Ethan Cho
Killing people really isn't my thing.
Okay, I mean, I did kill Joseph, but that's different. I only killed him because he was trying to kill Jenna. It cancels out, so really, I didn't kill him. It's more like I saved Jenna. Otherwise, I won't try to murder anybody if they don't attack me first. There really isn't any reason for me to take their life, if I'm being honest. There's a high chance they'll be killed by somebody else in the Hotel anyways, so sparing their life then may give them some hope.
I'm just nice like that. One could even say I'm altruistic.
Since I've known the kids trapped in here with me for quite a while, in a choice where I could kill or not kill them, I'd rather let them live. Even in this life or death situation I still care about them. They're my friends and classmates; there's still some affection towards them left inside me.
I know, I sound crazy. Why would I pass up the offer to kill another student in this competition that meant for killing other students? I'm placing myself in a worse position that way.
Well, there's a better alternative. One where I can still enhance my abilities while not harming other people.
What could it possibly be?
"Killing monsters!" I exclaim. I look at the jellyfish floating beside me. Without Soie around, there's nobody to talk to, so making a little jellyfish friend out of water was the next best option. Her name is Hestia, named after the Greek goddess of the hearth. It's quite calming having her around. Hestia the jellyfish's presence makes me feel like I'm cozily snuggled up next to a warm campfire on the beach, listening to the waves crash onto the shore as I ramble on about my altruistic behavior.
In fact, we actually are situated on a beach right now. The Tier 4 door opened up smack in the middle of the ocean, which I had no trouble traversing to reach this mysterious island (the waves quickly pushed me onto land). On the beach is a path of flattened rocks, which I'm following to what I presume will be the home of the Tier 4 monster. Right beside the beach is a strange formation: a tall cliff with neon blue trees sticking out of the side towers over me. The cliff stretches all the way down the beach as far as my eye can see, trapping me between it and the ocean.
What this means, I haven't got a clue. Yet I can infer that it has some connection to the monster I'm approaching.
But, anyway. Back to the point.
"Killing monsters," I repeat. "Killing monsters is much more entertaining and poses much more of a challenge than kids who only received their powers a few hours ago. While slicing the head off of a basketball player would take at most two minutes, finding monsters that I've never encountered before takes far longer and requires far more thought. Right?" Hestia seems to agree, as she circles around my head and tickles my nose with her tendrils.
"That's how I'm going to survive the Hotel," I say. "And fulfill my mission."
As I say that the atmosphere's tension lowers. The wind stops blowing and the waves crash quieter. Blue leaves from the cliffside trees begin to fall all around me, as a dark, unpleasant sensation passes over me. Almost like I'm falling into the shadowy depths of the ocean; descending as the pressure intensifies to a point where I can't breathe. My eyesight blurs. My brain pulsates exceedingly. My stomach tightens up.
"Killing only when necessary..." I mutter under my breath, staring at the ground.
Fulfill your mission. A voice inside me follows.
My heart drops as a sudden memory flashes through my mind. Something I don't want to and don't need to remember. The same feeling I experienced back then plagues my stomach as moths seem to flutter around inside it. My arms tremble as I collapse onto my knees, grasping the sides of my head as panic overtakes me. Before the flashback proceeds, I punch myself and snap out of it.
Forget about it.
We don't need to talk about that.
Still shaking from the uncomfortable spasm, I gather myself and continue down the path.
I weakly smile at Hestia. "Sorry about that. Where was I?"
The water jellyfish doesn't reply (as she is, of course, a water jellyfish). Instead, she begin to fly ahead of me, spinning around and spewing random bursts of water as she makes her way down the stone path.
"Hestia?" I promptly run after her, confused why she's acting like that. What is up with her? Did my panic attack affect her too? How is a jellyfish I created acting out of the boundaries of my commands?
She leads me through a small grove of purple palm trees and a cluster of huge boulders. As I run I ready my weapons. Something's definitely up; I don't know what, but something or someone is here.
It doesn't take long before I can finally see where Hestia's been leading me. A small group of five unrecognizable students stands at the bottom of the cliff. Four of them face one lone girl, all of them except her wielding a weapon. An axe, a lasso, a claymore, and a club. It's clear that there's some conflict between the team of four and the girl standing alone. Even with a lack of anything to protect herself she stands tall and confident. Every one of them wears the same taekwondo uniform as me, displaying their collective Tier 4 status.
I climb on top of a nearby boulder with Hestia to observe the sight. This is going to be fun. "Wow, thanks for leading me here," I say to Hestia. She spins in response. "But you know I'm not going to kill them, right?" She spins again. "Right." I turn back to the students to watch their encounter.
Even from afar, the voices of the five students are clear and crisp. I immediately recognize each of them as they each take turns speaking.
"So you're saying that if we let you pass," the first boy, Kenneth, asks. His voice is deep and grumbly, but with a tad of energy in it that makes him always sound like he's in a debate. He's the claymore-wielder. "You won't kill us?"
"Like I've said a thousand times, if you let me into the Tier 4 cave, I'll let you guys out of here alive," the lone girl groans. "It's not that hard to understand."
I smirk when I hear the girl's stale voice. It's Heather, probably one of the fiercest girls I've met in my entire life, and that means a lot. I've encountered many, many girls, but none as confident and bold as Heather Kwon. In the years I've known her I have never beaten her in a fight (a verbal fight, of course); she's far too valorous and scary to face. If I were to compare her to any fictional figure, I would compare her to a warrior goddess, and I'm sure anybody else would agree with me. Although she isn't currently wielding her weapon, I know that she could wipe all four of those kids out without blinking an eye.
"Do you really think you'll be able to kill all four of us?" the axe-wielder Harry asks. He's short and stumpy, his voice as high as the hobbit that he is. In fact, his nickname amongst our grade used to be "The Hobbit", referring to his persistent 165 centimeter height which he's maintained ever since the beginning of middle school. How he managed to stay alive with a weapon taller than him, let alone manage to reach Tier 4 is a big question for me.
The club-wielder Gianna says, "Yeah, I mean the odds are clearly against you. I don't see why you're making such a big fuss."
I don't know too much about Gianna, but her pigtails dyed red and blue like Harley Quinn have always stood out to me. It's aesthetically fitting that she uses a club.
The last boy doesn't open his mouth, but his tall and lanky stature gives off his obvious identity of Jordan, the poster boy basketball player of our class. As always, he stays silent. He speaks as often as a box of Cheerios, and has as much hair as a box of Cheerios. Yet, he still manages to be one of the most well-known and liked guys in our grade (which is also a lingering question of mine). For some odd reason his weapon is the lasso, which again, I cannot explain.
Heather cocks her head and giggles. "What?" She clearly sounds amused.
"What?" Harry replies. I giggle as well when I notice Harry slightly tilting his head up to look into Heather's eyes. "What's so hard to understand?"
"You think that you four," She waves her finger at them, booping Harry on the nose, "can beat me?"
"Yeah?" Kenneth grumbles.
Heather nods. "That's nice."
"But we won't have to kill you if you just leave," Gianna adds.
"And why would I leave?" Heather spins around and spreads her arms out. "Everything I need-and by everything, I mean the Tier monster-is right here. But you guys," She boops Harry on the nose again, causing him to scowl, "are in my way. I think I made it clear before: I don't want to share a Tier monster with people I don't like. So what I don't understand is why are you four still in. My. Way?" She snaps her wrist and a wooden stick materializes in her fist. Flowing from the handle is a long, long ribbon that snakes all the way down to the end of the shore. The four students wince and take a step back at the sight of Heather's weapon: a rhythmic gymnastics ribbon button.
Epic. Go Heather!
Harry replies, "We need to Tier-Up too, and we don't want somebody like you Tiering-Up with us. You know that we're in a competition right? Why would we ever be generous towards the enemy?"
"Exactly my point!" Heather exclaims. "Yay! You finally understand!" She claps her hands whimsically, but her tone of voice remains the same: dark and sarcastic. She's clearly onto something. "But we've dragged this on for too long, guys. We're wasting precious time."
Kenneth sighs. "Bu-"
"Time that could've been used to match our enemies." Heather's voice deepens again. I notice her hair beginning to float, along with the ribbon weaving around her body. "And as you've already made clear, acts of generosity towards our enemies is not very ideal."
She begins to laugh, her chuckles filled with malice. "But sometimes we have to step outside of our comfort zones, right?" Heather raises her baton and spins the black ribbon in a deadly circle next to her. Dark shadows swim across the ground's surface and collect around her feet as her white taekwondo uniform absorbs the black color of the shadows. Even from here, I can sense the panic arising in the four students opposing her. They yell out in retreat and begin to run towards the shore, as the sunny sky begins to darken and Heather's ribbons spin faster and faster. "I think I'll be a tad bit generous today, and spare you all a long and painful death."
"Hurry!" Kenneth screams from far away as he dives into the ocean water. Behind him are the other three, still fleeing on the sand.
"Sorry for the sudden twist," Heather meekly apologizes. I lean forward in my seat. "We were having such a civil conversation, something that's hard to find in this hotel."
This is going to be fun.
"I've never tolerated non-complying people," she says. Her head turns towards me, and she smiles. She's wearing thin sunglasses that barely show the top of her eyes. "Right, Ethan?"
"Right," I whisper, nodding in her direction.
Without replying, Heather immediately sinks into the shadows of the cloudy sky and pops up right before Gianna, who hasn't yet reached the waters. A quick twirl of her baton ties Gianna up in the ribbon, covering her head to toe like a mummy. Heather lets go of the baton and does a swift backflip towards Harry. She embraces him, covers his mouth, then throws him onto the sand.
"How should I kill you today? Any ideas?" Harry and Gianna are too busy trembling from terror to let out an answer. "I'll go with the simple styles for you two." Heather sticks out her hand and the baton comes flying towards her, untangling Gianna and rendering her spinning like a top. Heather twirls with her, moving her ribbon like an oscillating snake in the air around her. Then suddenly, she forcefully swings her arm. In a split second both Harry and Gianna's heads fly off, melting into a shadowy black goo (as opposed to the ash that monsters disintegrate into). The goo seeps into the shadows of the ground, dragging the decapitated bodies of the two dead students down with them. Only their axe and club remain, each shattered into darkened pieces.
A rush of adrenaline passes through my body as I gleefully shiver. Heather's as powerful as I'd expected her to be. She's swift, calm, and deadly. The way she wields the ribbon baton with such grace and dignity is almost like art. It's incredibly mesmerizing to merely observe; imagine facing it in a fight. What a battle that would be.
Heather throws her baton in the air. It falls to her side and stays floating there with its long ribbon trailing behind in the win. "Who's next?" Heather asks, looking towards the ocean.
To my surprise, Siyun stands tall a few meters away from her. He swings his lasso in the air and throws it at Heather. She lets it fall around her, but disappears into the shadows before it can tighten up. Rising out from behind Siyun, Heather summons her baton and promptly slashes his arms off. Before he can react she immediately slices off his legs and wraps her ribbon around his neck. Siyun's limbless body stays hanging in the air like a bloody piñata. The sight is almost too gory to look at.
Heather silently lets go of her baton and walks away, before spinning around and forcibly drop-kicking Siyun straight into the ground. His limbless body is now a lifeless body, as it sinks into the shadows to join the hobbit and Harley Quinn.
Kenneth is the only one left now. He's nowhere to be seen on shore or in the water, so it's safe to assume he's dived under the surface. A small part of me wants to intervene, as the ocean is quite literally the source of my abilities. I'd be unstoppable there.
But no. This is Heather's main character moment.
She disappears once again into the shadows, but doesn't emerge anywhere onland for now. I jump down from the boulder and start making my way down to the shore. That's when Heather shoots out from the ocean surface, dragging Kenneth out with her. He's thrown into the air as Heather somehow immediately pops up back on the sand.
I watch as she snaps her wrist, causing some chain reaction pulsating through the ribbon. The black ribbon begins to transform into a slick, black steel weapon, one that's just as flexible and lengthy as the original ribbon. Heather's able to handle it as easily as she did the ribbon baton, just this one with more focus to ensure she doesn't cut herself.
"I'm sorry, Kenneth," Heather says, spinning her baton in the air as the ribbon weaves around her once again like a tornado. "But your lives are miniscule in the face of the bigger picture." My friend doesn't even give Kenneth time to fall back into the water before she leaps into the air, and slices him into dust as fast as light. I could barely even follow her ribbon-blade slashes as she chopped Kenneth up like a piece of steak. Huge waves of black energy follow through each of her attacks, resulting in a sharp cloud of black energy in the sky.
A few seconds later the shadowy energy dissipates, but what used to be two contestants ends up being only one. What's leftover of the other, Kenneth, is a small shower of ash sprinkling down into the ocean waters. Even from this far away, I can sense schools of fish gathering around at the surface to get a nibble out of the former boy's remains.
The true power of Heather...which isn't even her fullest potential. Quite frightening.
Where her ribbon blade attacked Kenneth floats a pitch black, human-sized moth. Its slight transparency and lightness almost makes it seem like it is made out of shadow, which doesn't make sense as it clearly isn't the shadow of a bigger moth; it stands on its own. The moth silently stays flying momentarily before gradually disappearing into thin air.
After checking that all four of them are definitely gone, I jump off the rock with Hestia the jellyfish and make my way down to Heather. She's now resting in the shadow of a nearby palm tree, rolling her ribbon up around her hand.
She hears me approaching her and briefly glances at me out of the corner of her eye.
"Were you watching me the whole time?" Heather asks.
"Yeah, and you definitely didn't disappoint."
Heather smiles softly at the compliment. "Was I too brutal? I didn't even give them time to scream or shout out in pain."
"Honestly, I know you could've done a little more, you know?" I punch the air and swing my arms around as if I'm wielding an imaginary ribbon blade. "Make it more majestic and graceful."
She frowns at the comment. "Was that not 'majestic and graceful' enough for you?"
"No, no, it was. But neither me nor they had any time to process it, you know what I mean? What I got was merely a massacre, when I expected both a performance and a massacre." I motion towards my eyes. "It's much more visually appealing that way."
With a chuckle, Heather sarcastically exclaims, "I'll keep that in mind next time!"
Grinning, I go in to hug Heather. Of course, she steps back and avoids it, but I get closer to embrace her. I'm a lot taller than her so I have to bend down a bit, yet it still feels comforting to be in the presence of my best friend again. After a few seconds, Heather reluctantly hugs me back.
"How are you doing?" I ask.
"As you just saw," she gestures towards the empty shore. "I'm not having that hard of a time, especially given our circumstances. The ribbon blade is pretty powerful and fun to use."
"Yeah, my water blades are really strong too." I summon them in my hands to show them off, spinning them around and splashing water onto Heather. "You know, I was fighting this dragon and I thought, 'Wouldn't it be cool if I could just summon a whale?'. And you know what happened?"
"You summoned a whale?"
"A water whale, but yeah! A whale nonetheless. I was flying in the air and stabbed the dragon right through the neck with the whale. It was epic." The same rush of adrenaline I felt back in the dragon cave surges through my body as I remember the fight. I say it once again: battling like that is genuinely entertaining.
"With your powers, and my powers, there's no way we won't get out of here alive," Heather says. Her eyes dart around for a split second before she focuses back on me. "This Hotel has nothing against us, and the other kids are no match for us either."
"Yep." I stick out my hand. "And like always, no backstabbing between us, right?" Quite literally in this case. What would usually mean simply betraying each other could literally mean us killing each other. Who knows when Heather will jump out of the shadows and slice my head off?
"I promise." She shakes my hand firmly.
"Finally. We have to remember."
The atmosphere immediately turns grim following my comment. The same nauseating feeling I felt a few minutes before returns, and I can tell Heather feels it too with the uneasy look on her face. Clearly the topic isn't good for either of us.
"Don't remind me," Heather replies.
"Right."
Johnny Sohn
"The arms!" I shout out to Yujin. "We just have to kill the arms!"
"Yeah, I just did that," she replies, panting as she runs over to me. "I blocked an arm with some sort of fire shield, and burnt it away with the help of my phoenix. It completely disappeared after that, so I think just doing that will work."
"Right," I say. "Okay." My eyes dart around the mist to search for the floating arms. They're nowhere to be seen right now.
"Can you fight alone? Or should we work together," Yujin asks. "'Cause if you can't-"
Huh?
I whip my head back to glare at her, my eyes wide open in mild shock. A part of me is taken aback when she inquires if I can fare alone. Does she not believe I'm capable enough as an individual fighter? I know that I'm strong enough, but the fact that she doesn't completely trust me solo surprises me a bit.
I interrupt her, saying, "No, I'm fine battling alone."
"Because if we're going to be a team-"
Again-
"I said I can fight alone, Yujin."
"But the arms are pretty strong-"
How many times do I have to say it?
With a big sigh, I grab her wrist and growl, "Yujin. I said. I can go alone." She opens her mouth to reply, but I disappear into my smoke before she can get another word out.
I know that Yujin is a good girl, from what I've noticed being in her school classes all these years. Although she can be a bit...outgoing at times, she's definitely not somebody you can easily hate. Even now, her intentions are well and good. I know I was a bit harsh getting annoyed by her, but still. If we're going to be a team, which at this point it seems like we will be, I can't have her doubting my abilities.
I need to prove myself to her.
Until now she hasn't seen me fight. All she knows of me is that I wasn't powerful enough to take down the Tier 5 Monster by myself. Meanwhile, she killed the cyclops' body and defeated one of its floating arms alone. All I did was either save her or Jenna like a knight in shining armour. Or I guess in this case, Yujin would be the knight in shining armour, with me sitting back watching her fight for me.
That's exactly why I need to show her that I can battle too.
The true power of Johnny Sohn.
I leap out of the smoke and am immediately faced with the club wielding arm. It greets me with a slight bow, mocking me like a little child. It immediately triggers an annoying feeling within me, as I roll my eyes and whisk out my claymore. Its obsidian lining shines even in the mist; a beautiful diamond in this horrid rough.
"Great," I mutter eagerly. "The battle begins straight away."
Cracking my neck, stretching my arms, and readying my weapon, I calmly approach the arm. The sight disgusts me. The mere thought of facing a dismembered limb dripping with blood and holding a horrendously spiked club triggers the same annoying sensation inside me.
It makes me wish to destroy it.
I tell the arm, "You make me want to throw up," before forcefully charging into it and slamming it onto the ground with my trusty claymore. "Your aura is revolting." I drop the claymore as my arms spread out, summoning multiple balls of black smoke around my feet. Unlike the repulsive spirit of the cyclops' arm, the familiarity of these soccer balls of smoke is unimaginably welcoming. Effortlessly I kick each ball into the arm, damaging it more and more as each smoke ball seeps through the cracks in its metal armor and slowly melts its arms.
Crouching over the arm, I watch as it writhes around like a dying snake on the ground.
"Usually one suffocates from the whisper of smoke," I murmur. "But who knew it would be this easy to slay an enemy who can't even suffer the consequences as a human does with their lungs." Pleased with the quick battle, I pat it on the palm. At this point it's almost completely lifeless. "You're pathetic, you know that, right?" It doesn't respond. Because it's dead.
And also because it's an arm. But more importantly, it's dead.
The fact that I gain self-satisfaction from slandering a limb is a bit concerning. Yet the fact that I defeated it myself without a scar on my body, is truly notable in my standards.
"The thing is, I know that I can do better than that," I note out loud, grabbing my claymore and walking away. "From what I recall, Yujin can summon phoenixes and create fire shields, while Jenna had that floating flower serpent."
I need to top that.
Oh, other arms, where are you~
Travelling around inside my smoke is much more time efficient than simply walking around. It's invincible, it's fast, and although it smells like burnt meat, it's comforting. Again, another concerning aspect about myself is that the atmosphere of a pocket smoke realm feels like home. It's understandable, however. Since I wield the power of smoke, it only makes sense that I feel more comfortable within smoke.
The smoke cloud passes by Yujin, who is faring well against the claymore-wielding arm. I decide to observe her fighting for a minute, in order to see if she really is as powerful as I presumed. To my surprise, with every swing of the claymore she counters with a massive blast of phoenix flames and a deadly spear impalement. None of the arm's attacks harm her, as she's completely protected by the same spherical fire shield she mentioned. Although, because her focus isn't completely channeled into the shield, it breaks every few seconds, resulting in a small fire explosion and a replacement sphere. It doesn't appear that she requires my help, so I move on to find the lasso arm.
The silent mist is unbearably unnerving. My attention has to be centered all around to make sure the arm doesn't shoot out and jump me out of nowhere. But of course, there's nothing to worry about in the safety of my little cloud of smoke. My stomach churns nervously as the misty battlefield continues to remain arm-less, as I patiently wait for the enemy to appear.
Finally, after what felt like a brief eternity, I spotted the silhouette of the lasso arm.
"Ugh," I grumble inside my smoke.
After dashing towards the arm, I once again jump out of my smoke and plunge down onto the arm. It narrowly manages to dodge my attack, and throws its lasso towards me. To my surprise the rope lands right around my body, and tightens around my waist. I cough out in pain. The lasso's squeezing my stomach so hard, almost making me throw up the meal I never ate.
I attempt to disappear into the smoke around me, but the lasso's pressure is too strong that I can't channel my energy into my own powers. If only I could free my arms and cut the lasso away, but no, the arm's rope has my arms trapped too tightly. My hands are still gripped to the hilt of my claymore, but it won't be long until I can't hold it anymore too.
It pains me to say this, but I don't think I'll be able to escape alone.
I hesitate, but then do what I have to do.
"Help!" I yell at the top of my lungs. "Yujin!"
A voice responds through the thick mist. "I'm coming!"
The area around me lights up in a blinding wall of flame, and Yujin dashes out of the mist and slices the lasso away. The rope coiled around me loosens, and I'm free.
"That was fast," I remark.
Yujin laughs stiffly. "I was looking for you anyways."
I sigh. My plan of fighting solo has failed, and in an embarrassing way at that. "I guess we have to fight 'as a team' now."
"Yup."
With no choice but to comply, I start attacking the arm with Yujin. My moves begin with a succession of forceful slashes with my claymore, in which I try my hardest to break the sturdy armor. Although with the presence of cracks I would use my smoke like I did before, but there doesn't seem to be any openings in this arm. The only option is conjuring the cracks myself. Then, we'll be able to access the flesh of the arm.
Meanwhile, Yujin busily runs around the battlefield, attacking every few seconds with a blast of fire from her phoenix. She too seems to be working to melt the armor away, but isn't resulting in any success either.
"The arms are smart," I tell Yujin when she comes back around.
Yujin nods. "I'm probably wrong, but it feels like it's built some resistance towards my powers and my spear. Neither my fire or weapon are able to even make a dent in its armor."
"Yeah, and my claymore isn't effective either."
The arm begins floating towards the cut part of its lasso, so I dash over and kick the limb away before it can get any closer. It may be immune to fire and steel, but it doesn't stand a chance against my kicks.
As I watch the arm helplessly roll onto the floor and bounce around like a soccer ball, an idea hits me.
I describe my plan to Yujin. "This is so completely random, and I have no clue if this will work. But hear me out."
It seems that neither my smoke nor Yujin's fire will be effective against the arm's unexpectedly sturdy defences. Utilizing them separately will never work. But what if we were to combine the two individual abilities into one stronger one. The synergy of my smoky soccer balls and Yujin's phoenix energy inside of the balls may be capable enough to burn through the armor and damage the flesh inside. Although this kind of chemistry or physics has never been my sharpest subject, I have seen many fires in my life where flames were infused with smoke. And in my young eyes, they seemed deadly.
The phoenix girl agrees with my plan. "Okay, okay, that sounds great."
"And this way like you said," I add on. "We can try working as a 'team'."
"Exactly."
Without saying another word we begin our collective onslaught. The attack style begins with me closing my eyes to fabricate three smoky balls around my feet, each as big as a soccer ball. The smoke swirl around in spherical formations, forming cloud-like patterns on the surface. Following up is Yujin with her phoenix. She points her spear towards each of the smoke balls and shoots one fireball into each respectively. I step back in surprise when they burst up in flames, but they die down almost immediately, leaving three mesmerizing smokefire balls.
Yujin and I take a few moments to stare at the new balls in awe. Their exteriors are that of the smoke balls I originally created, while their interiors hold beautiful flames that burn so brightly that they light up all the mist around us. Smokefire balls are just aesthetic, portable, smoky lanterns.
"I don't wanna kick it," I groan. "They're far too cool to be wasted."
"We can always make new ones," Yujin assures. "Now kick them, we don't have all day here."
I nod. "Right. Okay."
I take a deep breath in, and kick the first smokefire ball towards the limp limb lying on the ground. It slams straight into it, causing a mini explosion to erupt when they meet. Shooing the smoke away from the explosion, I see that we've been successful in damaging the armor. But there's still much of the covering still intact. The second ball goes flying towards the arm and explodes again, this time making even more progress breaking down the armor.
"Skin!" Yujin exclaims. "I see skin!"
Same.
Rolling up my hoodie sleeves, I say, "Then to finish this cyclops off, let's try something flashy." Yujin cocks her head and raises her eyebrows. "I'll kick the last smokefire ball, while you do some other cool move. Like a huge blast of fire or a big slash that cuts the arm in half. Whatever you'd like, as long as it's fashionable. Okay?"
"Okay." Yujin nods eagerly and grins. "Let's go."
Together we positioned ourselves a few meters away from the arm, and ready ourselves for the last strike. Finally, we'll be able to get rid of this pesky cyclops and its filthy arms.
"Ready?" I ask.
"Always."
"Okay then," I yell. "Now!"
As if we're a musical duo playing in harmony, we each make our attacks at the exact same time. My kick, and her throw of the spear. The smokefire ball and spear shoot towards the arm together, weaving around each other and eventually flying as a single entity. Flames erupt from the spear's tip right as it makes contact with the arm. The collision of the three objects triggers a massive explosion, bigger than the two occuring before. My ears seem to burst as the blast forces me onto the ground, rolling on the rocky floor next to Yujin.
"Crap," I groan when I notice the blood splattered all across my legs from falling onto the floor. Looking over at Yujin she seems fine, but still a bit shocked from the explosion. I push myself up and help Yujin into a kneeling position, as we both turn to see the result of our final attack.
"It's gone." Yuin sighs. Then her voice brightens up as she exclaims, "It's finally gone!"
A small smile forms across my face when I see how happy she is. She turns her head to look at me and I notice the huge smile plastered across her face as well.
For a few seconds our eyes latch onto each other as we stare into one another. Even in the mist, her eyes each bear a small twinkle of joy, like the obsidian on my claymore. Unknowingly, my stomach begins to flutter with butterflies. I can feel my face warming up and blushing embarrassingly red, until Yujin breaks the awkward silence.
"Anyways, that was..." she utters, looking away. "Unnecessarily...difficult."
"Yeah...right."
"I wonder if the Tier Monster will be that challenging."
I respond, "Yeah, right?" even though I'm aware of the power level of the Tier 5 Monster.
"We should find Jenna now," Yujin suggests. "If Jenna's logic is right, then even her small contribution to killing the cyclops should have healed her up by now."
Although I don't have the slightest idea what she's referring to, I'm still too flustered to muster a wholehearted response. A part of that strange feeling of butterflies still persists in my stomach, rendering me unable to form clear sentences. Thus, there's only one phrase I can say without humiliating myself once again.
"Yeah. Right."