Chapter 5 - How To Strongest (Part 2)

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

[Narration]

{Chat}

…

(Third POV: Sceptix, Akira, Sloth)

Sceptix was currently in a large park, with Sloth and Akira nearby. Sloth and Akira sat on a bench, while Sceptix was standing around seven meters away from them.

The goal was for Sceptix to tame his shikigami while not dying. If he did this correctly, then they should have an easy time until they get to Mahoraga.

"You can start now, Sceptix." Akira cupped his hands together and held them like a megaphone as he spoke to Sceptix, who was a bit far away.

Sceptix nodded. Summoning Totality Sceptix then brought his hands together in a mimicking gesture that looked like a rabbit and summoned the rabbit escape.

Tens of rabbits popped up out of nowhere. They were all snow white and had red eyes. Upon being summoned, almost all tilted their heads toward Sceptix.

The one in the front, however, continued to stare into Sceptix's eyes. Even though it was unnerving, Sceptix walked up to the rabbit.

"You're not that bad; actually, you're pretty cute," Sceptix said as he crouched down and tried to pet the rabbit.

The rabbit quickly jumped on the arm that Sceptix had outstretched and ran up it. Jumping off the arm, the rabbit did a spin kick that Sceptix narrowly dodged away from.

"Oh shit! Never mind, these guys are insane!" Sceptix quickly stood up and threw a kick at the rabbit, who jumped on his leg and used it as a stepping stone to try and kick his head.

The other rabbits began clicking their teeth together rapidly as the fight was taking place. Dodging the kick with a large tilt of the head, Sceptix grabbed the rabbit by the ears with his right hand and used his left to pull out a knife from his inventory.

The knife found its way into the rabbit's eye and into the brain, killing it instantly.

{Sceptix Fushiguro has made the advancement: Force to submit the Rabbit Escape}

The rabbits all stopped chattering and became calm in an instant. "*Sigh*. That was way harder than it needed to be." Sceptix whispered as he unsummoned the remaining rabbits.

"Nice job!" Akira's voice made Sceptix turn around. He saw Sloth nodding his head, and Akira held a thumbs up with his face not showing any emotion.

A small smile appeared on Sceptix's face. Turning back around, Sceptix did another mimicking hand gesture, the snake-head. This time, he was summoning the great serpent.

From a black shadow in front of Sceptix, located on the ground, a massive serpent grew out. It was a gigantic white snake with a tan-yellow underbelly. The snake has black markings all over its body, including a symbol on its forehead.

The snake immediately grew in size and launched itself at Sceptix with its mouth wide open. Seeing this, Sceptix summoned the rabbit escape.

A massive number of rabbits cocooned around his location as the serpent closed its jaws. Getting a mouth full of rabbit. Sceptix jumped out of the rabbit escape and onto the serpent's head.

He barely made it on with his arms around the serpent's head, trying to get a grip. Taking out a knife, he stabbed the serpent in the eye.

*Hhhhiiisssss*

The serpent began shaking its head and body rapidly in response to the pain generated by the stab. However, Sceptix kept holding on and stabbing it in the eye.

His grip was failing him. With barely any time remaining before he fell off, Sceptix let go as the serpent shook its head upward.

Being sent flying upward, Sceptix did flips in the air until his momentum stopped. Spreading out his arms and facing the ground, the serpent was currently looking at him with one eye.

"Come at me, fucker! I don't need any shikigami to run your shit!" Sceptix said as the serpent quickly grew in length and rushed into the sky after him.

Seeing him get close, Sceptix knew he had one opportunity. "Almost... almost... RABBIT ESCAPE!" Sceptix summoned the rabbit escape mid-air.

A massive number of rabbits were generated under his feet and around him. Using the rabbits, he stepped on them and ran forward, somehow defying gravity.

It was raining rabbits, and right as the serpent tried to bite down on Sceptix, he used the group of rabbits below him as a stepping stone to jump above the serpent.

Landing hard on the serpent's neck, he wrapped his legs around it. Making sure his legs were locked, Sceptix took another knife from his inventory and stabbed the serpent in the other eye.

*HHHIIIIISSSSSSS*

The serpent began shaking as Sceptix continued to hang on for dear life and continued to stab at it.

"Die, die, die, die you, son of a bitch!" Sceptix continued to stab deeper and deeper into its eye as he screamed.

Taking both hands on the knife, Sceptix drove it as deep as he could. The fight, which seemed like forever, only took a minute.

The serpent had died, and Sceptix began falling. Summoning the rabbit escape, Sceptix once again made his way to the ground safely.

{Sceptix Fushiguro has made the advancement: Force to submit The Great Serpent}

When the rabbit escape was desummoned Sceptix could be seen panting on the ground.

*Pant* *Pant*

*Clapping x2*

"Great job! That was an amazing fight." Sceptix heard Akira congratulating him from afar. Turning his head, he saw Sloth shaking his head with a smile. Akira had a small smile on his face, and both he and Sloth were clapping.

Sceptix raised his right hand in the air. "I don't think I have one more in me, but I guess totality can have all the fun for this one." A small smile appeared on Sceptix's face as he again made another hand sign.

The hand sign took the form of two wings. While still lying on the ground, one of the ten shadows appeared only three meters in front of Sceptix. It was known as Nue.

Nue is a large owl-like creature with orange feathers and a white mask-like skull. It has large wings, two sets of talons, and human-like teeth.

Yet Nue didn't even get a chance to fight as Totality, a stronger, larger, bi-pedal, bicolored werewolf-like version of the black Divine Dog, appeared behind it.

Grabbing the bird's head and smashing it into the ground, Totality then stepped on its back and grabbed the bird by the wings.

Pulling on the wings while at the same time stepping on its back, Totality ripped the wings off Nue.

The bird didn't even get a chance to scream in pain as Totality's claw made its way through the bird's skull.

{Sceptix Fushiguro has made the advancement: Force to submit the Nue}

"That was a great show." Sloth appeared before Sceptix, with Akira beside him. Akira held a hand out to Sceptix, which he took and proceeded to pull him off the ground.

"Thanks, but I'm out of energy. I'll need to rest a bit before I can summon round deer." Sceptix began dusting himself off as he spoke. Unsummoning Totality gave him some cursed energy back, but it still wasn't enough.

"That's fine. We'll be doing something different while you regain your energy." Akira made a 'stand back' gesture to Sloth, who began backing up.

"What are we going to do?" Sceptix spoke with confusion as he saw Akira get into a fighting stance.

"I will be training you in hand-to-hand combat. Heavenly Restriction gives me instincts that allow me to use weapons with almost master-level precision.

I assume I'll only get stronger as I grade up, which means my instincts will become that much stronger. If you land a hit on me, then you win." Akira's stance didn't change. Sceptix gulped as he knew he was in for an ass beating of a lifetime.

"Hahaha. You just want to dog me in hand-to-hand combat, don't you?" Sceptix laughed nervously as he put his hands up.

"You carry the Fushiguro name and are biologically my son. I can't have my son be anything but the number two spot." Akira lowered his stance as he noticed how much of a novice Sceptix really was.

"Why am I supposed to be number two? As your son, shouldn't I be the best?" Sceptix's counterpoint was fair but immediately shut down by Akira.

"Because I'm always going to be the strongest." As soon as Akira finished his sentence, Sceptix rushed at him.

Sceptix threw rapid-fire punches aimed at Akira's face and chest. The first two punches were deflected, the third to fifth were pushed to the side, and the sixth to tenth were slapped away.

Sceptix's face showed frustration as Akira only used one arm to stop his punches. Throwing an uppercut to Akira's face, it was dodged only for Akira to spin Sceptix around and end up rolling over his shoulder.

Sceptix quickly turned to the side in shock and threw another punch directed at Akira's chest, only for Akira's backhand to find its way to his face.

He was almost ten toes off the ground, only for Akira to grab his arm to stop him from falling.

"Your punches are sloppy; they're telegraphed like a Dark Souls boss, and you have no defense." Akira listed off the main reasons Sceptix couldn't hit him, as Sceptix was still reeling from the backhand.

Letting go of Sceptix's arm, Akira allowed him to try again. Gritting his teeth, Sceptix charged at Akira again. A left hook! Blocked.

Right hook! Blocked. Kick! Sidestepped. Akira grabbed his leg as it was still mid-air from the sidestep and pushed closer to Sceptix.

While Akira was still holding his leg, he put his foot behind Sceptix's that was still on the ground, and began walking forward.

Unable to hobble backward, Sceptix fell. "Get up," Akira said as he walked backward a foot and waited.

'This guy is acting like I can't hit him because I'm trash. The reality is, he's just overpowered as fuck!' Sceptix thought with frustration as he quickly got up and rushed at Akira.

Another rapid fire of punches aimed at Akira's face was blocked with one hand. This only fueled Sceptix more as he spun on his heel quickly to try and land a kick.

Akira bent his knees backward at a 90-degree angle and dodged the kick. This shocked not only Sceptix but also Sloth.

Instantly standing up as the kick passed overhead, Akira stomped on the ground hard with his right foot.

A crater was formed in the ground, and as Sceptix lost his balance, he saw Akira approaching him. Stopping him from falling by grabbing him by the shirt, Akira used his right hand to land ten slaps across his face in such a short time that Sceptix didn't even know what hit him.

"Everyone here has a 'transmigration bonus.' This bonus gives everyone two times the cursed energy, but for me, it is useless. I noticed that I was instead given something else; I was given 'two times heavenly restriction.'

When Omni first awoke, I told him to shut up due to me still not being able to control my five senses. It was the main reason I wasn't with the group. As you are biologically my son, I won't let you be weak. Stand straight." As Akira was explaining his abilities, Sceptix's head was still hurting from the force of the slaps. Being pushed away reawakened him, as he knew he had to focus on the fight.

As the grass and dirt fell from the sky around them due to the weight of Akira's stomp, Sceptix ran forward again.

Knowing how fast and strong Akira was, Sceptix threw short jabs, which all missed their mark.

Sceptix had gone into a boxing stance, and using short jabs, he began trying to bait out an attack from Akira.

Akira threw a slower-than-average punch in order to test Sceptix. Sceptix immediately dodged the punch, albeit barely, and tried to land a hit on Akira's face, only for his punch to miss by an inch due to Akira tilting his head to the left.

Continuing his onslaught, Sceptix threw punches, which made Akira step backward to dodge. The more Akira moved back, the bolder Sceptix got. A small smirk even appeared on his face.

"Rule twenty-seven of fighting: Don't get too full of yourself when pushing your opponent," Akira spoke quickly as he dodged another punch aimed at his face.

Sceptix looked confused for a second before his eyes widened. Another backhand had made its way to his face.

Sceptix did a 180-degree turn, and Akira took advantage of it. Grabbing the back of Sceptix's shirt to stop his momentum, Akira then let go, only to grab both of his arms.

Sceptix now had both arms held behind him by Akira, who then placed his foot on Sceptix's back. Pulling his arms backward while pushing his foot forward, Akira tugged at Sceptix.

"AARRGGHHHH!"

"You've lost," Akira said as he let go of Sceptix's arms and extended his leg completely, making Sceptix fall forward.

Sceptix basically smashed face-first into the dirt. Though it could be worse, Sceptix slowly began to push himself back up.

"Sceptix, if you cancel your technique for Totality, you should have enough energy to summon Round Deer." Sloth was standing in front of him with both hands in his pockets.

"Yeah, yeah, chill for a minute, will you?" Sceptix began dusting himself off as he stood up.

Unsummoning Totality Sceptix proceeded to try and summon Round Deer. Making a hand sign that looked like a deer's head, from Sceptix's shadow came the Round Deer.

Round Deer is a tall, deer-like shikigami. It was skinny, had long antlers on the top of its head, and had a bunch of white fluff on it.

The reaction from Sloth and Akira was immediate. Sloth ran forward and threw a flying fist at Round Deer's face that connected and nearly turned the shikigami's head fully.

Akira came in from the side and landed a barrage of punches. Round Deer didn't even get a chance to make noise, as while Akira applied more power to his punches, Sloth touched the creature.

Immediately, Round Deer was turned into a glowing gray sphere. Sloth swallowed the sphere as soon as he had it in his hand.

Due to his 'spirit manipulation,' Sloth was able to enslave both shikigami and cursed spirits. With Round Deer now in his arsenal, Sloth was about to complete the final part of his plan.

"Maximum Technique: Uzumaki!" Sloth said as a massive swirling vortex spawned behind him. The vortex was made out of Round Deer, and it looked as if the shikigami was put into a two-dimensional space and then rolled out like dough.

Firing the Uzumaki in the air, Sloth smiled.

{Geto Sloth has made the advancement: [Reverse Cursed Technique Lv1]}

{Geto Sloth has made the advancement: [Reverse Cursed Technique Lv2]}

{Geto Sloth has made the advancement: [Reverse Cursed Technique Lv3]}

{Geto Sloth has made the advancement: [Reverse Cursed Technique Lv4]}

{Geto Sloth has made the advancement: [Reverse Cursed Technique Lv5]}