Author's Note: One Hundred Chapters! I will now accept your applause. Read, Review, Favourite and Enjoy!
Chapter 100: Against the Phoenix's Part 1
Extensive preparations had been made. The entire area had been surrounded with a Sera Lumina barrier, which was forcibly drenching up XP from the deepest depths of the area and pouring it into the air inbetween them. This solved two problems. Firstly the Barrier prevented anymore reincarnated from simply warping in and doing anything else to sabotage the Phoenixes, secondly it will make it so that the Phoenix can absorb even more XP at an accelerated rate. This had downsides. It meant that they couldn't just get up and leave in an emergency, and it also meant that the Phoenix would be stronger and harder to defeat if they did have to fight it. An airfield had been prepared full of Dragon knights and air planes to fight the Phoenix's in a dog fight, a large amount of that space had been reserved for the Kaiser, but luckily it being modelled after a air craft carrier it had plenty of space for more of the lizards and planes to park themselves on. The plan was simple.
"For our first move we need to hit the Phoenix's with an incapacitating attack." Trash explained as he indicated Midori. "Luckily, we have two."
Katarina was repeatedly striking against the 'Yew Wood Charge Blade' that Midori had turned his weapon into. With each new strike Midori was adding a little more offensive power to the weapon, power that once unleashed might even be enough to paralyse a directional Beast. Fohl in comparison was sitting off in a corner, his eyes closed as he was meditating. Boosted/Dividing Gear, Spirit Tortoise Gauntlets, Kirin Gauntlets, Water Dragon Gauntlets, and the Jarngriepr courtesy of Kuro. Through these five weapons Fohl had been circulating large amounts of elemental energy as he expands his own meridians. Through this process he was increasing his own power while he looked at the clock. In the Moments before the Phoenix awakens Fohl will max out the 'boost' on the Paralysing effect of his Yew Wood Gauntlets and beat the Phoenix into submission.
"Unfortunately we also have two targets. Getting them into position is going to be the first part of our battle."
Those who could fly will have to carry those who cannot, or to put it another way Kuro using some of the Helping hands accessories to drag them along with her, after tracing a small gravewalk platform into existence and floating into the sky with it. Joining her was a contingent of Flying Demi-humans. Originally there wasn't much hope for the standardised armies of Shieldfreiden and Siltvelt, however they offered their respective flying species to be trained and they were shown no mercy. For the past month they've been absorbing Sadeena's food bonuses, been receiving Metamorphic and Tracing enhancements from Kuro and various reinforcements by the weapons and put through the rigor of boot camp by Tanya. Thus a elite airborne squadron existing specifically to move with the Heroes in the air had been born.
"Luckily for us I have a debuff spell, as soon as the Phoenix appears I can start casting Liberation Down X to make it's stats plummet like a rock. With luck we can incapacitate the two phoenixes without a fight." Luck. The one resource that they needed most but are almost never able to get their hands on any.
"So what's the real plan?" Kuro asked as she made some last minute adjustments to her sword.
"If we can't incapacitate the Phoenixes fast we can severely weaken them." Thanks to the gauntlets they have information about how the Phoenixes operate, the one that's more colourful and flies higher will be weak to physical attacks, the one that flies lower will be weaker to magical attacks, if one dies the other will explode and split into two more Phoenixes. "With the Dragons we'll attack the one flying higher into the air, with the Air planes we'll dogfight the ones that are on the ground. The Heroes will support where possible." Of the Six heroes here, only half of them had balance breakers, of the half remaining one of them barely qualified as Sacred Gears. "Our goal is to incapacitate, not kill, but if our plans fail us... time will have been bought for the others to strengthen themselves further." A nice way of saying that 'after the birds eat all of us it'll take another few days for the big putty cat's Maple still has to find a way to incapacitate to wake up.'
"Lovely." Kuro stated as she let out a sigh.
"Well, nothing left to do but scream I guess." Katarina stated as she let out a sigh.
Everyone got into position. Rishia was strapped into the copilot seat of one of the plains and prepared to use her Balance Breaker to bring down the sky on which ever one of the birds was the closest to her, her four familiars in their mech armours were ready to jump out at any time. Trash was on the ground, casting Aura one after another as the army slowly increased their fighting power. Katarina was waiting on the roof of the base, ready to strike with gungnir, being protected by the Atla and Kyurie combination. Fohl, Midori and Kuro on the Gravwalk platform were already taking to the sky above the volcano. Everyone was in position.
9.
"Boost X!" Fohl's gauntlet cried out as Kuro's grip on the harness he was wearing tightened.
8.
"Boost X!"
Trash used his staff to summon elementals of Fire, to control the flames being spewed by the Phoenix, and Water, to attack it and protect the army.
7.
"Boost X!" Rishia had prepared several Flying Thunder God Kunai in all eight of the arms that had been made available to her.
6.
"Boost X!" Midori's weapon was like a bear trap with its spring wound too tight, it would break if he didn't unleash it soon.
5.
"Boost X!" Kuro had 100 000 swords turned into the form of the gravity swords, ready to make it rain with super heavy projectiles if that's what it took to keep the army safe.
4.
"Boost X!" Unknown to the army three adventurers, a Dog woman and two human men, were waiting for the fireworks to start from a nearby cliff-side.
3.
"Boost X!" In the sky, sparks flew and lights danced as if the very stars themselves were having it out.
2.
"Boost X!" The Volcano glowed, as if ready to pop at any moment.
1.
"Boost X!" Everyone sucked in a deep breath, as if there wouldn't be time to breath with what was happening next.
0.
"Boost X!" Kuro dropped Fohl, the ground rumbled and the Volcano spat fire, if not for a defensive phantasm Kuro provided Fohl would have been instantly vaporised by the heat. The lava parted as a giant, colourful red peacock like creature emerged from the flames.
"Transfer! Paralysing Punch!"
In an instant, Fohl's full and untapped capacity for violence was unleashed as a yellowish purple fist slammed directly into the Phoenix's face, the paralysing effect amplified ten billion times over. With a look that screamed 'what the hell is happening!?' The Paralysed Phoenix was thrown to the ground and ended up digging a trench with its beak, which was now foaming at the mouth. Kuro dropped her second payload, Midori turned into the volcano itself.
"Not gonna come out and meet me eh!? Fine! I'll just come to you!" Midori's weapon transformed, unleashing a mechanical whirl as the wooden blade started to spew out a huge amount of suspect liquids. Midori disappeared into the smoke and flame, then the entire upper third of the Volcano exploded, lava flowed out of the gaping hole uncovering a massive red vulture-like bird in the process. It would be terrifying if it wasn't wide eyed, foaming at the mouth and twitching like it hadn't just gone through ten rounds.
Over three hundred people blinked stupidly at what they were seeing.
"Is it over?" Katarina asked the look on her face that of someone who blinked and missed what happened. At that time the Phoenix that was still half buried in the Volcano died, its body disappearing into ashes.
"We'll have to speak with Midori later about the proper way to use that poison spewing abomination later on." Trash stated as he gestured to the army. "Strategic repositioning, run and hit." The men who were standing with Trash collectively waved white flags three times in one hand and then red twice with the other, in the Melromarcian signal flag code this meant 'Back away and attack when I give the signal.' The Phoenix that was on the ground glowed and bulged as it got ready to pop. "I, the Hero of the Cane have read and understood the origin of power." It wasn't far away enough that Trash couldn't cast magic on it. "Sever and retie the principle of heaven and take everything away from my targets!" The Phoenix exploded releasing a fiery shock wave in the process, luckily Trash has the second strongest meat shield in the world protecting him.
"Divide X!" The Explosion lost momentum. "Divide X! Divide X!" By the time it reached them it was nothing more than a hot wind blowing. "Absorb X!" Fohl replenished his energy as Trash finished casting.
"All Liberation Down X!" One of the Phoenix's had taken to the sky, and immediately dropped like a rock, it's stats reduced to a measly one hundredth of what they used to be unable to move it's massive body.
"Should we package those creatures for transport?" One of the royal advisers asked standing at Trash's side who made a show of getting comfortable. "The Phoenix's haven't had time or the opportunity to begin sucking the XP out of this area." Trash stated bluntly, the Barrier was still too thick for his tastes. "Wait until it drops the barrier then we'll claim it."
"CAAAWWW!" One of the Phoenix's flapped it's wings as ashes swirled together in the air and formed soldiers out of ash with crystaline armour.
"Oh so it does have the ability to make proxies like what the Spirit Turtle did." Trash noted idly before he tapped on the ground. "There's your food." Suddenly the fire elemental zipped towards the enemy forces, grinning madly as it was intercepted by various fire attacks, which it promptly ate, growing bigger in the process. The fire elemental was continuing to grow in size as it continued to absorb the various fire attacks that the Phoenix was shoving down his throat.
"Looks like the Phoenix's are on the verge of being incapacitated." The Minister commented looking at Trash's elemental.
"It 'looks like' my foolish elemental is on the verge of eating itself to death." Trash corrected as he let out a sigh. Fire needs oxygen in order to live, the more fire there is, the less oxygen there is to sustain it, if a fire grows too big then the amount of oxygen to go around will rapidly shrink and the fire will die out. The Phoenix chose to fight fire with fire, and won as the Fire elemental, gorged on the Phoenix's flames, rapidly shrunk back down to a fraction of it's former self.
"Should we prepare a second volley?" The Minister asked looking at the phoenix's through a set of binoculars. "Give them a chance to catch their breath." Trash bluntly informed as he relaxed into his chair. "Our objective at this point is not to kill but to incapacitate. We'll resume after it's had the chance to absorb the ambient XP in this area." Trash could feel the mana in the air trembling in excitement, one of the monsters under his control was growing excited. "Shh. Shh." Trash petted his staff, as if trying to calm down a wild monster on the verge of running wild and going on a rampage. "Finish absorbing your brother's mana, then we will deal with them." The rampaging power in the staff calmed down. "Inform the army, we strike once the Phoenix's take flight, and not a moment longer."
"Is that wise?" The Minister asked looking genuinely concerned.
"Currently that creature is busy absorbing XP, at the same time it is working to burn through the paralytics in their bodies but the latter will finish far before the first. That said it will not move until the XP in this area has been exhausted." Trash explained bluntly.
"That's the gist of my concern you understand." The Minister pointed out bluntly.
"That cannot be helped, for the Phoenix to be of any use it must first absorb as much XP as possible." Trash stated as he let out a sigh. "More to the point we have individuals here who specialise in the use of techniques for fighting against opponents who are stronger than they are. Now move the army into position." Trash's tone of voice broke no room for further discussion. The Minister bowed and tended to the army, various flags waving around as the air force moved into formation to strike again. After several moments of waiting, the barrier around them from the bonus field lost it's colour, after all the Phoenix's have been absorbing XP from this are for thousands of years, it only made sense that it took so little time to finish the job. No matter. The birds were taking to the air, thus was the sign that the army had been waiting for, to strike, and so Trash released the dogs of war. "The peacock is yours." At Trash's command, the massive fist of his earth elemental rose up from the ground to strike, grabbing the more brightly coloured of the phoenix's and slamming it into the other like a giant bludgeon. "He's bigger than last time." The Minister commented looking at the being in question.
"He's been practising." Trash knew that his elementals would play a key roll in the battle with the Phoenixes, and so he's been working to improve upon them.
Aside from the skills and weapon used to summon them that he's been upgrading the elementals themselves are sapient free thinking entities. To that end, he's been having them practice with their powers, in earth's case this would be leverage. Unlike Fire who needs to sink his influence into every scrap of ember he can get his ethereal hands on Earth is able to create levers by only influencing part of the stone in question and by connecting them together via joints he can create fully functional limbs on top of that. After consuming the excessive power of fire from the Phoenixes and the fire elemental a giant of stone was born and had now struck against the Phoenixes. Left with this situation one of the Phoenixes pecked the neck of the other dealing a instantly lethal hit to the second body, the giant ended up sacrificing itself to suppress the blast by turning itself into sand and the two phoenixes flew out of the explosion.
"Midori and Fohl will focus on the one up high. Rishia, you will take the Vulture." Trash stated using the communication function of his staff. From one of the jets a three pointed kunai was thrown out and sunk into the neck of one of the Phoenix's, moments later space warped a mechanical monstrosity emerged. Unlike last time this time the Edelecumber had taken the role of the torso, to Rishia's relief, while the Tranzdorkis had taken the roll of the right arm, the Guaylinda the left, and the Syrphine a mermaid-esque tail. Rishia was okay with this formation, partially because the Edelecumber used it's shields to form a bigger cockpit, but mostly because she could fly in this configuration. "It's been a long day." The Air sparked with power as weapons in the thousands all appeared around Rishia at once, all of them sparking with lightning. "So we would all appreciate it if you would just calm down!" The flying weapons spun in a twister around Rishia, all of the lightning weapons had long since become fodder for her sacred gear, bringing the level of reinforcement all the way up to a mark III weapon which had since been fully reinforced. The thousands of bolts of lightning formed a cage around the Phoenix, every time the bird tried to break free it was zapped with lightning, not severe enough to kill, but enough to stun and make it lose consciousness. As for the other one...
"Try not to hit it too hard this time." Fohl snapped making his opinion known, looking at the axe that Midori had flat side on the ground.
"Try to aim straight." Midori snapped back by way of reply as he prepared to go on the offensive.
With a mighty hoist Midori catapulted Fohl into the air causing him to sail off into the air spitting out 'Boost X' after 'Boost X'.
"Gauntlet Prison X!" A blatant rip off of Maple's Shield prison? Absolutely. But with slamming his hands together with a clasp a cage made of two oversized hands smacked itself together around the body of the Second Phoenix trapping it like a bird being strangled. "Change Fist: Yew Wood Shield Gauntlet!" The two hands transformed and yellowish liquid were sprayed around the Phoenix in a mist causing it to let out a crooked face as it was once again paralysed. One Phoenix was dropped to the ground paralysed and the other was dropped down stunned and twitching from the repeated lightning strikes. At once men with pain brushes were deployed, driven out in front of the two downed birds and at once painted massive circles of black ink across the two creatures chests, not only that but mages were deployed to cast the ritual to upgrade the seals into high grade slave seals.
"Are we certain that the slave seals alone are going to be enough?" The Minister asked looking at Trash concerned.
"No. Which is why we are also deploying Kyo's Research and equipment into hijacking a Sacred Beast and seizing control over it." Trash stated bluntly. They didn't need anything too extreme, just the ability to make the Phoenix's go where they needed them to. "The hourglass Network once transported the entirety of Melromarc's fleet to Cal Mira during its wave, the Phoenix should be light in comparison." Trash again brought up the communication staff of his weapon and spoke into it. "Everyone form up on my location." After a few short moments Fohl, Midori, Rishia and Rat all arrived at Trash's location. "Rat, go tend to your ship." Just because the Phoenix's were paralysed and branded didn't mean that Trash trusted them not to act up. They'd be bound, hoisted below the Kaiser, and left in a state where they can do nothing but absorb XP before finally dying and releasing a barrier big enough to buy them month's of time. For now the other most pressing issue needs to be addressed. "Where's Katarina and Kuro?"
Shortly after dropping off Fohl and Midori, Kuro had disappeared in the confusion, and Katarina wasn't far behind her. A flash of black in the middle of the battlefield had zipped past both of the heroes and grabbed them by their scruffs, and now they had been tossed miles away from the battlefield like someone was going for the shot put record.
"And who are you?" Kuro asked, Katarina was a little too busy trying to spit out the remains of the dirt clade that she had eaten by mistake.
The person she had been addressing was sitting on the flat top of a rock nearby, using a black blade to trim his nails.
"You're the one with the fancy power to read weapon's history. You tell me." The man in black replied bluntly.
"So the Bitch goddess is giving her abominations intel on us now?" Kuro asked looking at the man in black with blatant suspicion. To Kuro's surprise the man's surprisingly finely honed finger nail was replaced by a long black blade which he then ran through the palm of his other hand before pulling it out and holding it out to them bleeding for a few moments, long enough that were he reincarnated he would've healed by now. "Not reincarnated then." Kuro stated as she took a look at the blade the man had been holding, now confident that their enemy hadn't done anything to it yet.
Kuro's eyes had gone wide as she felt her very soul being torn open and had information shoved inside. Gods! Dear Gods! How was it just a blade!? How was it even in one piece!? It's history was a map of battle scars left across time and space, shattering and reforging over and over again like some infinitely regenerating abomination! Devouring other blades for material, always returning to the same unbreakable form and yet infinitely different than it was before! Kuro's eyes bleed as a deep and profound feeling of WRONG! resounded within every fibre of her being! Swordsmen? Swordsmen!? How were any of the people inside of her swordsmen!? Their movements had so many openings! There were so many flaws with their techniques! All of them are just children swinging around knives! A chain reaction ensued, Kuro's very soul was shattering, blood was leaking out of her eyes as her own sword desperately applied the Nine Lives to try and fix the damage but it ran out extra lives before Kuro ran out of hits to her soul. Instead the Sword desperately called upon the spirit weapon over soul from Bason, the blades stabbing into Kuro's very soul and pinning the soul fragments together while the Soul Healing potion Blade desperately attempted to seal and fill the cracks in the soul doing whatever it could to pull the soul back together again, and when that was failing it pulled out the big guns: Avalon. Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! Kuro couldn't stand it! Every battle she saw through the history of the weapons of the Unlimited Blade World and it was all WRONG! She needed to mend this at once!
"Kuro!?" Katarina smacked Kuro across her face but she wasn't responding, just staring ahead with blank soulless eyes even as Katarina shook her trying to make her wake up.
"Aww!" The man at the centre of this let out a sarcastic coo. "Did I break her brain!?" Katarina threw Kuro to the ground as she took up the strongest spear she had available, the Sitera Stone Combat Shovel, and aimed it at the man in black.
"What did you do to her!?"
"I'm not entirely sure myself truth be told." The Man in black replied shrugging his shoulders, as a massive shadow loomed over him. "You have bigger things to worry about." Katarina switched to the Spirit Turtle Svardstav at the last moment, just in time for the paw of a giant monster to slam into her. Katarina was sent flying back several feet as she slammed her spear into the ground head first, across from her a giant white wolf with poison mists being sprayed from her paws and mouth.
"Reflect Spear: Demon Dragon Spear!" Katarina shouted as she prepared to cast magic.
'This course of-'
"Do it!" Cursed symbols crawled up Katarina's arms as her spear transformed, a long metal spear with pitch black veins stretching across the weapon, cursed symbols of a fox harassing a sloth through the forest of cursed veins. From Katarina's shadow a draconic monster emerged and ran across the empty plains towards the white wolf monster.
'Don't mind if I do.' The Dragon under Katarina's control was mutated, gaining long claws at the end of gorilla like arms and growing a long fox like tail. The two monsters crashed into each other ferally biting and clawing at one another.
"Sloth eh?" The man in black prepared to strike with the same blasted blade that put Kuro into whatever vicious cycle she had been trapped in. "You got the lame cursed power."
"Then you have something much more pressing to worry about." The distinct sound of clashing blades echoed behind the man in black. Looking to his side several blades had grown from his shoulder and arranged itself in the shape of a bat's wing, caught in that mass of pointed objects was a young Hakuto girl wielding twin blades who was trying to take the man in black's head.
"Be with you in a moment!" Suddenly several bolts of light came out of the sky and the man in black responded by using his blade to smack them aside, up in the air Kyurie fired several more of his signature magical laser beams at the man in black expertly deflected them away. "Eh. I've got time." The man in black left behind a dust cloud while Katarina switched over the Svardstav to the Water trident, and seeing the level requirements for her strongest spear vanishing before her eyes Katarina correctly determined that the chill going up her spine wasn't just a bad feeling.
"You're pretty tough for a mutt!" Katarina's dragon snapped grinning with wicked teeth as she looked at the white wolf that was across from her.
"You're pretty talkative for dog chow!" The white wolf snapped her jaws and suddenly a piece of the dragon went missing, eaten by the creature in front of them.
"Return." Katarina commanded and her monster returned to it's rightful place inside of her shadow. Katarina stood up and walked forward as her weapon transformed, splitting into two dual ended weapons each with the head of a different spear.
"Four elements." The dog's voice came from no where and everywhere at the same time. "And an elemental root. Not many pick this method, it's rather difficult." The monster mutt kept her eyes on Katarina. "And in your case, incomplete."
"Earth Wave!" Calling out the name of that Skill Katarina charged forward running on a wave of dirt as she went forward. "Midori!" Katarina's voiced resounded through the crystal ball weapons. "Two reincarnated are here and Kuro's down!" Atla was thrown at Katarina who somersaulted over her narrowly avoiding having a head on collision with her in the process. "Atla you need to get Kuro to safety!" Atla nodded her head as she zipped off to her fallen lover.
"Oops. Can't forget about this now." The man in black threw his blade at Kuro with enough force to break the sound barrier, the blade going through both of Kuro's hands pinning her to the ground with enough force to form a small crater.
'Weapon Copy Activated: Intetsu Unlocked!'
"Why are you trying to keep her here!?" Katarina demanded while she aimed her weapons at her opponent.
"Don't flatter yourselves." The man flicked his wrist and his blade appeared back in his hand disappearing from Kuro's in the process. "I've already put her in enough danger for one day, I'm just leaving her another blade for her collection." With not another word Atla had grabbed Kuro and brought her to safety, however 'safe' she was with her soul in the Chaotic stated that it was in. "Your turn!" Suddenly their conversation was interrupted by the wolf shrinking down to the size and form of a werewolf running up to Katarina and delivering her a left hook sending her flying. "Excuse me!" The Man in Black snapped at the White Wolf.
"She was mine first." The wolf woman snarled indicating Kyurie who was getting ready to unleash something nasty. "You broke yours, go play with him instead." Suddenly the pair of them were hit by an invisible force, a living mobile avalanche that someone had rendered completely invisible. Trash tapped his cane on the invisible stone and Kuro and Atla were safely escorted to the surface.
"I don't know what happened to her!" Atla was panicking, her mind scrambling for possible solutions to this mess and was rapidly drawing a blank.
"All physical injuries appear to be fine." Trash held his hand on Kuro's forehead. Trash stood up and held his cane business end first at Kuro.
"Gilgamesh, your opinion?" The staff in question was ancient, reflecting the ruler of the ancient world that inhabited it. He was first and oldest of the beings to inhabit the throne of heroes, his knowledge and wisdom expanded after his death by conversing with and learning from the various heroes who would go on to inhabit the throne after him.
'She is undergoing an inner demon tribulation.' There were no shortage of cultivators in the throne of heroes, while some pursued perfection of an immortal body others would chase after the might of a godly soul. 'Right now her soul is being broken and reforged over and over again as her mind tears itself apart. But it's a mess inside. At this rate the soul won't be able to contain the damage it's undergoing. I will have to link with her sacred gear and guide it through the process myself.'
"Do it." Trash commanded and at once the two weapons glowed in harmony.
The invisible stones were battering the two creatures, however it wasn't long until the black Swordsman was accurately cutting away at the stones of the earth elemental. In order to conserve power the Earth elemental only infused a bare minimal amount into the stones, seizing control of part of them in order to manipulate them like a lever, a tactic that was now in the process of back firing severely it would seem.
"Retreat." Trash recalled the Earth elemental that appeared in front of him, now at less than half the mass it used to be. "Feed your Earth power into her metal element root. At the very least it's a more productive use of your time than this farce." The stone creature nodded to Trash's command and formed a protective barrier around Kuro. "Water." A familiar woman made out of water appeared at Trash's side. "Tell me can you make out the roots of those two?" Now no longer distracted by invisible stones the two enemies were looking for Katarina again.
"The dog has a wood root, the man in black a metal one." The elemental stated simply.
"It's a shame that fire has already been defeated. If we still had him-" Trash's musings were suddenly cut off by a loud explosion coming from behind them. From the Phoenixes. "Oh damnit."
Review Section:
RonaldM40196867: True. Pretty Much. She needs to be allowed to die in peace and not force herself stay alive for millions of years. The people he's working with aren't so much a group as they are a loose knit network of people whom are being forced to work together. Katarina probably, he legitimate training with her weapon is hampered by her lack of experience with her cheat abilities like the others.
reinDank: It's Filo.
Nightshadegirl: A smile and a full belly. Only one of them ate Malty, and considering she's half demon Malty's general vileness is actually very nutritious for her.
Starhammer: Yes, that's the joke. Malty soared past poking the bull long before that.