”Oye, soldier! What the hell are you doin’?! You think one arm and some legs is enough to take down the bleedin’ Oni King?!”
Being in your own Mindspace was like being in a trance. Unlike the events where you were transported there – like that time with Hana or the time Yugo brought the others into mine to speak with Fallen Star –, entering your own involved intense meditation followed by a deep “sleep”. I'd expected that Somnia or Archie would've been there to greet me when I exited mine, so when instead I was being berated by an irate evolved General Denk – who was trailed by an uncountable group of his evolved men –, part of me imagined I actually was dreaming. So, I did with any other normal person would do in this situation: I gathered aura and prepared to fight.
“Cool your bloody jets! We're allies!” General Denk shouted. “God Queen Somnia told us to get you and bring you to the Village entrance! She and the blonde boy with the snake are waiting for you there now. Not sure how they’ll feel about your new uh…” He motioned my left stump with a finger. “Body modification. If only you were a Wild Man… You'd be able to get stronger without mutilating yourself.”
“You think because you’ve evolved you’re in a position to look down on me?”
“I can look down on you because we’re all God Queen Somnia’s subordinates. And frankly, I think she likes us more than you.” General Denk sneered. “Now get to the entrance. You don’t want to keep her waiting, do you?”
I took a deep breath and appreciated the opportunity in front of me. A distant part of me was wary of the approaching fight with Shuten Douji – and potentially Zelos – mainly because I’d be transitioning to a new fighting style I hadn’t yet trained. Lucky for me, I had the perfect practice dummy. I brought my arm back and gathered aura in my hand. The moment I attempted to release it, though, Archie came bursting into the room.
“I was wondering what took so–” He trailed off, noticing the scene. I must’ve looked insane sitting up on the bed with a chest full of air with a newly missing arm. To his credit, he didn’t joke about it. He did pay extra attention to my arm, though.
“What’d you gain?” Archie asked, thankfully understanding what’d happened without me needing to explain it.
“Elemental Wraith Strikes.”
“Elemental–” Archie scrunched his face in disbelief. “Wish I had a Fallen Star.”
I allowed a chuckle. “No, you don’t. I only have one arm left to [SACRIFICE] until I have to move to the legs.”
“What’s taking so long?” A new voice called.
“God Queen–” the Wild Men chanted, parting before the door to form a walkway.
“Please,” Somnia interrupted with a dismissive hand. “You don’t need to yell that every time you see me.”
“Forgive us,” General Denk bowed alongside his men. “I will learn from this mistake and improve accordingly.”
Somnia didn’t answer, instead choosing to look between Archie and me, focusing on my arm for a while, then asking the same question Archie did. When I informed her of my new Skill, she nodded her approval.
“I may be able to help you train when this is over. My father’s specialty was his unconventional use of aura. It made him difficult to predict in battle.” She offered a shaky smile. “But I hope this isn’t wearing you down or anything. They say limitation breeds innovation! And frankly, I’ve heard people say that one-armed fighters are the coolest.”
“I don’t need emotional support,” I smiled back at her, finally standing from the bed. “But I do appreciate it. I’ll learn to live with this in time. For now, we need to take care of Shuten Douji.”
***
The battlefield looked just as Somnia had expected it to. Ibaraki was a bloody, panting mess. His white and gold kimono was ripped and torn like cheap rags as he supported himself with a sword. Across from him, Shuten Douji looked like he’d been on a moderately difficult jog, holding his spiked club over his back instead of the longsword he’d used against us. There were a host of incapacitated Oni behind Ibaraki, though thankfully none of them were dead.
“I was wondering when you would return,” Shuten Douji shouted, keeping his eyes on his brother. “It seems my fledgling brother has reached his limit. Now show me, children, what you are–”
“Break!” Somnia shouted, interrupting Shuten Douji’s barb to set the battle plan in motion.
Now that Rui was using a fighting style similar to her father, Archie was brimming with aura, and Somnia herself had the entirety of the Wild Man population fighting alongside her, they couldn’t afford to fight all at the same time. The quick plan they’d cobbled together on the way back to the battlefield was to break Shuten Douji down in stages, starting with Somnia and the Wild Men preventing him from focusing on keeping the Spacial Rends active around him. Then, Archie and Rui would take turns beating the Oni King down within the brief window the distraction allowed them. And if that didn’t take him down, well… they’d just have to repeat the process until it did.
At Somnia’s call, a group of Wild Men carried Ibaraki and his men back to Oni Village while Rui and Archie disappeared into the forest in an instant, leaving Somnia and her Wild Men alone with Shuten Douji.
“I have no time to waste, demoness,” Shuten Douji began, widening his stance as he gathered aura. “I have seen your power, and know that it is foolish to hold back for even a second. You will endure this attack, or you will die.”
He’s casting Lighting already?!
“Fire on my mark!” Somnia shouted to her Wild Men.
“Understood, God Queen Somnia!” They shouted in unison.
Somnia held back a cringe as she prepared her skill-nullifying Beelzebub Blaze for Shuten Douji. That whole “God Queen Somnia” thing had long since lost its luster for Somnia herself. It was so… egomaniacal. She would’ve accepted “leader”, or even “General” if they’d said that instead. Her mother would’ve been proud of the title though, as would her father and her siblings, so she decided that she would be proud of it, too. And even if she hadn’t chosen to learn to like it, the Hovering Hand loved it either way. There was much she wasn’t sure of regarding the Hovering Hand. The same could be said of her position in Minashire, and whether she was ultimately pursuing her goal of supporting Minashire the right way, but in this moment, as she charged Shuten Douji with all the aura in her body, she knew she was where she was supposed to be. She’d asked Yugo whether she could truly make a difference, and Yugo assured her that she would. It was because of her that the Wild Men still existed and were stronger than ever, fighting for the chance to become a stronger society than they’d ever been. This was a minor victory, but just like Archie said, those victories piled up.
First the Wild Men, next, the Galeroses.
She smiled at the thought of her family taking over Minashire. They were capable of so much. They could be so much better. But she needed power first, and she needed to prove to them that they had nothing to be afraid of. As the Hovering Hand gripped her heart, she slammed a fully charged Cambion Flurry into Shuten Douji’s stomach, the rapid, Fire-Attuned punches stopping him from finishing his Lightning technique and sending him flying backward. As he flew back, Somnia leaped into the air and finally shouted the signal.
“Fire!”
***
Archie stood beside Rui on a tree branch watching as Shuten Douji was pelted with an unreal amount of Fire-Attuned Aura blasts like mini fireballs that each detonated upon impact. There were so many, fired from so many directions that a thick cloud of smoke began to form around the Oni’s body. The barrage continued for a full minute, and though Archie would’ve liked to join in and attack the completely distracted Shuten Douji, Rui reminded him that the Wild Men likely wouldn’t stop firing until Somnia told them to – even if he got in the way.
When it ended, Shuten Douji stood alone in a newly created clearing in the forest. He stood at the center of a wide patch of dry grass, burning trees, and smoke, all of which gave Shuten Douji a notably intimidating aura. The Oni was panting now, covering his body with his spiked club as he stared ahead at Somnia and the Wild Men.
“Is that what you believe it takes to defeat me, demoness?” Shuten Douji sneered. A single punch and a flock of pathetic myths? I had hoped you would have faced me with your own strength. How pathetic.”
“They are my strength!” Somnia called, sinking into a battle position and smiling. “And I have far more of it than you.”
“That’s your cue,” Rui called.
He was crouching now, though the look on his face said he was itching to get into battle. It was rough, too… like an addict itching for their next bottle. Archie’d never seen Rui like this before, though he could certainly sympathize. That walk home after buying a new game was always intense. If getting a new skill was anything like that, he owed it to his friend to make this quick.
“I’ll be done in sixty seconds, tops. Count em’.” Archie looked down at the trunk of the tree they were in. She’d been coiled around it, baring her fangs at Shuten Douji in preparation for this very moment.
“You can’t fight faster than that? You only have to hit him with one attack,” Rui complained.
“We need to use six in total,” Archie snorted. “They should’ve taught you patience in that damn cult.”
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Screw off.”
Archie smiled. He was teaching Rui well. At the same time, he snapped his fingers and cast the [WATER DANCE] buff on himself, boosting his health and strength.
That’s the first technique. Now, the second.
Lochness shot a [HIGH-PRESSURE BLAST] straight at Shuten Douji. Since they shared aura reserves, she made sure to use as little aura as possible for the attack. Because of this, the attack didn’t hurt Shuten Douji – only connecting for 1% damage –, but it did distract him. He’d been focused on Somnia, only to be blasted by Lochness from high above him!
Now for the third. And fourth… and fifth.
He jumped as high as his buffed body would allow and cast [GYROSTOMP] the moment he reached the pinnacle of his jump which took him above the tree line, giving him a pretty decent view of his home region of Burnchester. He also saw the ongoing battle between Yugo and Zelos. He couldn’t see them fighting, but he did see a mass of explosions and yellow light.
Now for the fun part…
This was the trickiest part of his plan. First, he needed to take a page out of Rui’s book and cast [WRAITH STRIKE] from his feet to strengthen the impact of his attack. Next, he needed to cast the [INTIMIDATE] debuff on Shuten Douji, except for it to work he needed to be two meters away from his target for it to work. And because he used [GYROSTOMP], that distance would be approaching much faster than he otherwise would’ve liked. There were no second chances here, only perfection or failure.
Archie decided to use the trees as his markers. The moment he re-entered the forest, he cast the [WRAITH STRIKES] from his feet. Once he was at the halfway mark of the nearest tree, he cast [INTIMIDATE] on Shuten Douji. He’d blessedly been focused on the now destroyed tree where he’d been waiting with Lochness and Rui, blasting it with Spacial Rends and fully unaware of the Burnish meteor crashing down into him.
Boom!
CRITICAL HIT FOR 17% DAMAGE!
LEVEL UP! YOU ARE NOW LEVEL 122!
YOU HAVE <43> PENDING NOTIFICATIONS.
Just 17%?! God, he’s strong!
Being surrounded by so many strong people was both a blessing and a curse. A distant, envious part of him felt that if Somnia or Rui had done what he did, they would’ve flattened Shuten Douji into paste! Even though Archie was inclined to agree with that part, he also had to acknowledge that being around them forced him to raise his standards. So what if he was the weakest among a prodigy, a freak of nature, and a bloody Level 1000? He stood alongside them, and they relied on him! He was too old to keep bitching about not being the strongest among some freaks. He was one of them.
“You’re the boy with the subpar Water Manipulation, correct?” Shuten Douji sneered.
“Yup. I think I got a little better, though.”
“Did you?”
“Sure did. Check it out.”
Without warning, Archie charged two fully-powered [HIGH-PRESSURE BLASTS] and shot them both straight into a debuffed Shuten Douji at point-blank range. The blast, combined with the [WATER DANCE] buff Archie had given himself, was strong enough to rip through the ground, forming cracks in the forest floor that each spewed Water-Attuned Aura from the blast.
CRITICAL HIT FOR 14% DAMAGE!
***
I’d been patient. Very patient. Archie’s whole attack took no longer than 30 seconds. Thirty point four, exactly. He’d Gyrostomped him then blasted Shuten Douji with those water-canon attacks of his shifting into a typical hand-to-hand battle with the Oni. I stood in wait beside the now shredded tree I’d been standing in as I watched Archie and Lochness fight. I still had 29.6 seconds to wait until it was my turn to tag in. That wasn’t a long time. Not a long time at all.
“SOMNIA GALEROSE SHOULD NOT HAVE PUT THESE IDEAS INTO OUR HEAD. WHEN THIS BATTLE IS OVER, YOU WILL DEMAND SHE TRAIN YOU TO BETTER UTILIZE THIS BODY.”
I know that! You don’t need to keep reminding me!
On the way here, Somnia described the way her father fought. She said that he’d described himself as a “dragon”, using his hands, mouth, and feet to use any and every attack he could form. Despite how simple it sounded, most people used their hands. Considering I only had one – with three fingers – I had no choice but to adopt the style myself. Again, I had no training with this “dragon” fighting style, but the prospect of spewing fire from my mouth, poison waves from my feet, and a fire blast from my hand made me itch the same way that learning that I could manipulate poison made me itch. That is to say, I wanted to do it now. Apparently, so did Fallen Star.
“RELINQUISH CONTROL OF YOUR BODY UNTO ME. I HAVE FAR MORE BATTLE EXPERIENCE THAN YOU DO AND CAN EXECUTE THIS FOE WITH MORE EFFICIENT USE OF OUR AURA.”
Hell no, are you kidding me?! Besides, we aren’t trying to kill him. We’re just taking him down. Don’t forget we have to move on to Zelos after this.
“DO YOU NOT HAVE FAITH THAT YOUR MASTER CAN DEFEAT HIM?”
I have no faith in the idea that Zelos would allow himself to die here. And in the event he doesn’t, I want to be there.
“VERY WELL. HOWEVER, IF YOU RUN OUT OF AURA BEFORE THAT SECOND BATTLE BEGINS, I WILL TAKE CONTROL – AND I WILL NOT ASK FOR YOUR PERMISSION.”
Even though I was slowly learning to get used to working alongside Fallen Star, that didn’t mean I was suddenly okay with his presence in my body. He was a tool to be used. A resource. I’d be foolish not to use it, but doing so clearly had the unwanted side-effect of Fallen Star getting bolder in the way he spoke. If things went well, though, I wouldn’t be dealing with it for more than a year. Rather than argue with him, I chose to ignore him.
“Ah!” Archie loudly exclaimed. He stood a few meters away from a noticeably exhausted Shuten Douji. “You don’t have a System, do you?”
“Those contraptions are a tool for the weak. Sensory Manipulation is far more useful. It allows you to sense exactly how strong your opponent is in comparison to yourself, and allows you to properly see every technique being used in a battlefield.”
“You sound just like Somnia,” Archie groaned. “Well, I only bring that up because if you had a System, you’d know that you lost 60% of your health since this whole battle began. You don’t have that much left to lose, Shuten Douji.”
Sixty percent… Sixty! Sixty seconds! That’s my cue! I can’t believe I let myself get distracted!
I kicked off without waiting, charging a [WRAITH STRIKE] in my right… only hand and coating it with Poison-Attuned Aura. Just before the attack landed I cast [REINFORCE], which strengthened the power of that attack so it hit with the strength of someone over Level 200. Just like Somnia’s had, it sent him flying.
With far more excitement than I imagined I’d have, I took a deep breath, filling my lungs with as much air as I could carry. Moments later, I breathed fire at the Oni. Fire-Attuned Aura, but it visibly looked no different than real flames.
Unlike Archie, I had no way of knowing how much damage my attacks did to him. If the blood he coughed up as the punch landed was any indication, though, it must’ve been a lot. Wasting no time, I ran, rather, hovered after him as the flames dissipated, propelling myself forward with Fire-Attuned Aura. At the same time, Shuten Douji raised his spiked club and prepared to swing it at me. I took advantage of that, connecting with the club with a kick and [WRAITH STRIKE]-powered kick and shooting him in the face with a wave of Poison Aura. Unfortunately, Shuten Douji was expecting that.
He grabbed my ankle and pinned me to the ground as he instantly swapped from his spiked club to his longsword. “And here I thought you weren’t Futakuchi-Onna’s disciple. You use that pathetic aura just as much as she does.”
“Don’t worry,” I smiled. “I can switch it up.”
Mentioning Futakuchi-Onna reminded me of my and Hana’s battle with her. Part of the reason we were able to win was because of how well we used elemental weaknesses to our advantage. While I had no clue what Shuten Douji’s elemental weaknesses were – or if he had any at all –, I did know that elements had unique interactions with each other.
Knowing that, I breathed a cloud of Water-Attuned Aura in Shuten Douij’s face, the technique appearing like a cloud of mist around the Oni’s head. Just as Shuten Douji pulled his sword back to skewer me, I snapped my fingers into the cloud of Water-Attuned Aura. My Electricity-Attuned fingers.
“Argh!” Shuten Douji cried out, releasing me from his grip as he held his electrocuted head in pain.
I prepared to blast more Poison-Attuned Aura from my feet, but before I could Archie flew through the air and slammed a Wraith Strike into Shuten Douji’s stomach. The momentum, paired with a buff he likely placed on himself, meant that the Oni was launched backward a few meters before he had enough time to properly guard.
“What are you doing?! It’s my turn!”
“Your turn?” Archie asked. “Shuten Douji isn’t your property, is he? I thought we were trying to win?”
“ATTACK ARCHIE NEXT. DO NOT KILL HIM, BUT ENSURE THAT HE FEELS ENOUGH PAIN TO TEACH HIM A LESSON. DO IT NOW!”
As if that wasn’t enough, Somnia once again signaled for the Wild Men to pelt Shuten Douji with another flurry of fireballs. As they did, she ran up to Archie and me with a visibly worried look on her face.
“What’s wrong?” I asked as she finally reached us.
“It’s… Yugo,” Somnia said, staring ahead at Shuten Douji. “The Historian flew over to me a moment ago.”
“He isn’t dead, is he?”
“Of course not. The Historian says Yugo got stronger, believe it or not. It’s just… for that to occur, he needed to be beaten down by Zelos. He came back, though, and he brought Zelos close to death. But he’s out of commission for the time being.”
I wasn’t sure how to feel about that. The idea of Zelos dying pleased me more than words could possibly indicate, but the idea of him being killed by anyone but me was… maddening. Was it wrong to say I was relieved to know Yugo hadn’t killed him? Just in case it was, I decided to keep that all to myself.
“Why the worry then?” Archie asked. “That’s a good thing.”
“It means there’s no one to stop Zelos,” I answered. “Even near death, he’s stronger than all of us and fully capable of controlling every Myth and Curse in the vicinity.”
Somnia nodded. “Shuten Douji won’t be getting up after that attack. But Ibaraki? And the other Oni?”
“And the evolved Wild Men…” Archie droned. He gave Somnia a dirty look. “This is your fault.”
“They would’ve been around regardless! I think I can take care of them, but Ibaraki and the Oni are a different story.”
It wasn’t difficult to come up with a solution to this problem. The way I saw it, there was only one solution that actually mattered: kill Zelos. If he was dead, we wouldn’t need to worry about the Wild Men or the Oni coming to kill us or potentially killing an incapacitated Yugo. Unlike Yugo, I had no way of sniffing Zelos out, but if I’d stepped out to face him, part of me knew that he’d face me. Zelos was never the type to run from a confrontation.
As the dust cleared on the Wild Men’s attack, none of us were surprised to find Shuten Douji lying on his back with a hand clutching his sword and his eyes distant. He was out cold. In the distance, just as we’d expected, the Wild Men stood unnaturally still, staring at the three of us with glowing green eyes. The air changed around Somnia as she looked back at them, the only indication that she was now in that Hovering Hand state. Archie, meanwhile, called Lochness to his side as he stared back at them with clenched fists.
“You need me to send Lochness with you?” Archie called.
I shook my head. “No. I want to do this alone.”