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

^Hey, hey, hey! Can you slow down for a bit?! I think we're out of the blast zone by now!^ Antonio called out.

^Not while we're still being chased by those monsters!^ the gazelle Bloodliner shouted back while still running.

Shortly after Zhen Xing had accidentally brought an enemy in his tail to Zhen Liu and the others; the Bloodliner girl that they were watching over, Zhen Tai and Antonio had decided to clear the area in order to let Zhen Liu and his Kaijin have the space necessary to go absolutely buck wild.

That, and they wanted to get some information from the clearly battered former slave girl that was running like hell still.

^We're not though! If anything, our monsters are about to kick their ass.^

^Huh?^

After hearing Antonio's statement, the gazelle Bloodliner has stopped running entirely in order to give the former a chance to explain.

^Holy shit, you're fast,^ Antonio said between heavy breaths. ^How the fuck are you able to keep this up while running through this cursed shit show?^

^You're kidding, right?^ Zhen Tai asked as soon as he caught up and heard Antonio's question. ^You don't recognize the the horn patterns?^

^I...I'm not an aether beast expert.^

^Ah, right,^ Zhen Tai nodded, forgetting about the fact that people outside of his family didn't really care about such details. ^Well, she's clearly a—^

^What do you mean by "your" monsters?^the gazelle Bloodliner interrupted before Zhen Tai could finish his statement. ^Did you guys manage to pocket some [Malevolent Gold] and figure out how to make a [Core]?^

^No...^Antonio answered, confusion plain in his voice at the very off statement from the Bloodliner's words. ^Friend of mine, his cousin, is able to make kaijin too. Albeit, from a completely different method from the sounds of it.^

^Does that mean your friend knows that in order to fully defeat one of those monsters, you have to destroy their [Cores]? Otherwise, one of the other personas that compose them will simply regenerate and take over, does he know that?^

^Beg pardon?^

...Meanwhile...

[Imperial Hammer!]

Pow!

"Whoa! What the fuck?!"

Shortly after Lythero thought something was off about the way he dispatched Piercer, something strange happened.

The golden [Core] he had failed to destroy had suddenly release a surge of [Chaos] and aether that rapidly reformed into an entirely different Kaijin that resembled a humanoid rhinoceros beetle.

The moment this "new" Kaijin formed, he released a heavy punch that forced Lythero to block using his [Black Iron Slab].

[Looks that silly little bird failed to bring you down. No matter,] the beetleman growled in a strange voice as he slammed his fists together. [That just means I, Imperator, can have a crack at ya instead.]

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me," Lythero cursed as he readied the [Black Iron Slab] and transformed his [Astra] into an exact copy. "Fine, you want to have a slug out? Let's have a slug out!"

...that exact thing...

[Bah! Slammer thanks you for sending Clobber back to the back of Slammer's midnight.]

^What the fuck?^

[But Slammer is now going to slam you into paste!]

For reasons beyond Olstenna's care and understanding, the kaijin he had just annihilated had suddenly reformed into...a slightly different looking kaijin.

Clobber resembled what would happen if someone added limbs and horns to a worm like some kind of macabre doll.

Slammer, on the other hand, looked like the nightmare version of ram bloodliner with a pauldron shaped like a demented worm's head.

The moment Slammer had finished reforming and leveling his threat, he proceeded to shoulder tackle Olstenna like he was a training bag.

This sudden switch-up of opponents would've pissed off most other people, but Olstenna was thrilled.

This meant that now he had an even greater sample pool to test his new abilities on.

^Oh this is going to be fucking amazing!^ Olstenna roared as he repaired his fighting stance and rushed in to launch a deadly upper cut.

Humming all the while.

...was happening all over...

[No, no, no!] Mauler's jaguar mouth roared in response to the porcupine face on his shoulder. [I slayed you and absorbed you before anyone could react! You have no right to defy me.]

[Yeah, but you made the absolute rookie mistake of swallowing multiple cores in the same day!]the porcupine face mocked. [Meaning you're unstable.]

[What the fuck are we staring at?]

Nepeherage, Screamira, Springerdermain and Razorstella were all set to tear apart Mauler like the fratricidal scum that he was.

However, the Kaijin had to pause after Mauler appeared to be arguing with themselves.

No...that wasn't right.

The longer the Kaijin stared at the impaled Mauler, the more it started to dawn on them that they weren't dealing with a singular Kaijin.

In reality, it was more like they were dealing with five different Kaijin shoved into a singular body.

More specifically, they could sense that the [Core] inside of Mauler was actually radiating five different auras.

Four of them they recognized as belonging to Mauler, Constrictor and those two partially melted kaijin from earlier.

As for the fifth, they could make an educated guess that it belonged to that weird porcupine face that was talking smack.

And from what they could sense, it was starting to take over.

[Hmmm. It appears you aren't quite weak enough for me to take over,] the porcupine noted with a huff. [Let's fix that.]

[What is he—]

The sound of flesh being torn asunder by a barbed harpoon!

[SWEET SEA OF CHAOS]

[BUT WHY THOUGH?!]

Mauler, under the control of the porcupine face on shoulder, has stepped forward making sure the bone harpoon in his body had been set steady. Once it was ready, Mauler stepped backwards and tore his body wide open.

Needless to say, his [Core] was exposed to the air by this action, as well, it gave Zhen Liu a clear view of what was going on.

'What the hell...'

Mauler's [Core] began to distort and morph as it absorbed atmospheric aether, cursed energy and [Chaos] radiating from the kaijin.

As this change occurred, the body followed.

[Mauler's...disappearing?]

[No...he's being cycled?]

[How does that work?!]

[I don't know...]

The next thing any of the kaijin knew, Mauler was replaced by a strange looking porcupine kaijin that had a jaguar face where the porcupine face was once located. Not only that, but the cape of quills transformed into resembling a jaguar skin.

[Ah, much better,] the porcupine kaijin sighed. [Now you lot get to face the one called Arbalest!]

...except for...

Crack!

[GAH!]

[Uh oh.]

[We broke it.]

When Porcelain Doll and Corpse Doll attempted to extract Ripper's [Core], they had done so with a little too much force.

As a result, the [Core] that they were going to try and delicately pull apart, straight up shattered in their hands.

Then again, it probably didn't help that they were cycling energy through the [Core] the entire time and destabilized it's internal and spiritual structures.

The effect of this action was...delayed.

But only for a few seconds.

[GRK!]

"Gak!]

"GRK!"

[Oh look! He's destabilizing!]

[Wait, isn't that a bad thing?]

[Uh...]

From what Corpse Doll and Porcelain Doll could remember, a Kaijin without a [Core] would degenerate into a being known as an abomination, creatures of [Chaos] with both a literal and figurative hole in the existence.

These creatures were dangerous, but could be defeated with either [Chaos] or excessive amounts of aether.

Intellectually, the proto-kaijin twins knew they had to get out of dodge after accidentally breaking that [Core].

Instinctually, they didn't detect anything bad was going to happen.

If anything, they couldn't help but notice that the kaijin formerely known as Ripper was... melting.

[Hmmm.]

[How strange.]

Before the eyes of the curious proto-kaijin, Ripper's body had melted down into a puddle of meaty goo before suddenly splitting off into three different directions.

[So gooey!]

[So gross!]

As the goo piles crawled away, the twins could make out at the goo was staring to undergo a strange transformation.

First, limbs and legs of various sizes began to form.

Next, torsos and joints began to solidify.

Finally, the heads of these strange goo piles solidify, taking the shape of a mandrill, a monkey and an ape.

These three beasts were the original forms of the Kaijin that were "uplifted" before they were swallowed by one another to form Ripper.

Unfortunately, these beasts didn't last too long.

[Huh. They're all primates.]

[Yes...and they're about to die!]

This scream wasn't because Corpse Doll and Porcelain Doll were planning to kill these beasts, though.

In reality, it was because the twin proto-kaijin noticed how when the beasts were reforming, they had done so with massive holes in their heads and torsos.

These wounds, these terrible wounds, immediately formed after the internals of the beasts had finished reforming.

"Ooo..."

"Eee..."

The next thing the twins knew, all three of the beasts fell to the ground dead, as their internals spilled out from the holes in their bodies.

[How tragic.]

[True...but I think I sense someone else coming...]