Chapter 56

Haruka POV

How the hell are we going to beat this thing?

I thought to myself as I was looking at the giant entity before us.

The four of us were encircling it. It was a giant monster with four legs and a head that only had a giant maw for a face, it had two very long arms with pointy and slim fingers, though they looked thin, the strength behind them was menacing, its green eerie color was sending shivers down my spine. The monster would also occasionally shout adding some sort of fear effect and paralysis that thankfully was immediately removed by the buffs from this elf.

Looking at the girls I know their strength and weaknesses, but this elf is all what we lacked. An actual ranged supporter and damage dealer, she was using an interesting bow, of which she would shoot several magic arrows made from mana, and every time the monster would howled, she would use some sort of blessing to remove it, it seems that the Cooldown of her blessing is compatible with the Cooldown of the soul eater’s crowd control ability. Her damage was also not bad. She would deal low but constant amounts of damage with each arrow to the monster, too bad it has no eyes or any vulnerable organs on it, but still the damage from the magic arrows are enough to keep it occupied, or just to destabilize it if it was going to attack the one that was acting as vanguard…well vanguard is an overuse of the term, I am just poking the monster and dodging its attacks.

However, no matter how many times we attack it refuses to die! Every time we get its health points to 75% it howls and regenerates everything…we are turning in circles. We are getting exhausted and fatigued while it only gets angrier…if it was not for the passive of Daiki’s skill we would have died many times now…the HP regeneration, the mana and stamina regen, and the de-buffs upon this monster are what is barely keeping us floating.

Misaka took it from me as I backed away for now, I needed to regenerate some stamina as I was losing too much. I trust her being able to avoid all damage. Sadly her ability is quite useless here. She can control the blood flow of any living thing, but this thing is not alive, it cannot bleed. And every damage we deal to it gets healed.

Yet she has enough agility to dodge and enough stamina to keep doing it for a few minutes.

Those minutes were all I need to get back to the fight.

I inspected the sword again to see its stats.

Item

Description

Usage requirement

Rift maker

Damage

300-500

Can cause bleed damage

A legendary blade that belonged to a fabled warrior of old.

The rift maker was said to be one of the few blades that could hold its ground against Godsteel.

The rift maker is a blade with a will of its own, subdue it and it shall do your bidding.

This sword’s base damage is quite high, and it is quite durable, it barely even have a nick or scratch on it after having repeatedly stabbed and slashed at this giant monster, that had a skin as hot as fire and as strong as rock.

Yet still, it has been always dealing the lowest amount of damage from the moment I began using it. It is refusing me, I feel like I am fighting with a lump of steel instead of a well-crafted katana.

You are unfit to wield my true power.

A notification soon popped into my head. It’s been doing this for a long time now. This blade is somehow sentient and I cannot get it to acknowledge me.

Not even Daiki knew how to do so…

Looking at him I saw him sitting on the floor right next to one of the giant pyres of black flame, meditating probably but his eyes were opened, the green irises were looking at all of us with…interest.

Next to him was…was a zombie? Yes some sort of undead. But it is not fighting against Daiki or even facing him, nor is Daiki caring for what the zombie is doing.

I saw two veins of steel coming out from Daiki’s right hand, and at their end was an anvil and a hammer, the both were used by the zombie who was striking at some black things. They looked like big round plate like objects…scales?

Once the man finished striking at them he would occasionally throw them into the pyre, then grab another one and repeat.

They have been doing this for a long time now, while Daiki only had a small smirk on his face…

Daiki’s face expression then soon changed as his brows squinted and he rose instantly then Daiki suddenly disappeared and I heard the soul eater scream.

Turning back I saw Daiki that had just struck at the soul eater with his right fist, making it crash into the ground.

“This is the only time I well help against this spell, it is an annoying ray that will outright kill all of you if you don’t disrupt it, don’t try to dodge you won’t dodge in time, believe me I tried.”

He said then walked back, amazingly the zombie was still doing his job, as the link to the hammer and the anvil was not cut, in fact the veins grew and became longer that it didn’t even disrupt his work. I turned back again and faced the giant monster. We need to get this over with, killing something of this strength is bound to make us stronger, though it is not as frightening as a black dragon, but it seems that is as dangerous as one…after all it is a soul eater, something which is similar to what Daiki is now…After all he ate the soul of that necromancer right in front of us…

I went and struck at the still downed monster, but even landing a piercing attack on its giant head did not yield a critical strike. I am getting the lowest amount of damage from this thing….

You are not fit to wield my true power.

How the hell am I supposed to do it? What is needed of me? What do you want from me?!

You cling to life too much. The price of my strength comes at the cost of Your Blood.

Give your Blood, Be granted Honor.

Blood? Honor? Ah…I get it.

And now I understand even better, this thing is a katana after all, this mean that this was made by one from earth, or had known of these eastern swords…a king of swords it is, but still the price of using such thing was always high…

I sat down on both my knees and took a deep breath.

“What are you doing Haruka!” said Haruna who just managed to dodge an attack from the monster. Its hand swiped right above her head.

Everybody showed clear signs of exhaustion.

I took the blade with both my hands, pointing it not forward, but its tip towards my stomach instead.

And in a moment, without a shred of hesitation or fear, I stabbed at my own self. Until the blade exited through my back, shredding skin, flesh and bone.

It was incredibly painful, and I felt as if my insides were destroyed.

Haruna even screamed at the act I just did but another swipe from the soul eater forced the elf to shoulder dive her away from the impact.

-2500 HP Critical.

+150 Honor

You are bleeding

-120 Hp

-120Hp

You have fulfilled the condition to awaken The Rift maker.

The Rift maker’s dweller had acknowledged you as its new master.

A loud voice was then projected within my head, the voice of something old and frightening.

‘You have done well human, This Oni shall now give you his strength for the price of the blood you had given.’

I then stood up, my wound stopped hurting, so I stood not caring for the condition I am in right now.

It is quite simple, Give blood to receive honor…To use this one’s strength one must be ready to do a Seppuku, Huh…

“Not bad, Haruka, you seem to have been able to tame it, now can you use it?”

Asked Daiki from far away.

Though I looked pale I still smiled back, I know exactly how to use this thing.

I placed the sword on my left side, where there should normally be the blade’s sheath. But I received it without so I will have to make do with what I have.

I took a drawing stance and closed my eyes.

I even felt a presence guiding my movements. This presence materialized itself within the darkness of my mind. A giant being was behind me, he too had this blade only on a larger scale.

He was wearing old samurai armor, his face was that of demon from old Japanese mythologies.

A red demonic being with a long nose, similar to that of a Tengu, but with eyes filled with bloodlust and danger.

The Soul eater then opened its maw; channeling one of those rays that Daiki warned us from. If I were to look at Daiki now I would have seen him clenching his fists. He didn’t want to help but I could have seen that he didn’t want to see us meet our end right now.

The girls moved forward attacking the beast with all they had, they need to make it stop the chant otherwise we may all die.

The Oni took the same stance as I did and in one motion both our bodies synced.

We swiped at the air and in the direction of the soul eater; the cut sent a wave of darkness from my own sword that cut through the fabric of the world itself.

“Dimensional cut!”

Roared the demon behind me and the neck of the soul eater was severed in a single motion as the wave cut through flesh and bone. Its channeled spell was canceled almost immediately as it fell down on the ground, turning to dust, while green particles began to be released from it.

It even made contact with the rim of the territorial skill of Daiki and was able to distort it for a second before the wave dissipate.

Fatal blow!

-22 000 Damage

Fatal blow caused the Soul eater to instantly perish.

You have slain a soul eater.

You have defeated a monster 200 levels above yours.

You have leveled up

Level up

Level up

…

You have leveled up more than 100 Levels

Awards for such feat was already claimed.

Compensation

+200 Stats with the exception of luck.

Title

Triumphant.

+10% fortitude

Fear inducing effects have been reduced by 10%

“Not bad” said Daiki to all of us. “You were able to defeat this on your first try, but you still need to get stronger” he said while he appeared near the crumbling corps of the soul eater.

He opened his mouth inhumanely wide and vast amounts of the green particles began to be sucked inside it. After having fully consumed all the particles he turned around to us saying.

“Very well! Time to step things up a bit. Rest for now, after the blacksmith finishes we will start a whole new training program…Demon killing, It should be fun. I can vouch for it.”

Demons…as in the demon that he killed that time in the arena? I think Daiki’s idea of fun has been Corrupted…