Half a mask
Backtracking to when Dacol and Angelia were going to fight the water donut monster.
...
With a step, Angelia arrived in the air beside the monster. Slash. The monster was split in two. The end.
No!
As she was falling from the air, the cut appeared to have healed by itself as the monster was perfectly fine.
A sweep of one of her tentacles sent Angelia flying. Luckily she had her sword in front of her to block most of the impact.
While Angelia was doing that, Dacol was examining the surroundings, he wasn't as agile and strong as Angelia so she couldn't be so reckless as to dive headfirst into combat. He had to use his brain that he was so proud of and think of a way to end this fight.
As he looked around, his eyes locked on a towering structure meant for free diving maniacs. Honestly, how did this scary contraption survive the times when even world hunger was eradicated.
With quick steps, he arrived at the bottom of the ladder. He looked up and gulped, just remembering his fear of heights.
'I can do this, I can do this. Ok phew, Angelia is counting on me.' He tried to gather courage as he place one hand and a foot on the ladder.
In the meantime, while Dacol was contemplating life, Angelia got knocked back again by the tentacles. Before she landed in the water, she stretched out her left hand that wasn't currently wielding the sword and shot out a hook from her TMD.
Terrain Maneuvering Device, TMD in short is the basic device every aspiring hunter would have to have. Although the one strapped to her wrist was only a Tier 1 TMD, it was enough to maneuver through simple terrains like a mere pool of water, as it was made to maneuver over much more complicated terrains within the dense forests and rocky mountains of the animal kingdom.
This TMD was also looted from the hunter's hotel room, and it was utilized perfectly in this fight.
"Angelia! You have to get rid of that core-looking thing! I am pretty sure that is its weak spot, it has to be. Its entire body is made up of jelly, your sword can't damage it." Dacol sounded out from the top of the jumping board, his leg shivering.
"Get its attention, I have a better chance at striking the core from up here!" Although he said that, he himself half believed it. He gulped as he took a peek at the way down, immediately his false bravado crumpled.
"C-change of plans! I think you will have a better chance hitting the core, I shall grab its attention from up here!"
Angelia couldn't help but roll her eyes at the shivering fool up there, but her concentration never wavered despite the disturbance.
"Hey, you disgusting tentacle monster! Over here! I bet your mother was called a wet blanket when she still had you in her because she couldn't join the other male donut monsters. Her hole surely was their favorite!"
Both Angelia and the water donut monster glared at the degrading joke. But well, it worked like a charm, not so much for his charm though.
The tentacle monster went berserk as if her sore spot was touched, waving her numerous tentacles at the structure, planning to take it down and that foul mouth guy along with it.
Using this chance, Angelia shot a hook towards the ceiling as she propelled herself towards the head of the monster. Her sword gleamed as she focused on the core, not realizing that she had subconsciously poured some mana into her weapon.
As she neared the monster, the monster sensed something as it looked down at her figure. Realizing that she was too close for comfort, two of its tentacles sweep down towards her.
She couldn't escape. Time stood still.
Her focus intensified as her instinct yelled at her to swing her sword with all her might.
Dacol, seeing this yelled with fear in his voice, "Noooo!"
With a leap, he jumped off the platform he was once scared of leaving, diving towards the same figure.
*Swish*
*Bang*
Two sounds rang out at almost the same time.
*Thud thud thud*
The bodies that were entangled with each other fell onto the pool grounds as they rolled before colliding with the wall after a not-so-soft landing. Thankfully, they were physically strengthened, or else they would have died either way.
"Urghh..." Both parties tried to get up but Dacol found himself face to face with Angelia. 'Pretty' he thought as he looked into her beautiful eyes.
"Get off me you fool, and by the way, I had that."
Angelia threw Dacol off her body and commented while looking at the devastation she caused.
"Haha... I knew you could do it, I was just your plan B... haha." Dacol said while scratching his head, then he also turned to look at the scene.
Shaking her head at his words, Angelia tried to remember the feeling when she let out that last strike.
It was like the blade of a demon reaper, ready to cleave all life. At the final moment, she let out a sword strike that seemingly exited her sword and cleave the monster in half, taking the core off with it as the residual force carved out a large sword strike onto the wall.
"Wow, how did you do that?" Dacol said as he went closer to take a closer look at the sword mark.
"I don't know, but I think it is related to mana," Angelia replied with doubt on her face.
"Oh come look, that's the core!" Dacol said as he pointed at the perfectly intact core, embedded in the wall, in the middle of the huge sword mark.
...
Fast forward to the present time.
Not knowing that someone else have discovered the mysteries of mana, by pure luck at that, Gran continuously instructed May to try different ways to use mana.
Currently, they were fighting the boss. Well, May was fighting the boss, with Gran's directions.
Gran was gathering data as usual, as the boss turned out to be a complete letdown.
The boss was just an even larger skeleton, could you believe it? What a lack of imagination.
Besides the 2 pairs of smaller arms attached to its ribcage in addition to its already gigantic arms, there was nothing unique.
...
"Ok now try coating your body with mana and slam yourself against it." Gran gave another ridiculous command, partially trying to see if May would really follow.
"Are you crazy! I am still a delicate young woman, not a brute!" May said as she took a huge boulder, coating it with mana and slamming it on the skull of the giant skeleton, cracking it.
'And she says she is not a brute.' Gran smiled wryly as he witness the scene.
He also noted the use of mana that he hadn't discovered yet.
"Ok I think that is all, you can finish it now."
"That was what I have been trying to do for the past 10 minutes!" May yelled in frustration.
"Oh really, no wonder. I was wondering why you were obedient when I was conducting my experiments this time. Okay, I'm tired of staying here let's leave."
[Enahnced Wind Style: Lightning]
This time there was no fancy pose or form, only a loud thunderous sound exploded as May was sent flying by the wind. In the air, she saw a bright flash, as a figure crashed into the boss, splitting it in half.
The original white bones were charred black, as the two sides collapsed to the ground. Gran could be seen behind the collapsing figure with his back to it.
This move was the mana-enhanced version of Wind Style: Flash. Flash was originally the faster move in the Gaia Martial Arts series, and with the lightning mana, Gran could momentarily turn himself into lightning as he slashed down onto his target.
All in all, he was satisfied with the results.
...
"What was that? Another one of your new moves? Isn't that a bit too dangerous for your allies?! I got blown away you know, oh my poor skin, what if I had suffered a cut?!" As May bombarded Gran with questions, she got increasingly heated.
'Ahh, how I wish she was still that sparkling eyes disciple who worships me whenever I do something cool. Now she doesn't even care, oh how they've grown.' With a lamenting sigh, Gran walked towards the glowing thing on the floor.
There it lay, on the floor, half a mask, that was all.
The mask was white with black curly lines covering most parts of its body. Where the eye hole should be, there was a drawing of an oval eye painted on it.
He bend down to pick up the weird half mask with no eye hole and inspected it with his mana. He was surprised to find something popping up.
*
[Artifact]
[Rare]
[Underworld Sight][Incomplete]
Originally belonging to the overseer of the underworld, after he was killed in the rebellion, it was fragmented and scattered to different parts of the underworld.
*Please find the other parts to complete the artifact*
*
"Hey, doesn't that eye on the mask looks like the one in the sky? What a coincidence." May voiced out he thoughts as she compared the painting on the mask to the oval shape celestial body in the sky.
"Indeed... what a coincidence," Gran said with a hidden undertone.
They looked at the door that was identical to the one they came through and entered it together.