Ascension: Online

After about 15 minutes of walking, we decided to take a short break. It had already been over 3 hours since we set off from Tianyin. The current time was 4:15 PM, and there was still no visible end to this forest, although it was clear we were heading downwards. As long as followed this path, we would eventually arrive at the base of the mountain - hopefully, anyway. I noticed that there were plenty of twists and turns to the path, but it wasn't too difficult to follow.

We sat down near some trees and set our weapons aside, constantly keeping an eye on our surroundings. The roar from earlier was still sound in our memories, and we weren't about to let our guard down here - hence the reason why we all took our weapons out of our inventories after hearing that.

Then, I stood up.

"Where are you going, Kaze-kun?" Hina-nee asked softly, eyeing me with curiosity.

"A quick bathroom trip," I replied. Since we could eat and drink in this game, it was only natural we also had to excrete waste from our bodies.

I headed a little deeper into the forest since I didn't want anyone to watch me use the bathroom, obviously. After looking around for a suitable location, I found a couple of rocks laying on the ground. Deciding that was a good place, I unbuckled my Corruptor Pants.

As an aside, one of the rocks happened to be extremely round, like a perfect sphere. This was certainly rare, but not impossible. I didn't pay it too much attention.

"Ah… finally," I sighed in satisfaction. I had been holding this in for the entire walk, not wanting to be the one to slow everyone else down just because I needed to use the bathroom. Obviously, everyone needed to do this every once in a while - it's part of our bodies' natural functions - but it was still embarrassing to bring it up.

Suddenly, as I was about to finish my business, the sphere-like rock moved. I frowned. It was a literal rock; how could it move? I shook my head and just decided it was the wind or something.

But then, it moved again. This time, more violently. Now I had to believe it, whether I liked it or not: this literal ball of a rock, had just moved.

"What…" I couldn't help but murmur in surprise as I finished my business up. I closed my eyes, let out a sigh of relief, and opened them agai-

I found myself staring at a massive armadillo, straight into its malevolence-filled demon-like eyes.

"ROAR!"

"Oh, shit-!"

I hurriedly buckled up my pants and ran the other direction. The armadillo howled in anger once again and gave chase, its enormous body ramming straight through the forest, knocking over trees one after another.

"Vanishing Clouds!"

In a panic, I said the skill name out loud, but that was fine, since apparently, it worked. I was propelled forward by a sudden burst of speed that managed to help me gain some distance between the huge creature and I. However, even with this plus my AGI stat of 80, the armadillo was somehow faster than me. Each of his strides were three times the length of mine, given his large body. At this rate, I was going to get caught.

"God damn it!" I yelled, gritting my teeth and running for dear life. I had never sprinted like this, not even back during the Trial of the Sprinter. Getting hunted by spinning mechanical sawblades just was not on the same level of terrifying as getting chased down by a massive armored armadillo.

But now, the edge of this side of the forest was in sight. If I could just make it there, I would arrive back at the path, where Hina-nee and the others were waiting. As long as I could get there… I had a chance at survival. There was no way for me to take this thing down on my own, but if it were the six of us working together…

There! Just a few more steps-

I made the final stride into a leap with all of my strength. I didn't exactly stick the landing, but that was fine. I rolled on the ground before hurriedly getting my feet, turning around, and facing the forest I had just jumped out from.

"Huh? K-Kaze-kun? Are you okay…?" Hina-nee asked gently.

"Oi, Igarashi, the hell-"

And at that moment, the armadillo charged out of the forest, wildly knocking over the last remaining trees in its path and leaving a trail of utter destruction behind it.

Ichigo, who had just been about to ask me what happened, dropped his jaw in shock.

"What the actual fuck?!"

"Agh, bloody hell! There's no way in hell we can run!" Jim cried in frustration and retrieving his sword.

"Tch… Kaze, you're a walking disaster!" Furuwa complained and drew her sword as well.

"You can complain all you want later!" I yelled and took out Dokujin, eyeing the armadillo in annoyance. Hina-nee, Horiya, and Ichigo did the same.

Together, the six of us leaped towards the beast from all six directions. It roared, the deafening noise shuddering in our eardrums.

"Ngh-!" I fell back a bit, the others doing the same. The sheer impact of its booming howl was enough to defend against our attacks.

It was clear this opponent was far stronger than any other we've faced so far - perhaps even too strong for us at our current stage. But we had no other choice, unless we wanted to perish here.

"Grahhh!" Ichigo yelled, leaping in once more. However, before he could even do anything, he was swiped away by one of the armadillo's arms, devastatingly crashing into a nearby (unbroken) tree.

"Pwough…" Ichigo spat, blood dripping out of his mouth as he slowly got back up. "Damn it, this thing hits hard… Igarashi, how the hell did you even manage to attract this thing?!"

"I… I think I accidentally pissed on it!" I shouted in reply, jumping into the fray with Hina-nee following me. This time, the two of us were aiming for its throat, attempting to severe its head from its body.

"Pissed on it?! How do you 'accidentally' piss on something this huge?!"

But I didn't have time to respond to Ichigo's remarks. The armadillo, anticipating our attack, curled up slightly and leaned forward right before we were about to hit its throat together. Our metal blades struck its hard, smooth armor instead.

"Ngh-!" Hina-nee and I both fell backwards from the backlash, and the two of us retreated to a distance away. I glanced down at my dagger and saw that while it was fine, one of Hina-nee's Sai were broken - hers weren't from the Vault of Corruption, after all. It wasn't as strong.

"Tch, it's back is too hard…" I muttered in frustration.

"That thing… is it a bloody armadillo?!" Jim's eyes widened in surprise. "How in bloody hell is it this big?!"

"Save your questions for later!" Furuwa roared before going in herself, Ichigo accompanying her as they went for the same location Hina-nee and I had just tried attacking.

However, their strategy was slightly different from ours. While Furuwa and Ichigo were distracting the armadillo in front, Horiya attempted to cut off the creature's tail, which was exposed - on the surface, anyway. As Furuwa and Ichigo were knocked back by the creature's arm swipes once more, Horiya cut down at its tail with all his might.

But with a loud clang, Horiya was forced to retreat as well.

"Damn it, even its tail is covered?!" he shouted in frustration.

The armadillo then roared once again before picking up one of the broken trees and throwing it in Jim's direction. He managed to dodge out of the way by hiding behind another tree, but the enormous armadillo wasn't done yet. It continued to pick up massive trunks off the floor and throwing them at us, one after another.

As we attempted to dodge, Jim complained. "Bloody hell, nothin' is showin' up for me! I can't tell what its weakness is!"

Indeed, just like Jim had said, no hologram was popping up and telling us what this creature exactly was and how we could defeat it. Apparently, our Systems wanted us to figure out this one on our own.

"Yeah… its whole body is covered with that armor- oh, crap!" Ichigo yelled as he barely managed to avoid being decapitated by a flying tree.

Hearing those words, I fell into thought. "Whole body…?"

I then glanced at the creature, and a thought struck me. "No… that's not true…!"

Then, turning to the others, I shouted directions. "Everyone! Distract the armadillo from all directions!"

"Huh? We're kind of getting pinned down here!" Furuwa yelled. "How do you expect us to go out and distract it?!"

"Just trust me! If you can pull that off, I can kill this thing, I promise!"

"Ight, kid, I don't know where ya get that bloody confidence from, but screw it!"

Saying this, he charged towards the armadillo, sword at the ready. The other four did the same.

"I believe in you, Kaze-kun!" Hina-nee encouraged warmly before dashing into the fight herself.

They weren't going to do much damage here, but this was fine. All they needed to do was to distract the armadillo from all directions… leaving an opening for me to attack.

I gripped my dagger tightly in my hand, and waited for the perfect opportunity to strike.