Kaijin Fighter: So I Have to Make Monsters, So What?
Chapter 1360 1360: Tar Zako

[Alright, sit rep. How is everybody holding up?] Nepherage asked her fellow kaijin.

[Decent.]

[Okay.]

[Why is this catfish so stupidly sturdy?!]

[Figured as much,] the jade valkyrie ogre commented. [Well, whomever can find an opportunity to do so, we need to take out these freaking Demon Knights. This pretender is already annoying with just a Taboo or just a Stigma, and we don't need him being able to use...hold up...why am I sensing a ballooning amount of zakos rapidly developing?]

...

'Grk?!'

The sudden influx of [Chaos] via oral ingestion had outright killed the poor sod the tar drop landed on.

This normally wouldn't have been the case, as the amount of [Chaos] in that one tiny drop wasn't fatal, but just like how all poisons could be medicines in the right dosage and vice versa, [Chaos], and even aether, could just outright kill a guy if they were sufficiently injured.

Regardless, now that this dying warrior had gone from being a person to being an object, the [Chaos] flowing through the corpse had decided to make use of all of its components.

Literally.

The tar droplet had somehow converted the entire corpse into a vaguely humanoid pile of tar that seemed to be concentrating [Chaos] into itself.

If anyone was paying attention to this strange tar body at the time, they would immediately realize that there was something wrong with it.

To be more precise, they would notice that multiple individual auras were rapidly developing and growing inside of the tar corpse.

Unfortunately, by the time anybody noticed, it was too late.

"Uh, guys? What the fuck is that?"

"What are you talking—oh."

By the time someone did notice, the tar body had inflated like a balloon.

"That...can't be good."

^Wait...I dealt with something like this before. Haul ass, now!^

None of the mortals present were dumb enough to try and pop this balloon, as several of them had come from nations where ballooning corpse bombs was a known war crime tactic, but the same could not be said about Dante's Kaijin.

If anything, they were oddly intrigued by this ballooning tar man.

[What the hell?]

[Hey...why does it feel like the boss?]

Especially since their instincts told them that this bubble was a good thing.

Driven by curiosity, and these aformentioned instincts, Dante's kaijin proceeded to do what the mortals avoided doing as if their life depended on it.

[SPIKE IT!]

[YEAAAAAHHH!]

They popped the corpse tar bubble and unleashed hell.

Well, a version of hell.

From the popped balloon, a dozen or so zakos came flying out like tadpoles coming out of the back of their parent toad.

"[What the fuck?!]"

The sudden appearance of yet another force of warriors had caused the entire battle to become even more chaotic than before.

...

[Oh fuck.]×5

'Are you fucking kidding me?!'

...

At the exact same time as this explosion of minions was occurring, Zhen Liu was just about to bisect Dante with one heavy slash.

The man's limbs was being locked by the Doll Twins, meaning that this moment was the best opportunity for Zhen Liu to land a fatal blow on his enemy.

Unfortunately, because life seemed to like to fuck with him at every turn, Zhen Liu was not able to follow through.

As if the universe wanted to toy with him, one of Dante's zakos had been launched with such force that it ended up eating Zhen Liu's attack in the place of its master.

As his blade sliced through the zako, Zhen Liu felt as if he was slicing through a rotten melon.

[Disgusting!]

Making things even more unfortunate, this little distraction gave Dante the time he needed to break from the grasp of the Doll Twins and fly away.

As he flew, Dante made sure to insult Zhen Liu in the process.

[Haha! Looks like the universe doesn't want me dead quite yet! Or maybe it wants me to be the one bisects you!]

[Funny,] Zhen Liu growled as he began to chase after Dante. [You struck me as the type to consider such things to be nonsense. The kind of person who preferred to burn everything down at the mildest inconvenience.]

[Oh, I am,] Dante confirmed. [But all of this power flowing through my veins is doing wonders for my mood! Why, I can't wait to find out how big of a high I'll get when I wield one of my other knights as a Taboo! Bahahaha!]

At this comment, Zhen Liu couldn't help but to raise an eyebrow underneath his [Stigma].

...

'Alright, maybe because I spent the last three months observing this mother fucker like a nature documentary on sociopathic animals, but is he sound significantly more crazy than how he did seconds ago?'

[No, he definitely sounds more nutty than before,] Blazejudicator concurred. [His voice also sounds oddly more distorted.]

[Like a possession gone wrong.]

[Right.]

'Hmmm. Either way, those zakos might become a problem.'

[Not to worry,] Nepherage assured her lordship. [We prepared for this possibility as well.]

...

"What the fuck are these things?!"

[GOOOAAAA!!!]

It was a fact that the rebels viewed Dante and his kaijin as walking, talking, nightmare incarnates.

They were freaky, vicious, and downright cruel.

However, they were at least somewhat comprehensible.

All of Dante's kaijin were originally aether beasts, albeit in mutated forms now, but they were still animals...sort of.

These zakos on the other hand were just plain freaky.

Every single one of these zakos looked like they were clumps of tar that had been shaped into vaguely human shapes. On top of that, their bodies has been enhanced and armored with bits of viscera.

"Why do they smell like rotting corpses?!"

"Probably because they're covered in rotten body parts?!"

Some of the zakos had chunks of bone, woven hair, dried intestines and even hardened flesh acting as armor, weapons and ways to differentiate each other.

In a way, they were like undead monsters.

No, not like.

Were.

While the rebels were able to fight these zakos with much greater ease in comparison to the kaijin, there were a greater number of them to the point that one rebel warriors had to fight three to five of them at any given time.

In a way, it was a reversal of how the rebels managed to fight off the kaijin in the initial stages of the conflict.

On the plus side, Dante's Kaijin didn't do the smart thing and work with the zakos to take out the rebels. Instead, the mutant fucks decided to have the minions take over for them while they took break.

[Huh...okay, have fun you little shits. Mama is going to take a break.]

[Fucking finally, my feet were getting sore.]

The sudden code switch between being shocked at their own vulnerable mortality to no longer giving a shit was mind boggling to say the least

And that wasn't the worst part.

During the fighting, some of the rebels noticed that not all the zakos were engaging in fighting. Instead, they began to make their way over to the animal and mortal corpses that littered the battlefield.

And this was when the mortals realized that these zakos were actually significantly more dangerous than any of them had realized.

"What the hell are those freaky tar monsters doing to that body?"

"I don't know for sure, but I think I can hazard a guess..."

The sounds of battle masked it, but those with exceptional hearing or had the misfortune of being close enough to witness everything, could make out one of two horrific sounds.

First, was the sound of inflation.

Some of the zakos took the littered corpses and dropped little bits of [Chaos]-infused tar into their mouths. Shortly after, the corpses would transform into clumps of tar before ballooning and bursting into even more tar zakos.

The second, and arguably more horrific sound, was that of crunching.

The tar zako turned out to have vicious mouths filled with teeth that were meant to gnaw through flesh and bone with disturbing ease, which was used to great effect on these scattered corpses.

Now, did they perform this grotesque act because they were hungry or because they wanted to clean up the battlefield?

No.

These zakos were actually devouring these corpses for a purpose.

"Hold up...is that motherfucker bigger than they were a moment ago?"

"Yes...and that one over there appears to have replaced their arm with a circular buzzsaw arm."

"What the fuck..."

By consuming the bodies of the deceased aether beasts, the zakos were able to increase their own power.

These voracious zakos developed new weapons, new pieces of armor, or undergone noticeable transformations that made them look drastically different from the regular rank-and-file.

To the regular rebels, they were justifiably unnerved but still willing to fight. Just because they were bigger and scarier, didn't mean they weren't killable.

To the ones in the know, though, they were outright terrified.

Because they could sense the underlying meaning about what this transformation represented.

...

[Oh joy... they're about to replenish their fallen Kaijin numbers.]