Couldn't sleep. Here's the 3000 collections chapter. Enjoy!
...................
"He's here for ." I said as I got up to go et him, "Dulio, Sai. Hide."
"That much is obvious." Nurarihyon replied and seeing my curious look explained, "He has three streams of intent. Two are on us, but the thickest one is concentrated all on you."
I see. Senjutsu can be used to this degree of accuracy. Feints and distractions simply don't work against a Senjutsu users, it seems. Gotta make a counter for that when I learn it.
I returned my attention the dragon king as he floated over to us, and I slamd the door shut behind .
"Hello." He greeted, "I have co to enjoy a relaxing ti in the onsen."
"We are closed…for renovations." Magari improvised, "There was a sign up the road. Learn to read."
"I see. I must have missed it." He said, "But I'm certain you could accommodate one guest."
"No. Company policy. Sorry." Magari refused.
"Very well. Then I shall simply wait for it to be finished with the renovations." He raised a hand and pointed in the distance, as a magic circle appeared, opening up a cave on the side of the mountain.
I sighed. Let's end this charade. I have places to be.
"Did phisto send you here to kill ?"
He was stunned for a second before putting on a poker face and answering robotically.
Hmm…he reacted much more to the phisto part than the killing part, and I'm guessing he isn't giving off any killing intent seeing as how Magari and Nurarihyon's tensions have lightened.
"I am simply a regular guest at the onsen. Trying to enjoy my ti off."
He sucks at lying. Goodness. He sucks so much.
At least that confirms he isn't here to kill .
"Who died and made you a spy?" I chuckled.
"I am not a spy. I am simply a guest." He repeated and I stopped him.
"Let guess, he wants to have a asure of . And he sent you because he trusts you the most."
Finally, he relented.
"Gahahahaha! Yes." Tannin admitted with a laugh, "I was sent here to spy on you. You really are as smart as he said."
"No, no, no." Magari waved her paw in the air, "A three year old could have figured that out."
Rude. I huffed.
"I don't know if I should praise or insult phisto's choice. But you're certainly stubborn enough to not return empty handed." I crossed my arms, thinking for a mont, choosing my next words carefully to gauge his reaction, "But I know you too have responsibilities and duties, managing your lands, training your children. Do you really want to spend the next six months sitting day-in day-out in a cave watching ten year olds fight?"
He gave it a thought for a long mont and asked.
"Do you have an alternative?" As bad as he was as a spy, he was at least smart enough to catch onto the hidden aning in my words. He was just too honest and guileless to deceive others.
He really is better dealt with using straightforward sincerity. A simple man. I like simple n.
"You are a warrior, aren't you?"
"Yes. How does that help ?" He asked humbly.
He didn't consider it lower than himself to take the opinion of child. That is admirable. I had half expected to be brushed off at the very start itself.
But I suppose that is to be expected of the man who gave up his identity as a dragon king to serve in hell, literally, all for the sake of his species of dragons, who need Dragon Apples to survive, the sa Dragon Apples that only grow in hell.
An honourable, humble warrior who values duty over pride.
"How do warriors get to know each other?" I pointed out.
He nodded understandingly.
"You wish to fight." He scratched his chin thoughtfully, "Very well. Let us save ti and have a conversation with our fists."
Better than having him hang around when I bring my new peerage mbers back.
That news leaking would be a disaster.
"You'll save if he tries to kill , right?" I asked Magari and Nurarihyon, just to be safe.
"Nah." Magari replied.
"Go die." Nura-san added, flipping off.
"How reassuring." I said with a deadpan glare.
"Gahahaha, worry not, young phoenix, I am not one to betray the trust of a fellow warrior." Tannin slapped a hand on my shoulder, with such force that it cracked the ground beneath my feet, "Co, let us take the fight sowhere less populated."
"Yes, just one mont." I turned to Magari and Nurarihyon, "Can you make that twilight barrier thing…" I gestured with my hands, "from the first ti we visited your castle. I'd prefer to keep our fight a secret."
They nodded and Magari shouted.
"Kids, co on now. You heard'im."
The elder nekomata all stood up, and jumped into the courtyard.
Wait kids?
"They're your children?!"
"Munya? Of course they are." She wed proudly, "Where do you think all these little idiots ca from?"
"No, I just can't believe so idiot slept with you five tis given how childish you are." I stuck out a tongue at her.
"Nyahaha, don't doubt my fertility, nya! These five are all from my first litter alone." She ignored my insult and strut around the five elders proudly, rubbing against their legs, as they squird with embarrassnt, with so even muttering 'Mooom!' softly, as if to protest the affection.
I guess the parent-child dynamic doesn't change, no matter how old you get.
Sotis I wonder how she survived all these years being such a silly little cat, but then I rember her true form was a terrifying, ten foot tall, four eyed, seven tailed monstrosity and yeah, no. That makes sense. In the nekomata world she probably the hottest GILF around.
Seeing them all gathered, I pointed to the ground and created a teleportation circle, transporting us all to a hidden little valley a little ways from where we were, surrounded by four mountains on each side.
The cat elders split up and moved to their respective positions while Magari and Nurarihyon helped with the initial casting.
Slowly, the afternoon sun began to dim as a dark, dreary canopy set upon the sky, covering us and the entire area in dim, evening light that coloured the world as purple as Tannin's scales, before the effect stabilized and the colour turned a moderate blue-grey, reflecting the fake moon in the sky.
Tannin and I squared up against each other, right in the middle of it, demonic powers flaring to attention.
"Sooo…do I make the first move or-"
"Go ahead, young phoenix. It wouldn't be right for to aggress." He offered politely.
Guess it is then.
I raised my leg and stamped on the ground, a crimson hellfire blooming upon my sole, that coursed through the ground in great luminescent veins, lting through dirt and flesh in a little move I like to call 'the floor is lava'.
My hands turned to claws, I raised them to the sky, and the ground rumbled beneath as eight giant snakes of lava shot out from the ground, six feet thick and dozens of ters long, barrelling towards him.
"Impressive." Tannin smiled, "But nowhere enough."
He reared back one fist and with pure physical power, tore through one, then another, tanking three with his body alone before he sent the last three flying with a roundhouse kick that cleaved through them like butter, splattering the mountainside in a golden shower of lava. The trees arounds had already caught fire, but that last move sent it rolling up the hillside in a great inferno, just as planned.
"Eh, I was just testing the waters. The taphorical appetizer." I shrugged.
"Is it my move then?" He asked, and I grinned.
"Nope." I disappeared.
Hellfire fluttered at my heels as I sped along the mountain tops away from him, casting spell after spell on myself.
Hellfire boost! Haste x3! Misty step!
I flickered from mountaintop to mountain top, leaving a trails of burning hellfire in my wake as Tannin watched curiously for a mont before he gave chase.
The ground burst beneath his feet in great waves as he shot towards making up the distant in an instant.
What a terrifying physique!
Just the perfect gauge to see exactly how strong I have beco!
Seeing that he was about to catch up, I gather two balls of wind in my hand, and he noticed.
"Those won't even tickle ." He said, his clawed hand reaching out to grapple when I slamd the first into my side.
"They're not for you." I escaped his grasp and he, moving at such a speed kept barrelling through, unable to turn in ti.
He skid to a stop so dozen ters away, carving a trench into the ground with his feet as he turned towards , but it was too late.
The second wind burst hit my side and I spun like tornado, one hand reaching outwards for that final boost.
FWOOSH! The wind exploded behind and I turned heel, heading straight back at him, only this ti I had the montum of a storm behind .
One leg outstretched as I spun, dark, biting winds whirled around it with an ungodly force that tore even my own leg apart at its seams. A move that was inspired by Inazuma Eleven and ca at the cost of a leg, sothing only a Phenex could afford to use.
"Eye of Jupiter!"
The winds howled, ripping out entire chunks of the ground, trees and all in their wake and before he could react, my leg slamd into him with force of a hurricane.
The dark storm exploded in his face as he lifted his hands to block it, shattering the hillside beneath our feet and burying him under a literal mountain of rubble as the explosion turned into a landslide, shaving the hillside into a cliff that led right back to the bottom of the valley.
But of course, that wasn't enough to down him.
"RWAURAGH!" His roar shook the entire valley and from beneath the rubble seeped out a truly enormous aura, tinged with a pinkish red and emanating such power that I even forgot to breath for a brief second.
Shit!
With one decisive move I tore off my own leg and burned through my demonic power, regenerating the leg back instantly.
My wings flushed out fully, panning eight feet across in feathers made of fla and with a single beat, I fled into the sky like a cot returning ho, streaking embers marking my ascent.
Below, the entire valley had flooded with hellfire now, consuming the lives of all plants and creatures living within. A spell born at the cost of a great many lives, made to ensure complete obliteration.
As I reached the peak of my ascent, I clapped my hands, and out erupted fla, beautiful and red, flowing like silk and wine between my palms, forming a sleek and breathtaking bow of hellfire, with curved eaves and burning twine. With one hand I activate the spell carved into the valley by the blood and fla below, and pulled gently, as if a weaver upon a loom. With a single tug, the flas below began to flow and fly upwards, coalescing into one singular arrow, whirling, twisting, condensed into the form of an almost solid fra, leaving naught but ash in their wake.
Just in ti too, as the rubble below exploded and out walked Tannin. Unscathed.
"Is that all you have got, boy?!"
Sheesh, I know you're tough but still…way to show .
His aura brimming with excitent, he looked straight up at and took the challenge. His dragon aura gathered into his mouth, his throat gurgling with barely contained fla that he condensed just like .
A one-to-one comparison of fla.
"Dragon Shot!"
"Firebird Of Ruin!"
We both attacked at the sa ti, and for a brief mont the whole valley lit up as the explosion rocked through it, binding all who dared to look at it.
Which, in fact was the entire point.
"Gravity enhancent! Montum Burst! Hellfire boost!"
I cast spell after spell onto myself as I used the cover of light to shoot straight down like a teor, which, coincidentally, was the final spell of the combo.
Imbuing the concept of a teor into my very bones, I ford an arcane shell with my wings wrapped around like a blanket of flas as a sonic boom echoed out behind .
BOOM!
Another finisher move.
"teor Impact!"
I crashed straight into him with the force of a teor, the force of the impact blowing open a crater into the earth, only, it was beneath his feet.
He hadn't even bowed from it. From the impact.
With one outstretched arm he grabbed by the head, grinning ear to ear with excitent, his nacing teeth on full display and he laughed.
"Clever tricks are never a match for raw power, boy!" His grip on my head tightened as he ford a knife hand with his claws, "Rember that the next ti you challenge soone to a fight."
PUCHI!
His hand tore through my guts, ripping out my intestines and stomach, my blood and bile mixing on the ground with a satisfying sizzle, as my lower half separated from my body entire.
And I looked into his eyes and smiled.
"You've never tasted my tricks before." I gurgled out.
In a flash I wrapped my arms around his hand and he let go of my head, but it was already too late.
He had sliced through like a hot knife through butter and now it was payback ti!
My claws dug into the flesh of his arm, though I barely managed to pierce skin, and that was enough.
"Black Flas of Judgent!" An oily ash black fla bubbled up from beneath my hands and wrapped around his arm at the shoulder, whirring like a buzzsaw, eating through him like ants on candy.
This was the best property of the new and completed spell.
I can move the damage reflected onto any part of the body I choose, in any way I choose.
You made a hole in my stomach, now you get a fresh new hole where your arm used to be.
In the ti it takes a thought to pass, the black flas had already eaten halfway through his arm and seeing that nothing he was doing was stopping it, he made a decision only a seasoned warrior would make.
He severed his own arm and with that sa motion grabbed it, and-
Splat!
My consciousness went blank, my ears stopped ringing. Complete oblivion.
And then-
BWah!
I died.
I took deep wheezing breaths as my mories from monts ago returned to , right with my now regenerating head as my body lay kneeling on the charred soil below.
He blew my head clean off.
He blew my head clean off using his own severed arm like a bludgeon!
MY head. For the first ti this life.
MY head- am I – Who am I? Am I the sa person that- the sa Riser?! The-
I began to hyperventilate, clutching my chest as I fell over. I looked at the burning splatter of my forr head…
My vision swam, my mouth felt like vomit and-
My mories-
Bwuaaugh!
I hurled my newly regenerated stomach out.
Magari was at my side before I knew it, cushioning my head as Nurarihyon splashed wine onto .
Then I blacked out.
................
MC gets humbled. The true difference between low Ultimate Class and peak Ultimate Class is more than a spell can cover, especially when you add the advantages of a dragon's body and hundred of years of battle experience.
A brutal beatdown.
Tell what you thought!
Thanks for reading.
Don't forget to donate your powerstones.
600 powerstones (total- we're already over 300) - 1 extra chapter.
4000 collections - 1 extra chapter.
Bye~
Reviews
All reviews (0)