Chapter Seventeen - Four Armed Lesser Demons

A month had passed since we left Slug Beach Town. As a newly-formed adventurer’s party, we began our journey the following day after the massacre. We journeyed into the woods where the Tower of Stars had flown into following its silhouette off in the distance. Our trek consisted of hiking twelve hours, sparring one hour, followed by hunting and fighting forest creatures for food and combat experience. To end the day, we slept under the proxy moon with makeshift tents and sleeping bags.

I learned more about the Tower of Stars during this journey. It is believed an American, or Otherworlder, had taken over the tower. No one knows the reasoning, but it’s been speculated widely as madness. Their magic is unknown and they have loyal commanders guarding the tower from the inside. Entering the tower is easy as all you have to do is touch it. Towers in the bottom floors behaved by these rules, so the same should apply to the floating enemy tower. Also, once you enter the tower you can only exit from the top or become a part of it forever.

We had been travelling in this colorful forest where its myriad of leaves covered every color of the visual spectrum. A rainbow scenery overloaded my vision with each sight and I could not believe something this beautiful could exist, especially underground. We must be in between seasons of summer and fall as the trees are still full of life and the ground is filled with crunchy, colorful leaves.

We now stand a couple thousand feet from the tower. Its faint dim hum and starry skin send chills down my spine. But I trained for a month for this day. The day we enter and eventually conquer the tower. I gained three new tails during our expedition and my kickboxing is more refined.

We exit the forest and see a valley before us with monsters roaming the vicinity.

Corrupted four-armed monsters in the shape of bodybuilders roam under the tower. They number in the hundreds. Their design is quite peculiar. They are duotone with crimson red and a complimentary sky blue. It’s like Seiko’s hair consistency. Except that her hair color is ash grey with streaks of black. Combination of colors that look quite well while not being split fifty-fifty. Their faces are clay-like and demonic, ready to be molded into something more evil. Their arms overlap one over the other. Their inner arms look like they come out of an inner compartment within the other arm adding in to the body horror of their design.

“These are the four-armed lesser demons.” Seiko says.

“Shall we begin?” I ask as one of these demons sets its sights towards us.

Seiko, without skipping a beat, shoots at the charging beast. Her rifle unloads light projectiles. The demon crosses its arms blocking the shots as they bounce off his body. Seiko does not stop firing, aiming for its face. The demon adjusts its arms so the bullets start redirectioning towards its firing point back at Seiko. Seiko keeps firing with the intent to shoot the bullets redirected towards her, therefore cancelling out the counterattack.

I don’t wait any longer and join in the fight.

[Ocean Eel Tail Equipped]

My tail transforms into the floating type. Dark blue bolts of electricity crackle from within. I touch my tail with specialized gloves. This glove went through trials and errors and mixtures of fibers, leaves, syrups, and leather. I absorb some electricity and shoot lighting bolts at the creature drawing its attention. The other creatures notice the noise and light show and slowly begin approaching.

Seiko absorbs the scattered light bullets, drawing the mana from within the vicinity. She manifests light tiles which she throws like frisbees until they stop mid air between the monster and I. I use the tiles as stepping stones to get the high ground over the demonic creature. The red creature roars as I strike down with a lighting-powered punch. The creature absorbs the blunt force and grabs me with one of its hands as I immediately struggle to break free. A loud bang echoes through as the arm and I fall due to gravity. Seiko had equipped her holstered magnum. Its bullets can snap a tree trunk with one shot, so an arm getting shot off was simply straightforward logic. The tradeoff is that she can only manifest two of those bullets a day.

I rub my tail again to recharge my gloves and I shoot towards the treeline creating a massive solid wall of electricity covering us from the oncoming stampede. I turn my attention to the wounded monster as it prepares to strike again.

We’ve been planning to fight and incapacitate one of these monsters for a week. It is very important that we do not kill it as we are being careful not to strike its vital organs. Their skin is too tough as their muscles amplify its natural defenses. We have our own advantages too as they cannot use magic and rely on their brute strength. But that is their trump card as well. A punch of theirs can trigger small earthquakes causing us to be off balance. I dodge its barrage of punches feeling the wind rise in temperature and my personal arena shrink with my back to the forest.

“[Indigo Leaf Magic - Phantom]” a mysterious voice shouted from beyond the woods. A blade’s edge with no handle of indigo light shot towards the demon and chopped off its head in one strike. The head rotates in the air before landing at my feet. Shocked, to say the least, I turned towards the direction where I heard the magic-commanding voice.

A robust, sturdy warrior enters my field of vision. They are equipped with a katana and an all-black armor. Seiko and I turn to see this knight approaching the horde. The warrior looks up at the starry tower as they bring their katana up resting it on their shoulder. They puff their chest as if they were taunting the tower. They start walking, eventually attracting the attention of the nearest two monsters that close in on their new target.