(Unknown planet - Seksulfur's P.O.V)
Darkness.
That was the only thing my senses could percieve in the alien's belly. My breath was the only thing I could hear and an unfamiliar stream of adrenaline slowly began to creep up from within my chest.
Kill
Kill
KILL!!
A bloodthirsty grin flashed across my face as my heartbeat grew increasingly excited with each passing second.
"Storage cube", I muttered, immediately pulling out a weapon from the floating storage device.
[Dzilaiza: Connecting... Connecting... Connection established. Activating menertical blade]
The voice of my tech gear echoed within the tiny space.
My grip on the longsword's hilt tightened while a strange pulse of energy fluctuated along its entire length.
Just then, a disgusting yellow liquid spewed out from the bottom of the litzizi's belly. The putrid stench forced my nose to wrinkle as my powerful sense of smell kicked in at the worst time possible.
[Dzilaiza: Digestive process detected. Estimated time until complete breakdown... 5 minutes]
I growled in response, frantically trying to pierce the walls of the small chamber.
The charged blade barely even made a scratch as a thick protective goo plastered the walls and absorbed every single thrust.
"Tch!"
Kill
Kill
Kill! Tear it down!! Rip it to shreds and feast on its remains!!!
A bloodcurdling growl bubbled up from within my chest as my impatience only grew larger and larger! I needed to rip it apart!
I wanted it dead! Dead in the most gruesome way I could think of!!
[Dzilaiza: 3 minutes...]
The putrid yellow liquid was now at my waist level and I could feel the lower half of my body begin to heat up as the digestive juices began to sizzle.
Strange motions suddenly erupted within the belly.
Was it beginning to contract!?
Heh
My attempts at piercing the monster's belly died down.
This was a fucking plant
An inferior alien, a useless creature desperate to live.
Of course... I was desperate to live as well.
Yes, desperate creatures were the most dangerous of all.
To them, there was nothing to lose at that moment.
Nothing to lose...
Was there nothing to lose?
[Dzilaiza: 1 minute...]
I felt my bones beginning to fall apart as the pressure from the belly's contraction got larger and larger.
But I didn't care...
My grin twitched, "Die, bastard."
*Stab!*
The menertical blade easily punched through the litzizi's belly. Crackling menergy illuminated the dark interior as the blade reached its highest charge.
I only needed time for it to be completely sharp... and now
*Slash!!*
With fluid movements, several slice marks danced around the creature's entire body. An explosive boom sounded throughout the death forest as the litzizi's sliced up pieces fell to the ground with a dull thud.
The alien let out a small shriek of pain before it finally died off.
Food
Food
Food...
Saliva drooped down the sides of my mouth as my canines gleamed ominously in the moonlight.
What attracted me wasn't the vegetative parts of the plant. There was something else inside it... something made of pure meat.
I took a step foward, ready to tear through the alien and obtain my reward until...
"Sek!", a familiar voice tore through my messy thoughts.
Was it Dzinu?
Yes, it sounded like him... Dzinu.
Several thorned vines shot towards my direction. It seemed like I had angered the other alien plants as every single 'tree' revealed their distorted vertical mouths.
"Heh, bring it!", I smirked, ready to take them all on but the vines suddenly stopped in mid-air. My eyes then widened in response.
Why did they suddenly stop?
[Dzilaiza: Temperatures are rising]
Vibrations rang throughout the ground as beams of sunlight slowly exposed themselves in the horizon.
Every single one of those litzizi immediately retracted their thorned vines and began to rush into the ground.
Within seconds, the so-called forest from before was nowhere in sight. Vast desert lands now spread as far as the eye could see and a layer of protective shielding just inches above my skin slightly reflected the sunlight.
"Huh", I relaxed my shoulders and placed my weapon back into the storage cube. "They left."
"Seksulfur...", the voice from before called out.
"Ah", my body turned around, leaving me face to face with the moon sword. "Dzinu!"
"You...", he began. "You're a complete lunatic!!"
It took me a while before those words sank into my head, "... Eh?"
"If you hadn't been extremely careful from the start then none of this would've happened!", Dzinu snapped. "Who knows what would've happened if the sun hadn't come up!? You lack the ability to reason!"
"Ahaha...", cold sweat ran down the sides of my face.
" 'Heh, bring it', he says!", he spoke with sheer mockery. "I've had it! I'll be teaching you how to fight from now on!!"
"What!?", my eyebrows furrowed in response to my slight anger. "How else do you think I've survived so far!?"
"Luck"
"Pffffffttttt!!", I twitched. "Luck!?"
"I'll teach you how to fight", Dzinu sighed and then said in a firm tone. "With your brain."
...
I was about to say something, but the aura of malice he emitted was enough to kill the words in my throat.
"F- Fine", I scratched my head. "Just, let me take a drink- uh."
The small pool of water from before had vanished too!?
Damn this! Damn it all!!
An air of gloominess wafted around me as I picked Dzinu up and placed him in my horizontal sword holder on the back of my waist.
And with a sullen tone I said, "Okay then, let's start I guess."
.
.
.
(6 hours later...)
"WHAT THE FUCK DZINU!"
*BOOM!*
Mountains of dust erupted violently into the air as yet another powerful exploding plasma bullet had missed my face by a few centimetres.
I didn't think Dzinu's idea of 'training' was going to be this insane!
It all started an hour after I decided to let him 'train' me. He had explained something about Sword techiniques and Sword-Wielder techniques.
Dzinu was able to execute certain skills on his own like 'Discover' or 'Invisible' for example. However, he dwealt more on the sword-wielder techniques which involved both the sword and the wielder... as the name implies.
He didn't say much though.
The only thing he did was give me a few instructions to follow and before I knew it-
"Tch!"
My thoughts were cut short right after I noticed a black spot on the ground.
Something was coming!
I immediately moved in time to evade a normal plasma shot while nanites erupted from a small device on my back. The nanites spread across my body and before I knew it, I was donned in an exclusive Crux Coelestis battlesuit.
A group of nanites then rushed towards my right palm and materialised into a plasma gun. The gun was identical to the one my attacker used.
"Eat this!"
*Bzzt!*
My instincts suddenly kicked in!
Behind!
It was warning me of something behind!
But..
There was not enough reaction time! Sudden force slammed upon my body from behind, sending me into a high speed crash. Face flat.
"Dzinu...", I groaned while standing up. "You're a madman."
Awkward vibrations could be felt within the sword pocket on my back.
He was definitely enjoying it! The idiot!
My eyes narrowed with a deadly glare. I was in the centre of attention. Three identical copies of me surrounded me, returning the same glare.
It made my blood run cold.
Yeah, it wasn't really nice to be beaten by copies of yourself.
Moon shadow
That was the name of the sword-wielder technique we had unleased. It was able to create perfect mirror copies of me however, there was an extreme limit.
The number of copies varied with the number of skills I alone possessed. My natural skills provided me with just three; hearing, smell and listening skills.
Each clone could have just one of those natural instincts. It was a completely useless technique!! How was I supposed to unleash full-force attacks when these clones were nerfed so much!?
It was faint but I had a small feeling in me that told me that the technique would get improved over the course of time.
Well, that was something to think about later.