Forest Frenzy (1)

Well… Lucy’s probably not here… I can’t expect too much. There are records of her surviving whatever happened on earth, so she’s probably not here.

Anyway… I need to focus on what’s in front of me.

“Oliver my man,” Jessica yelled from atop the Furnace Titan, “How do you know that guy!?”

“That’s a bit complicated,” I yelled back. I then turned to Tyler. “Tyler, I want an explanation-”

“I want an explanation, too!” He interrupted. “Why is there a giant suit of armor staring down a kaiju?! Oh, wait! It’s a kaiju battle! That armor must be a kaiju shifter then, right!?”

“Shut up for a second!” I yelled. “Why is Marion unconscious at your feet!?”

“Marion?” Tyler asked before looking down at her body.

“Oh right. We just battled,” he said. “And I won!”

“I can tell you fought,” I said. “But I want to know why!”

“Ugh, you’re always so bossy, Oliver,” he grumbled. “We fought for the marshmallows!”

“Huh?”

“Yeah! Winner got the marshmallows, and I won so now they’re mine!”

“Marshmallows?”

“Yeah!”

“Marion fought with you for marshmallows?” I asked.

“That’s right?” Tyler answered.

“Tyler… have you been fighting anyone who comes into this forest for their food and stuff, specifically at nighttime?”

“Of course! Nighttime’s when I’m most-” his sentence was interrupted by me punching him. “Oliver! What was that for?!”

“Dammit, Tyler! You’re the beast on the quest paper aren’t you!?” I shouted.

“Quest paper!? What are you talking about!?!”

But it wasn’t only him, because only part of the description would match. If he was able to beat Marion, then of course he’d be able to beat most anyone he’d meet on the road, especially if they weren’t adventurers or the like. And because of his one note mind he probably forced them into fighting him, too. And as for the people who thought the beast was a kaiju… Well, we got a kaiju right here close by, don’t we? It’s not that hard to think reports of two beasts so close to each other would get mixed together like this, but still…

“I get it, Oliver! You want to fight me because I beat Marion, don’t you!?”

Huh? Wait, I just punched him, didn’t I? Crap, I don’t have time to fight him right now.

“Wait, Tyler, I don’t want to fight you,” I said.

“You know, that’s the same thing she said,” Tyler growled. “I’m starting to get pissed off…”

“What?” I guess it makes sense that Marion wouldn’t have wanted to fight with him. She wasn’t very happy after the last time she fought someone.

“And she…! She-! She held back against me!!!” he yelled.

That’s not good. I mean… It’s great that she’s learning to control herself or whatever, but she didn’t go all out against Tyler. There’s no way I can make him calm down with how angry he gets when people hold back against him.

“Alright, Oliver! Enough talking! Now we’re gonna fight!” Tyler yelled. “And you better go all out against me! I doubt you heal as fast as she does!”

Huh? Come to think of it, he has two swords at his hips, and… is that a tail? Why does he have a-?

“Beast Bolt!”

In an instant he sprang at me with an unexpected speed. I should’ve known this, but I guess he got a power, too.

I went into bullet time before he hit me and used Miracle to catch his headbutt. There was a lot of force behind his attack.

I then spun around and tossed him into the air. He landed on the top of one of the trees and pulled out his swords.

“Oliver my man, you need any help with that?” Jessica asked.

“No! You just focus on the kaiju, Jessica!” I yelled. “And make sure Marion stays safe.”

“Gotcha!” Jessica said. She then began whistling and the Carrier Titan came down and wrapped its tail around Marion’s unconscious body. It then flew up and hovered high above the ground.

Hopefully Jessica can handle the skrullbear kaiju with the Furnace Titan. I have to deal with Tyler right now.

Why is he always so hard to deal with? Whenever he gets too heated he only ever wants to fight. It was hard enough fighting him back on earth before we had superpowers and stuff. I don’t think I’ve ever actually had to handle him by myself before, usually Zero or Destiny were there to help hold him down until he calmed down.

But I wonder what kind of power he got? I would’ve guessed it would be something to do with wolves, but that tail he’s got is kinda weird. It doesn’t really look like a wolf tail or any other animal I can think of right now…

I could feel Tyler’s gaze beaming down on me as he stood atop the tree.

“Hey!” he yelled. “You coming up here or what!?”

“I’m not coming up there to fight you!” I yelled back. “Look, this isn’t the time to-”

“Then I’m coming down!!” he interrupted as he jumped from the treetop. As he began to fall he put the swords together like scissors and pointed them down in a style similar to my sixth shisu art.

“Scissor Blade Nightmare Style Art Six: Falling Phobia!”

After hearing his move, I decided to take cover behind a tree. If the nightmare style arts are anything like the fire style ones, then a wave of whatever nightmare energy is should burst forth once he hits the ground.

He hit the ground and I heard a discharge of energy disperse from when he landed. Guess that means I was right.

I came out from behind the tree with barely enough time to see Tyler about to cut the whole thing down.

“Scissor Blade Art One: Guillotine!”

I barely dodged under his blade as it snapped shut, cleanly splitting the tree between us in two. If I don’t go all out against him, he might actually kill me. Damn it, I don’t see another way out of this. I need to finish this quickly so that I can help Jessica take down that kaiju. Why doesn’t he understand that taking down that monster is more important than this petty fight?

I charged Miracle and threw my fist at him. If I’m gonna fight him it won’t be for a very long time. One hit should do enough to at least knock him out until I’m done with the kaiju, Marion can heal him later.

“Miracle Punch!”

Before I could complete the motion, Tyler’s tail swiped my fist to the side, making the punch miss as the air exploded away from him. His tail then wrapped around my wrist and he threw me into a tree a couple yards away.

Why can he use that thing so effectively!? It’s only been like three days since I got reincarnated into this world, that’s not enough time to learn how to use a new limb. Did he maybe get reincarnated before me?

“Hey, Tyler!” I yelled as I got up. “How did you get so good at using that tail?”

“Huh? Well, it’s kinda like I’ve always had it, you know?” He replied.

“I guess that makes sense for you…” I muttered. He was always animalistic back on earth anyhow. “When did you get isekai’d to Thloria?”

“Heh? Isekai’d?” he asked.

“You know, reincarnated?”

“When did I get reincarnated!?!”

“Oh come on, you can’t be serious,” I said. “Did you seriously not notice we aren’t on earth anymore?”

“Well of course we aren’t on earth! That place should be crawling with kaiju nowadays, Oliver.”

“Wait, how do you know that?”

“Uh, I was there… remember?” he replied sarcastically. “You were there too, weren’t you?”

Wait, what?

“Hold on a second, you remember what happened on earth!?” I asked.

“Um, you forgot…?”

This changes everything! If he remembers what happened to us on earth with the kaiju and the… Great Decay? I think that’s what it’s called? Anyway, that’ll save me a lot of time.

“What happened?”

“Well, we-”

And then a familiar feeling came over me as everything stopped moving. I tried to speak but my mouth couldn’t move. I tried to breathe but my lungs wouldn’t respond.

Time was frozen once again.

I wonder, could Tyler feel this too? Did he feel the effects of stopped time the same as I did? We are both from another world. I believe Canvas said something about a stat of mine being awakened since I was reincarnated, so Tyler should be able to feel this the same as I can.

The only question is… why is time frozen?

“Time is frozen because you’ve been very naughty,” a familiar voice said from right beside me.

I couldn’t move my head to fully see who it was, but I didn’t really need to did I? Although she’s definitely not talking in my head anymore. This feels more like-

“I’m standing right next to you?” Canvas said, finishing my sentence.

So why is time frozen? I asked. You saying I was being naughty isn’t an explanation in the slightest.

“I guess not, huh? Well, not for an idiot anyway,” Canvas said as she moved into my line of sight. “And you’re not an idiot, so I’ll let you have a little more time to piece it together.”

As she said this, she began patting my head. As her hand touched my hair it moved only in response to being touched, freezing in place a second after her hand stopped touching it.

Because I asked Tyler to tell me about earth, right? I thought.

“There, see? I knew you weren’t an idiot,” Canvas said. “I know I left Tyler to him, but I didn’t expect he’d just forgo the mind wiping entirely. How troublesome…”

Who are you talking about?

“You’ll find out when the time’s right and not a moment sooner,” she responded before walking over to Tyler.

She began stroking his head in a similar manner to mine as she spoke to him in a voice too soft for me to hear. She then walked back over to me.

“Oh and Oliver, if you keep trying to find out about your time on earth during the Great Decay, I’ll simply kill you,” she said nonchalantly. “And don’t be foolish enough to think something like ‘come and try it’, because with an invitation like that I might take you up on the offer.

“The only source of information I’ll allow you to have about earth during that time is that book you were looking at earlier. Although as you already know, you can’t really read it, can you?”

So she’s barring me from being able to learn about what happened-

“-except, through the memories I’ve already promised to slowly return to you,” she said. “And if you want to get your hands on that book again, don’t worry. Your new friend Marion has it. I’m sure if you ask her she’ll give it to you, but I can’t exactly speak for other people.

“With that I’ll have to bid you two adieu,” Canvas said as she moved to a position in between the two of us. “I hope we can all meet again for tea sometime, but for now I get that you have other problems.”

Then both me and Tyler dropped to the ground as our breathing resumed and Canvas disappeared all in a single moment.

“Urg…” Tyler mumbled as he got up. “Stupid Canvas… who does she think she is, my mom? Wait… is she my mom?!?”

“I think that’s a bit of a stretch, Tyler,” I said as I rose to my feet.

“Hmm? Uh… sure thing, Oliver…”

Why does he sound like he doesn’t believe me? Whatever…

“Can we… take a little break from our fight?” I asked.

“Heh… weakling, I can’t believe you need a break just because time stopped,” he said. “But I’ll allow it since we’re old friends.”

We stood there for a moment as we let Canvas’s threats sink in and our breathing gradually returned to normal.