Chapter 13 : Here Comes The Boom

Sho kicked the door open to the castle, and the inside was dark with an awful stench.

She covered his mouth fast, then he stepped back outside, and threw up.

"Bleh! Ew! Fuck that smell!"

'The castle smells like trash bag juice, will I be able to continue with a smell like this? I'm here already, I gotta get this done. I'm no pussy.'

Sho sat up, and walked back into the castle, and the doors closed behind him.

'The doors shut by themselves. I think that happened when I went on that raid with Bain's guild and Moxxen's guild. At this point, I gotta expect anything. Something like what happened with Acna could happen again, I hope not. I was lucky to survive since I had Bebop and Gideon with me last time.'

It was pretty dark as Sho walked through a large room, there were vines on the walls, destroyed paintings, and mold.

Sho had his kitchen knife out and ready thinking, 'This atmosphere…it's like something is lurking around me and I can't see it. For a class C raid, I'm impressed. Now that I think about it…I could've been doing this with my mother. My goal still stands, I'll reach the top of the tower for her. Meaning I'll do what I can to get stronger than everyone.'

Sho started walking up a set of stairs, and the smell changed.

'Scent changed. Went from smelling like piss and shit trash bags to freshly cut grass.'

Each step Sho took up the steps, there was a creak.

'Why the hell am I even sneaking? They must know I'm here since I kicked the doors open. Are they waiting?'

Sho started to walk through another large room, with flipped over furniture covered in vines. And there was tall grass on the floor.

Sho didn't walk into the grass, thinking, 'Guarantee there's enemies within the tall grass. I'm not walking through it. I've been in too many situations to act recklessly. I know what to do. I'll use my Extendo ability. I'll clear a path.'

Sho pointed his knife out, and said, "Extend: 20 feet."

Sho knife grew to be exactly 20 feet long, he raised the sword, and slashed through the entire patch of tall grass, slicing it all down.

Grass fluttered into the air, and as soon as it did, wild beasts with glowing red eyes with their bodies made out of vines and grass started to jump out at Sho. The beasts varied from lions, tigers, wolves, rhino's, and bears. All of them are made out of vines and grass.

They roared, with their feet scuffling on their floor.

Sho jumped back, "Knew it! I totally knew it! Extend : normal size!"

Sho's knife went back to its normal size, and Sho jumped on the wall, thinking, 'Wild fucking animals made out of vines and grass, and those red eyes are glowing brighter than the damn sun. They have a killing intent, but they seem like puppets. I'll take them down quickly. Hopefully.'

Sho jumped off the wall, and a vine-rhino was charging at him.

"RAHHHHHHHHRHH!!!"

Sho leaped straight towards the vine-rhino, and he slashed his knife at it, but the knife only cut off the vine-rhino's arm, sending it flying into the air, but Sho was smacked in the stomach by the vine-rhino's face.

Sho rolled across the floor, but he sat up pretty fast.

'I totally saw that coming.'

Sho saw a couple more vine beasts coming at him, and Sho got up quickly.

Sho thinks, 'Like the raid I did before, I'll use the enemy's resources against them.'

Sho ran forward, dodging the vine beasts that were trying to tackle him. Sho picked up the cut up vine-rhino horn, and he jumped up high, but the other vine beasts jumped with him.

The beasts were getting close, and Sho pointed his knife at the ceiling, saying, "Extend: 15 feet!"

Sho's knife extended 15 feet in the air, and the tip struck through the roof, but Sho let go of the knife, and the vine beasts accidentally ran into Sho's knife, getting cut in half like butter.

Shi thought, 'That was a complete accident. But it worked! They were going so fast during their jumps they ended up not being able to control their aerial movement.'

There were more vine beasts running at Sho from the left and right, and Sho reached his hand out to his knife, "Let's go!"

The knife moved itself through the air to land back in Sho's hands, still 15 feet long, and once Sho caught it, he swung a wide swing with it, and it sliced many of the vine-beats in half.

Sho said to his knife, "Extend: normal size!"

The knife went back to its normal size once again, and more vine beasts were arriving, and a vine-lion was leading the charge.

Sho thought, 'I have my knife, and a rhino's horn. Even though I cut the horn off easily, the horn is pretty sharp, because my fucking fingers have small cuts from just holding it.'

Sho dashed towards the vine beasts, and went to work. A vine-lion leaped at Sho, trying to take a bite at him. Sho ducked, and rammed his knife and rhino horn through its face.

The other vine beasts were running around him to find an opening.

Sho, still holding the knife and bone through the lions face, thought, 'The monsters aren't attacking recklessly..they're fighting smarter, waiting for me to fuck up. They're all most likely going to pounce all at once, since they're attack patterns are not only at random, but are in sync with each other according to their time. I need to be more in sync with my intuition! I'll do what I accidentally did earlier! But my timing has to be spot-fucking-on!'

A vine-tiger, a vine-bear, and a vine-wolf ran at Sho altogether, and Sho did a backflip, but in mid air, he pointed his knife at the floor, and said, "Extend: 14 feet!"

The knife extended 15 feet long, which made Sho extend all the way to the ceiling, and the vine beasts were sliced by the knife, but some of the nine beasts dodged it.

The vine beasts started to create a ladder, climbing on top of each other to reach Sho who was 15 feet high.

"RAHHHHHHHHRHHHHHH!!" The vine beasts scorched.

Sho thought, 'Hoh? The ones that survived are using themselves as ladders to reach up to me. Annoying. Guess it's time to really fight, like I thought earlier, my timing needs to be perfect if I want to win.'

Sho waited until the vine-beasts climbed high enough on each other, reaching at about 14 feet.

'Now!'

Sho jumped up, saying, "Extend: normal size!"

The knife went back to normal size, and Sho was holding that along with the rhino horn in the air.

Sho started to fall on the vine-beasts, spinning rapidly as his knife and rhino horn cut the vine beasts apart, slashing their parts all over the place. Sho continued to slice and dice as he fell down through the monsters, thinking, 'I'm a total genius. It's pretty dark being in between all of the monsters, but I can feel the stack getting lighter, meaning I'm doing a damn good job. I gotta keep going!'

Sho kept going, but he was getting sliced up as well by some claws of the vine beasts finished slicing them up, and more vine beasts erupted towards him with loud roars and screeches.

A vine-wolf chomped at Sho, but Sho stuffed the rhino horn in the vine-woods mouth, rammed his knife through the vine-wolf's chest, twisted downward, and ripped the vine-wolf's chest out, killing it.

Sho dashed forward, strafing left and right with his knife, dodging the chomps and claw swings from the vine beasts.

Sho slammed his knife through their heads, pinning them to the floor. Sho's knife was smacked into the air by a vine-wolf's claw, and Sho immediately punched the vine-wolf in the chest, sending it backwards. Then he jumped, caught his knife, and threw his knife at a vine-bear, making it stick through its eye.

Sho landed on the floor, thinking, 'My knife is stuck in the monster, can it extend even if I'm not holding it?! The monster is still standing, so maybe if I run behind the bear monster and extend my knife, it will kill the other monsters around us? The bear monster isn't that tall either, so it would be able to kill at a good height.'

Sho was being chased by the vine beasts, and he slid behind the vine-bear, and when the vine beasts got close, Sho looked at his knife, and exclaimed, "Extend: 20 feet!"

The knife stretched out to be 20 feet long, and the other vine beasts ran into it, getting sliced in half.

'Hell yeah..' Sho thought was smirking.

Sho jumped on the back of the vine-bear, ripped his knife out, "Extend: normal size..!"

Sho jumped again, and slammed his knife down through the top of the vine-bear's head, and it cut the entire beast in half, from head to toe, splattering blood all over the floors.

Sho stood there, seeing himself surrounded by vines on the floor. Sho had a few cuts and bruises on him, with some blood leaking out of him, but it was nothing serious.

Sho kicked some of the vines, saying, "Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck you! I won! Screw you all to hell!"

'That was pretty challenging, but a little easy. Maybe I'm overpowered-?'

Sho started to hear rumbling, and he stood still, saying, "The hell is that?"

Suddenly, the vines began to gather up with each other, connecting and merging as dust started to rise into the air.

Sho began to cough, thinking, 'The vines are starting to merge?! Another enemy? Whatever the hell it is, I'm-!'

There was a bigger vibration through the castle, and Sho fell to the floor.

The vines that were bunched up together, creating large vine-snakes that were about 55 feet tall with glowing and burning red eyes, and it had 5 heads, and they looked at Sho.

Sho said, "Oh shit! It's looking at me! You wanna fight?! I'll kill you!"

The vine-snakes smashed their heads over at Sho, but Sho stabbed his knife into the floor, saying, "Extend: 500 feet!"

The knife started to grow, making Sho ascend really high, smashing through each floor of the castle.

"Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Fuck!"

The giant vine-snakes were right under him, destroying everything below him, smashing everything all over the place.

The vine-snakes were growing larger as well, because they were gathering the vines around them that were hanging on the walls, adding them to their bodies, getting larger in the process.

Sho thought, 'The snake monsters are getting bigger, these bastards are persistent! I can't really do anything at this point, they would swallow me whole if I tried to fight them at this speed and height. I may have gotten a little stronger, but I'm still a class D Fighter, I'm not all that powerful yet. My knife is outgrowing the snake monsters, it can't go on forever. I have to do something. Wait…this is risky, but I have to act fast. Oh..I know.'

Sho exclaimed, "Extend: normal size!"

Sho's knife went back to normal size, Sho turned his knife horizontally, and said, "Extend: 50 feet!"

Sho's knife grew 50 feet horizontally, and Sho started darting to the left while holding the handle of his sword, and he smashed through a few walls.

Sho was getting hurt everytime he smashed through a wall, as one eye was bloodshot red because of the damage taken to it.

Sho said, "I created some space, but…I can't keep fucking running.."

Sho kept going to the left, and the vine snakes were slithering through the walls and destroying them.

Sho said, "Annoying. Extend: normal size."

Sho dropped in another large room, but he fell through more floors of the castle; he looked up, and the snakes were falling down towards him.

'I created some more space, I have the advantage now…I'll just extend my knife again and cut all of them in half. Even if the weight or length of my knife changes, it won't be heavy to me at all, it's like holding a piece of paper.'

Sho looked at his knife, saying, "Extend: 60 feet."

Sho's knife extended to 60 feet, and he pointed it upward, and it reached to the vine-snakes, and it almost pierced through their faces, but not all the way.

Sho thought, 'What?! It didn't go through? Ah..I see. Their bodies are coated within layers upon layers of vines, making it tough for my knife to go through. In that case..there's only one thing left to do.'

Sho said, "Extend: normal size."

The knife went back to normal size, landing in Sho's hand.

Sho thought, 'I can't leap very high yet, so I need to get high. If only my strength stats were higher, I'd be able to jump higher, since my legs would be strong as hell. I need to create height for myself, and finish these things off.'

Sho stabbed his knife into the floor, and said, "Extend: 20 feet."

The knife extended, and Sho started to go upward with the handle of his knife, as the vine-snakes above him were falling down fast and screeching.

Sho looked up at the snakes, "Fuck you! Extend: 17 feet!"

The knife got a little shorter, and Sho swung the knife around, and swung it widely in front of him, and he started swinging it really fast, slashing at the vine-snakes heads.

The knife was creating dents, but it wasn't cutting.

'Shit!'

One of the vine-snakes spit purple venom out of their sharp teeth, and it got on Sho's arm, and it began to burn.

Sho yelled, "AGHHHHH!!!"

Because of the pain, Sho flung the knife into the air on accident, slinging it above the vine-snakes.

Sho was falling down, and the vine-snakes were still shooting their venom, hitting Sho, and making him burn in places on his body.

'This fucking hurts! These snake monsters, they waited until they were close to hit me with their venom..shit..my vision is getting blurry..I'm covered in bruises…and the snake monsters are getting close..Am I gonna lose…am I gonna lose..'

Sho barely noticed his knife falling above the snake monsters, and then he hatched an idea.

'Here goes…'

Sho waited until the knife went sideways as it flipped and turned downward, and he exclaimed, "Extend: 50 feet! Crash: 500,000 pounds!"

The knife expanded to 50 feet long sideways, and it started to fall down faster because of the weight, and it was catching up with the vine-snakes.

The vine-snakes screeched again and hissed, and the knife connected with their backs. The knife was slowly piercing through their backs because of the weight, making the vine-snakes scream even more.

Sho fell down through another floor, and landed in a pool of water, with moss and vines inside of it. He was in the royal bathing room, and he sank at the bottom of the pool.

Blood was flowing inside of the water, rising to the top.

Sho thought, 'Shit…this poison…my movements are getting slow..'

All of a sudden, there was a large crash beside Sho near the pool, and the pool was destroyed, and Sho flew out of it, sliding on the floor, coughing.

Sho turned his head around to see what it was, and it was the vine-snakes, ripped in half, dead.

Sho said, "Their dead…good…now what?"

Sho sat up without standing up, with water spilling all over the place.

Sho started to crawl to his knife, and he said, "Extend: 4 feet. Let's go.."

The knife shrunk 4 feet, and flew back in Sho's hands.

Sho stood up on the 4 foot knife, using it as a cane.

'This poison is making my movements slower, giving it pain along the way. It isn't deadly, but it's annoying me greatly. With this, it's a big strain on me. If I leave now, and threaten Gideon to buy me herbal pills, then I would lose all progress I've made within the raid, all my efforts would have been wasted. I'm not fucking leaving..I don't quit..even though I'm at a disadvantage, I'll use all my strength to fight, even if it hurts me. I've dealt with pain before..and I got out of many situations while in pain…I'll just do what I can..'

Sho started limping, using the knife as a cane still, he gritted his teeth, and his fists shook, the pain from the poison felt like acidic burning.

'If only I was stronger..I could brush off this poison. Anyway, I know where the main target is, the Dongu monster. It's like I'm being led in my mind, he's in some sort of throne room…'

[Dongu throne room]

(20 minutes later)

Sho walked through a set of doors to the throne room, limping inside of it, and the Dongu monster was standing there in front of his throne, and standing beside him on both sides, were two knights with horses bodies and human upper bodies, and they were made out of grass and vines with glowing green eyes, and they were holding javelins made out of tough vines and metal spikes.

Sho said, "Aww..you needed backup to fight me..am I that impressive?"

The Dongu tilted his head, and he grabbed the heads of the two vine-knights, and he slammed their heads into the floor, killing them.

Sho implied, "Oi.."

The Dongu smirked, "Gah..Gah..Gah…"

Then he started to roar, and punched forward at Sho.

Sho said, "I'm gonna kill you like I did your soldiers. I won't hesitate, I never have…"

'I was so distracted by the pain earlier…It took me up until now to remember ..that I did gain 200 points from fighting that Fighter on the street earlier…if my points are gonna work like they did in the training room..I can get even stronger now! But, this Dongu monster is gonna be all on me, since it takes me a while to add points to my stats, I have to hold this monster down until I can add them..I'll use my Heavy Fighting ability to do so..but I can't waste time..I have to wait for an opening..'

[City 6]

[Kell and May's apartment]

The apartment was a good size for two people, with two rooms, and a kitchen right bending the living room. The apartment was a Japanese style apartment, with light brown walls, sliding doors, and khaki colored floors.

This was an apartment bought with Fighter points.

May was sitting on a blue couch, right in front of the large TV that was playing shows that had been played on earth. May was playing on a handheld game, something that she had brought from earth.

Kell walked into the room, brushing his teeth, wearing a white t-shirt, and blue plaid pajama pants.

Kell said, "You better not be thinking about that hobo."

May replied, "Sho?"

"Yep. Who knows what he's done out on the street. Who knows what that bozo is doing right now. He's probably dead. Yeah, I think he's dead."

"You talk shit about me thinking about Sho, but you're always talking down on him."

"It's annoying me, knowing that he beat an A class Fighter despite being a low class."

"I think it's..pretty sick."

"You're edgy just like him, so of course you'd side with an edge lord. A bum edgelord at that."

"He's not that bad.."

"DO YOU LIKE HIM?!"

"…" May blushed a little.

"You better not," Kell added.

"You're distracting me," May responded.

"You have the TV on while playing a game. I'm not doing anything surprising."

"Can you believe the TV here plays shows from earth?"

"Nope. I'm gonna head out and do a raid. I'll be back. I need to distract myself. You're more than welcome to join your older brother."

"Yeah sure let's go."

"Really-"

"Fuck no. I'm chillin'."

"Tch. Millennial scum. Don't go anywhere."

"Keeping my ass right here."

Kell walked out of the door, thinking, 'I'm gonna try to reach S rank as fast as I can. Then that scum Sho is gonna look up to me and worship me.'