Arc 6. A seemingly endless loss
Road to a Hero:
Three Chances in Another World
Chapter 53. Swelling
While Gray is being forced to wait with Zhao, he tries his best to help anybody he can, but his job is much easier than Rosemary’s. Rosemary dashes through the city with the giant DeepBat, Arch-Gorilla, and a blind Vole Rat. With the park on-site, Rosemary’s plan to get the strongest monsters away from any civilians is successful. With the Vole Rats' lack of sight, it tunnels through the ground, following both the scent of Rosemary’s mana signature and the small vibrations of the ground she makes with each leap. She makes it into the park, finally allowing her to strike without the worry of casualties. The Deep Bat clings to a tree, using its small techniques which emerge from the ends of its large wings to hold itself. The ArchGorrlia is the last to arrive, but it’s the most imposing, to say the least. Its dark red fur, six large arms, spiders mouth, and enormous stature could strike fear into the strongest of knights, but Rosemary remains content.
The Vole Rat tunnels out from under the ground, catering and sniveling at her with its long mouth. Its bare, dry, pink skin is disgusting to look at, but what seems to be an infection is much worse. Black warts pulse on all of the animals, causing them to be irrationally irritated, going so far as to foam from the mouth.
Rosemary {They shouldn’t be here…the Sect’s obviously controlling them…so should I kill them? We were attacked by the Arch-Gorilla and the Deep Bat…but we were in its home…}
Rosemary’s conflicted, but she’s forced to act when the Vole Rat lunges at her. She boosts into the fifth stage and lands a kick to its face, but due to its insanely durable skin, it doesn't budge. The claws and teeth of the creature are what it uses to tunnel through the ground, so getting hit by them would be a death sentence for most, but not Rosemary. Her stages of power create a dense wave of power, acting as a pseudo set of armor on top of her actual armor, so the quick swipe from the Vole Rat does nothing. She kicks off its face, getting some distance from the monster, but this sets off the others. The Deep Bat screams at her, launching itself into the air, while the Arch-Gorilla pounds its bare chest and begins charging at her. Instead of running on its stubby legs, it uses all six of its arms to perfectly balance itself to create both a fast and intimidating sight. The Vole Rat quickly digs through the ground, creating the perfect storm of monsters, taking the sky, land, and underground. She stares down the Arch-Gorilla, trying her best to decide what to do, and right as she gets face to face with the enormous monster, she decides.
With a quick full-body jump to the sixth stage, the golden flame-like aura forces itself down to a more stable flow. She jumps up to it, getting less than two inches from each other, and she strikes with a punch to the face. The monster tumbles back while the cancerous warts bubble as if they’re about to burst. However, before Rosemary can land any follow-up attacks the Deep Bat sours in, grabbing her with its feet. Still in the sixth stage, she kicks at the air, lunging up out of its grip and slamming into the stomach of the winged rat with the top of her head. While she’s falling the Vole Rat lunges from beneath the earth, trying to nip at her. She puts her hands together, delivering a downward strike right to its face, slamming it to the ground. When she lands she begins feeling the backlash of her great strength, but since the monsters are still going, she must as well.
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The Vole Rats’ tumorous growth begins bubbling, causing it to shriek in pain. Then, suddenly, one of them bursts, creating a chain reaction. They leak blood, puss, and mucus, coating the animal in its own fluids. The cries of the being are muffled by the jelly-like substance that begins forming from its fluids, forcing it to be stuck in a cocoon-like state, but that quickly ends. The process ends prematurely, coating the wild animal in acidic pink goo that burns through its; thick hide. All of the monsters back off in fear, and so does Rosemary. She stops the flow of her ability and watches the horror. All of the bones fuse together before they sink away, merging into the skin, making the muscles mix with the new carriage-like substance that seeps into the skin. The Vole Rat shapes to become more of a rhinoceros, resembling the same zombie-like creatures that Soku is currently combating. Rosemary turns to watch the spirit beat whimper with the fear the same thing will happen to them.
Rosemary {They may be beasts, but they’re far above the intelligence of the rest. These things think, and feel, but the Sect is trying to take those things…}
The Deep Bat fights whatever the Sect has done to it, flying away, and the Arch-Gorilla tries to follow, but Rosemary’s attack has caused the growths to begin bubbling, forcing it to stay and fight. The beast's eyes are bloodshot, its teeth are decaying, and its heart is trying its best to keep beating, it truly is above the rest.
Though it’s still not strong enough to fight off the infection, it charges Rosemary once more, and she’s forced to fight the wondrous beast. Its jaw opens up, blasting its webbing out from within its mouth, going at such a high-speed Rosemary’s forced to blast through the stages. One, two, three, four, five, six, and then lastly entering the seventh stage, cracking her bones from just entering the form. The sheer power of the seventh stage creates a large gust of wind to form and flow around her, almost pushing the insanely strong webbing away, almost.
With the knowledge that she can only maintain this for a few seconds at most, she takes the opportunity to kill the beast before it’s forced to go through the same thing as the monster currently charging her from behind. Instead of dodging she grabs the web, using its strong tensile strength to her advantage, and swings the Arch-Gorilla with its own webbing. The monster goes flying through the air while Rosemary tenses up her muscles, grits her teeth, and lets pain-filled tears flow from her eyes while she slams the beasts on top of the other, crushing the mutated Vole Rat with the weight of the Arch-Gorilla and the force of the seventh stage.
The Arch-Gorilla crawls off of its fellow monster, finding it crushed flat below it. The Monster feels its growths being filled with its own fluids, and kneels its head down, letting Rosemary strike it directly in the head, killing the honorable monster. The force of the seventh stage becomes too much, and she falls back, clenching her broken knuckles while she sways side to side trying to stay conscious. She stands up, beginning to leave, not noticing the growths on the Arch-Gorilla slowly filling behind her.
End of Chapter Fifty-three