Chapter 262.5: New Inspiration! The Seven Pillars!

Aono sighed, slumping against the table, one of her employees pouring her another cup of expresso.

"Ahhhhhhhhh..." she sighed, then abruptly sat up kicking and screaming, "Ahhh!!! Where is my knight!? It has been days! Days without proper motivation!!"

On the second floor of the cafe, the Dazzling Tyrant's Comic Hangout, everyone was already accustomed to the owner's random outbursts. The VIP patrons gave it no mind as they continued their conversations and drinks.

"Mistress, please be aware of the guests…" the woman tried to say, only to have a stylus pointed at her face.

"Nonsense! My passion will not be quelled! AH! Why did I open this stupid comic store! It has only given me more work and taken away from following my dazzling knight!"

Once more she groaned a tear running down the side of her face as she slumped against the slightly cold yet comforting table, her head turned towards the window pointed at the street.

She watched idly as the people of her knight's town passed by laughing and smiling.

"Ah… when will something of interest hap..p.e..n… Oh…?"

"Mistress?"

"Shh!"

Aono raised a finger to the other woman's lips, then gripped her in a headlock as she pulled her in nearly spilling the contents of the waitress's mug.

Pointing outside the window at a group of people passing by Aono's eyes widened.

"W-w-w-w-w-who are they?! I've never seen them!" Aono gasped.

Tapping on Aono's arm, the waitress tried her best to get out an answer.

"T-they… are… students of the city's owner…"

Aono released the waitress only to grab her desperately by the collar with both hands.

"Why have I not been informed of this?! My Knight has s-s-s-s-s-s-s-students?!!"

Aono's spine suddenly had a chill run down it, her hair standing on euphoric end as she shivered in delight.

"I know what I must do!" she yelled standing up nearly toppling the table in her corner of the shop.

"Are they really that impressive..?" the waitress asked, "As far as I am aware they have just recently made it to F-Rank and are supposed to be fighting the Guardsmen and some adventurers in a new arena. The arena is only open to the public for this event supposedly…"

The waitress held up a piece of brownish paper.

Aono snatched the paper away from her with quickness unbeguiling her non-combat class.

"Dore dore…Open sign-ups… first come first serve…Winners have a chance to become the leader of the city….Hmph!" Aono scoffed, "As if anyone could lead the city but my great knight! Hmmm… open sign ups… open sign ups… o…p…e…n….OPEN SIGN-UPS?!"

Aono ran through the floor and immediately through the shop, gathering a cloak and making her way straight to this new arena.

She sprinted through the streets like a madwoman weaving between the crowds that only became thicker as she came closer to the now towering building in front of her.

Aono quickly grabbed the nearest person, shaking them down for the information of where the sign-ups were. After a bit of navigating the crowd, she found a line of people leading to a small window.

At the window was a disinterested woman picking at her nails as she slipped a paper from under the window for people to sign.

Without hesitation Aono cut the line, snatching away the paper from the person in front, signing it, and returning it to the woman.

"Hey, what the fuck gives?!"

"You can't just cut in front!"

Aono only scoffed at the people reprimanding her, she cared not for the words of background characters. Her unrelenting obsession, or as she called it passion.

She only stuck up her nose at the line of people, the woman behind her finally stopping from her nail-picking to say something.

"Alright, looks like that is all they wanted for people. Sign-ups are closed, now go fall in a ditch or something," she said sarcastically.

The line of people's eyes instantly went to Aono, fury and malice bubbling within them.

A line of cold sweat ran down her face as she pushed up her glasses.

"What an unfortunate turn of events. I bid you all a good day! Please root for me!" she smiled, turning tail and running back into the crowd.

"Come back here you little shit!"

"You think you can get away with taking this chance from us!"

"We were going to beat those sorry little kids to a pulp and become leaders!"

The voices of the angry adventurers faded into the distance as Aono delved deeper into the crowd, using the civilians and spectators as cover.

Sweating and taking in deep gasps for air she smiled, wiping her brow with her cloaked sleeve.

"Insignificant bugs! Nothing shall stand in my way on my journey to capture every facet of my dazzling knight and the history he bestows on the world!" she announced in the crowd posing proudly with a hand in the air, hand on hip.

The passerbys looked on confused, some children pointing and laughing.

"It's the funny lady!"

"Don't point, it's rude."

With a light cough, Aono put her hand to her head like a visor as she looked around for the entrance. Which took her no time to find thanks to the flooding stream of spectators into the building.

A few more minutes of following the traffic she found herself surrounded by over a hundred other guardsmen and adventurers as they entered a large open space with an arena in the center.

She looked around trying to find her quarry through the mess of sweaty, armor-bound men and women. Her eyes finally landed on a small group of seven on the other side, standing off against one of the guards.

"Oh?" she hummed squinting her eyes to make out the group better as she inched past people on her side to get a closer look.

"...are you stalling for time?"

Aono could barely make out some of the conversation they were having from her distance and felt the pressure before she could see or hear the rest.

A loud boom concussed the entire arena silencing it for a breath as Drake suddenly appeared in front of the guard his hair blown back from the impact.

Aono's eyes sparkled as she shook her hands up and down, the last of the conversation reaching her ears.

"... Seems like you're the nervous one…"

"Insects should be silent… Unable to see the greatness of Lord Drake…"

Aono's whole body broke out in goosebumps, her mana paper and stylus coming out unconsciously as she continued to watch the two women in all their glory.

"You tell that half a brain cell having lowlife!" she cheered, her hand sketching as she did, "Viva la Drake! Wallen Banzai!"

Her surrounding team looked at her confused.

"Is she cheering for the kids?"

"She's on our team though, right?"

The match was seconds away from beginning. Reluctantly, Aono followed the large group into their side of the arena.

She found a spot somewhere in the middle of the group, able to see the other group of teens relatively well.

Looking over to her left she saw the guardsman that had been saved by her Knight surrounded by other guardsmen.

The counting down began to sound out in earnest, with a mechanical voice announcing the last few seconds.

5

4

3

Jeering from both sides found its way in between the counting, bringing Aono to turn her head from the guardsmen and to the front of the groups.

2

1

[Begin]

The instant the match started she felt a weight fall on her shoulders, and her ears ring with the sound of thunderous booms from the other side of the arena.

Forced to place her hand to cover her eyes from the crackling light across the arena, Aono heard the faint whistling of something cutting through the air one moment. The next she caught something on the side of her vision, forcing her head to turn.

Her vision panned in slow motion, seeing a lightning-clad spear and black-flamed scythe traveling the distance right above the earlier guardsman.

Aono's eyes widened as she tried to take in the image of the dazzling women, one with bright red hair, and lightning crackling off her armor. The other of pure white hair, animal ears, and tail. Both suddenly appeared with the weapons gripped in their hands.

"Foclóir Gaeilge!!"

"Fate's Rend!"

The weapons struck true, passing through the man and splitting him to ashen pieces, the impact from the floor sending out an enormous wave of pressure, kicking up dust.

Aono tried her best to brace herself, her hair snapping against the wind and blowing her cloak nearly off her shoulders as she gripped her mana paper against her chest, her other hand releasing her stylus to fix her glasses in place. 

The stylus flew backward with such force it hit a bystander next to her sending the poor man off his feet from the blow despite Aono's stylus having no damage stats.

She forced her feet to stay planted against the whipping pressure, leaning into the wind at nearly a 45-degree angle.

"Magnifi-nauiebcanwca!!!" she tried to say her mouth expanding from the gust comically, flapping in the wind as she tried to form words, her eyes spread open as wide as her body would allow to drink in the women's victorious visages.

After the brief christening of the match passed, the wind dying down, Aono began to furiously sketch down with her revitalized inspiration, new stylus in hand.

"Magnificent!" she shouted, her eyes beginning to leak like faucets, "Simply wondrous as the knight who taught them! Ah! Title! The Crackling Dawn! And! The Night Reapess!"

Immersed in her fantasies, Aono nearly missed the adventurers sprinting into action to launch a counterattack against the two, surrounding them in a fraction of a second.

However, a fraction of a second was all that was needed from the remainder of the opposing group as another man was hurtled into the crowd of adventurers a whirlwind of anger, angst, and furious green landed in front of them.

"Oi! You forgetting about the strongest one here?! Ah?!"

A man with a red mohawk and long coat walked forward with his hands in his pockets, head reeled back.

Aono let out an unconscious girlish scream.

"Bancho! Tochaku!!"

The new ruffian-like gangster raised his jaw and looked down at the adventurers as they threw every spell, skill, and weapon imaginable at him.

But the man only sneered back at the apparently feeble attempt as he crouched down.

"Blossom Rotation!"

His body turned into a tornado of protection, reflecting and reversing every attack that tried to harm the three within the spinning form.

Gasps of incredulity came from adventurers as they were forced to dodge their own weapons and skills.

A moment later the man appeared unscathed and jeering as he slammed his fists together rushing forward into the crowd headfirst.

"Such manliness! Despite being so hard on the outside, he protects his comrades with such compassion! Title! The Unruly Guardian!" Aono announced her stylus sliding across her paper with a beaming fanatic smile.

The screaming and yelling continued within the arena all around her as she continued to paint the ensuing fights from the three until she saw spells and weapons fly upward toward a girl in the sky.

Aono's head snapped upwards seeing the girl easily disperse and misdirect the projectiles in the air only for her to divebomb down a moment later, touching down with a gust of wind right behind Aono and in the middle of several Mages.

Next, the sound of gunfire rang out, Aono's face painted with red from the Mages being felled one by one.

She quickly used her hand to wipe away the mess on her face and glasses as it turned to blue particles bringing clarity to her sight swiftly enough to see the results of the girl's rampage.

"Oh. Oh my!" Aono gasped, "Such ferocity from such a small and cute girl! Exquisite!"

The colorful girl was not done yet. Brandishing a single-barreled shotgun that quickly hummed with power.

"Howling Gale!"

The girl whistled and beamed, unleashing a large burst of power from the weapon and completely removing several Mages from the arena as she chirped and reloaded her weapon.

In her brief moment of vulnerability, a large man with a hammer approached her from behind. Raising it high to slam the enormous weapon down on her head.

But the blow never came as he was suddenly strung up, frozen in an intricate web of metal wires outlined in his own blood.

On the man's back, an otherworldly-looking person appeared, forcing Aono to blush as she felt her heart skip a beat. The feeling was only enforced more as she saw the person's face twist into a primal rage as he raised his arm that housed the wire's controlling point, battling against the large man's strength.

With an animalistic growl, the person rapped his finger against the strings, a venomous green running down the length of the wire only to petrify the large man in moments to Aono's delight.

And with another tug of the person's hand the large man collapsed in a pile of stone and flesh, to disappear in motes of blue a breath later.

"Incredible! I never imagined having such inspiration in such quantities!" Aono beamed, wiping her mouth with her cloak's sleeve, "Title! The Whistling Death! And! Silent Fate!"

Just when she thought it was coming to a close Aono caught the scent of flowers within the arena, her nose leading her to a man with dark skin and white short cut hair quite the distance away from the fight.

At the same time, she had noticed him, apparently the adventurers had noticed him as well, attempting to charge him in a seemingly desperate last-ditch effort to change the pace of the fight.

But the man seemed to be calm as he raised a hand, a small blue and white puppy jumping in front of him.

"Ifrit, Tundra Howl."

With a somewhat surprising, yet cute, howl, the small pup let loose a torrent of pale blue fire that froze the oncoming onslaught of close-range fighters that were convening on him.

And suddenly a woman appeared behind him, revealing herself from some type of stealth skill, her weapons drawn and aimed right for the man's neck only to find purchase with nothing.

The man had snapped his fingers, switching places with a small tree that raised two branches as if furious with the man.

The battle between the man and the new rogue-like woman ensued for several seconds until a bright white light appeared under the man's feet as he dodged and danced around the seemingly dexterous woman. And with the completion of the spell, Aono's eyes grew several sizes with the puppy behind the woman, who had also grown even more in size, into a full-fledged monstrous wolf.

And in several breaths, the fight was over, the wolf entirely engulfing the woman's upper torso in one fell swoop, his owner patting him on its large snout in reward.

Aono's cheek twitched as she fought back the urge to scream in ecstatic bliss.

She had finally found more inspiration. Enough to live an eternity.

"And it was all thanks to my dazzling knight!" she screamed, pulling the man and wolf's attention.

She looked back at him with a crazed expression of euphoria, her shoulders raising and falling in deep breaths, her smile only growing.

The man jerked, his person visibly shivering as he grimaced.

But before he was able to direct his beast toward Aono, another round rushed in trying their best to surround the man once more.

She watched as the new supersized wolf fought back against the oncoming flood of people.

However, the man seemed to have more tricks up his sleeve.

"Looks like everyone is getting tired. This will be a first, but better now than never," the man hummed.

"Duality Core. Ifrit into Anima!" the man roared, two pieces of equipment on his body lighting up in pale blue and green, the large wolf shining in brilliant white as it shot up into the air. The small tree monster also doing the same, colliding in front of him.

"Plus Bahamut!"

A final ball of light shot from the sky down to combine with the already potent mixture of power, a third piece of equipment brimming to life with a pale purple on his person.

The surrounding adventurers paused for a moment, the influx of pressure from the skill stalling them in place. And the following event shook the area.

The ball of power stilled and cracks formed, spider webbing across the surface until the sound of shattering glass resounded in the area, a truly monstrous abomination emerging from the ball of energy.

Aono's knees shook and gave out as she fell to the ground cackling. The monster an amalgamation of a large wolf-like tree with red eyes and a wooden frame, blue flames covering its arms, back, and legs, with two enormous black wings jutting out from its shoulders.

The man took a step back his face paling slightly, but a smile formed on his face as he muttered one word.

"Monst3r."

The amalgamation of beasts took in a deep breath before letting out a guttural roar that silenced the arena, all heads turning to the fight.

And with a beat of its two enormous wings, it blew the surrounding adventurers back across the arena.

Aono raised her hands, the monster taking thunderous lumbering steps towards her as she looked up, a large wooden and taloned foot casting a shadow down on her from above.

"Magnificent! Such elegance!!! Hahahaha!!! Title! The Monster Monarch!!!!"