[DING! Acquired Title: Defyer: Defiers—Defy! But no Defier can create a path away from a predestined weave. Creating a new strand takes more than a creator and not all strands woven away from the wheel of time survive the weave. By saying no to fate you have created a new strand, keep weaving as now your destiny lies in your hand.]
[DING! Congratulations, you have gained the title: Defyer. +1% all stats.]
[DING! Congratulations, you have gained the title: Creator. +3% all stats.]
[DING! You have reaped a skill by creating a new thread and defying the weaves of fate. Skill: Ever-smile. Smile in the face of fate, for none of its wheels, weaving an intricate web of destiny can ever trap you within. With a smile of defiance, smile and walk through every obstacle fate dared place in your path. Level: ASCENDANT. Rarity: Unique.]
[Effect 1: Ultimate defence toward aura suppression based skills.]
[Effect 2: Reverse or nullify any damage caused by auras.]
[Effect 3: Claim a soul by combining the Crimsonfae fang's blood drive into the smile.]
Tetsu sucked in every inch of air his lungs could hold and pushed them further, yelling with all his might. "I DID IT..."
Neither was it a fucking dream. The darn skill pushed his lips upward into a smile. Tetsu kept poking at the skill and his lips kept rising and falling.
"I have a button to smile. Hahaha..."
He punched the air, unable to control his excitement. When his fist connected with a trunk, he snapped back to his senses and realized a dreadful fact: the mountain that stretched into the skies had vanished without a trace, and he now faced an ominous forest with no signs of a mountain ever being present there.
Tetsu marked the area by carving his name into every nearby trunk. Even as he moved away from the location, he continued to mark every tree in his path, hoping to return to this place someday.
The upcoming days were uneventful. When you've faced a monstrous insect god and lived to tell about it, nothing else can be considered eventful. Tetsu shrugged off the aura suppression with a smile and gathered food for the journey ahead. But before he chalked up another day to mundane mortal affairs, he had a couple of casual meetings with gods.
These coincidences reminded Tetsu of the bedtime stories Mom used to tell him and Kile.
The Indian gods of 'Tadastu' are said to be roaming around at every time, and they grant every wish that slips out of one's mouth. Even now Indians use the word 'Tadastu' when you say something good in hopes the sentence comes true.
Indian moms also break your bones if you say something bad, but that's another issue altogether. Tetsu liked his white mom more in this aspect. She allowed him to throw a tantrum like a little child and never face the consequences of being a jerk.
Kile says the myth can be viewed as a story meant to keep people's mouths in check and boy, he should've etched the story's moral into his mind or closer to the heart, because Tetsu lets his big-dumb mouth loose and brought upon the wrath of the god's.
The benefits outweigh the costs hundred to none.
— — {Moments before Tetsu ran his big mouth… against the god's.}— —
The Gorilla dug his palm into the rocky floor and pulled out a boulder four times larger than himself.
A wave of supreme aura washes over the forest, sending the other creatures scrambling to safety, yet his primary target only smiled back at him.
A smile from a level four human, challenging and taunting a level eight mighty 'Terra Apexian.'
Enraged, he pounded his chest with his free arm, each drumbeat resonating with vibrations and thunder. With each strike, he grew taller and stronger, his muscles redefining beyond perfection.
A purple lightning seeps out of the gorilla's body, infusing into the boulder he carried above his head. He shrinks back to his original form and deflates even further. Except for the side carrying the boulder, the rest withered down, revealing bones. Yet, the fierce look in his eyes never flickers once.
With a bestial roar exposing his maw and fangs that could chew through metal, he bathes the battlefield with a supreme creature's aura. This time, even his kin scatter higher into the trees, while the unfortunate few closer to him fall to their knees, perspiring and panting for air.
The human, however, wasn't affected, instead, it smiled and revealed its own set of fangs. They descended like it always had them.
The human only had a flimsy pair, but they emanated a dominance greater than his patron god.
His strategy to pin down the tail-less ape shattered.
The human's toothy smile kept growing, taunting, and challenging him by the second.
Unable to hold off on the attack, he swings the boulder low and releases it like a bowling bow.
The human again anticipated a foreign skill as if it had seen it a hundred times and shifted its positions mid-flight.
Every tree in the path of the boulder was flung away, yet the human moved backward at an angle, with impossible movements, still using the trees as cover.
Somehow, the trees helped it divert the boulder at the last moment, not even letting the boulder graze it, escaping death for the umpteenth time.
The tail-less ape used the forest better than he ever could, always a step ahead, a step away. It kept dodging and fleeing.
At first, he wanted to use the human to level up his lower members, but the tricky hairless ape proved itself worthy. Not wanting the human to flee and bring it back up, he sent stronger apes to break its legs. Yet even the two-tailed apes were useless in front of the human.
Frustrated and out of time, he stepped into the battle. From a small training exercise, this human turned this into an all-out war.
From frustration, the matter turned to pride. Before the gorilla switched to speed, the human lured his entire army into the 'Sonic Tweeds' territory, and now a war raged between two fierce leaders while the tricky human escaped under the chaos.
The Sonic Tweeds were a mix of tuning fork and 'Automaton.' They resemble the hairless apes from a distance but with a metallic finish.
His patron god told him to stay away from these maniacs.
They can clash against each other or themselves to produce a deafening sonic boom. Lucky for them, they don't seem to have sensory organs to be affected by their own attack, but the rest are forced to cover their ears and roll on the floor until the skill ends.
Sonic Tweed's ultimate attack allows them to float, split into smaller cubes, and rain down like meteorites.
Their leader was already in the air, preparing for its ultimate move.
Gorilla has witnessed the aftermath of that skill and he did not want to be anywhere near that bastard's range.
Wherever the meteor lands, the entire section just vanishes without a trace. Their destructive power, command over the sound affinity, and bonkers approach to any situation made them one of the most feared creatures.
This human was unlucky enough to stumble onto his camp, their grounds, and the deadly hoard of 'Blazer Micro raptor.'
If a single leader or three level five beast concentrated on the human, it would have died long ago. Yet at every crossroads of death and life, the human chose life by foreseeing the future and somehow eliminating all of its blind spots.
Before he focused on speed or planned a sound strategy, the human involved the 'Sonics.'
This made him wonder. 'Did The human foresaw their teamwork and tenacity?'
If it did, involving the mindless beats created the perfect mix of chaos for it to escape.
Gorilla chalked up many aspects stirring within this field of madness to imprudent beats and dumb luck, but even with his patron's help, he could never understand the maddening smile the human carried.
— — {Tetsu POV}— —
Tetsu smiled, laughed, and challenged every enemy—every army that joined in on the hunt on the outside.
On the inside, he cried his eyes out. The damn smile shrugged off the effects and placed a stupid smile on his face, but courage wasn't part of the package.
"I fucking hate my life." Tears filled his eyes, but the skill kept them stuck inside his eye sockets.
He had no clue if luck was with him or against him.
A plan popped up in his mind and he executed it with no delay. Overthinkers have an immense problem deciding, but when it comes to life and death matters, and if you have been through such situations 714 times thanks to your bestie, things work out most unconventionally.
Tetsu cursed and wept on the inside, maintaining a cold and challenging exterior thanks to his skill; Ever Smile. Confused whether luck was with or against him, he dropped a free point into the Luck stat, hoping to escape the three armies.
A few blinks gave him the position of every big boss and with his next step, he stumbled onto another boss.
This creature resembled a snowman, but instead of snow, it was stuffed with several electric balls.
The 'Electric Snowman' blinked in and out of existence, blasting its surroundings with pulsating waves of light every time it appeared, and absorbing every trace of illumination before disappearing. This made the surrounding area transition from day to night in a blink of an eye.
The snowman stood twenty meters tall and hummed with power.
Tetsu imagined it to be humming, as the thunder spheres inside the snowman clashed against each other, creating a small buzzing sound.
"Brrr, psh, tss-tss." Tetsu forgets about the chase and starts beatboxing alongside the snowman. "I'm the goat—with no luck, yet catching me—is a chore. Brrr, psh, tss-tss."
The Snowman spots Tetsu waving his hands in crazy motions and screeches with a crazy high-pitched voice, rivaling a cluster of high-school cheerleaders.
It burst into smaller orbs, one of them ramming into Tetsu before he could even blink. The orb encased and sent him zapping past the incubation ground.
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