Tides Of Protomis CXV

A Fateful Encounter

All things considered, the advance into the demon realm had gone relatively well. Crocell was definitely a hiccup, as well as their general lack of direction when they first arrived here. But for the time being, that issue looked to be rectified. Though, none of those there had any doubts that this wouldn’t be the situation for long. For the time being however, they decided to take a short break. If only they hadn’t been dropped so far from their targets. Some among them stood alone, like Jirou, who was seemingly nowhere to be found. What he was doing was unknown to them. It wasn’t as if there was anything of interest outside of their mission.. To most of them, at least. As for Zhao and Alarick, the same couldn't be said.

The two youths found themselves observing the small demon that scuttled across the ground, hopping through the branches. Ones that were mostly benign, and ignored their presence.

“I wonder… Perhaps we can find fish here, or at least, something analogous to them?” Alarick questioned. The monk shrugged at his query.

“Possibly. But there's the question of if we could even fish for them, what would we use as bait, and what lies deeper within the depths?” Zhao responded. Though initially, the only Angler in the group was Alarick, over time, that changed when the group’s own monk gained some amount of interest in the hobby. Especially since the four always found themselves in eachother’s company following the Kaemerge. Fighting against the same enemy in what was essentially their own personal war had brought them together, in more ways than one, it seemed. Though this was of course known among the group, in this situation, the conversation raised some eyebrows. Including Arctaius, who happened to be walking past.

“We’re in another realm searching for some demon generals, and you’re worried about if there’s fish?” Arctaius questioned. As Kazimir walked toward the three, he chimed in.

“Hey, we’re gonna be here for a while, may as well find something to do to pass the time.”

“I’d much rather we get this over with as soon as possible..” The tides looked toward an approaching Liang, and Miyamoto.

“Just a suggestion.. Besides, it's not like we’re gonna keep finding directions to the other generals.” Kazimir responded.

“True enough… Even Hyperion only knows of two. He doesn’t travel out of his region much, from what he told me.”

Alarick glanced at Miyamoto as she spoke.

“You and Hyperion sure know a lot about each other… I have to say, I'm interested, just how did you two end up working with each other?” How they ended up working with each other, huh? It wasn’t a story she told much. It wasn’t exactly the most interesting one, and never really came up in conversation. Though, she did look upon their past fondly nonetheless.

“Well… I suppose it wouldn’t hurt.”

2013, Udon Thani,

Udon Thani was a large city in southeastern Asia, which boasted enough resources, and infrastructure that anyone who controlled it had their power increased by no small amount. However, it shared the unfortunate fate of being on the border of two powers, Great Viet, and the Siamese Empire. Two states which had a bitter rivalry, which sometimes escalated into on and off wars. In the year 2013, one of these wars was ongoing. Vietnamese general Huynh Quang Trieu had secretly enlisted the help of the kaemerge in re-taking the city, in exchange for allowing access to the nation's resources. Among those sent were a group of three young proto-humans. Miyamoto Junko, Gihren Alfon, And Valerie Wilson. The young proto-humans found themselves in the dense forest underbrush.

“So, this is our first mission… Guess we’ll see how things go from here.” Gihren mused.

“It’s just some espionage, If we keep our heads down, We’ll be fine.” Miyamoto responded… Valerie, in a not so surprising display, looked down on her with her standard smirk.

“Keep our heads down? Well, one out of the three of us has achieved that without any effort…” Miyamoto knew almost immediately what she meant, and her gaze shot over to her. The violet-haired girl glaring daggers at her.

“Oi! You take that back!” She demanded, only getting a shrug from Valerie

“Whatever do you mean?” Apparently, her feigned ignorance did not go unnoticed, as the shorter girl’s expression remained unchanged. All the while, Gihren simply watched this from their right, glancing over and decidedly saying nothing. But, before he knew it, the woman had already sled over to him.

“Clamming up already, Gihren?” Valerie questioned, much to the youth’s annoyance… Though, despite how it looked, the three had come to enjoy each other's company, even if one of them refused to admit it. The one who trained them made sure that was the case. A squad that was tearing at eachothers throats as much as they were the enemy, was a danger to themselves. Something that he drilled into them.

“So, why exactly did they want us here specifically?” Gihren questioned.

“Apparently, word is that the SIA is gonna try to take Udon Thani, and sweep across the rest of the country from there.” Valerie Informed.

“Then I guess it makes sense that they have so many of us assigned to watching their movements. There’s no doubt that there’s a big force stationed around here.” Miyamoto stated. Either way, they would finish their mission, that was how they saw it. But, unbeknownst to them, things wouldn’t go nearly as well as they’d hoped. Before the three of them knew it, a large source of protomis caused them to get into formation, the three standing back to back, leaving no blind spots.

“Speak of the devil… That must be one of it’s members.” Valerie stated.

“This won’t be easy, I can tell already…” Miyamoto responded.

“As if you had to tell us that.” Gihren shot back, grasping his scythe and prepping to swing at whatever came his way. They’d been training for their first taste of combat for no shortage of time. They were not going to be taken out in their first battle, not if they had anything to say about it… But, would they have a say in this situation was a question they had to ask…. Eventually, the source of their fears took a swift leap from the treeline. A tanned skin woman wearing the standard officer’s dress the Siamese Imperial Army made use of. A red buttoned down overcoat. Her first target was caught by a kick to the side, Valerie was sent flying away, displacing the earth below her as she skidded on the ground.

“Valerie!” Gihren shouted. The man would attempt to contend with her, sending forth a flourish of attacks with his scythe. A lateral one as ducked under, a vertical one, weaved around. He found that a fist was planted into his gut, disorienting him enough to kick him into the same place Valerie found herself. And apparently, the third of them, Miyamoto, was no more successful with her attempt at an attack. With her red-cloaked fist being stopped with a single hand. Before, she herself was headbutted, and promptly sent to join her comrades.

As the three found themselves delivered to the other side of the forest floor, and laying near each other, how much damage the hits had done became clear. It was no small amount, that was for sure. Dull aches echoed from where the strikes hit. And they were slow to get to their feet afterward.

“Dammit. Just who is she?” Gihren questioned.

Soon enough, that question was to be answered. The woman flashed forward, until she arrived in front of them once more, parting her lips and letting her voice echo outward.

“Samorn Keacham. Here to prevent enemy troops from poking around… Unfortunately for you, I happened to be in the area…”

“Unfortunately is right… What do we do?” Valerie questioned.

“We’ll have to fight her off and try to Escape…” Gihren readied himself for a charge as he spoke, Miyamoto did the same. Her body cloaked in red, she shouted out,

“Devil Slicer!”

Sending a crimson crescent of cutting force forth. But Samorn was quick, sidestepping it with little effort. Gihren went forth next, attempting to cut the woman down, but his attack went wide, and once again, he was being kicked away. He quickly skid to a stop, and said nothing more, only waiting for his other teeamate to send her own attack in. And, that she did, purple spheres of light descended from the sky above, launching rays down in an attempt to inflict wounds upon Samorn, but the efforts were in vain, as she got out of the way once more. In a surprising move, pushing her palm outward, and sending a tidal wave of green light outward, that dissipated Valerie’s sphere.

By then, it was becoming clear to the three just how outmatched they were. And they’d need to do something to change that. Their plan was simple, regroup, and consider what they could do then. Acting upon it, the three re-united.

“Alright… Clearly this isn’t working, We’ll have to attack her, all at once, no missed movements. If we keep the pressure on, we might be able to land a strike that does something.” Valerie noted. Gihren and Miyamoto nodded, and before long, they jumped back into their melee once more, supported by 3 of Valerie’s radiant spheres. As the group’s two melee fighters rushed in to attack, they did not find a much easier time than they had beforehand.

Gihren sent a flourish of strikes first, only for the woman to dodge every one. The man proceeded to kneel a bit, allowing Miyamoto to land on his shoulders, before launching her upward. The girl came down upon Samorn, trying to utilize her momentum to hit her with a demonic infused punch. But it was promptly blocked, and returned with one of the woman’;s own, which caused her spine to bend like a crescent moon. The spheres attempted to fire on the woman from behind, above, and from her right, While Gihren attacked from the left, trying to take advantage of what they thought was distraction. But this was quickly proved wrong as she leaped upwards, landing a flying kick on Gihren that sent him crashing into Valerie.

“Damn… This is bad.” Miyamoto wiped a drop of blood from her chin as she spoke, no doubt from the blows she endured earlier. Regardless of this, she was ready to jump back into the fray. And to that end, gathered more demonic energy in her hand, and shot forth another devil slicer.. Or at least, that was what she believed happened… As, to her surprise, some sort of void opened up in front of her. All of those there looked upon this with surprise, including the very one who caused it to appear. This surprise was only further heightened by what came out of the portal. A grotesque armored being, who was unlike anything they’d ever seen. And for the time being, it looked as if he was just as confused as them. His gaze moved around in confusion, the Flora and Fauna around him were unfamiliar no doubt. ..

“Just where am I?” His eyes moved to the void that lay behind him.

“... Could this be the other realm I’ve been hearing about? But how was I whisked awa-”

As he stopped, he noted a source of demonic energy, though, significantly smaller than his own, the only source he could sense. If he truly was in the realm of Legend, Mvchk, One that lacked the energy the many denizens of his own realm used, than this was a curiosity indeed.

“So you were the one who brought me here?” He turned to the shocked Miyamoto, and the rapidly closing portal.

“I-Well- Yes… But, I don’t know how….” As she trailed off, Gihren cut in.

“We can worry about that later! She’s still here, and a threat!” He shouted, pointing to Keacham. The being’s eyes followed his pointing, and at that moment, he decided upon what to do about her. Faster than any of them could detect, he was in front of her, and slamming a fist into her cheek, resulting in a crunch emanating, and her leaving the battlefield, scarring the earth as she exited. The battle was in fact over, but not in the way they expected it would… As Miyamoto finished the story, eventually, the subject began making their way toward them.

“Alright, I had some of the others scout out the area ahead, I think we’ll be free to move now.” Hyperion explained. This much gained nods from all of the members there.

“In that case, We’d best find Hashimoto.” Arctaius responded.

Part B

While reminiscence of past events continued among the other members of the group, another had isolated himself from the rest, if temporarily. Jirou Hashimoto had been attempting to figure something out for some time now. Given that he was going into unknown territory, outside of the studies of gravity he’d done academically, if only to advance his own ability in power.

Increasing the gravity in a small range, within his palm, and bringing in some material from outside, he began his work, starting a cycle that he’d been trying to get a handle on for a while. Compress, Increase, Compress, and Increase. But even so, as he tried to do so, he fell short of the mass and Gravity alike that he needed… More effort, and taking in more debris from the surrounding area ultimately resulted in no change. Another failure. With a tsk, he stopped himself. Undoing the small gravity well. With a sigh, he sat on a nearby rock.

“There’s something I’m missing, but the question is, what is it?” It seemed he would have to return to the others and rack his brain for answers. They would need to keep moving eventually, and he didn’t want them to waste time trying to find him. After a few short moments, he stood to his feet, and began making his way back to their impromptu camp, if you’d even call it that. But apparently, even that would not be so simple… An enemy was looming nearby, and a powerful one at that. And it was one that didn’t hesitate to make his move as soon as his enemy was within view. In a few moments, it seemed as if the air around Jirou began to spin, at high speeds, at that. Ripping through the landscape under him. When he took note, the Yakuza didn’t stay in that same spot for long, leaping upward, and moving his gaze around, to figure out just where the attack, or at least, what he theorized was one came from. A question that was soon answered by a cloaked skeleton rushing forth, landing a right hook with his bony fist, and sending the Youth crashing into the ground. A second attack was coming, as he descended rapidly, attempting to use his momentum to land a powerful hit on him from above. But, no luck, the man moved out of the way, getting to his feet, and kicking the skeleton away. And it seemed that the two shared their lack of hesitation to attack their opponents, as there was already another attack coming, A fist from Jirou. And as the demon stopped himself, he sent another forth in return.

The end result was both attacks being stopped between them. The clashing of the two attacks sent a shockwave radiating outward. Leaving the two standing each other, with fierce expressions on their faces… Or rather, one of them, given the other, lacked the apparatus to make expressions at all.

“So you are the one of the humans I’ve heard so much about… I don’t know where the others are, but you being alone just makes this easier… Prepare to die by the hand, of Ghemzaan the great….”

To Be Continued