Of course it's never that easy...
"You guy see anything?"
"No, there's too much steam in the room! I can barely look out without getting burnt."
"Hey wait, it's starting to settle down."
As time went on, the steam that filled the room to the point of blinding began to escape via the entrance.
When the room finally cleared out, no serpent could be seen and the heat was significantly more bearable due to the lava now being covered in a thick layer of rock and obsidian.While they weren't sure if the monster was dead, they could at least safely assume it was now stuck underneath the newly formed layer of rock.
"Haha! Now all we have to worry about his lugging that big crystal ore outta this place!"
"Damn," Gianna commented in shock and awe, "No wonder that array was so power hungry."
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Aether arrays.
Of all the ways warriors and beasts manipulate aether for their own means, aether arrays are one of the most shared, most useful and most frustrating method of aether usage.
By making use of incredibly esoteric symbols infused with aether, that are then arranged in very specific patterns and drawn in an specific order, practitioners are able to create powerful arrays that can manipulate the environment and allow them to punch way above their weight class.
The drawbacks to using them however were that they were costly to set up properly, unless one happened to have absurdly deep aether reserves, a massive pain to memorize every single detail and instructional step necessary to script them and sometimes they were one and done deals.
However, if one had the time and materials, aether arrays made for excellent traps, defenses or ace in the holes.
In essence, arrays were like every other tool in life, highly dependent on the person using it.
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' [Geyser Blast], huh? Didn't think it'd be this effective, but hey, elder wisdom I guess,' Zhen Liu thought to himself as he stared at the semisolid layer of rock from his perch on the obsidian islet, 'granted I don't think our ancestors imagined us using it to drown a snake... centipede...thing'.
Immediately after that announcement was made, Zhen Liu felt as if both a physical and emotional load was lifted off of his shoulders as he saw a thin wisp of blue energy flow out of him and disappear into nothingness. Ironically, he felt regretful over this.
'Well crap, how am I suppose to make a new kaijin with so many other people in the room," Zhen Liu lamented.
While this was happening, Zhen Liu's teammates and the Corrada family had made their way to the Ifrit Fire Heart Crystal and were now trying to figure out how to get it out of the chamber...while Zhen Hai and Gianna were arguing over the details.
"By the gods this thing is heavy! How are we going to get this out of the ruins in a timely manner?"
"We could take a page out of Zhen Liu's book and just...smash it into smaller pieces. Speaking of which, dibs on the already broken piece."
"Horse shit! We wouldn't have even be here if it wasn't for us providing the cores needed to make the array."
"Well we wouldn't even have an array if it wasn't for my know-how, so fuck you, dibs."
"Well I ought to-"
[Tempest Claw!] [Slashing Iron!]
"What?! Look out!"
The argument between the two teams was suddenly interrupted by a pair of aether arts that came flying out of nowhere. Zhen Hai and Gianna were both the main targets to these sneak attacks, luckily they managed to throw up their guards fast enough to lessen at least most of the force behind the blows. It did however force them to step off of the platform with the treasure and retreat a couple steps back. They did not look happy about being ambushed.
"Alright, who's the bitch that think they got the balls to get away with that?!"
"That would be us!," an arrogant voice echoed out.
Descending from the ceiling, Donovan Wolfe and his teammates dropped down and landed around the Ifrit Fire Heart Crystal, weapons drawn and ready to defend their newly stolen goods. Proud yet cruel smiles were etched upon their faces.
"Donovan Wolfe!"
"You freaking mutt, this is our treasure!"
"You already screwed me once, I won't let it happen again!"
At the sudden appearance of the Wolfe family's scion and his team, everyone but Zhen Liu began to tense up and ready to fight these weapon wielding assholes. Zhen Liu was take aback by a sudden announcement in his head.
They were just about to rush at the Wolfe Family team and tear them to pieces, when they were stopped by one of the Wolfe members leveling his oversized maul at the chunk of Ifrit Fire Heart Crystal that had broken off earlier.
"One wrong move and I'll smash this thing straight at ya! And I know your diggers must've informed you of what happens when this stuff agitated, right?"
The Zhen Clan and Corradas immediately stood down once the threat was made, but still made sure to keep their guard up if the situation changed.
"Thank you Richter," Donovan said with a courteous tone and a polite nod, "Now for some pleasure before business."
Now that all of his enemies were at a standstill, Donovan turned towards them and began to gloat like an asshole.
"I really, really must thank you all for taking care of that horrible guardian so quickly. My friends and were just about to get bored from studying this crystal all day."
Punctuating his point, the digger that had accompanied Donovan and his team began to punch at various point of the crystal, causing it to break into several more manageable chunks to carry.
Both Zhen Clan team and the Corrada team grimaced at their actions, a sick revelation starting to sink in.
'We...got freaking played!'