"What a loud idiot."
Yuuna commented upon seeing Oki yelling at the top of his lungs while being tossed around in a tornado of fire.
"There's another one over there too."
Tsuna pointed at a cyclops covered in blood going at it with an unhinged grin on his face and cutting down enemies with glee. Yuuna and Tsuna both grimaced at the sight of the barbaric display, but the other – Taiku had no interest.
"Can you get him out?"
Taiku asked while looking around. Several shadow rats were moving the unconscious bodies of the cyclops warriors. Taiku himself was panting while on one knee. Using his skills [Commander's Heart] and [Hypnosis] to command the entire cyclops army to fall asleep was beyond draining.
'Even when they are weakened, using it on so many is difficult.'
He thought as he looked at what was by far the largest cyclops in front of him. He alone had drained the hugest amount of Taiku's stamina, so he would need some time to recuperate.
"I can put out the fire with [Flame Annul], but the tornado is beyond me."
Yuuna pointed out, making Taiku look at Tsuna. Tsuna shrugged – a sign that she had no idea what to do either.
"Then he can figure it out himsel-"
Just as he said this, a loud cry could be heard and they all turned their attention to the tornado. Something shot out of it towards one of the giants, smacking it right in the face.
BOOM!
A large explosion sounded after the impact and the giant slowly fell down. Tsuna, Yuuna and Taiku all looked with wide eyes as their mouths dropped in shock.
"Woohooo!"
Oki's voice could be heard from the top of the falling giant. He let his aura flair, creating a field of flames around him.
Taiku then looked at his hands, then at the others.
"I know we evolved and all, but to be able to do that?"
He was very confused.
"It honestly makes no sense… we shouldn't be as strong as even Shiroi, so punching back something of that magnitude…"
Yuuna added in, explaining the limitations of their power. Even after evolution, their stats still came nowhere close to monsters like Shiroi and Yokino who were in control of some of the largest and most powerful forces the West had to offer.
"Then this must be the blessing lady Hinotori has given to us."
Much like a devoted worshipper, Tsuna immediately gave praise to her master.
"Maybe I did hit you too many times when you were a goblin…"
A sceptical Yuuna muttered under her breath while monitoring the dazed Tsuna with visible concern. Taiku too smile and stood up as his stamina came back to him quickly.
"No. She may be right. That is the only way Oki could have done that to something so fearsome."
With that said he clapped both hands together then activated one of his new racial skills. [Third Eye of Insight]. It gave him a statistical analysis of surrounding enemies within a range of 5km.
'That's weird…'
He thought while looking at the stats. Every single creature there was a D rank with the exact same stats. He couldn't say the same for the giants as he wasn't close enough.
"Is there something wrong?"
Yuuna asked, having noticed his shocked face. Taiku frowned.
"They're all so weak…"
"Huh? How's that a problem?"
Tsuna asked, also confused by his heavy tone.
"Could be a trap?"
"Or… we're just strong now."
Yuuna said while flying up. She stretched her hand forward then casted a ball of green fire about 50 metres wide.
"[Fire Magic: Sun Dome]"
She fired off the spell at a distance towards the marching swarm of enemies. After making contact, the ball of fire exploded, incinerating everything in its path. Taiku looked into the distance and saw that indeed; they were dead and there was nothing out of the ordinary.
"Don't destroy all the bodies."
Tsuna complained while waving her staff.
"[Dark Water Magic: Dead Water]"
Black, sticky water shot out of her staff onto the corpses that laid on the ground. Taiku held his nose as the disgusting scent from it only made him feel nauseous. As a death wight, it wasn't Tsuna's fault, but she had acquired the ability to somewhat revive the dead and use as an army.
"March forward."
She commanded and they went.
After a good minute, the falling giant finally fell down and the ground shook mightily.
Taiku clicked his tongue then looked at the others. From their expressions, they were about to let loose. But there had been an argument from sometime back in which they still hadn't gotten an answer to.
'Hey, what if we play a game.'
He telepathically suggested to everyone.
'A game?'
Oki responded.
'Yes. To see who is the strongest. The one with the most kills wins.'
'Are you insane? We're only here as a distraction. We can't take on that man-'
'We're stronger than before! Wouldn't it be best to prove the might of Lady Hinotori here?'
Once he made this point, everyone went silent.
'Ok then, we kill as many as possible then we compare-'
Before allowing him to continue, Oki started to shout.
'I'm going to prove that I'm the strongest!!!'
At this shout a pillar of fire erupted from where Oki and the giants were. From the looks of things, he was trying to incinerate the giant's face.
"That idiot…"
"[Dark Water Magic: Plague bullets]!"
Tsuna shouted, firing off her dark sticky water in the form of high-speed projectiles that although weren't lethal, caused significant damage to the weak creatures. The side effect of the attacks, as the name suggested, caused black spots to pop up on the creatures' bodies with a merely ten second countdown to death that spread rapidly amongst the creatures like a plague.
"Be careful not to touch them. I think you might catch the sickness as well."
Tsuna gave a warning causing Taiku to frown. Although he had developed my psychic abilities in his evolution, he was and still is as a swordsman primarily. He couldn't be expected to actual perform on the battlefield if he bore the risk of dying almost instantly.
"I'll just give myself and immunity to the disease then."
Using his two favourite skills [Commander's Heart] and [Hypnosis], Taiku performed an otherwise impossible act.
He took out his sword. A long straight blade, with sharp edges. This bladed was given to him by Sylvie who had been working on giving weapons effects. Unfortunately, she hadn't really figured it out yet so this was merely a common sword, but Taiku valued it very much.
Now ready, he jumped right into the fray. War trolls, mountain goblins and taurus, they were all cut down with frightening efficiency that shouldn't have been possible with his physical stats. This made Taiku even more curious.
'Why aren't I…'
"[Fairy Dust]."
He heard and above him, Yuuna fluttered her wings violently while flying above the enemies. From her wings, several particles fell, but Taiku didn't pay much attention to it as it wasn't displaying any visible effects.
"Focus on those in the sky!"
He ordered, and she just sighed.
"I was trying to deal with the ground troops first so I had the advantage, but very well."
With that said, she snapped her finger.
"[Fire Magic: Chained Combustion]."
The particles that were slowly descending sparked into massive explosions that wiped out a good number of monsters on the ground. Yuuna begun to cackle as the horn on her forehead glowed dark purple. Her racial skill [Fire Fairy Horn] had been activated and now her fire would be more effective on spirits.
"You're a bunch of water spirits so I doubt this'll have much of an effect, but I'll just evaporate the lot of you!"
She cackled then spread her hand forward. Four magic circles popped up in front of her.
"Four!?"
Tsuna who knew just how difficult it was to cast even a single one was shocked that the old hag could simulcast 4 so easily.
"You've been asking for help from somewhere, haven't you!?"
Still not wanting to believe her eyes, she yelled at Yuuna, but the mentor could only feel pride that she was still better than her pupil.
"Youngins like you shouldn't underestimate the mature. Now, [Fairy Fire Magic: Fusée éclairante]! [Fairy Fire Magic: Orchestre]! [Fairy Fire Magic: Éruption lunaire]! [Fairy Fire Magic: flèche de feu]!"
A myriad of colourful fire-based attacks flew towards the cloud spirits. An intense heat wave spread through the air so quickly the others instantly felt it as sweat started to streak down their faces.
The attack pierced through the cloud spirits, shooting them all down in one attack.
'Huh… so I wasn't wrong in thinking we were far stronger now.'
Yuuna thought while looking at the dissipating cloud spirits and the burning griffins and manticores. The wyverns on the other hand avoided her attack and were now coming from the other side. She however fired off fireballs from her palm at the incoming wyverns.
When they got in too close, she'd simply cause a massive spark of light that blinded them in order to get far away from them.
'Aren't they too slow?'
She thought while dodging them. The fireballs that landed on the wyverns caused them to feel immense pain as well and stumble in the air.
'And they are too weak too… what's going on here?'
Meanwhile, back on the ground, Oki had already killed the first giant. And was busily climbing the second one like some sort of ant.
When the giant tried to slap Oki, he'd just jump on that arm and keep climbing. By increasing the intensity of the flames on his fingers, he'd dig into the giant's skin and keep running up till he got to its face.
When on top, he took out his mallet and ran his natural fire through it. His golden hair turned bright orange as his body glowed and his mallet grew bigger and hotter.
"Hahaha! Die!"
He slammed the mallet right into the giant's face, causing the giant to fall back. As it fell, he climbed up its nostrils in order to attack from the inside.
By the end of it all, he had burnt the giant from the inside, effectively killing it. He walked back out the nostril then screamed for the world to hear before running towards where his allies where.
At the end of everything, Taiku looked at the dead bodies with scrutiny.
"This… is wrong."
"What is?"
Tsuna asked, unable to tell what he was talking about. Same for the others who paused to look at him.
"How did I only kill 20 of them when you all killed at least a 100!?"
"Hahaha, you're just weak!"
Oki mocked him and patted him on the back causing Taiku to stumble forward. The hit was so painful Taiku was trying to massage his back in that moment.
"I killed most of the ground troops, so I should be the winner."
Tsuna said, gesturing to all the bodies on the ground.
"What? I killed all the sky troops, so I should be the winner."
Yuuna argued.
"You silly women. I killed the two strongest ones, so I should be the winner."
He boasted loudly, infuriating them.
"Whatever. I also have another problem with all this."
Taiku, not wanting to think about his loss, decided to point out something else.
"Whenever we kill something, 'that voice' tells us that we gained points, but not once did I hear anything like that in this fight."
That was what concerned Taiku the most in this fight.
"Even those two mountains… how have we not heard word of them even once?"
"Come on, you've heard the stories of how True Battle Gods reach the heavens."
Oki said, defending his kill. The moment Oki started talking, Taiku had to admit he was a bit fearful. The oni wouldn't like it if his opponent was belittled in front of him, but something had to be said.
"Yes. And you've heard the stories of how even Dragon adults shiver at the presence of True Battle Gods. Yet, not once did I feel scared when I saw them."
"Taiku's right."
A new creepy voice entered the discussion. They all turned around and Nukeme was walking towards them with his tongue sticking out.
"What do you mean?"
"In the mountains. I found a cave of mountain goblins. According to them, the tyrant and his forces already left the North."
"What do you mean by 'left the North'?"
Taiku inquired further, but Nukeme looked around first.
"Let's go back to the West. We'll talk there. Besides, if you're arguing about who killed the most, I wiped out 563 mountain goblins, so I win."
He turned around and started to head into the village.
"What about that brute?"
Tsuna asked, pointing to the lone warrior cyclopes that was on his knees, panting heavily from exhaustion.
"B… ood…"
