18: Man or Beast?

The souls triangulate in front of the circle, then they started circling around clockwise, while the black circle with the sigils start circling around counter-clockwise. The souls slowly merged into one and from turquoise, it turned transparent. Like clear water.

 He walks close, just beside Ri. He placed the transparent soul above Ri's head. "With this, I revive he who has fallen."

 The soul dived into Ri's body and it made the body twitch and tremble. Then it started jerking around. The body started making audible sounds, like screaming in pain.

 Ri's chest then shot straight up and the body sat straight up, "WARE WA" He suddenly exclaims aloud. "KISAMA WA MI-" He suddenly stopped. "Wait, where am I?" He questions aloud. Apparently, his head was still in the last battle where he was defeated.

 "Konnichiwa," Shujin greeted gleefully.

 Ri looked at Shujin. "Dare?"

 "Ore wa Shujin desu. Hajimemashite."

 "Ware wa Ri," he stands up. He was tall. About eleven feet tall. Shujin had to look up to Ri to speak. "What do you want?"

Konnichiwa = Evening

Dare? = Who?

Ore was Shujin desu = I'm Shujin

Ware wa Ri = I'm Ri (in a fancy way)

 "Y'see, last battle you were in, you died. Now, I've done the favor of reviving you. So, help me out in return?" Shujin delivered his logic.

 "You dare command me!?" Ri retorted pridefully.

 "Oh, no! I mean like business partners."

 "Business partner? I don't need any partner!"

 "Well, you do. And it's good to have my company since I'm waaaay stronger than you are."

 "Oh…? Is that a challenge?"

 "Not really."

 "How about this, you prove your strength and I'll consider being you partner."

 "Sounds like a de-"

 Shujin the was kicked between his crotch by Ri. His entire body shot up through the ceiling and dozens of floors of the building they were under. 

 Shujin floats above the building, "whooo… Did not expect that." 

 Ri then jumps upwards and crashes through every floor too. He reaches Shujin and grabs him by the stomach. Ri then grew dragon wings on his back and flew high up, he opens his mouth and tries to chomp the side of Shujin's neck. Shujin lets him. His sharp teeth, sharp enough to chew through metal couldn't even poke his body. "Weird, right?" Shujin laughs aloud.

 Shujin disappears from Ri's grasp and appears behind him. He grabs on both his wings and pulled them as he pushed both his legs forward and double-leg kicked him. Ripping the wings off his body. The wings then dissolved to dust in an instant. Ri falls down and crashes through a nearby building. He sees the amount of people around him, it made him drool. He grew multiple arms, a total of ten arms and stretched out his arms and grabbed ten random people. He doesn't eat them up, however. He absorbs them through his skin. He feels their life force making him stronger. He went to having two arms. He then conjured a Light Sickle on his right hand. A small sized one, like an actual gardening tool. He adjusted the size of the staff and blade. Creating a scythe. He then holds it with both hands like a bat. He chambers his scythe and swings it like a bat. As the scythe was moving, he increased the length of the staff and the size of the blade. He slices through half the building and a dozen people that weren't fast enough to duck under.

 The scythe did reach Shujin. However, he didn't move a muscle from the impact. "So dramatic," he commented. He conjures his dagger, Sever. He holds his dagger out horizontally at Ri's position and slices the air. Slashing the air, then the entire building clean, then the road behind the building. The building, naturally, starts sliding off and collapsing. 

 The building crushed everyone on the other side, and dropped everyone out of the building. Ri jumped out of the building and went to grab Shujin's leg. He brings Shujin down with him and grew wings again, he spins Shujin around as fast as he could. Shujin dissipated into light and reappeared below Ri. "You tried that already!" Shujin yells.

 Ri gets pulled down from his leg and was thrown at the collapsing building. The building now was fully on the ground. Shujin hovers over it. He then slams downward, through the building and to the ground. As he was landing on the ground, he slapped the ground with an open palm. With him as the center, everything in a hundred-meter radius was turned into light. The buildings, the people, the bodies, no longer exist. Creating a literal baron plain.

 Shujin looks up to see Ri, lost and arm and half his face. "You dodged it, impressive."

 Ri's arm and face grew back in almost an instant. "I'm impressed myself. You're capable of such intricate spell."

 "You know how it works?" Shujin asks with intrigue.

 "Turns matter into light, correct?"

 "Wow, you really do know. Most people can't notice it. Probably coz they're dead," he shrugs.

 "You're strong, I see that now."

 "And you too."

 "Why do you need my help?"

 "You can control beasts. No one's capable of that." 

 "You wish to have an army of beasts?"

 "Me? No. You will have one. I will compliment your army with my spells."

 "I'm confused. What are you talking about?"

 "I'm giving you an opportunity to take revenge on your family," he offered. "Again."

 The two found movement from their mana sense. It was clearly a group of sorcerers.

 "We're surrounded," Ri said.

 "I see… Six people. Two Cold cores. A Light core. Two Heat cores. An anomaly class."

 Three people appeared behind Shujin and the other three people appeared behind Ri. Shujin and Ri approached each other and stopped when they were side-by-side. 

 The six were a group trained personally by Cathy Mcarthy. They were high-end High-Ranking sorcerers that had taken down dozens of maniacal beasts in several cities around the country with minimal collateral damage.

 The leader of the group, Leon, a Heat core. 

 The speedster of the group, fourth in the world rankings with the top speed of Mach 30, Sheera, a Light core.

 The crowd controllers, Joseph and Kira, a Heat core and an Anomaly class.

 The damage controllers, Noelle and Ian, both Cold cores.

 Leon stood with Noelle and Kira in front of Shujin. Sheera, Joseph, and Ian stood in front of Ri. 

 Sheera has the intention of making the first move since Shujin and Ri were playing passively. "Follow my lead, I'm going for the mask."

 Kira dropped to one knee and touched the ground with both her palms. Her special ability is Quake. She sends intense vibrations that split the ground apart, separating Shujin and Ri.

 Sheera dashes over the giant crevice on the ground and grabbed Shujin by his jacket. She drags him around and behind Leon and the others. Sheera trips Shujin over and sends a barrage of punches to Shujin's face. With every punch, Shujin's body was dented to the ground. Deeper and deeper. Shujin teleports behind. She turns around and tries to land a backfist with her right hand. He catches her wrist, blocks her elbow with his other hand and completely folds her arm. She screams. Shujin spun her around and grabbed her face and lifted her off the ground, then discharged an enormous amount of mana that shot straight through her face. 

 On Ri's side, he creates a swarm of Light Sickles around him and sent them flying to Joseph and Ian. Ian quickly put up a protective dome made of ice. As they were taking cover, their vision was obscured and the plethora of Light Sickles were a hindrance to their mana sense. Ri burst through the dome from behind the two, he quickly takes a hold of Ian and pulled him close. Ri shot his mouth open and bit his head off. Ian's mana was absorbed by Ri. He could feel himself getting stronger. 

 Ri drops Ian's lifeless carcass and Joseph conjures a veil of flames, he slipped outside of the Dome and spewed lava from his hands and tries to melt Ri. The lava barely even made his skin sizzled. Like warm water. Ri walks out of the ice dome, obscured by mist. Blood dripping from his mouth, the ground being cut from a Light Sickle being dragged on the ground.

 Joseph conjures a bow and arrow, the flame of the arrow burned blue. Indicating it was the hottest natural flame. The last thing Joseph saw was a glowing purple curved blade covered in blood pierce his chest. The last thing he heard was his own head being crunched like wafer.

 Back over to Shujin who just easily destroyed Sheera, the fourth fastest sorcerer in the world. Kira was still on the ground and split the earth under Shujin. Shujin plays along and drops into the crevice. Leon then quickly fills the crevice with lava. Noelle then goes to touch the lava and turned the lava into obsidian. The three regrouped and stood next to each other.

 "Do current sorcerers think burying another live sorcerer that can TELEPORT a good idea?" Shujin asked rhetorically, as he appears atop the fresh obsidian. "Anyway, how do you three want to die?"

 "You'll be dying!" Leon yelled in anger.

 "Nuh uh!" 

 Shuijn pounced forward and drove his entire fist through Noelle's chest. "One." Shujin teleports behind Kira and ran his hand horizontally over her neck and decapitated her. 

 Leon turned to Shujin and tries to throw a punch at Shujin. "Are you stupid!?" Shujin yelled in disbelief. He didn't think Leon was that lame. Leon's fist flew off his arm, then his entire arm starts getting sliced up.

 Ri pulled Leon's other arm and held his neck with both hands. He opens his mouth as wide as he could and fit his entire head in his mouth and took a chunk of his torso off. 

 "Sorry, that was supposed a tough group?" Ri scoffed.

 "They are. Or were. But not for us."

 Mist then filled the entire plain. "Now this is actual trouble," Shujin said aloud.

 "Good," Ri got excited.

 "Chigau."

Chigau = You're wrong

 The mist dissipated and appeared Cathy. She looks at them with a dead expression. She was pissed off. 

 "We should leave," Shujin suggested.

 "Why?" Ri asks feeling annoyed that he couldn't fight her.

 "I can't have you die."

 Ri insisted on fighting against Cathy. She creates a hand sign with her right hand. Two fingers pointed to the left, then she flourished her hand in a circular motion, then a circle of water appeared behind her. 

 The amount of mana that emitted from that wheel of water made Shujin's look puny. However, Cathy herself doesn't emit any mana.

 "Oh…" Ri realized why it was a bad idea to fight her.

 "If it was Kai, I'll let you have it. Not her."

 Shujin snapped his fingers and teleported the two of them simultaneously. Cathy used mana sense to track down Shujin's general direction, but she couldn't detect anything. Earlier, when she was going after Shujin, she lost him around three-hundred-miles south of Gallio Tower. Shujin will not let anyone track him again.

 Somewhere secluded, inside a literal mountain. With the Overhaul ring, Shujin was able to create a base inside the mountain. Shujin also made the entire mountain by manipulating the earth. Shujin was basing it off Terror's favorite game, where he could make several floors and dozens of rooms inside a mountain. 

 They were on the highest floor. Terror made a hammock out of his black semi-liquid acid. He attached some of the acid to the roof and the ground, suspending himself in the air. 

 "Tadaima," Shujin announced.

 "Okaeri," Terror got up from lying. "Ouh, you actually did bring him back to life."

 "Told ya I could do it."

 "Who's this?" Ri asks.

 "Another one in our group. We'll be gathering more people. There's one more but he's out right now."

 Terror turns into his black liquid acid and flows towards Ri and turns back into his human form. "Terror's the name. I know who you are."

 "As you should,' he replied proudly."

 "What's Ri's ranking?" Terror mocked.

 "He's a high-end High-Rank."

 "Shujin, who's next on the list?"

 "Terror, you try and convince Cryo and Shift."

 "Gotcha, what are you and this guy going to do?"

 "We'll be experimenting on a new type of beast."