Titus let go of Ambrosia's ankle, his expression unchanging. He couldn't stop her from initiating this duel, and instead chose to simply sit back and watch it unfold, regardless of what happened.
"Hm, well I suppose if you're so confident in your improvement these last 5 months, I don't see any reason why we couldn't duel. But I'll warn you now, I've also improved some."
"Hehe, well then, let's start it up! Here, Titus, I'll show you how real heroes fight..."
Hero and Ambrosia took their sides on the field, opposite of each other. The crowd hadn't diminished yet, there were still around 60 spectators lingering around, anticipating this second duel.
Because Ambrosia was obviously much more skilled than Titus, Hero would waste no time gathering information, and instead opt to focus on this duel to the best of his ability. Despite what Ambrosia might have said, their duels were usually much closer than one would assume...
"You there, Esper Witch, was it? Are you sure you have what it takes to meddle with this guy!? You saw what he did to someone as brawny as me!" said Titus, gingerly coming to his feet, still rocked by the aftermath of his duel.
Ambrosia glanced at him, taking note of where Hero struck him. He seemed to mainly go for the torso. This would be important for Ambrosia to realize, so she could figure out ways to protect herself from Hero's punches.
"Yeah, but trust me, I've done this countless times before. I think things will go differently this time."
"Well then, initiate the duel I guess...but be careful..."
Hero, despite his seemingly infinite potential, was in fact slightly injured from Titus's strikes. This would put him and Ambrosia on more equal grounds, even if not by much. Ambrosia thought to target where he had already been hit, in order to magnify the power of her blows.
She would opt to take control of things around her, using them as weapons as her physical strength was somewhat lackluster. After strategizing for some time, Ambrosia finally initiated the duel.
"I, Ambrosia Heroux, enlisted in the Hero Camp, challenge you to a duel!"
"I, Hero, enlisted in the Hero Camp, humbly acc--huh?"
Before he could finalize the initiation, Hero was cut off by frightening screaming, coming from the western gate. Everybody focused their attention on this sudden interruption. What was the problem?
"EEL MONSTER! ON THE BEACHES!" yelled a man, running his way through the West Gate. He was followed by a smaller group of beachgoers, still in bathing suits. Some had minor injuries on their bodies.
"What? Did you say an Eel? How large?" asked Hero, disregarding the duel entirely. If an eel monster suddenly showed up, that meant their duel would have to wait.
"Pretty damn big, and it has smaller fish monsters swimming with it! I'd say the Eel is nearly an Emperor sized sea creature!"
"Emperor...that's the second largest size classification of a sea monster. Hey, Ambrosia, I think we should take care of this, can the duel wait a few more minutes?"
Sea Monsters were classified into 6 size groups, as most of them couldn't be accurately measured from under the water. In order from smallest to largest, they are: Mini, Minor, Moderate, Major, Emperor, and Lord.
"Ugh, fine, but after we kill this eel thingy, I'm starting the duel, no matter what conditions we're in, okay?" said Ambrosia, clearly annoyed at the sudden change of plans. She had been anticipating this duel for months.
"Alright, that's fine by me, just follow, and hurry!"
Hero and Ambrosia took off. Hero's method of travel was simple enough, he just ran! Ambrosia however opted to use her ball of light. She could transform in and out of it at will, making it a great form of transportation.
"Yukio, do you think we should follow them? Maybe you could train on a smaller fish monster."
Mayumi, standing next to me, looked somewhat excited. Despite the beach being in danger, this was a good opportunity for me to sharpen my skills with the sword, as well as work on taking control of monsters.
"...yeah, let's go, I have some training to do..."
"Mm!"
We left the crowd of people, making our way into the Western Gate. As we walked through the shopping district, groups of people were running the other way, escaping the monsters that threatened the shoreline.
Inversely, there were also heroes from the camp making their way to where we were going. Omega seemed to be mainly occupied by level 4 and 5 heroes, with the occasional level 6. I hadn't seen any other level 7's except for Ambrosia and Hero.
Mayumi and I both had our swords with us, but we weren't wearing any armor. We were both just wearing summer outfits. I had my palm tree T-Shirt on, and Mayumi, a purple and white T-Shirt. We were unprepared to defend ourselves, but it's what we had at the moment.
"The Eastern Gate should take us straight to the beach, I'm just going to follow the heroes, as I've never been here before."
"Well, me neither, so I'll follow you!"
As we ran through the camp, we hurried by copious amounts of panicking individuals, as well as numerous buildings and shops. Kneeling atop one of those shops, unseen by us, was Cynthia, once again stalking us... we had no idea she was there...
"Ahh, a monster attack, right now of all times too. This is perfect! I'll be able to study just how you fight, Yuuukioo Sazuuke!"
Cynthia was watching from above as hundreds of citizens ran towards the Western Gate, away from the trouble. She was looking down on them, giggling to herself.
"Hehe, they're making my job too easy. With more people focusing on the danger threatening them, there will be fewer eyes focusing on me!"
Cynthia stood up and stretched. She was tall, just about Yukio's height. As the leading patriarch, it was her job to oversee the actions of the other patriarchs, acting as the overseer of The Zodiac. She was dangerous, but appeared so normal.
"Mm, I think I should get going before I lose sight of them. Hang on, you two!"
Cynthia then took a running start and proceeded to jump from rooftop to rooftop, climbing buildings as she needed to. She was incredibly athletic, making zero mistakes in her movements.
As she approached the final building, she landed on it, kneeling down once more to stalk the pair. She was wearing a sun hat to help disguise herself, though her school uniform seemed to stand out among the others in the camp.
"Ohh shit, that's a big eel, where have you been hiding for so long, lovely?" she said, gazing at the Eel monster as it burst from out of the ocean like a whale, landing back in the water shortly after.
Cynthia was sitting down on the roof of what appeared to be a surf shop. It had palm leaves decorating the roof, giving her a good hiding spot. She set a small bag down next to her, filled with her supplies.
"Well, I think I'll just post up here for now. I have a good view of the eel, as well as those two down there," said Cynthia, pulling out a pair of binoculars. She was fully prepared to gather as much information as she needed.
"Let's see now... Yukio, Yukio, ah yes, there he is. The handsome boy with scarlet hair like mine. He appears to be next to a blonde girl with glasses. Is she a hero as well? They both have swords..."
"Regardless, I can't wait to see your ability in action, Capricorn... let's hop to it then, shall we?" said Cynthia, looking through the binoculars.
Back on the beach, Mayumi and I were nearly out of breath. We ran through the entire camp from West to East, just to make it here. When we arrived, there were already heroes on small boats making their way out to deal with the smaller fish monsters.
We spotted Ambrosia and Hero standing near the edge of the water. We decided to approach them to ask about the threat levels of these beings.
"Yo! Hero! What's the situation?" I asked.
"Ah, Yukio, you followed us? Perfect! Now we can start your training! You see that big fish monster beached over there? Go defeat it!"
I turned around and took notice of a beached fish monster in the distance, unoccupied by any heroes.
"But what are the threat levels? How dangerous are these things?" I asked, turning back around.
"Oh, they're not too bad. The fish monsters are probably level 2 threats, but this Eel is something else... it's probably a level 5 or 6. It's known as an Emperor Unagi, and they're native to the oceans around Kemono Island."
"I'll deal with the Eel, just go slay those fish before they start making their way towards the Camp!" yelled Hero.
I turned to where he was pointing, and noticed another giant fish, resembling a trout of some sort. It was beached, unable to move, yet it was larger than me! It was probably 6 or 7 feet tall when vertical, however, it was on its side. What confused me though, was how there would be any way of these monsters making their way to the Camp. They were fish, what were they going to do, walk?
....but then, it happened. I noticed one of the fish monsters in the distance begin to turn on its side, and then stand up... THEY HAD LEGS...
"What the hell!? Why do they have legs!?"
"Yeah, that's why you need to defeat them quickly! They run super fast and eat basically anything they come across, that's how they grow! Now hurry!" said Hero, punching me in the shoulder.
I drew my sword and looked at Mayumi, who drew hers as well. Together, she and I were going to defeat those fish monsters before they could run to the city. It would be the first official monster that I would kill, and I was exhilarated.
"Mayumi, can you take on the standing one? You can do this much better than I can."
"Absolutely! Go deal with that other one before it gets up as well!"
We went our separate ways, running across the sand as best we could. It was difficult running on sand, as it shifted constantly below our feet. I glanced back at Hero, who boarded one of the smaller boats, as it made its way towards the Emperor Unagi.
"Damn, good luck out there, Hero!" I said, turning back around, continuing my path towards the fish monster on the shore. Mayumi reached the standing monster before it could move, and sliced one of its legs off!
"Yes! Go Mayumi!" I shouted, running past her. She looked up at me and smiled, before returning her focus on the giant trout monster. It had green skin, sharp teeth, and black eyes, but it was menacing nonetheless.
From the top of the surf shop, Cynthia was tracking our movement, learning what she could about our fighting styles.
"Going straight for the legs, very smart, I would have done the same. But Yukio hasn't reached his monster quite yet. He's fairly slow on his feet, but then again, they're running on sand..."
"Let's see if you take control of this fish or not, Yukio. It would be totally lame if you didn't!" she said, smiling to herself. She seemed to be holding no malice towards any of us, and instead, rooting for our success...
I approached the trout monster, sword in hand. I could tell it was weak, as it had cuts on its body from the sharp shells and stones hidden beneath the sands. Even so, my guard was up, in case it were to suddenly stand and start running.
"You're a large one. No fish on Earth would ever grow to this size! If you weren't a monster, you'd be able to feed the whole camp!"
I wondered if cooking monster parts had any practical use. Perhaps cooking the DNA and bacteria out of them would help provide food. But then again, would anyone really want to eat a monster?
Plus, eating them would probably result in the transformation into it, if its heart were ingested, intentionally or not. The thought quickly exited my mind.
I ran to the other side of it, where its legs were. I lifted my sword in the air to slice them off, but my attempt was immediately thwarted when the fish kicked me straight in the chest, sending me flying across the sand.
"AH! Damn, it knows I'm here, even though it can't see me. I'll have to figure out another approach."
I stood up, brushing myself off before grabbing my sword from the ground. Mayumi was having no trouble with her trout monster, she had practically defeated it by now. We exchanged looks before she yelled something to me,
"Yukio! Try to confuse it, it's aware of your presence now, so you should try faking it out!"
That was a genius idea. Perhaps if I caused a false motion somewhere, and dodged the kick, I would be able to lunge in to take out the legs. I decided to put this theory to the test, but first, I needed an object to throw.
I noticed a large rock buried in the sand. I excavated it, revealing a stone larger than I anticipated. It was much too big to carry, so I had to leave it behind. I kept looking around, and eventually found something of use.
What I found was a mason jar on the side of the shore. I picked it up and realized that it had a note inside of it... I opened it, took the note out, and slid it into my pocket, before closing it back up.
"Alright, I'll use this to hit the fish, and cause it to kick its legs, then, I'll go in! I wonder what this note says though..."
I lifted the jar into the air, my sword in my other hand ready to strike. Then, I tossed the jar. It landed on the fish's eye and shattered, causing it to shut immediately as the shards of glass pierced it. Once again, the monster kicked its legs. I wasted no time moving in.
"Now's my chance!" I said, swinging my sword down with great force. With a singular slice, I severed its legs, leaving only the body of the fish remaining on the sand. The monster then opened its mouth and made a strange sound.
"Oh no, what now?"
"YUKIO, LOOK OUT!" yelled Mayumi, finishing off her monster. It seemed that she had severed a few extra pieces of her fish off. I saw a long tongue laying on the ground next to her. Wait, a tongue? A TONGUE!
I quickly turned back to my monster, who turned its entire body to face me. Immediately, it lashed its tongue out at me and attempted to wrap it around my body. I quickly reacted though, slicing the tongue with my sword. It landed a few feet away from me.
"Good lord, they have tongues too. I need to hurry up and kill this monster! Shit, what's it doing now!?"
The fish then flopped in the air and attempted to strike me with its tailfin. I slid to the ground, nearly dodging the hit, but the fish wasn't slowing down. It was still flopping in the air, kicking up sand all around it, blocking my vision.
"I can barely see it now, ugh! I'll just have to guess where it is! Here goes nothing!"
With my sword still in hand, I leaped into the air, blinded by the sand. I drove my sword down and felt it pierce the body of the monster. It shrieked and continued to flail around as I pinned it to the ground. When the sand cleared, I realized that I had pierced its eye!
"I got you now! Ack, it's moving so violently, I can barely hold it to the ground! Hurry up and die already!" I yelled as the fish continued to struggle.
However, it eventually ceased its motion, and perished. To be sure though, I removed my sword from its eye and quickly chopped the monster in half. Because it was a fish, my sword sliced through its body quite easily.
The two halves of its body fell against the sands... I had just killed my first monster, all by myself. I had fought a monster before, but never successfully killed one.
"Oh my god, I did it, I actually did it. I killed a monster! It only took god knows how long!"
"Yukio! You did it! How did it feel, is your sword okay? Are YOU okay?" asked Mayumi, running over to me. Cynthia, still stalking us, was unenthused, however.
"Boooo, Yukio, why didn't you tame it? You could have sent it away peacefully, instead you slaughtered it! There's nothing else you can tame now, all the other monsters besides the Eel are kaput!"
Cynthia put down her binoculars and sighed. She was anticipating witnessing Yukio's Authority of Capricorn in action, but he killed the monster instead. Back on the beach, Mayumi caught up to Yukio and gave him a high five.
"That was awesome Yukio! You totally killed it!"
"That was easier than I anticipated. What was that, a level 1 monster?"
"Probably. Considering its size, it was probably a level 2, but because it never managed to get on its feet, you had a much easier time with it."
Looking at the monster I just killed, I came to realize it really wasn't as challenging as I thought it would be. But then again, it was mostly stationary the entire time, not moving from its original position except to kick or flail.
"How was your monster? Seemed to me like you had little trouble with it."
"It wasn't that bad. I've never fought one before, so I just went with the most logical approach, which was to cut the legs off first and then go for the body. Seems like you and I both had trouble with the to-huh!?"
*SPLASH*
Mayumi was interrupted by a violent splash coming from behind her. It was powerful enough to shake the ground beneath us, and generate large waves. She sharply turned around and realized what had happened. I too was just now seeing what had occurred. It was the Emperor Unagi...it was escaping!
"SHIT! WATCH OUT FOR THE WAVES!"
We both ran up the shore, trying to escape the large waves that were created by the Eel monster. We barely dodged them, making our way to the beach entrance before they could reach us. They were heavily diminished by the wave breakers, but still large enough to stretch more than halfway up the beach!
"Damn! What the hell happened out there!?" yelled a shop owner, running out of the surf shop. Cynthia, still on top of it, was trying her best to hide so that we wouldn't see her.
"An Emperor Unagi is threatening the beach and the city! Why haven't you evacuated?"
"I've been hiding in my shop with my family, we have an underground bunker. I heard a loud bang and came up to see what happened! It looks like it's getting away!"
Suddenly, we heard a female voice from above us. We didn't know it at the time, but it was Cynthia, speaking down to us from the roof of the Surf Shop. She was hiding, so we couldn't see her, but we could hear her.
"Oh no! Maybe somebody should try and stop it before it gets away!" she said, in a fake satirical voice.
"Who's that?" I asked, looking up in all directions, but I saw nobody.
"Ah, whatever, whoever it was, they're right. Mayumi, you stay here and guard the shore, I'll see if I can't stop that thing with my authority. I wanna see if I can at least slow it down for the heroes!"
"Do you see how large that thing is Yukio!?" she asked, shocked at my proposal.
"Yeah, I do, but it's worth a shot!" I said, running back onto the beach. The shop owner looked extremely confused.
"The hell is he on about? Is he suicidal?" he asked.
"At this point, he might as well be..." said Mayumi, worriedly.
Cynthia pulled her binoculars back out and focused on me. I was in too much of a panic to question whether or not I was being watched, considering I heard her seconds ago. She spoke to herself.
"He's really going for it, isn't he? Mmmmm this will be a show..."
I caught up with Hero and Ambrosia who were also running down the shoreline, in hot pursuit of the Emperor Unagi. It was swimming much quicker than we could run, so we would need another method of travel to have any chance of catching up.
The two of them stopped in front of me, and I began to question them on the situation.
"Guys, what happened? The Emperor Unagi's escaping, how?"
"Yukio, I'm glad you're here. Normally, I'd congratulate you on killing your monster, but as you can see, we appear to be in a pickle..."
"Yeah, I figured! What the hell happened!? We heard a loud splash and then saw the Eel swimming full speed ahead!"
"Well, you see, on land, heroes are very agile and can chase down monsters quickly, but on the water, we're practically useless. I can't walk on water, and Ambrosia's flight lasts until she runs out of energy. If we were to land in the ocean, we could drown!"
"Did you manage to do any damage to it?"
"Well, we got close enough to hop onto it, and I tried stopping time to get a good few hits on it, but the boat was too shaky for me to focus, and the Eel kept splashing water on us. Ambrosia tried taking control with her mind, but the force of its swimming was too much, and she could barely hold on. Water monsters are way tougher than land monsters!"
"What do you think we should do then? I want to try and stop the monster with my authority. Ambrosia, is there any way you can get us to it quickly, so I can try?"
Ambrosia looked at me with a slightly concerned expression, before sighing, and starting to glow. It seemed like she was nearly zapped of energy, but still willing to help us out.
"If you really think you can do it, then hop in. This will be a bumpy ride though!"
Suddenly, Ambrosia began to take the form of her ball of light. She expanded it to an ample size, before opening it, revealing space inside for us to climb into. It was like her own personal vehicle!
"Well, hop in! We don't have all day!"