Chapter 39: Black smoke

As we ran we finally reached the walkway leading towards the train, but just when we were about to begin crossing a kick came flying from nowhere towards mumei who luckily blocked it but was sent flying away and over the railing as she plummeted to the ground as she rolled down the hill.

"Shit! Ikoma, go get her. I'll deal with him," that's all Owen said as he brandished his spear and charged forward at the Wastori, which had its hands raised in a fighting pose. Owen immediately tried to stab through it, but sadly for him, the Wastori was faster. It dodged the strike and grabbed his spear handle with its left hand, yanking it forward along with Owen, who had a tight grip on it. The Wastori delivered a solid kick to Owen's midsection, causing him to let go as he slid to the side, nearly collapsing, while he took in deep, sharp breaths.

'Fuck that hurts!' Owen thought mentally as he held his side while distancing himself from the quickly approaching wastori who had thrown his spear aside and was now moving towards him at frightening speeds.

Sadly for Owen when he was ready to pull out his shot gun and put an end to this wastori he was met by a loud system alert that stopped him in place.

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[Honor of a Master] 

[Defeat the foe before you using only your spear]

[Reward: silver chest(12h)](Suggestion open for what ever he gets out of this)

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"Fuck me," that's all Owen could think as he stepped back, barely dodging a jab from the Wastori before him. He attempted to make his way to the spear that was lost at the beginning of this exchange, something that proved more than difficult. The Wastori was not only strong but fast, to say the least. Owen had many close calls with attacks nearly landing on his head, but he got lucky. After the Wastori's kick was slightly too wide, allowing him to duck under it, as he made a dash towards his spear.

Luckily he was able to pick it up its metal reinforced handle providing a deep comfort to Owen who this time waited to see what the wastori would do as to avoid a replay of last time, which proved correct as the wastori left many opening as it came to attack Owen who was putting up stable defence as he blocked the flurry of blows from the wastori.

Left kick to the lower abdomen. Right punch to the upper throat. Attempted grapple. The Wastori's attacks were fast and precise, showcasing the amount of skill it had in life and the experience it gained in death. However, it showed a clear opening, which Owen soon began to exploit.

Starting with a stabbing forward his spear after it tried to kick him, Owen caused the Wastori to lose balance. Although it was able to block the spear with its arm, it left itself mostly unharmed. Owen had anticipated this and was instead aiming for the arms to disable its attack method, which proved correct as the following attacks became much more predictable with the loss of its arm.

Its leg soon followed as Owen dodged a punch from its only working arm. Stepping in close, he proceeded to jam his spear into the foot of the Wastori, causing it to lose balance. Owen took several steps back before he began the dance again, this time aiming to finish the job—an opportunity that soon came in the form of a stumble by the Wastori. It tried to use its now mangled foot to move towards Owen, causing it to fall to the ground.

"Chance," Owen thought. With that, he moved quickly, kicking the now-down Wastori in the face with his boots, causing it to flip onto its back. Before it could even think of getting up, it found Owen's weapon over its heart. He activated the piercing feature on it, causing a massive explosion as the Wastori's heart was destroyed in one fell swoop.

"That was hard," Owen said aloud as he looked at the notification from the system saying he had received the reward. But he didn't care about that as he began to search for Ikoma and Mumei. Before he could even take two steps, everything shook. Everything around Owen began to crumble, but he was unable to move. Two giant glowing orbs shone brightly in the distance, leaving him frozen still as he looked at them.

'The black smoke,' Owen's mind raced as the enormous creature moved toward his direction, or to be more specific, toward the Koutetsujou. This immediately shocked Owen into motion, but sadly for him, the walkway leading to the Koutetsujou had crumbled along with everything else, except for the crane platform he was on. From the feeling of it, it was barely standing.

"Let's go see if I can find Ikoma and the others," Owen's thoughts were now clear as he dropped down off the ledge where Mumei had fallen. He immediately landed on a loose pile of rocks and slid down the small hill to the bottom. As he began to look around for the duo, he had little success. However, Owen did not worry as he continued searching until he eventually found what looked to be a collapsed mine shaft.

"Hey are you guys in there!?" Owen shouted not immediately getting a response but soon ikoma voice leaked through seeming relieve to hear Owen voice.

"We're safe in here, Owen, it's just Mumei's been knocked and is not waking up!" Ikoma's words immediately worried him, but Ikoma's next words calmed him down.

"Oh wait, she's waking up!" That immediately made Owen happy, but not wanting to wait around, he got moving, trying to find a way in. Luckily, it didn't take that long as he found another mine shaft. Sadly, it did not lead straight to Ikoma and Mumei, but soon enough, he found a route around where he found Mumei trapped beneath some debris.

"Daisuke, come help me lift this!" Seeing Owen's entrance, Ikoma wasted no time requesting his help, which Owen provided without a second thought. Together, they removed the debris from atop Mumei, who suddenly burst into tears as she quietly whispered the words, "I'm still weak."

 "Mumei come on get yourself together or we might die here" ikoma said as we both helped mumei to stand as we began to try and find our way out towards the train, but when we were about to leave we were met by kurusu and some other soldier who all seemed to be searching for us.

'Thank God' Thats all Owen thought as he was led towards the train which was not to far and was moving slowly on a nearby track.