-Grrrrrr
A large growling, drooling beast rested in it's cave protected from the desert heat.
Desert hounds carrying corpses of sandbeetles, sand weasel and baby sand worms entered the the cave. The beast opened it's mouth letting the desert hounds feed it.
Crunch! Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!
As it chewed chunks of food spilled out of it's mouth which the desert hounds gladly ate up.
THUD!!!
The beast stopped chewing it food and sprung out of it's cave to find whatever caused the loud sound in it's peaceful desert.
•••••
"Where is this thing?" Shoto overlooked the desert from a high vantage point.
When Shoto was notified of a monster charging his way he had decided change his location instead of waiting around in desert sand.
Shoto stood on a large castle of rock that seemed to be a corpse of a beast that had been petrified.
"Finally," Shoto noticed his foe.
The beast raised the desert sand obscuring it's appearance from Shoto's eyes as it charged.
Shoto focused ki into his eyes to get an image of the monster coming for him.
[Warning incoming attack]
Shoto jumped out of the way as soon as the warning was given.
BOOOM!!
A blast of heat scorched the ledge Shoto stood on. The dust cloud the monster had kicked was parted by the burning mass but there stood no monster in sight.
"Where did it go?"
[Warning attack incoming from—]
The warning was too slow as a mouth with a thousands of sword like teeth attempted to gulf up Shoto in one go.
"Raaa!"
"Shit"
Shoto evaded his near death by jumping higher. He got a better view of the Desert Guard who was trying to scale the mountain.
"What the fuck?"
Shoto was looking down at a black hound with six eyes, short legs and a long reptilian tail.
Shoto landed on spot on the mountain but felt something was off.
'Hey Guide why was the warning on that sneak attack delayed?'
[Answer: The Desert Guard might poses a technique that can bypass sensory skills]
'So its not a skill?'
[Affirmative]
'It probably can't use that ambush technique again if it's struggled to climb the mountain,' Shoto thought.
'Guide use
[Copy]
'Let's put this to work.'
Shoto cleared his mind and jumped down from his spot ready to face the Desert Guard again.
The Desert Guard opened it's mouth and fired a ball of fire. Shoto twisted his body to the side avoiding getting burned by the ball of fire.
"Forgot about that."
Shoto used his mobility arts and leaped past it's head onto it's body. Shoto created three claws on his knuckles using
stab stab stab stab stab stab…
Shoto stabbed it countless times in quick succession until his claws couldn't pierce through anymore.
'It body got harder,' Shoto was surprised.
WHOOOSH! CRACK!
The Desert Guard's long tail swung an cracked like a whip , Shoto reacted in time and dodged he was now in midair.
Sizzle!
Heat began to rise from the Desert Guard's body and it swung it's tail through the air.
'It's burning the poison out!'
VOOOOSH!
It's tail caught fire while being swung through the air like a sword. This wasn't any mere sword movements this was a sword formation the Desert Guard adapted to use with it's tail.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Shoto dodge and parried as best he could until he was pushed back with his sleeves burning.
pat pat pat
Shoto quickly patted the flames away with ki and rolled up his sleeves. He has a expressionless look on his face before he began calming and clearing his mind.
Shoto leaped back into battle this time with a different approach to the Desert Guard's sword technique.
He first observed the flow and patterns of the Desert Guard's brutal sword technique.
Shoto felt like a small fish pushed back by a strong current that was the Desert Guard's sword technique.
Kwang! Kwang! Kwang!
"Argh!" Shoto's arms felt strained just from blocking the burning tail but…
Like every fish he began adapt himself to the river's powerful current. Shoto's sharp mind began to analyze the sword technique with help from
'Three formations are overlapping into one to cover it's weak spot'
Shoto began to adapt the Kuzakabe Sword Technique to the movement of the Desert Guard's technique. Blocking and parring every strike from every angle the Desert Guard attack from.
Once the fish had fully adapted to the river's strong current it began moving up stream to turn into a dragon. Shoto began launching his counter attack once he had seen all the moves the Desert Guard had to offer.
"It's a nice sword technique," Shoto complimented the Desert Guard's vicious sword technique.
Shoto began using a chained sword formation connecting the first three forms of the Kuzakabe Sword Technique to overwhelm the Desert Guard.
The Desert Guard seemed to understand what Shoto had said and gave it's hardest to compete against Shoto. The Desert Guard directed all the flames on his body to it's tail turned it into a blazing whip.
VOOOOSH!
Kwang!
Kwang!
Kwang!
The blazing tail and Shoto's ki infused blades collided releasing powerful sounds from each collision.
Paaang! Paaang! Paaang!
Then the gap Shoto had been looking for in the Desert Guard's technique showed itself and he attacked it mercilessly.
Ping ! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping!
Six points on the Desert Guard's head were struck like pressure points releasing the sound of steel against steel.
"ROOOOAAAAR!!!"
The Desert Guard roared in pain as the six points Shoto struck began to glowing blood red.
Shoto didn't let up and infused all the ki he had left into his blades for a final attack.
[Kuzakabe Sword Technique - Forth Form - Coiling Season]
SLAAAAAASH!
Twenty-four slashes coiled around the Desert Guard's body before converging into one slash that severed the Desert Guard's tail.
"ROOOOAAAAR!!…"
"Aaargh!" Shoto's body was in agony after using up so much ki in one go.
He landed on the desert sand and sunk to his knees with blood dripping from his nose and mouth.
"Haa haa haa haa haa huh?" Shoto was catching his breath when a shadow loomed over him.
The Desert Guard's body was falling and Shoto was right beneath it.
"Shit
A blue gate opened with chained sickles sprung out from it and wrapped themselves around the Desert Guard.
The Desert Guard struggled as the chained sickles hooked into it's body began dragging it inside the gate.
"ROOOOAAAAR"
The Desert Guard turned into a ghastly black energy that shrouded Shoto in black ball of energy.
The black energy began to enter Shoto's body sending him into unconscious state.
–
"Where am I?" Shoto asked himself.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Shoto heard the swinging of a swords behind and turned around. He saw a man dress in black training with his sword, he was sparring against a four armed mechanical doll.
Shoto recognized the sword technique the man was practicing. It looked similar to technique the Desert Guard used if it was not adapted to be used with a tail.
Instead of the three overlapping formations that were made to cover it's weak spot this version was more bloodcurdling like rabid hound wanted to embed it's fangs in an opponent.
"That's an amazing sword technique," is what Shoto wanted to say but someone beat him to it.
The man and the practice doll stopped sparring and bowed to the person approaching.
"You honor me with your words lord Vermilion," the man spoke.
A beautiful woman with red hair, yellow eyes and large breasts that where about to spilled of her black suit walked passed Shoto.
"Raise your head," she said.
The man raised his head with lust filled eyes.
'I guess his into her,' Shoto thought.
"I'll get straight to the point Aemilius were is my dragon vain?"
The lust vanished from Aemilius's eyes as the matter of the dragon vain came up.
Even though his eyes weren't shaking and he was making eye contact with Vermilion there were other obvious signs he was going to lie.
"I—" he attempted to speak but his mouth shut by the snap of a finger.
"Fuck you I'm to old to be lied to you know," Vermilion spoke with bord expression.
Aemilius tried to attack by harness the power of the dragon vain but was stopped by the snapping of fingers.
Aemilius's arms and legs where twisted to the point blood sprayed out and bones showed.
"First the dog steals from it's owner and now it tries to bite it's owner when they want their property back,
"It's because of me the your family is this prosperous you little shit."
"You…onl…y used…us," Aemilius groaned.
"You used me too so let's not play victim here,now what punishment would be appropriate for a thieving dog?" Vermilion thought.
"Ah yes that will do greatly." Vermilion snap his fingers.
Aemilius's body began healing itself once he was fully healed he began mutating into a hound with a dragons tail.
"I'll take the dragon's vein and give you this instead." Vermilion forced Aemilius to swallow a black ball of energy.
"I'm sure this will help you build a lot of resentment, now go a guard my desert until my..." Vermilion's words blurred making Shoto unable to hear the last part.
Vermilion snapped his fingers and Aemilius finished. Vermilion turned her to Shoto was viewing everything like a bystander.
A seductive smile towed itself across Vermilion's face before she blew Shoto a kiss that turned everything dark.
[Notice: Harvest Complete]