I exchanged a quick glance with Venix, and that was all I needed to know.

He was determined to retrieve this sword. Even though the only reason to do that would be so Kazuma could essentially kill himself with it.

I suppressed a sigh. I’d suspected this was going to happen. It was only a matter of time before this guy was going to ask us to help him retrieve the sword. I’d had a vain hope that he would wait until he linked back up with the Solstice’s Flame guys to ask them to chase this thing down.

But no.

Us.

Still, this wasn’t unexpected. I’d been communicating covertly with Liora on our rangings about the possibility, and she’d been ferrying messages back to the others about our thoughts, beneath Kazuma's attention. Most of the others didn’t really care where we went here on the island. They were here for me, the levels, and the adventure. As long as we accomplished our goals in time to be picked back up by the Kaminari Maru, it didn’t matter to them.

Except for Venix. He…really wanted to retrieve this sword.

I’d thought about arguing with him about it before deciding there was no use. The Antium was going to do what he wanted to, and I suppose we owed it to him to assist. He’d helped us enough in the past, either on the mainland, in Kawamara, or even on the island that he deserved it.

We could spare the time. There were three more weeks left until the Kaminari Maru returned, likely with the Kawamaran navy in tow. From what I understood, Goryuen was only about three days away into the heart of the range.

If Venix wanted to honor his old master in this way, we could make time for him.

I nodded slightly at the Antium samurai and turned to face the other one. “Alright,” I said easily, in sharp contrast to my previous tone to him. “Let’s get going then.”

The others untensed now that the pseudo-confrontation was over. As I raised the far-eye to look out at this volcano, I heard Liora and Azarus start chattering again, Renauld start whistling to himself, and the sputters of Kazuma. “That’s it?!”

“Yup,” I said idly, examining the distant mountain.

Hmm.

Interesting, interesting.

I knew exactly nothing about volcanoes.

I lowered the far-eye and turned to my only possible source, interrupting his conversation with Liora. “Azarus, take a look and tell me about this place, will you?”

He shrugged and nodded, accepting the far-eye. My dwarven friend inspected the distant volcano for a moment thoughtfully, while Kazuma continued his bafflement.

“I can tell you about-” He tried to say.

Azarus cut him off. “Looks like an old beast to me,” He said. “Low, squat. Much older than the rest of this baby fresh range. Seems ta be spewin’ more ash and smoke than anythin’ else. Probably doesn’t erupt often, if much at all, and what it does have is heavy, thick, and slow. I ain’t felt any rumblin’s, and I would have if it were more active,” He studied it for another second. “Iron-rich I’d say.”

I blinked at the much more in-depth explanation than I was expecting. After a moment, I turned to Kazuma with a raised eyebrow. “That right?”

He looked away. “Just about,” Kazuma grumbled before regaining his composure. “Mt. Umetsuji is where we believe Jiro was speaking of, as he lay dying.”

I nodded easily. “Where ‘silence burns’ and all that jazz, yeah, I remember,” I said, recalling the words he had reluctantly told Venix the other day upon his request. I shrugged, adjusting the pack there at the same time. “Well, enough talking about it. The volcano is…probably a day or so away…?” I trailed off, looking at Azarus.

He nodded, collapsing the far-eye and handing it back to Bella. “Just about. Maybe day and a half of hikin’.”

“Let’s get going then.”

At that, we stopped admiring the scenery and got underway.

No reason to dawdle.

It’s not like we were on a time limit or anything.

…………………………………………….

The span between the actual mountains of Goryuen and the jungle was barren as hell, with next to no cover on it. It was almost desert-like, really, only far more rocky than I expected it to be. The footing was treacherous and likely to slip away under you at any point. And there were plenty of points out on this plain. I swear, this place felt like nothing more than a sea of razor-sharp stone fragments most of the time.

Thankfully, we were all wearing strong enough footwear for our lower halves not to be torn to shreds.

Unfortunately, we were so exposed out there, it was only a matter of time until we ran into the masters of this land.

The Oni.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

With sight lines being so clear, we had thought there was no need to continue scouting ahead in search of monsters that could be hiding around every tree.

That was a mistake. We hadn’t counted on the ravines.

Our group nearly bumbled right into them.

“Stop!” Venix said sharply, from the front of our formation. We all froze suddenly at his command, standing perfectly still. “Chasm below us.”

Some of us breathed out in relief at that, myself among them. We all untensed and wandered up to join Venix. I don’t know about the others, but I was curious about what had stopped us. As I joined him at the front, I noticed that Venix was still oddly tense. I shook it off and looked down.

The sight nearly gave me vertigo, which was a first. I hadn’t experienced that since I’d got my Status.

From one inch to the next, the ground appeared to end right in front of us. It was as if an enormous dagger had been thrust into the stone of Vereden, opening up a blade-shaped ravine in the span. It yawned before us, and none of the weak, obscured light of Tarus above could penetrate into the darkness below our feet. Random spikes of stone dotted the walls of the ravine, jutting off into every which way. The stony spears almost seemed like teeth that dotted an impossibly large mouth, ready to grind through whatever was incautious enough not to watch their footing.

Oddly, I could see that a number of them looked to have been snapped off, leaving only shattered stumps in the walls.

As I was standing at the edge of the ravine and looking down, I heard Renauld shift in place to my right. At his movement, a large, flat slate of stone at his feet came loose and tumbled off the edge and into the abyss below. We all watched silently as the shale tumbled end over end and then struck one of the spires below, the both of them shattering at the impact. The tinkling of rock fragments filled our ears as they scattered their way down into the abyss.

I shook off the odd mood the sight had instilled in me, and looked up and down the surface of the chasm, judging the length and width of it. I nodded and then glanced at my companions. “We can probably ju-”

I didn’t get the chance to finish my words.

Far, far below me, a deep, furious roar echoed out of the canyon we stood above. Crashing noises, growing ever closer, reached us in the wake of it. Somewhere deep in the shadow below our feet, I thought I could just barely see the glow of yellow eyes ascending the dark, larger than dinner plates.

I sucked in a sharp breath, rapidly retreating from the edge. “Back! Back! On-”

I didn’t get the chance to say another word. With a thunderous crash of splintering stone, a massive blue palm punched its way out of the spikes and fell upon the lip of the ravine. The sharp, obsidian-shaded claws dug into the rock of the plain, crushing it into a suitable handhold. A matching fist swung up and over the ledge, and the owner pulled itself up and out of the chasm we had nearly stumbled into.

In the dim light of the day, I could see the beast as it stretched itself to its full height and roared into the sky above. I grit my teeth as the sound rolled over me, strong enough to pop my ears from the sheer pressure of it.

That was an Oni, all right.

Blue skin thicker than leather was stretched taut over a heavily, obscenely, thick muscled humanoid body. Angry, throbbing veins stood out prominently on its massive body, pulsing in time with its heartbeat. Thankfully sexless, it wore nothing on its imitation of the human form and carried no weapons.

This thing had to be over thirty feet tall, at a minimum.

The shadow it cast over our surprised group was long and deep, and its head was thrown back from its defiant roar. The boulder-sized body part shrouded the already weak light of Tarus above, but I could still see its long, wispy white hair drifting in the faint wind on this stony plain. It was only as the monster hunched back over that I could see the features of the Oni in full detail.

The hate in its golden eyes was familiar to me as they fell on our group. As were the four curved pitch-black ox horns that stood out on the prominent brow of the beast, stretching towards the heavens. Two more grew downward from its cheeks, thrusting straight from the bone to curl around its mouth. Sharp fangs were visible in the snarling orifice, dripping with hungry drool and sliding down its chin, as black as the horns.

It wanted to eat us so, so badly. Its hunger was palpable in the air.

I threw out an Observe, even though I already suspected what it would say.

Name: Thunderous Oni War-Rager Level: ??? Age: 41 years Species: Monster (Prime) Abilities: ???, ???, ???, ???

A full adult Prime. I’d already known that it was one, just by the number of horns on its hideous head. Juveniles that had yet to reach Prime status only had the two cheekbone horns, while newly ascended ones had those and two more on the skull. A fully mature, adult Prime had the full complement like this fellow. My brief hunt with an Oni Hunter squad had taught me that.

Just our luck to stumble on one, out in this plain. I suppose it was inevitable here on this island. I was only surprised we hadn’t encountered an Oni before now.

At the sight of the rabid, slavering creature, weapons flew from sheathes all around me as we rapidly prepared for the inevitable battle. I drew my daggers and did not extend them, but did surround their Oninite blades with the glowing aurora of The Scintillant Blade. Might of the Wyrdwood was deployed at the same time at fifteen percent, and in moments the ethereal vines of the Skill had covered my body. But I didn’t deploy my transformation Skill.

Not yet.

Venix stepped forward as the Oni crouched there in front of us, all four of his blades drawn and clenched in his chitinous fists. It was utterly still in the face of the blatant challenge, studying us for a moment with eyes that were too intelligent for my liking. I swear, I swear, that I saw its lips curl slightly into a smile.

Before it acted.

The only hint I received that things were about to start was a slight crackle of electricity that ran up and around its thickly muscled limbs.

I, and all of my companions, knew what that meant. We’d all seen this before, at one time or another.

Apparently, even Kazuma did.

We all dived out of the way from where we stood, and just in the nick of time.

From the Oni’s still open mouth blasted a sharp spear of lightning, bright blue and hotter than the surface of the sun. It moved too quickly for me to even track as it impacted the stone where we had all stood only moments before, shattering the stone of the plain and sending molten rock flying through the air. I grimaced from where I had dodged as some of it landed to sizzle on the surface of my cloak. I wouldn’t have been able to dodge that if I hadn’t known it was coming. The speed was just too great.

That was just the opening blow.

The Oni stood up to its full height once again and pounded its chest with both fists, roaring into the sky as if it were the primeval ape. More lightning sparked up and down its body.

But the time for posturing was over. We couldn’t let this thing dictate the course of the coming battle, and all of us knew that.

We set our weapons and charged.