Sachihiro

The thing comes at me at speed and with agility that belies its size and hasty construction. The ground shakes slightly as it runs at me giving testament to its weight but also giving me a way to track it without relying on reading the frequencies of the rock I have captured. I keep sending water bolts that splash against the thing’s stone body almost harmlessly.

It’s on me a moment later and both my feet are off the ground with my shield forward to take the brunt of the force of the thing’s initial strike.

Ding!

Stone and sky-steel shield collide and as I’m in the air I’m pushed back flying by the impact of the strike to land some metres away from the thing. It’s on me again as soon as my feet touch the ground and I’m on my toes as I swerve past an arm as thick as my torso cutting through the mist followed by a reverse sweep done so expertly that my hastily raised shield collides against my face as I block the strike. My head rings and I see sparkling spots in my vision but I’ve been here before and already know what needs doing regardless of a head wound.

I use a spear to deflect the leg my awareness tells me is coming and the thing doesn’t even hesitate as the point of my spear chips at its stone exoskeleton. The strike disturbs its momentum and it’s enough for me to dodge the kick that would have likely caved my ribcage in but it’s barely a stretch that’s been inflicted on my three metre stone man opponent.

Ding!

Another hit rings out, this impact coming from above as I cocoon myself under my shield and thrust repeatedly with my spear at its lower leg region. I only get three strikes in before a leg comes at me again sweeping low and my shield is in front taking another reverberating impact that throws me back forcing me to twist through a back flip and land again in a crouch. This thing is too fast and too skilled to be just a construct-

Woooosh

I duck and roll as one of the flying rocks nearly takes my head from my shoulders coming to an alert stand still with spear and shield still in hand as I’m reminded again that this dungeon is trying to kill me as all dungeons do.

‘’Hehehehehe,’’ a silly annoying low giggle rings out from the pervasive mist and without the rock I used to align myself I haven’t the slightest idea where my main opponent actually is. I let my aura circulate through me before letting it surround me and enhance my entire body. I’m suddenly lighter on my feet, suddenly faster then I was a moment ago, my body tougher and more resistant to damage, my muscles, ligaments, tendons stronger, more elastic, better.

The ground vibrates again as the thing moves and I send water bolt after water bolt in its direction before seeing it burst out of the mist with its closed fist coming down at me fast. I deflect and swerve around it, displacing a lot of the power through my shield and body movements. I strike hard into its side and again I only chip at rock as the thing sweeps its arm back I duck under the strike and thrust hard into its chest region, again chipping rock and likely blunting my spear.

We circle each other thus for a over a minute, the thing striking at me with fluid movements that I would expect from a human being of this size not a creature with a solid rock exoskeleton that seems impervious to spear damage. I try to target the seams of the rock plates that make up its body but the lines are so fine as to be nearly invisible to the naked eye.

Thankfully I’m not relying on my naked eye and as I keep track of its body with my awareness I do my damnest to dismantle the thing with every strike of my spear. I miss my targeted spots nine times out of ten with the movements and chaos of combat, I‘d swear the thing actually knows what I’m trying to do as it changes up its attack pattern now and again as we fight.

I deflect strike strike dogde, deflect strike dug, swerve strike strike step back, duck jump summersault strike strike dodge. I’m all over the place as I chip away at the thing with aura enhanced strikes. The impactive force of my strikes seem to be annoying the thing more than the sharpness or penetrative power of my weapon and it’s clear to me that I’m using a spear for a job that would be better done by a hammer.

I again get behind my shield and take impact from directly ahead whilst pushing myself back to gain distance from the huge creature in front of me. I land lightly and as I do I have to pull my head back as a flying rock flies a hair’s breadth from my nose. The next one I deflect on my shield and a moment later the thing is again on me fast, really too fast for its size and efficiency of it’s body armour. It’s a bit unfair actually considering every dungeon is supposed to give delvers a fighting chance.

*

Ikigai

I watch da face the rock spirit hulk from the edge of the mists after fighting my way through the rhino horde with Sirgur to assist. He seems to be having trouble with the rock sorcerer and it’s summons, likely because whilst within the mists one can’t see a damn thing unless they find a way to cheat. Standing at the edge of the Mist clearing though I’m unaffected and can see almost everything occurring between da and the creature.

‘’He’s good,’’ Sirgur says from behind me and I nod my accent to that assessment. They are both fast and skilled but it’s already clear that if da had the proper equipment he would have ended the rock summons by now.

‘’An axe or a hammer would do him more good though,’’ Sirgur continues and I ignore him this time. Though he is my uncle we aren’t really close and this is probably the first time he has seen da showing his moves without trying to hide his skill level. ‘’He can’t keep up that level of movement forever, he’ll run out of stamina.’’

I find myself spitting to my left further away from him but the insult is evident none the less, ‘’my father is a Barbarian, he can fight for as long as he likes.’’

I can tell he is scowling behind my back but I don’t really care. I’ve never liked Sirgur for some reason and I could never quite put a finger on why. Maybe it’s because he likes to kill the southerners at the Arena when he is chosen, or the way he looks at mama Mira and my sister Saya but likely how disrespectful he is when talking about da. But anyways I pay attention to the fight-

‘’Shouldn’t we help him?’’ He asks yet not moving a muscle. I tsk, an old habit I caught from mama Ingwe I've been trying to break. The bastard probably knows I’ve been trying to break that habit and is goading me on purpose so that- No! I pay attention to the fighting. The movements of my father as he fluidly mixes the sword forms of akurobatto with the spear.

Da is always trying to teach himself something and I don’t think he even realises it anymore. Even this fight which is potentially to his death he is quickly trying to remember everything he knows about spearwork from his early training at the hands of grandda to his dabbling with people like Master Shaolin More whose spearmastery is undisputed on all of Paradisum. Da moves fluidly all around the stone hulk, spear hitting and hacking as he practises the most basic thrusts with the complexity of akurobatto movements.

All this obsession with the spear coming because his stupid friend decided to kill himself and become a zanpakutō. Even worse, instead of the new soul facing its shame of failure by being an honoured piece of furniture it decides to cry out to my father, the ever loyal friend, to be used for its purpose. And now da has to quickly relearn the spear and try to catch up far enough that he doesn’t get himself killed when he’s actually being serious.

Do they all really not see the burden of responsibility they place on his shoulders? How many years of training would he have to dedicate only to the spear just to catch up and be equal with where even I currently am with a longsword? Anyways with the sword and the axe his primary and secondary weapons almost his entire life I don’t really see how the spear could be anything but a handicap weapon, used only when pretending to take an opponent seriously.

He does a spin landing in a twist using the edges of the round shield the scrap at the stone creature. His shield work is actually pretty good considering he’s usually practising dual-wielding Kata and Razor than using a shield. Though by the look of the Horde soldiers and the still-rising number of riff-raff calling themselves the rest of the Paradisum army everyone in the Tribes carries a shield. I feel like someone should have let me in on that a long time ago, my shield work is a mess-

Boom!

There is an explosion of shattering rock as the rock creature and three of the floating rocks shatter outward around the sorcerer. Da is already on the move with a double afterimage and Kata cutting through the mist like a shooting arrow aimed unerringly for the sorcerer who hastily blocks lodging Kata head deep into rock.

Zzzz...

For a split second, I can feel the slight ring from here as da uses his Soul Art and he is running at speed through the mist with those two blurry afterimages of him trailing behind following and amplifying all his actions on top of the aura I can feel he has stacked. The shield is thrown smoothly without breaking his stride, spinning through the air and bouncing off the last floating rock deflecting it away.

A hastily created spirit shield created by the sorcerer is easily pierced through with a cracking then quenching sound, both shield and the chest of the surprised sorcerer pierced through in a move even I didn't see coming.

There is no sound from the two and the crumbling rocks because the spear sticking from the sorcerer’s chest is the zanpakutō Hiroshi turned into. We’ve dubbed it 'The Silencer' for now, Saya with her creepy ability says it likes the moniker. It likely wouldn’t have penetrated so easily had it been a normal spear, hence the surprise I guess.

The mist dissipates from the clearing of rocky/grassy damp ground. Da stands there with his eyes closed taking deep breaths to centre himself and get calm from the high of a good fight. The dead body visibly dissolves into the ground with everything around from the sorcerer doing the same. The is a slight fluttering of the mana within me and the air around me. Nothing that can be consciously perceived or pointed at; a rusting of leaves from a wind you didn’t feel, a shadow here and gone that I'm not sure it was just me blinking or something truly blotted out the sun for an instant.

Then all of da’s visible bruises and scrapes disappear, his posture becomes more relaxed yet stronger. He breathes out what I assume is a sigh with a smile forming on his face, Silencer still in hand making all his actions inaudible. I don’t like that he keeps feeding that thing but the advantages of wielding it as far as I can see are vast, to be completely silent in battle is quite uneery. Something he didn’t do in his fight against Gaia, I shake my head at the thought as Sirgur and I walk towards him. If only they knew how much he holds back when he fights them still, they see it in me when I fight my sisters but they don’t see it plain on da.

We walk up towards da and he lets go of the spear as we get close, the sound of him standing there coming at me is reassuring to me somehow. Not being able to hear him made me feel like he couldn’t hear me and I don’t like that.

‘’How did you get your hands on that, I thought that was a zanpakutō?’’ Sirgur asks as he looks around at the battle ground. There are patches of grass here and there, a lot of rocky places and some mud but all fairly flat ground.

‘’It is a zanpakutō, but I’m a summoner remember?’’ Da says with a corky victorious grin. So proud of himself after that fight, I look away and grin as well, assessing the ground too.

Sirgur nods like he understands and is filing away the fact that da can carry dangerous things without a storage amulet. Not that storage amulets work on bound items, that would be nice if they did.

‘’No loot?’’ he asks after walking around some and finding nothing of worth, I nearly snort at his stupidity but I stop myself. Ma has been telling me not to show my knowledge so quickly, feign stupidity to those you don’t trust.

But still, everyone knows that with gaining that much ether form a single fight in a dungeon of this age other gifts are unlikely, and unnecessary. Da probably just got another big jump closer to his next Awakening, that would be interesting to see.

‘’No,’’ da says out loud whilst enquiring about Saya’s boy in a sending.

‘’They are handling themselves admirably for the little experience they have with this kind of thing, Esuas is babysitting.’’ I send back.

‘’Let’s go,’’ da says almost before I’m done speaking to him and we are on the move again, heading deeper into the dungeon forest. Not following the set forest path by making our own as da uses the short cuts he knows to come visit with Uncle Daewon, Old Man Gorr, or that Ancient, Elentril.