Monster

For the first time in her life, or rather, lives, Zhuque didn’t know what to do.

There was nothing that she could remember. The scrolls which she had put her entire future knowledge’s worth into never had any mentionings of this monster. It could only mean one of two things: either they had already surpassed what the previous raid army was able to accomplish, or the raid army of her past life had perished before they could ever document this experience.

Either way, her mind was already prepared for the worst.

What do I do? What should I do? I don’t even know what it is, let alone a way to beat it. It can’t be just any other monster; there is no normal monster in this tower. But if…

“Move back! Keep your formation!” The deafening shout shocked her from her trance, along with another hand aggressively pulling her away from the danger. Before she knew it, Aoba had already placed himself in front of her, his small back also trembling in fear, but it was enough to block her eyes from the horror before them.

However, he was not the one to issue the order. As much as the prince of Watatsumi was brave in his own right, he was still naught but a child. And in moments like these, his inner immaturity surfaced – he only protected Zhuque for she was the closest to him, as well as someone he was bound to protect. But no one would blame him; his protecting Zhuque was key for the true generals of the field to take action.

In his stead, leading the army was none other than the white tiger of Huoguo.

“Aim at its eyes and claws!” Baihu ordered the archers. “The hind legs are built for swamps, so its skin must be unnaturally thick!”

“Shielders, make a bounded field!” To his side, Ryuuhan issued. “Prepare for any projectile attacks! Remember, this tower does not house your ordinary beasts!”

As the words left his mouth, the barricade from earlier when they stopped the Bas moved. Only this time, it wasn’t just to block whatever in front of them.

From the formation, a barrier of pure white emerged, erecting over the army and growing out as far as their arrows could reach. The volleys passed through the invisible wall without any issue, but any rocks and debris fallen from the monster’s might was stopped dead on their tracks.

“That takes care of the defensive approach,” seeing the barrier’s effect in work, Ryuuhan let out a sigh. “Now, time for us to go on the offensive.”

Just as he finished, the second round of arrows flew, aiming straight at the beast’s vital spots just as before. However, the army had rested on their laurels too soon – the monster’s size had erased their doubts on why they needed a second round of volleys in the first place.

And now, they saw the consequences.

Even though the arrows hit the monster’s abdomen, where its softer hide and fur lay, the damage was minimal at best. There was no bleeding present, almost like plunging a needle through a pillow. Meanwhile, the arrows that tried for the eyes were soon brushed off with only a shake of its head.

But it wasn’t as if they were ill-prepared. “Switch to spears!” Baihu immediately responded. Following suit, a barrage of polearms were thrown at the direction of the monster, all in a full-powered might of a trained soldier, enough to pierce even the toughest of rocks on their path.

Yet, the spears hit the beast like hitting a brick wall. Almost all of them broke on contact, while the rest bounced off like a rubber ball. Meanwhile, the monster showed no bother towards the strike, its eyes glancing over the army as if deciding on who to put in its stomach first.

And as fate would have it, its eyes stopped right at the carriage, where the young prince and princess were being slowly and stealthily moved back to a safe position. The beast’s eyes glowed a fierce gold, ready to lunge its gigantic body towards the pair.

But Baihu had seen this, and there was no way that he would let it happen.

“Right flank, attract its attention!” He shouted out from the top of his lungs, all while punching through a rock pillar with just a single strike by himself. The force wasn’t enough to shatter the entire thing, but did cleanly break it into two – just as Baihu had planned when the giant block landed right in his arms. Throwing the rock with all his might, the Huoguo prince continued. “Do not let them get close to those two!”

The giant rock smashed right through the giant creature square in its head, the impact so strong it was the first attack that forcibly made it tilt its neck in response. But such was only the result it achieved – after a shake of the head to rid of any residue shock, the monster once again let out a booming roar, as loud and as strong as it had ever been.

Baihu, however, didn’t care about any of that. Just the fact that the monster had lost its initial target was good enough news for him – and this time, with himself as the target, the young prince could assure that his sister was safe.

Or at least, that was what he had thought.

While the monster had noticed the attack, its eyes weren’t moving from its original targets. The monster once again barreled down its path, charging straight at the carriage where the prince and princess were.

With its mind seemingly set, there was no other way to stop it. Every one of their attacks didn’t work, whether magic or physical. And to stop the monster with a human meatshield was as improbable as killing the beast itself – at this point, everything could only be seen as a complete checkmate.

However, there were two people that refused to quit.

“I get it now. That thing’s aiming at me.”

Ryuuhan was next to his liege as usual – in a situation like this, it was of course his duty to protect him like the good retainer he was. He was still issuing commands to the other soldiers, but his priority to ensure Aoba’s safety had caused him to also be on constant guard next to the carriage, as if his life depended on it.

And that got him thinking. This whole incident started when he stepped into the mud. The monster seemingly never changed its attack targets, but Zhuque and Aoba didn’t do anything to invoke its anger. So, on what basis did it choose its target to attack?

Working back, and the answer was obvious. He was the one to open the door this time.

“Princess, listen to me,” the boy called out. “Burn this into your memories.”

“Huh?” Zhuque sounded. But Ryuuhan didn’t give her the chance to process the information.

“This situation happened because of me. I’m sure of it,” he continued. “That gate at the entrance is key. I don’t think we’ve solved it yet. We can’t beat this monster.”

“Wait, what are you…”

“Make it out alive, okay?” The boy concluded with a light smile before disappearing from his spot in a blink of an eye.

Before anyone else had realized it, Ryuuhan had already reappeared near the opposite to the cave’s entrance where they came from. Holding a small rock in his hand, the boy flung it dead on the monster’s eyes with the same accuracy as throwing a shuriken.

Unlike the other attacks, the rock was sharpened and thrown with the most spin possible. And as a result, it cut through the beast’s eye just like a real knife.

“Yo, ugly mug,” as the monster’s rage-filled roar crackled the floor around them, Ryuuhan only shot a grin. “I’m your target, right? Come and get me.”

The monster did not understand human speech. But Ryuuhan’s predictions were also spot on – from start to finish, he was its target, and no one else.

For the first time ever, the monster didn’t just charge aimlessly anymore – raising its front paw, it was ready to smash its prey to pieces.

“Yeah, that’s more like it,” the boy kept his confident grin. “Eyes on me, and me alone. Leave everyone else behind.”

As the giant claw came down like a meteor, the boy had soon closed his eyes in acceptance. It wasn’t as if he couldn’t run away, but he knew that running away wouldn’t solve anything – as long as he was still with the others, the monster would hunt him down, and along with it, his liege, his men… as well as her, all would be hurt in the process.

His sacrifice was the only thing that could help them right now. One life for one army, such was a ridiculously small price to pay.

However, Ryuuhan had forgotten one important detail. He wasn’t alone in this raid.

And so, it was no surprise that there were many people that opposed his plan. Zhuque, for instance. Aoba too. But for those two, they simply couldn’t follow his movements enough to predict where he would have gone, and when Ryuuhan appeared, he had already chosen a spot that was the hardest for the two to catch up in time for the monster’s strike.

No one could have caught up to him… except one.

It wasn’t similar to Zhuque’s sudden awakening to magic, which was caused by her intense desire to live down to the last embers of her life. In fact, no one singular cause could be measured for once’s sudden manifestation of their powers: some were just innately born with them, some triggered their evolution through a burst of emotion.

But for this case, it was neither. In fact, his awakening was long overdue – it was just as simple of a fact as his body gradually growing past the initial limits of a human being.

A slow and steady process, but a certain one. Baihu had already started to sense it – when he threw that punch to open up a path for them, his energy was almost bursting out of his own body. The awakening was imminent, and he only needed a trigger for it.

The young prince had thought that a good moment would be to protect his sister, or to win against an impossible enemy…

“But never before in my life had I imagined that it’d be you, of all people, to help me untie that last knot.”

Baihu was there, standing in front of Ryuuhan, raising his arm over his head to block the monster’s paw. But his human body wasn’t touching the monster at all – rather, just a few meters away from them was a suspiciously-shaped rock formation, spawning from who-knows-where, perfectly stopping the monster in its tracks.

If one would look from a further distance, they’d see a giant stone arm growing from a nearby wall, moving about as if having a life of its own. And naturally, the original movement was none other than Baihu himself.

“... Princey?” Ryuuhan spoke, still shocked from the experience. “Why did you…”

“What, you thought you could sacrifice yourself and make yourself look cool in front of everyone? Fat chance,” with a grin on his face, Baihu answered. “My sister told you once, right? No sacrifices. Now pull yourself together, Punk, we got a monster to beat!”