Before the fight, Oliver did some warm up stretches. It had become a little routine for him ever since his short time as a vigilante. He found that if he loosened his muscles a bit before fighting, he would end up with less cramps and aches the next day. Though his actions were mostly superstition, as his body instantly recovered any injuries thanks to the suit. Though, he had to admit, he did look quite cool while doing it.
The seeding fester watched Oliver stretch without interrupting him. It was genuinely too confused to confront him, finding his hopping about annoying and embarrassing. However, the overwhelming aura coming out of Oliver, definitely made it seem more intimidating than it actually was.
Doing one final arm stretch, Oliver flipped his dagger into the air, before grabbing it and pointing the weapon at the fester.
"It's showtime"
With that, Oliver lunged forward at the creature with incredible speeds. Even with the Fester's heightened senses, Oliver managed to cut off both of its arms in one attack. The attack was so impressive in fact, even Oliver was stunned.
"What the hell? How did I..." but before he could think of an answer, the Fester regenerated.
It grabbed the spear from before using its tendrils, before throwing it at Oliver. He dodged, before catching it with his scarf.
"You ain't the only one with an extra limb." Oliver commented, spinning the spear.
Oliver wrapped his scarf around the spear, before throwing it at the fester like it did to him. The herbicidal properties of the attachment unit caused the fester to start wilting, increasing the damage taken by it even more. On top of that, since he wrapped his scarf around the attachment unit, he could freely pull it back to him, and repeat the cycle.
"Seriously? You're a disaster class Fester? Oh wait, you're not even there yet. You're only near it.." Oliver taunted.
The fester began to grit its teeth, before ingraining itself into the ground by plunging its roots. Suspecting something dangerous, Oliver swiftly tried to pull it out using the spear, however, it was too late. The Fester's skin and pedals began turning white and red, as the rest of the scenery became vibrant and bright. The complete opposite to what happened before this.
Oliver clicked his tongue before pointing the spear at the Fester once more.
"Damn you look like a mushroom now... Should I make you into some soup?" Oliver exclaimed.
The Fester only chuckled as it stood tall and grinned widely. It's blackened teeth, grossing Oliver out.
Oliver wanted to just ignore the change in its appearance and beat it up. However all his instincts told him otherwise.
"In every book I've read, every movie I've watched, every game I've played, whenever someone changes their appearance, they get some sort of power boost.... But maybe it's a fake out? Damnit how do I tell if this is a trick..." then it hit him.
Focusing all his attention into his right eye, he began flooding it with descent energy. It definitely still hurt, since he wasn't used to manipulating descent energy yet, however all he needed was a few seconds.
With the eye of truth activated, Oliver could understand and see the flow of Descent energy around him. From his vision, he could tell that all the plant-like descent energy, had moved out from the fester and into the nearby nature.
"That explains the Instagram worthy scenery... But what does it mean when a plant like fester loses all it's plant-like descent energy?" Oliver asked himself.
He cautiously put up his spear, awaiting the Fester's response. And respond it did. Without him even realising, the Fester had already appeared in front of him. It wasn't as jarring as when he did it, but being on the other hand was a bit embarrassing. Even still, he was faster.
Stabbing the spear deep into the Fester's chest, Oliver smirked. The Fester screamed out in pain, before suddenly laughing. It's laughter distressed Oliver, so he pushed the spear even deeper.
"Laugh all you want bastard, the herbicide will wilt you away till you're just a rotten carrot stick" Oliver exclaimed.
His words made the Fester laugh even more. The fester slowly pulled the spear out of its body before throwing it aside. The sight filled Oliver with dread as its laughter became much more vile.
"Did you know... Dead plants aren't really affected by herbicide that much" the fester mocked.
It smiled widely, watching Oliver's confidence dropping before its eyes. Once it was satisfied with the despair it had brought, it pulled its head back before violently smashing it into Oliver's face.
Oliver staggered, giving the Fester time to grab his face. Once it had a good grip on him, the Fester slammed Oliver into the ground with full force. Oliver couldn't help but dry heave from the pain, desperately trying to get the Fester's hand off him. In response, the fester tied him to the ground using some roots and tendrils.
Oliver tried to struggle his way out, however the bindings were far too tight. Watching him struggle, the Fester chuckled. It raised up it's arm high, before beating him repeatedly. Punch after punch after punch, the Fester hit Oliver with all its might. Each hit was personal, since Oliver had humiliated it so much before this.
Stopping for a moment, the fester admiring its artwork. It smiled, watching the creature that had given it such a hard time, be reduced to a writhing insect beneath it. As it began to laugh with maniacal ecstasy, a hand grabbed it's neck. Looking down, he saw the hand belonged to none other than Oliver.
"How did you?!" It exclaimed, as Oliver's grip tightened.
Realising Oliver wouldn't let it go, the Fester erected various sharp roots from the ground, forcing Oliver to let go. He then broke out of his bindings, while simultaneously dodging the impaling roots from below.
Jumping backwards as well, trying to create a safe distance for it to recover. The Fester rubbed its neck as it began wondering how Oliver broke out of the roots that binded him.
"Those roots are as strong as steel! How did he break through three layers of that?!" The Fester thought, observing the broken roots laying on the ground.
Using its keen sense of descent energy, especially for
Its own plantlike type, the seeding Fester realised what Oliver had done.
Seeing the look of disdain in the Fester's eyes, Oliver smirked.
"Finally realised it? But I really didn't want to use it that early huh...I really hate showing my hand..." Oliver explained, looking to his driver.
When he was being beaten, Oliver's mind didn't just focus on the pain. In that time he began forming up a plan to counter the beating he was enduring. This was all thanks to the rush of descent energy still fresh in his brain after using the eye of truth.
You see while he was tied up, he thought about how the Fester's ability worked. It was obviously a plant monster who could manipulate plants using descent energy, but how did it affect it exactly?
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
With the help of his rational thinking and the eye of truth, he deduced the descent energy that came from plantlike creatures that helped in the plant's growth process. Basically it was like healing with positive descent energy, but for plants. That was how the fester could regenerate and create strong bindings. So afterwards the counter came naturally to him.
It was a hassle to wiggle over to the belt's trigger, he even had to break a few bones to get it loose enough, but once he finger grazed the trigger, he knew he had won. Using his secondary vision, he searched for only the plantlike descent energy. Finding the spore-like energy crystals, he focused extremely hard on them. He activated the absorption function, consuming only the plantlike descent energy so its structure could remain unnoticed.
"It was a whole damn process... But I guess that's what I get for underestimating even a near disaster class Fester" Oliver thought to himself, putting up his guard.
The fester slowly got up, before dashing towards Oliver. Grabbing his dagger, Oliver began defending from the Fester's attacks. If one were to watch the two fight from a third person perspective, it would look like two blurs colliding with each other.
They were evenly matched in speed, but it was clear that Oliver was much more durable. The more Oliver hit the Fester, the weaker and sloppier it's attacks became. He estimated that it wouldn't last another five minutes if it tried keeping up with Oliver.
So it wasn't a suprise to Oliver, when the fester created a wall of roots to separate the two.
"Using this to recover huh... Should I just absorb it like last time? Nah even if I did, he'd already have time to heal up. I'll just wait it out until-" but before he could finish his sentence, he felt a strange rumble coming from the west.
He turned, to where the sound came from, finding an ominous looking black cloud enveloping the area. He couldn't see it properly, but there was definitely something evil hiding behind that cloud. Something he doubt he could defeat. Oliver quickly pulled out his communication device, trying to ask what the hell happened. Unfortunately for him, the only response he got was static.
"Shit... Something bad happened..." Oliver thought to himself, clenching his fist.
As he began sulking, he wondered if all of this could've been avoided, if he hadn't acted so brashly earlier. If he just ignored that investigator, the fester wouldn't have woken up. If it didn't wake up, then most of his team would still be alive. If they had been alive, maybe he could've stopped whatever happened in the west. "No... Maybe if I was stronger, none of this would've ever happened. If I could've beaten this trash mob the moment I saw it... Maybe then..." Oliver gripped his danger tightly.
Looking through the cracks in the wall of roots, Oliver could see that the Fester was trying to evolve. Whatever happened in the west, it caused a chain reaction that was making this
Fester stronger too. Gritting his teeth, Oliver began slashing at the roots. He kept slashing and slashing, even though the roots didn't budge one bit. Slice after slice, he screamed and yelled all his frustrations.
"Why?! Why?! Why does everyone still get to be stronger than me?! Even though I have this power... I can't do anything?! What kind of bullshit is this?!" Oliver thought as he desperately began stabbing and slicing the roots.
With each slice, something began to burn up in Oliver. He could feel a rage- no hunger. A hunger for power. For victory.
The more he sliced, the more he realised where this feeling came from. It wasn't from inside him perse, but from something he was holding. The burning feeling came from his dagger, a similar feeling as to when he first got his driver.
Spreading from the handle, down to his fingers, then to his whole entire body, Oliver felt the sensation overcome him. It felt like something was trying to break through his armour and rip its way out…. No. More accurately. It felt like it was trying to break out of him.
[ ATTACHMENT UNIT SYNCHRONIZATION. ABSORPTION AND SYNTHESIS AVAILABLE. ]
He stopped momentarily, before placing a finger on the trigger on his belt. He took a deep breath, before pulling the trigger. Turquoise and black energy came out from the dagger, creeping along his body until reaching his driver. Taking a deep breath, Oliver slashed one more time.
Behind the wall, the Fester was about to emerge from its moulting body as a true disaster class Fester. The raw energy coming from such evolution, began to corrupt the ground around it, turning it into vile imitations of life. Disgusting writing mounds of "plant" spread throughout the earth, at the centre a dying tree awaiting to hatch.
The plant matter began eating away at anything living, taking away their life force to feed the dead tree it came from. The more it ate, the more the dead tree began to live again. A cycle of death and life, with only one party benefiting. Soon, a hand emerged from the tree covered in sap and blood. New life had been born from death. However, a taboo such as that, must be erased from the world to keep it pristine and beautiful. And what creature would be better to do that, than a crow?
A bright slash of black and turquoise energy broke the wall of root, before completely disintegrating it as well as the emerging Fester behind it. Before it could utter a single word, it had become silent. Before it could see, it experienced nothingness. Before it could even think, it had died.
The dead tree wilted away into petals, blowing into the wind before eventually dissolving back into descent energy. As the final disgusting petal faded away, all that was left of the fight, was Oliver. Standing tall, the winds blew his scarf in the wind.
"That... Was surprisingly easy… Too easy" Oliver thought, looking at his dagger.
He didn't think that because he was feeling arrogant however. What he felt just now, was so surreal, it couldn't have been reality. He was just waiting for that reality to come creeping up behind him.
As he examined his weapon, Oliver couldn't help but feel incredibly proud of himself. Bouncing up and down like a little kid, he almost forgot about the lingering paranoia he was feeling. Almost. However reality sure has a way of ruining his joy.
From behind him, Oliver heard calculated footsteps, as well as slow methodical clapping. He quickly turned around, pointing the dagger at the unknown assailant.
"Who the hell are you?!"
Out from the shadows, a man wearing a white smiley faced mask walked out. The man reeked of danger - like a disgusting fart you could smell way after the dead had been done. Oliver was ready to take him down the moment he did anything weird - which he was almost certain the man was going to do.
"Who the hell are you?" Oliver asked, using a raspier voice this time.
The man chuckled before suddenly appearing behind him. He got close to Oliver's ear, before whispering softly.
"Would you believe me if I told you I was a fan?"
Oliver turned around, swiftly slashing at the man, but he disappeared before the blade could touch him.
"Quick bastard..." Oliver mumbled, scanning the area for the man.
Searching everywhere, it was truly as if the man disappeared from the world. He couldn't even sense anything with his eye of truth. However as quickly as he disappeared, the man was now nonchalantly skipping beside him, as if he didn't understand the danger he was in. No, it was more like he was even in danger at all. With such a confident persona he was exuding, Oliver knew he wasn't some sort of faker trying to pretend to be strong. He was truly strong. Maybe even stronger than him.
Putting up his dagger slightly, he asked the man what he wanted. The man chuckled before pointing at Oliver's weapon.
"I want revenge for what you did to him..." the man said, a bit of a snicker in his voice.
Oliver immediately put his guard up to the max, however the man responded by putting his hands up and sighing.
"Joke joke... I honestly don't care if you killed that Pierro bastard. There's only room for one clown in that organisation anyway..." the man said, trailing off.
Oliver didn't put down his dagger, but he did relax his body a bit. It was strange, but he felt somewhat relaxed while talking to the man. As if he knew he wasn't in danger. It also helped knowing the man wasn't there for something petty like revenge; but he clearly wasn't there for a friendly chat either. Clearing his throat, Oliver asked him again what he wanted.
The man began rocking back and forth, seemingly bored by his question.
"Well I was going to collect the seed I so painstakingly cultivated... But you've killed it. Honestly I thought it would survive at least a few seconds, but to die by one slash. Embarrassing~" the man said, making a silly gesture.
Oliver was starting to get creeped out by the man, as it was clear that he was stalling and hiding something from him. Standing up straight, Oliver put his left hand on his driver's trigger, threatening the man.
"If you don't stop beating around the bush, I'll just end you here." Oliver retorted, trying his best to hide his fear. However his trembling fingers betrayed him.
The man paused for a moment, before a black aura began to leak out of him. The man's whole vibe began to change, the happy-go-lucky facade from before fading away into something much more sinister. A sense of dread overcame Oliver, however he stood his ground; countering with a bit of his own aura. The two energies clashed, causing some sparks to fly off. The sight of the sparks caused the man to chuckle, though it sounded more disappointed than happy.
The sudden pressure from before had been lifted off Oliver's shoulders, however he was still suspicious of the man and his intentions. Looking at him intensely, Oliver asked why he was laughing.
“Are you trying to be even more cliché?” Oliver asked, annoyance in his voice.
The man waved dismissively as his chuckling slowly halted to a cold stop.
"Oh nothing... It just seems that we're evenly matched as of the moment. If we were to fight… both of us would die. And I have a lot more plans involving the two of us in the near future, Mr. Crow...." the man explained.
He didn't quite understand the last part of his sentence, but what he said about being equals was undeniably true.
During the clash earlier, Oliver had used the eye of truth to gauge how strong the man was. Although the moment was brief, it was clear to him that their descent energy levels were perfectly matched. So much so that they began to repel each other. Creating actual sparks.
As the man's laughter finally died down, he pulled out an interesting cube from his coat pocket. It was extremely intricate, with design patterns similar to murals from Asian cultures.
"Well it was fun talking to you... But you're too much of a threat here. So I'm sorry sir, but please exit through the bottom door!" the man said, hovering his finger over the button on top of the box.
"Hey what're you-" but before he could finish his sentence, the floor turned into a giant pit.
As he began to fall down, Oliver was forced to think on his feet to avoid certain doom. Snagging a tree branch using his scarf, he held onto it like dear life.
Looking at the man, Oliver began shouting at him - demanding the clown to tell him who he was.
The man only laughed at the request.
Grabbing Oliver's scarf, the man pulled out a knife and slowly began cutting the excess off.
"I'm a Knave… a Joker… a clown... Whatever you want to call me, Mr king~" the man said, lifting his mask a bit to show his real smile.
Seeing the glimpse of his real face, Oliver froze up. It looked... Familiar. Extremely familiar, but foreign at the same time. Like returning back to your parents hometown for the first time since you were a kid. You remember it vaguely, but yet you can't remember why it was so important. The last thing he saw before falling into the pit, was the man putting on his mask, and making a mocking gesture.
Clenching his fist, Oliver thought of only one thing as he fell into the seemingly endless abyss.
"Just who the hell are you?”