Flutter sat on her flower throne, thoroughly uncontent. She had remodelled the boss room to one of the inside of a tree trunk and filled it with flowers and pleasant things, but it was still too big. She didn’t like big.
Things had been quiet since the attack of the vile lizardmen and that was just how she liked it. However, the return of the eerie human concerned her. She had no way of telling time trapped in this dungeon room she wasn’t allowed to leave, thus she wasn’t even sure whether a month had passed or not.
“Tend to me.”
Three pixie maids she had summoned through the dungeon core poured her more honeydew, fanned her with a leaf, and combed her hair. They were better than the fools she had in the cove, one thing better about living in this dire hole in the ground. Though as soon as she thought that, another benefit crossed her mind with a smile.
“I used to be a princess.” The pixie maids stopped to look at her. “But now I’m a queen! Stronger than mother.”
“Strong queen~”
“Princess queen~”
“Soft flowers~”
Flutter’s ego grew further from the pixies’ cheers. “That’s right! I’m strong! Maybe I’ll teach that creepy human a lesson when he returns. If he’s still alive.” Flutter laughed arrogantly.
“I won’t die.”
A shrill shriek left her mouth as her soul left her body. Flutter slammed her face and arms on the ground before him in prostration. “A thousand blessing upon the immortal great master, your return was never in doubt!” The pixie maids mimicked her action behind her, clumsily smacking their heads on the floor.
“How did it go?” Shin showed no sign of being bothered whatsoever.
“Ah, well there was… I mean, we have protected your castle without issue!” Flutter changed the direction of her words mid sentence.
“This is it?” An unfamiliar voice spoke up. “I expected more from your dungeon that happy fairy tree cave…”
Flutter looked up to find not one, not two, but three other big humans. “Why are there more, you didn’t say there would be more!” Flutter flew right in front of Shin’s face to complain, forgetting her previous fear.
“Can you switch out the boss?” The orange haired she-witch assaulted her ears again. “Uncommon tier will get run over by any average party of goons.”
“Who asked you?!” Flutter snapped. The orange human wasn’t the master. She had no reason to fear her. “I am a great and powerful master! What do you know about ruling a dungeon?!”
Yen’s eyes sharpened in confidence and fierceness. “Well, since we just got back from slaying a dragon, I think I can judge this one.”
Flutter’s face short circuited. She turned to the great master and he confirmed the orange human’s words with a smile. She turned back to the woman who looked down on her with authority that invoked caution.
“We have ten days, I’ll redesign it so it’ll hold up.”
“My dungeon is perfect. Try it if you can, ugly human!” Fire appearing in the human’s hands made Flutter run for cover behind Shin’s head, though no apology left her lips. She would never apologize.
“I’ll come back in ten days.” Shin told her as he led the others out of the room as quickly as he arrived, leaving her with nothing but worries and frustration once again.
---
The party exited their dungeon into a forest of Pangea. There had been no difficulty getting through at all, the traps glowed distinctly to them all and the monsters gave not even a shred of hostility. Not that either would have been an problem for any of them if they were.
“What now?” Yen asked.
“I’m gonna get someone.”
“Hey!”
Shin blurred away before she could say more, dashing straight towards the location he had met the bruiser before the second stage. It hadn’t been long since they returned so he couldn’t have gotten far if he decided to move. The possibility of him having joined a party didn’t cross his mind. He didn’t feel like the type, and as such, Shin was expecting a fight to convince him.
Time slowed as Shin’s eyes moved to the masked man sitting in a tree to his side. Like lightning he threw a kunai but it passed only through air. Shin’s eye’s deepened. The man had vanished before he realized he even moved. It was more than teleportation, more than speed.
“You are a violent one.”
Shin snapped around to the casual, jovial voice, bow drawn, but the man was gone already.
“Let’s not waste time. We have so little as it is.”
Shin glanced slowly to the side, switching his weapon to a broadsword and saber, watching the man carefully. Dressed in leather with the red and black colors of a jester and donning a white mask with two carved eyes and a wide curving smile through which he could not see past. Not a single part of his body uncovered. But most of all, the masked man felt like nothing. Not the emptiness of demons, but as though he did not exist right before him. Shin’s eyes flashed prismatic and the man disappeared from his vision.
“Strange. Such a strange epoch this is.”
Shin turned to the voice and his eyes returned to normal, revealing the image of the man, crouching in the tree.
“Who-”
“Ah, don’t bother with questions, I won’t answer them. I don’t know what you are yet.” The masked man’s gaze seemed to deepen, and then suddenly, the tension disappeared from his presence. “Well, no matter. For the sake of convenience, you may call me Mask.”
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“I came for a meeting, now leave with a warning.” Shin’s eyes shifted with the movement of the voice mid sentence to Mask standing elsewhere, his arms held out in spectacle. “If you don’t grasp every bit of power you can, you will never take what you seek.”
Mask disappeared as his words seemed to linger in the forest. Shin glanced around but no sign of the man returned. With nothing further to be done, he put the encounter to the back of his mind and carried on. In no time at all, he came across the place he had encountered the barbarian one month ago, finding only his broken body.
[Human Berserker (epic) - Greater Lord]
Strength - 700
Agility - 400
Constitution - 200
Vitality - 222
Dexterity - 200
Perception - 300
Force - 12
Spirit - 14
Control - 50
Willpower - 100
Shin calmly inspected the body, his expression indifferent. His right arm bent the wrong way at the elbow and his ribs were broken and bruised, lining up where the impact would be if he guarded with the arm. Blood stained down his dislocated jaw, barely starting to dry. His leg was broken at knee on the perfect angle and the front of his skull caved in by a round object. A complete and utter destruction. His opponent had no difficulty, such was their skill it was evident on the canvas they left.
Shin glanced over the ground and sped off at the traces of departing footprints. Like the wind he weaved through the forest, keeping track of the signs of movement as his eyes flashed iridescent in brief spurts. Soon he locked onto a direction and burst off, no longer paying attention to the ground.
Shin came to a stop just before a slight incline, with a young beautiful woman ahead. Light brown skin and striking icy blue hair, she wore a sheet of cloth across her chest and a fur skirt with belts revealing most of her thick legs. She had leather bracelets over her wrists and a rope circlet around the top of her arms but was noticeably barefoot. Her lean taut muscles obvious through a smooth feminine body but most prominent to Shin was pleasant smile beneath eyes of piercing unwavering focus.
[Human Shaolin (epic) - Greater Lord]
Shin didn’t need to ask if she was the one. It was obvious. Her body shifted just slightly, almost imperceptibly, and Shin leant back as her leg cleaved the air over him. Her leg stopped short the moment it crossed over and raised up in an instant. Shin dove away as an axe kick cratered the ground, as she burst immediately after him.
Fists and elbows showered down on him from a high guard with powerful kicks shot at the slightest opening, all with lethal intentions. Shin assessed her style as he dodged. Her stance wide and compact with her fists tucked in tight, her legs bent and her feet light in movement.
Muay Boran, a style meant for killing, and she had mastered it. More than that, Shin thought, as a flying elbow seamlessly gave into a spinning heel kick from an unmoving center mass. It was beyond that. Restricted to a distinct form, but its principles the same as the ones taught in the Igarashi clan.
Shin slipped a punch and flickered his own back with she slipped in turn. Her hands immediately reached around the back of his head and he ducked out of it. Shin sidestepped a flying knee of immense force. The icy blue haired woman landing a foot on the tree behind and burst off towards him with another sweeping kick.
Shin started to fight back properly, his strikes as sharp as her’s was powerful, ruthlessly aiming the most vulnerable vitals of her eyes and throat. But his attacks didn’t reach their mark. She blocked and dodged each, returning strikes of her own, precision and timing becoming increasingly sharper.
A jab grazed a cut along his cheek and he pulled a punch back before she could grab hold. Shin suspected something and decided to test it. Illustrious shrine priest clothes adorned his body. His hair drained white with red symbols and five tails grow of the same, and a fox mask covered the top half of his face.
He pressed forward this time, overstraining his body so his speed matched hers, his movements sharper. The shaolin blocked and dodged, but some strikes started to land and through it, Shin noticed something else. He pressed her more, sharp unorthodox attacks hailing down on her from all angles.
But gradually, his success dwindled as her skill grew. Shin palmed her stance back and kicked at her knee. A loud crack came from his leg as she held hers up to block. She lunged forward with an elbow instantly, like a tiger that found its moment, but it crashed only into a ward Shin formed beside his head as his tremoring fist slammed into her chest, sending her crashing through the forest with the slight shatter of bones.
Shin reset his broken leg and healed it as he thought. Her bones were durable, as hard as armor, and it didn’t seem like an active skill. A trait perhaps. Shin burst forward, only to meet the shaolin charging back. Her wounds were healing too, although by her expression it wasn’t even on her mind. She attacked relentlessly as Shin landed strikes in longer and longer intervals.
A jab snapped his head back and a pressure permeated his mind to force it unconscious. Shin forced it to remain awake and kicked with a tremoring foot, but she caught his leg just past the rippling vibrations and swept the other. Shin landed on his hands and popped the tremor to break his leg free from her grasp as he spun upright into a charge. Her knee appeared right in front of his face and shattered the ward formed between. An elbow slammed into his head from above, fracturing the side of his face.
She was learning, Shin thought. Growing every second they fought. She deflecting his kick away and bore the brunt of another as her own sweeping kick changed into a front kicked at the last instant, and a force ruptured his organs. Shin fought on, hand to hand as he healed, more blows landing on him to crushing effect. The fight was slowly devolving into a one sided beating with him barely able to avoid disabling impacts to his brain. Another punch shattered his ward and snapped his body back as an axe kick followed down.
As he reached the brink of these self imposed restrictions, Shin could no longer afford to hold back. Four tremors bloomed at the ends of his limbs, and he turned from fighter to assassin. He parried her leg to the side and a torrent of blows in combination surged the shaolin back as she was once against forced to guard and defend against the unpredictable.
Shin feinted a jab and popped open her guard, hurling a wild haymaker towards her face. And she smiled. Cheerful, ecstatic, victorious. She leant back as a rising kick barrelled up towards Shin’s jaw. Shin gracefully slipped just past, and burying a condensed tremor into the shaolin’s solar plexus.The titanic punch broke through the recognizable gong of Bastion and a second Tremor burst with its raw force, knocking the air out of her lungs as she slammed across the earth.
She flipped to her feet and the flutter of talismans surrounding her stole her attention for an instant. A gray furred Shin appeared behind her, the moment she rose to her feet, his arms locking into a choke and his legs around her arms. She struggled against it as the talismans fell on them both, increasing the weight of her limbs and the weight she had to bare.
The surface of his legs sundered away and his muscles and joints ruptured but still he held firm. Her body shifted slightly, and Shin unwrapped his legs, kicking the back of her knees before she could burst off. As her knees hit the ground he and pulled the hold tight, bending her torso back in a way she couldn’t use the full strength of her body.
Her arms reached up to pull him off her but a ward blocked them. By the time she struck again to break through, the power in her body was falling. Her eyes rolled up to the back of her head and her limbs fell limp. Shin released his grip and let her fall face first to the ground.
Shin took a seat on the ground, healing them both with little mana he had left. As he expected, she couldn’t adapt immediately to too many things happening at once. He had also exploited that tendency to adapt to his advantage, targeting how he predicted she would react. Still, he had cut it close.
As his invoke faded away, the shaolin’s eyes opened and she casually sat up to face him, the piercing fierceness in her eyes gone, but not the depth. “Fight again?” She smiled with cute tone, matching her face, as Shin understood she wanted another fight to the death.
“Later.”
“Okay~” The shaolin showed no urgency nor disappointment, only a genuine carefree anticipation.
“Shin.”
“Karla.”
“Join my party?”
“Yeah.”
And just like that, Shin had found his fifth member.