Author’s corner: HELLO HELLO! ACTION TIME! (and flirty Yuu too…)
ANYWAY, Today’s chapter is more of a continuation from the previous action-scene chapter with some bickering as usual. I also took the chance to show some of Gon’s newest skill a bit and how they work in battle.
ALSO, I planned for the action scene to end in this chapter to be honest, but it ended up taking too long and there were still a couple of scenes I had to add, so… One more action chapter incoming! Should only be half length though, with the other half being aftermath. Hopefully.
ALSO(2), As soon as I recover from my burns inflicted by a rampaging goddess, I’ll hunt down everyone who went against me, okay? I do hold a grudge…
Have a good read!
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Holding to the rope with one hand, I jumped over the guardrail and held myself against the side of the ship, stopping myself just below the level of the deck. I didn’t simply jump over, because the time where I recovered myself from the shock, the enemy vessel had already gone beneath our own ship, so I had to find a way to go beneath our trading ship before jumping out.
Using all my strength, I kicked away the wall of the ship just as I saw a fireball be stopped by an ice lance. Thanking Aura briefly in my mind, I slowly let go of the rope, increasing the distance between me and the guard-rail where it was stuck, and allowing me to swing somewhat far.
Looking down, I could already see some traces of a fight going on the enemy’s blimp. Grimacing while seeing that I still didn’t have enough momentum, I turned to the cat on my free arm and said.
“Lieutenant, I’m going to throw you. Go help Yuu while I get myself over there.” I said and he nodded while taking on a ready position.
Accepting his preparation as an agreement, I started to gather momentum on the swinging rope by moving my body back and forth. Looking attentively, I could see as a bluish aura formed around the ship, and I wondered if that meant that it would somehow stop Lieutenant from getting in.
Grimacing, I saw as a fireball formed from inside the barrier, and remembering what Skarr made me do before Yuu jumped, I decided to wait for the moment where the ball would be launched, this way Lt. could go in undisturbed.
Luckily, I didn’t have to wait much longer, because soon enough the barrier came down, so using my strength plus the momentum from the swinging rope…
“LIEUTENANT! I CHOOSE YOU!”
“NYAAA… NA?”
I threw the cat, who suddenly made a confused face at the strange joke. Ignoring his confusion, he nimbly landed on the blimp’s balloon and made his way down through the ropes just as the barrier closed and the fireball was launched upwards.
However, it seemed that the captain expected that, because the ship swerved into a weird direction, moving away from the opponent ship just as the fireball glanced his own barrier.
But this also left me in an awkward position, because he swerved the ship to the same direction that I was, so this put me even farther away from the ship as before. Grimacing at this, I waited to the rope to stop swinging wildly before once again prepare to jump to the opponent ship.
“Hey, stone-man.” I heard a childish voice sound in my head, and turned to the silver wyvern flying besides me. “You need to get in the big flying wood-house?” She asked while looking at the blimp beneath us.
“Huh… Yes?” I said confused. “Why? You aren’t going to offer to fly me there, are you?” I asked suspicious, but the little wyvern shook her head.
“No, but I can help you swing!” She said cheerfully.
I blinked surprised, but before I had the chance to understand, she held me by the armor using her claws and pulled me back. When she started to get troubled with pulling me, she changed to start pushing me with her head.
I blinked surprised at her sudden help, but being honest, this was a lot faster than gathering speed by myself, and soon I was already going fast enough to what I thought I would need to jump on the ship.
But I still had to wait for the barrier to come down, and giving a peek at Yuu’s status on the party window, I could see that she had lost one third of her health.
But I also saw as more than a couple of pirates fell from the side of the ship, only to be stopped by the thin blue barrier. I couldn’t help but notice the surprising difference between their barriers and Skarr’s barrier.
“Oi, what the hell is happening here?” A voice suddenly called from the side. Blinking in shock, I turned just in time to see as a demon mounted on a what looked like a quadrupedal bird of prey.
From his gear, I could somehow tell that he was a pirate. That and the fact that he looked confused, when I knew that everyone on the deck saw the scene playing.
“Well, better be safe than sure…” He said while taking an arrow from the quiver besides him and aiming at me.
Crap. CRAPPITY, CRAPPITY CRAP!
The moment that my body reached the apex of the arc, he would let go of the bowstring and I would fall to my death. Grimacing at this, I knew that Rio wouldn’t have time to attack, and with one hand holding the rope, my aim would be impaired by the swinging, so I couldn’t even count on my knife throwing skill.
Preparing myself for a last second dodge, I focused on his movement just before shooting the bow so that I could know when to twist my body away.
But then, two things happened. One, was that I felt a tug at the rope, feeling as it made an odd motion. Looking up, I saw that the ice that Aura used to stick the rope to the railing had a crack in it, and the rope started to slide off from the ice.
Also, I saw as an angry fox looked down from the railing, aiming at the guy in the gryphon with a furious look in her eyes. Before the man could even understand what was happening, a ball of mist hit the wings of the bird, freezing it solid.
What happened afterwards, was something straight out of cartoons, where he put on a face of sheer despair and looked downwards before finally starting to fall. I would have laughed my ass off at the moment, but I didn’t exactly have the chance to do that…
Why? Well… There was this really ominous cracking sound coming from the ice, and before I could even react, just like the pirate that fell down, I made an idiotic face as I was flung towards the ship which still had its shield up.
“FUUUUUUUUU…” I shouted in despair while letting go of the rope and falling towards the ship. I felt as I hit something akin to an invisible wall and started to slide downwards.
I quickly noticed that I was sliding down through the shield above the balloon, so I tried to scramble my ways upwards, but with the lack of a solid place to hold, I started to slide downwards at an increasingly faster speed. I even tried to stab one of my throwing knifes on the shield, but even that didn’t exactly help me, as the blade simply bounced off the shield.
Crap, how the hell do I escape that one?
As I stormed my brain on a way to stick to the shield without falling down, I quickly reached the edge of the balloon, and since the barrier enveloped the ship as a whole, I couldn’t simply slide my way towards the deck.
However, at the last second I felt as someone grabbed me by the neck and started to push me forward, stopping my fall barely.
“Hold on… Stone mister!” Rio said while doing her best to push me forward so that I wouldn’t fall.
“Thanks Rio!” I said with a relieved sigh.
“What will we do now, mister?” She asked me in worry. “I can’t… Hold on much… Longer!”
“What? Well…” I sincerely didn’t have much idea. The barried didn’t seem to have any friction, so the moment that she let go, I will fall down unavoidably.
I looked around in search for a response, I didn’t think that my sword could pierce an anti-siege shield like that one, and although I did have an idea of what could work, it wasn’t exactly something I could use while trying to hold myself for dear life.
Then, the barrier disappeared and I fell.
I became confused for quite some time while I tried to understand the soft feeling beneath my face, but the meaning quickly became clear once I saw a strong light fly above me. It seemed like they shot another one of their siege-fireballs, so they brought down their shield to fire for a moment.
Quickly recovering myself, I moved around and found a rope that tied the ship to the balloon, so I slid downwards through it and stepped on the railings of the deck.
What I saw was a fairly scary scene, where a single kitsune with her two tails moving around ominously with the fur puffed out and a long ice spear with a fiery tip burning in her hands. Around her, four armored pirates were laying on the ground, either dead or unconscious, and more than twenty other pirates wielding their weapons while standing around her. Even more stood around while working on the ship, either by the helm manning the ship, or by the board, casting magic.
From the looks of it, not all of them were battle-ready. I guess this was lucky.
“Yuu! Look out!” I shouted when a guy ran forward while raising his sword.
Yuu blinked in shock for a moment before turning to me just as I changed my weapon to the sword and unsheathed it in one fell swoop, slicing him from head to toe in a single motion, but since this was still within a game, he didn’t exactly split in half.
For a moment, the guy stared at me in anger, and drew his weapon again. I took my usual stance with the sword, with it leaning to my right side and lightly leaning my body forward.
Then, his eyes went white and he fell forward, first falling to his knees then falling flat on the ground. ON his back was Lieutenant with both daggers stabbed on his back. The cat took back the daggers and spun it cheerfully a couple of times before making a pose.
Nice! I said mentally while giving him a thumbs up.
However, I felt a chill run down my spines suddenly.
Turning around quickly in panic, I somehow knew that there was something dangerous coming my way, so I looked around in search for an opponent that could attack me while I was distracted, but nothing of that came to mind.
Instead, what I saw was a wide-smiling Yuu who was looking at me.
“SHISHOU CAME TO ME!” She suddenly shouted cheerfully, shocking me and everyone else in the deck for a moment.
“Wha…” I said shocked before shaking my head and quickly pulling out a potion and passing to her. “Here, take this potion, quickly.” I said with an angry frown. Yuu took the potion from my hand just as I said.
“Did you make this potion, Shishou?” She asked me curious while holding the potion in her hand with wide eyes.
“Yes, but what does it matter?” I asked slightly angry while turning my back to her and watching the pirates look at us in suspicion.
“…YAAAY! Shishou made a potion for me!”
“WHAA?” I shouted confused when she suddenly tackle-hugged me, hugging me cheerfully and almost making me fall face-first into the ground. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING, YUU?”
“SHISHOU GAVE ME A PRESENT! THIS MEANS THAT SHISHOU LIKES ME!” She shouted cheerfully.
“YOU ARE STILL DRUNK?” I shouted angrily, only to see a couple of empty bottles on the ground around her.
“MUUU! I was angry with them for taking my time with shishou!” She said while pressing her cheek against my back. I swear that if it weren’t for the fact that there are some guys who literally want to kill us, I would enjoy the feeling on my back. “So I took some of their wine for myself. I heard that wine makes you less angry!”
Okay, drunk Yuu is a drunkard.
As I had that amusing thought, I saw one of the pirates in front of my pop a vein in his forehead before he charged forward.
“Stop flirting you bastard!” He shouted angrily while swinging his sword downwards. I quickly raised the massive long-sword and tried to parry the strike, but sadly enough, the sword wasn’t exactly made for parrying due to the size, so I didn’t manage to parry it well enough.
-22 (922/950)
“Ugh…” I grunted in pain for a moment due to the damage. Luckily, since I was in a party with Yuu I didn’t suffer from the penalties due to hard-mode.
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I felt as Yuu flinched slightly behind me, but I didn’t exactly have the chance to wonder about what it was, because the man in front of me readied his sword again and prepared a raising slash. I grimaced because I knew that I had no idea on how to avoid it, so the sword landed on my flank and made a cut all the way from one side to the other.
“TAKE THAT YOU DASTARDLY LANDLUBBER!” He said in a proud tone.
-63 (889/950) (Poisoned)
-7 (882/950)
I grimaced in pain while trying to contort my body to escape the attack, but since I had Yuu holding me down with her hug, I didn’t manage to escape the attack, and not only I took heavy damage, I also was poisoned.
Taking a step back in pain, I looked up to the guy and raised my sword, preparing the strike that I had so painstakingly trained while training with the sword. I put my left foot in front while holding the sword straight up and leaning it against my right shoulder.
“You… Hurt Shishou…”
…
I… Heard something really scary just now…
“Unforgiveable…” I heard lady death whisper right besides my ear.
No, I mean, I heard the girl possessed by the spirit of death and destruction…
WRONG, I heard Yuu whisper besides my ear.
It wasn’t only me and the pirate in front who froze, but everyone in the deck, from the pirates around us to the magician who almost messed up their magic and hurriedly went back to casting., everyone felt scared from the way that Yuu sounded.
Not even a second later, around the guy right in front of me, mist and sparks started to gather around him, surrounding him completely. The man blinked surprised and jumped backwards, but the mists and sparks simply followed him.
Also, if I’m not mistaken, that skill is…
“Fox-style Double-element arts execution skill: Torment of two thousand hells.”
I heard the whisper of death coming from besides me, and just as Yuu’s voice died out, the mist instantly condensed into spikes and the sparks all became small fire-spears, all of them having their edge turned towards the man in the middle.
However, what we saw wasn’t only ten or so of those spikes, but hundreds of them, all shining ominously.
Then, all of them sped inwards towards the man in the middle, piercing his body from all directions with no exception. Fire and ice spears striking his body from every possible direction. Raising a cry of pain, the man fell to his knees as he became a pincushion, I could only wonder what kind of pain he was going through.
“Now, die.”
Then, the fire needles exploded.
And the ice needles bloomed into ice urchins.
-1169 -499
-1668 (0/1230)
What the…
She… Killed the guy… In one attack?
What the…
For a good time, I simply stared at the guy falling down in confusion before finally snapping out of it, and looking at Yuu… Only to feel a shiver run down my spine, as she was looking coldly at the guy on the ground. But after some time, she blinked and turned to me with a surprised face.
“Hmm… Shishou…” She said in a surprisingly shy and meek tone.
“…Huh?” I asked confused.
“I… Spent all my mana…” Huh? “Sorry…”
I stared at her in confusion for a moment, trying to understand why she suddenly said that. Why did she suddenly go so meek like that? I couldn’t quite understand her reaction.
“I… became angry and disobeyed Shishou…” She said in a voice almost inaudible.
What? Why that so suddenly?
I stared at Yuu in confusion for some time, trying to understand where her sudden meekness came from, I almost missed when the pirates recovered from the shock and turned to us. Grimacing I quickly opened my inventory and hoped for the best.
One potion. One single mana potion I had from back when I was starting to mingle with alchemy.
Wondering what kind of Deus-ex machina left such a potion in my bag, I quickly took it out and passed it to Yuu, telling her to drink it and fill her mana quickly before the guards attacked.
Okay, it wasn’t a Deus ex machina, it’s just that I carry some around in case Yuu or someone else needs it. Of course, she also have some herself, but I don’t think she have the mind to take one right now, based on how drunk she is…
“Shi… Shishou gave me another present?” She said in a low tone. “Then… You aren’t angry with me?”
“Haaah? You aren’t making much sense…” I complained to the kitsune while I saw she drink the mana potion and put on a cheerful smile.
“Shishou isn’t mad that I used all my mana! I’m sooo glad!” She said before throwing the bottle away and once again throwing her arms around my neck, hugging me from the sides.
Why the hell would I be mad with her spending mana… Oh… The training we did back then! As I remind myself of what I said to her in the first days we had met, I couldn’t help but become amazed that she actually remembered something like that.
NOT THE TIME!
I quickly recovered myself just in time to pull me and Yuu out of the way from an attack from a vengeful pirate. Passing my left arm around her waist, I didn’t exactly have time to react before seeing a large war axe split the ground right in front of us.
Yuu blushed slightly before hugging me tighter, but as much as I wanted to comment on the situation, it wasn’t the time to do that.
Dodging a couple of other attacks aimed at us, and with only one hand to wield the sword since Yuu kept clinging to me with a cheerful face, completely oblivious to her situation, I couldn’t exactly counter effectively.
“Rio! Can you spew fireballs?” I shouted worried.
“No mister!” She replied hurriedly. “But I can do this!” She flew to one of the men attacking us and prepared her claws up, which shone brightly as she prepared a skill.
The moment that the man’s axe swung widely and I barely managed to dodge, Rio used her claw attack on the man’s head, making a large slice that cut from the back of his head to the middle of his back.
Stumbling forward due to the sudden attack, the pirate almost lost his balance, so I didn’t miss this chance.
“Yuu, I’ll leave my back to you.” I said shortly.
“Yes! Shishou is counting on me!” She said cheerfully while letting go of me and summoning her ice spear. “I will obey Shishou…”
Hearing her say that, I smiled a bit wryly, but still did what I had to do. Aiming at the guy who was leaning forward, I used one of the skills I had learned for the long sword.
Claw strike. A wide sweep with the blade in a left to the right motion. Raising the sword in a semi-circular motion to my left, as soon as it was around my chest height, I activated the skill. Losing control of my body, I took a step forward with my left leg, leaving me turned slightly to the right, then with a motion that used my whole body I made a wide horizontal cut with the blade that left a trail in the air, the typical sign of a skill.
The ridiculously long blade and the wide motion also made it so that the attack landed not only on the guy in front of me, but all his allies nearby, dealing 55 damage to all of them and expending half of my energy pool.
The end of the motion, however, left me in a slightly awkward position, as the blade kept moving due to inertia and left my left hand, standing all the way to my right side, while the enemy was to my right.
But I didn’t train for nothing. And my long-sword Hunter-style had another perk to it, despite the large energy cost.
Smiling widely as I saw my target being knocked back by the skill, I spun my body in the direction of the blade, revealing my back to the enemy but grabbing the handle with both hands.
Then, I used two skills.
The first, was my set skill. The black crystal sword, whose wavy edges were becoming strangely jaggedy and the dull black coloration becoming almost crystalline, burst into flames, shocking all of the people here present, except those who had seen it before.
The second, was my only second form skill. Talon strike, Second form.
My body darted towards my target while leading with my right shoulder in front and carrying the long sword behind me. The movement so fast that not even the bandits managed to get a glimpse before it was too late.
Once I was just at a short distance from him, I grinned and swung the blade upwards in a slanted manner, from lower left to upper right. The impact of the heavy sword lifted the man slightly from the ground, stunning him for a moment and dealing raw fire damage thanks to the skill.
But I still hadn’t finished.
My long-sword style had a strange perk to it. First, it was separated in three main parts, or strikes. Fang strike for single target attacks, Claw strike for wide area attacks, and Talon strikes for charge-in attacks, and each of these, had forms, or levels that I could use.
Whenever I used a first-form from any of my three strikes, I could also lead in with a second form from any strike for half the energy cost of using the skill by itself. This meant that combining skills is highly effective, even if I have a hard time doing it right now, since the Talon-strike’s second form required a very precise positioning and stance to work.
But what’s truly important, isn’t the attacks, but the fact that I still had some energy left.
“SOLDIER! CHARGE! WEAPON RESTRICTION USAGE REVOKED!”
Lieutenant answered to my call as I cast tactical charge on him, the cat quickly jumping on the man’s chest just as he landed on his back against the guard-rail, then used both of his knives in an upward slash before kicking away from the man’s chest in a backflip.
While thinking how cool he looked right then, I didn’t miss as the cat threw one single throwing knife on the pirate, stabbing him right in the chest.
We smirked to each other briefly before I felt another man approaching from behind. Dodging out of the way, I was caught by a dagger on my flank, but managed to grab the man’s hand and pull him towards the guardrail too, putting his hand against the other man’s arm in the process.
-24 (538/950)
Seeing my health, I grimaced slightly. The poison was doing quite some damage.
Feeling as the pirate recovered from the confusion, he tried to get his hand away from mine, but Lieutenant quickly helped me by throwing a freezing knife on his hand just as I let go.
Freezing the two pirates arms together, they looked confused at the scene for a moment before turning to us with anger.
Then, the wind knife on the first’s one chest exploded and a huge knockback threw him over the railing, almost dragging his partner with him. I took the chance to fall back to Yuu and chug down a potion while seeing Rio attack the guy holding against the railing until he fell down.
Two of them are gone. Thirty to go…
Wonderful.
Looking back, I saw as Yuu easily fended off a couple of attacks on her own and smiled awkwardly.
Why the hell is she so much better than me when I’m the one who’s supposed to be the teacher?
We seriously have to rethink our relationship…
Well, she actually is much better than me when it comes to a fight...
As these sullen thoughts crossed my mind, I heard the sound of wings flapping and the pirates all stopped while putting on a victorious grin.
Blinking, I followed their gazes around until I saw it. From all the sides, surrounding the blimp, were gryphon riders. All of them had their bows nocked or magic ready to cast. But more importantly.
All of them were aiming straight at us.
“Yuu…”
“I’m guarding your back, Shishou!” She replied cheerfully.
“I know…” I said heavily. “But remind me of one thing?”
“Hmm. What is it?”
“When we get out of here. I have to scold you really good.” I said in monotone.
“HEEEEEH?” She shouted surprised.