Clang~ Clang, clang, clang!!
Zzzzt—!
Eyes snapping open, Shuna was t with a sight she never imagined she'd live to see.
Soone she didn't know when had appeared between her and Shion.
The figure was small, wielding a weapon made of woven green vines.
And it was this stick that now stood like a wall between them and the praying mantis-type Insect Monster's blades.
"The attack… was blocked…"
Shuna and Shion stared in disbelief.
Those blades, sharp and massive, were halted by what looked like a glorified wooden stick?
No, not just blocked.
Crack!
Fractures spread across the mantis monster's sickle arms, running all the way down its limbs.
"You… who are you…"
Benimaru and the rest had also seen the sudden turn of events.
They didn't know where this being had co from, but the aura it gave off.
It was one of their own.
An Ogre.
Just like them.
"Ogerpon has entered the battlefield!"
"What?"
In the next instant, under the stunned gazes of the Ogres, the erald-green Ivy Cudgel surged with magicules and shattered the mantis Insect Monster in a single swing.
Yes. Not knocked away.
Shattered.
And it didn't stop there.
The Ivy Cudgel's montum carried through, flattening five or six other Insect Monsters blocking the path between Benimaru and the two girls.
Rumble~
The wind roared across the battlefield, tossing the Ogres' cloaks and armor. Dust exploded outward, clouding their vision.
They instinctively fell back into defensive stances.
Whoosh~ Whoosh~
Boom!
But the expected attack didn't co.
Instead, cries of agony echoed through the battlefield as a single figure weaved through the monsters, knocking them down one after another.
One strike. The monster's body split apart.
Ogerpon dodged the gushing body fluids and stomped down.
In an instant, green light flowed with the wind. A carpet of grass surged up from the soil.
"What the—"
"This is…"
"M-My wounds, they're healing…?"
"So kind of healing spell? Are we being healed?!"
Without exception, every Ogre on the battlefield felt it.
Wounds closed. Strength returned.
Even Shion, whose spine had been slashed, was healing.
"My back… it's so itchy…"
Who was she?
Shion and Shuna both stared forward.
The smoke cleared.
There, standing on top of a crushed scorpion-type Insect Monster, was a small girl.
Her face was masked by a green leaf-veil. Behind her floated three gemstone-like masks in a triangular formation—blue, gray, and red—glistening like sacred relics in the sun.
Unlike when she was still a Pokémon, Ogerpon's Mask Reflection had transford with her evolution.
Now she could summon all four masks simultaneously.
With one at the center, she ford a fourfold Mask, gaining the combined strength of every mask.
"Haah!"
Grass energy flowed into the Wellspring Mask, Hearthfla Mask, Cornerstone Mask and Teal Mask.
Water, fire, rock, grass.
Four elental energies spiraled around her. The entire battlefield was her stage now.
"An Ogre?"
"And just… a child?"
The aura she gave off was familiar—warm, wild, instinctively comforting.
But her size… barely over a ter tall.
To the Ogres, all towering at two ters and above, she couldn't even be called a child.
But her presence.
Her power.
The raw pressure of her magicules said otherwise.
"I'm here to help."
Ogerpon summoned another Ivy Cudgel and entered a dual-wielding stance.
"Help?"
Benimaru finally registered what she said. He was about to respond, but—
She was already gone.
"Wait—!"
Too late. Her movent was blinding.
The boost from her Masks, combined with Rin's Leader skill, enhanced every stat.
Her B-rank magicules ford the base, and the mask transformation let her fight head-on with B rank monsters.
With Rin's Leader buff, plus her innate Destroyer Unique Skill.
She might even stand a chance against A-ranks.
And what played out before the Ogres was a one-sided massacre.
"What… what rank is this monster? This kind of strength…"
"She's one of the legends, right? A true Oni…"
She was tiny.
But every strike she landed caused earth-shattering impact.
Destroyer.
Anything hit by her would break.
Weapon, armor, flesh—it didn't matter.
Unless the opponent possessed a Unique Skill of equal or higher tier, it was a guaranteed effect.
A rule.
Hit = destruction.
No defense mattered.
Boom!
Ogerpon spun mid-air like a horizontal tornado, twin Ivy Cudgels turning everything nearby into dust.
Her destructive power. Her explosive burst.
The entire Ogre force was slack-jawed.
"Wh-What a brutal fighting style…"
"She's that small… and she's that strong!?"
"Giant bugs with armor thicker than steel, and she breaks them in one hit…"
They'd never seen anything like it.
"Young Master, what do we do?"
The one who would one day be Souei, now still just a young blue-skinned Ogre, reported in.
"The clan has regrouped. The retreat path has been cleared… by that little girl."
Just ntioning her left Souei shaken.
That wild presence.
That fearless charge.
This—
This was the violence an Ogre was born to wield.
(To be continued.)
Reviews
All reviews (0)