Go Big To Go Home: A Kaiju-Fighting Isekai LitRPG (Book 1 Complete!)

Since it was Saturday, the orphans at the Cloudscraper Nursery weren't attending lessons, so Mikayla was confident that they wouldn't be interrupting anything important by going to find Shao.

Sure enough, they found a cluster of children in the vegetable garden next to the orphanage, under Fuchsia's watchful eye. Mikayla's focus immediately fell on the orange-skinned child she'd grown so attached to, and found that Shao was focused on a metal bucket full of fire.

"Finished!" Shao called, carrying the bucket over to a small trough and dumping its contents - a clump of ashes - into a larger trough.

"Ooh, what's all this?"

Shao gasped, spinning and beaming up at Mikayla. "Hi!" Mikayla crouched and offered a hug, and Shao gleefully ran into her arms, snuggling. "We're making fertiliser!"

"Cool!" Other children, wearing gloves, were mixing the ashes in the trough with water and something smelly. Mikayla grinned and rubbed Shao's horns. "Is this for the garden?"

"Uh-huh. Miss Fuchsia said she wanted me to use fire to make things grow. Seems dumb but also it's working,"

"Mm-hm. We had a lot of stuff like that back in my home country. I'll tell you all about it sometime," Mikayla promised her. "But I've got good news!"

"Yeah?"

"Behold!" Mikayla hammed it up, throwing her hands into the air and releasing a burst of lightning.

She tried not to preen as Shao gasped. "You got a Needan too!"

"Neidan," Nya corrected her, but this was drowned out by the other children abandoning their tasks and crowding around her.

"Lightning?"

"That's awesome!"

"So much better than lame old dirt!"

"Is not!"

"Is too!"

"Well, fire's the best but lightning is almost as good!" Shao interrupted.

Half a dozen of her peers all retorted, "Nuh-uh!"

"Ahem," Mikayla tried to interrupt the brewing squabble, but in that moment something clicked inside her body. A gurgle rose up from her guts and a wave of sound left her skin, the crashing noise of distant thunder coming right out of her flesh and drowning out everything the children were saying.

There was a moment of silence.

A little girl's pointing finger flung up and accused, "You just farted thunder!"

"Ew!"

"Gross!"

"But awesome!"

"I did not!" Mikayla protested. "Look, it's all about clouds and lightning. Check this out!" She pressed her hands to her shoulders and expelled Mans in the form of clouds, then spread her arms behind her, concentrating on forming a veil of clouds between them. She released the magic and did a little pirouette. "How does my cape look?"

Shao giggled, and Mikayla looked back to find that her 'cape' had stayed in place rather than twirl with her, and was already disintegrating. "No? Nothing? Star it. I'll keep working on it,"

"What's going on over here?" Fuchsia joined the group, looking around inquisitively.

"Mikayla got a Needan!" Shao filled her in.

Mikayla demonstrated by conjuring a ball of clouds.

"Oh? I see, I see," Fuchsia grew an impish grin. "Would you like to try out the training we use for the children with Neidans?"

Shao's eyebrows shot up and she bounced on her feet. "Do it, do it!"

"Oh yeah? Sure," Mikayla grinned. A play course for kids with superpowers? She'd have to make sure she didn't make it look too easy.

<=====}—o

The course was a pile of haphazard gym equipment, training dummies with angry faces drawn on them, ending at a cluster of targets. Lines of runes carved into what looked like cinderblocks lined the course, and inquiring about them taught her that they were designed to block any stray shots before they could hit the audience.

Notably, they only affected Mana projectiles. And Mikayla had concerns about the children, who were snatching piles of what looked like crude tennis balls from a large bucket.

Still, she was acutely aware of not just Shao, but Nya and Keldryn watching her. She couldn't back out now.

So Mikayla charged into the obstacle course. It . . well, it was built for children. There were barriers that she could just step over, dummies that would be toppled even by a normal one of her punches, no Neidan needed. She hammed it up, putting on a bit of a show of struggle for the benefit of Shao and the other kids.

But her suspicions were aroused when the track led her to a long, open stretch with no visible obstacles.

"This bit's for defence practice!" Shao helpfully shouted at her. "You're supposed to stand there and let yourself get hit!"

"What?" Mikayla twisted, casting a disbelieving look at the peanut gallery. "Why would you -"

A ball whacked into the side of her head, and Shao doubled over laughing.

". . You little shit," Mikayla muttered, rubbing her head as she regained her balance.

"Keep moving forwards! Either dodge or use your Neidan to intercept the strike!" Fuchsia offered actual advice.

"Right!" Another ball came flying at her, and Mikayla focused on projecting a cloud around her arm to catch it.

The cloud did absolutely nothing to stop the ball from slamming into her wrist.

"I don't think my powers are very good at defence,"

"Then dodge!" Keldryn added, and even though she wasn't looking in his direction Mikayla could just

see

the 'you're-an-idiot' look on his face.

She rushed forwards, bobbing and weaving, relishing the muscle mass that had been built up by several months of Cloudscraper's training program and the superhuman power that the System had packed into her body.

Another ball came flying at her. Remembering the feeling of the thunder escaping her body, she channeled that power, letting waves of brackish sound emerge from her palm.

This also did absolutely nothing to stop the ball from hitting her.

She was clearly doing

something

wrong. Unfortunately, she had no idea what.

For the next ball that came her way, she fell back on releasing a burst cone of red lightning, since it at least could do something. Scorching energy wrapped around the little leather ball and burnt it black in squiggly patterns.

While this still didn't stop it from hitting her, having damaged it so obviously for the transgression made her feel a little bit better.

After several minutes, she finally made it out of the area marked for self-defence and into what looked like a shooting range. "Hit the targets!" Shao somewhat unnecessarily commanded.

Mikayla nodded, raising her hands and releasing a burst of electricity.

A bolt of red lightning flew past a wooden target, and she cursed. Several more followed, each equally ineffective, until by sheer chance one of them hit and mildly singed the target.

"It doesn't count unless you knock them over!" one of the other children taunted.

Gritting her teeth, Mikayla decided to try something else. She cupped her hands together, focusing the electricity into a ball, then swivelled her palms and cast it outwards with a surge of Mana.

It made it halfway to the target before collapsing in a burst of red light.

"Good try!" Fuchsia called. "Weave your Mana tighter, so that it can hold its form better once it's separated from you!"

Gritting her teeth, Mikayla nodded and focused harder, forming another ball of sparks and compressing it, making it twist itself into knots, bending back around itself over and over again. After a minute of charging it up like so, she cast it outwards.

This time it flew across the distance and detonated on impact, blasting the target into charred splinters.

"Yes! I got it!" Mikayla whooped, bouncing on her heels and doing a small victory dance.

A ball hit her in the face.

"Jiang! That was very naughty!" Thankfully, Fuchsia was already disciplining the little brat who'd thrown it before Mikayla could do something impulsive that she'd regret later. "No more balls for you!"

<=====}—o

Another week passed.

Despite his promises, Sekki had been absent from class on Monday, and Geum had vanished too on Tuesday. Mikayla, Keldryn and Nya had all agreed to keep quiet about what had happened in Leishun - no one appreciated gossip-mongering - but their classmates had picked up on the fact that there was a story afoot.

Well. Mostly Banki. The tigerkin had proven herself to be

quite

the curious cat, and Mikayla had quickly grown very sick of being bugged for the details.

Geum and Sekki were back in class on Wednesday, and a morose Sekki had confided in the class that they'd been away to attend his mother's funeral. The expression on his face had convinced even Banki not to pry any deeper than that.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

However, Geum had been even colder to Mikayla than before.

Another week brought another Friday, another combat exercise. But Mikayla had been looking forward to this one. Not because she knew what they were fighting today, but because this was her first chance to really see what her new Neidan could do.

She'd practiced with it, of course.

Nocturnus had not been happy with the change, despite having encouraged it in the past. Her new storm-attuned Mana apparently made him feel like insects were biting him all over. Fortunately, a bit of experimentation had given her a way to let some of her Mana bypass the filter of her Neidan and flow out in its raw, pure state to use with her Cores.

Allis had been particularly intrigued by her new powers, but Mikayla had suffered an irritating setback in her Engraving lessons - Storm Mana was more erratic and harder to control than her basic Mana had ever been, which wrought havoc on the sensitive components of an Engraving table. Focusing on only using her raw Mana made things easier, but that was an added issue to juggle when using an Engraving Table already took herculean levels of precise focus. She'd need more points in Willpower in the near future.

For today's exercise, they had been split into 'random' groups of three and tasked with taking down a Kaiju in what the Huntsman called a 'simulated ambush'. Which basically boiled down to their groups being dropped into an arena with a ferocious monster and tested on how they killed it.

Mikayla was skeptical about the randomness of their groups based on the fact that Sekki and Geum had been kept together and Treft - arguably the best choice in the class as their third - had joined them. No one had been at all surprised that Treft quite casually contained a Bonespur Muskrat for long enough that Geum, amplified with Sekki's enhancement spells, delivered a coup de grace.

"Good work," the Huntsman grunted as the three of them returned to the stands. "Group 2, you're up,"

Group 2 was Mikayla, Lydia and Kaizen. In all honesty, Mikayla felt good about this party. Despite his eccentricity, Kaizen was a skilled attacker, and Lydia was a close friend who she trusted to watch her back. Their skillsets were quite nicely balanced between offence, defence and ranged support.

"So! Standard pattern, yeah? I'll get the monster's attention and keep it busy, Kaizen inflicts pain, Lydia keeps it distracted and off-balance,"

Lydia had already outstretched an arm and summoned Ivory. The hardlight hawk let out an affirming squawk, and its owner nodded. "Sounds good,"

"The seasons cycle, though the wrath of the heavens has now been invoked. The chronicler leads, autumn's blade shall thus be swung, and the cloak arise,"

"Well, that was . . poetic and unhelpful. But as long as you know what to do it's whatever," Mikayla nodded.

They made their way into the valley, searching for any sign of their foe. Every rustle in the foliage drew the eye, every fallen leaf caught in the wind had a sword pointed at it.

It kind of defeated the purpose of 'ambush training' if they knew the ambush was coming . . but then again, maybe the point of the exercise was to teach them to always act as though they expected to be ambushed when out in the wilderness.

On balance, it was kind of humiliating that, despite how prepared they thought they were, the monster still surprised them.

Kaizen let out a panicked yelp as the ground parted under their feet and dragged him in. Lydia grabbed his hand, her wings spreading as she tugged him into the air, straining against what looked like an animated tree root. She flapped furiously but was just about able to support his weight.

This left Mikayla as the easiest target, and she'd only just started to swell towards full size when what she'd taken for a hill grew orange eyes and a massive mouth under her feet. What she now realised was an extended tongue let go of Kaizen's ankle and turned on her.

"Heel Propulsion!" A blast of Stamina got her out of range, and she finished sizing up as she focused on the massive Toad, who seemed to have trees growing out of its back.

And then it

fired off its trees like missiles.

Lydia screamed in shock, unable to dodge with Kaizen weighing her down. A projectile brimming with foliage crashed into her, sending them both tumbling into the undergrowth.

"What the hell?!" Mikayla spluttered, forcing the Black Knight's bulk to dodge first one, then two more. She swayed unsteadily, burning a chunk of Stamina to momentarily strengthen the Mana-crafted muscles and steady herself. "Shouldn't toads be doing poison damage or something?"

Fresh trees were already growing out of the Kaiju's warty scalp, and it let out a

ribbit

that made the ground shake. Its tongue lashed out, but bounced off her shield.

Mikayla took the chance to charge in, doing her job as the party tank and occupying the monster's attention. It stood up, massive and powerful legs lifting its vulnerable eyes high up, out of her reach unless she grew further - and she couldn't do that, not without revealing her Armour Core was illegally lacking in a size limit.

But that didn't matter. She'd resolved to test out her Neidan today, not to use the things she already knew worked.

Throwing her arms up, storm clouds billowed out of her arms, exhausting themselves to spit lightning at the Toad's eyes and nostrils. Its jaw opened like a giant flap, expelling a gust of wind that dispersed her clouds and knocked the Black Knight backwards.

Several small and sharp feathers flew from behind her, Lydia's work, scattering across the Toad's face and forcing it to close its eyes. The trees on its back bristled, preparing to fire again.

A sudden thought struck Mikayla. Trees tended to function as lightning rods.

She channeled her Mana through her arms, and ominous red stormclouds that crackled with electricity flowed into the air above her. The Black Knight acted as a dispersal system, rapidly engulfing the Toad. The lightning discharged, soaking into the monster's skin with the smell of charred meat.

Another thunderous ribbit sounded, but a wave of autumnal light heralded Kaizen's approach. He slashed at the air, launching blades of rusty energy that carved furrows into the toad's face. It let out a furious croak, trying to round on the samurai, but Mikayla shoved her shield into its face before it could prepare a counterattack. She electrified her Mana, red lightning flowing through her weapons and burning the frog's flesh.

It twisted, its stumpy arm clawing at her, but she blocked the strike with the flat of her blade and then struck, severing the limb. Another salvo of trees was spat from its back, but Lydia rejoined the party, deflecting them away from Mikayla so that she could keep pouring electricity into the toad's smoking body.

At long last, its struggles weakened, and Mikayla capitalised. Her shield's edge found the frog's mouth and she forced it open, twisting her sword and stabbing into the roof of its mouth. A blast of electricity flowed down the length of her sword, soaking into the monster's body and frying it from the inside out.

[YOU HAVE EARNED XP POINTS FOR KILLING A FERNFIRE FROG!]

The corpse went slack, and Mikayla pulled her arm free, grateful that the muck would all slide off when she dismissed her Armour. "Definitely my signature move . . why . ."

"If you begrudge it so, then stop doing it," Nocturnus chided her.

"I'd like to, but it keeps

working,"

<=====}—o

Mikayla returned triumphantly, to cheers and polite applause from several of her classmates. "Yes, yes, I know, I'm awesome," She tried not to preen and failed.

Keldryn just offered a knowing smile, which Mikayla took offence to. "And just what are you smiling about?"

"I can see the look in your eyes. It's how my father used to look when he told me hunting stories," He paused, his ears flicking upwards mirthfully. "You've decided that fighting is fun,"

Mikayla flushed. "I - I have not! I just . . appreciate the finer points of magic use, that's all!"

"Enough back-patting," the Huntsman cleared his throat. "Group three, your turn,"

Ah, yes. That was the other reason that Mikayla doubted the teams for today's exercise were truly random.

Because was it

really

a coincidence that Nya, Sendo and Irin were all being forced to fight together?