132 ... I like that old school butt whooping

After slamming the Marquis like he was a wrestling pro jobber, Hurricroak swayed her hips back and caused the crab claws to retract and disappear into her skin. Her armored crab legs went back to looking like frog woman skin.

"Much better, but now I think I have to prepare for the chorus," Hurricroak hummed.

[Maestro, I suggest you step back. I'll need the room for my performance.]

[Huh? Oh, sure,] Zhen Liu responded before taking some steps back. He also made sure to grab Draigo as he did.

"How did she-? How did you-"

"Don't worry about it, just roll with it," Zhen Liu told Draigo as he pulled him away. His eyes lazily scanned the room a bit before noticing something off.

'Wait a minute... wasn't there a dead body on this altar thing before?'

_________________________________________________

"W-what just happened?," Marquis grumbled as it just registered that he felt a shockwave of pain through his helmet for the first time this whole fight. In fact, it was more than that.

"This sensation...no!"

The Marquis got to his feet in a flash before quickly dispelling his helmet and one of his gauntlets. As he brought his free hand to his face, he felt something warm and sticky upon his fingers.

For the first time in a long time, someone(thing) had caused the Marquis to bleed.

Indignation filled the Marquis's heart as he felt as if his honor was besmirched. Before he could contemplate the full weight of this moment though, a melodic, croaking voice proceeded to goad him.

"Oi bastardo. You know it's rude to keep a lady waiting. So why don't you come over and we can move onto the main act," Hurricroak taunted while doing a "come hither" gesture with one of her hands and a look on her face that was begging for a beating.

The Marquis let out an angry snort before wiping away the blood and putting his helmet and gauntlet back on.

"You're dead!," the Marquis shouted in an uncomposed tone as he rushed to attack Hurricroak. The sound of howling wolves echoed through the chamber as he moved forward. It was plain to any observer, that the Marquis wanted to rip out Hurricroak's throat.

[We gotta help.]

[Right...]

"Yes!"

Nepherage, Frosttusk and Razor Maiden proceeded to rush forward as well, hoping to intercept the Marquis before he could muster an offense against their new ally. They knew how dangerous the Marquis's sound arts could be and they didn't her to get hit by it as well.

However, this fear was a tad unwarranted.

The Marquis was getting closer and closer by the millisecond, but all that Hurricroak did was smile at the brash action. Once the Marquis was almost on top of her, and she could feel that the Marquis had condensed an absurd amount of aether in his throat, the froggy kaijin woman held up a hand with her middle finger pressing against her thumb.

In a second, the Marquis was on top of Hurricroak and was all set to blow her ears out!

[Doom -!]

"Cue music," Hurricroak interrupted as she snapped her fingers.

All at once, the rushing kaijin trio suddenly stopped their moment to rhythmically bounce in place, while the Marquis's howl was cut off as the sudden blaring of a piano played in the same rhythmic manner as the kaijin's bounce.

'What?,' the Marquis thought as he felt the aether in his throat suddenly stop, 'And where did that music come from?'

The chamber that the Marquis had built was designed in such a manner that any music played would echo through the room, making it sound as if the listener was right next to the player, but this music was...different. For starters, it sounded like it came from inside him.

He was about to try and do another [Doom Howl], but was stopped by a second playing of the piano followed by a masculine singing voice suddenly ripping through him in a language he could understand but not get the meaning of. It drove him a little nuts

"What the hell is a rec-" POW

But before the Marquis could contemplate the meaning of the words, he got punched in the face by a furry brown bear paw, courtesy of one Hurricroak.

"Get ready for act one, bastardo," Hurricroak croaked as she began to move to the tune of the song playing throughout the room, while at the same, subtly transforming parts of body. From an outside point of view, one could see she was changing from a frog woman, to a frog/bear woman.

"You bitch!," the Marquis growled as he swung a flurry of blows against the transformed frog kaijin, who dodged the attacks as if it was nothing before launching a very well timed counter attack. If he had been less angry and more observant, he would have noticed that his attacks and Hurricroak's dodging was in perfect timing with the song playing in his head.

"I just love rock n roll."

_________________________________________________

'Is...is that "Old Time Rock and Roll"?!,' Zhen Liu mentally yelled as he heard the lyrics and tune of a very familiar song playing in his head. The fact that he was seeing a shapeshfiting Hurricroak beating the Marquis's ass to the rhythm of the song seemed secondary to the fact that he recognized the song.

Throwing a quick glance to Draigo, Zhen Liu could faintly understand that he could hear the music too...seeing the other three kaijin bounce it along before dancing to the tune confirmed everyone could hear it.

While he couldn't observe Hurricroak via the stat window, due to obvious circumstances, he could still ask a certain voice in his head for some answers.

'Alright, what the hell? How and why does Hurricroak know this song?'

<Kaijin:Hurricroak was designed with the formula: [Concerto of the Storm Gods]. This particular formula allows the cultivator to use lighting and sound aether arts with increased effectiveness. Higher the cultivation, the stronger the effect> the voice in his head explained, <that's why you and everyone else is currently bopping along to the musical stylings of "Old Time Rock and Roll".>

'That doesn't explain-'

<Hurricroak is currently using an art called: [Rhythm Combo], a major Ethereal art that allows the user to replay any song they know to turn it into a combination attack/performance that even the opponent must move along too. The drawback being that if the opponent knows the song as well, they can theoretically counter the moves in tune with the song. In order to maximize the effectiveness of both the art and the formula, Hurricroak was given the memories of every song that the user has ever listened to.>

'...every song?'

<Yes. Including the parodies.>

'Oh...well this is gonna get interesting.'

Proving his point, the song abruptly changed.

'And now she's playing "Uptown Funk", are you kidding me?!'