I was really hoping for post this by Christmas but unfortunately I wasn't so lucky. But even so I'm glad that I could at least post this before the end of the year. Enjoy!
Neptune had both seen and fought lots of ugly monsters before. Drowners, nekkars, froglets, waterhags, gorgons, harpies, ghouls, and many more. Each with their own distinct hideous appearances but the monster that stood before him could easily take the cake.
The monster half-walked and half-dragged itself along the ground, using one huge arm and a leg. Its skin was dark gray, with much of its skin missing or hanging off the flesh. The flesh was a dirty dark shade of red and Neptune could see large, ugly insects that looked like cockroaches crawl out and in of its body. Some parts of its body he saw was missing flesh entirely, exposing the bones beneath. The huge right arm Neptune saw, resembles a human's but the fingers, six instead of five, were long. The large left leg was that of a dog, with strong hinds and a massive paw. It was attached to the side of the body instead of its lower part. But besides the two huge limbs, he saw that other smaller but still longer and bigger than average, limbs were protruding from its body, assisting in its movement. Neptune saw a human's, a dog's and a horse's limbs, all of them crooked arms and legs.
When it stood a few feet in front of them it propped on its huge arm and Neptune and his friends saw the front of its grotesque body. It had half the stature of a human. The front area from chest to abdomen had the insides expose. They saw a dozen of different looking organs that all looked like they were thrown into the body randomly. They could identify some of the organs as human but others looked like animals. And most of all they were flaccid. As if the blood in them were sucked out. They saw two different hearts hanging off as well as lungs, stomachs, esophagus, and the like.
And then their attention went to the three heads.
The middle head had two bulging eyes on one side of its head. The eyes darted from one person then the other. The other half of the head was missing a chunk, as if cut out violently. And the lower area where the jaw should be, there was none. The lower jaw and the front of the throat was missing and a long and large wriggling human tongue was sticking out.
The second head on the left of the first was a wolf's head and the third was a horse. And both weren't so pretty to look at.
The five stood where they were, with looks of shock on their faces. Neptune had his jaw dropped, Nepgear and Uni felt shivers surging through their bodies for a second.
"What the nep is that?" Neptune asked after recovering.
The three heads looked at the five of them. Everyone felt discomfort when they looked at them, their black and lifeless eyes, full of wild and murderous intent gaze seemed to pierce through them and shook their nerves. The horse head moved forward until it reached its limit. But then they heard the sound of flesh ripping and they saw its neck stretch further that the already-ripped skin and flesh tore open further. The eyelids got pulled back until it started to detach from the eyeball as far as able to see the veins and the eye bulged.
"Ehw," Uni said, her expression distorted in disgust.
"So…does anyone have any idea on what that is?" Neptune asked.
"No idea," Nereus replied almost bluntly.
Then the middle of the monster suddenly gave off what sounded to be a roar even though it doesn't seem to have a vocal cord. The roar was loud and everyone in the village was hear it. But the roar had something in it. As if it had a second voice giving it off. It was distorted but they could almost made it out.
The ghastly scream of a human. They could make it out as a male. It sounded like his scream was mumbled and distorted because of a damaged vocal cord. The scream sounded like he was in pain or was horrified or maybe both. But no matter what it sounded like, the roar made them uncomfortable and sent shivers down the bodies of every person in the village.
Then it charged straight for the five.
They moved, rolled and jumped out of the way of the charging beast. It ran past them and it stomped its huge arm along with its other smaller limbs on the ground and rotated its body while sliding and came to halt. It faced the group again and ran towards them to attack.
It went for Uni who was out front most. It raised its large arm and brought it down on her. She quickly jumped back, evading the attack. She pointed her rifle at the middle head and fired a shot. The bullet hit right at the center of the grotesque head. The monster shrieked.
Uni went for another shot. But when she was about to squeeze the trigger, the wolf head opened its jaw and snapped at her. She barely step-sided in time and almost lost her balance. The monster used this opening attacked her. The horse went at her with its muzzle open. Uni could see the teeth, large and strong that it could crush her. She couldn't evade this one.
At the last second as she saw the open muzzle of the hideous horse head coming at her, a flash of light blinded her for a moment. She then heard the horse head shrieking in pain. When her vision became focused again, she saw her brother Nereus in front her, his short sword enveloped in rainbow-colored light that extended his sword into a much larger one briefly before it disappeared. His Torneroid Sword.
The horse head had a large cut traced along the side of its head. The wound had smoke coming off of it.
The monster, now furious, slammed its oversized hand down on Nereus, who stepped back. Uni fired shots at the monster's head. The bullets hit it and the monster head let out shrieks and loud grunts and raised its arm to defend itself from the bullets.
"Uni I'm going in," Nereus said before charging at the beast. Uni then took careful shots to avoid shooting her brother.
Nereus rushed at the monster and when he got close, he slid under the giant arm. He stopped right before the three heads and immediately got up on his feet and swung his sword in a wide arc. The short sword left a deep cut on the middle head. Nereus continued with another slash at the head, cutting just beneath the eyes. He was about to go for another one but then one of the limbs, a horse leg, kicked out. Nereus evaded it. Another limb, a human arm lashed out. Nereus met it with his sword's edge, blood spilled as sharp edge met flesh. He then step-sided a bite from the wolf head and slashed at the monster's body.
The monster stepped back and was about to attack when a blade suddenly pierce its side. It roared in pain and twisted around to throw off whoever stabbed it. The attacker it saw was Nepgear who sneaked up to it unnoticed.
Nepgear went into a stance when she saw the monster tensed, a sign it was about to attack. But before it could, Nereus came at it fast and slashed at the horse head's neck. The monster then kicked out its massive leg and did a sweeping kick at Nereus who dodged it and proceed by a swing of its huge arm at Nepgear. She stepped back just in time.
The monster jumped at the purplette girl with its huge arm extended. Nepgear's reflexes reacted in time and she rolled out of the way. The monster sailed past her and landed in the front yard of a house, crushing the wooden fences under its enormous body. Screams and shouts could heard in the house.
The monster got back up and turned around to face Nepgear and Nereus. The two monster slayers went into their fighting stance again. They heard the sound of footsteps and Uni and Plutia came to their side. Uni aimed her rifle at the monster and Plutia held out a hand and a magenta-colored ball of magic energy appeared floating above her palm. Nereus noticed the two without the need to look at them. But he also noticed one of them was missing.
"Hey, where's Neptune?"
"I don't know. I thought he was here a minute ago," Uni replied.
The monster gave off a growl and the four fighters tensed, all four of them shared the same thought; to let it attack first. They saw, with trained eyes, the movement that signals an attack from the abomination. They got ready…
They saw someone dropped on top of the monster. Its hideous middle head roared in pain, as did the two animal heads in their respective voices.
"Ha! Convenient that you got right where I want you to be!" Neptune shouted on top of the monster, his straight sword stabbed into the back of it.
The monster thrashed and moved around violently, trying to shake Neptune off. It moved away from the front yard of the house onto the yard of another one, crushing and destroying flower beds, flamingo decorations and the wooden fences and on to the beaten dirt road. Through it all Neptune held tight but the said purplette, seeing now as it was too dangerous to stay on top, pulled out his straight sword and back flipped off the monster. He backed away and his sister and friends came to his side.
"Was wondering where you were," said Nereus.
"Thought that was a good idea," said Neptune.
"Yeah but let's just do this as a team and finish it off."
"It doesn't look like it has any special or dangerous attacks, so I think would be straight forward," said Uni.
"We should still be careful. We can never know what abilities it actually has," said Nepgear.
Neptune summoned his katana and his sword buckle appeared strapped to his torso. He drew the katana out of the scabbard, twirled the sword in his hand and stood ready with both sword in hand. The four others went into battle stance and then all charged at the abomination.
Uni fired some shots. Neptune, Nepgear and Nereus ran towards it. The monster swung its huge arm. Nereus and Nepgear jumped aside but Neptune simply jumped over the arm, landed on his feet, pirouetted while swinging his katana. His slash got the middle head. The wolf head snapped at him. He took a step back and at the same time brought both his swords down in a vertical slash which successfully cut the wolf head. The monster threw its huge arm in a punching motion down on him. Neptune step-sided and then step-sided again when the horse head came at him with its muzzle open.
While Neptune took the front, Nepgear and Nereus took the flank. Nepgear sped towards it on its left and performed three consecutive strikes; a slash and two spins. The smaller, grotesque limbs on the monster's body attacked and lashed out at her but she defended herself with her broadsword. She parried left and right and the human-like hands, paws and hooves were all cut and almost hacked off.
Nereus came at it on its right and slashed a few times. A wolf's limb with long sharp claws attacked him. He blocked it and spark flew as steel meets claw. A horse leg thrust out at him but with a swing of his sword with all his might he chopped the horse leg in half.
With attacks coming on all three sides the monster perform a 360 degree spin to push back its attackers. It swung its huge arm left and then right. Its assaulters backed away. When it thought it got some distance from them, the color of magenta flashed before its eyes and it was blasted with a ball of magic. The horse head turned to where the magic ball came from and saw Plutia standing in front of a nearby house.
The three melee fighters quickly rushed in and continued the assault. Neptune poured SP into his katana and its edge glowed hot and orange and fire danced across the blade. He slashed at the heads and the katana left an orange streak. When the katana made contact with the wolf head fire spurned out. The wound left on it was sizzling and the flesh was slightly charred.
The monster threw a punch at Neptune. Instead of evading the blow, he blocked the large arm with his two swords. The impact of the huge fist against his swords pushed him back. They pushed against the other in deadlock, Neptune held his stand against the monster's huge fist. Dark red blood dripped from the gash inflicted by the deadlock between flesh and sharp steel.
The deadlock however was cut short when Nepgear came in and brought her broadsword down with all her might. Her broadsword was coated in a pinkish-purple glow and left a streak of the same color. The monster withdrew it huge arm with a new wound on it.
Nereus attacked the monster with his Torneroid Sword. The magic-enchanted sword left a significant wound on the monster. It backed away, shrieking and groaning with pain and bumped into a cart that was left outside of its owner's house. From a distance, Plutia, with her plushy floating in front of her, she moved her hand in a pattern and the plushy spread out its arms. A magic circle appeared in front of it and a bolt of magic energy shot out from it. Then multiple bolts shot out of the magic circle like bullets from a pistol.
From the sidelines, Uni ran towards the monster while firing at it. When she got close she jumped onto the cart and then jumped high up over the monster. Upside down in mid-air she fired a few shots down on the monster until her rifle made a click sound, indicating she was ran out of bullets. When she landed on her feet on the ground and was about to step back when one of the human-like arms of the monster grabbed her, its fingers wrapped around her body.
"Ahhh!" Uni was lifted off her feet. The monster immediately threw her at the three close-combat fighters.
Seeing his sister been grabbed and thrown towards them, Nereus responded immediately. He ran and jumped in the way of Uni's trajectory and the young girl slammed into him. Both crashed onto the ground.
"You're alright Uni?" Nereus asked in ragged voice, his breath been knocked out of him.
His sister nodded, "Yeah I'm good.
The fettle continued with Neptune summoning his '32-bit megablade' and shooting it at the monster. Nepgear, with her magically enchanted broadsword, performed a few slashes and spins at the abomination. Plutia waved her hands in the air. Her hands started to glow. Then a magic circle appeared directly above the monster and a torrent of small rod-shaped magenta-colored bolts rained down on the monster.
"RAAAAAHHHHH!" the monster roared and quickly get of the way.
"The fight has been really simple and easy. Let's say we finish this thing off!" shouted Neptune.
"Right!" everyone agreed.
Neptune poured his SP into his katana and it glowed bright purple, "Hey, Nereus!"
Nereus looked at him and when he looked at his katana he knew what it meant. He too poured SP into his short sword and it glowed a bright dark blue. And on sync, the two of them swung their swords at the same time.
Two crescent shaped projectiles of magic energy shot out of their blades, one purple and one dark blue. Both crossed over each other to form a X. The crossed crescent hit the monster and exploded in a flash bang of magic.
Nepgear ran a hand over her broadsword and it glowed purple. Then she rushed at the monster and performed five quick, well-practiced slashes that were quick and left deep wounds.
Plutia dropped her plushy on the ground. It stood up on its soft legs and spread its arm out. A magic circle appeared between its arms. Plutia made a few hand gestures and a big beam of magic shot out at the monster. She held her spell as long as she could.
Behind Plutia, Uni gathered SP into her rifle and jumped high up in the air. She aimed her rifle at the monster and fired, "Brave Cannon!" A blue beam shot out of the barrel and hit the monster. Right between the middle-head and wolf-head.
A second after Uni fired her skill, the body of the monster between the middle-head and wolf-head detached. The monster roared and howled in pain. Standing on its hind limbs, it looked like it was about to fall onto its back. But it stood like that, not moving.
"Did we get it?" Nepgear wondered.
"I don't think so," answered her brother.
"What makes you say that?" asked Nereus.
"Well…um…," Neptune tried to put it into words.
A fast and sudden movement caught their eyes just in time when the wolf-head with a large portion of the body that detached itself from the rest jumped right at them, its snout snapping.
The trio jumped back, "Yup, I think that's why," said Neptune.
The wolf-head snarled and stood up on the four limbs that was still attached to its body. Behind it, the main monster body stirred. Everyone watched as the sound of flesh being twisted and bones cracking. The four limbs on the wolf's body, two wolf limbs and one human and horse limbs, started moved around the body as if on hinges or axis. The limbs moved to where limbs would usually be on a wolf, two on its front and two at its rear. Then the two wolf paws started to enlarge and the claws grow long. The claws grew as long as daggers. As for the human hand at the front, the nails on it also grew to dagger length. The horse limb however remains the same. The beast growled and then lift its head to the sky and howled. As they saw it, it looked more like a large deformed werewolf than a hideous wolf.
Behind it, the horse-head and a large portion of the main body also detached. Less than a dozen limbs that on the horse's now detached body started to move to its rear where they act as legs for it. While most moved to its rear to act as legs, two limbs, a human's and a wolf's, acted as arms.
And lastly, the body with the ugly middle head was as it was before. Only it was smaller, with less limbs. It also kept the huge arm and leg.
"Oh, crap," exclaimed Neptune.
"This can't be good," said Nereus.
"Well yeah. One ugly monster was enough already."
"What should we do?" asked Uni.
"Well that's simple," said Nereus just as the monsters charged at them, "Divide and conquer!"
The werewolf monster lunged at Neptune. He step-sided while bringing his katana up in a counterattack. He moved in with slash of his straight sword, leaving a large cut. The monster swung at him with its claws outstretched to rip him to pieces. Neptune dodged the attack and lunged at it with stab of his straight sword. He proceeded with a slash of his katana and another slash with his straight sword. The werewolf snapped at him, he backed away. It clawed at him and he deflect it with his katana.
Nepgear rushed in to assist her brother. She swung her broadsword at the monster several before stepping back to avoid an attack. She fired magic bolts at the monster. It held up its arm to defend itself while standing on its hind legs. Nepgear continued the attack a little longer while Neptune summoned his '16-bit mega blades' to attack as well. The werewolf monster back away.
Nereus dodged the barrage of attacks the horse monster threw at him. It threw punches at him, attempted to jumped and slam its entire body on him which he avoided. The impact of the monster coming down on the ground was enough to send vibrations across the ground that. He could feel it under his feet and up to his knees. He watched as the monster swung a backhand at him. Nereus took a wide step-side and the moment his feet touched the ground again he took off towards it immediately. He swung his sword left and right at the body. The monster backed away. But it was fired at with bullets from Uni.
The last monster went to attack Neptune, who, with Nepgear, was putting the hammer down on the werewolf monster. Neptune both heard and sensed it coming. He rolled away when the monster slammed its huge fist down. It raised it again for another attack and Neptune was ready to evade.
But the monster's attack was interrupted by two balls of magic energy. Both a courtesy from Plutia who was a few meters behind.
Neptune lunged at it and stab it with his straight sword. He dodged an attack and countered with an overhead slash with his katana. The monster did a half-spin attack with its large hand scrapping the ground. Neptune backed away at the time Plutia launched magical projectiles at the monster. Taking notice of Plutia again it performed a massive pounce at her, sailing through the air with its open palm ready to crush her.
Seeing the abomination coming towards her, Plutia jumped out of the way albeit she finished her dodge clumsily and almost fell down. The monster's open palm slammed down on empty ground. It stood up and attack Plutia with a fist.
Plutia summoned a magenta-colored magical shield in front of her to defend herself. The large fist hit the magical shield and cause ripples to spread over the shield. The monster hit the shield again but it held. It raised another fist for another punch but suddenly it was stopped by something, a tendril made out of magic, wrapping around its wrist. Then its body had tendrils wrapping around its body, attempting to restrain it.
These magical tendrils then transformed into ethereal and transparent chains that glowed purple.
Behind the monster, Neptune with his left hand that was still gripping his straight sword he had chains coming out of his wrist. He pulled at the chains and the monster's feet scrapped against the ground slightly. But then the monster grabbed the chains with its large hand pulled.
"Whoa!" exclaimed Neptune as he was lurched forward and landed on the ground.
The monster pulled again and this time with more strength. This was enough to lift Neptune off the ground and he went flying into the air. The monster was about to bring him down but was attack by Plutia. The monster groan loudly in pain as the wound Plutia inflicted burns as if by fire.
As if was for Plutia had attacked the monster with a magic whip. She collected SP into her hand and it was incased in an opaque magenta glow. She then condensed her SP into a whip that came out of the ball of light covering her hand. She swung the whip at the monster and it left a deep gash that had steam rolling out of it as if the flesh was burned. With that attack the monster's grip on the ethereal chains loosen.
Neptune was now right above the monster and Plutia. Seeing his position up above, he cancelled his ethereal chains. And now he was falling down and was a few seconds from the ground. As he started his descend, he saw the monster below him and he instinctively decided his next attack. He came falling down and when he was just a second from falling on top of the monster, he twisted his body until he was in an upright position in mid-air and he reverse his hold on his straight sword and the tip of the sword was pointing downwards. He landed on top of the monster and brought his sword down.
Precisely at the monster's head.
The monster roared in pain but at the last second of the roar, it sounded weak. Neptune's sword was completely inside the monster's head, from the top of the head down to the bottom.
Neptune twisted the sword and the monster jerked and thrashed but its movement was weaker than before. Eventually it stopped dropped down on the ground. Neptune let go of his sword and jumped off the monster. He looked at it and saw that it wasn't dead yet. While it was dying it hadn't lose the vicious look on its grotesques face nor the murderous intent in its eyes. It made what Neptune could make out as a sort of rasping noise. He tensed when the monster tried to stand up, pushing itself off the ground with its limbs. He could feel the intention to kill radiating off the monster. The abomination made one last groan before Neptune saw it will launch an attack next. Without a second to waste he thrust his katana with all his might right at one of the monster's eyes. The monster shrieked. Neptune twisted his katana and continued to push it deeper. But then he realized that it was unnecessary when the monster's last eye rolled into its skull and the body dropped dead on the ground.
Neptune let go of his katana and took a step back. He looked at the monster, dead and lifeless with both of his sword sticking out of its head. Neptune took a deep breath and let it out along with the adrenaline coursing through him during the battle. His heartbeat slowed down to normal rate.
"We did it," Neptune said to no one in particular.
But there was someone who answered, "You defeated it. Good work Neppy," said Plutia. She walked up to his side and looked at the monster.
"Well, I couldn't had done without your help Plu."
"Ahhh!"
Uni turned towards the sound of Nepgear shouting. She looked to where she was and saw that the werewolf monster hit her with its sharp claws. The claws ripped her clothes and left several wounds. Uni watched as the werewolf pounced at her and pinned her down. The werewolf leaned its head towards the girl and open its jaw, sharp teeth ready to chew her head off.
"Ghh!" Uni quickly aimed her rifle at the werewolf and fired three magically imbued bullets. The bullets found their marks and the werewolf monster let go of Nepgear and backed away.
"Nereus, I need to help Nepgear. She's wounded!" Uni shouted behind her at her brother.
"Alright go. I'll handle this," Nereus said as he charged at the horse monster.
Uni ran to Nepgear while shooting at the werewolf monster. She reached the lavender-haired girl who was sitting on the ground and was holding her right hand over her wounds. Nepgear's clothes were stained red with blood. Uni saw that her left hand was covered with blood dripping from a wound on it. Uni felt a pang of hurt and anger in her chest at the sight of her friend being injured.
"Nepgear, you're all right?" Uni asked, but then she realized that was a stupid question, seeing how hurt Nepgear was.
Nepgear nodded while trying to hide her pained expression behind a smile, "Yes. I think I got careless on that last attack."
Uni's expression scrunched, "Hey you sure did. You almost got yourself killed. Be careful next time. You made me worry."
Growls drew their attentions back to the werewolf monster. Uni fired at it until her magazine ran out of ammo. She unclipped the empty mag and withdrew a new one from her storage and reloaded.
"Nepgear get back. I'll handle this."
"No Uni, I'm gonna fight too," Nepgear got back up but cringed as she moved.
"You can't fight with those wounds…Can you?"
Nepgear's reply was to withdraw a healing potion from her inventory, "This should help," she said before drinking.
Uni wasn't all convinced. A healing potion can help stop the bleeding and accelerate the regeneration of cells and tissues. But there's always to how far healing items can heal wounds. And since Nepgear was using a healing potion instead of a healing bottle or healing vial which are more effective, Uni decided to take precaution. She withdrew a vial filled with blue liquid and hand it to Nepgear, "Here, use this. You need the energy."
Nepgear took the bottle and knew that it was use to energize a person, meaning to restore some energy and SP to the consumer, relieving fatigue slightly.
"Thanks Uni," Nepgear smiled and drank the potion.
"Alright let's beat the living crap out of that deadbeat werewolf."
"I need to get my sword."
"Then I'll go first."
Uni charged at the werewolf with her rifle aiming straight at it. She fired several shots. The monster tanked it, focusing on the offensive. It jumped forward, covering the distance between them. Its claws flashed as it swung them at her. She dodged it. It attacked again with its claw. She dodged again and immediately put one foot forward and quickly gathered SP under it.
She jumped impossible high up before the werewolf could attack again. In mid-air she flipped so that she's upside down. In a second while upside down, she fired a shot down at the beast. She sailed over it and landed gracefully.
Uni had put herself in a good distance from the monster. She fired two shots before firing a magically enhanced bullet.
The werewolf roared in pain as it took the bullets from the girl in front of it. But then it felt another wave of pain from behind it inflicted by magic. It turned around to find the source and found a girl with long lavender hair running towards it. The broadsword in her hand was swung and it was wounded as steel cut through flesh.
Nepgear took the very short window of attack and slashed several times at the werewolf with very impressive speed. She finally step away when it threw a backhand at her. It lunged at her. She dodged left. The werewolf swung its claws. She evaded it by spinning left and end her spin with a slash that cut the monster on its paw.
They continued their dance for a short while longer. From a distance away, Uni supported her comrade. She fired at the werewolf monster but was careful to not hit Nepgear. Some of her shots missed while some others hit home.
She aimed her rifle again when she saw another opportunity. She was about to pull the trigger. But then the window was gone before she could.
'Tck'
However a situation arised. Nepgear evaded an attack and then backed away from another. But she felt her back hitting a fence surrounding the house and yard that was currently their battleground. When her back touched the fence, her concentration broke for a split second. In that second the werewolf monster pounched at her. Upon reflex, she instinctly raised her sword, the tip pointing straight at the incoming werewolf.
Uni gasped as she watched the werewolf slammed into her and both went crashing through the fence. She heard the werewolf yelped and Nepgear screamed, "Nepgear!" Uni shouted her friend's name with a voice full of shock and concern. She ran towards where she was. When she reached her with the werewolf on top of her, she heard Nepgear yelping and screaming. Uni realized that the werewolf was snarling in pain but at the same time was snapping at her with its sharp teeth but was held back by Nepgear somehow.
Nepgear was holding the werewolf back with her sword which was imbedded into its chest. But it was pushing itself forward towards her, regardless of the sword in its chest, and the snapping jaw was getting close to biting her face off.
Seeing her friend in trouble, Uni quickly acted. She jumped onto the monster back and aimed her rifle at the back of its head. She fired a shot. The moment the bullet went into its skull, the werewolf stopped moving but to make sure, Uni emptied more bullets into it.
Finally its body dropped on top of Nepgear limply. Uni got off the dead body and helped Nepgear get out from under it. She pulled the girl and crouched next to her.
"Nepgear, are you alright?" Uni asked her again; the second time during the battle.
The lavender hair nodded but twitched as she felt the painful sting of her wounds again.
"I'm okay. Thanks for saving me Uni. I thought I was a goner for a moment."
Uni gave her a warm smile, "Got to save my friend after all. Here," Uni handed Nepgear another healing potion. She took it and drank the red liquid.
BOOOMMM!
Both girls' heart jumped at the sudden explosion behind. They looked at where it came from and saw it came from a house.
"What happened?" Nepgear asked.
"I don't know," Uni said. But then she realized. Her brother was there, fighting the horse abomination somewhere in front of that house. She gasped, "Nereus? NEREUS?!"
When his sister ran to aid Nepgear, Nereus charged at the horse monster and slashed. The horse punched at him but he evaded it and rushed in at the side and swung his short sword left and then right. The monster threw a backhand that scrapped the ground.
Nereus jumped up into the air and somersaulted backwards. He gathered SP into his sword. He held his sword over his head and when he came down on the ground he slammed down the tip down on the ground near the horse monster. A pillar of flame erupted from where he brought his short sword down on the ground.
It burned and scorched the horse abomination. It neighed and bucked. When the pillar of fire subsided, it attacked wildly at Nereus, angrier now. Nereus evaded and dodged its attacks, looking for an opening.
He backed away from a punch that left an indentation in the ground where he was just now, sending dirt flying everywhere. The horse monster neighed ferociously and charged at Nereus. Every limb on its body pushing it forward. Nereus step sided and the monster went by him…
He felt a hand grabbed his jacket and the next thing he knew he was dragged alongside the monster into a house.
The monster crashed head first into the building and Nereus felt debris hitting and cutting him as he crashed into the house with the monster. He felt the hand letting go of his jacket.
Nereus was in a slight daze. He could hear people screaming. He looked at the family standing away at the other side of the house. A man and woman with their two kids; a boy in his early teens and a little girl.
He shouted to them, "Go! Get away quickly!"
They obeyed and ran from away as fast as their feet could take them. Nereus looked for his short sword and found it lying a few feet away. He went over and reached towards it to grab it.
But he felt a hand grabbed around his ankle and he was lifted on the ground and was thrown against a wall. It knocked the breath out of him. He fell down on the ground and was about to get up when he looked up and saw the horse monster raising both of its fist. He rolled out of the way when the monster brought them down on him, crushing the floor where Nereus was just a second ago.
Nereus stood up and pouring SP into his open palm, a ball of fire appeared and he threw it at the monster. The ball of fire hit the monster, burning and scorching its skin but it shrugged it off and went on with its assault.
Nereus ran from it barrage of attacks. He ran towards an open doorway that lead him to the kitchen. He looked around frantically, he saw a wooden dining table, shelves and cupboards but he saw there were no backdoors. There were windows however and he considered getting out through them. But something caught his eyes. A metal table was resting against the wall and on it was a single stove but what caught his attention was the object under the table. Right now the fight and flight response to his situation was running wild as to what his action could be.
The doorway behind him broke into pieces as the horse monster smashed it down. Nereus instantly made his choice.
He went for the object under the table.
The horse monster was sticking it head through the destroyed doorway and saw Nereus running towards the metal table with the stove on it. Making a sound between a horse neighing and something else that was almost horrifying to hear, it charged towards him. The rest of it body crashing through the doorway. The horse monster opened it muzzle, its large teeth ready to crush him. At the same time Nereus turned around and swung the object in his hand into the monster open muzzle.
The propane tank slammed into it muzzle. The monster instinctly clenched it teeth around it. With the opportunity, Nereus conjured a ball of fire in his hand. He ran towards the wooden dining room table. When he reached it he turned around and threw the fireball at the propane tank in the monster's mouth. In an instant, Nereus turned the table down on its side while at the same time rolled over it just as the propane tank exploded.
BOOOMMM!
"Nereus? NEREUS?!"
Uni shouted for her brother. She looked around but didn't see him anywhere. She ran towards the house, towards the back where the explosion occurred. She looked through the broken window and saw half the room, a kitchen, was on fire. She felt the intense heat from the fire but she ignored it and shouted for her brother again, "Nereus?! Where are you?"
There was no response. Icy cold fear gripped her. Not wanting to believe it yet she shouted again for Nereus.
"Uni I'm right here."
The icy cold fear that gripped was evaporated when she heard her brother's voice. Through the window she saw him ran through the fire towards the window. He jumped out and landed in front of Uni.
Uni saw that he was alright at least. He had a bit of his hair at his right side singed as well as his jacket and his face was slightly red from the heat. But he was already overall.
Uni, relieved, hugged Nereus which surprised him, "You scared me there. I thought you were dead."
Hearing his sister's relieved voice, Nereus realized that his sister was scared half to death when hearing that explosion, thinking he could be dead. He patted Uni on the head and gave her a smile, "No way that I will go out like that. Not so easily at least."
They heard some footsteps and turned around and saw Neptune and Plutia running towards them. Another set of footsteps could be heard behind them and Nepgear came around the corner.
"Whoa, what the nep just happened here?" asked Neptune.
"Propane tank exploded," Nereus answered.
Neptune looked at him and then at the fire inside the house, "Huh. Well that explains the smell of burning corpse."
"Speaking of corpses, you two handled the other one?"
"Yep, it was no deal actually."
"Uni and I defeated the werewolf one," said Nepgear.
"Well good job, Nep…" Neptune didn't finished. He saw the wounds on Nepgear's body, his expression changed from that of a laid-back person to one of worry and concern, "Sis, you're hurt," Neptune approached Nepgear and inspected her injuries.
"Oh, you don't have to be worried about this. I'm okay actually," Nepgear reassured with a smile. But it was stupid and futile. No one thought she was actually okay.
"You feeling nauseous a bit?" Neptune asked.
"No, really I'm fine. I just need to heal with more healing potion."
"Come on sis, be honest here. We need to clean and patch those wounds up. Hey Plu," Neptune turned to Plutia, "Don't mind?"
"Sure, I heal her up as best I can."
"We should do it at Adeline's house," suggested Nereus.
Everyone agreed to go to the herbalist's house. Neptune stood close to his sister and asked if she need him to carry her there. Nepgear rejected his offer, reassuring him again that her condition is not so serious and he has nothing to worry about. But when they rounded corner of the burned house they found almost all the villagers coming towards them. At front were Kain and Hamilton.
"We saw the fight. And heard the explosion by the way. You kids did a good job as always," said Kain.
"Don't know what in the True Goddess name that was. I have never seen anything like that before," said Hamilton.
"Neither have we," said Uni.
"Nepgear you're hurt," said Kain when he saw her wounds.
"Yeah. But I just need to patch them up that's all."
"Better hurry up then. You looking kind of nauseous. Probably from the blood loss," said Hamilton.
"We get her to Adeline's to do that," Neptune said.
"Then better come on in then." From amongst the crowd, Adeline the herbalist spoke up.
"Alright, come on Nepgear," Neptune said.
"You two go ahead. Uni and I will stay to help clean things up. Plutia you should go with them. Nepgear would need your healing magic," said Nereus.
Plutia nodded, "Okay," and she followed the purple siblings and the herbalist towards her house.
While Nepgear was having her wounds treated, half of the entire village were working together to deal with the mess left by the battle. Which luckily was minimal. Just broken fences and lawn decorations, with most of the damage being the destroyed house. The explosion damaged the entire kitchen and flames were slowly spreading. Fortunately, they managed to extinguish them swiftly. With half the house in shambles, the family will have to move during reconstruction.
Nereus found the family moving their valuables and needed items out of the house. He approached them. The mother noticed him and greeted him politely, "Hello there Nereus."
"Hello, Mrs. Sato. How are you and your family holding up?"
"Oh we are fine. We will be moving to my brother-in-laws for while it would seem."
"I see. Look, I came to at least apologize."
"Apologize?" Mrs. Sato tilted her head in confusion.
"Basically, I was the one who caused the explosion. So I am kind of responsible for the damage."
"Oh no. No need to apologize," Mrs. Sato said while waving her hand.
"She's right Nereus," said a man who walked up to Mrs. Sato's side, her husband, Mr. Sato.
"You don't have to be feeling guilty for the damage. You had to do what you did to defeat that monster. It just a minor sacrifice of battle. Luckily no one is injured."
"Except for Nepgear. She was injured. How is she holding up?" asked Mrs. Sato.
"She is alright. She is tougher than you would think."
"I'm glad to hear that. The five of you kids always risk your lives for the people of this village. Fighting whatever the heck that monster was. And of course hunting monsters and completing dangerous quests. And not only for villagers here but those outside. We are really grateful."
"Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Sato. We are just doing our jobs. For the sake and welfare of people. That's all."
After that, Nereus continued with helping the villagers moving the dead bodies of the monsters.
They were planning to burn the bodies at the outskirts of the village. Using ropes, they tied them around the corpses and together hauled them out to the fields.
Nereus and Uni, together with some villagers, were tying ropes around the corpse of the monster that Neptune and Plutia took down. Uni had finish tying a rope and stepped around the monster. She looked at the hideous thing in front of her. This was a monster she had never seen nor heard of before. Her thoughts went to the various lessons she had during her time with Balthazar. It had taken some time but she successfully memorize almost all monsters that exist in Gamindustry. But this one was an unknown.
When she walked around the dead body of the monster. She accidentally step on one of the limbs, a human arm. She almost tripped. She looked down at the hand. It's half balled as if it was about to be clenched into a fist. Uni almost looked away.
If it weren't for the object she saw in the hand. She bent down, pushed aside the fingers half-wrapped around the object and picked it up. She inspect the item in her hand. It was made out of black material at first glance. She then realized that the material has a purple tinge to it. The item was shaped like a kite or a rhombus. And then what caught Uni's eye was the symbol carved in the middle of the item. She looked at it more closely and saw that it was a power symbol.
"I wonder what this is," Uni thought.
"Uni what are looking at?" From behind her, Nereus spoke to her.
"Oh it's nothing. But ah…" Uni didn't know what to say about the item in her hand. So she showed it to her brother.
"What's that?"
"I'm not sure. But it was in one of the hands that the monster had."
Nereus looked at the item, "This was in one of the hands of the monster? Sounds like an item from a quest."
"What should we do with it?"
Before Nereus could think of an answer, they heard Hamilton shouting an order for everyone to pull.
"Come on, we should help them first," Nereus said and went off.
Uni looked at the item in her hand before putting in her storage and following behind her brother. When they got to the work group, they found Neptune with them.
"Hey, thought might need my help," said Neptune.
"We are managing well already but extra won't hurt," that was Nereus response.
"How's Nepgear?" asked Uni.
"She's fine. Thanks to Adeline and Plutia of course."
"Alright people! Let's get move on!"
They heard the voice of Hamilton shouting orders to pull.
"Come on," said Nereus and the three of them along with the villagers pulled the corpse towards the open field.
"Hey everyone."
Neptune looked behind him and found his sister and Plutia, "Hey sis," he saw that she had a fresh change of clothes.
"You're looking alright."
"Yes. Thanks to Adeline and Plutia, my wounds are half-healed."
"Do they still hurt?"
"A little."
"Well then, your big bro is glad to hear that then."
"Me too," said Uni as she skidded towards Nepgear in an almost girly manner.
"You really are tougher than you actually look. Good to see you alright," said Nereus.
"Ah, I'm glad Nepgear is okay and so are we as well," cooed Plutia.
"You can saying that again Plu."
"So," Nepgear looked at the flaming pile behind them, "What do you think it was? Any idea?"
"Still a 'no' unfortunately," Nereus answered.
All heads looked at the pile of bodies burning. They have piled the monster's corpse, add oil and dry wood and light the whole thing up. Everyone in the village stood in a circle around it and watched it slowly burn. The air was soon filled the stench of burnt bodies.
Shortly afterwards, some villagers went back home. Kain approached the group and said, "You five did a good job. I couldn't even imagine what could happen if you all weren't here."
Neptune placed both hands on the back of his head, "Well it's just another monster, another kill as always."
"I don't think it was any ordinary monster. I am curious to what it really was."
Nereus sighed. He wondered how many times that question repeated already, "Whatever it was at least we were able to kill it."
"Yes. You kids are probably tired. You all should go home and rest. The bodies should be ashes by late night. People are going home as well," Kain said. They saw that more people were leaving the fiery pile and going home.
"Alright old man, see ya," Neptune said.
Kain left and the group began their walk home. After entering the perimeter of the village Neptune had a thought, "Hey guys."
Everyone looked at him, "What is it Neptune?" Nepgear asked.
"Do you all remember how did that monster's voice sounded like?"
Everyone suddenly stopped walking, "It sounded almost human," Nepgear said.
Neptune nodded. Plutia spoke up, "So…what does that mean?"
Everyone looked at each other but not one of them had any idea on how to answer her question.
"Well, if we are talking about monsters with human-like voices then we would talking about monsters that have the same intelligent as a human or any other major races in Gamindustry," said Nereus.
"So what kind of monsters have some form of intelligent again?" Neptune asked.
"Trolls, some specters like penitents, sirens, wild werewolves and higher vampires," Uni named what she could.
"I don't think higher vampires should count. I mean grandpa said that they are a really civilized race unlike their lesser cousins," said Nepgear.
Everyone agreed. The lesser vampires. Primitive, wild, dangerous, in stark contrast to the higher vampires, their more evolved and intelligent cousins. The higher vampires are one of the races that people of Gamindustry called the major races. Which consists of humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes, halflings, giants, cait sith, fairies, mermaids, higher vampires, large factions of changelings like werewolves, werebears, wereboars, and lastly, the dragons.
"Well, looks like we hit a dead end here," said Neptune.
"Hey wait a second," Uni said. Everyone turned towards her. Uni held out her hand, palm upwards, and an object she retrieved from her storage. The item she found in the clenches of the dead monster's corpse.
"What's that?" asked Nepgear.
Uni shrugged, "Not sure. I found this in one of the monsters hands."
Everyone looked at the item in her hand. But they frowned when they didn't recognize it. They had never seen an item like that before.
Neptune placed his index finger and thumb under his chin, "Hmm, is it some kind of jewel?"
"No, I don't think so."
Plutia gave her answer, "Maybe…it is some kind of candy?"
Everyone immediately looked at her as if she suddenly started the apocalypse.
"Hmm? Did I said something wrong?"
"Ah…nothing Plu. It's just kind of an unlikely thing for it to be a candy. So, sorry Plutie, your answer is an 'ackk'," Neptune said with a thumbs down and made the sound of a buzzard in a TV show.
"Oh…really?"
"Yap, down into the giant bowl of pudding with you."
"Ooh."
"So I guess it's another dead end for this item here?" Neptune said.
No one answered. Neptune took the item from Uni's hand and hold it up. He inspect the item more clearly but there wasn't anything of interest besides the power symbol in the center, "Wonder what this power symbol means?"
"Not for sure," Nereus replied.
"Nothing here," Uni said.
Nepgear shook her head.
Neptune sighed, "Today sure is full of mysteries. Which I'm pretty sure the author will be revealing them in like a dozens more chapters later."
Neptune looked one last time at the item in his hands and was about to hand it back to Uni when he feel a twitch in his shoulders followed a second later with a tingle all over his body. He looked at the others and was surprised to see they had also felt it. Their expression told their surprise.
"Hey, look," Plutia pointed at the item in Neptune's hand. He looked at it and was surprised. He held it up for everyone to see and they were surprised again.
The power symbol, which was barely white in the purple-tinged black material the item was made of, was starting to glow. They could see multiple colors, like that of a rainbow, appearing and dancing in the outlines that was the power symbol.
"What is going on?" Uni wondered.
No one answered. All of their eyes were glued to the power symbol glowing in Neptune's hand. It gradually glowed brighter until it lighted up their faces. They didn't look away. They felt as if drawn to the light emitting from the item. They felt a sensation in their bodies. It felt weird but also wonderful. A warm sensation crept into their bodies. And finally their felt something familiar. They felt it many times but never at this intensity before. Magic. No. To be precise,
Power…
Suddenly the light disappeared from the power symbol.
CRACKKKK!
Everyone jumped, pulled out of their trance. The item in Neptune's hand suddenly cracked and broke into multiple shards and pieces. No one said anything for half a minute until Neptune broke the silence, "What the heck was that?"
"Don't know," was Nereus only reply.
"That was a really funny feeling," said Uni.
"Yeah. But it also felt really good," added Nepgear.
"Why did it break?" wondered Plutia.
Once again, no one knows. Another mystery of the day.
"Come on, I kind of tuckered out. Let's just get home and wrapped this chapter up," said Neptune.
Everyone couldn't agree more.
"Dinner's ready," said Nepgear.
"Alright," Neptune rubbed his hands together, "Let's chow down."
"Wait, we need to wake Plutia up. We can't begin dinner without her."
"Oh yeah, I'll get her," Neptune went towards the arched doorway leading to the hallway, but on the way, his hands went for a piece of chicken, hoping for a piece along the way to Plutia's room. Unfortunately, Nepgear caught him in the act, "No, Neptune that is bad manners. We should all eat together."
"Okay but maybe one piece won't hurt?"
"No, bad Neptune. We should eat together," Nepgear raised her voice slightly and put on a serious face which to her brother, he doubted most people could take it seriously.
But in the end, he held up his hands in surrender, "Alright, alright, you're the big boss of the kitchen," he said before walking out in the hallway.
When her brother was gone, Nepgear 'serious face' disappeared and was replaced by a softer and worried one, "I wonder if I was too harsh there. But even so, I had to be stern there.
Neptune walked down the hallway towards the end where Plutia's room was located. He reached it he saw that the door was ajar. He froze there at the door. Seeing the door ajar, he was quickly reminded a few days ago when he accidentally walked when she was changing. Neptune could feel himself blushing at the image that was still crystal clear in his head.
'Maybe I could just do it if she is changing…'
Neptune immediately slammed a palm onto his forehead, 'Stop it. No way are you doing it Neptune. Crush or not, it ain't right and she will think of you as a pervert. Your morals should stand strong.'
With resolve, Neptune reached for the doorknob and was about to say Plutia's name…
'Fukai fukai yamino mukou de,'
Neptune stopped. He can hear Plutia's voice behind the door. He can hear her singing.
'Doawo tataku kasukana koeni,'
Neptune listened to her singing. He didn't even know she could sing. And she was singing really well.
'Mimiwo sumashi hitomi koraseba,'
Neptune felt odd, listening to her singing. Somehow, her song was like some kind of enchantment. Because he felt kind of relax somehow.
'Tooku yuerteru hikari,'
Neptune didn't move nor made a sound. He simply focus on the song; the lyrics and the sound of Plutia's voice, which sounded sweet, relaxed, and happy. Almost cheerful if it wasn't for the soft tone and flow of the song. Without thinking anything else he listened to the song.
'Tatoe mousou ya yume ya dejyabu demo,'
'Dorema taisetsuna watashi no story,'
'Zettai darenimo yuzurenai victory,'
'Muneni chikatta I never give up,'
And she stopped. Neptune felt like he was in trance when hearing that song. But he also felt something. The feeling, as if he heard or know that song before.
"Neppy?"
Neptune almost jumped. The door to the room opened and standing behind it was Plutia. The two stared at each other for a few moment before Plutia asked, "What are you doing here Neppy?"
Neptune straightened up and tried to come up with an explanation but decided to be straightforward, "Well, it's dinner time Plu and I was here to get you."
"Oh, okay. I am hungry. So let's go."
Neptune nodded. He turned around and let Plutia passed him before he decided to ask, "Hey Plu,"
"Hmm?" Plutia faced Neptune with laid-back smile.
"Um…don't mind if I ask…what kind of song were you singing just now?"
Plutia didn't know what he meant at first. But her expression lit up when she realized what he meant, "Oh, that song?"
"Yeah. I never heard that song before. Did you thought of the song yourself?"
Plutia shook her head.
"You didn't?"
"Well it's more like…hmm…" Plutia placed a finger on her chin and tried to think of an answer, "It's more like I know the song but forgotten about it."
"Really?"
"Yeah. I think so."
"Um, Neptune, Plutia," they heard Nepgear talking behind them. They saw her standing in the arch doorway, looking at them, "Hey it's time to eat. The food will get cold."
"Right on our way sis. Come on Plu."
Neptune and Plutia entered the kitchen. In the kitchen Nepgear asked, "What took you two so long?"
"Well…I'm gonna be straightforward. Plutie here can sing," Neptune answered and gestured to Plutia.
"Eh? You know how to sing?"
"Yeah she can. And a pretty good one too."
"Oh, I am not that good…" said Plutia.
"Yes you are Plu. Come on, show it to Nepgear."
"No…I couldn't…"Plutia blushed with a smile.
"Actually I don't mind hearing for a bit," Nepgear said.
"Okay…" and Plutia stood in front of siblings, closed her eyes and began. Her usual manner of speaking was transformed into something completely different.
'Fukai fukai yamino mukou de,'
'Doawo tataku kasukana koeni,'
'Mimiwo sumashi hitomi koraseba,'
'Tooku yureteru hikari,'
'Tatoe mousou ya yume ya dejyabu demo,'
'Dorema taisetsuna watashi no story,'
'Zettai darenimo yuzurenai victory,'
'Muneni chikatta I never give up,'
Plutia ended it there like before. She looked at Neptune and Nepgear who were both listening with full attention. They were both entranced by the song and came out of it when Plutia finished.
"Wow, that was really beautiful Plutia," exclaimed Nepgear.
"Hehe…thank you."
"Did you thought of that song yourself?"
"No…it just came to me recently."
"Hmm? That sounded like you thought of it yourself."
"Well it is more like the song came back to me."
Nepgear was more confused now, "What do you mean?"
"Well sis, Plu here said that she like…heard of this song before and that it like came back to her like a lost memory," Neptune explained.
"Oh. Hmm, that's weird."
"What is weird?"
"Somehow, I feel…nostalgic. As if I had heard of that song before."
"You too? I also felt the same."
Both looked at Plutia at the same time, "What do you think Plu?" Neptune asked.
"Hmm? Think of what?"
"Does this have anything to do with our past?"
"I'm not for sure…"
"But it could be a clue," said Nepgear, "We should show it to Nereus and Uni. We have to let them know. Maybe they will also feel like they had heard of it before."
"Yeah that is good idea. We will show them tomorrow," Neptune looked Plutia, "So Plu, don't mind singing the song on last time for our buddies?"
Plutia nodded, "Okay, I don't mind."
Neptune clapped his hands, "Okay then. Now that's settle, let's eat!"
"Yay…" Plutia cheered in a slow and lazy way.
"Alright, let's dig in," Nepgear said as they sat down on the dining table to begin dinner.
Now I know this is unnecessary long. Being more than 10000 words but I don't have anything to cut out to shorten it. I hope those that read this will enjoy this chapter. If there is any mistakes the I would appreciate it. Anything from vocabulary to grammar mistakes. I felt that I have to little vocabulary so I would, again, appreciate it if those who read this can help point out what words I should had used. And can any of you figure out what song Plutia was singing? I'm sure you all can.
Also, be sure to check my profile to check on the stories I'm planning. I also wrote down my thoughts on this story, 'Goddimensional'." To give an example, I think this story will last somewhere less than 20 or maybe 15 chapters. It is short but I will plan a sequel to it. I want to end this story because I felt like this is a mess. Some of you would think otherwise but to me it is mess. I hope I could do better with the sequel which I will describe in my profile later. Another thing I would like say about this is that I have the characters fight monsters larger than themselves. And I found that difficult to write the fight. I really do hope I could include fights with characters and villains their size, which I think would make things easier. So thank you all again for reading this and have a happy new year.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention. Because next year will be my last school, I'll have finals so I won't be focusing on writing the story. Worst case scenario, no chapter updates for almost a whole year. Sorry.
I wish to mention that I played the game, The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt, and I loved it! And also since it is a fantasy game with monsters and this story is more fantasy themed than the game, so...I will take some stuff from the game, use it as inspiration.