Intimidate, flare aura, threaten.
That was the strategy The Historian and Somnia devised to take down the Wild Men. The moment Archie and I arrived at our designated station, a forest clearing about ten minutes from our lodging in Oni Village, we’d quickly been approached by a group of Wild Men led by a “Wild Man Mystic”. The only thing that set him apart from the others was his taller stature and Level.
NAME: WILD MAN MYSTIC
APPROXIMATE LEVEL: 84
CLASSIFICATION: HYBRID
The Wild Men surrounding this Wild Man Mystic all hovered around the 60s, and while Archie seemed to be doing well with Somnia’s strategy – using it on the weaker Wild Men to great effect, the Wild Man Mystic wasn’t nearly so compliant. In the end, I’d been forced to kill it. The moment it died, a slew of Wild Men appeared from out of nowhere to join the fight.
Which brings us to the present moment.
Despite the lack of strength these creatures had, their number indeed made them more of a threat than I would’ve liked. Therefore, I took a step back from [ELEMENTAL MANIPULATION] and instead focused on using the [WRAITH STRIKE] in more practical ways. The Wild Men were fleshy, so one slightly [REINFORCED WRAITH STRIKE] was enough to punch a hole through the creatures. I decided to add kicks to my routine as well. It’d worked well against Archie that one time, and it worked even better against the Wild Men. Kicking one with a buffed [WRAITH STRIKE] was enough to send their heads flying off.
While I was proud to have fallen into a routine, Archie and Lochness moved one step beyond mere “routine”. They fought as if they shared a mind; Lochness wrapping around Archie’s body and biting the heads off of Wild Men in his blind spots, Lochness corralling a group of the creatures together for Archie to kill with that “Gyrostomp” ability, both of them using their water-blast ability to mow through Wild Men faster than I ever could. They moved on one accord, something I wasn’t sure to be impressed by or envious of.
Fallen Star and I currently existed in this odd, nebulous space that I wasn’t sure quite how to describe. We worked together and pursued the same goal, but I would never trust him enough to give my body over to him willingly. Nor did I trust him enough to take on all of the power it could give me just yet, though my paranoia regarding Ares and Zelos did admittedly play a part in that decision. Still, if we moved like Archie and Lochness, how strong would we be?
We’d approached our first lull in combat after killing a combined 93 Wild Men. I wasn’t sure if Archie was keeping track, but I certainly was. I’d managed to hit Level 90 now, and I read my Level Scroll aloud at Archie’s insistence.
LEVEL INCREASED
89 > 90
UTILIZATION PERCENTAGE: APPROXIMATELY (18% of 500)
HP: 87
STR: 85
STM: 90
A-STR: 93
A-STM: 95
More Wild Men started appearing from behind trees or jumping from the branches above, but they weren’t numerous enough to spend too much effort on. Some basic [WRAITH STRIKES] would be enough to get rid of them. Instead, I decided to ask Archie about Lochness.
“Hey,” I called out as I smashed a Wild Man’s head into a rock. “How are you so close with Lochness?”
“There’s nothing to it,” Archie called, tossing a Wild Man to Lochness who’d been coiled around a nearby tree in her serpentine form. She snapped the little Myth up like a dog treat, wrestled it around in her mouth, and then spat it out. “We love and care about each other. But we hold each other to high standards. That doesn’t mean we won’t help one another when we need the boost, though.”
I compared that to my relationship with Fallen Star, and determined that what I felt regarding Archie and Lochness indeed was envy. My relationship with Fallen Star amounted to him demanding more out of me or otherwise complaining about my lack of “ambition”, meanwhile all I was to use as much of his power as I safely could until I was able to get rid of him. If I had to give it a word, I’d say “tentative”.
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And yet, that felt like a purposeful oversimplification on my end. If I had to be brutally honest, I wasn’t sure what our relationship truly was. We hadn’t argued as we once had since that fight with the Jikininki so long ago, and our disagreements since then have been petty at best – barring that one in my Mindspace. More than that, it was me who decided that I’d need to embrace Fallen Star in order to achieve the level of power I needed to kill the Horsemen.
I wouldn’t be reaching that level in a few weeks or months despite what Yugo promised. It would be years before I was strong enough to challenge them. And what happens after I beat them? After years of using Fallen Stars power. After years of symbiosis? Even if I were capable of defeating him in the Contract Termination Ritual, would I want to? And even if I did, would I be… worse off? Hana seemed much happier after separating from Futakuchi-Onna, but she still maneuvered as though they were bonded. She did it when the Galeroses first arrived, trying and failing to shapeshift. She did it multiple times during training as well, incorrectly assuming she could tap into Futakuchi-Onna’s years of skill in an instant. Of course, her Grandmother had left behind training manuals to help her adjust in preparation for this moment, but I obviously didn’t have such a luxury.
By the time I got rid of the Horsemen, I’d be too used to Fallen Star to want to get rid of him. I wasn’t sure why it bothered me as much as it did, but Fallen Star’s lack of any input on this topic was… haunting.
I kicked the head off of a Wild Man and sent it flying into the chest of a separate Wild Man. The Myth caught it, stared down in horror, then ran away. As it did, I turned to Archie.
“Can I be honest with you?”
“I hope you haven’t been dishonest up to this point…”
I allowed myself to chuckle before I answered. “I don’t know what my relationship with Fallen Star is anymore. I want to get rid of him, but I… need him… and I don’t know how to feel about that.”
There were no more Wild Men around us anymore. Recognizing this, Lochness shifted to her bipedal form, stood between Archie and me, and blasted us both with her water attack – washing the blood and gore off of us. The moment she finished, she walked up to Archie and demanded to be petted. I wasn’t spared the demand, and I uncomfortably obliged.
Following the sudden cleaning session, Archie leaned on a tree and wrung his clothes dry. As he did, he gave me a serious look I rarely saw out of him. “You chose to join the Seekers and get rid of Fallen Star, didn’t you?”
“I did.”
“Then that’s all there is to it. You can’t undo that decision. There’s no going back from here. You chose this road, now walk it.”
“Is it really that simple?”
Archie nodded. “It is. Do what you set out to do, and you’ll have the rest of your life to think about your execution.”
I couldn’t help myself. I laughed. Despite the simplicity of his answer, it seemed to be just what I needed to hear. If I got caught in the weeds regarding Fallen Star, I’d end up getting nothing done. That was how I ended up almost dying to a damn Jikininki. Right now, I had one goal in my mind and one way to achieve it.
“UTILIZE THE POWER I PROVIDE AND BECOME A GOD OF YOUR OWN MAKING. ONE REVERED BY MINASHIRE AND FEARED BY YOUR ENEMIES. IN THEIR HUBRIS, THE FOUR HORSEMEN HAVE BROUGHT ABOUT THEIR OWN ‘APOCALYPSE’. HOW FITTING.”
Now you show up?
“I HAD NOTHING TO ADD. I CANNOT MAKE EVERY DECISION FOR YOU. BESIDES, I HAVE ALREADY INFORMED YOU THAT REMOVING ME FROM YOUR BODY IS IMPOSSIBLE. I HAVE NO NEED TO REMIND YOU OF THIS FACT EVERY TIME YOU BRING IT UP.”
I rolled my eyes. You know, I’m not sure what I was expecting you to say.
“Thank you for the advice,” I said to Archie. “It helps a–”
“Now that that’s settled,” Archie interrupted, his serious face suddenly replaced by a familiar, smug grin. “I need to inform you that I killed way more Wild Men than you. Of the 93, Lochness and I killed 61.”
I groaned. “Are you seriously tallying? We’re working collectively. And collectively, we haven’t made a dent in their number!”
Indeed, the bottom of my makeshift HUD showed the fruits of our combined labor.
ZAKARIA MAJORITY. 2% CONVERSION.
“And I’m pretty sure the two of us contributed the least because we’ve been killing instead of “converting”. I added.
“That’s because you killed the one they were following! The Wild Men we fought were his underlings!”
I shrugged. “He should’ve taken the olive branch I extended. Now that we’re here, though,” I began, a smirk creeping its way onto my face. “We’ve already started killing. We’re already walking this road, right?”
Archie snorted. “I won’t snitch if you don’t. I’m just letting you know, though, if I see a Wild Man who seems uninterested in fighting or seems willing to surrender, I’m not gonna kill them – and I hope you do the same. We have a job to do.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll spare some,” I lied. “Intimidate, flare aura, threaten, right?”
Archie wasn’t convinced.