Chapter Twenty-Nine - Four-Armed Greater Demon

“How many fights has it been? Four?” I said, trying to catch my breath.

There were the four-armed lesser demons, there was Olive, and then there was the birdman. No, I guess we’re still in three. All of them in the span of one hour, maybe two.

I feel the sweat, the tears. The salty mixture encased in water glides across my face like a salmon swimming upstream. Those guys are tough. Everything was so tiring.

Seiko and Olive audibly breathe. They crawl and roll to find some bearing in this temple-like floor. I am intimidated by the presence of the statues and fear that they would come to life at any moment. But that does not seem to be the case for my teammates. There is a frenzy in their movements as they approach a golden glow beneath the statues.

That must be the Bank. The journey into the forest that I had with Seiko was super informative and I was able to learn more about this world. We traversed the whole forest trying to find a Bank to no avail, but it looks like they do appear inside towers. I do not have anything stored in it, but Seiko was adamant on finding one.

“Upsy-daisy.” I manage to stand up on three limbs and a missing tail.

I notice that my left arm is missing again regarding my first adventure in this world. I sigh. This might be a common occurrence. I crack my knuckle by performing finger exercises extending and contracting them. The bloody band-aid cloth on my knuckle unravels and reveals the bruised up hand. I really need a break.

Seiko and Olive make it to the golden glow where tremors start affecting their balance as they fall backwards. There is no way those two below should make it to this floor yet. Am I jinxing it?

From behind one of the statues, a giant red hand grabs on and almost immediately the perpetrator reveals themselves. It is one of the demons from below the tower. But this one is ten times bigger and more intimidating. Its facial features are almost the same, but there is something more evil about it. Its four arms extend, three are used to point at us with its palm open. The last hand beckons us to attack it. This monster’s challenge would need to wait if it was up to me. But this is the Tower of Stars, I don’t think we are allowed to choose our luxuries. The towering giant stands as tall as a tree. The other demons below were miniature compared to this one standing at eight or nine feet tall.

Seiko unloads her hidden magnum and shoots straight for the head. The bullet’s capabilities are strong enough to tear through tree trunks and a skull as thick as that monster’s may be, there should be substantial damage. The battle would never begin.

“[Path of the Salmon].” The monster uttered four words.

Seiko’s attack hit its mark. But the monster did not flinch. The monster talked which in my gaming experience, is bad news. Monsters with speech capabilities are intelligent which means that straightforward attacks will not work. On top of that, it has magic.

“All we have to do is figure out its weakness!” Olive shouts finishing my thoughts.

Olive is right. My magic’s weakness is the time constraint on my tails, Seiko’s is her mana supply, and Olive is the amount of leaves in a vicinity. Lucky for me, I can activate a tail right now. Unluckily for Seiko and Olive they have a low amount of mana and leaves at their disposal.

“To fight a monster, we need a monster.” I said.

I started cringing. These corny quotes sounded a lot better in my head, but I don’t have the decency or confidence to face my party after I say something so ridiculous.

[Battleaxe Dinosaur Tail Equipped]

One of the other tails I managed to acquire during my month-long trek with Seiko was this bad boy. The meat was super tender when cooked, so it was definitely a highlight of the adventure. But some dinosaurs in my world to my knowledge had mace or spiky weapons for tails. So seeing a more intricate medieval weapon as a tail took me for a spin. Seiko, obviously, was just on mission mode at the time.

“Hey, there’s another tail there. Let’s go get it.”

I didn’t have time to admire the bizarreness of such a beast. So we fought it quickly and dodged its slow, heavy attacks to acquire it.

My stump tail glows and transforms into a reptilian battleaxe. Awesome! Even with a missing tail, I can still equip a different one. The battleaxe drops with its edge pointed towards the marble floor instantly cracking it and making my presence a priority to the monster.

Something I don’t like about this tail is my ability to effectively swing it as it is part of my body and cannot properly adjust it. It is specifically designed for the dinosaur that I ate as its body uses its four feet to balance and slash away with great precision and power. My body is smaller, but my strength more than should make up for it.

I grab my tail, lifting it off the cracked floor and dropping it on its side producing a loud metallic sound. The mixture of flesh and nail is probably what my tail is made of. Some hard organic object that is natural to the human-lizard body. But it produced a metallic sound ringing its destructive capabilities to the whole room.

I sprint towards the beast and jump. I follow up my wild, instinctive actions with a mid-air spin adding momentum, then followed with inertia to my attack.

The four-armed demon readies itself and sends in heavy punches my way as I am defenseless in the air. Seiko’s marksmanship allows her to shoot in the monster’s eyes. Although they do not harm the monster, it does blind him momentarily.

[Red Leaf Magic - Fire]

Olive assists Seiko with fire magic providing a subsequent smokescreen for my attack.

The speed and momentum of the slash makes me dizzy, but this attack like Seiko’s should be a decisive blow. The adrenaline sends me in a fury as the axe finds its target towards the monster’s forehead.

“[Path of the Salmon].” the beast utters the same four words.

My attack bounces off and the blade shatters on impact. I manage to land on both feet, but I have to keep moving as the demon goes for a lumbering kick. I sidestep and scream internally. My martial arts are ineffective against this beast and my weapon is at half capacity.

But Path of the Salmon? Am I able to discern its weakness from such a name? Salmons are relentless creatures and they have the ability to transform into dragons, right? For that, they swim upstream. Could it be that attacks aimed up are ineffective? Should I gain a higher ground advantage and attack downward?

“[Orange Leaf Magic - Teleport].” Olive dodges the upcoming attacks my having preemptively spreading some leaves around the battlefield. She slashes at the upcoming fists with multiple angles including both up and down. Both and all attacks bounce back which causes her to go on a more defensive stance.

Seiko is on her last magazine. All her hard light bullets do not manage to provide any effective damage either. If these two girls had any more items in their Bank, they could probably shift the fight in their favor.

“[Rainbow Leaf Magic - Absolute].” Olive utters.

Olive unleashes her ultimate magic as one of her four leaves left is consumed into the sword and lets out a myriad of magical energy and colors towards the demon. The room is fully consumed with blinding light as Seiko and I cover ourselves with our tail and cloak to shield ourselves.

The smell of smoke keeps me from removing my tail from my nose. I cough a little as I assess the damage. I totally forgot about her ultimate attack, but I’m hoping she does not have to keep using these attacks too often as they seem like they need a lot of time to cultivate both mana and power.

I finally find Olive amidst all the smoke as I am about to call out to her for a job well done. Suddenly a giant red fist finds Olive before I reach her and she goes flying across the room. She makes contact with the marble wall producing a much louder ring and cracking of the foundation than my tail did. Her green leaf armor dissolves instantly as she falls unconscious into the ground.

“Olive!”

I turn to the monster as its silhouette starts taking form through the ashy smoke. Its eyes glow a fury red. Seiko runs towards Olive as I take the demon’s attention away from her. The demon emerges from the smokescreen revealing its undamaged body. Not even a single scratch or burn mark. I would describe Olive’s absolute magic as a pinpointed nuke so that there is no fallout. It’s a true finishing move. Even if this monster can withstand powerful attacks, it should not be fully indestructible. There’s also the fact that this is not the final boss of the tower. At least I should hope not. So the boss of bosses should be able to defeat this demon.

I spin to avoid its heavy steps and using that momentum I’m able to moderately spin my tail using its remaining sharp edge as the leading force of that attack. The blade slices the air before finding flesh in the monster’s ankle.

The demon lifts its foot up instinctively as it takes me up with him as I am still attached with my tail enclaved in its ankle. The last thing I want to do is lose my only weapon, but it is what I do. I deliver a heavy karate chop at the base of my tail breaking off the connection between body and weapon and dropping me back on the ground. I land on my side feeling a dislocated and hopefully not shattered arm and shoulder. I groan in pain as the monster turns around and sets its eyes on me again ready to attack.

Seiko unloads her last remaining magazine on the demon as the bullets manage to penetrate and harm the monster’s back. The demon turns around again deflecting the last bullets with its arm.

This demon’s ability does make it indestructible. But only on half of its body. The front half, the back side including its achille’s heel and back and nape are its weak points. What a strange magic armament. As the demon has its attention on Seiko, I reach for the base of the battleaxe. With Olive out of commission and Seiko out of bullets it all falls back to me.

I manage to rip the weapon out of its body as the demon screams ready to unleash all its fury on me. I’m lucky I still have my dominant hand, but it being probably shattered means this will be my last attack.

With the demon refusing to turn around, I try to run circles carrying the heavy weapon. Combined with the demon’s heavy movements, the wind carries the leaves up in the air producing the perfect battlefield conclusion. I launch the battleaxe up into the air with all my might spinning it in an arch. Its downward trajectory will bring it slamming down striking the demon’s back of the skull or nape severing its neurological functions. The demon follows its movements before shifting position away from the axe’s downward trajectory and refocusing its attention to me.

I jump into the incoming flurry of attacks. Landing on top of the hands that would strike me. I see everything in slow motion as this decisive battle will determine if the demon or the Ocean Slugs will win. I climb and run up the demon’s body as it tries to shake me off with the rapid movements of its body shifting to the situation. It closes its arms trying to squash me as I leap last second over its head. As the battleaxe starts to adhere to the effects of gravity I manage to catch it and swing it downwards.

The demon does the unimaginable. It headbutts the battleaxe in what would seemingly be a deadly conclusion for it. But since its magic allows it to block any damage done to the front of its body, the powerful battleaxe shatters in a million pieces. I’m still up in the air, but I’m ready.

The demon faces upward again ready to grab and finally crush me as I have nowhere else to fall. I hold Olive’s katana as I quickly slash at the demon’s eyes causing it to instinctively close their eyes. I am lucky as I believe that attack would do no damage, but our human-humanoid reactions dictate us to defend ourselves even if something could do no damage. I use it to my advantage as I quickly hop from its hands to the shoulder. The four-armed greater demon quickly realizes my next action too late as I superhumanly slash its nape letting out a river of red blood flow out. The towering demon finally falls as I try my best to land with no success.

During the demon’s sweeping attacks, I found that Olive’s sword was not launched with her, but fell into a pile of leaves. The leaves flying in the air revealed its location and I was able to divert the demon’s attention with the axe as I also riskingly launching the sword up in the air. This gamble ended up working out, but now I do need to rest.