Salem Pov
Kazuki and I were in the forest hiding behind some large trees while stalking the very large white ape-like creature with a sword in its neck sitting on the ground eating a large animal a good distance away. It was the guardian from the sekiro games. There were a lot of bones surrounding it both human and animal.
I was currently wearing a black ninja outfit. I wasn't in a bodysuit like Kazuki's but the black jacket, black trousers, light sandals and hood with the mask on my face. My hair was in a braid because I went to speak with Akemi about the seal she placed on the Quetzalcoatl and as I was speaking to her some younger maidens just got intrigued by it and they began messing with it and styled it in a braid.
"Looks like it marked its territory." Kazuki commented. "So, what's the protocol when it comes to this thing?" He asked me.
"Mm." I thought as I remembered my devastating first rans of the sekiro games. "Before that, let 's ask. Your guys have fought this before, right ? They give extra info of what it could do?"
"Well, they said whatever they threw at it was worthless as the monster kept on getting regenerated and getting back up, seemingly immortal. Though they also said that as the battle went on and, on their attacks, slowly stopped working till it was completely useless."
"Well, it is undead. Well to be honest some of these guys are going through strange mutation but the best way to beat it in this case we can use that sword in its neck to remove its head but that just makes you pick the sword and head and fight without a head. But it's left immobile for a few seconds after removing its head so we can get the sword and head away from it and destroy it fast after removing it."
"Alright I'll distract it and you pull the sword when I give you a proper opening." I gave a thumbs up to his plan and so we hopped the tree branches.
General pov
Kazuki then jumped stealthily towards the anomaly getting ready to ambush it.
The guardian ape in the meanwhile rose a bit as its instincts told him there was danger within its territory. It rose up from the ground and roared while smacking its chest causing violent winds, calling out for the intruder to face its head on.
Kazuki conjured three medium sized fire foxes to distract it and when it was successful he appeared in front of it and gave it a hard flaming claw to the face , sending it skidding back but remaining on its feet. It then punched the fire foxes away and dashed for Kazuki fast. The speed took Kazuki back a bit, but it charged too recklessly so he was able to dodge it and swiftly take out his katana and land a deep cut across its chest, but it did not damage.
The ape then picked up a tree and swung it hard. The ninja dodged but the force of the swing caused hard wind almost blowing the trees back.
Kazuki made six flaming tails appear on his back and they all stretched out and wrapped around the guardian ape. It struggled to escape but then the flaming tails exploded. As it was getting up, healing from the damage, Kazuki was about to cut it down, but it grabbed his whole body with its arm and threw him roughly to the ground, feet away, and smashed apart some trees. He regained his bearings and smoothly landed on a tree bark.
It charged at the ninja but fell into the ground trapping it the lower half of its body. Then Salem comes from the ground in his rabbit form.
"Animal Soul: Arctic Wolf!" Salem transformed into his artic wolf form and air around him began to get colder and appeared behind the ape guardian. "Freeze!" He commanded as he froze the anomaly till its upper middle back.
After it froze Salem jumped on its back and grabbed the sword on its neck and with his strength, he used it to chop off its neck and then froze its head. He then controlled them and threw them into the sky before the ape broke out then shifted into his Zingore form.
"Kitsune arts: annihilation!"
"Giga volt cannon!"
Both immediately sent out incredibly huge blasts of fire towards the anomaly making a huge explosion causing the whole forest to shake.
The guardian ape began to glow purple, and Salem went to work and slightly opened his shirt a little and the particles we sucked into his phone and sent straight to Morpheus.
Back to Salem's pov
Honestly, I think if I had a form of telekinesis this would be much better. I genuinely think that Kazuki has at least noticed something.
"Well that went smoother than expected." I commented as I looked at the big red sword and wondered what to do with it. So, I just shrugged and kept it in my storage space as a souvenir until Morrigan tells me where she sells her stuff.
"Yes, it did. It was a good thing we decided to do this fast and hard otherwise it would have been more difficult unlike the last one. Kazuki sheathed his blade and walked over to me.
"Let's not talk about that." I shivered a bit. Before the ape guardian we had fought the fucking pyramid head from silent hill in a place mountain of lost souls.
The mountain was full of ghosts or Yurei as Kazuki put it ranging from regretful, vengeful, and mischievous. Then the blasted anomaly had the ability to use nightmare magic of all things.
It formed armies of common monstrous fears people have like snakes, spiders, carnivorous animals, their ex-wives, teachers and so on. And since it was nightmare magic there were, you know, as I said extremely monstrous, and some had some extra abilities for them. Sure, they weren't all that strong in the long run, but the thing really had a deep pool of magic, so it just kept on generating more and more.
The bastard even had the nerve to trap in an incredibly small empty room which I swear I thought got smaller and smaller. But I still burst out of there.
I have to say Kazuki's magic was more useful in this situation as not only can it decrease magic power, but it also purifies and affects the astral planes. A little bit broken but whatever. If anything, it just reminded me how under-equipped I currently was.
It took us 4 hours to defeat that thing and the aftermath of the battle cost us a huge chunk of the mountain side.
After that we rested for about two hours then decided to come and battle the guardian ape.
"How about we rest up and have a little late lunch before our final confrontation." Kazuki suggested and I nodded in agreement. He then took out a scroll from his bag then lit his hands on fire and touched the scroll making two large bento boxes appear in his hand.
"Thanks." I spoke as I grabbed the fork and began to chow down.
"Say Salem-san." He called and I looked up at him. "Just what are you going to do after the mission?" He asked.
"Oh, I'm just going to keep travelling to Tiyo for a little while, find some interesting creatures to take-over, go sightseeing here and there and maybe find a good dojo to learn some more martial arts." I answered.
"Oh, a dojo you say."
"Yeah, I'm pretty decent when it comes to hand to hand, but I figured I could get some more learning done plus I've seen in the movies that some martial arts help in balancing the body, mind and spirit so maybe it can also help in my magic."
"Well, you should believe everything you see in the movies, but I can't say some martial arts practices help in those disciplines and I can't lie that it also did help with mastering my magic."
"Wait, what is your magic really? I know it has something to do with Inari but is it really?"
"Well, I see no harm in telling you. My magic is called Kuuybi's Blessing and in a way it's like your take over magic but select members of my family are blessed by Inari directly with special attributes from her like some of her magical abilities and special transformations." His hand then became more of a claw.
"Wow dope. But did you really have to tell me all of that? you thought ninjas were supposed to be more secretive." I raised my eyebrows as I ate some chicken.
"My magic isn't really anything to hide." He waved it off.
"You really did that?" I raised my eyebrows amused.
"Something the matter?"
"Yeah, I know your game. You tell some valuable information about yourself so you can glib me into telling you about how I track and capture these things." I shook my head with a cheeky smile.
"I think you're reading too much into it." He sweat dropped and looked at me as if I was a little crazy.
"Nah ah sorry my guy but where I'm from the people they're invented guilt tripping and scumming." I pointed the fork at him a little dramatically.
"You do know by doing all that just shows me that you really are hiding something right?"
"Maybe I am, maybe I'm not~." I sang and finished my bento box and handed it to him.
"Alright, do you still need time to rest or you're ready to go?" He asked while sealing the boxes and repacking the scroll.
"Just give me 30 minutes and I need to wash my greasy hands first." I took the water and went over to wash my hands with the remaining water.
"Father." Kazuki answered.
"Kazuki, we have a crisis in our hands."
"Father what is it?"
"One of those monsters is currently attacking Hosta city." He informed us.
"I see. Has it been long since its attack started?" He sounded a little panicked.
"About an hour or so, the guild is doing their best to combat it but it seems that they are on the losing side."
"Father is Mizuri alright though."
"I don't know son, but you best get there fast."
"Understood." He nodded and then cut the call. "Looks we're going to have to cut our rest short Salem-san." He said deeply, seriously.
"Got it." I answered and stretched a bit.
The two of us then zipped out of the forest making a sonic boom sound. I didn't know the location of the city so I simply trailed behind so he could lead the way.
Six minutes later
We finally got to the city, and it looked like it was in chaos. Buildings were destroyed, trees burnt down, and I smelt a lot of burnt blood around. I did recognize that a lot of the damage was done by lightning or plasma-based attacks and there vwere dark yellow clouds in the sky sparking with lightning.
"The hell." I muttered to myself as I looked around then noticed that Kazuki was already reaching off somewhere and so I went after him.
I reached his location and noticed he went to talk to an older man, so I jumped on the nearest building to get a proper view of what was going on further away from us.
"Kazuki!" I called out to him and pointed at the west.
He nodded and turned to the old man. "Shimura-san don't worry we'll take care of things." He then jumped next to me.
We went towards the battle and as we got close, I saw people with imperial soldier uniforms either dead or badly hurt. Then I saw the Abaddon and it was freakier in person. It had a white somewhat humanoid frame with a torso and head resembling a lightning rod. Its body and head are split open, revealing its red insides and multiple spikes protruding at random. In its hands were two fleshy swords with spikes on them.
'What kind of freaky show, comic or game is this stellar blade.' I thought it was a little taken back by the appearance.
I saw it was about to cut down a pretty woman with short black-purple hair dressed in blue gi which was torn by the battle.
Kazuki, with a huge burst of speed disappeared from the building then left a crack in the aftermath and so he headed towards the anomaly, and I quickly followed him. He had thrown a strong fire attack sending the anomaly crashing to a building a little farther away for the woman.
"K-Kazu-kun." The woman who I assume is Mizuri mumbled weakly.
"Mizuri, don't worry about everything." He said softly to her and knelt towards her.
"You always are." Her shaking hand grabbed him as she smiled lovingly at him and touched his cheek.
"MOVE!" I yelled quickly as I used my super speed to get them out of the way of the attack.
"Apologies, I let my guard down." He said and made a hand sign and a medium sized flaming fox manifested.
"Please be careful." She pleaded.
"I will." The firefox then took her away from the area.
"Done?" I asked and he nodded. "Alright than lets fucking go."
The Abaddon then walked slowly towards us staring up at us I think but I couldn't tell because it didn't have any eyes. Its swords fleshing as it got ready for battle and Kazuki also took out his sword.
It swung one of its swords and made a lightning slash making both of us jump out of the way to dodge and the attack not only destroyed the building but also seven more. My ears then twitched, then looked up at the sky and lightning came down at me. I couldn't dodge or switch fast enough but the lightning had struck me, and I screamed in pain and fell slightly paralyzed with all the lightning running through my body.
As I was falling, the Abaddon then flashed in front of me about to cut me in half from the waist down but three blue foxes came out of nowhere and got it away from me.
I landed on my feet on all fours gritting my teeth in pain and my body shaking but thanks to the were-chetah's minor healing factor I wasn't all that bad. I got and I saw a flash of lightning in the sky, and I went into action so with a burst of speed rushed to get back to the fight.
The Abaddon and Kazuki clash with their blades in an extremely fast motion and while it was busy with Kazuki, I managed to kick its side ribs than Kazuki swept its legs knocking it off balance than I switched to my normal form but with the Rathalos head and shot a large blast of fire from my mouth sending flying and making a huge explosion in the distance.
Suddenly hundreds of lightning balls came at us and so we split up to dodge them, but they were tracking me. I kept on hoping from building-to-building dodging them then switched to my Ankylosaurus and slammed my tail into the ground making multiple earth spikes intercepting the lightning balls.
I ran to find them, and they were engaged in close sword combat with fire and lighting being thrown around here and there. I went in and slammed my tail on the ground making a pillar slamming on to another pillar I made. It burst out with lightning surrounding it and charged at me.
It tried to speed blitz me first and I read it's attack and barley dodged it and used my tail to smack it to Kazuki who morphed big flaming fox hand smacked it to me I grabbed it's disgusting leg and shifted to my ant hybrid ant form and strongly slammed it to the ground making dent to the ground threw it into the air a little and shifted to my normal with my strong rabbit legs to double kicked him straight to the air. I heard and felt cracks after that hit and made a sonic boom.
"Kitsune's Howl!"
"Fire dragon's roar!"
Both Kazuki and I released our breath attacks, hitting the anomaly causing a huge expulsion in the sky.
The Abaddon fell from the sky, and we didn't give any room to relax and as I shifted fully into my hybrid Teostra form, we took after it surrounded ourselves with our fire elements. We then began individually hitting it all over the sky.
We were about to punch it again, but I noticed that it was gathering a huge amount of magic switches and I instinctively switched to my Zinogre form to decrease the amount of damage I would receive. Its attack made a huge electric dome in the sky.
"AHHH!!" Kazuki and I screamed in pain at the intensity of the attack.
I was then hit by a lightning sword slash sending crashing and skidding on the ground smashing from building to building till I hit the ninth and final one.
"Ow." I rubbed my head and got out of the rubble and my chest was bleeding a little bit. Good thing the Zinogre form had lightning/electricity resistance and good armour. But I was still knocked out of the form.
It roared loudly and the wind began to blow badly. Loud booms of thunder blew up in the sky. Then I got a very bad feeling as my hair stood up and I barely dodged and the lightning struck from the sky. So, I then began dodging multiple lightning strikes running all over the city and I transformed into my were-cheetah form to make it a little easier.
I landed on the walls of a building breathing heavily and gritted my teeth and my eyes turned blue, so I switched to my arctic wolf form and ran up the building.
"FROSTFLARE!" I shot a large blast of my ice magic into the clouds. Good thing Kazuki seemed to be keeping the anomaly busy otherwise.
About two and half minutes later the thunderstorm was completely replaced with snowy clouds in the sky. I breathed heavily and transformed back to my base form taking a little breather.
Then I switched to my own eyes and saw that Abaddon was starting to run out of steam, but Kazuki also seemed to have suffered damage as he had lightning burn marks and deep cuts across his chest. I brought out my gun and to aim it wasn't as good as whispers, nor did I have a hawk transformation to make it easier, but owl eyes were good enough.
I shot a highly concentrated blast of magic to its leg, knocking it a little off giving Kazuki an opportunity to cut off its right arm and giving it a hard blazing kick.
Seeing an advantage, I shifted into my Ankylosaurus form and beat the ground using my tail shifting the ground beneath us and it first trapped half the Abaddon's body in the ground then it rose, trapping it in a large sphere. I was aware it might have been a little overboard making a knock off version of the planetary devastation, but I didn't want the anomaly to escape.
"Kitsune's arts: Celestial inferno!" I unleashed a giant six tailed fox with seemingly mini stars inside it. and it attacked the sphere making another large explosion in the sky.
I was certain that with a good number of his magical landing on it I was certain that at least a good amount of its magic must have been reduced by now. I didn't know if Kazuki's flames always had this property in them when he used them but I was aware that the anomaly must have been severely damaged by now.
I grabbed the flesh sword from the Abaddon severed hand and shifted into my were-cheetah form and quickly dashed after it and slashed its other arm cutting it off making it roar in pain. I than shifted into my were-cheetah form. I began blitzing it by cutting it repeatedly.
"Exploding Fire Dragon's secret art: Nitro Fist!" I shifted again into my Teostra form, jumped up and concentrated a dense fire in my fist with mini explosions orbiting it and slamming the attacks to it, destroying the ground making a huge hole in the ground.
It began to glow purple and quickly got out my phone using my tail for support as it absorbed it and sent it back to Morpheus.
After that was done, I collapsed to the ground breathing heavily.
"S-So m-much shapeshifting." I breathed hard and tried to re-catch my breath. I don't often constantly switch between transformations this much before and it really took a lot of magic out of me. Maybe speed running wasn't the best idea.
"Salem-san." I opened my left eye and so Kazuki slid down the deep crater and limped over and sat down next to me out of breath. "So that's how you deal with the creatures" He smiled a little smugly.
"Tch. Whatever." I said a little moody. "Shouldn't you be checking on your bae?"
"Excuse me?"
"That Mizuri woman. Isn't she your girlfriend or something so shouldn't you go snuggle with her now that this fight is over?"
"It isn't like we're just good friends and besides I'm pretty injured right now to walk far." He explained but besides his controlled emotions I rolled my eyes at that as the whole scene when he saved her had said otherwise. "So, about that device?"
"Just stop talking and let me sleep a little." I mumbled as I closed my eyes. "By the way this city has magic battle insurance right?"
Sometime later
It was around eight o'clock at night and I had some bandages around me walking around the city. People had gotten out of the bankers and safe zones. Some began mourning their fallen friends and family who couldn't get there on time. And others sorrowing over there destroyed homes and businesses.
'Should have gotten it away from the city first.' I sighed.
A good amount of the city was a wreck and still snowing after the battle and I wondered what lured the anomaly here as the last time. I checked it wasn't near this city and I don't think it was mind controlled either as it didn't see one of those talismans on it or sense anything off about it.
"Mm." I hummed and my cat tail came out and pulled out a ninja who was hiding behind some rubble and struggling by the neck. "Sup." I greeted him with a vicious grin on my face and recognized the oni-dragon symbol.
"H-How." He struggled to speak but I punched his stomach hard, knocking him out.
"You're not as slick as you think." I said to him but it didn't matter since he was unconscious and so I dragged him away.
In hospital in the city
I was in my human cat form and climbed on the hospital building or one the few intact following Kazuki's scent while still using my tail to roughly hold the dark mage. I got to the window and saw Kazuki there along with the Mizuri lady and the man from before.
"Salem-san you found him?" Kazuki asked and I lifted my tail showing the unconscious dark mage to them.
"Was he the one responsible for this?" Mizuri asked with a lot of anger in her voice.
"Hm well that's actually something we have to find out when he wakes up." I answered. To be honest, sure if he did bring the anomaly as I didn't see a talisman on it or feel anything else external from it.
I sighed tiredly as it's been a long day of constant fighting and now I just want to sleep.