Vessel versus Vessel!
Awakening of the Demon of Wood!
Wooden spikes erupted from the ground forcing Hiro-Shu to jump back. He skidded a few feet back and barely avoiding the spikes. Dai Mungi smiled. The spikes grew more spikes all of them flying off at Hiro-Shu.
"First Stage! Golem Brawler!" Hiro-Shu's arms became coated in a heavy iron along with his legs. He brought up his iron arms to block the wooden attack. The needles all drove into Hiro-Shu's body, but they all broke upon impact. "Fists of Iron! Iguko's Quake!" Hiro-Shu brought both of his arms simultaneously down into the ground. Large cracks spread from the impact zone all running down towards Dai Mungi. The pole holding Dai Mungi in place shattered as the massive vibrations ran up it. Dai Mungi fell to the ground, but quickly re-supported himself with multiple wooden pols.
"I haven't been in this kind of predicament for awhile now," said Dai Mungi, "here I thought that being the vessel of wood made me all-powerful, but what do you know someone else is almost as strong as me."
Hiro-Shu didn't move from his position, not like he had much of choice. His arms and legs were weighing him down way too much. Moving his arms around to punch tired him out, running up at Dai Mungi was out of the question.
"Let's see how about a new trick, Goblin Trap! Arrow Field!" shouted Dai Mungi as small arrowhead started to sprout from the walls around them, "and launch!" The arrows all shot out at incredibly high speeds all of them aiming at Hiro-Shu.
"Second Stage! Golem Guard!" commanded Hiro-Shu as the iron started to coat his entire body giving him an inch thick iron guard on his chest, head, arms, and legs. The arrows all hopelessly bounced off of him and back to the ground. "Fists of Iron! Golem's Fury!" Hiro-Shu rushed up towards Dai Mungi and fired a single punch at him. A large wooden platform beneath Dai Mungi sprouted up lifting him into the air causing Hiro-Shu's punch to sail underneath him.
"This is just getting to be pathetic," said Dai Mungi, "I can't hurt you and you can't touch me, guess I'll just have to even the playing field. Goblin Trap! Petrified Arrows!" More arrowheads sprouted from the walls. All of a sudden they all came flying out of the walls at an increased speed. They all slipped and drove themselves into Hiro-Shu's armor. Hiro-Shu went down onto a single knee. He reached up and ripped them out. He fingered them for awhile, before throwing it to the ground.
"Figured out the difference, have we?" asked Dai Mungi in a mocking tone. "Its petrified wood. Petrified wood is almost as hard as steel or in your case, iron. Combined with the speed I can throw them at you with they can piece your armor. But enough of me talking, say hello to Goblin Trap! Petrified Spikes!" The ground beneath Hiro-Shu gained several spikes poking out of it. Hiro-Shu braced himself before ten large spikes exploded from the ground each of them digging into his skin.
Hiro-Shu fired a single punch into the platform supporting Dai Mungi, destroying it. Dai Mungi fell to the ground only to be caught by another row of sticks supporting him. Dai Mungi look up, a chuckle on his lips, when Hiro-Shu fired another punch straight at Dai Mungi. Dai Mungi closed his eyes and a large wooden wall came up in front of him protecting him from the force of the attack. Hiro-Shu pulled his arm back and readied himself for a second punch.
Dai Mungi laughed and jumped up and off of the rows of sticks. "Let's go Goblin Trap! Petrified Cage!" More wooden pillars sprouted up and around Hiro-Shu blocking him into a small area. Dai Mungi chuckled as he approached the caged Hiro-Shu. "It looks like I've trapped me a golem," he said acting like a hunter, "I wonder how he tastes?" Dai Mungi's face twitched all of a sudden and then he went blank.
Hiro-Shu inhaled deeply seeing this as an opening. "Forger's Fire! Iguko's Flame!" Hiro-Shu let out a his breath sending flames through the cage's bars and straight at Dai Mungi as they threatened to burn him to a crisp. Dai Mungi leapt back avoiding the close call.
"Whoo-hoo!" shouted Dai Mungi as his hand went to his head, "I thought those flames might've burnt me to a crisp! What do you say I'll let ya'll out of me cage?" He snapped his fingers and the cage around Hiro-Shu lowered back into the ground. Dai Mungi's personality took a sudden twist. Hiro-Shu looked back and noticed that he still didn't free Sage or Ridley…they probably only had another five minutes of oxygen in there.
"Iguko?" said Dai Mungi, "is that you?"
Hiro-Shu gave him a weird look, "Iguko's the name of the spirit I inherited, why?"
"It's me, Stuilk?" said Dai Mungi. Hiro-Shu noticed weird changes going about his body. First off, his ears became pointed and leaner. Then his skin had changed colors to a sickly green hue. Finally his teeth became sharper, but also took on a yellowish color. "Oh, well, as long as I am out, I might as well slaughter someone." He looked over at Enma, "you! I think slaughtering you would be a good idea!"
Hiro-Shu twisted around, "be careful he is not the same as before!"
Enma felt the ground rumble as a large amount of wooden spikes exploded from the ground all of them digging into his skin, but stopping at the hardened bone. Enma collapsed to the ground gasping for air. Blood was already starting to pour out of all of the holes in him. He looked up at Dai Mungi, or was it Stuilk?
Hiro-Shu reminded himself about what he heard about vessels and the spirits. Spirits share their strength with their vessel and help them perform powerful attacks, but all spirits want something in return. They want to be able to have a body again. A vessel is continually at risk of the spirit in their body of taking over their spirit…it was a fight between the 100 year old spirit and the new spirit of the vessel. Some people, like Dai Mungi, lost. When that occurred the 100 year old spirit takes over the body and the power, sometimes even reshapes the body to become more suitable to them.
Ordinarily, this wouldn't matter to Hiro-Shu. His friends were in trouble, he'd beat anyone up who threatened them…but there was a difference in their fighting styles. Primarily, the fact that Dai Mungi was inexperienced. He only had his vessel powers for a few days, while Stuilk had them for over 100 years, this made him a much more dangerous foe. Hiro-Shu would have to take his time to beat him.
Second off, Stuilk was a dirty cheat. Dai Mungi was holding Sage and Ridley hostage, but he also never attacked anyone other then Hiro-Shu. Dai Mungi saw fights as a one-on-one fight, he would cheat, but he would never attack someone not involved in the fight. Stuilk had already attacked Enma whose guard was down and was trying to figure out a way to free Sage…this made Stuilk much deadlier then Dai Mungi.
Hiro-Shu charged at Stuilk. He fired a single punch at Stuilk. Stuilk countered by spinning the large wooden staff he had around and using it to deflect the force of Hiro-Shu's punch. Then a small wooden dagger materialized into Stuilk's hand. He drove the dagger forwards and into Hiro-Shu's body. The dagger slid all the way up and through Hiro-Shu's heavy armor.
Hiro-Shu backed up to catch his breath, but Stuilk didn't let him have the breather. He was already on him. Stuilk rushed forward. He jumped up into the air and drove his spear straight down and into Hiro-Shu's shoulders. Hiro-Shu fell backwards and onto the ground. He looked up only to see Stuilk's shadow overcoming him with another downwards jab with his spear. Hiro-Shu rolled to the side avoiding the pole. The spear didn't stop once it hit the ground it kept going drilling itself beneath the rocky bottom of the top layer of soil.
Stuilk got back up and smiled, "Woo-hoo! I am having the best time of me life! I don't want to end, so…" he turned his attention to Enma, "I think I need to take precautions to make sure you don't try to duck out on me. How about another hostage?" Stuilk snapped his finger. Once more wooden pillars popped out of the ground this time, surrounding Enma. They all slid in close and created a large cylinder around him with no openings.
Stuilk smiled, "I want to keep alive, this way when I'm done killing you, I'll have someone to fight afterwards. I want to keep my new body in shape after all. Slacking off will only make my powers dwindle."
Hiro-Shu charged again, "Forger's Fire! Shiba's Knuckles!" Hiro-Shu breathed fire onto his iron gauntlets, putting them on fire, and made a punching motion. His flaming punches were dodged by Stuilk. Stuilk responded with a large spike of petrified wood aimed right at Hiro-Shu's heart. The large wooden spike pierced his armor, but didn't dig in deep enough to deal a fatal wound. Hiro-Shu backed up and collapsed onto the ground. His breathing becoming ragged.
Stuilk approached him, his spear in hand. "You know what's just plain sad? When a spirit isn't living up to his fullest potential. You noticed the strength increase I got when I took over Dai Mungi, didn't you? What do you think would happen if you let Iguko take over you? You might be able to save your friends…only thing it'll cost you is…well, you!"
Hiro-Shu shook the thought right out of his head. Stuilk may be right, but Iguko rampaged a lot. If he gave control over to Iguko, Iguko would crush everything in sight, enemies, houses, friends, everything. He had to maintain control over Iguko, if he didn't terrible things would happen. Hiro-Shu was afraid though that this only left him with one option. An all or nothing.
Hiro-Shu took a deep breath. He was a tie with Dai Mungi in his second stage, but against Stuilk second stage wouldn't be enough. Third stage was his best bet, but would he be able to properly control it this time? No, control wasn't what he wanted, entirely. He just needed to aim it, have it avoid attacking Sage, Ridley, and Enma and have completely focus on Stuilk. That's it his mind was made up.
"Third Stage! Golem Berserker!" Hiro-Shu armor started to enlarge all over his body. Hiro-Shu's actual body appeared to enlarge as well throughout the continuously layering of armor and increased spirit input. The heavy armor became a whole foot thick, but compared to Hiro-Shu's new size five feet wasn't anything. For he stood a total of three stories tall.
The armor completely coated his body leaving no spot uncovered. His joints were encased in iron, making him almost like a statue. Third Stage was his strongest move. The increased mass made all of his attacks stronger, but more destructive to the area around him. Then of course, Iguko's spirits was at its strongest in this stage. Hiro-Shu could do nothing, but hold Iguko back and let the body go on a rampage. He would still be in charge. When the body tired and fell asleep, it would return to Hiro-Shu's control, not Iguko's.
Stuilk smiled, "still holding on, eh? I'll just have to face Iguko another day. But finishing him off now, has too much promise…I've decided to kill you now!"
(-With Mikoto and Zesiro-)
Zesiro came in onto Mikoto's sulking. "Mikoto! What are you doing down here? There's a fight going on in the middle of town!"
"So, just cause there is a fight doesn't mean I'm involved," said Mikoto sulking, preparing himself for Sage's return.
"But something's wrong," said Zesiro, "there's a giant iron statue in the middle of it! I think something happened to Hiro-Shu. Sage and the others could be in trouble!"
Mikoto's ears piqued up, "what's wrong?"
"Apparently, and this is just what the panicking villagers say, but Sage went to fight some guy called, Dai Mungi. Dai Mungi bested her, trapped her, Ridley, and now apparently Enma. Hiro-Shu is fighting with him and losing, so he's doing something to even the odds."
"Come on," said Mikoto with a smile, "this I got to see. It sounds awesome!"
Beware the Golem of Iron!
Bringing Down a Titan!
Ta-DA! The mysteriously third stage mentioned during the Blackwell Arc is revealed! Hiro-Shu's power is unstoppable at this point, but will that be the ultimate downfall to his crew? Then there's also Mikoto will he become a casualty? Will he finally figure out that there is actually danger involved in this fight?
Also, I decided to take one of Oda and do a popularity poll. It is currently up and on my profile page (I believe so, with what happened last time it may have disappeared...). So come vote for your favorite crew member.