PreCursive

  I exged a quice with Venix, and that was all I o know.

  He was determio retrieve this sword. Even though the only reason to do that would be so Kazuma could essentially kill himself with it.

  I suppressed a sigh. I’d suspected this was going to happen. It was only a matter of time before this guy was going to ask us to help him retrieve the sword. I’d had a vain hope that he would wait until he linked back up with the Solstice’s Fme guys to ask them to chase this thing down.

  But no.

  Us.

  Still, this wasn’t ued. I’d been unig covertly with Liora on ings about the possibility, and she’d been ferrying messages back to the others about our thoughts, beh Kazuma's attention. Most of the others didn’t really care where we went here on the isnd. They were here for me, the levels, and the adventure. As long as we aplished oals in time to be picked back up by the Kaminari Maru, it didn’t matter to them.

  Except for Venix. He…really wao retrieve this sword.

  I’d thought about arguing with him about it before deg there was no use. The Antium was going to do what he wao, and I suppose we owed it to him to assist. He’d helped us enough in the past, either on the mainnd, in Kawamara, or even on the isnd that he deserved it.

  We could spare the time. There were three more weeks left until the Kaminari Maru returned, likely with the Kawamaran navy in tow. From what I uood, Goryuen was only about three days away into the heart of the range.

  If Venix wao honor his old master in this way, we could make time for him.

  I nodded slightly at the Antium samurai and turo face the other one. “Alright,” I said easily, in sharp trast to my previous too him. “Let’s get going then.”

  The others untensed now that the pseudo-frontation was over. As I raised the far-eye to look out at this volo, I heard Liora and Azarus start chattering again, Renauld start whistling to himself, and the sputters of Kazuma. “That’s it?!”

  “Yup,” I said idly, examining the distant mountain.

  Hmm.

  Iing, iing.

  I kly nothing about voloes.

  I lowered the far-eye and turo my only possible source, interrupting his versation with Liora. “Azarus, take a look and tell me about this pce, will you?”

  He shrugged and nodded, accepting the far-eye. My dwarven friend ied the distant volo for a moment thoughtfully, while Kazuma tinued his bafflement.

  “I tell you about-” He tried to say.

  Azarus cut him off. “Looks like an old beast to me,” He said. “Low, squat. Much older than the rest of this baby fresh range. Seems ta be spewin’ more ash and smoke than anythin’ else. Probably does often, if much at all, and what it does have is heavy, thick, and slow. I ain’t felt any rumblin’s, and I would have if it were more active,” He studied it for another sed. “Iron-rich I’d say.”

  I bli the much more ih expnation than I was expeg. After a moment, I turo Kazuma with a raised eyebrow. “That right?”

  He looked away. “Just about,” Kazuma grumbled befaining his posure. “Mt. Umetsuji is where we believe Jiro eaking of, as he y dying.”

  I nodded easily. “Where ‘silence burns’ and all that jazz, yeah, I remember,” I said, recalling the words he had relutly told Venix the other day upon his request. I shrugged, adjusting the pack there at the same time. “Well, enough talking about it. The volo is…probably a day or so away…?” I trailed off, looking at Azarus.

  He nodded, colpsing the far-eye and handing it back to Bel. “Just about. Maybe day and a half of hikin’.”

  “Let’s get going then.”

  At that, we stopped admiring the sery and got underway.

  No reason to dawdle.

  It’s not like we were on a time limit or anything.

  …………………………………………….

  The spaweeual mountains of Goryuen and the jungle was barren as hell, with o no cover on it. It was almost desert-like, really, only far more rocky than I expected it to be. The footing was treacherous and likely to slip away under you at any point. And there were plenty of points out on this pin. I swear, this pce felt like nothing more than a sea of razor-sharp stone fragments most of the time.

  Thankfully, we were all wearing strong enough footwear for our lower halves not to be torn to shreds.

  Unfortunately, we were so exposed out there, it was only a matter of time until we ran into the masters of this nd.

  The Oni.

  With sight lines being so clear, we had thought there was o tinue scouting ahead in searohat could be hiding around every tree.

  That was a mistake. We hadn’t ted on the ravines.

  roup nearly bumbled right into them.

  “Stop!” Venix said sharply, from the front of our formation. We all froze suddenly at his and, standing perfectly still. “Chasm below us.”

  Some of us breathed out in relief at that, myself among them. We all untensed and wandered up to join Venix. I don’t know about the others, but I was curious about what had stopped us. As I joined him at the front, I noticed that Venix was still oddly tense. I shook it off and looked down.

  The sight nearly gave me vertigo, which was a first. I hadn’t experiehat since I’d got my Status.

  From one inch to the , the ground appeared to end right in front of us. It was as if an enormous dagger had been thrust into the stone of Vereden, opening up a bde-shaped ravine in the span. It yawned before us, and none of the weak, obscured light of Tarus above could pee into the darkness below our feet. Random spikes of stoted the walls of the ravine, jutting off into every which way. The stony spears almost seemed like teeth that dotted an impossibly rge mouth, ready to grind through whatever was incautious enough not to watch their footing.

  Oddly, I could see that a number of them looked to have been snapped off, leaving only shattered stumps in the walls.

  As I was standing at the edge of the ravine and looking down, I heard Renauld shift io my right. At his movement, a rge, ft ste of sto his feet came loose and tumbled off the edge and into the abyss below. We all watched silently as the shale tumbled end over end and then strue of the spires below, the both of them shattering at the impact. The tinkling of rock fragments filled our ears as they scattered their way down into the abyss.

  I shook off the odd mood the sight had instilled in me, and looked up and down the surface of the chasm, judging the length and width of it. I nodded and then g my panions. “robably ju-”

  I didn’t get the ce to finish my words.

  Far, far below me, a deep, furious roar echoed out of the yoood above. Crashing noises, growing ever closer, reached us in the wake of it. Somewhere deep in the shadow below our feet, I thought I could just barely see the glow of yellow eyes asding the dark, rger than dies.

  I sucked in a sharp breath, rapidly retreating from the edge. “Back! Back! On-”

  I didn’t get the ce to say another word. With a thunderous crash of splintering stone, a massive blue palm pus way out of the spikes and fell upon the lip of the ravihe sharp, obsidian-shaded cws dug into the rock of the pin, crushing it into a suitable handhold. A matg fist swung up and over the ledge, and the owner pulled itself up and out of the chasm we had nearly stumbled into.

  In the dim light of the day, I could see the beast as it stretched itself to its full height and roared into the sky above. I grit my teeth as the sound rolled over me, strong enough to pop my ears from the sheer pressure of it.

  That was an Oni, all right.

  Blue skin thicker thaher was stretched taut over a heavily, obsely, thick muscled humanoid body. Angry, throbbing veins stood out promily on its massive body, pulsing in time with its heartbeat. Thankfully sexless, it wore nothing on its imitation of the human form and carried no ons.

  This thing had to be over thirty feet tall, at a minimum.

  The shadow it cast over our surprised group was long and deep, and its head was thrown back from its defiant roar. The boulder-sized body part shrouded the already weak light of Tarus above, but I could still see its long, wispy white hair drifting in the faint wind on this stony pin. It was only as the monster hunched back over that I could see the features of the Oni in full detail.

  The hate in its golden eyes was familiar to me as they fell on roup. As were the four curved pitch-bck ox horns that stood out on the promi brow of the beast, stretg towards the heavens. Twreard from its cheeks, thrusting straight from the boo curl around its mouth. Sharp fangs were visible in the snarling orifice, dripping with hungry drool and sliding down its , as bck as the horns.

  It wao eat us so, so badly. Its hunger alpable in the air.

  I threw out an Observe, even though I already suspected what it would say.

  hunderous Oni War-Rager

  Level: ???

  Age: 41 years

  Species: Monster (Prime)

  Abilities: ???, ???, ???, ???

  A full adult Prime. I’d already known that it was one, just by the number of horns on its hideous head. Juvehat had yet to reach Prime status only had the two cheekbone horns, while newly asded ones had those and two more on the skull. A fully mature, adult Prime had the full plement like this fellow. My brief hunt with an Oni Hunter squad had taught me that.

  Just our luck to stumble on one, out in this pin. I suppose it was iable here on this isnd. I was only surprised we hadn’t entered an Oni before now.

  At the sight of the rabid, svering creature, ons flew from sheathes all around me as idly prepared for the iable battle. I drew my daggers and did end them, but did surround their Oninite bdes with the glowing aurora of The Stilnt Bde. Might of the Wyrdwood was deployed at the same time at fifteen pert, and in moments the ethereal vines of the Skill had covered my body. But I didn’t deploy my transformation Skill.

  Not yet.

  Venix stepped forward as the Oni crouched there in front of us, all four of his bdes drawn and ched in his chitinous fists. It was utterly still in the face of the btant challeudying us for a moment with eyes that were too intelligent for my liking. I swear, I swear, that I saw its lips curl slightly into a smile.

  Before it acted.

  The only hint I received that things were about to start was a slight crackle of electricity that ran up and around its thickly muscled limbs.

  I, and all of my panions, knew what that meant. We’d all seen this before, at oime or another.

  Apparently, even Kazuma did.

  We all dived out of the way from where we stood, and just in the nick of time.

  From the Oni’s still open mouth bsted a sharp spear of lightning, bright blue and hotter than the surface of the sun. It moved too quickly for me to even track as it impacted the stone where we had all stood only moments before, shattering the stone of the pin and sending molten rock flying through the air. I grimaced from where I had dodged as some of it o sizzle on the surfay cloak. I wouldn’t have been able to dodge that if I hadn’t known it was ing. The speed was just too great.

  That was just the opening blow.

  The Oni stood up to its full height once again and pous chest with both fists, r into the sky as it did so as if it were the primeval ape. More lightning sparked up and down its body.

  But the time for p was over. We couldn’t let this thing dictate the course of the ing battle, and all of us khat.

  We set our ons and charged.