章 31: chapter 27
3° person P.O.V.
On one death arena, there were many individuals.
In one corner there is about 20 man dressed as exorcists, or formerly dressed as such as their bodies transformed into aberrations.
About 8 of them turned into a figure that looks like a balloon with cannons attached. The only thing reassembling a human in there is the face that remains, but turned white and was locked in a screaming position. As if even their faces turned into masks. For practicality let's call them balloon-man (Writer Note: Imagine the level 1 Akuma from man)
The other 12 are all different in some way or fashion. All of them had tentacles coming out of their shoulders, but one had spikes coming out of his whole body; one looked like an overgrow frog; one looked like simply a mass of tentacles; one got a tail like a scorpion and the claws to match; one had arms that looked like a gorilla, but bulkier, scales covering it and with six arms instead of 2. And even then there were many other forms and figures amongst those monstrosities.
It was a true zoo of horrors, deformations that should never exist in this world in the first place.
Facing all of them was a single man, Arthur Pendragon the heir of the Pendragon Clan.
He, under normal circumstances, was a man that strived for personal growth and following his master that he respected and admired above all else (even when she put him through tortures she called training).
BUT
When in a situation where his fighting instinct is ignited-
He simply is a man looking for a fight.
SPRINT
He decided to not wait for his opponents to strike first, so he used mana burst to accelerate to his max speed to the closest enemy to him, a man with tentacles and body covered in an ooze that was advancing towards him.
Using his momentum Arthur used his sword to cut said enemy before he could try anything.
SLICE
He accomplished his goal of cutting his opponent in half, but it was far from enough. Slime man, despite being cut into two halves on the waist, simply used one of his tentacles that were there on his shoulders to hold Arthur's leg.
While stopping to move for a second may not be a big deal most of the time, in this case, it was quite a bad idea as those balloons started liberating a barrage of holy energy bullets towards Arthur.
"Tch." Was all he said as he activated his sword once again to liberate flames so as to incinerate all those holly bullets. What Arthur failed to see was that the other enemies were moving just as well.
The one to reach him first was one that had the body all red and with horns growing out of his head. Despite his demonic appearance (he looked exactly like Satan is described in paintings) he was using holly energy to augment his horns penetrations powers and, as such, had a simple strategy on his mind, 'I will head-butt him to death'.
Seeing the approaching danger Arthur used his sword to protect himself by drawing it back enough to put it in the way of said horns, but without stopping to release his flames as it was the only thing stopping all those bullets from hitting him.
Showing that he was not out of danger just yet another monstrosity's hand popped out off the ground and started to try and bring his to the underground.
Surrounded under these circumstances Arthur realized that this was not going well. Between losing mobility on both his legs (one for slime man and one for the underground fella), the balloon monsters that were showering him with bullets, this devil-like man and all those approaching him, Arthur could only think that things were not looking good.
He then took the horn of the devil look-alike and with all his strength throw him in the air in front of him so that he was in the way of the bullet's barrage. Seeing one of their own being thrown in the middle of the way those balloon-man stopped shooting for an instant, no more than a second really, and that was enough.
Seeing that the pressure on him got smaller he turned Galantine downwards and stabbed it on the ground at an angle that cut the tendril from the slime-man and penetrated in the ground afterward. Feeling that the other monstrosities were closing in Arthur ignited his sword to full power making the floor around him turn from solid stone to magma and explode in all directions.
BOOM
Taking advantage of that explosion and that the underground arm that was holding him before was no longer connected to a body (the ground where the arms owner was just turned to magma and exploded so expecting him to be fine is stretching) Arthur jumped back and used mana burst to get as far away from encirclement of monsters as he possibly could.
After jumping far enough away he assessed the situation. He was not overly hurt, just a small burn on his hand that took that devil look-alike's horn as said horn was overcharged with holy element. He realized that jumping right in against these guys would not work out.
He then decided that his best course of action is eliminating those balloon-man first as they are the aerial support, as long as they were there he could not fight with full power as he would have to direct most of his sword fire to protect himself.
A smile suddenly appeared on his face realizing that this would not be an easy fight at all. He loves this feeling, this trill, the knowledge that one wrong step means death.
That was the sort of moment that he felt more alive.
He jumped to the sky and, using small mana bursts to propel himself, advanced towards those balloons. He could use mana bursts quite easily as he was a direct descendant of King Arthur and, as such, was born with the same advantage that his ancestor had.
A magic core, something in him akin to a factory of mana, making it almost impossible for him to fully run out of mana.
Seeing that their opponent was heading towards them the balloon-man started shooting in rapid fashion towards him, less the killing type and more the incapacitating one as it would possibly force him down the ground.
BUT
Arthur was a disciple of Saber, one of the greatest warriors in history, how could he be stooped for things so simple as that.
He saw all those shots coming and started evading in 3D so as to avoid all those shots. The ones he could not avoid he simply cut with his sword. After getting close in, he used his sword and cut the first one… or tried to.
Their skin was resistant like reinforced carbonic fiber and their flesh was like a mix between rubber and metal. Even with his strength, he did not manage to cut right through them. So when he tried to cut the first one in half he ended up with his sword allocated in between his flesh, incapable of moving even a centimeter further.
Seeing this as a chance the other balloon-man directed their full powers to explode him, even if there would be some sacrifices (the one that was with the sword IN HIS FLESH).
As he saw the situation that he was in Arthur did not fear it in the slightest. He ignited his sword inside his enemy, burning him inside-out. As soon as he felt his sword being freed from the confines of his opponent's charred body he jumped up so as to avoid the barrage coming his way.
And in this way, the first one died.
Seeing that his plan worked Arthur decided to go after the others and repeat the same plan. He managed to repeat the process more four times, eliminating four enemies.
Things were starting to look good for him, he was eliminating those flying 'gunners' one after the other and those freaks on the ground could not do a thing.
This all may have seemed to take long, but it took less than 10 seconds in the end to complete all these actions and eliminate all 5 of the balloon-man. Arthur was already shooting himself to the next one when-
One of the monstrous exorcists suddenly appeared right in front of him. This was the one with spikes all over his body, he was thrown on the air by another one that had six arms.
Before Arthur could try and take him out, the spiked monstrosity suddenly liberated all the spikes he had, making it like a wall of steel-like spikes flying on Arthur direction.
Seeing the approaching death wall Arthur instinctively palmed the air in front of him liberating as much mana as he could so as to throw himself back.
WOOSH
Getting far enough from the danger, he released a sigh of relief. 'That was dangerous', was what passed through his mind.
What he did not expect was that the frog look-alike would shot a mucus at his back. Arthur did not feel anything from the mucus on the start, just that it was cold, but not even three seconds later that mucus solidified and with that turned into a crystal.
Said crystal had a sickly yellow coloration and was heavy. TRULY heavy, so much so that the mana bursts he was released with each step was not enough to keep him in the air anymore.
CRASH
Falling to the ground, Arthur realized that flying was no longer an option. He knew that he should be worried, be frustrated, be scared for himself or the others, but that was not what he was feeling that instant.
He showed a smile. A small one at first, but it quickly grew and from that, a sound came out of his throat.
"ha. Haha, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!" A maniacal laughter erupted from himself. "Yes, do it more! Show me more! FIGHT MORE!"
Arthur then starts to charge his whole power for a full power-strike with his sword. He still was far from mastering either his blade OR his excessive amount of mana, but executing one full strike with his sword is still in his capacities.
He launched his sword to the sky and when it was rotating an image of the sun itself appeared. When the sword fell back on his hand he immediately made a sweeping motion aimed at those in the ground.
And during this motion he yelled at the top of his lungs purring all his energy in this strike:
"This sword transfers the sun's body. The heat of these flames shall cleanse the impure. Excalibur Galatine!"
With that, a wave of fire so hot that could burn even gods reached his enemies. (Writer note: imagine a Getsuga Tenshou with the thickness of 5 meters made with pure fire)
BURN
Screams ensured as there were some that burned to ashes. However, not all of them were killed in that fire. There were 5 survivors, they had survived by hiding behind the backs of their allies.
Even so, those 5 were still badly burned, so much so that if Arthur went that instant to face them he could kill them all with no effort.
The keyword is the 'if'.
Unfortunately, Arthur could not do that.
"*PANT* *PANT* *PANT* W-well it could be worst." Was all Arthur could say at that time. Using this move was too exhausting, even for someone with a magic core. He could not use his flames or mana for at least a minute, and that is AFTER he took a pill made from the alchemy department that focused on accelerating the natural recovery of mana.
But, the effect desired was reached. He managed to cut down the number of opponents to just three balloon-man and 5 monstrosities.
He would not do this move earlier for two reasons: first is that this movement spent too much magic power and if there were to be too many enemies after he executed this attack he would be screwed (he might have nearly unlimited magic energy reserves, but his magic circuits still are limited after all); second, and more important for Arthur, is 'what fun would there be in defeating most of them that fast?'.
Taking his sword up Arthur readied himself for whatever may happen next.
The balloon-man re-started shooting with even more ferocity as soon as they got a clear view of him (there was quite a bit of smoke after the attack after all, and they stayed far away from the giant ball of fire that appeared on the sky for a moment).
With many bullets made out of light flying towards him at fast speed, Arthur got no time for rest. He immediately started using his superior speed to evade all those strikes that could incapacitate him.
PIERCE
A tendril pierced the side of his abdomen. One of those monstrosities managed to evade his senses and sneaked its… tongue ('disgusting' was what passed through Arthur's head seeing this), that was shaped like a spear, right through him.
Turning around to cut the tongue with a flick of his sword he ended up in a bad spot, in the meaning that all those bullets aimed at him actually made contact. After cutting the tongue off (but it remained housed in his guts as he did not have the time to remove and also knew that removing it too early would possibly make him bleed-out) Arthur saw the bullets close to hitting him on the back.
Seeing no chance of evading he could only brace himself for the worst, purring as much mana as he could in reinforcement so as to mitigate the damage.
BOOM
Being thrown more than 3 meters in the sky, Arthur felt a burning feeling in his throat. He could not hold it and simply spit all the blood that was accumulated on it.
No time was given to him as another monstrosity came, this time it was the one full of spikes that after approaching Arthur started liberating many spikes in his direction. Arthur desperately tried to cut down all of them as he could not evade it due to lack of mana to use mana burst, but even with all his effort, he could not cut all those spikes.
PIERCE
PIERCE
PIERCE
PIERCE
He ended up full of spikes running through his body. Mostly they ended up on his legs as he managed to defend his arms quite well and his torso as well (if you don't count those two spikes on the left side and the one that grazed his upper ribs).
Finally getting on the ground again he saw that the spike monstrosity was trying to go back to where those others where. He was not going to let that happen.
Despite over-heating his own magic core, Arthur forced himself to combine his reinforcement and mana burst to achieve a burst of speed fast enough to get to that monstrosity as fast as possible. When the spike monstrosity heard the sound of something approaching at high speed it quickly liberated the strongest possible spikes from his hands.
These new spikes were golden in color and were capable of puncturing steel as if it was tofu, but in front of Galantine, those spikes could as well be twigs. Despite the spike monstrosity putting those spikes crossed in front of his chest Galantine cut right through it, and the monstrosity's body.
At that same instant a new tongue came for Arthur's back again, but this time he was ready for it. By reinforcing his body to the limit he managed to elevate his reaction time enough to sense when the tongue was close to hitting him and, turning his free hand to his back, managed to catch said tongue before it could penetrate him again.
Seeing this as a chance Arthur pulled with all his strength and managed to brought the infected with the big tongue close to him. He had green scales covering his whole body (probably how he survived the fire with no great damage), big eyes that could move in all directions and a tail.
This monstrosity tried to retaliate, but his claws did not reach him fast enough as Galantine has a bigger reach.
Now there were only three balloon-man and three monstrosities. Those three were the one with six arms, one with skin looking like magma (veins in top running with magma just as well) and the final one being made exclusively of tentacles.
With his current state, Arthur decided that taking down the one made from Tentacles would be a good start. If he took out the ones with ranged abilities first, then it would be possible to avoid any surprise attacks at close range. As he could not go for the Balon-man yet due to needing more time for the circuits to cool down the ranged attacker on the ground was another story.
Gripping Galantine's hilt, Arthur stood up slowly, despite the pain that he was in thanks to overheating his Magic Core. He would have to rely solely on skill alone for the time being if he didn't want to have further damaged caused by his Magic Core.
But, he could at least afford some reinforcement on his legs to dull the pain there, and he did so. With that done, Arthur broke into a sprint towards the Tentacle mass monster. The other two made to get in front of their comrade while the six-armed one tried to restrain him.
However, Arthur simply smirked, his eyes flashing with a victorious glint as he leaned backward, digging his feet into the ground as he slid right under the two monsters before pushing himself into the air.
The Tentacle monster roared as it launched a volley of its many Tentacles into the air towards him, intending to spear him from every vital organ he possessed. Arthur however, anticipated this and pushed enough mana into his arms for slight reinforcement before they became a blur of motion, cutting through the Tentacles. Pain roared as he did this, but Arthur pushed past it as he fell towards his prey, his eyes shining with predatory glee.
The Tentacle monster groaned, fear filling it as it tried to stop him with more tentacles, but alas it was for nought, for the more Tentacles it launched, the more Arthur began to see its weakness: Despite the tentacles regenerating fast they all came from a single, orange glowing and pulsating organ that he could only assume was its heart.
The man made a direct beeline for that organ, cutting through any Tentacles that got in its way before he drove Galantine into the creature's heart. The Tentacle monster screech and cawed, Tentacles writhing in mad flutters like that one guy with the Tentacle beard on that one pirate movie Le Fay made him watch with her one time.
It soon fell down to the ground with a loud thud though, it was dead.
Turning to face his last 2 monstrous opponents, Arthur heaved constantly as he held Galantine in a ready stance. His body pleaded for rest, but his mind refused such notions since there was still work to do. That one with the Magma would be the last one he fought today, that was for certain. He didn't want that magma anywhere near his flesh if he could help it.
That meant the six armed gorilla man would have to go.
His target decided, Arthur held Galantine defensively, waiting for the enemy to make the next move. He didn't have to wait long though, for the Magma one roared as it charged at him, its fists raised for 2 overhead slams. The warrior's eyes narrowed at the sight, momentarily tension filling his gut before he quashed it. He could work with this, he could do so with gusto.
He'd survive this, for his family's sake and for his wish to become the best swordsman in the world.
With that in mind, Arthur waited for the creature to come close, holding Galantine in a reverse horizontal swinging position. His eyes sharpened, his legs bent in preparation. This would be a close one, much too close for his liking, but it would ensure it would just be the Six-armed man and the balloon-man for him to face. That thing moved slower than the others, something he'd noticed during the battle, so it wouldn't reach its comrade in time.
Once the magma monster was close enough to begin bringing down its fists, Arthur lunged right past it, pushing his speed to its limits without the use of mana to reinforce them. He narrowly dodged the fists though, despite them barely nicking some strands of his hair. his form blurred across the battlefield, but nothing that the Six-armed monster couldn't make out as it roared, rearing its arms back for a series of punches.
Arthur closed the distance, and he had to dash to the side to avoid the punches. The man didn't stop moving though, as he used the momentum from his charge to dash towards its rear. His lungs burned, his heart pounded, yet despite his situation, Arthur couldn't help but enjoy this moment, this thrill of being on the line between life and death. To him, this was what it meant to be a warrior. To him, being so close to death was the best sign that you were truly living.
Swinging Galantine, Arthur managed to cut off one of the Six-armed man's legs, making it howl in agony as it fell to the ground, using its arms to balance itself. Its scales may have defended against the full brunt of his attack, but Galantine was a holy sword on par with Excalibur, and thus it would not be denied a limb that easily. It defended well... for the first second, before giving way to the divine blade.
The six armed monstrosity used his arms to propel himself back, trying to get some distance from Arthur as his blade was simply too powerful. Arthur decided to let him go, giving his circuits some time to recover some more being his priority.
Sounds of stomping alerted him to the magma monster having charged at him from behind, using the same tactic he had just employed. Arthur glanced behind him and noticed it making to slam its fist down on him again. However, he had an idea for this and umped his legs with energy before jumping forwards. The first hit solid earth, sending out a powerful shockwave.
That was what Arthur wanted though, as he used the shockwave to propel himself through the air towards his prey without having to waste any more energy. Arthur smiled at his plan working, as he flew through the air like a torpedo launched from a submarine. The Six-armed monster glanced upwards and saw him coming, making to raise one of its arms to punch him. However, it had been unable to react in time, thanks to Arthur's speed and the propelling he'd done, and thus Galantine was shoved right through its face, impaling its brain and running it through.
It became dead instantly.
Now there were only the balloon-man and the magma monstrosity.
Looking inwards Arthur saw that it would be one more minute until he could start using mana burst again. A time that looks quite long, but in this situation is far from that simple.
Those three balloon-man were quiet during the whole previous experience, thinking it strange Arthur looked upward and saw that they were fusing somehow.
It was a grotesque sight, it was like they turned into a sludge that started to fuse and with that a different creature surged. It had a metallic body, two hands with the finger-claws that looked like they could cut anything and three faces. But the most troublesome part was that it had two wings that look straight out of a firefly and two organic canon-like appendices on its back that were charging energy that could easily eliminate most low high-class devils (or high mid-class from other species).
In other words, it looked like trouble.
Seeing this he immediately ducked to the side, as the spot he was before was turned into scorched earth by that monster's attack. Seeing this even the magma like enemy decided to take a step back and went to as far away from the fighting, no point in sticking around and end up as collateral, especially since he knew that when those balloon types fused they went berserk and would not differentiate between ally and enemy.
Arthur could do nothing but keep running as fast as his legs could with the reinforcement he put in them. However, despite he putting all his energy in running he could not evade it all, thus many debris from the shots hit him on the back, making him lose even more blood.
At this point, Arthur had already been feeling a splitting headache and started feeling cold on his fingers, clear signs that he was losing too much blood. But he could not do anything about it except put reinforcement on his wounds to stop the bleeding as much as possible.
As the time passed and more and more shots were made there were less and fewer places for him to go as most of the arena was destroyed by either him or his enemies at this point. But Arthur did not get desperate, he was a disciple of Saber and a descendant of King Arthur himself. Arthur's heart was not that weak.
He put all his efforts into running more and more, the time was passing and he could do nothing but wait for the time that he could finally fight back.
And then the time arrived.
Feeling that his magic circuits cooled down enough Arthur used a mana burst to launch himself as fast as he could to the sky, directly towards his enemy.
He needed to finish this quickly as his body condition was getting worst and worst by the second.
As he approached the enemy he saw the monstrosity trying to use a claw swipe to cut him into pieces, but those claws, while being made of the same flesh that gave him trouble before, were simply too thin to actually stop his holy blade. With one single motion, he cut down those claws and managed to follow it up by cutting all three heads by using a mana burst on the blade so as to move it sideways as fast as possible.
Now that he managed to kill this enemy there was only one left, the magma one.
Taking advantage of his position in mid-air he used a final mana burst to launch himself to the ground as fast as possible to cut down his enemy.
The magma one tried to use his fists that could crush the earth against Arthur, but it was no use. When they crossed each other Arthur managed to evade his opponent's fist while cutting him down diagonally.
Finally, seeing that all his opponents were killed Arthur gave a sigh of relieve. This may have been a great fight but it was too close for his taste.
'I still need to train more' was what was on his mind.
"Ku ku ku." Hearing the sound of a weak laughter Arthur looked around and saw that there was one last survivor. The magma monstrosity was still alive, but he clearly was in no conditions to keep fighting and would die any second now.
Arthur learned from Saber long ago that leaving someone suffering a slow painful death was not something he should do, so he decided to approach him and finish what he started.
"Any last words?" Arthur asked, more out of habit than anything else. It was one more thing Saber taught him.
The magma one looked at him and gave a smile, then he said.
"ALL HAIL ISCARIOTS!" and bite his own mouth, activating a small gadget that all of them carried inside themselves. An activation signal for something they all had inside themselves.
The activation signal for a suicidal bomb
KKKKAAAAAABBBBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNN
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