[The Dreadlord of The Planes Has Descended!]
What. The. Fuck?
Hey, Universe, did you get hit in the head or something? I never agreed to that title!
[Many Curious Gods Have Started To The Situation With Great Interest]
Oh, now there are snoopers gathering. This is just so awesome.
Fine. If a show's what you want, a show's what I'm gonna give you.
I take the Murckle in my hand and throw it haphazardly.
"Alright you motherfucker. I haven't seriously fought an Aura user so I'll have you be my training partner. Don't go dying on me now."
The monster, that was once so aggressive, looks at me with pitiful eyes and scurries off.
"Nuh uh. We can't have that now. We got an audience to entertain."
Then, with a snap of my fingers, a blue translucent barrier surrounds us and stops it in its tracks. Finding itself trapped, it desperately bashes its shoulder onto the barrier to no avail. It then throws its black goop onto it but it regenerates before it could get out.
"Interesting... So Aura's like some sort of super acid. It'll destroy as long as there's enough of it to react."
Seeing that taking out the barrier is impossible, it then turns its aggression towards me.
"SHRIIEEEEEEK"
I cover my ears just in time.
"Wow, you should really take up singing. You'll put even Mary Cary to shame with that high note."
Without skipping a beat, it lunges at me with its gnarly claws. Nothing that a good parry can stop. I then swiftly stomp on its knee which makes it collapse after an audible crack.
"SHRIEEEEEK," it howls as it nurses its busted knee.
"Hey now, I barely tapped you."
[The Gods Belonging to The Good Alignment Are Furrowing Their Brows In Disappointment]
[The Gods Belonging to The Evil Alignment Are Rubbing Their Hands With Expectation]
"Oi! The peanut gallery over there. You're free to watch but I don't need y'all judging me."
[The Gods Are Appalled At Your Arrogance]
[The Evil God, Midnight Drinker, Decides To Spice Up The Fight]
After that notice, the Murckle stops howling and pops its knee in place. It's producing a menacing aura about it as it faces me once again.
[Warning: Murckle is Affected By "Stupor of Madness"]
Its eyes turn milk white and as it shrieks, gallons of saliva flow from its rancid mouth. Then, with renewed power flowing through its body, it aims its razor teeth onto my neck like a bullet.
"Woah!" I exclaim as I immediately side step to safety.
Then, using the momentum, I anchor my feet to the ground and plant my fist on its ribs.
[Fist Technique: First Breath]
My Mana bursts and propels him a few meters away from me.
I felt it. His ribs shattered and some of his internal organs ruptured from the hit. But instead of crying out in pain like before, it just stands up again like nothing happened.
[The Evil God, Midnight Drinker, Is Proud of What He Did]
"What the hell, man. I wanted to fight it while it uses Aura. Now, it's nothing more than an animal."
The Murckle lunges at me again. It's clear that all intelligence has left it and it's just using its pure instinct and aggression to attack me.
I guess there's no point to drag this on anymore. Using the monster's momentum against it, I grab its face and plunge it to the ground.
[Lightning Bolt]
In that instance, the entire area within the barrier is filled with crackling lightning. And afterwards, the monster is nothing but a charred corpse; unrecognizable beyond belief.
I then put my middle finger high up to the sky to defy my spectators.
"Hey! If any of you fuckers meddle with my fight again, I'll personally find a way to get to you and bitch slap you until I'm satisfied! Capiche?!"
[Some Neutral Gods Are Amused By Your Behavior]
[Many Gods Are Offended That A Mere Mortal Is Threatening Them]
[The Gods Have Stopped Observing You]
Fucking snoopers...
In any case, this fight's dealt with so I can finally finish up.
[Inventory]
Unlike normal monsters, Murckles are usually summoned through a spell. So, taking this residual energy and letting the compass calibrate to it should let me know where the spell caster is. Francis can lead me to Beelzebub is anyway so might as well do this.
After spinning wildly for a bit, the compass rests East. What a bold fucker. They're still in the Settlement.
"Sir Richard! That was super cool."
Ned, who was shitting himself a few minutes ago, looks up at me with sparkling eyes full of amazement.
"Of course, kid. I'm Richard Demain."
"Haha, fucker..."
Cramer, who thawed himself chimes in as he lays on the mud.
"Well, that's rude. I believe this is the first time we're meeting no?"
"This might be the first time you meeting me, but this is definitely not my first time meeting you," he replies. "The Sheriff always gives us an earful after every incident that you're involved in."
"Well, you're welcome," I reply with a smile.
During our banter, Ned tugs shyly at my coat.
"S-so what now?"
"Now, we go back immediately."
I then trace a magic circle and some geometric patterns in the air.
"Mind you, I'm a little rusty when it comes to teleporting far distances so you better brace yourself."
Cramer's eyes go wide in alarm.
"W-wait, Demai-"
[Mass Teleportation]
After injecting mana into the circle, it inflates until it covers a large area.
[Back in the Settlement]
It's a nice day for the people. In particular, this day is perfect for one Sheriff Nick. Now that Richard's not in town to cause any trouble, he's leisurely enjoying his time with the citizens. The ladies eye him with admiration and flirtatious curiosity while the guys greet him with respect.
Oh how he's missed this.
"Morning Sheriff," the butcher greets him with a hearty salute.
"Morning Bruce," he replies. "What's on the chopping block today?"
"Well, we got some Feral Elk come in fresh this morning," he replies. "If you want, I give you a nice cut for a discount."
"That sounds lovely. Thank you."
He's really missed this. His only wish is that days like this would come more often.
"Aaaaaahhh!"
Such a fragile wish. Just a horrified scream from a lady is enough to shatter it.
Feeling a bit annoyed, Nick rushes towards the origin of the scream. Is it bandits this time? Or maybe a wild animal? Whatever it is, he's gonna make it pay for disturbing his day.
As he turns the corner, he is met by an unexpected sight.
His Settlement, which he labored to keep as clean as possible, is now covered with all sorts of muck and mud. To add insult to injury, some of the houses have trees sticking out of them.
"Fuck you Demain! Bleeegh"
Cramer, who's fully covered in mud, is vomiting on a nearby wall of a house.
"I told you to brace yourself man," Richard laughs hysterically.
Meanwhile, Ned is crumpled to a fetal position near a burnt corpse of something.
This is Nick's day whenever Richard's involved...
"Hey Nick!"
Richard notices and approaches him.
"I dealt with your swamp problem. Now, we need to catch a criminal," he says and unconsciously pats Nick on the shoulder with his disgusting, muddy hands.
"Demain..."
He whispers curses onto himself as he strains to keep his itching hand from reaching for his pistols.