Chapter 10: Making Orphans
"[Drill Run]!" Flores shouted.
He was in the middle of grinding when he stumbled upon a two tailed fox that proceeded to shoot a wall of flames at him. Its fur was dark orange with its tail being a mix of yellow and orange to give off the illusion of of fire.
Throughout the fight, it attacked with fire from its tail and mouth. And if that wasn't bad enough, it had two tails. That meant this creature had three sources of fire that Flores had to watch out for.
"Fucking hell man. This Miles Prower wanna-be is getting on my nerves." Flores grumbled.
It was a tough battle for the hero. With limited ranged options. Flores went on the defensive as he hid behind tree after tree to avoid the powerful flames. Flores even had to wrap the areas where he had been hit since they continued to burn through his health.
"Okay okay. Can't use drill run and attack order is useless at this distance… damn it, Drum Roll is my only option."
Swapping to his Yang Sho drum. Flores rolled out and banged it, sending a slow sour note towards the fox. The fox however, watched and walked to the side so the note could miss.
This made Flores grumble, as the monster was pretty much fucking with him. This was made even more evident as the fox started to laugh.
He tried it once again, this time banging the drum rapidly to send off more notes. This still did nothing to help, with the fox dodging all the sour notes with ease.
Flores was about to hit his drum once again, but he noticed that the rim of the drum was glowing purple. Stopping his attack. He saw that the ring would close every few seconds, before starting at the top again to repeat the process.
That's when he facepalmed. He's been using the skill wrong this entire time.
Armed with this new knowledge. He timed the hit of the drum at about the right time, sending out a half note that flew as fast as an arrow. It wasn't as fast as one of Lizen's, but it was fast enough that the fox was caught off guard and got hit.
The drum circle came once again, but much faster this time. He hit it, and sent out another half note that hit the fox once again. With each successful attempt, the drum's ring would close faster and faster. Sometimes, he would get a perfect hit, and release an 8 note that moved much faster, and packed a stronger punch.
This continued for about 30 seconds until Flores finally made a mistake. But by that time, the fox was already battered enough. That was when Flores finally pushed forward and landed a deceive drill run to its noggin.
"Guess my ineptitude at instruments didn't matter in the slightest. I'm gonna have to experiment with every skill I have to see if there are any more hidden mechanics I'm missing."
Putting the flag on his back. He took out his knife and started to dissect it. It was during this time, he noticed that the fox's fur went from a dark orange to a yellow. And despite being dead, its body was still warm. Like a fireplace, one would like to keep warm during Christmas. That, or a heater installed into the house.
Conditions Met: Litsune Bone Flag (B)
Abilities Lock Equip Bonus: Magic Atk: +2, (Small) Conditions Met: Litsune Meat Flag: (B)
Abilities Locked Equip Bonus: Atk: +2, Fire resistance (Small), Cooking Skill 1
Conditions Met: Litsune Flag (B)
Abilities Locked Equip Bonus: Atk +6, Fire resistance (small),
Skill: Blazing Flourish
"Litsune?"
/~/
"A Litsune with no tail. You're too young to be considered a threat."
"I'll show you. You pig fuck!
"[Star Fireball!]"
"[Planet Fire Ray.]"
/~/
He remembered back to the battle with the orc captain. It was there he figured out H'lock was a monster like Shiku or Ricten. With this flag, along with Kitsune lore. He finally understood what the orc meant.
"So this was a Litsune. And by the tail count, it seemed to be 200 years old. Damn, no wonder it was so powerful. That also meant H'lock died very young." Swapping to the new flag, he took a hard look at it.
It had an orange pole with a flame pattern. The main flag was that of a Litsune with a hat and no tail breathing out a small flame in a field of dandelions.
It was one of his most artistic flags to date. Not just that. Something on the fabric caught his attention and got him lost in thought.
"There's no mistaking it. That hat, the lack of a tail… Is this a dying gift H'lock? If so, thanks." Flores did a little prayer for the second time in his life and went to look at the stats of the weapon.
It was his strongest to date. Along with the new skill. He could only assume that this was an apology from fate for fucking with him too hard for the past two weeks.
Calling out the skill name… nothing happened. He tried again. Same thing.
He pondered on what he could be doing wrong and held it out. That's when it suddenly caught fire before immediately putting itself out.
"I see now. [Blazing Flourish!]" Taking a swing. The skill activated. The flag caught fire for the whole duration of the swing, before extinguishing itself. With some more tests, he soon figured out that the flag would stay on fire as long as the spear was in motion. This even worked for thrust attacks.
"So as long as it's moving with the intention to attack, the flag would stay ablaze. Guess that means this skill encourages a more aggressive spinny… attack-style thingy… whatever. Something to spin to win is all I'm hearing." Flores scoffed.
"This skill is promising. If I could get it to a Supreme rank, that would make it the strongest out of all the flags I've gotten thus far. The only thing I could use to compare is the Sterrite Flag... if I didn't fuck it up at least.
You see. He's been keeping track of his power-up methods after the whole Orc incident. While boot camp has gotten a lot of points from Riala's killing spree. One method has been gathering up energy in the background that being the trains method, rarity up.
Each monster and material Flores absorbed can be turned into energy. That energy then can be used to attempt a rank-up for one of his weapon's current rarity. Each rank-up attempt costs more and more energy while getting harder and harder to succeed as you move on.
Of course. When it comes to gacha games, it's never that simple. If you fail to get to the next rank, that weapon's rank is then reset to the lowest rank. Something that made Flores sit down looking stupid while contemplating his life choices.
Sterrite Flag (B)
Flores sighed as he looked at his failure. He had enough energy to get the Sterrite flag back to a great rarity. But he decided to try his hand at getting the Litsune flag to a higher level.
Uses 500 energy for a great rank-up?
Yes No
Flores clicked yes, and watched as the status of his Litsune flag disappeared.
Rank Up Successful
Litsune Flag (G)
"Okay. Supreme rank time... I think I'm developing a gambling problem." Flores pondered as he calmed down.
"My smoking is already bad enough." Flores sighed as he put a cigarette in his mouth.
Use 1000 energy for a Supreme rank-up?
Yes No
Flores chose yes once again, and watched his status appear once more.
Rank Up Successful!
Litsune Flag (S)
"Of fuck yes!" Eat it fate!" Flores cheered. "Now let's do a legendary spin." Flores checked his energy and saw that it was currently at 222. He needed 1500 energy for a Legendary rank-up, but he had nothing in his inventory to sacrifice for it.
Aside from the Litsune, he looked around for any possible monster to kill. That was when a thought finally dawned on him.
"The help menu says materials. So why not just use wood? I haven't even tried doing that yet."
Flores ripped a branch off the tree and stuffed it inside his flag. And sure enough.
Conditions Met: Wooden Violin (B)
Abilities Lock Equip Effect: Violin Skill 1, Def +1.
"Well, may a ruffish eat my shoe… I still have no idea what that is." Flores swapped to the violin and saw that it was indeed a violin.
"Whatever a ruffish is aside. I now have a lot of backtracking to do. If any material could work then I'm missing out on a lot of potential buffs."
Speaking of backtracking He just realized something about the litsune he just fought. He got the meat and bone variants of the monster, but nothing else. They also have fur, something that doesn't fall under those two categories, and that made him wonder.
"If organs count as meat, and bone counts as… well bones. Why wasn't fur given?" Flores thought.
Flores ran off to search for another Litsune. If he was missing a powerful material, then he was adamant about finding it. His search didn't take long however. When he got a few steps into a run, He saw a small fox poking out from under a tree.
"Great. Another family ruined. If this keeps happening, I'm gonna have a zoo of these things keep happening."
Flores went over and picked up the kit, but it ended up scratching him in the face. A suitable reaction to a stranger who came out of nowhere. Not to mention just killed and disassembled its mother.
Letting it go, the fox ran away from the flag hero, and lept into a bush. Flores was about to leave the area, but a yelp came a second later as the fox was tossed out. The fox was missing the top of its ear, as a bite mark made it evident what had happened.
Swapping its attitude, the Fox cowered behind Flores as the bush started to rustle.
He barely had a chance to lift his spear as Bundrill lept out and pinned him to the ground. It was much larger than any Bundrill Flores had seen up to this point. Even the mothers came nowhere near this one's size, as it was at the height of a lion with the bulk of a gorilla.
Its ears started to spin as it prepared to drill through his face. Flores however, rolled back and kicked it away before It could get the chance.
"What in Gurren Lagann is that!" Flores exclaimed. "Obviously, it was a Bundrill. But It looked like one on steroids and crack who took an injection of acid along with a full gallon of LSD from a milk jug." Flores thought as he got in a fighting stance.
He watched as the bundrill combined its ears. A sign that it was going to drill underground for a surprise attack, much like the bundrill mothers. While taking note of every place it come out of, Flores noticed that it left some fur on the ground. Being the man that he is, he quickly picked up the fur and shoved it into a gem.
Bundrill Father Flag (B)
Abilities Locked Equip Bonus: Agility +2, Skill: Boomerang Flag
"Neat. Alright, let's finish this thing-"
Flores swapped back to his Litsune flag, but by the time he looked up, the bundrill was already charging at him. Its body twisted and turned as it flew through the air in the form of a drill.
"What!? It's not going into the ground!"
Flores barely had enough time to raise his flag when the bunny crashed into it. He had underestimated how powerful it was. If it hadn't for this thing's pure size, He wouldn't have been able to block it.
Seeing this clash as futile, he rolled to the side, making the bundrill flop to the ground. Recovering from the roll, Flores ran over and stabbed the bundrill in the neck. The attack however, barely did anything as the bunny kicked him away.
Flores was sent tumbling, but he recovered quickly and deflected a claw from the bunny.
[Beginners Flourish!]
Seeing another slash coming. Flores deflected another claw strike and slash it across the face with his skill.
The bundrill tanked all of this however, and grabbed Flores by the arm with it's ear.
"Oh of all the bullshit," Flores grumbled as he was lifted into the air.
He tried to escape the grip, but the bundrill tightened his ears around the arm and started to spin the other. As Flores braced himself, the bundrill thrust the drill into his chest. It quickly broke through his armor and started to dig through his flesh.
"Star Light Star bright... ugh... something something blinding light!" Flores stammered.
As he was in agonizing pain. Flores quickly spit our a rhyme and created a bright glow that blinded the bundrill.
Crying out from the pain, the bundrill slammed Flores to the ground. When it raised him to slam him once again, Flores stabbed the ear holding him. The bundrill's grip then weakened, and Flores pulled himself free.
"[Attack Order!] [Beginners Flourish!]" Activating his skill.
Flores attacked, delivering an empowered slashed to it's neck. The Bundrill was still moving after the hit however, and retaliated. Flores was hit by the claw and got a slash mark across his chest, but he powered through and swapped to his new flag.
"[Blazing Flourish!]" Flores slashed at the bundrill, with the flames making the monster cry out in pain. "[Boomerang Flag!]" With this skill, Flores was allowed to throw his flag. What surprised him, however. Was that [Blazing Flourish] didn't disappear despite him changing flags.
Deciding to worry about skill mechanics later. Flores watched as the the flag flew through the air and cut through one of the bundrills' paws.
The bundrill fought through the pain however, and went for another claw strike. But the flaming flag came back around and cut through the other paw as well.
But even with both its paws gone. The bundrill combined both of its injured ears together and attempted a final Drill as it fell.
"This thing doesn't know how to quit. [Drill Run!]"
As soon as Flores caught his flag, he accepted the challenge, and immediately reeled his hand back. With the flag still in motion, Flores's drill run still had the flame from blazing flourish active. This helped him against the clash, and the bundrill soon fell with both its head and ears being pierced.
430 EXP
Level 41 42
"Holy fuck. That was insane." Falling to the ground, Flores weakly took off his chainmail and started to wrap his chest injury. He sighed in relief as he felt the healing aura flow over his chest, and leaned against a tree to relax.
"If Lee didn't exist, you would have been my toughest fight yet. Let's see if this was worth it at least."
Bundrill Father Meat Flag (B)
Abilities Locked Equip Bonus: Defense +2, Piercing Attack up
Bundrill Father Bone Flag (B)
Abilities locked Equip Effect: Agility +4, Order Change
Bundrill Father Banner (B)
Abilities Locked) Equip Effect: Spearmanship 2, Skill: Erst Banner
"A banner? That's a rare one." Flores swapped to the new banner. It had a white handle with the softest fur one could imagine. Its image was that of a Bundrill father, having a bundrill mother, and two other bundrill on its back. Like a bad family portrait, all the rich people have their living rooms.
Flores chuckled a bit before realized that he indeed destroyed another monster family.
"Lol. I've killed so many fathers that could make a meme out of it." Flores chuckled.
Was he cruel for that? Yes. But they both went into combat knowing fully well that they could be killed. He didn't want to, but both counties didn't give them any other choice. Old or new, isekai or not. It was survival of the fittest in every world. All he could do was go with the flow, and figure out how to change it when the time arrives.
"[Erst Banner!] Flores called. A translucent purple banner fell from the sky, and implanted itself into the ground.
"… is that it?" Flores casted the skill again, nothing changed.
"Okay. An airstrike skill I guess. Let's see what the other does. [Order Change!]"
When he swapped to his bone flag and used the skill, a selection of flags appeared in a side menu. The only flags that were highlighted were the ones that had a skill, so he decided to go with his favorite run. Drill Run.
Once he thought of a drill run, however, the menu disappeared, and the flag shot towards the nearby Litsune.
"Oh shit." Flores quickly swapped to his erst banner and despawned the flag. The Litsune that was about to be hit suddenly ran over to Flores, and cowered behind his back.
"Sorry about that." Flores chuckled a bit, but the Fox wasn't amused and breathed a bit of fire onto Flores arm. The paper arm suddenly caught fire, and had to pat it out in order to not lose any more sheets.
"Ow. Okay sorry." Flores pleaded. The fox pouted and turned his back to Flores, so the hero decided to pick up the fox who made an effort to not be held.
"Hey, hey! Calm down." Flores ordered. The fox listened, but was still shaking in the hands of Flores.
"You're missing an ear. At least let me do this." Flores pulled out a bandage and started wrapped it around the Litsune's bleeding ear.
"There. Good as new… actually nvm, you're still missing part of an ear." Flores chuckled. "Kind of like me I suppose." The fox eyed his paper arm that was still a bit charred. Flores didn't know what it was thinking, but seconds later, it jumped onto his shoulder, sort of making a home there.
"Found a new sleep spot. Alright then, I'll call you Cinder as payment."
The fox looked at him for a moment before ignoring him and going back to sleep. Flores felt offended, but another rustling in a bush put him on guard.
"[Boomerang Flag!]" Flores got up and tossed his flag forward.
Whatever it was leaped out of the bush, leaving only a silhouette as the flag cut through the bush he threw it at. Catching his flag. He tried to turn around, but his shadow rose up and grabbed onto him.
"What the fuck!" Before he knew it, his shadow had him in a head and arm, and swiftly threw him to the ground where he would be held in an arm bar.
As he struggled to escape, Flores watched as the shadows from the trees turned into Javelins, and flew at him.
"Star light star bright something barrier rite-"
"Hold it Neila!" A voice shouted. The shadow suddenly stopped midair, and floated inches away from Flores body. Coming from the bush he attacked was Lizen with Isu beside him. And by the sound of it, Neila was his attacker.
"What's wrong father?" Neila asked, finally coming into view. Despite being in the most dangerous forest in Arcadia, she had no armor on, and wore her usual dress.
"That monster you were about to impale was actually our resident hero. So I ask that you don't kill Flores before I change your curfew from 11 to 5."
"Eek. Sorry Mr Flores. Did recognize you. I saw something without armor and assumed it was an orc or Yang Dou." Neila chuckled as she scratched her head.
Flores's shadow released him and seeped back into the ground. The javelins around him also fell, and Flores took note of the sheer amount. He could only see the ones on his front half, but there were dozens more behind and to the side of him.
"Welp. She is now at the top of the don't fight ever list. No debate, she frightens me." Flores thought as he watched Neila pick her nose. "Such concentrated evil."
"I was just doing some much needed grinding. Got attacked by an oversized bunny, got 7 new flags, a violin, And several new mental notes for later."
"Bundrill father?"
"Yep."
"Nice work." Lizen complemented.
"Just warn us the next time you leave. It would be unwise to not have any backup if you're ever in a near death experience. Well… that and a less chance of Neila turning you into a pincushion.
"Duly noted." Flores sighed. He didn't want to get anyone involved. The more he fights around them, the more useless he feels. He's supposed to be a soldier. But for the past two weeks, he's been taking loss after preventable loss. And it's making him feel inadequate.
Was he the right choice for the job, or was fate doing everything in its power to make him suffer? Only God knows.
"By the way, Flores. You're not keeping that fox are you?" Lizen asked, pointing towards the fox resting on his shoulder. He didn't know where Cinder went when he was attacked, but she was back
"Cinder stays with me."
"You seriously named it. Again?"
"You keep your bird. I keep my fox." Flores retorted.
"IT'S A MAGIC BIRD!"
"AND THIS IS A MAGIC FOX!"
The two argued on the way back, with Lizen adamant on not keeping the fox whose species is known for starting fires. Flores however, didn't give in, and held Cinder all the way back to camp.
It was moments like these that filled him with ecstasy. No murderous creatures, no shootouts or sleeping in a trench for hours. Just good ol 'fun with a group that he could call friends.
As finally made it to his tent, he sat down and watched the activities of the war camp.
Animals of all shapes and sizes ran about. They carried many weapons, armor, and medical supplies to people and tents around the camp. Cadenza was out of her room, and was working on various weapons with all 6 tails active at the same time.
The occasion. War… or at least something akin to that. A few days ago. The Seelie (Transformed Monsters) discovered an orc settlement in the heart of Zell. A location known as the Star Temple, the resting place of the previous Morale hero. For various religious, revenge, and personal reasons. (Most because they made Riala's leader's sister in law sad.) They were out for blood.
There was only enough room for one intelligent monster species. If they were going to assert their dominance by killing a hero's party. Then Riala will assert her dominance by burning down their homes and businesses.
"War never changes."
/~/
Flores Journal
The Seelie
Riala, Ricten, Leo. They aren't human, but actually monsters who gained a human form. Only creatures loyal or adopted by the soul sanctuary learn how to do this. It's for that very reason that they were given the name, Seelie, or Bless Demon in Rinoth.
This spell was actually created by Leo when he was in captivity. By whom and what purpose however is something that he refuses to share. The basis of the spell is that they would gather ellyans and absorb them. Is it then, that they are able to gain a human form. This form of casting is called monster speak, or Shang Fo. A type of magic that all monsters have, and utilize for their various attacks. More on that in the next entry.
Aside from being human, this gives some advantages too. For one, thumbs and hands, along with being able to swoon over every Anime fan with your army of cat girls. But on a more serious note. Access to the human tongue allows for communication, and utilization of Rhyme magic.