantly more room to fight. While it was a touch smaller than what they would like to work with, it was still more room than the brick road they were standing on earlier. However, moments before they could do so, the diseased Peony Brothers came rushing in and attempted to infect them with glass-riddled fists. More specifically, they attempted to perform a pincer attack on Harriet, who was objectively the weakest yet most valuable member of the group at this time. One needed a healer to fight off diseases, after all. Before the Peony Brothers could attack though, Alicia and Bellona intervened by summoning their respective [Taboo] and immediately attacking first. [Gear Shift: Spring Grab!] [Dream Shift: Entangling Weave!] Alicia summoned her [Lantern of Progress] and proceeded to manipulate the ribbon attached to the top to coil and grab the Scorching Plague Peony Brother(Scorched Peony Brother) before tossing him off to the side and into one nearby patches of glass orchids. At the same time, Bellona's [Dream Weaver Rings] flew together and released interconnecting threads of condensed [Chaos] that caught the Freezing Blood Peony Brother (Frozen Peony Brothers) like he was a fish in a net and tossed the bastard back into the glass orchids patches as well. "The bastards are stunned! Move, move, move!" Alicia shouted as she made her way back to the gazebo. "Wait!" Harriet called out. "What about—whoa!" Harriet was about to ask if they should be waiting for Alice, or at the very least determine if she was alright due to the Peony Brothers not attacking her as they all anticipated. However, the moment that she turned to check on Alice's status, she was greeted by the sight of the Umbral Spider woman being attacked on all sides by a veritable horde of weird living corpses that had glass orchids growing out of their bodies. It took Harriet all of a second to realize the nature of these corpses. "That's how the glass orchids became living specimen containers!" Harriet concluded. "They're literally growing out of disease riddled corpses!" Groan... "AND THERE'S EVEN MORE OF THEM!" Soon after Harriet made this observation, the once pristine and dainty garden of glass orchids soon became a growing nightmare of the living dead. Rising from the patches of glass orchids, diseased corpse after diseased corpse appeared one after the other, every single one of them showcasing the telltale signs of death by disease. Some of the corpses looked dehydrated and emaciated, others appears to have mottled skin which were clear signs of infectious pustules having bursted open and failed to heal properly while even more showcased long scratches that appeared to be self-inflicted. If the girls weren't well-trained warriors, they would've started screaming or vomiting at the grotesque sight before them. However, because they were well-trained warriors, they were able to act under pressure. Once they got under the gazebo, the girls proceeded to take up a more defendable formation. "Alice! You gotta get out of there!" Alicia called out as she realized that her friend was about to be surrounded by an even larger horde of plague-bearing zombies. "Huh? Oh shit!" Noticing the incoming horde, Alice proceeded to double her efforts and channel even more aether into her [Astra]. This in turn, caused the scythe-like weapon to release powerful jets of aether that propelled Alice in such a way that she was able to spin through and mow down the corpses like they were blades of grass. This effort wasn't in vain, as Alice was able to reconvene with the rest of her friends after cutting down a dozen or so of these plague-bearing zombies. Once she reached the gazebo, she began to breathe rather heavily. "You could've done that the whole time?" Bellona asked as soon as Alice had rejoined the group. "Yes, but it's also incredibly draining," Alice explained. "But maybe we should focus on the undead...wait a minute, why aren't they attacking?" "Huh?" "Look, they're just straight up ignoring us." Once Alice brought this strange fact to the rest of the group's attention, they realized that this was indeed the case. "Huh..." From where they were standing, the girls knew that they were obviously outnumbered and were fully expecting to get overrun at any moment. So the fact that this didn't happen was confusing to the group. In fact, the longer girls stared at the group, the more they started to notice that the undead horde before them was just...milling about in a lost and confused manner. Even weirder, the diseased Peony Brothers were acting in the same way. "Is this gazebo warded or something?" Alicia asked the rest of the group as she continued to watch the zombies walking around. "Because that's the only reason I can think of as to why they aren't attacking us right now." "Maybe..."Bellona answered. "But if that's really the case, then do how do we get out of this place? It's not like we can carry the gazebo with us...maybe." "I mean..." Since their group, technically, consisted of three Aether Masters and an Aether Lord, they did have the collective raw might to probably carry this protective gazebo with them. Not to mention, they had one of Zhen Liu's zakos, who were usually able to...wait a minute. "Wait, what happened to the zako?" Harriet asked, her fluency still in high effect because of the stress of the situation. "He was with us earlier, where did he go?" "I'll check," Alicia answered. "Bellona, mind lending me a hand?" "Sure." As the only ones present with the ability to sense and use [Chaos], Bellona and Alicia proceeded to channel [Chaos] and sense for any other instances of it occuring in the area. It didn't take them too long to detect the zako's location after doing so, since it was the only other source of [Chaos] in the area. "He's over there," Alicia and Bellona both answered while pointing in the same direction. "In the horde?!" Harriet exclaimed once she processed where the duo was pointing. "How has he not been torn to shreds yet?!" "I think you'll be able to see for yourself soon," Alice answered. "Look." Peering into the horde, the girls finally spotted the wooden zako that they had lost track of during all of the fighting. In all honesty, they had expected the zako to have perish by now due to the disposable nature of the strange [Chaos] beings. Much to their surprise and delight though, this wasn't the case. [Grunt.] "Huh..." Instead, they got front row seats to the sight of the wooden zako doing his best to push through the horde of flowery zombies like someone trying to navigate a busy market square, which made for an amusing spectacle. "Wait a minute..." Correction, an amusing and insightful spectacle. Compelled by the sight before her, Alicia extracted a pair of bolts from her pouches and palmed them in separate hands. In one hand she began to channel aether into it, while doing absolutely nothing with the other. This strange action caused the rest of the girls to pause and take notice. "Alicia, what are you doing?" "I think I know why those weird zombies are attacking us right now," Alicia replied. "But I just need proof." "What kind of proof?" "This." Without explaining any further, Alicia first tossed the uninfused bolt towards the Peony Brothers, literally bonking them on the head in the process. Surprisingly though, the diseased assassin didn't respond in the slightest. "Huh." Then, after confirming that nothing was going to happen, Alicia tossed out the aether infused bolt in the opposite direction. Once she did that, all hell broke loose. ^JOIN US!^ GROAN! The undead horde and diseased Peony Brothers proceeded to bumrush the location where the aether infused bolt had landed and started freaking out like ants covered in sugar. Needless to say, the sudden change in demeanor was shocking. "Called it."