CHAPTER 4

"Whoa, that dude is gigantic!" I exclaimed upon seeing a knight in literal shining yellow armor, a similarly giant halberd-looking weapon in one of his hands, and a big round heavy shield in the other. Also yellow, of course.

The knight was casually patrolling the quite big plain we found ourselves on. He hadn't seen us yet, mostly because we came from a direction not directly in his line of sight and from a lower elevation as well. We also chose, well, Sellen chose not to show ourselves because she pulled me right back as soon as she saw the giant man riding his equally yellow armored giant horse. Damn, this guy really loves that color, huh? I chuckled to myself.

The ground bent every time his horse took a step. If you didn't know what I mean, try watching an eighteen-wheeler with full cargo pass the road sometimes; if you look carefully, you would see asphalt literally being pressed downward as the wheel passes. That was what was happening every time the knight's horse took a step. The horse must be really strong, and their armor must weigh substantially too to do that, although they did step on mostly hard ground and not asphalt.

The towering giant was wearing a full plate of armor from the top of his head down to his feet, no sign of skin being shown at all to the outside world. He looked positively majestic, though.

His helmet was peculiar as well, mostly due to the fact it reminded me of one of those ancient Roman soldier helmets, the one with the plume at the top.

You have three chances to guess the color of the plume, first two don't count.

I stared, baffled, as the knight patrolled the terrain. From where I stood to the side, it seemed like he was circling two points of interest: one being an abandoned-looking church, the top of it was gone, and the other in the opposite direction, another similar-looking building, but this one was intact. It was placed atop a small hill with a faded road leading into it, half-destroyed wooden fences lining the road.

The passing of age marked this seemingly cathedral building, stone cracked, and moss stuck on it. But, as I said, it was intact, and the door to it was weird as well. As I confirmed with my Sharingan, there was no sign of a handle at all. Just a metal door without a visible way to open it.

Well, not that it was important. I was mostly investigating because the knight looked like he used those two points of interest as the center of his patrol.

And Sellen was uncharacteristically silent beside me. Also gazing at the giant cavalry knight.

"What's wrong, love?" I asked worriedly.

Her face was wary as she stared at the knight. Then she shook her head to look at me. "That is a Tree Sentinel,"

"And he's going to attack us?" I said, it was an easy guess all things considered.

She showed a surprised face. "Well, yes, but how do you know that?"

I shrugged at her. "We've had two encounters since I came into this world, both of them hostile. Not that it can be used as an indication, but I said to you already, I have an idea of where I was sent into,"

Sellen huffed. "Okay, fair. But not everyone would just attack us on sight, including this one," she pointed at the singular cavalry in the distance, "Tree Sentinel don't usually just attack anybody. But they do always attack Tarnished, which means they'll definitely attack us," she stared into my eyes, no doubt trying to instill the significance of this information, "they also somehow knew when someone is a Tarnished. That is what they've been ordered to do, probably by Lord Morgott, he probably is also the one that gives them the means to identify Tarnished."

"And who's Morgott, exactly?" I asked, confused.

I was met with a sigh. "Morgott is one of the demigods. I'll tell you about him later, but that is not the point, dearest of mine," she placed a hand on my chest, "what I'm trying to tell you is, anyone who looks like a soldier or a knight will probably attack us, and the one wearing yellow most definitely will because that's the capital's color theme, which Lord Morgott rules."

I gazed at the big, bright yellow knight in the distance and nodded my head. "Obvious."

Sellen sighed once again and glanced at the Tree Sentinel as he continued walking aimlessly in the distance. "We'll most likely have to fight him to pass," she gazed at our surroundings, all open plain, interrupted sometimes by thin trees, rarely in groups, "they usually just let someone from the Academy pass, but I'm certain I'll get attacked as well just by association,"

"Hey, that's not fair," I rebuked, "I didn't do anything,"

Sellen smiled at me, "I know, dearest. I wasn't complaining, just letting my thoughts out loud," she hesitated for a second before continuing, "No matter what, I'll stay with you," she affirmed with a nod to me.

I gave her a smile back, "Why do you look worried though? Is he that strong?"

Sellen nodded gravely, "Their kind usually are. Tree Sentinels are an elite order of Leyndell's Knight. They came to be after the war against the ancient dragons,"

Oh no, story-telling time.

"Their bodies are infused with the essence of dragons, their armors, and armaments too," she finished.

I sighed in relief. Okay, short story.

"How strong are they exactly? Do you have an estimate?" I clarified.

Sellen hummed, "I do not know your full capability, dearest, despite what you told me I can't rightfully judge for certain until I see them myself. But I'm confident we can beat him," she hesitated again, "it's just, a Sorcerer is a bad match against them," she admitted.

Her tone was a bit shameful, so it was like a type disadvantage kind of thing, huh? There was nothing to be shameful about that at all.

"Dragons have an innate resistance against magic," she shook her head, "No, let me rephrase that. Dragons, ancient or otherwise, have an innate resistance against all forms of attack. Not to mention, a Tree Sentinel's shield can deflect magical attacks back to the offender,"

I ooh'd in understanding, "ah, so that's the main problem is it?" I confirmed

"Yes, dearest. As long as that shield stands between us. Any offensive move I do will be ineffective and sent back to me."

I nodded, "then, here's what we're going to do.."

I walked toward the giant cavalry, Mangekyō Sharingan already active, Sellen quite a few meters behind me and to the side, behind a shruberry and a collection of thin trees.

"Hey, you! Yeah, I'm talking to you, you ugly horse fucker!"

The giant duo stopped in their tracks and looked toward me while I faintly heard an exhausted sigh behind me.

I ignored it in favor of showing my middle finger to the charging cavalry.

Halberd in the air as he silently charged into my position. Yep, instant escalation. I guess Sellen was right; they did have a way to identify Tarnished, and it definitely not because of my taunting.
The thunderous hooves of its horse charge were freaking scary, I told you. I could feel it from my feet as I stood my ground and waited for it to come closer..

10 meters..

I kneaded my chakra into Earth..

8..

It coursed through my body, and I focused it on my feet, beginning the process of turning the rocky ground into fine sand..

6..

I chose to use this because I wanted to not instantly show my intangibility, and to try it for the first time, of course..

4..

The Sentinel came closer, ground shaking, and I could hear the sound of wind being pushed aside by his sheer size and speed, giant halberd to his side, preparing to maul my body, his body slightly leaning forward on his horse..

2 meters..

I burst chakras into my feet as the land beneath my feet became millions upon millions of tiny particle sand, so tiny it managed to suck me into the ground.
I heard the whoosh of air of its passing before I was pressed by the sand from all sides.

I teleported behind him and appeared inside the ground, forcing my body from the ground by an application of chakra similar to how you fail on tree-walking, the violent reaction pushing me upward.

I arrived above ground, and saw the cavalry looking left and right, my hands came up.

Chakra turning into fire, hands blurred together to form the already familiar seals, then I spat-

Fire Release: Great Fireball.

Stream of continuous fire spat from my mouth, forming a fireball that flew toward the giant knight. He nudged his horse to turn around as he heard the sound, countenance still calm as he raised his round golden shield up before an even more golden glow surrounded it, some kind of formation encircled the whole shield.

I knew what it was, that was the formation Sellen told me about, the one that would absorb my attack and send it back to me.

I formed another series of hand seals before my ball of fire even arrived at him, the sight of me preparing another technique blocked by the giant mass of fire.

Rat, Tiger, Dog, Ox, Rabbit, and then Tiger as the stabilizer and controller.

Globs of fire chakra bubbled toward my throat once again. I let it, took a deep breath, then blew-

Fire Release: Phoenix Flower.

Five balls of fire, one after the other, flew forward. Each one directed by my chakra to spread outward.

My original fireball finally arrived toward my enemy, but instead of an explosion of fire, I heard the sound of air being sucked into a vacuum, my fireball instead got sucked into his shield, to be replaced by a spear of light racing over my direction, accompanied by the tinkling of chimes.

'They really love their chime here,' I thought distractedly.

One of my little balls of fire arrived first from the front. It got absorbed again and turned into another spear of light.
The second one flew from his left side, shield coming to block, while a third one raced from the right just right behind the second.

The third would most definitely hit..

His own spears of light finally reached me, and I noted it took more chakras to let it pass me than the other attacks that had hit me thus far, not much but still noticeable.

Sure enough, after a moment the second ball got absorbed, but he couldn't direct it toward me, the third and fourth one hit him on the side, making him stumble without visible damage to his form except ash rising from that side of his armored frame, then he managed to position his shield for the fifth ball of fire.

A moment before the last ball hit him, I heard a chime from the distance, this one familiar to my ears as two spiraling gemstones raced toward the giant from beyond him.

I watched as my last ball of fire hit his shield simultaneously with the spiraling magic attack to hit him from behind and promptly broke to pieces on his back.

Crash.

He grunted as our attacks hit him, the first sound I heard from him. Good to know he wasn't a mute at least.

He turned sideways toward Sellen, and since I didn't want him focusing on her. I ran forward, not trusting my ability to bind the distracted big guy with my Mokuton.

I formed a snake seal while I ran, Obito's memory telling me it helps with the formation of the basic of Mokuton technique.
Three big blocks of roots tore the ground below the Sentinel, each as big as a human torso. They flew toward the Sentinel's horse, the sound alerted him and a moment before contact he managed to bring his shield in time to block-

The pangs of hard blocky wood meeting metal were heard across the clearing as the cavalry's horse stumbled sideward from the strike, and his shield arm got blasted upward. Rider and horse both righted themselves from the force of the hit.

I stopped running a few meters in front of the duo, walking with one hand rising, palm up, more woods breaking the ground from beside me.

He deflected the first one with his shield, the second with a slash of his halberd that tore the wood apart, while his horse moved forward to erase the distance between us.

Bell chimes came from behind, a rain of tiny stars encased in magic energy falling onto the knight's back once again one after the other, breaking on contact before he managed to bring his shield to bear. The little stars got absorbed, then one light spear was returned to sender, his horse forced to stop once again.

I trusted Sellen to dodge while I kneaded chakra again. Both of my palms were toward the Sentinel. Before long, woods burst from it, branching again and again, all of it connected to my hands, and flew toward him, circling the duo.

At this distance, his halberd became a disadvantage as he managed to slash one, two, three of my woods, directing his horse back, while woods kept coming toward him. I whistled as loudly as I could, hoping my signal would reach Sellen's ear just fine.

More woods flew forward, and after the six woods broke apart, one managed to encircle one of the horse's legs, and then one more to trap his shield arm to his side. It didn't take long after that to trap his other hand, even more woods tried to trap them.

A glow began to brighten behind him. A blue sword manifested vertically from Sellen's direction, it was the size of a normal straight sword.

The Sentinel noticed it too as he looked toward Sellen, rider and horse both becoming frantic as the blue magic sword became larger..

Then larger..

Again..

Then even more larger, until it reach more than 7 meters. The magic in the air itself hummed just from the existence of the giant spectral magic blade, visible blue energy surrounded the blade of magic, circling it, and then in a moment enclosing the sword, and as it did..

It became bigger once again, this time reaching 9 meters of pure magic energy in the shape of a blade, the concentration of magical energy was so bright in my vision that I was forced to squint my eyes just to look forward and at the same time maintain the bind I had of the duo, which was beginning to loosen already from the knight's struggle.

The air around the blade itself creaked in protest as the magic struggled to contain the shape of the positively gigantic blade.

I saw Sellen's form holding the giant magic blade, arms raised toward the heavens, hands desperately clutching her staff from whence the blade originated from. Her long black hair flew in the wind as her sorcery caused a harsh wind to blow everywhere around her. Her face locked in concentration, until finally, a clear high-pitched bell sound was heard in the clearing, before in front of Sellen's staff formed a magic array.

That turned out to be the signal for Sellen to bring the blade down to bear into the form of the still trapped cavalry. A harsh wind blew through the clearing, the thin trees left and right almost got rooted out of the ground.

The knight atop the horse roared to the heavens, his body glowing pure white. Before all my woods all turned to dust.

But it was already too late, the giant blade of magic was already swung halfway into him. I saw him raising his shield to block before a formation bigger than what he used to block all my previous attacks appear on his shield.

Then-

CLANG.

The scream of the wind reached me soon after. I almost got blown back bodily before I manually, and selectively turned part of myself intangible; apparently, my auto-intangibility didn't classify strong wind that would have blown me back a few meters as an attack on my person.

I could finally look forward, mundane wind and magic energy blended together in my vision howling everywhere in every direction, trees being rooted from the ground flying away from the epicenter, where I saw the knight hiding beneath his shield, the giant blue blade firmly stuck on it.

The world came to a stop as the shield and magic blade met in the middle, unstoppable force met an immovable object before with a final wave of force, an explosion so hard it generated a second howling wind through the clearing.

The knight was enclosed in a blue explosion...

Dust cleared and blue traces of magic finally receded from my eyes... I saw him still on his horse...

"No fucking way," I said unbelieving.

A moment later, blood burst from his horse's side before it collapsed bonelessly to the ground, bringing the giant of a man with it.

Another clang was heard, then I saw his shield cleave in two, falling to the ground, the hand holding the thing still strapped into one of the pieces.

Blood poured to the ground in droves, from his severed arm and his middle. I couldn't see it as he was still facing Sellen.

In hindsight, I should have moved at that point, at least done something, not stared in wide-eyed surprise. But I was stunned to silence at that time, both by the show of incredible magic and the durability of the cavalry knight.

He calmly lowered his body to the ground, picking up his halberd that I just realized was dropped from the ensuing chaos.

It was at that time I got a look at his chest; one side of his armor had a long vertical cut, showing his flesh inside, cut too, but only looked superficial.

I heard a bell chime, looking toward Sellen, I realized she was casting again; the sound was followed by a whoosh of air before an arch of blue energy, similar to what I imagine a sword wave would look like, was sent flying horizontally forward toward our opponent. I didn't understand why Sellen was attacking first because we agreed she would only attack after I sufficiently distracted him. But maybe she felt safe enough to try because our enemy didn't have his shield anymore. Or maybe because I was just standing there doing nothing while I gave the enemy time to recompose himself, shit.

He roared once again, his halberd in his one good right hand. Sellen's attack reached him; he stumbled a step and grunted in pain.

I came to myself and kneaded my chakra, intending to grab his attention once again. But before I could, his halberd glowed yellow before he slammed it to the ground, which produced a localized fucking earthquake around us.

Which broke my concentration. In that time I saw him raising his halberd, clasping it on the end side of the long handle away from the blade itself, then aiming it toward Sellen; I realized too late what he was going to do-

"SELLEN, WATCH OUT!" My eyes widened a fraction of a second before he threw the fucking large halberd toward my Sellen, an explosion of air following the weapon as it traveled forward.

My mind almost short-circuited thinking of a defense technique..

I found one, but I didn't have time to figure out how to use it; improvise it was!

The shining halberd was still flying in Sellen's direction, my useless eyes noting her own eyes widened, her staff raised, but I specifically remembered she didn't have any useful blocking spells.

"FUCK!" I screamed.

Mangekyō Sharingan.

I teleported in front of my girl-

"SUSANOO!"
I roared into the heavens, in that split second praying to anything that would hear my plea that it would work, hoping that an Aria, just like I figured the first time I used my power, would work to activate it-

BOOOOOM.

I heard an explosion close by, dust flying into my face, my eyes closed not daring to look, my robe flinging everywhere as harsh wind buffeted it.
But I realized.. I realized I was still standing; I opened my eyes slowly, hoping I didn't go intangible, and that I simply managed to stop the attack..

Blue was the first to enter my vision, at first I thought it was Sellen's magic, but it wasn't.

This was a different blue, this was the blue of chakra. Then I saw bones, large white bones, more specifically, large white rib bones, with blue chakra fires surrounding me inside this prison of large rib bones.

A skeletal Susanoo's rib, I realized.

"Shit.." I breathed out in relief.

"Aaron?" Sellen's soft voice reached my ears.

And it made the biggest smile appear on my face.

"Yes, love?" I said to her without looking back; I was sure she could hear the smile on my face.

"I'm.. sorry," she apologized.

"Nah, none of that now," I shook my head, "it was my fault to freeze in the middle of battle," the dust finally settled around us at this point.

"We'll talk about it later, okay love?" I said.

"Yes, dearest."

I finally saw the form of my Susanoo. Ribs and blue chakra fire surround my body head to toe, one giant skeletal hand in front me that I assumed was the one blocking the attack.

And beyond that, our opponent standing, his hand glowing toward his other hand's stump. His halberd already with him, leaning against his shoulder. Some sort of call-back function? Neat.

"Let me handle this," I said to Sellen, a different smile forming on my face.

Sellen sighed, "fine, go test your new toy."

I chuckled, "Much obliged, darling."

The giant knight stopped healing himself, halberd in hand once again, standing tall, silently.

Looking like a stalwart defender of a realm. Fuck, he looked cool as hell.

I teleported forward, 5 meters in front of him. He waited for me to form, a mistake I would make sure he paid for.

I brought my skeletal Susanoo arm to bear forward in a punch, the knight dodged, then I slammed the giant hand aside toward his recently recovered form.

He brought his halberd to defend, but he was still flown several meters back, feet skidding on the ground as plumes of dirt were blown away everywhere at his passing.

I walked toward him, Susanoo arm raised, then brought down, he jumped to the side, not trusting his ability to block. Another chakra arm formed before he could land, I brought it forward-

PANG.

He got smacked backward through the air as the newly formed chakra fist hit him in the chest. His weapon left his hand as his back finally found the ruin of a massive stone formation as a cushion, causing stones to crack and fall onto his armored body.

I let him stand up slowly as I kept walking toward him. His one good arm, now trembling, raised to where his weapon was on the ground; it flew toward his hand, clutched in its grip.

He brought it skyward, a magic array forming on the weapon, different than Sellen's own.

Before golden light enveloped his whole body.

I calmly watched all of it through my eyes. Then he kicked the ground, the earth he left behind burst to fine dust.

'Fast,' I thought. But in my state it was relative really, it was faster than before sure, but through my eyes, he just finally moved like a normal person would if they ran.

He roared as the halberd came in an overhead strike, a chakra hand blocked its path, then mine was pushed back slowly. My eyes widened before he broke contact, his foot came to my chakra ribs pushing me back slightly, my other chakra hand tried to slap him from the right, he lowered himself to dodge, then did a fucking 360 before his halberd was brought to bear to my side.

Again, I was pushed aside slightly. Whatever he did, it made him strong, and fast.

He came for another go, but I had a different idea, I jumped away as he lunged, chakra already kneaded, my hands blurred together in front of me-

Wood Release: Underground Root.

Roots of varying sizes burst from the ground, all coming racing toward him, big and small..
He cut all of it, no matter if it was big or small. All of it broke apart as it met his halberd, some from the back, from the side, the front, some even burst from the ground below him.
It didn't do anything; his new strength made it so that if a root managed to hold him, a single pull would break it.

It continued like that for several seconds, wood came, blown apart, another one came forward, sliced in half, one burst the ground, he stomped it, some came from behind, he pivoted on his feet to brought his halberd into the trio of roots behind him, the weapon mercilessly tore all of them in a single strike.

But it was sufficient to hold him in place for a moment.

My hands came up once again; forming a series of hand seals-

Wood Release: Great Tree Spears.

Four sharp giant woods burst from the ground in each of his cardinal directions.
Roots attacking on all side, combined with the new big pieces of woods?
One hit his side finally, he stumbled, another circled his abdomen, another one struck him right on the head from the back, he fell down to his stomach as another big wood trapped his feet.

KAMUI.

My power took his other hand from him along with his weapon into the Kamui dimension.

Handless, I thought it was over, then he did the explosion of that white light again, which turned all my woods to dust. With that white light, the yellow glow surrounding his body also began to dissipate; I took that to mean his strengthening technique was over.

He stood up slowly, looking pitiful, hands both cut off, no weapon to his name, chest armor slightly bent backward, one side also cut by Sellen's attack. But he still stood there, breathing hard, still silent. It was clear he had no energy to even continue the fight anymore.

"Just.. stand down, man," I sighed, skeletal Susanoo dissipated into mist. I almost stumbled as I found my body numb, only now realizing I've been fighting while pain suffused my whole body, guess pure adrenaline held the pain, huh?

"Surrender, I won. Just sit, and I will do what I can to help you, I promise," I said tiredly, wanting this fight to be over so I could bind him easily to be a retinue; I would decide if I want to sell him or not later.

In response, he walked forward, almost falling to the ground as his own feet struggled to hold him up. Both hands raised up, both stumps.

"Fudge, you're one persistent mother fricker." I shook my head.

I stared into his eyes, Sharingan blazing red.

GENJUTSU.

He slumped to the ground after a moment. No resistance at all. He was truly tired.

I heard grass bending from behind me as Sellen walked forward. I looked back, seeing my beautiful lady, robe a bit scruffed, but other than that, no visible injury on her person.

I smiled at her, giving her a thumbs-up, "I did pretty good, huh?"

She smiled back, "You did," Then shook her head, "I didn't expect his shield to be that strong, I cut multiple thick buildings with that attack once," Sellen remarked.

"Do I want to ask why you needed to bring multiple buildings down?" I asked.

Sellen giggled mischievously, but didn't answer in the end.

So I dropped the line of questioning and shook my head, "Me too, to be honest," I said, "That's why I was shocked to silence, literally," I laughed briefly, still feeling inadequate because I froze in the middle of a battle.

"Another lesson learned, dearest," Sellen answered as she leaned on my shoulder.

I tapped Sellen after a few moments, then conjured a little flame chakra in my hand and direct my hand to the stumps of the Tree Sentinel to stop the bleeding.

I bound him then sent him to the Kamui Dimension shortly after.

I checked my phone..
The Tree Sentinel was firmly in Tier 5, quite strong. Sellen herself was a low tier 6, while Obito was upper-end tier 6. Obito himself didn't have any overly destructive technique, but I bet he was in upper tier 6 just because of his Kamui, this shit was busted.

"...you know," Sellen started, "you shouldn't be binding every enemy you meet; you can also kill them to steal their runes and then use them to make yourself stronger," she finished.

...

"Fuck, I forgot they had those here," I slapped my forehead, "maybe next time,"

Sellen giggled, "I was just reminding you because this one is strong, and I don't believe you can become stronger just from killing weak enemies and stealing their runes,"

I sighed, "next time," then nodded to myself.

She giggled again-

SLAP-

"Aaron.." Sellen said, her voice low.

"Yes?"

She sighed, "I give up." She looked toward the sky.

I laughed out loud.

A girl and a horse watched the duo from the distance, both of them in spirit form.

"What do you think, torrent?"