Kaijin Fighter: So I Have to Make Monsters, So What?-Chapter 1537: Stage Three

In regard to the lifecycle of the Armor Puppet Parasite.

A majority of parasites have the exact same life cycle.

Step 1: Find a host.

Step 2: Hijack nutrients in order to breed.

Step 3: Create a situation where a parasite can produce a fuckton of offspring.

Step 4: Die in a violent manner so said offspring can repeat the cycle elsewhere.

However, some parasites didn’t always follow this particular life plan, like the Armor Puppet Parasites.

Most people were familiar with the first two stages of this parasitic pest, but things didn’t get weird with them until the third stage.

At this stage one of two things will occur. Either the second-stage parasite puppets will merge into a giant monstrosity that will seek out an explosive death in order to produce even more parasites in a gruesome manner, or a particularly powerful parasite will form... something else.

...And now, here’s a live example...

From the darkened entrance of the underground fortress, a distinctly inhuman figure made its way towards Zhen Liu and his friends.

"Oh...what the fuck..." Zhen Liu cursed as he allowed his eyes to travel along the mutant form of the warrior before him. "This is a stage three parasite warrior?!"

Who...dares...?

"Of course it talks..."

The third stage of the Armor Puppet Parasites was, to put it lightly, something out of a nightmare.

From what Zhen Liu could understand, these beings were the result of what happens when one of two events occurs.

First, a whole bunch of the stage two parasitic warriors end up congregating and merge together. This was, apparently, how the Armor Puppet Parasites could reproduce with one another.

By merging hosts, they more or less create an environment where their kind could properly mix with one another and produce thousands of eggs that would explode into thousands of baby parasites.

It was a disgusting process; there was a lot of blood.

The second, and more rare, is what happens when a stage two parasitized warrior suddenly develops, or perhaps redevelops, the aether cultivation it once had in life.

These versions of the Armor Puppet Parasites were significantly more powerful than their stage two counterparts and even their "normal" stage three counterparts because not only did they get that weird boost in physical strength, but they had something the previous two stages lacked in spades: intelligence.

Granted, it was completely alien and downright disturbing intelligence, but it still counted nonetheless.

And right now, Zhen Liu found himself staring into the unfocused eyes of one of these alternate stage threes, but he wasn’t able to determine who this guy was before being parasitized.

It was kind of hard to make out features when those features were more or less melted into a homogenous mass.

The mutant warrior charging towards them looked disproportionate, to put it politely.

A human torso and head were merged into the chest portion of what Zhen Liu could only describe as a crabataur.

A distinctly armored humanoid upper half was slammed into a giant crab-like lower body, albeit without the claws.

In the hands of the humanoid upper half, the stage three parasitic warrior was wielding a massive battle-axe.

"You... disturb...the nest"the giant crabataur parasite snarled from the human embedded in its chest. "You shall now die so that the younglings may dine!

"Incoming!"

"Scatter!"

[Surging Filth!]

The crabataur parasite armor swung down its massive battle-axe at the ground while it was covered in aether and released a surge of foul-smelling brown liquid that rushed towards Zhen Liu and his allies.

Every instinct in Zhen Liu’s body told him that even touching this fetid liquid would infect him with something other than parasites, so he opted to dodge by using [Senbonzuru] as a means to latch on to the catacombs’ ceiling and retract it like a tape measure.

...

’Alright, I’m bitching out of this fight because this is fucking disgusting and that thing is giving me the heebie-jeebies. Who wants to try and take it out?’

[Allow...me...]

...

Understanding that this attack was probably a way for this giant monster parasite to infect and fester others, Zhen Tai, Zhen Xing, Olstenna, Lythero, Antonio, and Jinju Ren all opted to dodge out of the way.

Rianna didn’t have to move from her spot, because the attack ended up fizzling out before even getting close to her.

"Disgusting bas—"

"Frosttusk, go!"

"Oh, never mind."

The pale Amazon had prepared an arrow and was ready to fire it directly into the mass of parasitic armored flesh but stopped the moment she heard Zhen Liu’s voice...and then proceeded to take a couple of steps once she felt a familiar chill in the air.

A chill that caused everyone in the room to take a couple steps back as well.

"Oh shit."

"Incoming mammoth!"

From high above the crabataur, Zhen Liu had taken off the ivory earring that was Frosttusk’s travel mode and found the accessory towards it.

As the earring sailed through the air, it transformed into the massive mammoth viking Frosttusk. The icy Kaijin looked smaller in comparison to the parasitized giant, but he was still bigger then everyone else in the room.

And to be a touch more dramatic, he was significantly denser and heavier too.

Granted, in the eyes of this giant Armor Puppet Parasite, Frosttusk might as well have been one big target.

"You dare? You die!"

With a wretched screech and a horrific snarl, the crabataur swung its battle-axe up and released a geyser of fetid water that would give the average man several bacterial infections and genital-eating amoebas.

In the face of a kaijin like Frosttusk, though, this was nothing more than a delay...and a weapon.

[Glacial Stomp!]

In response to this incoming surge of fetid liquid, Frosttusk began to immediately sap the heat from the area around him and caused the geyser to immediately freeze into a dark brown pillar of ice that just so happened to be looming over the crabataur’s position.

Focusing all of his aether and [Chaos] into his feet, Frosttusk landed down on the brown ice pillar and stomped on it hard enough to create a giant ice spike from the pillar.

This would’ve been the moment where Frosttusk’s opponent would be shocked at the sudden turnaround, but the stage three Armor Puppet Parasite was a little too stupid to realize the magnitude of what was going on.

You dare to get closer?!

Using the ice pillar, Frosttusk impaled the crabataur with a heavy stomp before it had a chance to swing its battle-axe upwards.

"Ew!"

"Oh, that’s just...ugh."

The moment the pillar pierced through the crabataur, sticky black goo began gushing out of the impact zone. Surprisingly (?) the giant parasitized warrior didn’t seem to care.

You dare?!

Without noticing or caring about the giant ice spike in its torso, the parasitized warrior attempt to swing the battle-axe at Frosttusk, who was still standing on the ice pillar.

[Break!]

With a heavy punch, Frosttusk shattered the pillar and caused the crabataur to explode from the inside out.

Grk!

The human portion of the parasitized warrior was freed from its bonds at this point, but perhaps that wasn’t for the best.

Any semblance of limbs or a back had been thoroughly melted into a fleshy mass and the featureless man was more or less a lump of flesh.

As for the giant battle-axe that it had wielded with impunity, Frosttusk used this moment to claim the prize for himself.

The victory, however, was short-lived.

...

’Frosttusk, I don’t think this battle is over yet.’

[No...it’s...not.]

’Fuck.’

[...I’m...keeping...the...axe...by the way...]

’Sure.’

...

Zhen Liu and his allies could still sense that there were more enemies in the fortress, so they didn’t let out any preemptive cheers of victory.

Instead, they stood their ground and prepared for whatever the fuck was about to come out of the fortress next.

That stated, they heard it before they saw it.

A pair of voices that sounded like it was echoing in the uncanny valley.

^B-brother...who is...that?^

^Oh, how annoying...truly, just...annoying.^

The voices were soon followed by a series of heavy stomps that sounded like several tons of stone and metal being given locomotion.

^I mean, just when I was finally reunited with my dear sweet, baby brother, just when I finally bestowed upon him the gift that would finally make him my equal, you lot just had to show up and make a mess of...everything.^

^Make a mess...a huge mess of... everything...^

From the darkened corridor stepped out a distinctly more humanoid giant that that made the crabataur look like a baby spider in terms of size alone.

However, unlike the melted flesh of a man that was embedded in its chest, this giant looked even worse.

"Welp, we found Smoker," Zhen Liu joked as he stared at the monster before him.

Smoker Redoxa looked as if he had seen better days.

Then again, any day when you weren’t being surgically crucified into the body of a headless giant made of chitin and flesh was probably a better day.

And the bastard wasn’t even alone.