Labyrinth Expedition #15

“No! You’re not listening to me!” The Ice-Magician screamed, his fingers interlocked with the strands of his head, skull thrown back, screaming at the sky above. The volume of his voice caused the nearby nesting crows to fly away in terror.

“Well that’s easy for you to say!” Akiro shot back, trousers and shoes drenched in water, “You’ve been an Ice-Mage the second you stepped into this world! To make water, you’d just have to let your sculptures melt! I’ve only touched magic not a week ago!”

Takumi’s veins bulge, “You’re just an idiot!” He yelled back, “Your imagination is lacking because the only thing you care about is already known knowledge being applied in practical cases! You ignore starting on your own and instead start upon others instead!”

“What the hell does that do with anything?! Last I checked magic is just magic! There’s nothing more to it!”

“Ahhh! This is going nowhere,” Takumi screamed into his palms, fuming smoke from his ears. Only after he vented out his frustration, he looked up to Akiro, collected, “Let’s try that again.”

Akiro shivered when a cold breeze passed his legs, the soaked fabric making everything underneath incredibly uncomfortable. “Fuck! Fine. Tell me again.”

The magician sighed, holding out his hand, “Magic begins on one point, your [Cast Origin]. The cast origin then is the point where Magic power starts to flow, and when it collects, the [Focus Point] is created, and—”

“--Upon the [Focus Point] will pillars branch out off, with each additional branch becoming proof of a Mage’s Circle rank.” Akiro smiled at the memory, “Takumi is currently a Three-Circle mage, with three branches breaking off from his casted [Focus Point].”

The Assassin looked at the chain freezing against the surface of his skin, but it did not hurt or burn his cells, instead it coated his arm like protective gloves to hold the bone-chilling binding. “To think I’d recreate Takumi’s innate talent– No!-- To think that We both have the same talent!”

Graahhhh!

The monster yanked his hand, ignoring the child it was about to kill, the mother running to take the baby and run away at the opportunity. The monster growled, smoke seething from its eyes, as it drummed against the ground, each footstep pounding against the earth. The undead chimera traversed the distance quite easily, swinging both hands clasped together, like a mace.

“To think that our Focus Points and Cast Origins would be the same– with this!---” Akiro jumped, twisting his body diagonally, the arms narrowly brushing the air against his body. Upside down, he straightened his body, right arm stretched out, index and pinky finger pointing.“[ Ice Magic / Crystallization ]: Arm-mounted Crossbow! Twin shot!”

“The limits are only your imagination and Mana reserves!”

Twang!

The arms of the ice-sculpture retracted, the strong cable of ice propelling two crossbow bolts made of ice being sent down the barrels, lodging itself both into the chimera’s eyes. The coils inside the arrow head went off, hooking inside the brain.“Explode!”

Grahhh!

“I learned that when we fought the Goblin Emperor. Even if your regeneration abilities are strong, you’d have to remove the things inside your skull first! I doubt this thing can take them out, especially when the bolt shafts break!” Akiro smirked, watching the shafts of the sculpted arrows falling off as they melted. He turned to the ground, rolling down to reduce his landing, his right fist held over his left pinky finger.

The space held within the ring slowly swirls, a katana quickly being drawn from the space. In tandem, Akiro spins quickly, not an ounce of inertia wasted, slashing with everything he had.

Shing!

The blue blade slices through the dry flesh, cutting the bone and sinews of the two bones of its forearm; but before the limbs could fall, strings of matter, secured the wound, before more slowly pieced together the cleaved arms.

ppshhh!

“Good, it’s still fast, but the regeneration speed is considerably slower to that of its eyes— approximately anyway.” Akiro jumped, dodging a wave of earth pulsating from the monster’s left foot.

ba-ba-Boom!

“Then the life-vessel is in his brain, probably where the most stitches are. Not surprising as how he gets mad when I target his eyes.” The assassin weaved, the monster’s arms swinging blindly in his general vicinity, “Sharp senses too, even if I’m an assassin. A dead troll is still a troll in the end, I suppose.”

“Then running away is not an option!---” Akiro jumped back far from its range, magic swirling in both hands. “Then I’ll just have to freeze it!--- [ Ice Magic / Crystallization]: Icicle Stocks!”

Whooshhh!

Akiro put his hands together, crouching and slamming them against the ground. From his point to the chimera in front of him, small shards of ice protruded themselves from the ground in waves, quickly crawling to just underneath the monster’s neck— there, it sprouted a tall spire that weaved around the head, locking behind it.

Whiiishhh!

“Guahhh!” The monster groaned aloud, spikes piercing its neck all around, and his hands struggling against the spire– but they too were locked in place by pillars.

The assassin then drew the scythe lying inside the holding space of his ring, flipping it around, dancing with the motions of his weapon. Then, some distance off, Akiro stopped his performance, thrusting with the speartip and slashing twice consecutively afterwards– creating an arrowhead with crossed soaring tails. “[Moonlight Execution-Style: First Quarter]”

Ba-Da-Boom!

The slashes collided with the imprisoned monster, large amounts of dust and ice-fragments being thrown in the air, mixed together and falling like snow. Akiro huffed, muscles aching from the grand attack. “Did that get him?”

But as he asked that rhetorical question, a circle was blown from the smoke, the head of the monster revealed— or what was left of it, and a dark, sinister orb forming where its mouth was. Akiro squinted, seeing the crack done to the orb in place of a troll’s large brain, but his attention was caught by the glowing dark mass quickly growing.

Nnggggggg…….

“I did damage— but self-destruct? No–” He thought, realizion drawing on him, “Shit! A breathe attack!-- [ Ice Magic / Crystallization]: Triangular-Prism—”

Ka-Boom!!!

The black mass imploded, a pillar of black power bursting from the center, a beam of concentrated magic barreling down towards the Assassin and the defense partially evoked. The explosion erupted, quaking the foundations of the city, the blast wave wider than it was concentrated in a single point.

“W-What was that!?” A soldier gasped, tending to Ayama, his hands carefully wrapping a bandage around the hero’s arm.

“M-My f-friend! H-He’s fighting inside the square–”

“A-Another Hero?” The man inferred, the surrounding men spurring to action, rising quickly at his words, “Come to think of it, there was someone protecting us during the battle! Is he the Hero you speak of?”

Ayama smirked, pained and afflicted by the soreness of his body, “Y-Yea– He’s quite the shy type, shadowy-like almost. But you can depend on him.” He groaned, pushing the man’s back, “Go help him, please.”

“O-On it Sir!”

Ayama clutched his side, “That does not sound good, the ominous magic power that has been resonating with me has been uncomfortable. Hiroto, don’t die on me.”

NNggggg—

The ringing was loud, swirling, pounding against his brain. Akiro’s eyes fluttered open, his vision clouded by fine white dust, body broken in numerous places– a few shattered ribs, dislocated fingers instead of unmovable limbs.

The assassin looked at his hands, most of his fingers bent the wrong way, fingernails and skin eroded, bone and muscle exposed in some places– the entire thing stinging quite considerably. “Oww…”

“But it's better than dying…” Akiro groaned, “Not even that worked? Should I have linked the first move?-- No, that wouldn’t have worked either.”

“I need an attack that can destroy the head in one attack, because as long as that orb is connected to the spine— the head will heal from even the smallest matter. [Reaper’s Culling] might decapitate it, but if it does not, then I’d be too helpless to fight afterwards.”

“I need a plan, one that involves me either buying enough time for reinforcements to arrive, or one that will kill that monster in one quick blow— Acho!” He sneezed, the air around him saturated with fine dust, white like snow and tasteless like uncooked dough. “F-Flour? Shit– I should be careful not to light it, or else it’ll explode–”

“Wait!” Akiro gasped, “Explode?” He looked at the bags of flour underneath him, the very items stuffed loosely into large bags for further sorting. “I have an idea.”

“Did that– finally!-- tame him?” The demon groaned exasperated, “I nearly killed him because he was about to destroy one of my finest toys!”

The shrouded being leaned in his chair, tugging at the strings on his fingers, but the shackles that bound his puppet were too strong to completely destroy, so in his movements, he pried its limbs from the spires. However due to the sturdiness of the magic, the giant struggles to lug its own arms around to free its head.

“Well, this is a cumbersome situation.” He complained, crossing his arms, “On the brighter side of things, I still have that breathe attack and I doubt any sane human would approach a giant with a large attack radius.”

The relaxed entity sighed contently, leaning far into the chair. “But in all seriousness, this is an impressively conjured magical seal. Never seen anything like it in the millennium's I’ve lived—”

Whooosh!

“--No! He does not give up!” the demon gasped, shooting upright, hands frantically moving. In the distance, the large cloud of flour and dust erupted, a fast-moving object coming straight for the immobilized creature. “Godsdamn you human! You’re too stubborn for your own good! Lets see if you finally give up after you taste that beam— in entres!!”

“He noticed me already—” Akiro frowned, a large orb of black magic power pulsating in the beast’s maw, smoke seeping on the corners of its lips, “If I fall here– thousands will die!”

The eldritch blast of concentrated magic power pulsated, repeatedly growing larger and smaller, deflating as smaller orbs fired out of it. Magic power hailed like artillery shells.

Blam! Blam!

Akiro squinted, lowering his form, the two orbs grazing the hem of his armor, the surface of the fabric singed, revealing his flesh underneath. The assassin felt the burn even if it barely grazed his clothes.

Shhh!

“Agh! That burns!” The assassin groaned, stepps faltering, staggering as more orbs pelted his location.

Bam! Bam!

But no matter the number, no matter the searing pain, Akiro continued forward even when his sprint turned into a weary run— his body and steps still doing well, the shots burning the majority of his clothes and armor.

However, even will all that, his legs could only take himself so far, but neither was the monster’s mana pool infinite.

“Wheeze— You outta j-juice?!” Akiro taunted the creature, a tendon in his calf torn, the muscles torn, and he was no longer able to move it. His proud smirk angered the monster, and the abomination behind it.

“Y-You! Impudent! Insolent human! You dare disrespect me? Me!? The Seventh Heavenly King– Servant to the Primordial Demon Emperor!” The ringmaster growled, standing with enough anger for the shaded area underneath his feet crumbled to dust.

“You think you’re the shit— just because you can destroy a weak town?” Akiro spoke, his voice transmitted through the seeing orb. “Well, tell you what— I’m Akiro Hiroto! The Hero who’ll send you back to hell where you came from!!”

The demon squinted, pursing his lips, listening as the human kept talking, waiting for enough magic power to gather in its jaws. “I will destroy you…”

Whrrr!

The human looked at the amassing orb, smiling with a glint of victory in his eyes. He stared at the killing blow he was about to receive, glaring daggers through the monster’s eyes.

“----Like I said, your hubris– or the lack thereof– will be your downfall.” Akiro spat, the blood pooling in his stomach pouring out of his mouth, “This is Checkmate!”

The assassin threw both his arms forward, the ring in his left hand flinging a large sack at the orb. As the container burst out its contents, the fine powder ignited from the orb– but it did not just catch light from the flame, but it caved in on itself, a large box of ice encasing the head.

The lack of oxygen causes the mixture to not just burn but to explode– erupting in a firework of viscera and atomized ice-flakes.

Ka-Boom!

The final blow rang loudly, much more powerful than the explosions that came before it, drawing the attention of the men that Ayama had sent.

“O-Over there!” The leader, the foremost man, pointed, “T-The city square! It’s– It’s… beautiful.”

“T-There! In the center! I can see something!”

An ironic description, for a wasteland of ash and blackened stone, scorched from fire and explosions was overshadowed by falling snow-flakes. The source of the sight laid unconscious, barely breathing in the middle of it, just before a monster corpse they can barely recognise.

They rush over to the fallen hero, holding him gently, watching as his breaths turned into soft clouds as he breathed—despite the lack of a cold enough temperature.

“W-We need to find the Healers! There were healers with the Hero’s group! Powerful ones!”

“B-Boss! There’s weapons everywhere!” Another called, holding the rifle Akiro had used. His carelessness with the item caused the leader’s eyes to surge.

“You idiot! That’s obviously his! We can’t treat our Savior’s comrade with disrespect!” He growled, looking around, noticing a scythe and a sword, “You! Take it with you! And don’t drop it. Be careful.”

“Y-Yes sir!”

The leader shook his head, looking at the hero he cradled in his arms, a shining silver object held tightly in his hand. He stared at the item, a long chain attaching itself to what was left of the boy’s waistband.

“An oversized silver locket?”

Meanwhile, the bested mastermind stared at the mirror, blank, buzzing with static. "So...the prophecy was not bogus. There truly are beings being nurtured-- capable of harming our Emperor." He hummed, taking the orb in his hand, crushing it with intense pressure alone.

Crack!

"I'll nip those growing flowers, right in the bud. I swear, that for as long as I live, I will destroy them all!"