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

When Mikayla had first come to Cloudscraper, she'd been asked if she knew anything about the Sendo-Han dispute. She had not, but she had assumed it was some kind of trade war or similar between noble families that had shaped economic, or perhaps legal policy on a national scale. An event similar to the Boston Tea Party, or the Donoghue vs Stevenson case.

The truth was far more personal and more petty; the Sendo-Han Dispute had started two hundred and eighty years ago when a branch of the Sendo family had gone bankrupt and sold off a wide variety of valuable items. The Han patriarch of the time - as this was pre-Yevgenia, back when men were the warriors of the household - had bought a rather valuable tapestry, only for his appraiser to tell him that it was a forgery. The Sendos' own appraiser, though, insisted on its legitimacy. Neither had been able to prove their case to the satisfaction of the other, or been willing to concede a blow to their honour. And thus they had begotten a feud that lasted generations, one that was directly relevant to Mikayla as a result of Nya being her roommate.

This was to say that Nya and Sendo had consistently proven to have some of the worst teamwork among every possible combination of students in the class. The only reason they weren't the absolute

worst

was that Irin had even less ability to tolerate either Nya or Sendo than the two had for each other.

Irin's issues, on the other hand, were a whole

other

Core Controller - to use a Goliath Guardsman turn of phrase. Nya's attitude towards her had improved somewhat, but Irin didn't seem to appreciate that . . and in all honesty that was completely understandable. Some scars ran too deep, and she got the impression that Nya was the embodiment of everything Irin hated.

Mikayla was no relationship counsellor. Despite her status as a Demigod of Teamwork, her best efforts throughout the months to get Nya, Sendo and Irin to at least work professionally with one another had been fruitless; both of the 'successful' Yevgenia clones had a downright pathological need to maintain their superiority over all challengers, while Irin was constantly chomping at the bit to disabuse them of that notion. And while Mikayla had made some headway towards getting Nya to ease off, Sendo had if anything become even more bull-headed, her ego growing to fill the gap Nya had left.

So watching the three of them walking together into the valley where the trials were being held felt like watching three trains that were all about to crash into each other.

"We're all offence focuses. This is an unbalanced team," Nya mused.

"Well, there's a simple solution to that. Who said we needed to fight together?" Irin huffed.

"I'm surprised to say this, but you're quite correct," Sendo quickened her pace. "You can both just wait here. I'll handle this myself,"

"That cannot possibly be what the Huntsman intends for us to do," Nya counter-argued.

"You just want the glory of leading us into battle, as though we are your retainers. I will not submit to you," Irin declared.

"Why not? My strategic acumen is unparalleled,"

Sendo barked out a harsh laugh at that.

Nya forged onwards. "If we fail this exercise, we will shame ourselves. Is it really worth gambling on our reputations and risking our instructor's disapproval for petty personal pride?"

"Afraid to take chances? How disgraceful. Your cowardice proves you are unworthy of bearing the honoured name. Follow me if you like, Han, but I shall not listen to you," Sendo waved her off, stalking away.

Nya stared after her for a long moment, then turned and appealed to Irin. "Surely you agree that we stand a better chance by working together? I," She collected herself. "I know we have had our differences, and I apologise if in the past I have made you feel inadequate, but I genuinely am very impressed by the skills you have honed and, er, and it is a fool's errand to measure yourself against the standards of Yevgenia in the first place so you really shouldn't . ."

Nya's throat went dry when she saw the expression on the face that was so uncannily similar to hers, yet not quite right.

Irin stalked towards her, her eyes narrowed into spiteful slits. "Was that really your way of trying to resolve our differences?" She scoffed. "Every word that leaves your mouth makes my blood boil. You apologise now, because when you have no choice but to rely on me, suddenly my skills are praiseworthy? You talk about reputation and status, but that is worthless to she who has none. If you cannot even look beyond the end of your nose, then we will never see eye to eye,"

She stormed away, in a different direction than Sendo had gone. "The hero of the City of Roses, her? What a farce,"

"But, but . ." Nya's jaw worked impotently, even though no one was there to hear her. "But we're going to fail,"

<=====}—o

They failed.

As it turned out, their opponent was a monster that Mikayla's phone told her was called a Big-footed Binturong. It was a massive, bulky, bear-like creature that moved surprisingly quietly, but its main advantage was the massive rolls of fat that acted as a sort of natural armour. If the three yaoguais had actually worked together and launched a coordinated attack, they could have overwhelmed its defences and worn it down through death by a thousand cuts.

This did not happen.

Each of them fought it individually, and each of them lost. The Binturong smashed through both Nya and Sendo's attempts to pin it down with their size-changing knives, tanked the blows they managed to land, and dispatched them with powerful swipes from its claws. Irin's sword, part of her alterations to the Yevgenia-standard loadout, managed to inflict some deep and painful-looking wounds, but the Binturong's sheer resilience let it endure long enough to retaliate and knock her out of play.

It wasn't long until the three chagrined trainees were lined up in front of the Huntsman's disapproving face.

"Would anyone like to tell me what you all did wrong?"

"These two refused to follow my lead," Sendo asserted.

"Oh I don't want to hear that crap from

either

of you!" Irin snapped.

"I was only volunteering for the leadership role because I'm objectively superior. It wasn't intended as any sort of personal slight," Nya defended herself.

The Huntsman slammed a foot on the ground with enough force to make it shake, interrupting all three of them. "You're all pigheaded idiots!" he groaned. "You got so pissy about who was in charge that you didn't even stop to realise that defeats the purpose of the exercise! This was supposed to be an

ambush

simulation. You didn't even

need

a leader, just a half-decent plan of attack! You morons!"

The Huntsman groaned, pacing back and forth. The three girls watched him, all doing their best to look contrite - albeit with varying degrees of sincerity.

"I'll say this. At least Han tried to extend an olive branch and get you three to work together. Even if her attempt sucked, she

tried

, which is more than you two did. But be happy this was just an exercise, and do better in future. Because if this performance repeats itself during the examinations, you're all going to get expelled,"

Nya felt her heart skip a beat at the thought. Sendo scoffed, and Irin folded her arms huffily. "Of course Han gets to come out smiling while the rest of us get scraps," Irin murmured to herself. "Some people just live a charmed life,"

Nya returned to Mikayla's bench with her head hanging low. Sendo cast baleful glares at everyone who looked at her, as though daring anyone to speak up.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Hey, it's just an exercise. Not a big deal," Mikayla made space for Nya to sit next to her, and gently patted her shoulder when she did.

"It is an indelible stain on my record. Failure is unacceptable for one such as I,"

"Well, it happened. This wasn't the first time and it won't be the last," Mikaula wrapped a consoling arm around her. Nya just heaved out a ragged, shuddering sigh, relaxing into her grip and closing her eyes.

"Is this the Reborn Rose?" Irin asked snidely, and Nya jumped, jerking away and straightening up. The other yaoguai let out an amused snort and moved on.

"Okay, now she's just being a bully," Mikayla glared after her.

"That does not make her incorrect. I must not allow my emotions to get the better of me," Nya mumbled.

The final group to go in was Keldryn, Banki and Geri. Mikayla couldn't tell what they were talking about as they entered the valley, they were too far away and hadn't deployed their Armours yet. But it was immediately apparent that they were going with the expected strategy of Keldryn splitting off and going to scout, with the intention of triggering the inevitable ambush and then leading the monster back to the other two so that they could all dogpile it.

Skyward Grasscutter manifested and grew to half of its full size, leaping through the massive trees like a glowing green Tarzan, blipping in and out of view as it searched.

The first sign they had of the Kaiju that her classmates were fighting was when something burst out of the bark of a tree and crashed into Keldryn.

Skyward Grasscutter was sent crashing to the ground in the exact opposite direction from where Banki and Geri were still catching up. The beast savagely ripped into Keldryn's Armour, landing several blows before he could even try to defend himself.

There was a burst of blue light and Bluebell came flying in from out of left field, head butting the monster and - not budging it at all. Mikayla could barely see it, but the Kaiju looked like some kind of hedgehog whose quills had twisted and split into barbs like fishing rods.

Skyward Grasscutter's angular shaping had given it plenty of places to grip on to, and as Bluebell tried to strike the creature again it rolled, using Keldryn as a living shield against his own Companion's attacks.

The green-orange Armour Core collapsed, and in a blur of motion the Huntsman leapt down from a tree and rescued Keldryn from the hedgehog's jaws. Mikayla could guess what had happened; the Hedgehog had taken advantage of being stuck to him and chewed its way into his chest, searching for vital organs whose destruction would immediately kill the ranger.

Bluebell blinked out of existence, a proper simulation of what would have happened if Keldryn had been killed. Mikayla sympathised. That thing was a nasty little Xenomorph-wannabe of a Kaiju.

Hopefully Banki could solo it. Mikayla had seen her dubiously-named Stealth Field in action enough times that she could picture it happening. If that didn't work, then this exercise was going to end as a failure for her friend.

The Hedgehog had burrowed back into the underbrush, and now that she knew what she was looking for she could see a faint and distant disturbance as it crawled back up the tree, resetting its ambush. It was like some kind of spiky, camouflaged, man-eating koala. A real live drop-bear. And she wasn't even in Australia anymore.

Banki and Geri were cautiously advancing to where they'd seen the scuffle happen - a thirty-foot suit of hardlight armour disappearing was not subtle no matter how good the hedgehog was at stealth. Banki was taking the lead, and Mikayla could already see a cluster of chaotic lights and sounds coalescing in her hands.

She winced, already seeing where this was going.

The drop-hedgehog flung itself out of the tree, a whirling ball of spikes aimed directly at Banki. Suoyou Deng swelled to full size around her and was immediately engulfed by her 'stealth field', a mile-wide cloud of bright lights and loud noises filling the trees. But it was too late, the Hedgehog had already made contact and gotten Suoyou Deng snared on its hooks. Mikayla could see shadows moving amidst the clouds as Banki frantically and unsuccessfully tried to free herself of the hedgehog's grip.

She couldn't see the moment that Banki's Armour gave up the ghost, or how the Huntsman navigated the cloud and extracted the living light show from the Hedgehog's claws and spikes.

By the time the stealth field had faded away, though, the Hedgehog was scratched and missing several spikes, but bearing down on Geri with bloodlust in its eyes.

Geri had deployed his Beekeeper armour, the yaoguai-shaped beehive raising its arms defensively. Not bothering with another ambush - perhaps overcome by its bloodlust - the Hedgehog lunged at him.

Geri didn't dodge or retreat. He threw his arms up in a double block, and the monster crashed against them. Mikayla knew what would happen; his block would crumple, Geri would collapse, his bees would emerge and do effectively nothing -

Geri's arms exploded.

The force of the fiery blast blew the hedgehog a couple of miles away, sending it rolling onto its back.

A droning filled the air as Geri's swarm of bees took wing, but they glowed with a strange new energy. As the first wave struck the hedgehog, they detonated rather than stung, peppering it with a wave of explosions. More and more bees landed and exploded at point-blank range, like a never ending swarm of tiny, slow yet homing missiles.

While the Hedgehog staggered about, trying in vain to find a solution to its predicament, Geri charged in, grabbing it by the throat and twisting it onto its back.

He drove his other fist into the Hedgehog's exposed belly, and it exploded. By now, it was obvious that Geri was immune to whatever power was letting him generate those blasts, but the Hedgehog's skin was being burned away by the repeated blasts. He punched it again, and his fist exploded again.

The bees kept coming, respawning and repeating their kamikaze strikes seemingly infinitely. Geri kept punching, each blow punctuated by a distant boom.

After more explosions than Mikayla could count, Geri finally emerged from the cloud of smoke and cinders that had been kicked up. The remains of the Hedgehog, its chest a quite literal crater, were slung over his shoulder.

Mikayla stared disbelievingly. "Did . . Geri just . .

win?"

<=====}—o

"Okay, Geri, bro, I have to ask. What in the Nexeus was that?" Banki demanded.

She wasn't alone in her incredulity. The entire class was gathered around Geri, all shocked by the power that had suddenly been displayed. It was a dramatic turnaround from his reputation as the weakest and most useless member of their class.

Geri exulted in his classmates gathering around him. New life seemed to fill his ocean-blue skin, and he held his head high. "I realised I needed to make a change. As you can see, it worked out quite well,"

"You can't leave it at that. Give us the details!" Sekki pressed. "How did you make your bees explode?"

"With my new Neidan," Geri waved his hand, sharing a System popup with the whole class.

[CONSTITUTION OF EXPLOSIVE PARTICULATE, RANK 1: You are able to imbue items with your Mana and cause them to explode.]

"Honestly, I should thank you, Mikayla," Geri grinned. "Your talk about Neidans a couple of weeks ago made me realise that that was what I was missing. That the right Neidan could fix the flaws in my fighting style,"

"Huh," Mikayla nodded, chuckling a bit. "Well, I can't argue with the results. That was awesome!"