Chapter 8
An adventurer upon this frozen land, to the rescue!
I kept a journal for journeys like these. I'll let that do the work, because telling you everything will cause the Word count to increase, and there have already been way too many words in this volume. In fact, this volume used to contain the tournament arc. An eternal snowstorm covered the between area of the forest we were in and the entrance of the Crystal Woods. This was the Cerulean Festival. Why was it called that? Well.
When we went through the snow storm, we ended up in a rather open area of the forest where we clearly saw decorations everywhere. It was like walking into a Christmas world. There was a giant towering tree in the middle that was decorated like a Christmas tree, almost every colored decoration and light was used on this tree. From this three came black cables with lights that went through every tree. It connected with the entire fortress. The amount of lights made it feel like the sky and ground were glittering. The occasionally falling snowflakes would pop into a random colored light when they were about one meter from hitting the ground.
Candy canes and popsicles grew out of the ground. Sometimes they even made natural walls and fences, creating a pathway. Fried Shrimp moved over to a smaller candy cane and gave it a look. After looking at her delighted face, I picked one up out of curiosity. After taking a lick, I held my hand on my left cheek and felt like I was surrounded by a bunch of great stars. But then, I had realized I acted like that and went back to a stern face. Telling her that we should continue. We took the candy canes with us nonetheless.
Sometimes, you could find random sleighs near a bunch of giant mushrooms. We sat in one, and as if in a light rollercoaster, we were taken through a more dense part of the forest to get to a new vast area. Whilst Fried Shrimp was trembling holding her cane tightly, I kept licking it calmly. Even when we got shot out of the Sleigh as it suddenly stopped, I would just calmly lick the cane in mid-air and casually land on the ground whilst Fried Shrimp was nearly covered in snow where she fell. I was a bit worried and made some small exhaling noises whilst running towards her and digging her out.
I climbed a tree whilst she was on my back. I wanted to get a good view of this place. When I knew where I was going, I took my sword and used it to slide from one black cable to a dense part of the forest. When I got close to the trees below, I had to let go. I saw that in dense areas, there were these brightly colored garlands hanging off trees as if they were vines. I decided to keep my momentum up and swing from garland to garland whilst holding a terrified Fried Shrimp in my left arm. We ended up between a huge ravine that cut off the main road. Fried Shrimp complained at me that we could move around it. But I didn't want to waste time to get on the other side. There was a giant tree over on the other side.
I took a Black Vine with lights and threw it at the giant tree. It entangled a branch high up. I grabbed the unwilling and fearful Fried Shrimp and whilst it was crying in horror, I swung over the ravine. I tried to land in style, but when my toes hit the ground, I tripped, rolled over, and hit a tree with my head. I sobbingly grabbed into my head whilst I heard Fried Shrimp pop out of the snow behind me. She hurried over to me, with some of the tiniest hops ever. She tried to rub my forehead to make it better. She also gave me a chocolate bar she got from a tree on where it grew. Yes, Chocolate bars grow like berries here. Instead of honey, you can find molten chocolate here too.
Some wolves with thick white fur carrying machetes in their mouths ran in circles around us, trying to intimidate us whilst some other monsters hid in the leaves above us throwing Christmas balls at us....That blew up. After avoiding their ambush, one by one, the wolves came at us. They roughly trampled over the roots of trees trying to get to us. Some creatures still threw the explosive Christmas balls whilst we were attacked by the wolves.
Hopping around to dodge the explosions, I fired an arrow at every wolf that jumped towards us, they came one by one clockwise, until one was sneaky enough to try to jump to my back. After a back jump, I let it nearly past me. I did a spin kick to shoot the wolf. in the direction he jumped to. I quickly turned around to shoot another wolf down, then, another one had the gull to try and attack Fried Shrimp. It felt like I moved at Super Speed when I leapt over to Fried Shrimp and grabbed the wolf by the fur on its chest, I immediately swung it against another incoming wolf before throwing it at a different wolf that was about to jump at us.
There were only two wolves left, one got close to me not long after I chucked the previous wolf, I stepped to the side to let it get closer before punching it away, jumped to avoid another Christmas ball, and finished them as I fired a light arrow through a wolf, I even hit two other wolves behind him with that arrow. When I landed, I froze up for a few seconds. The trees were rustling, something loud banged on the ground. I saw two trees nearby being broken through. A big blue wolf-like monster jumped in front of me. It was a common tough enemy known as, Fenrir.
It used its weight in an attempt to slam his right claw onto me. I slightly jumped to my right, dodging it. I kept evading his assault, jumping back from a swipe of its left claw, a thrust from another claw eluded me as I hopped to my left, I materialized my blade afterwards and deflected another slash from his right claw. He tried to gnaw me, so I hopped away from it backwards before moving forward and thrusting my blade against its head.
It wailed in pain, giving me an opportunity to slash him below the neck area. He didn't take that well and tried to basically grapple me and bite me, only for me to knock my blade against below its head, almost sending him flying. The pissed off monster growled whilst I saw some cold wind being absorbed into its mouth. I preemptively jumped in the air, and because of that, his big ice breath attack that looked like a flame only froze some trees.
Whilst I was high in the air, I materialized a hammer and used it to smash his back. After the crushing blow nearly stunned him, I casted light enchantment on my blade, and cut the Fenrir in half as I quickly jumped past it saying, "Mirror Blade!" I looked back at an infatuated Fried Shrimp, only to see her face turn grim. I heard the rustling of the leaves above us. Those Christmas ball bomb throwers revealed themselves and tried to stab us with sharpened candy cones. Although it might look like we were cornered, I had already shot a few bomb arrows into the air. With wind magic they curved and were shot back at the ground, blowing our ambushers up. Casually, I made a gesture to tell Fried Shrimp to keep moving with me.
We found an entrance to a crystal cave that will lead us into the crystal forest. It was very pretty inside, it was only one big area, one half of it will be dark when you're on the other half. Kind of bizarre, interesting nonetheless. There was a lot of water, some rivers coursed through the air going all kinds of ways. There also was a lake to the side. The water was not only clean and sweet, it was actually drinkable. I was surprised to find that it tasted like milkshakes. The fact that it was just water, structurally at well, made that feel really odd.
A big ice golem came out of the ground. He himself was floating and had a bunch of floating crystals around his whole body. He fired lasers at me, I could've deflected them, but I used them to exercise, dodging them all. Apparently, tinier crystals were moved along with the beams. They surrounded me and charged up a magical energy. With my Wind Sense, I could position myself perfectly so all the beams would miss me. I moved slightly two more times to make them elude me whilst I enchant my feet and sword with light.
With a single step at the speed of light, I was far behind the golem having sliced him in half with Mirror Blade. He wasn't done yet, he was using Ice magic to regenerate himself. He even tried to throw a barrage of icicles at me. With a bunch of evasive movements, I ran up to him and cut him with Hot Edge, the fire was melting him and stopped his regeneration. Three seconds later, and I used fire enchantment to easily cut him into a million pieces. I was quite impressed with the speed of my own slashes, I must've swung my sword about ten times a second.
When we moved out of the cave, we finally entered the crystal forest. As the name suggest, thees made out of crystals were all around us. We looked in awe as we saw light glimmering and being reflected from the sharp crystal leaves on these trees. Some floating ice paths curved around in the air. We even found a big ice slide. It was fun! We ran around this forest a lot while being chased by various monsters. The amount near the end was staggering, but jumping on top of them and jumping on and off trees whilst dicing them turned out to be a valid strategy.
The exit was defended by an Ancient dragon. Now, that wasn't an interesting fight. I finished him off as I did a spin before smashing an axe inside its mid-riff. Right as the axe cleaved inside the dragon, It blew up thanks to my explosion magic. I swung my axe further as the monster behind me was reduced to smoke. The exit was a crystal dome with an open roof. Inside was a giant christmasy tree with crystals in it. The same kind of decor you found at the 'Festival'. Surrounding it was a camp.
When we arrived, it had already become night. This whole adventure took us six hours. Sitting on a wooden tree trunk for a bench in front of a campfire, we looked up into the sky. Underneath a big moon, there were many stars that kind of looked like crystals from here. There were these rainbow colored lights that moved in waves. Even down here, there was some kind of incredibly thin rainbow mist.
"Bios. Bios.", the Fried Shrimp spoke to me, trying to get me back on Gamindustri.
"Hm?", I looked at her as if I were a confused baby.
"Do you like the moon that much? You looked like you were in some kind of spiritual trance!", she said.
I looked back at the sky and thought, "You know. When I was born. The first thing I saw were snowflakes. I've always find it calming in a way. When I look at stars, they make me think of snowflakes that had reached the sky rather than having fallen on the ground. And among them was the moon.", I started my explanation with that.
I reached my hand out to the moon as I said, "Sometimes, it feels like the moon is just one giant star. One star that had reached so far that it became big enough to be a planet. Like how some of us become small and end up becoming big. The moon makes me think that no matter how small and insignificant we are, if we go far enough, we'll become something special."
"Hm...Sounds nice...But isn't the sun a star that brightens up the moon...?", Fried Shrimp responded.
I chuckled before continuing, "True. in reality. The moon is a planet being that reflects the light of a star. But wouldn't it be cool? For a star to become a planet? Maybe even a fusion of both? I like to think about that. We know what's real. So let's think of something cool alongside the things that are real."
I smiled at the moon again and softly spoke, "One day. I will be able to fly. Like all the stars in space. I hope I will transform one day. And then...I want to reach the moon. I want to be there. Among the stars. When I have done so, I think I will be able to protect anyone from up there. I hope people can look up to me...and maybe feel better...It's a bit embarrassing to think about, though..."
After relaxing a bit more, I jumped out of my seat. I took some distance from the camp. And started practicing my punches. I heard a confused, "What are you doing?", behind me.
I turned around to see a...Concerned? Fried Shrimp.
I told her, "Training. I want to be able to infuse my fist with light. Maybe other parts of my body as well."
She looked even more perplexed and asked, "But aren't you already strong? You're amazing! Don't you know that?"
I said begrudgingly, "I'm not that good. I can fight now. But there are too many people stronger than me. Even if they can protect themselves, if they ever lose, I can't save them without being stronger. I won't ever lose anyone. And to do that, I have to make sure no one has power over me. I will become stronger. That's why I need to learn this. My feet need to move faster. My fists need power more devastating. My weapons will burst in energy. Until then, I won't stop.", I told him.
"I understand. Then, I will sleep. Don't be up too late, okay? I want to save my friends as soon as possible!", she told me.
I turned my head back at her and told her, "Of course. When you wake up, I wake up."
She went to a tent before me. I made sure the campfire could stay on. It required a few complex magical spells to do so. The fact that they were just simple spells stacked together was what made it hard. I constantly had to put a wait time on flame whilst defending the fire using ice spells to ward off snowflakes around it.
When the sun was rising, we headed out of the dome. In a wide land of nothing but snow, we sighted an igloo. Surrounding this area were a few dead trees. As we came close, I heard a familiar laugh. I looked a little to the upper right. on one of those branches, was that witch. Black Void.
Barely visible, she looked down on me saying, "Well. Who would've imagined the Key would just waltz up here. I'm impressed you dealt with that girl. How come you don't die as easily as the others?", she asked me.
"So they did all die...", I was thinking that to myself. It is quite sad that we didn't even know them.
I looked back to her and stated, "You won't defeat me. All you can do is tricks and summon monsters."
"That's quite high and mighty coming from the only one who can't transform.", she replied with a sneer.
It struck like an arrow through the heart. I knew it meant, "All the others could transform. So me not being able to simply means I suck...", that was in my head.
"Well...No matter. You want to save your little friends? You see. That's nice for you. But that is uninteresting for me to see. I would love to see you all cry as they get devoured in front of you.", she said, with a tone as sharp as a chainsaw, after her words crept into our minds, she snapped her fingers. A creature, not really menacing looking, but had an appearance of something hard to kill walked outside the igloo.
"Of course. I prefer being entertained. Just slaughtering is boring, you know? Now, please, do give me an interesting show. Ta ta.", she said before teleporting out of here.
Out of the Igloo came an odd looking monster. I suppose she summoned it from another world. It kind of looked like a white bear with a snow cap on. Its arms looked to be normal size, but its hands were shaped like giant snowballs, but their texture looked like knitted wool. Balls of wool was all over its body, it kind of stood like a gorilla, its eyes were covered in shadow. Its legs were tiny. Its main body was big and round, there was a gate on his belly that could open up.
"She summoned that thing? What is it supposed to be?", I asked.
"I don't know. But it guarded us for a while now. It sometimes was send out to test its strength. He probably got some people for it to receive a D-rank.", Fried Shrimp told me.
I enchanted me feet with magic before doing a few stretches.
"All right. I hope I can use these skills. This one seems tough.", I was thinking.
I took my blade out of its sheet and Light Stepped over to the monster.
The "Polar Woolbear" as I'm calling it, shot giant Ice cubes out of the gate of its belly.
It took me by surprise and only stepped out of its way at the nick of time. Ice cubes kept being shot out of its gate, It was tall enough to reach my neck, and it was quite a bit wider than me. Dodging them was hard, they came out quick, can instantly go in a different direction after being shot, and sometimes, he can fire off more of them at once.
Eventually, I jumped high into the air thinking I wouldn't have to worry about it then. As I landed on him, I yelled, "Light Slash!!", but only Flash Drive was casted from my sword, which only made it groan a bit before whilst U got back on the ground. He tried to smash me with its snowball hands, I didn't even need Light Step to jump back from it. After dodging it and seeing it hit the ground, I noticed it was capable of cracking the ground ever so slightly. His hands were harder than I thought.
I put the sword back in its sheet. Whilst it summoned a bunch of icicles pointed at me, I grabbed my bow and arrow. As it fired hundreds of ice shards my way, I evaded them at light speed whilst firing off arrows Imbued with the fire element. I got a glimpse of them piercing right through him, flames burning his wool and fur. I heard him growl too, so it was certainly working.
"Use Ice Coffin!", Is what I've heard before the Woolbear incurred a magical circle, with energy coming out of its mouth.
It certainly froze me up, it was my sister's favorite magic spell and it could use that? In that one second my guard was down, a small ice spike was formed near me, I jumped away, but left my bow behind, for it was already stuck. Now it was incased in ice.
I knew that voice belonged to black void, but I didn't want to slow down. I grabbed my sword out of its sheet and planned to light step through the woolbear whilst using Hot Edge. But when my arms were swung, My blade didn't move with me. I could tell from the wind, my sword was swapped with a snow flake.
I looked up in the air and saw her casually sitting with her butt on a staff floating in the air.
"Now now. No weapons allowed. That would be boring, wouldn't it?"
"How unpredictable. I thought for sure she would actually leave.", I was mortified to the point where I didn't even react to her hand motion signifying the monster to attack me. With a swing from its snowball fist, he launched me into the air, I was even rolling over in a bow through the wind. I felt a bruise as I stood up and held my hand on the side of my face.
"Inventory lock", that witch said as she snapped her fingers, she then looked with a condescending face at me and clarified, "It is much more powerful than Item jam. It also is a magic from my dimension. Very hard to use and master. But I have now locked all inventory usage in this space."
I looked at the woolbear before it roared at me and shot more icicles my way. I didn't have to dodge them one by one, I could simply leap far to the left, letting them elude me.
Afterwards, I dashed over to the woolbear, He also slightly came my way. He wanted to smash his fist onto me, and I greeted him with my own fist. I clashed mine fist with his, only to pull back in pain after an ice pike came out of its fist. I saw a glance of ice pikes from his fists returning inside.
Meanwhile, it wanted to smash me with its other fist. A bunch of ice pikes came from inside, it was practically a spiked ball now. But, the gaps were wide enough for me to punch it back. With all my strength, I pushed my fist against its own, but the cold of the ice pikes weakened me, the thing itself was just a little stronger than me as well. He ended up pushing me far back. I had my eyes closed from the pain, when I opened them again, I saw that thing chuck its hands towards me. Who knew that its snowball fists were detachable.
What effectively was an spiked ball was thrown my way, ripping through the air at high velocity. but as a speedster, that was obviously too slow for me. I dodged it easily, but little did I predict it would blow up behind me, its spikes hurting my back. I was forced on one knee with my left leg leaning backwards. I stood back up again and saw the snowball on his arm regenerate. He then thrust his snowball fist forward with the weight of his entire body, lifting himself up. After a front flip, he turned himself into a giant snow bolder with giant ice pikes coming out.
He wasn't fast enough to catch up to my speed, side stepping out of the way was easy. But he was relentless, and I had no way to hit him. Every time he missed, he just did a u-turn and rolled over to me at high speed. Eventually, the gap between my side steps closed as I thought it would be a wasteful movement to gain any distance. He seemed to have banked on it, for he instantly stopped behind me. I looked back as he glowed in a bright light-blue light. I knew what it was about to do, but it was too late. All I could do was shield my face and heart with my arms.
He blew up, lifting me in the air with a heavy wind as hundreds of spikes damaged me. And if that weren't enough, out of his snowball from, he punched me with his ice pike fist up high into the sky. It hurt a lot. it felt like a thousand needles fell off of me as I leaned forwards to look down at the monster. He rolled into a snow ball again. Whilst rolling with much strength, he didn't really move anywhere. I figured he was going up instead. I leaned my body away so that he would go past me after he launched himself from the ground.
Yes, I was able to dodge him as he flew past me, on the other hand, I couldn't move much, and he was out of his snow ball, about to hit me. With a smash from both fists, I was shot onto the ground. The snow underneath blew away, revealing the cracked ground beneath me. I felt the ground shake after an obnoxious noise, I didn't need to look, which was good, because I was too busy standing up.
He didn't care for an honorable fight, for he wouldn't even let me recover.
He shot a bunch of ice cubes again. I thought jumping around them wouldn't be too difficult.
But then he also threw one Ice Coffin into the mix, dodging that made it hard for me to avoid an incoming ice-cube. So I was hit in the face. Now, I found that odd. How could it hit me in the face if it doesn't reach above my neck? I noticed Ice cubes being shot over the ground. Now they could vertically change their directions. My movement was getting limited. Light Step wasn't smooth enough to move around with these objects. I could only go in straight lines. Even If I avoided one, once they touch me, they would limit my movement even more. at some point, I had to jump on one of them, good luck jumping off that, I just slid over it and bumped my head against another ice cube.
The barrage of ice cubes shot me back. It felt like my nerves were being shattered as dozens were hitting against me. In the end, I laid down with a few piles of cubes on my upper body. I heard that witch cackle in the background. But that soon stopped after she questioned, "What is that noise"
As troublesome as it was to throw the ice cubes off me with the pain I felt, I did so anyway and stood up. Standing up was awkward, it felt like creaking noises should have come from me as I stood.
But I was confident when I spoke, "Ah...Those would be my flame arrows."
Black Void looked at me with the face of an outplayed card game player.
"Those flames arrows. I curved them and had them stabbed into the igloo. An Igloo is pretty thick, the flames weren't warm enough. However, they were magical, so they wouldn't just simply dwindle away. Eventually, they would melt the base of these Ice bricks. Now...", I said as the roof of the Igloo exploded.
"How! I was certain you had to snap your fingers for them to curve!", she said.
"Who stated that? Well, I can't blame you. I do that to look cool and fool over-analytical fools like yourself.", I answered smugly.
"And what does that chance, if I may ask?", Black Void asked, sounding like she was composing herself by mocking me.
"Why, getting to that cage is much easier with a giant hole in your roof, especially when fighting such a big monster that tends to shoot me up high."
Black Void tried to command her monster, but I gave it a distraction using the shine spell on its eyes, and the flame spell to hurt it a little. My intelligence stat wasn't high enough to do any damage. but the light blinded him for a few seconds and the flames irritated its fur.
It was too late when it stared me down, I was ready to punch it in the gut. As it was being pushed back with its belly in pain, I heard a loud, "WHAT?!", from Black Void.
In a rage, he tried to slam me after I was back on the ground, I easily dodged its fist by jumping of its right. From there, I jumped up to its face and swung my left fist at it. With my fist slightly twisting its head, it took a few steps back is it tried to shake off the force of my fist.
Angrily, it tried to smash me with its left arm again, I jumped to the left and did a spin kick back to its left arm so it would hit the ground next to me, he quickly held his other arm in the air for another smash, but I was already jumping over to his face by then. After I kicked his chin up, I pulled back whilst he dropped his right arm. He wouldn't give up, however, he tried to swing his right arm from my side this time, I stopped it by punching its joint with the back of my hand, albeit, it didn't actually make the arm idle, but it was weakened enough for me to wrap my arm around it.
I used my arms to slide around the arm, giving me momentum to get to the other arm. When my feet were on the other arm, I jumped over to its face and planted both of me feet on its cheek before shooting past him, I think I heard his neck cracking. Stunned from his neck nearly breaking, I hopped over to him and made him slide over the snow by hitting him with a mid-air roundhouse kick.
After waving his arms around whilst trying to regain his balance, he managed to jump over to me with another attempt at squashing me under his fists made of snow and ice pikes. I jumped back a little bit and let it hit the floor. I figured it was going to explode, so I jumped just before a Pike was about to hit my feet. I put me feet on a pike whilst holding onto it with my hand, I rode it into the air, when I was high enough, I jumped off. I looked at the Igloo.
My eyes lit up a little, for I saw Fried Shrimp trying to free the friends inside the igloo.
"What a girl. He sneaked around that monster? Whilst she was looking? That takes a bit of guts. Let me help you.", I though whilst I smiled thinking of how much more respect I had for him now.
I was taken out of it as I heard Black Void, "She's going to dive into the igloo! Quick, kill her!"
And thus, a bunch of ice shards were shot at me. But that was what I needed. I positioned myself so they would pass. One of them, however, I needed for myself. So I grabbed a shard before it could go over my head.
After doing a back flip, I held the shard on my foot. I kicked it, shooting it at light speed. It pierced through the woolbear, it broke through the igloo, and it destroyed the lock of the cage.
I saw how Fried Shrimp was so overjoyed that it almost brought her to tears, whilst her friends were dashing out of the cave. When I landed on the ground, however, I could only hear, "Kill them! Don't give them a happy ending!!"
I was horrified to see that thing destroy the igloo with its fist made of ice pikes.
With adrenaline, I rushed over to the scene. I saw the other creatures that looked like Fried Shrimp move from the rubble. They weren't hit yet. I finally saw that Fried Shrimp was escaping with them. But as I got closer, that thing was going to smash his fist into them again. I tried to jump over to them, but he was going to stop me with an Ice Coffin. I had to jump away so I could move forward, but that slowed me down. I saw how he had fired a blizzard of icicles my way, whilst throwing his fist at Fried Shrimp and its friends. I couldn't both dodge the icicles and save them.
So I let myself get hit as I ran through the icicles, I thought I could get there in time, but then I noticed, he had shot one Ice Pike out of its fist, and it was directly aimed at Fried Shrimp.
I was in distraught. It's like when you're about to die and your brain suddenly goes on full capacity, slowing down time to get you to think of everything in order to escape your demise.
"Right now, if I used Light Step, I would be fast enough to save him, but them his friends would be crushed. If I don't use light step, I would be able to move well, letting me avoid more attacks and saving his friends, but I would be too slow to save him. I had to somehow mix them. The only way to do that was to control the enchantment, so, I had to use level 4. Everything went dark. Only I existed, until there was nothing. I tried to imagine, using a burst of flowing light for movement...
But that just doesn't work. I need to move smoothly...A fluid form, like water. I needed the light to flow, like a river.", I was deep in thought.
"But Light doesn't move like that, I didn't think.", I said in my head before elaborating, "A river could elegantly change it movements quickly just by something touching it. It could change shape and move anywhere it wanted to. However, It wouldn't move me quick enough, and water magic was not easy, it was basically ice element, to get it to be water is something not even Rom and Ram could do. It had to be light, but Light only moved in a straight line. It only changed directions with...Mirrors...
I continued this thought into a realization, "Lights. Smokes. Mirrors. Words often used to for tools for men to create illusions... Magic isn't reality."
I thought more and more like this. And finally, I came with an imagination that felt far more natural, "Instead of thinking of a burst of flowing lights. I should think of moving like river. To make light flow, I will imagine it moving using a million mirrors, and I will have it shoot when necessary, like smoke."
Everything got clear again, my friend was within my vision. With a burning feeling in my feet, I yelled internally, "I will safe them!!"
Without the enchantment of light step, I managed to leap over to Fried Shrimp and grab her in the nick of time. At high speed, with a trail of lights coming from under my feet, I grabbed and placed the other little creatures away from the monster. I stopped a few times to let it think it could hit me, only to speed out of his way. It shot icicles, and used a bunch of ice coffins, but I elegantly moved around them, it almost looked like a flowing trail of light was binding the attacks.
After getting them out of the way, I had returned to my original position. There I stopped to look at the monster, feeling triumphant.
"What did you do? What kind of magic is that?", Black Void.
"Light Flow...", I named it on the spot.
A flowing burst of light was shot from underneath my feet. It let me move fast like reflection feet, but I control the flow of the light by imagining a million mirrors controlling its direction.
"Don't think you've won! Woolbear!! Use Ice cube paradox!!", Black Void shouted.
A bunch of ice cubes were shot out of its gate, although this time, they were getting into position. A lot of then floated in mid-air, about a hundred of them were about to be flung at me. But I was fine.
I could easily move alongside the ice cubes, I even was able to jump on one and jump off it right after with no trouble. The trail of light chased me even in the air as I jumped on the sides of the ice cubes that were flung above the ground.
I left a flowing river of light as I bounced from cube to cube before reaching for the woolbear. With light gathering in my fist, I punched him, even if it was for less than a second, his feet were lifted from the ground. I did a flip before getting back to the ground, one instant later, and I launched myself to his face. A stream of light burst from my left foot as I let my leg swing to kick the monster in the face, the underneath side of my foot flashed before the Woolbear was blown away from my kick.
It had to stop itself by sliding its arms over the ground.
I watched it angrily get up and move over to me. With a confident smile, I pulled my fist near my side as I said, "Bring it on..."
It raised its arms as ice pikes came from his fist. My own hand started to burst with a light.
As its spiked ball came down to me, more ice pikes came out until its fist was just one giant spike orb, leaving no gap, sparing no thought, I threw my punch as my fist glowed with white light.
I broke through his ice as the upper swing of my fist blew his into the air whilst its ice shattered in pieces.
Whilst it was nearly losing its balance from the force of my blow, I leapt back a hundred meters.
"Now...Finishing move...", I said as I lifted my heels from the ground, a blazing trail of light burst out underneath my feet. I could feel the wind shooting the snow into the air as I waved my arms around my sides before pulling my fist back.
"Shooting star...BURST!", With much strength, I shot myself right at the monster. It felt like I was launched out of a cannon. Against the heavy wind, I threw my punch which also burst with light.
I think I stretched its stomach to its back, my fist's impact certainly broke something. With flowing light coming from my fist, I pushed further until I shot him into the sky whilst shouting, "Light Speed Reflection Punch!!"
I landed on the ground, exhaling to relax myself. But when I looked into the air, I was surprised to see it was still kicking. It looked at me before rolling into a spiked snowball and rolled my way.
I had time to get to my bow and arrow. I used flame magic to weaken the ice before thrusting my light fist into it. After I got my bow out of the ice, I shot myself over the Woolbear.
With a front flip, I added force to my kick to shoot him with its back onto the ground. Before he could even land, I shot multiple fire arrows towards him. Once on the ground, The arrows pierced through him and stuck to the ground. With them on fire, the woolbear was roaring in pain.
In the time I was dropping down, Black Void snapped her fingers and said, "Magic Lock!"
But nothing happened. When I was on the ground, I heard her whine, "Why did it not work?"
"Just because they're flame arrows, doesn't mean I used magic to get them to burn.", I replied with a dry voice and expression. She examined closely and saw that, unlike the prior arrows, these ones had oil on them.
"Damn it! Item effect lock!!", that magic did cause the flaming arrows to stop, however.
"Explosion!!", I yelled, causing the arrows to blow up inside the monster, effectively killing it.
I looked at Black void and asked, "You can only lock one thing at a time, can't you?"
After seeing her grinding her teeth, I materialized a common spear and chucked it at her.
She quickly teleported, dropping my blade. After grabbing my sword, I looked back at her.
She forced her face to not look annoyed, and with a smug appearence, she said, "Well done, Key. Even though it didn't go my way, I was quite entertained. But I doubt you'll actually outlive my next creature. Until then..."
And she teleported out of here. In the meantime, Fried Shrimp's friends gathered around me.
They all were praising me, calling me the "Second Bea", I still don't know what that means.
Either way, Fried Shrimp jumped into my chest, and as I held her, she told me with tears of joy, "Bios!! Thank you!! You were...Absolutely amazing!!"
I could only laugh back at him nervously. I then said to all of them, "Let's go to Lowee."
Of course, we felt the need to celebrate. In the camps ground, we gathered everything we could use.
Over the campfire, we cooked some nice meat. I quickly headed off to fill a bunch of cups with the water from that cave. I watched them dance around with some stupid looking colorful balls on sticks. A monster did attack us, but with light flow, I easily jumped towards it and kicked it into a wall.
They all looked at me in awe as I elegantly landed back on my seat with a smile and my eyes closed.
"I'm sorry, but we don't have all day. So, can we party whilst moving back? Like a parade. Don't worry about monsters. I feel quite sure I can defeat them with no effort.", were the words I used.
They all cheered me on. Maybe not because of the idea itself, but by how much they trust me. I could feel it. Their shares. Fried Shrimp came up to me and told me, "When I wanted to go with you, I never thought you were like this. How did you become so amazing?"
I looked over in the distance and said, "I told you, didn't I? I have to catch up to the others. I can't transform yet, so I have to make up for it with work. I should at least be amazing, or else I can never rise to save everyone when needed."
Happily, we marched back home. The creatures weren't worried in the slightest. Even when monsters showed up. They even carried a huge seat for me, even if I didn't always sit in it, for I felt the need to do a few dance moves as well.
We certainly made a triumphant return. Everyone was looking when we got inside the city. I got a bit embarrassed, so I hid behind the chair. C-Sha happened to walk by.
She certainly looked like she saw a marching band come out of thin air. I explained to her what happened.
"That's quite the tall tale. Didn't I tell you, you could rely on us at all times? Why did you head out alone again?", C-Sha said. Her face was neutral, I didn't know how she felt.
"Please don't tell big sis about this!", I said. I saw C-Sha had a questioning face, thus I explained, "You see? I want to get stronger. I want to keep getting better and better. I don't want big sis to think much of me, I might disappoint her! I am this close to getting super strong! So, please, don't tell her anything!"
C-Sha chuckled before standing tall and telling me, "I get it. I won't tell her anything. But still, don't do anything dangerous by yourself. Oh, and even if I don't tell her. Do you think it matters?"
I looked at her funny, what was she talking about?
"Your big sister already thinks you're amazing. And there's no way you can disappoint her.", she said.
I looked away feeling shame as I said, "I am not actually that good...I think."
With a cocky smile, she looked at me and said, "What are you on about? This last month you've done nothing but great things, haven't you? Even I know."
She crouched and patted me on the head saying, "Bios. Just keep saving people like you're doing now. Strong or weak, it doesn't matter what you are. You're already doing a great job. Don't forget that. Also, don't do it alone. Okay?"
I looked at her in the face and nodded.
"With that said. I have a few errands myself. And you've given me another one with these guys. I'll see if I can get Uzume to help me pick them up.", C-Sha said as she stood up and walked away whilst waving at me. In the next second, she looked at the group of creatures and told them to follow her.
I stared at her, deep in thought. I couldn't think of much what she said however, as Fried Shrimp jumped on my shoulder and said, "You should give yourself more credit, Bios!"
I made a little, "Ah!" whilst fidgeting before looking at her.
"What are you doing here? Shouldn't you go back with your friends?!", I replied.
"I think sticking around with you is more interesting. I would love to see Uzume again. But I want to see you achieve your dream.", she replied.
"My dream?", I asked with a perplexed face.
"Yeah. One day. You'll reach for the stars, right? Uzume's dream will take longer, so I think I can stick around to see yours come first. Will you let me be your friend?", she asked me.
She got me dead silent at first. But when I thought about it, she probably wants to help me grow.
"Hey. Did you do the same for Uzume?", I asked her.
"You're smart too, aren't you? Uzume, she needed a bit of help. Here growth was a bit more sad, but now I can see her happy every day...Well, before that witch captured me. I know, Uzume is still doing what she wants with a smile. Now I want to see you like that too.", she told me.
I sighed and looked at the sky, "Fine then. Let's do it. Stick around and I'll show you. How I will take flight. And with a smile, I will save everyone."
To Be Continued...