Regression

It was the shortest time she had ever been back and died again. And on top of that, it wasn’t a quick and easy death. It would be foolish of Zhuque to think that there would be no repercussions for her reckless behavior.

The moment she opened her eyes, a burning pain ran through her entire body. Even if she was physically fine, Zhuque still felt her ribs shattering into dust, her innards bursting like balloons, and her skin being scorched from both the heat and blood within her. The girl vomited, but there was nothing to gush out of her body – not even stomach acid.

After hurling up nothing but air for a minute, the girl lay back and caught her breath. But she was nowhere close to calming down or resting just yet, as within the darkness of her room, Zhuque still managed to mumble:

“First strike… Eye… Roll…”

Within her tired mind was the scene of her most recent defeat, replayed over and over again. The monster’s features, its habits, its attack patterns… Zhuque knew that she needed to learn everything in order to beat it.

But she had no talent like her brothers, nor was she blessed with magic like her accomplice in Watatsumi. The only thing that the young princess of Huoguo knew how to do was to rush head-first at any challenge and die trying.

Giving herself a big slap, Zhuque took a deep breath:

“I can do this… I’m the only one that can do this… Okay.”

The girl leapt off her bed and disappeared into the night once again.

“Time to go die.”

Her second descent was even faster than the first. Zhuque hardly broke a sweat dealing with the small-fries anymore – as soon as she encountered something that moved, it immediately ate a fireball from her hand fired at maximum capacity. The entire cave lit up with an orange, flickering light as the girl continued her rampage all the way to the monster’s room.

“Hey, ugly. I’m back.”

Pointing her knife down towards the mud field, Zhuque called out. Replying in kind, once again, was the same pair of golden eyes.

Following her last encounter, Zhuque jumped right in the middle once more. But this time, she had come prepared – instead of a big plunge, this time, she swung her arm to the side as hard as she could, aiming for a horizontal slash across both eyes at once. The monster roared in pain, tossing its head around in hope to flick off the pesky fly. But this time, Zhuque was faster. Having prepared another fireball, the girl blasted it down towards the beast’s snout. The attack didn’t do much damage at all – the scales on its snout was more than enough to block off any flame – but the repelling force was enough to shoot Zhuque up in the air akin to a second jump, helping her avoid the monster’s shake just by the skin of her teeth.

But Zhuque’s attack wasn’t over. “Take this!” Following her shout, more and more orbs of flame shot out from her arm like cannonballs, in quantities so large that unassuming eyes would have mistaken the cave to be in the middle of the day. But even then, the monster was unmoving. Opening its giant mouth, every single attack went straight down its stomach like throwing a coin down a wishing well. And as normal wishing wells would go, it was naught but a futile action.

Letting out another roar, the monster once again swiped its paw onto a mid-air Zhuque, this time crushing her on the spot.

Gasp!

The girl woke up once more.

“Okay. I managed to get another attack in. Again!”

Another descent down the cave. Another greeting with a familiar scene.

This time, Zhuque blasted not once, but twice. The extra boost helped launch her higher in the air, enough for her to safely land on an upper-level rock formation to keep a safe distance from the monster. With its giant body, Zhuque was sure that it couldn’t possibly hit her from above ground.

She had never been more wrong. The monster couldn’t fly, of course, but it was strong enough to move mountains with its attacks anyway. Taking a step back, it twisted its giant body and threw a barrel roll forward, almost like drilling through the cave by itself. The impact shook the entire cave, sending mounds of rocks down from below – each one was already a giant natural spike, increasing its danger by tenfold.

Zhuque was already rocked by the crash, there was little chance that she could escape the falling rocks in time.

Gasp!

“Okay, I can do this! Again!” The girl shouted, hyping herself up for another repeat challenge.

After getting herself on the upper layer, Zhuque this time had expected the roll. With another blast onto the ground, the girl flew away just in the nick of time.

“No wonder why he chose wires and knives to fight,” the girl mumbled. “I definitely need mobility to fight against this thing!”

However, just realizing that mobility was needed and actually getting that kind of mobility were two entirely different things.

Though she had certainly gained experience through each death, Zhuque’s magic control was still far from total mastery. She might have been able to beat the smaller monsters without much effort, but, like all of her previous attempts, no matter how many fireballs she could shoot, there was simply no damage to the giant creature in front of her.

On the other hand, the girl was slowly but surely wearing herself out. In order to blast forward using her own fire, Zhuque had to expend three to four times the power needed compared to a regular attack. And with this fire being that of her own life, she was certain to be down sooner than expected.

Zhuque knew this too. But she still couldn’t figure out a way to finish the job.

The second flight was fine. The monster, enraged by the aerial foe, attempted to smash Zhuque’s foothold once more. As it barrel-rolled into the rock formation, Zhuque, this time, was calm enough to blast a third jump with her fire. The girl shot away from the crumbling rocks, flipped her body in the air and “landed” sideways at a second chunk of falling debris on the opposite end, before propelling herself once more with the same trick.

However, the third flight was when the problems started.

The monster had seen Zhuque use her fire to fly. It knew that the girl could outmaneuver it in the air, but it was also aware that none of her attacks would hit it for strong enough damage. And so, it didn’t bother to do anything else.

With a bone-snapping crack, it unhinged its jaw while the rest of its body slowly disappeared into the ground, almost as if fusing itself with the cave around it. The agape mouth widened and solidified into a giant rock arc, forming a natural portal with a set of fangs sharp enough to cut anything with as much as a light graze.

“What the…” Zhuque could only exclaim in shock and frustration. “How is this fair?”

One look and the girl knew – the only way to defeat the monster would be to enter its mouth and blast it from within. However, she also knew that with her current magic, there was no way to increase her level enough to do such a thing. Entering its mouth right now would be tantamount to suicide.

Gritting her teeth, Zhuque shouted. “Come out and fight me, you ugly mug!”

But no matter how much she barked, the monster wouldn’t budge an inch.

“Fine. But don’t you dare think that it will go your way!”

Zhuque, still in the air thanks to her flame, took out her small dagger… and plunged it into her heart once more. Spurting out a stream of blood, the girl laughed in bated breaths:

“See you next time, bastard.”

Gasp!

Zhuque rushed to the cave again. The attack just now had given her just the hint she needed.

To beat this creature, she needed three conditions to occur:

One, she had to bet everything she had in one single strike. If she failed this, there was no going back. Even if she succeeded, there was still a chance of not killing the beast, but there was no other choice.

Two, the attack must be aimed towards the monster’s insides. Meaning that she needed it to open its mouth. This condition would be easy enough, had it not been for the third and final one.

The monster must not be using that final attack. Even if she didn’t know anything about it, by pure instincts, Zhuque could tell that it was something else entirely from what she had faced. Her hands lightly shook as the image of the gaping mouth returned to her memories. Somehow… I had a feeling that I wouldn’t be back if I were to charge at it head-on, the thought raced in her mind.

Returning to the mud field, she called out the monster:

“Up. Now.”

But unlike the others, she didn’t jump to the occasion when the monster was emerging from under the mud. She had one shot. If she missed, it would be over.

The monster rose from the mud, letting out a deafening roar. This was her chance.

“Burn, my everything!”

With a shout, Zhuque raised her hand forward. She could feel every ounce of her energy leaving her body, concentrating as one giant mass of fire in her raised palm. The ball of flame flickered and danced to the beating of her heart, all while stretching itself longer and wider, slowly forming into a pair of giant wings. This pair elongated at its center, finally growing a pair of talons behind and an equally sharp beak in front, steadying its final shape of a giant vermillion bird.

“Phoenix Fire!” Zhuque put her entire life’s worth behind the shout. The flaming bird let out a screech that rocked the floor around it, before taking off in its majestic form, leaving a trail of golden flame behind. Its target was only one – the open mouth of the beast in front of the young girl.

However, the monster was one step faster. With a smash of its paw, it crushed the fire bird with only one strike, dissipating its flame like squashing an insignificant insect.

From hope to frustration, everything changed in a heartbeat.

“Shit!” For the first time in her life, Zhuque was mad enough to swear. But her mind didn’t allow her to wail in her failure like this. As long as she was still alive, there was still a chance.

“Again!” Taking out her knife, Zhuque stabbed herself once more.

Gasp!

This time, she had time to spare. The fire bird flew forward like a shooting star… only to miss the monster entirely and hit the wall behind it, creating a smoldering crater as if a meteor had struck sideways.

“Again!”

Gasp!

The bird was still off, but it had come closer. It hit the monster’s right eye dead on, completely scorching it in the process. But close wasn’t enough, and all it resulted in was a monster enraged by tenfold.

“Again!”

Gasp!

The timing this time was perfect… but the monster didn’t open its mouth. The scales on its face was enough to render the attack wholly ineffective.

“Again!”

Gasp!

She was off by a second once more.

“Again!”

Gasp!

The monster had blocked it this time.

“Again!”

Gasp!

She was off by even further; the bird crashed up towards the ceiling before even grazing the monster at all.

“Again!”

Gasp!

“Shit! Again!”

Gasp!

The clock within herself kept going. Zhuque had lost count of how many times she had spent rewinding. But the goal was still there. The method was still there. She just needed that one push.

However her sanity and patience weren’t the same lofty size as her ambition. With each passing attempt, Zhuque’s mentality grew duller, her reflexes worsened, and her fuse turned easier to snap.

“Again!”

As the girl tried to plunge the knife into herself for the umpteenth time, her eyes unconsciously glanced around.

Huh? Wait… where am I? Within that fraction of a second, a thought popped up in her mind. In just that moment, through the corner of her eyes, Zhuque saw not the cold, blue light of the cave she was so familiar with, but the warm light and familiar sight of her own room.

But her hand had already moved. There was no stopping herself anymore. Unless, someone else were to catch her in her action.

“Zhuque, what the hell are you doing?”