I'm kinda nervous about this chapter, I think I commented that before, you see where until now there were some settings change due to the nature of multicross, until now miraculously, the main canon of each setting of the story stayed mostly the same. In this chapter however, I'll introduce an new setting whose canon suffered drastic modification because of the multi cross, particularly at the end of it, so I don't know who you will react to the changes.
Anyway, here is the chapter.
Chapter 12
Ever since I woke up in this weird amalgamation of anime settings, I've been blessed/cursed with the opportunity to experience things I'd never thought I would in my lifetime — Anime-turned-real-life craziness aside.
Martial Arts stopped being a curiosity I watched on the tv and became part of my daily routine. Yokai and monsters left the pages of books and games turned into real aspects of my reality. Having someone or something tries to kill me stopped being relegated to fears and occasional nightmares and transformed into events I had to occasionally deal with.
I've experienced all of that, some of my own volition, others not so much. At this point, I have grown used to it.
Yet facing what was essentially a combination of the three at the same time was oddly disconcerting.
The monster snarled as he swung his muscular arm towards my neck, his clawed hands extended in a decapitating strike. I dove underneath it, my baseball bat brushing against my opponent's leg as he quickly retracted away from my counterattack. His body flowed from attack and evasion, going from mad animal to trained dancer as the situation demanded. He was strong and fast and had long since learned to dodge the fuck away from my swings. I didn't need a second opinion to know this guy's martial art skill was better than mine.
So I had to resort to my other tricks.
A body slam interrupted his following movement. The thing went beast-like again and used the sudden momentum to maneuver on all fours over the walls and ceiling to quickly change direction and attack again. If I were a normal martial artist, I would be forced to block or parry if I didn't want to lose something important. As it stands, I just shot the fucker with a Mana Bolt.
He let out a loud yelp of pain as his chest and right shoulder blew up, making him tumble to the side and away from his previously deadly trajectory. As it passed, I crossed eyes with it; it was dead, it knew it, I knew it.
My baseball bat turned his head into paste… and with a fraction of the strength, he had managed to tank it before when I hit its chest.
Yep, that confirms it.
"Oi Ranma! It's the head! The head is the weak point!" I shouted.
"Hanhhh!?" My friend shot back. He was fighting three identical copies of the monsters, and one of them just managed to grab him from behind... For about a second before Ranma used his bullshit flexibility to kick behind his head, and immediately bring his leg down in the following axe kick. Two of the monsters had their head craved in with that move. "Wasn't that obvious!?"
Well… I guess in a certain perspective the head is the weak point for a lot of things.
The last monster, without any reaction to the death of his fellows, leaped for another attack. I took advantage of his distraction to strike him from the air and to the ground, and Ranma ends it by stomping on his head.
Like the others, he liquified into a puddle of blood, which was a bit on the face for something called 'Blood Golem' but who the hell am I to question the rules.
"Again and again they keep comin'." Ranma grumbled, his initial shock for 'killing' something so close to human long since gave out to irritation, the new claw marks he got from underestimating them helped. "Oi Hiroshi, have you figure out what's goin' on yet?"
"Your confidence in my ability to investigate while avoiding death by kung fu is touching." I deadpanned but looked around anyway.
The Silent Hill look the place was taking still in full swing, but the effect is somewhat diluted when you're strong enough to fight the monsters and break through the walls if tight spaces annoy you, so it was more gross than scary. The fleshy mass over the corridors didn't seem to follow any pattern and didn't form in any familiar shapes – something I was glad for – there is also the mysterious red glow that illuminates the immediate area around us, making it possible for us to see a few meters deep in every direction.
And then there were the monsters; all the same guy, all completely identical from one another, down to the tattoos and birthmarks, all titled blood golem with the exact same level. At first, it was just one guy that kept respawning after death, then there were two, and now there are three.
We got about two minutes of peace, and I don't know if there will be a fourth this time.
"Alright." I tapped my bat on a less grotesque part of the wall. "Ranma, break through this."
"Huh?" He blinked. "What? Can't you do it?"
"It's an experiment. Indulge me."
Still looking skeptical, the martial artist stepped past me and threw a punch.
"Ouch!" Ranma hissed as his hand bounced off the wall. He glared at the spot he failed to destroy and tried again. This time the punch was strong enough to rattle the fleshy bits protruding around the area but achieved the same result.
"You can stop now. It's like I imagined…" The sound of Ranma's third punch cracked around the corridors like a goddamn cannonball. "Seriously, stop! You're going to break your hand!"
He shared a glare between me and the immaculate spot on the wall before finally easing up. Idly shaking his aching hand, he grumbled. "The heck was that?"
"That is the front gate," I said, taking a step back and pointing at the arch of flesh at the edges, highlighting the way they formed a doorframe. "And you just proved to me we can't simply blast our way out of this place."
Because Ranma was just about the strongest thing I could throw at it, and if he can't make a dent, I doubt I could. I'm assuming this apparent indestructibility also spread all across the outer walls because it made sense.
Escape plan B is off the chart then, and escape plan A... Well, I tried once again to activate my escape IB skill and... Nothing, absolutely freaking nothing. Not even a notification saying the monsters in the area were too high level.
That affected me more than I like to show; it was the first time a gamer's ability just up and failed like that.
"What do we do?" Ranma asked, bringing me out of my musings.
"... Okay, so, the biggest clue we have to what's going on is my power calling it Trial of the Heavenly Oni." I had attempted to explain the Gamer System to Ranma some time ago, but there was only so much I could do for a guy whose whole video game experience consisted of arcade-fighting games. Plus, I got the feeling he didn't care about the details too much. "So obviously this is some kind of trial, but as we received no instructions or guidance I can only work with context clues."
I raised one finger. "So my main theory is that this is a survival trial, so whoever is causing this - most likely that Heavenly Oni guy - will keep throwing waves of enemies at us, and our job is to survive for as long as possible, or for a certain period of time. The number of monsters will grow and maybe there will be more variation or something as time passes. This is what I am getting from what we're experiencing right now."
Ranma nodded at me... And if our math teacher were here, she would strangulate me out of sheer jealousy for the level of focus I was getting from him.
"That said, there is also a possibility that the trial is something else entirely." Fucking instructions would really help mister Heavenly Oni. "So I said we explore further and gather more clues,"
"So, up." Ranma nodded.
"Yeah, up," I confirmed. The only place we could go now that escape was off the table.
Ranma grinned as low, guttural noises started to bounce off the fleshy darkness around us. Despite the irritation, it seems he was having fun, of course he would. "Let's freaking go then!"
You can say the trial started properly from then now.
-0-0-0-
Going up turned out to be the right decision.
There was a slightly stronger version of the guy we've been fighting protecting the stairs, but with our combined strength he wasn't much trouble. After reaching the second floor it became clear that space itself was being altered in some fashion, as the stairs that should have continued to the third floor were nowhere to be seen.
As for the enemies on this floor...
All male, all blood golems of the same level, all wearing some type of working kimono of various colors. Some had long claws, some had horns, some had bone blades protruding from their elbows, and more importantly, they were all different.
Also, crap, they were all different.
I jumped away from the range of one spinning kicking motherfucker, using a Mana Bolt to fuck up his balance before stepping in and start wailing on him with my bat. A sudden palm strike on my side made me grunt out a curse. Stumbling away I tried to shoot the new enemy but the giggling fucker threw himself into an adjacent room and disappeared just in time for the one I was beating to rise to his feet and attack again, totally uncaring of his brutalized appearance.
"Fucking." I shot another Mana Bolt, he dodged, but I was expecting that so he ended up straight in my bat's range. "Hell!" My swing obliterated his head, finally finishing him up. Then the flimsy paper walls beside me exploded as the enemy from before tackled me to the ground and went for my throat.
He exploded from the full blast of a Mana Bolt at point-blank, but it was still annoying.
"This one's usin' the Satoshi-fu Kujo style!" I heard Ranma's way-too-excited voice calling as I picked myself back up. "An that one the Nishi-o tornado stance! Oh man, I hadn't seen that since pops and I went to Sendai and—"
"The monsters are using obscure martial arts, got it!" I grumbled. Watching Ranma break a supporting pillar with the head of a monster... or the other way around, it was difficult to tell. "Can you hurry up!?"
Is he pouting!? I told him he isn't allowed to pout in his male form!
With seemly inhuman perception, Ranma swept a leg behind him to take the balance of a monster trying for a sneak attack. Grabbing the thing in the air he used it to strike at another coming enemy, making sure the long horns of one ended up stabbing the head of the other. Then, he quickly dispatched the surviving one with a kick that sent its head bouncing across the dark corridors like a pinball.
I actually paused momentarily at the quick display of brutality. Really puts in perspective what Saotome Ranma could do to a person.
"They're not very good at it," Ranma commented.
Rub it in, won't you? "Looks pretty good to me," I said.
"Yeah, for you." ...Dude. "Pops and I fought way stronger. They're apprentices at best. Hey, could this be a clue?" Ranma asked, excited by the realization.
"Maybe." I stepped over the new puddles of blood to join him. "I'm more interested in their clothes. They look ancient, not like old grandpa clothes but actual, past-era wear."
"Ohhh, time travel."
I gave Ranma a look.
"What? Do you think it isn't possible?"
"... Alright, you got a point. Still, I don't think it's anything like that." We both turned toward the darkness to continue our search for the stairs. "Maybe it's just thematic," I spoke as we moved.
Though, I couldn't make head or tails how feudal oni warriors could be related to fleshy wall growth. Shouldn't something like deformed abominations fit the look better?
Of course, that thought would come back to bite me in the ass very soon.
-0-0-0-
The stair to the third floor was blocked with a stronger version of the enemies we were fighting on the second floor. This time we were slightly winded as we ascended, but nothing too bad.
The third floor was much like the previous one; no sight of the stairs, new enemies, dark corridors dripping with flesh and blood.
By this point, it was pretty obvious this is a dungeon crawl... or a tower climb, whatever you want to say it. You fight enemies on each floor to reach the stairs, fight the boss defending the stairs, and climb. Repeat this till you reach the top and win.
God knows how much we have to climb to win because I don't think there were more than three floors in this place from what I could see it, so we're probably going to deal with more spatial bullshitery—
Holy fuck.
"... That's pretty gross, isn't it?" Was Ranma's only reaction to the thing.
The third-floor boss wasn't a stronger version of the mobs we were fighting. It was a blood golem, it was one level higher than the rest, but that's where the similarities ended.
It was a... hulking, olived-skinned ball that seems to be made entirely of folded arms of all shapes and sizes. The ones not folded over themselves were being used as 'legs' or protruding from around it freely. On the middle of the mass, half-hidden beneath a grotesque spiral of arms and hands, was what appeared to be a human head with predatory eyes that looked at us with rage and hunger.
... Okay, that was more in line with the Silent Hill theme.
"Alright, Ranma I can see the head, if we could—"
I was barely able to put my bat in front of the giant palm that came hurling in my direction. Walls broke painfully behind my back as I was violently pushed by the stretching arm before I managed to twist my bat around and roll out of the grip.
Pivoting around I struck my bat on the arm, breaking it for good measure, before running back into the fray. When I jumped back into the 'boss area' I found Ranma struggling to dodge a virtual rain of punches that were following him wherever he went.
Without time to think, I produced a beach ball-sized Mana Bolt and launched towards the boss with a swing of my bat. I was able to see him raising multiple palms as an improvised shield before the explosion engulfed him. The smoke didn't even have time to clear when a loud impact echoed and his mass was sent rolling away to the side with pissed off Ranma at its heel.
The martial artist jumped on top of it and promptly took revenge for the previous attack by pummeling the monster to the ground with a rain of punches of his own. Sounds of bone being splintered and flesh crushed resonated across the area, and I could practically see the impacts traversing the monster's form and cracking the ground below.
Another series of hands stretched around Ranma and grabbed him from behind, pulling him away from the main body. Before the monster could make use of its advantage, however, I peppered the arms with a volley of Mana Bolts till the grip got loose enough for Ranma to jump away.
He landed close to me just as the monster got back up. Like the rest of the enemies, it paid no mind to its many injuries; in fact, the bloody layer of limp, crushed arms in the front of its body was already healing.
"Danm this guy! We need—" Whatever Ranma was going to say next was cut off when the arms shot in our direction again.
We jumped out of the way and spit off. I went running to the right side, noticing that, thankfully, the monsters couldn't concentrate as many arms on two moving targets as it could in one, so it was relatively easy to wave and jump over his attacks. Ranma, in contract, decided to make a stand and started punching and kicking at any attack that came his way. The result was a shower of blood and broken limbs, but it did not work like he expected, as the monster's lack of pain meant that rather than flinch back and try another move, it simply pressed on the attacks regardless of the state of its arms, and indeed now it was striking Ranma with the sharp bone spike from its exposed fractures.
Arms, it all came down to the damn arms. They are numerous enough to attack from all directions, and they regenerate too fast for us to do any meaningful damage. All I could come up with was cutting it, but we didn't have anything that could... Wait...
I looked at my baseball bat, the bluish coat of mana shining against the ominous red glow.
... Well, if Kuno can do it.
I shaped the mana with my mind, forming an awkward edge along its length. The shape of the bat almost felt like it was actively fighting against my idea. There were no edges on a curve, and a bat was the pinnacle of a blunt instrument, it wasn't meant to hold a blade since its conception.
The concept of cutting wasn't sticking to the magical energy I was pouring in; there was no blade to hold the edge.
So I made one, the magic almost projecting as a glowing triangle rising from the side of the bat and finally holding on to my will, solidifying into a—
My ankle was pulled behind me as the monster finally managed to caught something. Pain shot across my legs and hips as I was violently slammed against the ceiling, and then against the floor. The next swing and the odd impact that happened indicated that my body had just been used to bitch-slap Ranma to the corner.
Pain is temporary, I reminded myself as I fought down my disorientation and swung downwards with my now magically bladed baseball bat. Praying it wouldn't hit my leg.
I was suddenly released, and my growing 'Anything goes' muscle memory had me unconsciously righting my position midair and landing on my feet... amidst a shower of oversized, severed fingers.
"It works!" I cheered before I was forced to roll away from the stubbed palm as it slammed on my previous position.
I met the arms face on this time, meting the shower of punches with my bladed bat. Blood, fingers, and large chunks of meat fell over and around me.
"You learned a new trick!?" Ranma shouted as he joined the fight, drawing some of the heat away from me.
"Just now!" I responded and focused back on cutting.
In truth, it wasn't anything like Kuno's cutting bokken. The lacerations weren't smooth enough to cut off a whole arm outright, and the severed fingers resulted more from the strength I was putting behind the swings rather than the sharpness of the blade. If I had to compare it to anything, I'd said it was more like an axe than a sword.
'Better than fucking nothing' I told myself as I hacked away at a giant wrist and left the hand hanging by a thread as it pulled back. But I still need more cutting power.
I was never going to get a sword out of a bat, that much was clear. So I started to think outside the box.
What's the next best thing other than an axe?
Oh.
Ranma slammed against the monster, dealing damage to the main body for the first time in a while. By the way he managed to dodge the retaliation and dive in for another attack I'd said he had already memorized this thing's attack patterns or something. This gave me time to do my thing.
I spread the triangular edge across the entire length of the bat with the exception of the handle. Then, with an effort of will that was magnitudes lesser than forming a blade in the first place, I formed tiny mana teeth over the edges and set it to rotate.
My new chainsaw bat didn't let out any satisfying noise nor trembled with barely contained fury all chainsaws everywhere seems to radiate, but it was a thing of beauty all of the same.
I couldn't help but let out an exultant cry as I used Ranma's distraction to swing at the main body. Layers upon layers of meat and bone tore apart under my swing as I split the thing open and nearly cut it in half. An unavoidable shower of blood and gore ensued, and never in my life I felt more like Doomguy than at that very moment. My chest hair, balls, and adam apple grew three sizes right then and there.
The head was the weak spot for these monsters, but dealing it enough damage also seems to work. So before my bat could even fully separate the two halves of the monster's body, it liquefied into an enormous pool of blood. Leaving me and Ranma awkwardly facing each other in attack stances.
Note to self; chainsaw mode is a bitch to maintain. Less than ten seconds of it active was enough to fully deplete my Mp pool.
"Another trick?" Ranma asked, his breathing visibly affected by the exertion.
"Chainsaw spell."
"Right." He raised an eyebrow. "That's cool. Hm..." Then he took a step back and placed his hand over his nose. "You stink man."
"Thanks for pointing that out, I never would have guessed," I said, trying to wipe the blood from my eyes. Christ, I was drenched with the stuff.
After finally accepting the futility of my task, I just removed the guest yukata I was wearing and tried to wipe as much as I could with the clean parts of the cloth. After it got too dirty to clean I threw the bundle to the side.
It's underwear fighting from now on.
"Tsk." Ranma clicked his tongue. It seems my lack of clothes had reminded him of our current lack of supplies... or the lack of the ability to resupply.
My inventory, much like my escape IB skill wasn't working, so no changes of clothes or convenient sacks were available for us. Of course, Ranma being Ranma, he was more annoyed by the lack of food.
I was just glad my week of ninja training had conditioned me to sleep with my baseball bat out of the inventory, specifically for situations like this, now that I think about it.
"So. I need to take a breather to get my magic back, let's stop for a bit." I said.
"Heh, weak."
"Bitch, you don't look so good either." I poked Ranma's slightly heaving chest with the tip of my baseball bat, before pointing to the stair. "I say we sit there for a bit and pray the boss doesn't come back. If it does, we run for it."
Ranma gave me a cocky grin. "Don't worry, I finally got how it moves, if it comes back I'll beat it up!"
"At this point, Ranma, I'd prefer that you pace yourself."
Because the fights will only get tougher from here on, and unlike me, Ranma can't heal most of his injuries with a short rest.
-0-0-0-
Well, I was wrong. The fourth floor wasn't exactly harder. It was more annoying really, like; 'Ranma screaming at the top of his lungs' annoying.
"ARGHHHHHHHH!"
Like that.
Ranma's kick obliterated half organic walls in an instant, sending blood, meat, and debris flying across multiple paper-thin rooms. But it was no use; the fist-size black holes that were dotting the surface scurried away beneath the martial artist legs and promptly disappeared into the darkness.
The persistent rattling noise of teeth grinding together at superhuman strengths that was echoing from the dark only increase in volume, and soon, an enemy burst out from one of the little black holes and came flying towards us so fast that my reaction swing only managed to take it out of its trajectory rather than killing him. Another black hole conveniently placed near his landing zone swallowed him whole before we could follow, and quickly dash away from our vision.
That about sums up our 'fight' with this floor's mob enemy.
"Grrr! Why these bastards don't face us like men!" Ranma growled, backing away from the skittering black holes till he bumped his back against mine. I kept vigil on the other side.
"Didn't work well for them when they tried the first time." Which set a worrisome precedent that they are now capable of learning from the previous incarnation. I tried to follow the holes with my eyes but there was no use, they were like cockroaches in the dark. "Damn it! How many of these things are there."
"Three dumbasses. You can tell by the number horns." Ranma responded immediately, another display of his uncanny perception while in a fight. "FUCK! Let's at least take out the one who's makin' this noise."
Ah yes, the rattling teeth noise that made you want to claw your ears out. I also advocate for the painful death of the shitstain responsible for it, but he's probably hidden in the dark.
"I'm down for taking out any of them at the moment," I shouted over the noise. "Do you have any ideas?" I tried asking Ranma, seeing as the meager amount of Mp I've managed to recover wouldn't let me try anything crazy with magic, and of the two of us, Ranma was the one who could better follow them with his eyes, thus probably was able to glean more about them than me.
Probably.
"Yeah!" Oh, that's surprising. I risked a brief look over my shoulder to see him tensing up. Wait a second—
He bolted toward the darkness.
"COMMUNICATION RANMA!" I shouted after him but was forced to raise my guard for the attack that was sure to come. The reason we were sticking together was because the fuckers took every opportunity to attack while we were alone, and they do it from harder-to-predict angles too, so I—
"FUCK!" I cursed as pain flashed from my side. I felt clawed fingers digging into my skin, and if it weren't for my stat points making me superhuman I'd have lost a kidney right there.
My bat struck the protruding arm and blew it clean off its shoulders; nevertheless, the partially submersed monster giggled at me and dove back into the shadows. The hole he popped out off no doubt moving away in the same instant.
Fucking hell. I let out another curse as I yanked the hand off my side. Blood poured down my leg from the injury that would probably put down a normal person. In my case, I could see that it didn't even take a third of my Hp, so I decided to just ignore the pain and move on.
It's not like I can focus on anything other than the next attack now. I gripped my bat in both hands and prepare for it...
The noise.
The damn noise that was ringing across the dark corridors even since we killed the first set of blood golems had stopped.
"Ranma?" I called out.
No answer... not even an attack from the enemies; hell, it must be the first time I sent six seconds without being attacked since I stepped onto this floor.
I tried to search for the holes the mobs were using as attack portals. Until now they've been paradoxically easy to find yet hard to focus, there was away one moving just at the corner of your eyes, but if you try to focus on it, it quickly melted into the ambient darkness.
Nothing, not a single one... there! My eyes trailed after the hole while it made its way over— it suddenly popped out of existence.
A cold feeling speared my guts.
"Ranma! Where are you!?" I shouted to the unresponsive corridors. After seconds of continuing silence, I broke the wall the last portal was on with a frustrated swing before starting to run in the direction Ranma had disappeared from.
My mind raced with the possibilities. Where had he gone to was the most prominent and less helpful one. The monster obviously took him somewhere, fuck, they've been trying to separate us from the start why didn't I see that!?
A rogue portal hole drifting on the walls captured my attention and I made my way to it. I couldn't get inside; it was one of the first things we attempted, so I was limited in what I could do. It was clearly going somewhere but I could see no other alternative other than letting it lead me to a trap-
The hole suddenly expanded and a flood of dark, murky water began pouring from it. Before I could even blink, the shape of one of the monsters came screaming out of the portal with a red blur riding on its back.
A female Ranma drenched head to toe in smelly water inhaled a deep, desperate breath as soon as she entered in contact with air, before promptly use that same breath to shout.
"And THAT!" She punched the monster underneath her in the back of its head, loudly cracking its skull, and turning it into a puddle. "Is for that DAMN noise!"
And so it was just me, Ranma-chan, and blessed, blessed silence in that dark corridor.
I put a hand over my chest and tried to exhale the worry "Fucking hell, would it kill to tell me what you were planning before you try crazy shit!?"
The panting girl gave me a crossed look, gathering some air before countering with a; "Look who is talking."
... Alright, she does have a point there.
"What did you do anyway? How did you get inside the hole?" I tried to approach her but decided against that. The water may have washed away the smell of blood, but it had replaced it with feces and rotten eggs; not the best trade if you ask me.
"I grabbed one of those guys just as they're gettin' in the holes. They were a lot easier to deal with when they aren't poppin' all around like a whacking machine." She tried to wipe her face but gagged with her own smell. "Damn swamp water."
Without any incoming attacks and portal holes dashing around the place, I finally started to relax.
Grab one to get inside, crap, this seems really obvious in hindsight. At least we now have a way to deal with them if we're still there when they respawn.
Ranma waved a hand towards me, making grabbing motions.
"What?" I asked.
"Warm water, gimme. I want to turn back into a man... and get rid of this smell."
Oh.
That's unfortunate.
"... Hiroshi?"
"Dude... no inventory, remember? I can't access my stash."
"WHAT!?"
Poor Ranma, even inside this hell trial dimension, the guy can't catch a break. Still, her yukata was basically in tatters, so her gloriously wet pair of tits was practically open to the whole world to see.
You win some. You lose some.
The floor bosses being stronger and smarter versions of the mob enemies killed my good mood.
-0-0-0-
It did not seem to be of much importance before, but as we ascended the floors, the organic growths in the walls, floors, and ceiling appeared to be slowly overtaking the wooden parts of the temple. The fifth floor was practically a series of pulsating entrails with the floor under our feet's being the only part not being completely made of meat.
Why this is important? Well, besides adding to the creepy factor, it means that every time something blew up, it usually resulted in a shower of blood, gore, and more importantly, bone shrapnel.
Bone shrapnel that were projected everywhere like fucking grenades.
I yanked a thin bone from my chest before diving out of the way of a projectile that destroyed the mass of meat I was using as cover. My enemy cackled her lungs out as I was forced to run away again.
Fucking long-range specialist man!
I had to duck and roll to dodge a screaming Ranma as she burst out of the darkness and bounced painfully against the walls. Her body folded over an unseen force as it dragged her from left to right.
"I told you to dodge the arrows!" I shouted at her but I don't think she'd heard it. In any case, I was forced to duck again as more projectiles rained down around me.
Balls, literally balls, not even steel or stone balls, but colorful little spheres you can find in any festival around japan. My Japanese mind dug up the word 'Temari ball' to associate them with, apparently, it was an old type of Japanese toy that was popular to this day.
And that cackling bitch, the only female-looking blood golem so far, is using it as a weapon, throwing or kicking them at me with enough strength to obliterate anything she hits.
One of the projectiles got too close to my liking so I responded by striking it with my bat. That should have been a winning strategy against her, and in fact, it was exactly that in the initial stages of the fight. But then the bitch removed the top of her kimono to show her muscular torso and small, sash-bounded chest and promptly grew two additional pair of arms to throw shit with. So at this point she could simply launch more balls than what I could reliably strike back.
I struck two more balls before I was forced to take off running again. My enemy went back to destroy all the possible cover I could use while I wove my way through her bullets.
She abruptly stopped laughing and jumped backward to increase the distance— crap, she saw through my attempts to approach while making it look like I was running blindly.
"HAH!" Ranma suddenly got herself in the way of the projectiles and kicked some of them to the side. "You haven't taken her out yet!" She had the audacity to complain.
"I don't see you having better luck with your guy!" I bit back, and just as I said that the arrows came flying out of the darkness.
Not arrows like weapons, arrows like the drawings you see indicating directions on traffic sign. Ranma's enemy used this as his projectiles; I hadn't seen him since the start of the battle.
I threw myself away from them and Ranma... got hit directly— goddamn it!
"DAMN IT!" Ranma echoed my sentiment as she dragged along by the directional force the arrows produced.
Deciding to regroup after my failed strategy, I followed after her.
"I told you to dodge the damn arrows!" I repeated the words from before as I ran along.
"WHAT DAMN ARROWS!?" She shouted back before her face slammed on the floor.
"What do you mean!?" I grabbed her before she could be pushed against the sharp bones spike that stalactite'd on the ceiling, and pulled her to her feet till she kept pace beside me. "THESE!"
A wall of meat exploded and— the Temari balls? Wait the directional arrows were in the Temari balls
OH SHIT!
A storm broke through the area as several balls being dragged by the force arrows hammered against everything from weird and impossible angles. Pain exploded from anywhere they managed to land as my body tumbled away.
"HAYHTATATATATA!" I heard Ranma lashing out against the projectiles aiming for her and decided to follow her example. After a few painful gut and back shots, I managed to destroy the ones targeting me.
"They combined their fucking attacks!" I growled out, stepping over the heap of organic material that had been detached from the walls by the assault.
"Those crazy balls things!?" Ranma babbled, she still had her guard raised, her bouncing chest heaving with her fast breathing.
"Yeah, that's what I said. Wait, you said can't see the arrows?" Is that why she was having so much trouble?
"What. ARROWS!?" She shouted in frustration.
More combined projectiles came. Jerking explosively from every angle, making impossible turns while coming towards us. With instinctual synchronization, Ranma and I bumped our backs together and started attacking the projectiles before they could hit us. We failed a few times but managed to weather the storm well enough.
This will not last, though. Soon, the female Blood Golem will appear, and after she got us in her view she won't stop shooting, I knew that from experience.
"Right, new plan, you get ball bitch and I take care of arrow guy." I barked.
"What arr- You know what, screw it! Change targets right? Got it!"
The cackling bitch stepped out of the darkness ahead, already launching several balls towards us. Behind her, the directional arrows came and pierced a few of her temari balls in the air, and making them shift in random trajectories.
After a split-second decision, I spent an ounce of my precious, recovering Mp to blow up the combined projectiles in the air, leaving only the normal ones for Ranma to deal with.
I dashed in the direction the arrows came from, making my way across the dark hallways. More arrows came flying at me, and they were certainly harder to dodge than the temari balls, but it was doable, in fact, I can easily state that they were barely managed to delay my progress.
However, it soon became apparent why Ranma wasn't able to deal with this guy. He did not show up, preferring to stay hidden in the distance while shooting at the enemy, and the dark ambient, with winding, organic corners, almost seems to be strategically designed to give him field advantage.
I wasn't able to get a single glimpse of him.
It wasn't impossible though, I noticed that if I got too close he had to stop shooting to relocate, couple that with the fact that he doesn't have the firepower to take me down and it was a matter of time before I find him, I only needed to keep the pressure on...
Where are the damn arrows?
I darted my eyes around me while I ran, trying to spot anything. It was taking too long for him to resume shooting this time around; did I take the wrong turn?
Wait a second—
CRAP!
I turned back and ran towards the sound of crashes and explosions Ranma's fight was producing.
What I found was the vindicating sight of a battered and bruised female blood golem who was quickly retreating, and Ranma locked within a storm of jerking projectiles.
Motherfucker avoided me and went for Ranma. Fucking damn it!
And that, that might be the worst thing about this trial, it wasn't that the enemies were getting stronger, it was that they are getting smarter.
I moved to help Ranma... and then I stopped.
Ranma was... She wasn't getting hit; in fact, she was practically dancing around the projectiles with flashy movements that reminded me a lot of Dance Dance Revolution of all things. Occasionally her fist or her legs would shot up to break apart a projectile or two, all in precise, perfectly timed movement that helped with her flow.
The new moves she was displaying weren't the reason I stopped to watch, however, nor was the way her toned definition undulated harmoniously together as her womanly curves bounced. No, for the first time in a while, I didn't pay attention to that fact.
What I noticed were her wounds. Purple bruises, claw marks, stab wounds, jutting bone shrapnel, blood, sweat, swamp water, and god-knows-what covered her from head to toe. Ranma didn't have the Gamer she couldn't shrug it all off and continue on regardless of the state of her body... but she was, wasn't she? She wasn't showing how tired she was, she was powering through so well even I took this long to notice how many hits she took.
Can she power through to the end of this trial? How much damage can she accumulate before crashing? Honestly, I do believe she can take more than this.
But it doesn't mean I should ignore what was already there.
Healing... no chance, I'm good at pulling shit out of my ass in a pinch but I'm not quite as good as to simply will my crude mana shaping to heal someone, I tried before and failed each time. But I had other ways to lessen Ranma's burden.
An evil-looking magical circle formed on the floor in front of me and I sighed in relief. It seems my Summon Cardian skill wasn't affected by whatever had canceled out my inventory and my IB related skills, so it means we could at least get some damn reinforcements.
I should have done that on the first floor, but I'd underestimated the difficulties ahead.
Last time I'll make this mistake, I swear it.
A loud crash told me that Ranma had managed to get out of the projectile storm. A quick glance to the side showed her running after a surprised-looking female blood golem. I smiled at the sight; just wait Ranma, soon there would be three against two.
Where the fuck is the arrow guy- oh, goddamn it!
Just as I thought that a series of arrows flying in opposite directions struck my torso at the same time. I could practically feel my organs getting torn apart by the opposing forces, taking away a good portion of my Hp with it. I fell to my knee, couching and wheezing out what seemed like a liter of blood and a few important-looking pieces of flesh.
Well, that's a distressing sight.
I heard footsteps approaching from the side. Ah, there is the fucker. He seems to be one of those eternally closed eyes bastards you see in every anime, and he had a sophisticated air around him that made me want to punch him in the face out of principle. Other than that and a fancier kimono, there wasn't anything that really differentiated him from all the other monsters we fought.
He raised his hands and— okay, his eyes are on his hands, so gross – With a blink multiple arrows appeared around me, trapping me in a deadly cage.
I had only one thing to say to that. So I spat some leftover blood to the side and opened my mouth.
"Hey man, thanks for confirming I don't need to concentrate to keep a skill active."
The lack of reaction was disappointing, but the flash of light made up for it. In instants, Minon was on top of him—
"FALION!"
Or maybe not.
Rather than the two hundred pounds sexy amazon, a blur of pink and white and flashes of steel fell over him. The very distinct sounds of "NyaNyaNyaNyaNyaNya!" Echoed over the corridors while bits and pieces of what used to be a human-sized blood golem flew about and splashed all around the place in a show that would make most serial killers blush.
"Nyah~" The... cat girl, yep, cat girl let out a thoughtfully satisfied sight before snapping her head towards me.
Two huge yellow eyes with spit pupils blinked gleefully in my direction, and her fanged smiled would have probably won her some prizes for its adorableness if her face and the front side of her body weren't completely covered in blood.
Unnamed.
Cardian of The Chariot
Level 10.
"Nyah~!" The catgirl suddenly mewled right at my face, making me flinch back and curl up from the pain in my insides. "I finished with this one master! I wanna kill more. Can I? Can I? Can I? Pleaseeee master? Tell me who to kill! Please! Please! Please! I promise I'll kill them real good! Falion!"
Well, that... certainly matched the worrying number of knives she had on her person; two on her hands, two hidden on her puffy socks and boots, a bunch tied up around her corset.
They're not even daggers, just kitchen and butcher knives of various shapes and sizes.
"Masterrrrr!" She whined.
I gurgled another wave of blood, this one I couldn't avoid getting all over myself, shit. That drew the catgirl's attention to my blooded, muscular torso... O..kay, not sure what to think about the look she gave me.
Himiko Toga as a pink-haired cat girl. Got it. Must direct her attention away from me before I died by stabbing snu snu!
"There!" I pointed at the last remaining enemy. "Kill her!" After a moment of consideration, I added. "Don't kill that one," I said, pointing at Ranma.
The cat girl's face lit up like a kid on Christmas. "Nyatta!" She jumped to her feet, pulling another pair of knives to hold between her fingers, and then another one to put it in her mouth like some crazy pirate swordsman. "Just you wait master, I'll bring you her head! Falion!" She managed to speak normally despite biting on the handle of the knife, somehow.
With a last battle cry of 'Nyah~" She was off.
A few seconds passed while I stared at nothing, then I decided to just laid back and wait for my organs to pop back into their proper place.
-0-0-0-
"Hiroshi! w-w-what is that!?" Ranma shouted at my face while pointing at Falion, who had apparently decided that opening wounds in the organic walls and watching as they bleed was a banger idea.
I held back a sigh. Ranma hadn't told me about his fear of cats yet, so it meant I had to play the fool with this whole catgirl situation. This would've been amusing as heck if I wasn't tired, dirty, bloody, and right in the middle of Hell Trial: Flesh Labyrinth Edition.
... Still a bit amusing though.
"That is Falion." The catgirl perked up at the mention of her new name. "Remember the cow lady that follows me around from time to time? Gave all the girls in our class inferiority complexes? She's like her. New minion."
"She is a cat!" Ranma half stated half screamed, her voice strained.
"Girl." I finished for her. And now I must treat this carefully. "What is it to you?"
For the following minutes, I got to witness Ranma going through a complex rollercoaster of emotions, as she started to explain, gagged on her explanation, produced a series of exasperated, yet indescribable noises with her throat while gestured madly at the offending catgirl, tried to voice her explanation again, processing to stumble on her words, and then reinstated the whole process.
It was sad, adorable, and funny all rolled up in a single package, with highly distracting boobs jiggling underneath.
"Hi!" Somewhere along the way, Falion decided to introduce herself. Ranma, of course, let out a cute little cry and jumped behind me. "I am Falion! All-purpose Cardian ready to unleash murder upon my master's enemies! Nice to me you, falion!"
Sweet Jesus, I know the 'mass murderer cutesy girl' was a meme back where I come from, but hearing one act like that in real life was unnerving, to say the least.
And she was cute though; long, pink hair tied in two thick twintails, a pink and white puffy outfit that wasn't lacking in the frills department, a tight brown corset accentuating her thin waist and full breasts, white stocking, white garterbelt, and puffy sock on her legs. Overall, she looked like a girl right out of a cutesy magical girl... though the roll of sharp knives put a dent on that angle.
'Course, Ranma, unlike me, was only focused on her tail and ears.
I looked back at the semi-naked girl pressed tightly against my back. "You know, you're a lot more touchy-feeling when you're a girl."
"I'm not a girl! Shut up!" She passed her arms over my shoulder and jabbed her finger at Falion. "G-Get rid of her!"
The catgirl's ears twitched curiously at Martial Artist's reaction. Seeing that she suddenly leaned close, making Ranma let out a little shriek. A slow, shit-eating grin grew on the cat's mouth.
"Nyah~!" Falion cried out while she lunged towards Ranma, because of course she did.
I sighed again as I became the pillar that separated the girls while they chased/tried to escape one another. Ranma, letting out a storm of curses and threatening violence the entire time, while Falion just giggling and making grabbing motions, the reactions just egging her own.
As amusing as this is, I couldn't afford to let this keep going.
"Alright, stop!" I yelled, stunning both girls. I ignored Falion who was behind me and grabbed Ranma by the shoulders.
"Look, I don't know what's your problem with her but this isn't the time," I explained firmly. "I can't get rid of her because I'm out of magic, so I won't be able to summon her again. And we need her to fortify our position."
To Ranma's credit, she straightened back pretty fast. "What? We're not goin' to continue!?" She demanded with an acid frown. The thought of giving up in the middle of a trial, even an uncalled one, was probably utterly appalling to her.
"We will continue, but we need to rest first."
"We already rested! I can keep going!" Ranma immediately insisted.
"I'm not doubting you." I cut in just as fast; there is no time for some anime misunderstanding bullshit that would make her storm ahead or something equally dumb. I had to make this clear. "But I need to get my health and magic back up, and we need to treat what wounds you have now before we tackle stronger foes than we've already faced." Honestly, I didn't know how could I would treat her injuries while semi-naked in the middle of a horror zone, but that's beside the point. If we stop to at least completely refill my magic it will already make a difference.
Ranma was still frowning. "Those two will come back..."
"We already know how to deal with them, and we have Falion now." I shook my head. "We are not giving up, Ranma, we're just slowing down."
"Fine. Geez." Ranma rolled her eyes and brushed my hands out of her shoulders. The sounds of a curious mewl from Falion made her visibly shiver. "But you keep that thing away from me!"
"She's a person, don't be rude. But ok, deal." I turned and glared at Falion a bit. She tried to look innocent. "And you, stop trying to teasing poor Ranma. He's scared enough as it is."
"S-Scared!? I'm not scared!" Ranma initiated her usual anime routine but I tuned her out.
Ok. First, we should relocate to some dark corner somewhere where the respawning enemies wouldn't find us so easily. Then we will have to deal with Ranma's wounds somehow, there is no water so there is no way to reliably clean them, and the surroundings certainly didn't help with that so we'll have to make do with straps of Falion's outfit for cleaning and warpping. I could also deal with some of the dislocated joints she no doubt must have, and there was that deep muscle massage Rin taught me that should help with her bruising... But everything was a band-aid solution.
"... If only we had a healer," I mumbled out loud.
"Hai!" Falion shot her hand up.
I could try to make some healing magic when my Mp comes back. I had failed every single time I tried that before, but I never had another body to tried out before— No, that could go royally wrong and we couldn't afford to fuck this up...
I snapped my head to look at Falion. "What did you just- You're healer!?"
"Ke ke ke, I am the all-purpose Cardian, master. No ability is outside my purrfolio, falion!" She declared, puffing her chest in smug cat pride.
... You know, one day, I will sit down and start to seriously question my luck. Because, truth be told, ever since I stepped into this world I've been suspiciously lucky all around, to the point it would raise some eyebrow if I put all the occasions on a paper. But this isn't the day, today I shall milk this luck for all it's worth.
"Show me," I commanded.
"Yes!" My Cardian happily agreed, then she dipped her head. "Pet me!"
"... This really isn't the time for that." No matter how much I want to...
"Pet me, master!" The catgirl insisted with a pout.
"... 'lright, fuck it." I place my hand over her head and start to stroke her fluffy cat ears.
This is dumb, like, seriously dumb, I'm all for petting a catgirl, but doing so in the middle of a horror setting zone with monsters that are probably just about to respawn isn't exactly what I call a good idea. But thinking logically maybe it's related to her healing—
Fluffy ear~
Fluffy~~~
Pink clouds flying up~ Chocolate berries singing along~ Happy bees buzzing about~ Pink~ Pink~Piiiink~
Yaaaaaaay~
...
...
What the name of anime Jesus was that!?
"Bitch, what have you done with him!?" I heard Ranma demanding.
"Nyah! I just healed master! No shouting or I kill!"
"Bah," I gurgled out, blinking dumbly for the disorientation and the lack of pain on my insides.
"Oi Hiroshi! You alright!? Did the cat drug you!? I knew we shouldn't have trusted her!"
"I'm alright." More than that, I'm healed!
... Less than I would have liked, but my Hp bar was certainly higher than before.
Don't know if the momentary hallucination was worth this relatively meager amount but beggars can't be choosers.
Ranma had placed her semi-naked self between me and Falion during my seconds in lalaland, I poked her in the back until she looked at me.
"Alright, I confirmed that she can heal, your turn. Pet the cat, Ranma."
All colors dropped from Ranma's face, and I realized what I just said.
Oh dear, this will be more difficult than I thought.
-0-0-0-
In the end, everything turned up all right!
I don't know exactly how much time we spend holed up on the fifth floor, but it was enough for us to make a nearly full recovery. Much more than I hoped for when I decided to stop.
We had to work with Falion's limitations, however; turns out being the 'all-purpose Cardian' really did mean being the jack-of-all-trades, master of nothing. According to her, she could do pretty much everything another Cardian's could, and could bring the highest number of abilities with her when she was summoned, but she only had a small fraction of the effectiveness of a Cardian specifically designed for a particular purpose. So her hallucinogenic healing ability (which was more of a self-healing skill pushed into another person) didn't, well, heal all that much, and she could only do it three times before needing to recharge.
Not much use in battle, but there was nothing stopping us from cheesing the fuck out of it camping in the corner and spamming her healing. Even though I had to hold a trembling Ranma against my chest so she didn't escape and force her hand to stay on Falion's fluffy ears – she was cool with it after some retribution punches.
I hadn't brought forward the subject of her fear, but Ranma, without a single prompt, promised she'd explain later anyway. I took that for the vote of confidence it was.
The ball bitch and arrow fucker popped up a few times, but with Falion with us and our increasingly healed self they weren't nearly a troublesome as the first time.
After all of that was wrapped up, we ascended to the sixth floor.
Oh dear, things are already different.
"We will fight spider enemies on this floor." I declared confidently.
"Haah? What's that?" Ranma asked. She had bound her large chest with a strap of Falion's outfit. A pity, but ease of movement is more important than glorious sight.
"The webbing," I said pointing at the thick weaves of spider webs that hung over the fleshy walls. It made things darker somehow. "Universal rule says that where there are webs this size, there are giant spiders we have to kill." I won't deny I shuddered a bit at the prospect, giant arachnids were fine in video games but I wasn't looking forwards to facing one in real life.
Ranma noticed that and grinned. "Ehhh, what's wrong Hiroshi? 'fraid of little bugs?"
"Bug!" Falion shouted right beside the martial artist. Destroying Ranma's teasing expression and making her let out a short scream. "Can I kill them!?"
Note to self; give the cat a treat later.
...unfortunately, this wouldn't be the end of Ranma's smugness.
"Hey, Hiroshi."
"Shut up."
"Giant spiders Hiroshi, shouldn't we prepare to fight them?"
"Shut up."
"They must be behind those guys, Hiroshi, What do you think, Hiroshi?"
"Shut the fuck up, Ranma." I gripped my brow while Ranma and Falion cackled away at each of my sides. I shouldn't have to deal with this.
Fucking samurais, not giant spiders. Let's move on.
The Japanese part of my brain wanted to connect their appearance to some Meijin-era police force, not samurai. Hmm, no, the uniforms didn't match. Heck, if I didn't know any better I'd said they were wearing modern-day male school uniforms. Oh, and there is a girl among them too, how diverse for samurais.
Regardless, they were mob with swords holding surprisingly solid martial stances. Though their movements were a little... jerky...
"Look. See!" I cried out triumphantly, pointing the tip of my bat to the encroaching enemies. "They got spider webs all over them. There is probably some giant spider controlling them at a distance!"
The closest samurai slashed at me with speeds that would make Kuno jealous. I felt the strength behind his swing as I parried it to the side. His attack immediately flowed into another, forcing me to jump back.
Still, I knew the guy's weak spot, so his next attack had me jumping over his blade and swinging a chainsaw bat over him, cutting the strings that were controlling his limbs.
He fell down like a... well, like a puppet who had its strings cut, and his body liquefying into a pool of blood on the spot. From his absence, came the flashing steel of another enemy, who immediately took his place and thrust his blade at me.
Ok, the fuckers were skilled; I'll give them that.
Another stringless puppet samurai turned to blood at my feet and I risked a look at my allies. Falion was crashing against her enemies in a loud maelstrom of flashing blades, cutting just as much as she was being cut. Ranma was neatly dispatching hers with what appeared to be anti-swordsmen's techniques that kinda reminded me of the ninjutsu Rin had shown me, though she did have some superficial slashes no doubt from getting cocky at the start.
I jumped away from the swords again and checked the area. There were more samurai conversing into our location.
Fuck that.
"Ranma, Falion, disengage!" I shouted as I launched myself up and stepped over some samurai's faces. One of the first things Ranma taught me was that people are rarely prepared to have their faces used as a stepping-stone. "Let's go for the source!"
It took some moments but soon the two eventually escaped and began following me as I ran across the corridors.
"Oi, what do you mean the source!?" Ranma called after me.
I didn't even look back, just kept my eyes on the web.
"The giant spider!"
It wasn't a goddamn giant spider.
It was gorgeous, white-haired, Milf sitting on top of a huge lump of flesh with red dots decorating her serene face and multiple strings stretching from her delicate fingers.
... She reminds me of a spider? S-Shut up!
"Is she the 'source'?" Ranma asked, making a face.
Distraction! "Yeah! Can't you see the webs?"
"What webs?"
What was he talk... Ah, same situation as the arrows.
"God, you're so blind sometimes, Ranma,"
"Hey!"
The woman slowly raised her hands and I instantly raised my bat in a guard whatever she was about to throw at us. I couldn't see any of her puppets in the room but who knows how many surprises there could be hidden in the dark—
I almost blacked out for a second as an eruption of pain exploded over me in the form of a hit on my side. I felt like I was going to be torn in two before the world shifted violently around me and I was sent flying through multiple organic obstacles.
When I finally stopped being the poster child for ragdoll I vomited all that worth of pain in blood. A quick glance down showed a perfect impression of a feminine footstep deforming the muscles of my abdomen, and a brief check informed me lost half of my Hp just from that alone.
Jesus, I was proving to be quite the zombie tonight, hm?
Should I be worried about the ease I pushed the pain away? I feel like I should. I mean, I just received a legit, no-hold-barred kick from Saotome goddamn Ranma, I feel like I should take a breather and maybe cry a little, but nope, pain is just an illusion non-Gamers plebs tell themselves to deal with their inherent inferiority. Fuck pain, I was beyond that.
I forced myself back to my feet with shaking limbs, and then ran across the long trail of destruction my passage left behind.
"Hiroshi!" Ranma shouted as I popped back into the spider milf's room. "I didn't mean to do that!"
"Yeah, no shit." She was absolutely covered in strings, if I had to guess it was from when she was getting close and personal with the puppet samurais.
A battered Falion was facing her. The catgirl promptly took advantage of the martial artist's apparent distraction to lunge at her. Unfortunately, Ranma's movements weren't dependent on her attention, so she got kicked out of the room much like I was a moment ago.
All right, let's deal with this.
"Hold on, Ranma, I know just to deal with this," I said, and then dashed towards her at full speeds.
The martial artist was somehow moving like herself even though she was being controlled by another, so there was no way in hell I could win against her. However, I spent weeks familiarizing myself with the way Ranma moved in combat, and I was at least strong enough to give her sometrouble. So when Ranma move to meet my charge head-on, I noped out of the way in the last second and went for the strings with my chainsaw bat.
The displacing kick nearly took my wrist out of the socket. Before I could even blink, Ranma was palming me away from her and making me bounce painfully over the floor and then against the wall.
I stayed leaning there for a second while my double vision went back to normal. Ok, this won't be as easy as I imagined.
"I'm so sorry!"
"I know." I groaned as I pushed myself to my feet. Woah, Ranma actually sounded pretty distressed.
Shaking my head out of the last of the dizziness. I raised my bat toward my pale-looking martial artist friend locked in a fighting stance. Before casually moving my aim to the spider milf and shooting a Mana Bolt toward her head.
It exploded against Ranma's guard, as she was suddenly on the way.
Jesus Christ! This is rapidly turning worst possible scenario, isn't it?
Ranma grinned her teeth in pain as the skin of her arms finished fizzling. Her eyes open wide with realization. "S-She is controlling me!"
"Yep!" I agreed, trying to keep my tone calm as I surveyed my options. I could see the strings, there was that at least, I just needed some way to cut them without giving the opportunity for Ranma to stop me.
Hm, time to Krillin my Mana Bolt into a magical cutting disc!
The Milf spider twitched her fingers again, and I braced myself to an attack. Parry or dodge, I got to parry or dodge!
It never came.
Ranma... Ranma stayed in place, a low growl echoing from her throat and slowly growing in volume. All of her muscles bulging with effort.
Wait, is she?
"UWAHHHHHHHHH!"
Ranma moved.
A loud crack resonated across the area. The spider woman looked down to see one of her fingers bending completely backward.
Ranma did not stop moving, she turned back and stomped her way toward the spider woman, the sounds of fingers cracking and splitting apart accompanying her every step.
When Ranma came to stand over the enemy, the woman's hands were an unrecognizable mass of gore and shattered bones. She calmly raised her melancholic green eyes back, her serene expression never moving an inch even as a roundhouse kick burst her head open like a rotten watermelon.
Ranma collapsed to the floor, breathing hard against the dark wood.
That broke the paralyzing spell that had seemly descended over my body; I put my bat and way and ran toward my fallen friend. Kneeling next to her.
"Ranma, you're alright?" I said, hovering a hand over her sweaty, sickly pale form. That hand was quickly caught in a tight grip.
"Hiroshi, I'm so sorry, man." Ranma croaked out from between her heavy breath. God, how much effort that stunt must have taken from her?
"It's alright dude, I can't really fault you for the actions of an enemy." I bend down and pulled her arm over my shoulder. "Come on, let's get you up."
I bore most of her weight as she tried to steady her legs under her. Her body pressed against mine, head still downcast.
"I'm sorry, I just... Losin' control of my body like that... It made me feel so... Fuck." She continued to mumble quietly.
I only nodded and kept silent as she pulled herself together. It didn't feel right to let things stay like this, so I added. "It was pretty metal."
"... Hm?" She looked up.
"The way you got rid of her control, it was metal as fuck, very awesome," I said, alternating between English and Japanese for her to understand.
"Metal as fuck." She repeated in that atrocious English that sounded adorable in her female form. Then she shook her head a bit. "I guess it was... Damn, right it was!" She finished with a growing grin, pushing herself off me before "Gah! Crap!" She went rigid, and I had to hold her again to prevent her from falling. "I think I pulled something." She added a bit comically.
I just grinned, saying "We better find Falion to take care of it then." And enjoying as Ranma face acquired the biggest 'oh shit' expression I ever saw.
It was at that point that the aforementioned cat girl burst out from the wall.
"Hi, Master! I can't control my body so I'll probably try to kill you! Kill me before that happens, ok?" She spoke way too cheerfully.
Sure enough, the same type of strings that were wrapped on Ranma was now wrapped on her, and they led to a different place.
Oh great, the spider milf was this floor's mob monster.
-0-0-0-
There is only a single answer for a mob monster as troublesome as the spider milf, and that is to run the fuck towards the boss.
Of course, that wasn't a simple prospect, we were working with the thought that if the mob monster was that troublesome, imagine how much bullshit the boss would be. So we hid, we healed, we made plans and strategies, and we avoided the fuck out of the puppet samurais, before finally going to the boss.
I can safely say we were ready for war.
Imagine our surprise when the boss turnedout to be a hulk-like beast with a grotesque spider head, and not a stronger version of the spider milf or something equally unreasonable.
Ranma and I nearly sighed in relief. There wasn't any bullshit with that guy; no tricks, no hidden abilities, no devilishly intelligent, just good ol' fist-a-cuff against a murderous berserker monster that was twice as strong and tough as Ryoga.
Practically therapeutic, really.
Needless to say, we were in a good mood after we utterly thrashed the boss using classic anti-Kuno tactics and ascended towards the seventh floor.
For me, the good mood only lasted till I had a look at the floor itself.
"Finally!" Ranma exclaimed, brightly. "Screw that cheap horror movie look! Fresh air!" She pulled a long, drawn-out breath and instantly fell into a coughing fit. "'lright, not so fresh."
"Nyah?" Falion looked around curiously, before her ears and tails dropped in disappointment, probably for the lack of bleeding walls.
And I just... stood there, paralyzed.
At the first glance, the grotesque, organic growths that were covering the temple from the start and were growing steadily worse as we ascended had seemly disappeared. A more attentive looker would notice that they didn't disappear so much as... fused with the temple almost thoroughly that it formed a brownish, fossilized layer over everything that looked almost like normal wood in the lack of light.
There were no walls, no hallways, no furniture; just a huge open space similar to a warehouse, framed by mighty pillars of fossilized flesh. It was dark, but not like the previous floors, you can actually see the other side of the room, where the tellings of a gate appeared in the gloom.
And standing in the distance between this gate and us, was a short figure in snow-white kimono looking at us with emotionless, alien eyes.
... Shit, the only thing missing was the boss music.
"Look alive guys, this isn't over."
Both the Martial artist and the catgirl looked up at my words. I pointed with my bat to direct their eyes to the figure.
Ranma frowned. "It's a kid."
"Take it from me, man, in this circumstance it just means he's super strong," I said.
And then we died.
I died actually, I felt the unseeing force passing through my body, I felt as my meat and bone lose consistency and flew away as tiny cubes of flesh, I felt my head being severed from my neck and spinning in the air.
"GET AWAY!"
These words brought me back to reality, as did Ranma's body impacting me midair as she picked up the slack of my reaction jump and turned it into a proper leap. A powerful shockwave rolled over where we were standing, and the surface of two nearby pillars was neatly cut in several dozen places.
I saw lines gleaming ominously in the dark as Ranma and I landed.
"Spider webs," I muttered.
What was surely the final boss had taken to the air and was now looming menacingly over the whole area, the gleam beneath his feet told me he was standing on a web rather than flying, several other gleams showed that the whole of the ceiling was covered in webbings.
"See," I said to a pale Ranma who was looking at the boss in wide-eyed surprise. "Super strong."
With a brief hand motion, the boss sent web after web of whirling death at us, carving deep lines over the ground and pillars as it slashed through all they passed. It gave us no choice other than to mad dash out of the way of the attacks.
It was hard to focus as the sharp slashing sounds echoed all over, occasionally followed by booming crashes as a supporting pillar finally gave out under the relentless assault. The ground all but disintegrating under my feet, with only the mysterious bullshit that kept this zone's structural integrity preventing the whole floor from collapsing over the one beneath it. I couldn't think of anything other than running and dodging. The flashes of pain and the trickling of my Hp bar punished all my failures.
I couldn't let this continue I realized, so I took a gamble; I went against my developing fighting instincts and rolled my body into a hasty jump, receiving a deep cut on my shoulder from the improper dodge but riding the momentum of the attack until to put me in the perfect position to aim at the little spider fucker.
My Mana Bolt flew across the distance between us, but even as it exited my hand I knew it was too slow. With almost insulting ease, the boss leaned his body to the side letting the projectile pass without taking a single step. He raised his hand to end me— before changing his motion midway to shred a large piece of debris that was tossed in his direction from the opposite side.
I didn't need to look to know that Ranma was making good use of the pieces of that collapsed pillar, so I simply ready my bat and started to strike Mana Bolt at the enemy. This time, with the speed boost provided by my swings, they weren't as simple to avoid.
Still, the boss moved like a ballerina in the air. Each step he took was a short, graceful leap towards another web. Like me, Ranma kept up the assault, yet no debris could reach him and the closest one turned to dust before they could. My Mana bolts were mostly being avoided, with the occasional piece of debris being redirected on their way to act as a shield.
He was too far to reach without the risk of being shredded, and the distance was too great for our attacks to be effective. But this was better than before, at the very least we've managed to give back some of what he was throwing at us back, the psychological effect of finally biting back after scurrying around the place like rats— And fucking Ranma was flying towards him.
He immediately answers this by lashing out with three cutting threads coming from different directions. Ranma, in direct opposition to the laws of physics and common sense, twisted her body out of the way of the attacks somehow, only to have a fishing web-like formation thrown at her.
My Banishing Mana Bolt struck the martial artist on her side catapulting her out of the way of the danger. The boss instantly swirled around and focused on me.
A flush of blue flames erupted from the battlefield and spread across the ceiling. I blinked in surprised at the unexpected development and as I watch was the fire rapidly trailed over the spider webs spreading all across the place I figured it was a good thing.
Then I had to jump out of the way of a flaming spider web as it slashed and burned everything behind me.
His attacks were even harder to dodge now he wasn't staying put in a single position. I did my best to weave, roll and dance around the attacks until I bumped my back against a Pillar; the only thing in the room that could provide some extent of cover.
"Hey," Ranma said next to me.
I did not let out a little yelp of surprise, shut up!
Ranma was... well, Ranma was a harrowing sight; her improvised chest binder was all but a memory, as was the crusty, bloody, dirty male underwear that has been holding on all night, normality a naked female Ranma would have been a more than welcoming view, but right now all I could focus was the countless cuts lingering all over her form. Small and long, shallow and deep... none severe enough to put her out of the fight, but too many, way too many. If she was a normal person, she would have fallen into shock long ago.
... I suppose I wasn't in a much better state, funny how fast that came to be. Two naked, bloodied, bros fighting a boss that would turn them into small cubes at the first opportunity.
"Hey yourself," I eventually answered. "So, flaming webs..."
She grinned. "I know right! I can finally see his attacks."
"Wait wait, wait, what! Then how the hell did you dodge- you know what, never mind." I wipe some of the blood that was getting on my eyes. "We got to invest in better long-range attacks after we get out of this."
"Yep." Ranma agreed, sounding a bit more cheerful than before. "Any ideas?"
I spied some of the flaming spider webs hanging on the ceiling around the pillar and going to the corners, it was right above us. The pillar won't last much longer but it was amazing how he didn't just go around it to get us. Was he being distracted by something?
No, I'm the one getting distracted, fucking blood lost.
"Ye...Yeah, I'mma try something." I grunted.
Ranma nodded, "I'll wait for your move then." Saying that she leaped back out of cover and back into the fray. The webs managed to cut through and collapse the pillar a few seconds later.
Soon I was dancing around deathly webs again, this time forming a Mana bolt as I moved and making it hover over my palm.
Would be really nice to get a skill or a title for pulling shit out of my ass, feel like I've been doing that in every major fight I've been in... Or anything at all really, after weeks with little pings and pop screens, not having them then when shit went down was disturbing.
The Mana bolt flattened in my hand, its shape spinning using the same principle as my chainsaw bat, but at a fraction of the effort.
Unlike with the round surface of a baseball bat, making the concept of cutting stick to that was almost child play.
As soon as the spell solidified in my hand, I was making a move that would make Krillin proud and Olympic gymnasts green with envy. Leaping over razor-sharp threads in an artistic spin. I let the magical disc fly up towards the target.
It was faster than a normal Mana Bolt but slower than one propelled by my bat, in any case, the boss had plenty of time to notice the attack and move out of the way.
Doesn't matter, he wasn't the target.
As the disc flew past him, the boss tried to reposition for a counter... Only to find thread he was standing over going slack under his feet. He fell for a single second before producing another web and regaining control. A single second was enough.
"HYAHHHH!" Ranma shouted triumphantly as her feet struck the boss' face in an impact that practically reverberated throughout the room. He shot towards the ground like a meteor, landing in a booming crash that sent a cloud of dust and debris high in the air.
The cloud dissipated a moment later as spider webs shot from all sides with him at the epicenter. He leaped towards the closest web to take the high ground again.
Nope! It went slack again; just like the ones around it and the one he made to prevent his next fall.
I was on his ass now, and I wasn't about to let it go.
So I became Krillin, the banger of androids.
... Fucking blood loss.
Ranma descended upon the boss again. I couldn't see what happened but I heard the explosion it cause and saw the pieces thrown into the air along with a white blur painfully bouncing over the floors and pillars.
We finally had a chance to do damage; the biggest one we had since the fight started. But as much as it appeared like the boss wasn't good at close range, he was no less dangerous. I had to alternate between cutting the webs around the ceiling to prevent his ascent and giving Ranma support by cutting the webs projected by his direct attacks. Still, Ranma was on him, landing hits, interrupting his moves, bouncing him around. This wasn't so one-sided anymore.
It was a feint that fucked me over, until now the boss had only displayed the ability to unleash devastating attacks at a distance and move quickly move around the area, it was dumb, but neither of us was prepared when he changed strategies. I had just sent several Mana discs over to break the formation of an attack he had about to use on Ranma before a rogue thread suddenly went taut and dragged his body away from Ranma punch.
I immediately sent more discs to pass around Ranma to prevent a counter, and I was prepared in case he attempted to go back up.
The bastard went towards me instead.
In a single instant, he was landing beside me. His form now battered and bruised due to Ranma's efforts, but no less emotionless than when I've first seen him. I couldn't help but notice how his pale hair and the dots on his face made him look remarkably like the spider woman from the previous floor, and his eyes; silver over red focused completely on a singular purpose. His momentum took the long bangs off his face and I could see his second eyes and a number six kanji he had for a pupil.
A good chunk of my Mp disappeared as I poured all I could on a Chainsaw bat and swung towards—
The webs gleamed as they passed, like a ripple in a calm lake. I blinked at the dark shapes that rolled into my vision.
Ah, my arms...
They are flying away...
... I don't know what possessed me in that moment to have my next idea.
Summoning strength from god-knows-where, I lunged forwards and snatched one of my severed arms from the air with my teeth. Before the boss could do anything about it I drove the new pointy ends of my Radius and Ulna into the area where his neck met his shoulder, Rin's anatomy lessons ringing in my ears.
I yanked my arm to the side to make sure the bone broke inside the little fucker as a last fuck you. A virtual cage of webs formed around me at that point, ready to finish me up.
"AGAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Ranma screamed at the top of her lumps, somehow piercing through the webs with a spinning dropkick that struck the boss in his back. The shockwave manifested an unnatural gale in the area that caught me right in the front and sent me to test the world's ragdoll physics again, but at least it took me away from the webs.
Something snatched me up before I could stop rolling. Fucking hell, abrupt swift in momentum was giving me motion sickness.
"HIROSHI!" Ranma yelled in my face.
"H-Hey— did you pull something out of your ass in that last attack?" We're pulling shit out of our asses mid-fight buddies now!
"Your arms!"
"Ah yeah, fuck." I raised my... stumps to eye level... It wasn't pretty to see, the cuts were as clean as they come, but they were uneven and it kinda showed everybody the muscles and nerve ends and spurting blood and the color of my insides... no man should see the color of their insides.
I gulped the noise I was about to make, and instead said. "They'll grow back."
"What!?"
"My body is weird remember! Look, we don't have time for this. We have to deal with the boss before he kills us! Help me up!"
Ramna stared at me incredulously for a few moments. Then almost at slow motion, her expression closed up, a dark look crossing her eyes.
"No... you stay here." She said this and pushed my body to lean on a pillar, "I'll deal with him myself."
Naturally in the face of this horseshit, I open my mouth to protest, but the words just got caught up in my throat, the area around seemly becoming heavier... and colder...
Ranma rose to her full height, walked a short distance, and kicked my baseball bat off the ground and to her hand.
The Boss had just finished yanking my severed arm out of his shoulder. His injuries, the recent one I gave and the previous ones caused by Ranma, began to close at frightening speeds.
Then, ominous-looking threads were making a path of obliteration once again. Ranma met it head-on.
It became very clear, very quickly, that I should have given my baseball bat to Ranma long ago. Whatever ki bullshit Kuno could do to his bokken to make his bokken as sharp as a lightsaber, Ranma could do it too. So when the gleaming strings of death descended on her, she shredded a path right through it, holding my bat in a reverse grip and incorporating it into her fighting style in a way I never thought possible.
The boss leaped back, trying to create some distance, but Ranma was in his face and stayed there.
Explosions rang about as the two blurred figured dashed across the battlefield and brutal attacks flew uncontrollably from every side.
Fuck. I let out a chilled breath that I could actually see, realizing, to my surprise, that the momentary drop in temperature wasn't in just my head.
So that's what happens when an angry Ranma tries to kill you.
... And
... And I could do nothing to help, just try to follow it with my eyes, while my severely depleted Hp slowly trickled down.
"Master!"
"Gah!"
What is it with people sneaking on me behind pillars! I was trained by a ninja! This isn't supposed to happen!
"Falion?" I looked over the catgirl that I've honestly forgotten about.
She looked... about as well as Ranma and I. The only reason she wasn't naked was because she started off with more clothes in the first place, but now they are merely a collection dirty of straps clinging to her bloody and battered form.
Her large, enthusiastic smile was still on her face though, that apparently took a lot more to get rid of.
"I was trying not to get killed!" She explained chirpily. Tearing a long strap from what remained of her clothes before ripping it in two. With the two-piece of fabric in their hands, she got closer and tied each of them tightly over my stumps, finally stemming the flow of blood and stopping the trickling of Hp. "What should I do now, master?"
I let out a short burst of laughter, I didn't know why, it's just something the way she asked the question, the timing, the fact she waited after everything just to asks me that, struck me as hilarious.
"Help-" I choked a bit. "Help Ranma. I doubt you can do anything up close, so stay at a distance, giving him support where you see fit, try to maximize the damage Ranma makes, or give him openings to do more damage. Try to do the opposite to the enemy... do it at your own discretion."
That's the basics of the Kuno strategy we come up with to deal with Kuno when I was weaker than him.
"Okie Dokie, master! I'll make sure the enemy is killed! Falion!"
The catgirl formed three flickering illusionary clones and sent them running in different directions before she bolted into action herself. Leaving me behind while I struggled to hold back my laughter.
Okie Dokie. God! It reminds me so much of funny pony videos, hilarious!
The sounds of the battle raged on behind me. The webs cutting through the air bringing devastation in their wakes. Powerful crashes producing shockwaves and explosions that shook the floor. Loud flushes of blue fires streaming over all.
And I just sat there, my burst of laughter slowly turning into pain, a lot of pain, like cold knives stabbing every single one of my muscles at the same time.
Fuck, is the adrenaline coming down? The adrenaline must be coming down. A particular bad stab made me jerk, an action that brought a whole new world of aches tumbling down. I ground my teeth and tightened my fists in an attempt to bear it.
No, wait, that's right, no arms.
I brought my stumps back up again, noticing that now they weight like they're made of pure lead. Is this going to get fixed right? I mean, I distinctly remember regrowing an eye at my first encounter with the supernatural, I don't think I'll ever forget that.
I only needed to... to... rest; if I get a proper rest and this is all go away, this horrible, horrible pain. My whole body was jerking and trembling now, and it was making everything worse and worse, every motion was pain, every move was agony. I could felt my mind sinking into this circle.
My stumps hit my lap as their weight became too much to bear. I just sat there against this half-broken pillar while my friend fought for his life behind me. Useless, fucking useless, I couldn't even land any proper hit, and when the boss came for me I went down in a single move, and now I'mmoaning and gurgling like a bitch because this damn pain is overwhelming my senses.
Fuck this!
Fuck this shit!
I slammed my head against the solid pillar behind me, the impact made my mind swirl, but I did it again anyway, and again and again.
Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!Fuck!Fuck!Fuck!
My body fell to the broken floor as my attempt to move made my everything collapse under me. I blinked the blurs out of my eyes and look past the blood and sweat pouring down from me and to the useless stump that had fallen near my head.
Grinding my teeth, I raise it as high as I could before slamming it on the ground.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
The scream felt distant to my ears as bolts after bolts of coursing agony made my body trash and squirm. I took that pain and taming the energy it brought and directing it at my limbs.
The world was shifting so I brought it to halt; my legs weren't working so I force them to work anyway. My memory blanked up the process but I was on my feet again, and I was walking.
Everything hurt, so I made that my focus. And some deranged part of my mind was urging me on.
It was all I needed.
They were fighting, Ranma, Falion, and the boss, they were evenly matched. The boss hadn't taken off to the ceiling yet for some reason, without me to cut the threads I thought he would be able- Ah, his right arm was hanging limb on his side him. I remembered my last move, the piece of my broken bone is fucking up his nerves, and he can't stop and dig it out because of the pressure Ranma was putting on him. A wide grin of satisfaction nearly split my mouth.
"HEY, MOTHERFUCKER REMEMBER ME!?"
Someone- I screamed? I think I did, it doesn't matter, I wasn't focused on it. To busy bring my stumps up and focusing my mana on them.
Yeah, I'm totally Megaman'ing that bitch.
"EAT THIS!"
I focused all my pain, my rage, my willpower, and my maniac glee into this next move. With a perfect rendition of Megaman X7's main theme basting in my head for some reason, a stream of oversized Mana bolt exploded out of my stumps like a gory machine gun. My singular hatred towards my target making the bullets hone in towards the fucker.
I believe there were some reactions to my entrance, some words shouted at me or something. But they didn't matter now because the boss was standing back up again, and now his webs were glowing bright red.
I took aim and prepared for another burst.
And I'm back in the fight where I belong.
-0-0-0-
It's funny how you can lose yourself doing something.
I don't remember much of what happened next, but I felt my body moving, I felt it attacking, I felt it dodging, I felt it losing more parts it probably shouldn't be losing. I felt all of that a detached sort of way.
At some point, the world around me had been completely destroyed, with nothing to stand on but debris and wreckage. Raging blue flames illuminated everything, the best source of light we had all night, which was good because it allowed me to see the moment Ranma separated the boss' head from his broken, half-scorched body and then beat it into a pump till it liquefied into blood.
It's over.
Finally.
I wasn't really feeling much of anything anymore, so collapsing on my back was like watching an old film with missing frames, one moment I was watching a scene, and the next there was the new scene showing only the ceiling.
Something red appeared next, but by now the world had lost too much consistency to make sense of it. The colors mushed together into a confusing pool for a second, before slowly starting to ooze out to somewhere else, letting the darkness fill in.
My ears were detecting words and I think I was shaking, or being shaken, I don't know... everything was too dull, too make...
Ah shit, I better check my Hp. I think I'm dying.
-0-0-0-
"...Brilliant showing..."
"...You have exceeded all my expectations..."
"...Now come to me..."
-0-0-0-
Running water... Bird chirping... the rhythmic thuds of a Shishi-odoshi... The calming music of a spring morning stirred my awareness.
It was like waking up on a warm bed on a cold morning, my mind felt mushy and slow to respond, my body heavy but brimming with energy, I couldn't really tell the point I started noticing things rather than just feeling them...
I open my eyes to the familiar fabric of high-quality yukata I distinctly remember getting rid of after it got too bloody now covered my folded legs, the Japanese part of my mind recognized that I was in a comfortable kneeling position, with my hands resting over my thighs- my hands.
My hands... My hands! My forearms! I raised them to my eyes, testing the curl of my fingers, the roll of my wrists, the tightness of my fists.
My arms are back!
And not just that, I wasn't feeling any pain anymore. A brief glance was all it took to see that all the injures I've been accumulating, healing, reopening, and aggravating throughout the night were gone. Being completely free of pain after hours and hours of powering through an ever-increasing amount of it felt almost strange to me now.
"Gah! Murgumughnslhn..." A short gasp following by the zombie-like murmuring of an individual who does not function well during early mornings brought my attention to my side, where I found Ranma kneeling next to me, trying to blink the haziness out of her eyes. She was still female and was also wearing the yukata she got rid of before. The outfit couldn't properly close over her chest - being build for a different body type - so I noticed that much like me, she was completely uninjured.
"Ranma?" I called, which caused her to visibly jolt to full awakeness and look at me. "The hell happened?"
Her stare lasted for a few seconds, to which I could only look back dumbly. Then, I was tackled to the ground by a red missile.
"HIROSHI!"
"GAHHHHH!"
I take it back! Being free of pain wasn't strange at all! Put me back in that blissful state! Ohmyfuckinggod my spine!
"Let me go you crazy bitch!"
"You're alive!"
"Not if you keep this up!"
It took some fumbling around, but eventually, I was able to unhook her arms from my abused sides and push her back a little. Goddamn, I couldn't even appreciate the boob press if the press is this hard.
Wait a second.
"Dude, you're crying?"
Never before in both of my lives I've seen someone express record scratching before, I swear I could even hear the sound.
Ranma jumped back, her arm quickly wiping the totally-not-tears from her eyes. "I'm not cryin'!"
Being the friend that I was, I pressed on. "Aww, it's ok, dude, I'd totally cry for you if our roles were reversed"
"I'm not crying, shut up!" She shouted and stepped over my grinning face.
So easy.
"Kyah! D-Did you just lick my foot, bastard!?"
"D-Did you just 'kyah' at me!"
I. Will. Never, let her live this down.
Our bickering continued until it grew physical, as they often did, with punches and kicks, and a wrestling match that saw Ranma sitting on my lower back and pulling my legs backward while I screamed.
By the end, we were sweaty, lightly bruised... and feeling infinitely better.
I pushed myself from the floor and sat back up again. "Alright, seriously now, the hack happened, where the hell are we?" I asked because this certainly wasn't a place I've been to before.
A vast, Japanese-style room that reminded me of the interior of the Temple, it was scarce in decoration but it felt... richer somehow, the tatami felt softer, the woods of the structure looked sturdier, the colors looked more vibrant. One side opened to reveal a well-care-for garden, with a crystalline stream crossing right in the middle. Beyond that said garden the land slopped into a mountainous horizon, with thigh clouds zigzagging around forested peaks.
Ranma just panted on the floor for a few moments, before she sat back up and shrug helplessly. "... You died." She explained, looking at a fixed point on the floor. "Then that big door opened and a bright light flashed. Then we woke up here." She let out an annoyed grunt. "Dun't know what's goin' on either."
"You have struggled."
Ranma and I instantly went rigid with tension as the sudden presence appeared in the room with us.
"Lost, cast out, plunged in the depths of darkness where you were forced to face creatures who sought to take everything from you."
W-
W-What's is this?
W...What's happening?
It's right there in the corner - It's there - I can't face it - It's there - I can't turn my head, I can't move - it's there - t-this presence, not crushing, not threatening, j-just, just there.
"But you fought back, you deny them. Through strength, through ingenuity, through cunning, you have met the challenge and have not been found wanting."
Transcendental.
It's the only word that came to mind, something of this world yet above it at the same time. It's so distinct from everything else because it's so beyond it. Like a fine portrait among children's drawings.
And it's... and it's...
"You ascended. You ascended and triumph followed at your wake, even through all the pain, all the suffering, you have persevered. Going further than even one such as I had imagined."
It's so warm.
"So here you are, at the peak."
The clog keeping my breath in my throat disappeared, causing an explosive gush of air to explode in and out as I tried to center myself back again. The presence was still there but I got used to it... no, I was allowed to get used to it... just like I was allowed to notice it in the first place.
Finally, I was able to turn my head, and look at the being the Game System had deemed as one of the most powerful in Japan.
There are... some expressions, some sayings writers use to convey concepts or events that are not easily explained on paper. Many of them have grown so cliché that they became a well-used trope, something you read and understand, but you can't really conceptualize because you experience more on writings than on real life, so for you, it's just that; a writer's quirk that shows up again and again. You forget that sometimes, it actually means more than you believe.
So when I say that the woman I saw made my heart skip a beat, it's because my heart really did skip a beat.
"Greetings."
The purest example of a Yamato Nadeshiko smiled at me with perfect ruby-red lips. Her shockingly pink eyes gleamed at me with tranquil, welcoming warmness, and I couldn't help but to follow her long, lustrous hair, a cascade of midnight black that fell straight, then waved slightly, before changing into a fiery orange color at the ends, molding almost perfectly to the autumn shades of the beautifully layered kimono that hug her form.
"I am the Oni who reached heaven, and you have conquered my trials."
So enthralled I was that I almost forgot to read the... many... tags...
Kamado Nezuko
The Heavenly Oni
Eighth of The Ten Heavenly Ones
The Oni Queen
Second Queen of Blood
Arch Berserker
The Jailed Queen
The Beautiful Dancer of the Dawn.
Scion of The Sun Touched.
The Rose Flame of Annihilation
Level: ?
...
...
...Well, I, hm.
That's a way to make an impression.
For several seconds nobody spoke, nobody even moved. To be honest, I don't know where the hell should I go from there. S-Should I say something? What to you even say to someone who can probably kill you with a casual glance?
*THWAP!*
It took me even more seconds to process what had just happened.
I mean, how should I react to seeing the perfect personification of power and beauty that the Gamer System itself all but told me to not fuck with go from smiling peacefully to rapidly bobbing her head back and forwards like a bobblehead.
"What the heck lady!? Do you know how much trouble you caused us!?" Ranma shouted at her, her fist smoking a little.
... Oh dear Ranma just bonked the Oni God Queen in the head.
OH FUCK RANMA JUST BONKED THE ONI GOD QUEEN IN THE HEAD!
I was on my feet the next second. "Fuckin- Oi Ranma! Can you think before you act for once in your life!"
"What!? You defendin' her after what she put us through!?"
"She can kill us!" I hissed, casting a glance over the woman to see how screw we were. She was now looking fixedly ahead, horrified. "She might kill us."
Ranma huffed and gave all indication she was going to argue back. Before she paused, cocked her hips to the side and changed her scowl into a cocky grin that looked way-too-sexy in her female form. "Oh yeah, then what are you with your bat."
I snapped a look at my raised baseball bat like it had betrayed me.
Hehehe nope, I'mma creature of logic, there is no fucking way I would stoop as low as to make an anime-tier stupid decision in such critical time— Oh the bitch put us through so much!
*THWAP!*
My bat thudded against her head with my full strength behind it. The bobblehead action restarted.
"W...What!?" Finally, her brain managed to catch up with current events and she looked up, seeing us looming over her, metal bat bouncing palm and knuckles cracking menacingly. "What is the meaning of this! You're supposed to—S-stop! What are you doing!?"
And that's how we met one of the most beautiful and powerful women in the world, and processed to bully her.
-0-0-0-
"Unbelievable! The audacity! The disrespect! Don't you know who am I!?" The Heavenly Oni whined petulantly.
"Shut up brat! You asked for it!" Ranma scolded the girl.
And it was a girl now. The heavenly oni, perhaps in an attempt to make us stop hitting her each time she tried to speak, changed her form from the stunningly beautiful woman to one of the cutest little girl we ever saw. Her gamble worked, the practically physical aura of cuteness prevented any further attacks, so she had the opportunity to start ranting. Ranma, being Ranma, ranted right back at her.
Meanwhile, I was sitting on the floor, my elbows on my knee, my hand on my face, and doing a heroic attempt not to groan.
... The moment she shirked back into a little girl it clicked, that hair, the pinkish kimono, the cute little huffs and frustrated buffs accompanying her words, and her name.
She's the little loli from Demon Slayer, or Kimetsu No Yaiba – Heh, I can actually remember the Japanese name now – the only thing missing was the bamboo gag to complete the image.
God Fucking Damn it! The one anime, the one anime I was planning to watch right after this whole mess started was now part of my reality, I literally watched the first episode the night before I woke up as Ōe Hiroshi.
This is like Inuyasha, right? In the future, after the end of the series, I mean, obviously, I don't think the manga would depict the mute demon imouto turning into the uber-powerful demon queen she is today... or would it? Crap, I could have been more prepared for this, but instead, all I know about it are memes and the very basic.
I sighed, I did not groan, shut up! Another setting for the 'Hiroshi should know about but don't' list. This is getting old.
Well, whatever, it doesn't affect the matter at hand.
"Why." I intoned, bring the attention of the bickering pair. "Exactly did you put through that trial anyway?" What was her game?
The little loli put her hands on her hips and puffed her chest, adorably. Everything she did on that form was dangerously adorable. "Isn't it obvious!? To see if you could prove your strength!"
She pointed at me with a spread hand. "You, I had already gauged the worth of your heart during your daring rescue from before, so I only needed to see if your strength could match it!" She moved to Ranma. "You, I took a gamble I'll admit, yet your situation had won me over and your brotherly bond had touched me! And you have shown that your strength was not only adequate but surprisingly impressive!" And just like that Ranma was appeased. Seriously, gush about her strength or give her food and you can get anywhere with this musclehead.
She put her hand back. "And so the beautiful and powerful queen had put her chosen champions to the test and had not been found wanting!"
My head began to throb. What a simple, stupid, utterly anime reason.
All of that, all that shit from before. For that.
"Jesus girl, where did you get these ideas, Final Fantasy?" I couldn't help but voice my complaint.
"I'll have you know that Dragon Quest is better!" She answered immediately, "I-I mean, I came up with it! I-I've tested many champions before!"
Ranma, who probably didn't get before but got it now it was actually been said, scratched her chin. "So, you want us to be your champions?"
"Indeed!" She declared. "You two shall bear my Favor to show you represent and speak for me. I shall send you to do many tasks in my name, and for each task, you shall be rewarded—"
"Pass." Ranma abruptly cuts in. "Sounds like bein' a servant, and Saotome Ranma ain't nobody's servant." The near-instantaneous refusal seems to paralyze the queen of oni.
As for me...
Look, Ranma did not have the same context that I had; he didn't have words and symbols flying before his eyes constantly reminding him how much of a big deal this little girl really is, to Ranma she was just someone with an impressive initial showing that lost it all face after the bulling. It would be a lie to say I wasn't tempted; just these few words had stirred the fires of my imagination. What kind of influence her 'favor' would give me, how many doors would it open in the supernatural community? What kind of benefices having what apparently was one of the strongest people in all of Japan as a backer? And her talk about doing tasks and getting rewarded for it spoke directly to my deep, gamer core too.
Plus, it didn't help she looked absolutely adorable when she was all excited like that.
...
... And yet, none of that excused what she put us through.
"I'm gonna pass too," I added, trying not to sigh.
The little loli looked at us blankly for a few seconds.
If this were an anime there would probably be a simple colored background with dots popping on behind her. Then, she threw her arms in the air and shouted. "OI!"
"Yosh!" Ranma ignored her reaction and rose to her feet, stretching her arms before her. It did interesting to her barely-closed yukata. "Where is the exit? I can use some sleep or some food."
"Same," I said, standing with her.
"Oi! Oi! Oi!" The queen of oni waved her little arms in protest. "Do you know what you're doing!? Do you know how rare this opportunity is!? Can't you at least think about it a little!"
"No."
... Even I was a little taken-aback by the brusqueness of Ranma's refusal this time around.
My pigtailed friend closed her eyes for a moment and seems to mentally take a count. Her face twitching in what I recognized as a badly suppressed scowl. She only opened her eyes back up again when she managed to control her expression.
The last look she gave the heavenly oni was the coldest and darkest I ever saw on Ranma's face.
"Hiroshi almost died because of you." She said simply as if this explained everything, and in a way it, kinda did. "I want nothin' to do with you."
Ranma turned her back to the now sputtering girl, clearly signalizing the end of her contribution to the conversation.
"B-But he didn't... He wouldn't... It was impossible for him to die!" The little oni declared to Ranma's back, trying to gesture her point with her hands. "There was never any danger! It was my spell, you two wouldn't die or even get hurt! I made sure of it!"
"That's not the point," I injected for the first time. "We didn't know that at the time. It felt real to us, all the pain and the trauma... was real to us. I really did believe I lost my arms, Ranma really did believe... I died." I got to my knee, to speak to her at eye level. "You could have talked to us, you could have given better instructions. Heck, you wouldn't even need to tell us we wouldn't get permanently hurt or die, we would probably have agreed to it anyway if you had given us a choice. But the way you did it..." I paused, trying to find the right words for it, "It was too unreasonable."
This is omitting the fact that now she's being very reasonable, especially for someone in her apparent position and power. I tried to imagine what would happen if she was a straight example of the 'Mysterious powerful patron.' Trope. She could have thrust the role upon us, sent us back without any explanation just a new set of rules and duties we had to follow, she could have punished us for every transgression and disrespect we uttered in her presence – probably while making one of those 'ojou-sama' laughter – She could have done so much. Just keeping her early presence fully active would have changed the entire course of the conversation.
The fact that she didn't, that she engaged us at the same level and even let us walk all over her says a lot about her character.
But, like I said before, it doesn't excuse the bullshit she put us through.
Being pushed to the brink of despair isn't a fun experience for anyone.
Resting my baseball bat on my shoulders I stood back up and looked away from her before I could empathize, sad little girls are just too big of a weapon. Ranma had paused for while, waiting for me to finish speaking, but now that I was at her side again, she resumed walk towards the exit.
"W...Wait."
Okay, what we were doing is a bit silly. It is certainly not the exit, just one door in wherever the hell we were. If I had to bet, I'd said this is still inside the little oni's 'spell' as she put it. But it's symbolic enough.
"Hey, wait please!"
... Alright, I wonder if my skills are working again, maybe I could try escaping or erasing this 'Illusion Barrier' once again, failing that... I wonder if the girl would let us go.
Ranma pulled the door open.
"Help me!"
That stopped us in our tracks.
We could hear the little girl approaching from behind with small, hesitant steps.
"I... I need your help." The girl quivered a little when I turned back to her. "I can't leave this place, it's... complicated... Long and complicated, I..." A conflict of emotion no child should ever display danced across her face before she shook her head. "That!" She suddenly pointed at my baseball bat resting on my shoulder. "I could smell it the moment you stepped in the temple's ground, Grandp- Tōtōsai worked on it, didn't he? You know where to find him." She shuffled on her feet, hands unconsciously gripping on her sides. "You don't have to become my champions, but please, please, can you help me deliver a message to him? Hm.. I can't communicate with the staff of the Temple for various reasons; even the golems I've managed to sneak outside can't... You're the first people I talked to in a long... long time..." Her tiny nervous fists pressed tightly against her chest as she raised her head for the first time.
"I messed up, I'm sorry about that, but can you please help me? I... I got no one to really turn to."
...
Well, that's just unfair, isn't it?
I looked at Ranma, Ranma looked at me, and both of us knew we're hooked. Really, we've been hooked since she first asked for help with such sincerity in her voice. Everything that followed had just noise.
Sad lolis man, you just can't win against them, it might as well be a law in this world.
I, being the more diplomatic of the two of us, stepped forwards. "... Next time, you talk to us first. Communication is important if we want this to work." The little girl nodded as I knelt down and offered her my hand. Her pink eyes gleamed with hope and boy; it was a sight to see. "I guess we can start like this. Hi, I'm Ōe Hiroshi this is my friend Saotome Ranma, I hear you'd like to hire our services."
She wiped her eyes, and the beaming, fanged smile she showed me was like an arrow to the heart. "Hi! I'm Kamado Nezuko, you can call me Nezuko in private, and I very much do!"
-0-0-0-
Level up!
Level up!
Level up!
Level up!
Level up!
+ 1 Str.
+ 1 End.
+ 1 End.
+ 1 End.
+ 1 End.
+ 1 End.
+ 1 End.
+ 1 End.
+ 1 Agi.
+ 1 Agi.
+ 1 Dex.
+ 1 Wis.
+ 1 Wis.
+ 1 Wis.
Requirement met (+50 Dex), Perk acquired!
Perk: Ambidextrous
Able to use your non-dominant hand equally well as your dominant one.
Requirement met (+50 Str, + 50 End, +50 Dex, + 50 Agi), Special Perk acquired!
Special Perk: Ki
Unlock Ki bar. Gives bonus percentages to all physical attributes in relation to the state of the ki bar. Allow for the creation of Ki-related techniques and abilities.
Martial Arts Mastery Leveled up!
Martial Arts Mastery Leveled up!
Club Mastery Leveled up!
Skill created through special action: Physical Resistance.
Increases your natural resistance against Physical Damage, takes less damage from physical attacks.
Physical Resistance Leveled up!
Physical Resistance Leveled up!
Physical Resistance Leveled up!
Skill created through special action: Pain Tolerance.
Let's you better tolerate the ill effects of intense pain over your body and mind.
Pain Tolerance Leveled up!
Pain Tolerance Leveled up!
Pain Tolerance Leveled up!
Spell created: Blade Mode.
Produce a blade of raw mana over most surfaces.
Spell created: Chainsaw Mode.
Produce shearing mana blades like that of a chainsaw over most surfaces.
Spell created: Mana Disc.
A rotating disc of raw mana carrying the intent of cutting.
Title gained: Determinator
Your fighting spirit is unshakable and your willpower is unbreakable. You are able to push well past your limits to fulfill a task. You are now greatly resistant to all forms of negative mental effects and attacks.
Quest completed:
+ 20.000 exp.
Your closeness with Kamado Nezuko has vastly increased.
You received the Favor of the Heavenly Oni.
Level up!
New Quest: Message Boy of The Peak.
A cute little loli has asked you to deliver a letter to a dirty old man! Go do it!
Rewards:
+ 5.000 exp.
Increases closeness with Kamado Nezuko.
Increases closeness with Tōtōsai.
Increases closeness with The Ten Heavenly Ones.
?
Failure:
Decrease closeness with Kamado Nezuko.
Accept/Refuse.
Ah, so that is what it feels like to have your vision completely blocked by annoying blue screens...
A knot of worry I was carrying throughout the night dissipated at that.
Thank god those are back, I can't imagine my life without game alerts anymore. You can say I've grown a new appreciation for it after spending the night with it mostly suppressed by whatever Nezuko did.
My appreciation grew further as I started to actually read what it said so I could free up space for my vision. Getting rid of the cheeky written quest notice that was covering most of it, I could finally see the mouth-watering gains of my busy night.
I don't think I'd ever gained so many levels at the same time before, or that many attribute points. The new spells were nothing I didn't know and the new skills were long overdue, but the Dexterity Perk marked the very first perk that was significantly useful to me, and I got a new title to go along with it, one just as powerful as my first one.
But the thing that almost made me jolt out of my futon and start victory dancing like a lunatic across the room was my new special perk.
Ki.
Goddamn Ki.
Finally, fucking finally. The bullshit energy everybody who was anything in Ranma ½ could use. Oh, I was happy with my own brand of bullshit of course, but after days of seeing what Ranma and the rest could pull off it seemly without effort has got me a bit green-eyed. Selfish? Sure, but I'm the gamer gods damn it! I'm a scummy power holder by nature!
Plus, Ranma said I would eventually need it to advance in my martial arts. So now it was a guarantee that we wouldn't hit a bottleneck where he couldn't teach me new techniques because I lacked the right exoteric energy to use it.
But man, so my Ki came from a perk... or was translated as a perk. I wonder how much of it was normal and how much was affected by the gamer system, and my magic? Is it also like that too?
Regardless, I had Ki now... though I don't feel any different, to be honest. It wasn't like my mana that I could feel constantly flowing just beneath my skin, Ki was... I can't really tell... I'm not feeling it...
Well, that just means I'll have to do some training, just the usual for this shounen land.
"Oi, Hiroshi?"
Hm?
Ranma, now in his male form given the voice, stirred from his futon and sat up. It seems like I wasn't the only one who experienced multiple level-ups, as a fat 34 now shone under his name and title.
"... Was that real?"
I fumbled around under my sheet, I'm pretty sure I had- got it.
"Yep," I said, waving the elegant scroll case that housed Nezuko's letter for Tōtōsai. "All real, why?"
"Just checking."
A comfortable silence fell down between us for the next few seconds. For a moment, I contemplated asking him about Ki... but one look at the clock showed me that we still had some time before sunlight, and sleep was sounding like a pretty good option for the phantom aching of my limbs right now.
Ranma broke the silence before sandman could claim me, however.
"...Do you ... Do you think we could do that again sometime."
Wait "What!?"
"I-I mean-" Ranma stuttered a little under my incredulous stare. "It got horrible right at the end, b-but before that it was pretty fun, right?"
Fighting semi-naked against increasingly stronger enemies in a horror-game-like zone; the perfect musclehead dream.
Of course Ranma would love it.
"Oi! don't give me that look." He complained defensively. "It wasn't like I was the only one having fun!"
The fuck was he talking about!?
"I was trying to survive! And planning how to win! And trying to figure out what was going on! I wasn't having fun!"
"Oh really, Hiroshi, really?" The martial artist pointed an accusatory finger at me. "Then why you were smiling or grinning most of the time!"
T-That's because there was a beautiful pair of tits bouncing around for me to see, and because I was frequently able to outsmart the enemies with winning strategies, also because I was feeling like an utter badass waving a chainsaw bat around and leaving torn flesh and broken bones in my wake...
"Oh god."
Ranma laughed in vindication. "Oh god indeed." His English was atrocious, and it didn't have the saving grace of being cute in his male form. "Admit Hiroshi! You were also having fun!"
"Oh god, I'm turning into a musclehead!"
"Hahaha, huh!? Who are you calling musclehead, you delinquent!"
D-Delinquent!? How dare-I'm a decent, hard-working member of society... Oh, wait, no, he was kinda right about that—
My current train of thought crashed in my head as I felt a brush of a touch on my back and tensed.
The touch grew in size, displaying a shape and softness that could only be feminine. A quiet, throaty chuckle echoed close to my ears as I felt the body and all its delicious curves dragging from my back to my front.
"Nyan~ Master, you're finally awake!"
Oh.
"There you are Falion," I said, genuinely surprised. The catgirl's face was centimeters from mine but I was able to notice the teasing smirk. "I thought you died, I was getting worried."
"Nyahhh, master is sooo nice." She wrapped her arms around my shoulders and leaned her body over mine like a lazy cat demanding attention. I took her weight easily. "I popped out here after spider boy died, but master wouldn't wake up! So I stayed put and guarded master's Mmm, muscular, sweaty, sleeping body. Did I do well? Praise me! Praiseeee me! Falion~"
"I see." Almost unconsciously, my hands dragged themselves down her back, passing her tight corset and sharp knives, and descended over her puffy little shorts to grab a handful of her rear. It was practically an instinctual reaction to a horny woman on my lap at this point.
Let's see, not as filling as Rin, not as muscular as Minon, but with a unique charm all of the same. Namely, the most perfectly formed peach I'd ever had the pleasure to feel. Not small, not big, just... Chef's kiss.
A low, purry moan escape from her throat as she endured my long, draw-out inspection. Her hips rolled up, pressing more of her bottom against my fingers.
"Neeee, master, there are no more enemies to kill. How about we do something else for fun." Her naughty little giggle left no doubt as to what she was referring to.
Another thirsty Cardian hm? I'm starting to think it's a pattern. As for her proposal... It sounds really attractive after the night that I just had. Plus spending hours close to a naked female Ranma hadn't help with my pent-up state...
Oh for fuck sake! Ranma!
Falion let out a disappointed mewl as I turned my head just as we were about to kiss. Ranma was... locked in a comical expression of horrified shock. If I was lucky, he wasn't processing anything beyond 'there is a cat-like creature in the room', otherwise, this will be more a lot awkward than it already is.
He did look funny though.
"Sorry, Falion, Ranma is in the room, maybe another time."
The catgirl let out a short yowl of dissatisfaction and pouted. My master status apparently protected me from the blunt of her annoyance as she turned to glare at the source of the terrible cockblocking.
Then, her eyes widened and she blinked in confusion. "Oh, she's a man now." and an excited mewl followed "I know master! He can join us! easy peasy don't you think? I got two holes after all!" While I was dealing with the blue screen of death the suggestion provoked in my brain, Falion reached out and flicked Ranma's nose with her tail.
She flicked Ranma's nose with her tail.
She flicked Ranma's nose with her cat tail.
Oh boy.
Ranma's girly scream was loud enough to wake half the temple.
Firstly, yeah the 'Demons' form Demons Slayer are called Oni in the show, tricked you, right? They are actually based on the OG definition of an Oni, with was evil human turned to monster.
Why Ranma couldn't see some attacks? He can't see it if they are purely Oni spells. How was he able to dodge Rui's webs if he couldn't see it? He hear them coming.
Sorry if Nezuko was Out of Character, Many things happened she isn't the same person that she was before, but I don't like when stories present an new character in all but name, so I'll endeavor to make her recognizable even with the changes.
