Ascension: Online

Swiftly moving from tree to tree, I made it to where Hina-nee and the others were in no time.

"Kaze-kun!" She cried upon seeing me, with tears in her eyes. "I thought you…"

"Took everything I had to prevent her from jumping into the water and going after you," Furuwa muttered, shooting me a glare. "Don't scare us like that next time."

"I couldn't really help it, but…" I turned to the massive turtle-like creature in the distance. "That's the Tier VII Magic Beast we have to slay, I'm assuming?"

"Actually, it's a Monster," Monica said, correcting me. "I don't know how you survived that just now, by the way, but that's not the point. Look at the creature closely. See anything out of the ordinary?"

"Ah, now that you mention it… there's some sort of dark, purple energy being emitted from its body. Its really faint, but I can see it," I replied, focusing my gaze on the beast in the distance.

"That's called Malevolence," Monica explained. "It dictates whether or not a creature is a Monster."

Hm… just like what is written in the System. I see.

"So, how do we take it down?" Ming Yi asked, jumping into the conversation.

"I know." Koroth, who somehow managed to survive as well, raised his hand.

"Uh… are you okay, standing in the water like that?"

He nodded. "I have… tougher skin than most people."

Oh, right… because he's a demon…

"Uh… I see. So you said you knew how to beat that thing?" I prompted him to continue.

He nodded. "That Monster used to be a Magic Beast quite commonly found in… er, my homeland. Its name is the Land Turtlez, and its normally the size of a hand. That thing right there… has mutated beyond control."

"Uh, yeah, we can see that, thanks," Mei'Er said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

"The normal way to kill Turtlez is to drown them in water, but…" Koroth trailed off.

"Wait, drown them?" I interjected. "Can't they breathe underwater?"

"You're thinking of Water Turtlez," Koroth replied. "Land Turtlez can't."

"Huh…"

So they're different from turtles back on Earth, then…

I could tell from Hina-nee, Furuwa, and Nadeshiko's eyes that they were thinking the same thing, but none of us spoke out loud about it.

"Well… that's a bit of a problem," I muttered, trying to think of a plan. "Where are we going to find the water we need to drown something that bi… oh, wait."

I glanced down at all the water the creature had pumped out earlier, then smiled.

"Wait, Kaze, don't tell me you're trying to…" Mei'Er trailed off as she realized what I was going to try to do.

"What? It has the perfect weapon to kill itself. It would be a shame if we didn't use it."

"Uh… that's good and all, but how are actually going to pull that off?"

"Simple," I said, smirking deviously. "We use the other teams as bait to distract it. Hopefully, they will annoy it enough to make it trigger another flood. And when it does… this whole place will overflow. We'll still be safe on the trees, but if we can just kick the Turtlez downhill, somehow…"

"That won't work. Someone will need to trick it into following them…" Ming Yi murmured, then turned to me.

I stared back at him like 'you're kidding, right?', but he didn't waver.

"I'll do it," Hina-nee interjected. "Kaze-kun, just sta-"

"No, no, no. You are not doing it," I firmly denied. "I am faster and possess more skills to help me escape."

"But-"

"No buts. Actually… Ming Yi, why don't you do it?" I smirked, turning to the person who had originally wanted me to do it.

"Uh… you're faster than me though?" He laughed awkwardly.

"Perhaps. But not by much. You're more than fast enough, I've seen you in action."

"… Well, that's fair. I'll give it a shot."

I nodded in satisfaction. "Alright, listen closely. Hina-nee, you and I will turn invisible and set up a tripwire between two trees leading downhill. That way, once the Monster starts chasing Ming Yi, it will end up tripping on the wire and tumble down the hill straight into his own water."

"How will we find material hard enough to withstand that Monster's rampage, though?" Hina-nee asked. "Just rope won't work."

"Hm…" I opened up my inventory and swept my gaze through its contents. Then, my gaze landed on an item drop I had obtained from the Magic Beasts I killed yesterday.

[Name: Cryptostrand]

[Type: Material]

[Description: Thin yet extremely sharp and durable strand of silk. Dropped from Cryptospiders.]

I retrieved it from my inventory and tied it around the trunk of my tree and held it there, then whipped out Dokujin and sliced down.

It didn't work.

"Yeah, I think this is strong enough," I chuckled before putting everything back where they originally were, then turning to the Monster once more. "Now… all we need is a distraction."

Just as I said this, a team of eight people jumped in at the Monster from all sides. I assumed that they had figured out a deal of some sort, since they were cooperating with one another quite well. They seemed to have a plan in mind as well, as they were extremely coordinated.

Two people flew around using hookshots, creating a cage that trapped the Monster inside. However, the massive Turtlez wasn't concerned at all, and instead roared loudly.

"Ngh-!" The group were forced to all plug their ears, lest they began bleeding. We were far away enough to not be affected, luckily.

I turned to Ming Hao and he met my gaze. Exchanging nods, I watched as he stealthily made his way closer to the Monster while it was distracted by the other disciples. Spinning around to face Hina-nee, I pulled out the Cryptostrand and prepared to make our move.

"Let's go."

*****

As Hina-nee and I got closer to the Turtlez, we both used our arts to avoid detection from both the Monster and the other disciples.

'Vanishing Steps.'

Immediately, I felt my body get lighter and quicker. We only a short amount of time before our invisibility wore out, so we had to do this quick. I went over to one tree while Hina-nee went to the other about ten meters apart from one another. I couldn't see her, but I instinctively knew she was there already.

I attempted to wrap the cryptostrand around the tree trunk in front of me, but the Turtlez suddenly roared again. This time, we weren't far away enough to not get hit.

"Gah…" I hurriedly plugged my ears, then turned to the Monster to see it charging up some sort of attack from within its shell.

Not good… he's going to flood again… that's too early!

I swiftly turned back to the tree and threw the cord around it, circling a few times before tossing the other end of the string to Hina-nee, who caught it. It looked weird since from my perspective, the cord was being held in mid-air, but that was just because of the invisibility.

Hina-nee tied a knot on her end just as the invisibility wore off, and she flashed me a thumbs-up. Together, we quickly retreated away up into the trees just in time before-

"GRAHHHHHHHHH!"

-Well, that.

Gallons upon gallons of water shot out of the Turtlez's indestructible shell, flooding the forest even more in an instant. We were still safe up here in the trees, but…

The other disciples who had challenged the Beast were all blown away by this shockwave of energy, leaving Ming Yi alone who had stayed back until now. He threw three shurikens of some sort towards the creature, which cut deep into its tough hide.

"ROAR!" It shouted in anger, immediately turning focus on Ming Yi. The plan was going flawlessly.

Ming Yi, spotting us up on top of the two trees where we laid the trap between, dashed in our direction. The Turtlez followed like a rampaging rhinoceros, strong but stupid.

Ming Yi jumped over the near-invisible string of cryptostrand, before leaping for a tree and holding on for dear life. The Turtlez, however, was not so lucky.

It didn't see the tripwire — a terrible mistake. The cryptostrand cut straight through its feet, which surprised me quite a lot. Losing its momentum, the Monster collapsed forward and began rolling… straight into the ocean that was once a forest.

SPLASH!

As it hit the water, a plash on par with a geyser could be seen, showering all of us and making the armor set I just switched into wet.

"Ugh…" I slowly shook my head to get the water off, then turned to where the Turtlez had fallen in. There were a few bubbles coming out of the location, but they soon disappeared. No other sounds or sign of movement were heard.

Ming Yi slowly made his way up the trunk of the tree and took a deep breath once he was done, before glancing at me and doing a little salute.

"Mission complete."