Dxd: Master Of Shadows - Volume 2 Chapter 12 12
“Lionheart Sword Ar-”
“STOP NAMING YOUR ATTACKS!”
A gigantic, yes, eagle-lion stopped my upcoming attack, it was talking and mean. I never really understood myself why I had to call out the names of the attack but dad told me to do so regardless.
“Tell that to my dad!”
I dodged him with no effort, my [EX Mana Burst] gave me not only increased defenses, but speed and strength as well. The eagle-bird had a slight pause in his dives whenever he missed and my [EX Instinct] takes that as a chance.
“Slash!”
I took the stick in my hands and used the new technique I learned, [Burst Boost] it’s essentially using [EX Knight of Owner] and [EX Mana Burst] at the same time just before I launch an attack, it makes surprising power spikes and well, it’s less stress on my nearly endless mana pool. My stick, heh, glowed black and then got covered by a purple aura just before it sliced through the head of the eagle-lion.
“KYYYY-!”
“You’re my dinner now!”
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I ate the newly roasted, eagle-lion that weirdly tasted like chicken. I’ve figured out the to make the beast here not disappear into motes of light, you have to cut the head off, my dad is either an idiot or he wants me to get on to something with all the decapitation.
“Umu.”
A sudden inspiration came before me, I’ve been thinking of what the annoying eagle-lion said before and it stuck to my head.
“I need a new way of fighting…”
The Lionheart Arts were cool and all but the way I had to call the names of my moves as I do them is more disadvantageous than useful, why? Well, aside from giving them an idea of what my attack will be, it’ll also just straight up cost me time to launch the attack. Now, why don’t I just not name the attack? Because, my father will hit me for it. Solution? Make my own.
I laid back down with a burp, I tried thinking of what’s a good base for my attacks. The Lionheart Arts has a new set of moves per weapon but they all base off from a lunge, maul, claws, bite, claws, add a cool exaggerated title and then boom! You got an attack.
“It’s a complet-”
[EX Instinct] say get up and roll back!
A wild bear-lion appeared!
A brown, 8 meter bear with a lion’s head came charging at my previous position in fours. It had…a weirdly soft and smooth looking mane that sparkles, other than that, it’s hands were…swell, a body building bear if you will.
“Does this place run out of weird ass horrifying lion chimeras?”
I picked up a stick from the bonfire I started, it wasn’t all burnt up yet and the length was pretty fine for a stab to the head, I wasn’t planning to eat it, so just anything works. I used [EX Mana Burst] and purple particles, which I found out to actually be mana in the air joining with the mana I secrete from my body, my mana was a weird red and natural mana had a look of blue, primary color 101 you get violet/purple, kapish?
“Lionhe- never mind! Pierce!”
Within 1 second I was already beside the bear, within 2 seconds, I already used [Burst Boost] and within 3 seconds the bear had a gigantic hole in it’s head, I don’t understand battles where they start and talk to themselves about what move and stuff, my [EX Instinct] picks out the best course of action and I perform as what’s shown.
I landed beside the bear who’s now turning into motes of light without even knowing how it died, sighed and lied back down again. I needed a new style, I wasted a fraction of a second about to say ‘Lionheart Arts’ and battle rule 101, every moment counts in a battle, I closed my eyes and tried to find an inspiration.
“What’s the strongest beast I found in this place…it can only be that dino-lion now, can it?”
I tried searching for a dinosaur in my mind’s expansive knowledge, you interact with them the same as my [EX Instinct], windows, but they were all knowledge, some views of stuff but mostly knowledge. I found out that each of them were locked and only when I see something for the first time would the locks disappear and I can know about that thing, if it was in my mind’s…err, mind library, yeah I’m calling it that [Mind Library].
I found myself at the usual place, it was a normal room with, like, billions of 3 meter book shelves, if I thought of a certain fact and it was there, a book would float into my hands and I can automatically know what it was, I didn’t have to read the book, I’d just know, but I can read the book and fish out specific information. I did just this with the topic of Dinosaurs.
“Dino- Dino…huh? Cool, what’s that dino-lion was based off…”
I knew what the basic information about dinosaurs were, but there was like…how many different types? 700 or more? I continued flipping through the pages and found a certain familiar looking one, Tyrannosaurus Rex, it was technically the most similar one but, do I have to say it? After reading about the T-Rex for a bit, I went back to reality because an idea popped up.
“Basically, the dino-lion was a T-Rex or based on it, but he didn’t have the tiny front nor was he a reptile. He was technically a dinosaur but larger, can use mana, had a lion’s head, and the way he fights was using his paws(?) in sudden intervals”
I walked into the forest and got myself a somewhat normal sword length branch. It was a little lighter but I can’t exactly complain, I held the sword in a standard knight stance and slowly fixed it, I’m scrapping the Lionheart Arts for a bit, it was an adaptive form of fighting and so it actually has no stance, much like a lion…like, really.
Anyways, I held the stick in what I would assume as the hilt, my left hand was at the bottom bit and my right was at the top bit with a little bit of leeway in the middle, my right foot was behind my left and the sword was positioned in front of me, right at the center, a little to my abdomen but wide enough that my arms were outstretched and flexible for sudden movement.
“A grounded stance, to block or to deflect? Do I need to dodge? No, I’m grounded so no wide dodging”
A block would cause me to pause my movements after the action, and a deflect would give me a chance to counter, dodging would only be in small amounts. So to deflect is the point, to deflect and counter, I formed an imaginary opponent in my mind and closed my eyes, it was my dad.
“Like a Rex, grounded, moving with only a few movements and using the head, the sword to strike the most”
My imaginary dad went and attacked me, it was a downward slash and I moved the sword slightly to the side, a perfect deflect, and a quick strike.
TING!
I blocked using the flat of the blade and pushed him slightly, making him open unless he quickly adjusted, orange sparks came from me and my body bulged with muscles, my right foot behind me was my main feet and using it I propelled my self forward, fast and straight, [Burst Boost], [EX Mana Burst] and a sudden flash of purple came from me as I did a downward slash, I opened my eyes and exhaled.
“That’s a lot of damage…”
In front of me was the forest, well it was one. Now it’s just another empty barren wasteland, the stick in my hand also bit the dust, or became one, a strong counter to punish reckless mistakes.
A predator baiting the prey and attacking after the prey makes a mistake, using leg power, momentum and the power of the weak point to launch an attack that can either spell dead or cripple.
Umu.
“A completely useless way of fighting…”
I mean why the f.u.c.k would I ground myself and stay to take attacks? WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND IS THAT MASOCHISTIC?! I sighed and relaxed myself, now that I think about it.
“It’s not that useless, maybe if I’m fighting in a closed area or if the enemy does not know of my true ability or underestimates me, it’s also a way to force the enemy to reveal life saving skills…yeah it isn’t THAT bad, since I based it off the dino-lion…which was based of a Tyrannosaurus Rex…should I call it, Rex Form?”
Umu.
I have probably the worst naming sense in the entire planet, now, I shall sleep. [EX Instinct] works even when I’m not awake, it’s instinct after all. After this, I’m going full on madman against these annoying pests.
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*2 years later*
A orange haired, black armored, individual was surrounded by 70 different beasts, all with gargantuan sizes and ferocious looking…heads. But contrary to what was expected, the boy didn’t run, he stood his ground and had a particular look on his eyes, it was dead. A dead and empty looking eyes that instilled fear to the 70 beasts that surround him, all of them were hesitating despite his weapon being only a piece of stick that was a little too large for his height of 5’0, he was a solid 8 year old but various elements and…modification made him grow just a little bit faster than normal.
The beasts encircled him slowly, like waiting for the movement of an arch-nemesis ex-student who used to be the chosen one, Anak-, anyways. One mighty beast, it had the head of a lion and the body of a boar, around 9 meters, charged first. It’s leg muscles showed power and the weirdly out of place tusks in it’s face were sharp and big.
“I can’t wait for you any longer! Boy! Show me your pride!”
It continued charging to the empty looking boy and just as it was about to pierce him, the boy turned to face him, the stick got covered with purplish aura and the right side of his tusk was used to move him slightly out of course, the boar-lion quickly tried to turn around after the deflection but found itself unable to move. The other beasts looked at the boar-lion’s head that was cleanly decapitated, and the boy who was already back at his previous position, they all had one thought.
“This boy is strong, let’s charge at him!”
Beasts are dumb. Keep that in mind.
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*Victor Slaughter Pov*
My [EX Instinct] was running on auto-pilot and continued to show me the best course of action to do, it took into account my now essential Rex Form, it was basically the perfect match. An instinct and a form that was about deflecting and countering, I already did the moves in my head and everything was mechanical, in a sense.
I angered about 70 beasts of large sizes, if anybody else was in my situation, they’d be scared to shit-land. After the boar-lion charged at me, I deflected it’s attack and did a super fast counter, it was only possible because of [Burst Boost] plus the new skill I learned [EX Giant Beast Hunt]
The voice told me about the skills, he still doesn’t talk to me but just says something like ‘Hey, that’s a skill called this’ and something like that.
Anyways, after doing my counter, I faced back and to my surprise…all of them charged at me! 69 beasts, heh, charged at me all larger than the last, this is what made me develop that new skill, gigantic monsters left and right. I full-throttled [EX Instinct] and it showed me killing 69 beast in 138 seconds, 2 seconds for each monster, the first one came, an all familiar bear-lion it tried to slash me but I quickly deflected it to another monster and sliced it’s back, the next one came and I continued deflecting and countering for a total of 2 minutes against monsters larger than a house.
Left, right, front, back, all sides were protected, none escaped, one hit to the next, deflect and spend no less that a second to counter, a mantis-lion, bear-lion, boar-lion, rhino-lion, eagle-lion, hippopotamus-lion, cheetah-lion, gorilla-lion and many others. All with different ways of attacking, all recorded, memorized and counters are mechanically repeated whenever encountered, the pinnacle of Rex Form, to memorize and to perform, all in the shortest amount of time possible and the most adequate amount of power.
After the onslaught was over, my dead looking eyes became sparkling shiny again! Yey!
And then I fell. Fatigue was awesome, it made me wash myself after laying down in a pool or rather, a sea of blood, it was slightly warm, sticky, stinky. But relaxing once you get used to it after maybe the 7th or 9th time?
“It sucks to be me, I can’t get out of this place until I beat the 4 boss monsters, the only safe place is the plain grasslands and the only place I’ve actually spent time on is this, the east forests…”
I stood back up started walking away, most of the monster already became motes of light but those that were unluckily decapitated stayed the way they were. The motes of light aren’t worth jack shit when you kill them one by one, so I took the habit of gathering a few monsters then massacring them so it was at the very least 0.9% of improvement, that’s what the light does, they improve me by a little amount. A cool thing but useless if you don’t really improve.
I took a normal walk in the park, yes it was a park to me now. The threat of the monsters were nearly non-existent after fighting them for a total of 2 years, what? You want to know what happened these past 2 years?
I nearly died against 12 different gigantic beasts for a total of 43 times until I got a skill that allowed me to kill them, that was [EX Gigantic Beast Hunt] it’s a cool skill that came from killing something larger than 4 meters, is it useful anywhere else? No, I don’t think so.
Anyways, Rex Form improved by leaps and bounds, it became the bread and butter of me and my [EX Instinct] and anything that I encountered got killed by muscle memory, yes, killing something became muscle memory, I should get a skill for that but I guess it all counts towards [EX Instinct]. [Burst Boost], unlike my other [Skills] was ‘self made’ so it had no ‘EX’ or grade in it, I learned several other skills, all with a natural benefit to my current style of fighting, [EX Knowledge of Melee Combat] it’s a skill I got for continuous 1 against many types of fight, it just makes me better at managing against many enemies, [EX Protection of God] I don’t know how I got this but the voice told me I had it, makes me stronger than normal and my brain faster than normal, it’s always on, [EX At the Boundary] it allows me to kill something in one hit, I don’t know the specifics but as long as I’m way stronger, it would always be 100% against a weaker opponent.
I met the dino-lion once or twice, he kept trying to fight me but, how could I, the king of retreats fight a losing battle? Hah, I don’t and that’s the joke. Other than those, Tigress never showed herself and I’ve been meeting against weirder creatures at the grassland, a fish with a lion head, a reptile with dragon head or sometimes a shelled creature with a lion head, they all had a lion’s head. An example of that would be right now, a weird octopus-lion is squiggling it’s way to me just after I exited the east forests.
“O-Oh! You…you are stronger now, young master!”
I stared at the squiggling bundle of creepiness and slowly nodded my head, it looks excited and in a good mood so I’ll humor it.
“Young master? I’m sure you mean ‘Coward Boy!’ or something like that, right?”
The octopus wiggled and shook it’s head adamantly, it then came closer to me and placed a tentacle to my shoulders, did I mention how it’s actually 7 meters big? No? Well, sucks for your imagination huh.
“I’m here because Tigress has found a way to bamboozle us all! She escaped this place and got outside!”
I narrowed my eyes at the shocking reveal it told me, was it a lie? Was it a trick to make me lose composure and guard? I had all these thoughts in my head until her next words.
“Now all of us are being oppressed by our respective kings! All except the ones in the east, he is a rather carefree one from the start, but ours, the south, the west and the north all became tyrants! I was tasked by my brethren to ask you to help us! We know how strong you are, considering you survived against the strongest of the four for 2 years! You only need a few more years before you can fight against ou-”
I grabbed the octopus by it’s head and killed it. Yeah, sorry but for all my experience in this place, no monsters are good. This octopus probably thought it can bait me to their territory and get one up on me, but sorry octodude, I’m fool proof.
“Next time you try to trick me, make sure you don’t say the same thing as the previous guys”
I went away and continued back to a temporary house I’ve built on the grasslands, it was comfy and more similar to a cottage but there were no pillows.
No pillows until I found a sheep-lion along with the eagle-lion and bear-lion’s feathers and mane respectively, I got the greatest pillow ever.
“Seriously though, what sort of bullshit lies can you make that you’d think Tigress escaping this place was considered even remotely believable, oh wait…”
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*1 year ago, a certain part of the east forest*
“GYAHAHA! We meet again, boy!”
The stupid dino-lion saw me sneaking around and immediately charged at me, thanks to [EX Instinct] those things don’t really work on me, well the first moment it doesn’t but the only weakness of instinct was something faster than what you can perceive.
“You might feel, but can you react as fast?”
“Nop-!”
I got hit and flew a meters up, since when did this guy learn to upperpaw?! I tried to fix myself and land properly but he was already behind me by then, how is something this big, this fast?!
“Oh C’m-”
CRASH!
I started coughing out blood, the last hit definitely broke something, but I continued to try and escape once more. [EX Battle Continuation] was completely perfect technique for one who is named the king of retr-
“Now, I really think the word coward fits you a lot eh, boy?”
“I’m retreating, a tactical retreat! You can’t win a fight against a stronger opponent, pushing so would make you a fool!”
“Doing so would both be foolish and brave, foolish because to throw your life at death is something bad, but brave enough because you can entertain that thought and eventually do it”
I continued running while the darn thing kept chasing just right behind me.
“Why are you still after me?! Why don’t you chase someone else like Tigress or some shit!”
“Hm? Tigress is planning something, we can’t find that stinky Guider. Next thing we know, she’s probably already outside, planning to kill Master Lake”
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*Back to the present*
Umu.
“I guess…octopuses don’t….lie?”
I said the last part with a wry smile. Looks like I’ll have to visit some other den soon, and maybe say sorry to the family of that poor brave octopus! You have my respect, brave War Hero Octo-Lion!
“On second thought, I wonder what dad did to Tigress”
I shrugged and continued my nap, bathing was not important, I’d get plenty of them tomorrow at the south den of seas, it’s also probably his fault anyways, my dad is a major d.i.c.k sometimes.
