Bigger Problems (3)

“Not happening,” I said.

“Come on, Oliver,” Marion said. “I know we can do it.”

Do what? Die? I already told her there’s no way we’re doing the hardest quest on the damn board.

“It’s the largest quest on the board,” I said. “I’m not sure we’re prepared for something like that, especially after yesterday.”

I don’t want to be the kind of person who brings up things like the incident yesterday during arguments, but this isn’t some trivial matter like what we’re gonna have for dinner. This is about taking on a life or death task.

“Look Jessica, I’d love to help you out but this is a daunting task to say the least. And unlike you we have no real reason to do it.”

“You’ll get your fair share of the reward of course,” Jessica said. “Even split three ways the reward from that quest will be more than enough for me to pay off my debt.”

“That’s, uh, not really what I was talking about…”

“Oh, I see…”

“See what?” from how she said that I don’t think she actually understands why I don’t want to do this.

“You think I’d just be dead weight!”

“What? I think you have the wrong i-” I started, only to get interrupted again.

“Well I’m not dead weight, and I’ll prove it to you!”

“That’s-”

“I propose a duel!” Jessica shouted. “If I win then you’ll help me, and if you win then you don’t have to! Whaddaya say?”

I should probably just decline, but- the weeb in me is getting excited about this for some reason…

“What kind of duel?” I asked.

“Simple, we’ll fight until one of us loses consciousness or cries uncle. And the loser has to pay for healing elixirs afterward.”

“Do you even have enough money to purchase healing elixirs?”

“Aha! Smack talk I see, so I take it you accept my challenge?” Jessica asked while extending her hand.

I really shouldn’t, but…

“I accept the terms of your duel!” I said as I shook her hand.

An instant later I felt a familiar feeling course through my body. A contract was just formed, wasn’t it.

No backing down now…

…

“Ready whenever you are!” Jessica shouted.

We had come to the field where yesterday’s kerfuffle had taken place, although there was no visible sign of it ever happening.

I guess whatever Jessica did must’ve really worked. From the ground to the trees, nothing seems like it’s been touched in a while.

“Don’t worry about me,” I shouted back. “I’m all ready over here!”

“Great, then just step into the ring when you want to begin,” Jessica said as she clapped her hands and touched the ground.

Immediately, the grass began to sink into the ground all around us, save for a ring about twenty feet in diameter with a line down the middle.

Jessica stepped into the side opposite me and Marion.

It just occurred to me I have no idea what her power is… This seems less and less like a good idea…

“What’s wrong, Oliver?” Marion asked. “Feeling nervous?”

“Something like that…” I muttered as I stepped into the ring.

“Just to reiterate, the rules only say until one of us gets knocked or cries uncle,” Jessica said. “You wanna add something about getting knocked out of the ring or not?”

“Sure, why not?”

“Then it’s agreed,” Jessica said as she took some dirt into her hands.

“I’m not gonna lose to you again,” I replied as I put my hands onto my shisu blade.

I watched what she did. Since I don’t really know what her power is, it’s best not to get too close yet.

“Let’s finish this quickly,” she said as she tossed the dirt into the air. Each clump began to wiggle and distort as they hit the ground, gathering more and more dirt as they increased in size. As they grew they began to take the shape of wolves.

Five dirt hounds stood between me and Jessica.

So she can make things out of dirt, but what does that have to do with my fire core or that metal orb she has?

I have the feeling that there’s more to her power than this, but right now I need to focus on what’s in front of me.

I’ll use the fourth art to destroy all her dirt hounds and then deliver the final blow to her- wait, I probably shouldn’t hit her with my sword, should I? Don’t want to do any permanent damage.

Alright, I use the fourth art on the dogs and then use the seventh art to fake her out and hit from behind. But what should I hit her with?

Should I use the sheathed sword again? No, I won’t even have enough time to secure it anyway. Miracle maybe? But that’d completely wreck her, unless… I could try using the wind pressure and indirectly hit her with Miracle Punch. Maybe it’ll actually work this time.

The dirt hounds then began their advance towards me, and I enacted my plan. I used Flurry Cutter to slash them all apart, ending with the one closest to Jessica. As I split each one it crumbled into dirt, losing it’s form.

I then ran toward, pretending to use the first art, but what happened next surprised me.

Jessica touched the ground again, and a giant dirt hand sprang up from under me, barely giving me enough time to quickly jump back. Then the hand then came back down towards me, and I used the fifth art, Skyward Strike, to slice it in half.

I landed as the dirt crumpled around me, and I saw Jessica was now holding the metal core in her hands. I have a bad feeling about this…

Two blobs of metal shot out from the orb, and each one turned into a metal hound.

If she’s gonna start using her elemental core, then I guess so should as well. And I’ll add a little Miracle to make sure things go my way.

I resheathed my blade and fixed my footing as I waited for the metal hounds to get closer. The moment the first hound entered my range, I unleashed the first fire style art: Hidden Flame.

As I hit my target, I had to use Miracle and the flames erupting from my sword to push it through the metal hound, splitting it into two halves. I quickly resheathed my blade and similarly used the fifth fire style art, Rising Sun, to split the second hound down the middle and launch myself into the air. The burst of fire shot forth didn’t reach Jessica.

“Nothing quite like the art of battle,” Jessica said. “Isn’t that right, Oliver?”

“I guess you do have a point there,” I responded. It really is a unique sensation, being able to battle like this. It’s probably my favorite part about being reincarnated in the first place.

“But in order to be truly great, a battle must have a splendid ending,” Jessica continued. “Unfortunately that means each battle has to end in order to be beautiful, but that’s quite alright…

“Oliver, let me show you the true beauty of my art!”

After she said that, the ground began to rumble. From the metal core in her hands a stream of metal began to flow out into the space in front of her as the ground began to rise up to meet the floating metal.

The dirt and metal began to swirl and mix together before finally beginning to assume a form. It grew into a giant suit of samurai armor filled with dirt taking on a semi-human form.

“Like it?” Jessica asked. “This piece is named the Armored Ground Titan! Twenty feet high and six-thousand pounds, but this baby isn’t just big. It also has some pretty decent mobility if I do say so myself.”

As Jessica was talking she tossed another clump of dirt, but this time the air itself seemed to catch it. This one grew into something resembling a giant dirt dragonfly. She jumped onto its back as its wings started buzzing wildly, bringing itself into the air with her. She flew around the titan as she continued talking.

“My name is Jessica Foster, and my flair is TitanCraft. I can make creatures out of any element. I prefer to make bigger titans like these, but if the situation calls for it then I can even make titans smaller than insects. The bigger and more complex the titans I make, the less I’m able to create at once. I’m also able to control all the titans I make through either direct contact or commands I ingrain into them during creation.

“As an example, the titan under me right now is named the Carrier Titan. My personal favorite for transportation, since I’m almost always standing on it, the only command it really needs ingrained in it is to fly to my location once it hears me whistle, but I’ve also fine-tuned it to do some pretty crazy things depending on how I whistle.

“I haven’t fine tuned the Armored Ground Titan to the same extent, but I’ve still ingrained plenty of tricks into it. Knowing this, I wouldn’t blame you for wanting to give up.”

I looked toward the looming Armored Ground Titan. That thing looks kinda terrifying…

“If it’s all the same to you,” I said as I turned to Jessica. “I’d rather see this through to the end.”

A smile spread across Jessica’s face.

“Oliver my man,” she said. “You truly understand art.”

She then snapped, and the titan began to move.

As soon as it came into my range, I unleashed Unseen Slash to try and chop off a leg, but my sword deflected off of it’s armor, barely leaving a scratch.

Jessica clapped and the dirt inside the leg I just hit began to tremble. Sensing danger, I immediately jumped back as the dirt began to seep out into tentacles towards me.

Using Swift Counter, I cut them off as they came.

I can defend against those dirt tentacles, but what I really need is a way to pierce that armor. And I think I have a pretty good idea of how I can get that done.

As I readied myself to use another fire art, Jessica snapped again. The titan then began to run towards me.

I’ll give her this, it does move faster than one would expect for something of its size, but with Accelerate I’m much faster.

I dashed past the titan as it got close, but as soon as I did it turned and moved towards me again.

I kinda wish this ring had more space, but I should still be able to manage to get far enough away from it. This game of chase lasted only for a little while. Now that I’m ready, it’s time to test out a theory.

I pulled out my sword and held it pointing forward. The blade was bright red. It’s time for fire style art nine: Burning Skewer!

I charged toward the titan and thrust my blade into its right leg. Although I still had to use Miracle to push it in, the blade sank in much easier now, burning a hole past the titan’s armor until it poked out the other side. The armor was strong, but the dirt inside wasn’t nearly as tough.

Now that my burning blade is in the titan I feel that it’ll be much easier to try and slice it open.

Focusing as much of Miracle as I could throughout my entire body, I used Rising Sun to launch myself up and cut through the titan, ripping the right side of its body off in the process.

Now that I was in the air, the titan tried to use it’s left hand to grab me. I wasn’t really expecting that, but I’ll just go with ol’ faithful for this.

I used Miracle Punch to hit the arm, sending it flying off with a cloud of dust and dirt. Now the titan had a leg and a half and no arms.

Still suspended in midair, I heard Jessica clap again. The dirt tentacles sprang out from the titan, except this time there were much more of them.

Before I could even touch the ground or resheath my blade, the tentacles made an earthen dome around me. I was captured.

A dirt prison, huh?

I used Unseen Slash and spun in a circle, cutting the dome into two parts. I then used Miracle Punch to blast the top part off.

I jumped out of the freshly broken dome and looked around.

“Oliver my man,” Jessica said, “It appears that this battle is over.”

I looked down towards the ring of grass. I was standing outside of it.

“I guess it is then…”