"Whoa!" Ibaraki and Sun leapt out of the way evading the Fire Blight. Flames spewing out of its mouth.
"Explain?!" Ibaraki shouted — jumping off its back and firing arrows using Sōzō's Hand and giving herself bird talons and latching onto trees.
"This one is called a brood mother! It's eaten a lot more people and is much stronger and a lot more dangerous, if you see anything come out of its butt destroy it!" Sun flipped, dipped, and dodged all the various attacks the beast threw at it.
"This is the grossest mission I've ever taken and I hate you for this!" The Brood Mother screeched and its body heated up — blue flames now being spit out at the duo. Ibaraki waved her arm in front of herself creating a barrier that she then jumped off of to create distance.
TINK TINK TINK!
"Right exoskeleton." With a flick of her wrist and a white mist emitting over her hand, she charged a shot and fired it, cutting through the armor and injuring the beast. The Brood Mother roared and began to rush the tree.
"Wooo!" Sun slid underneath The Brood Mother and knocked it off its feet by sweeping its joints with his staff.294Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2gTGG7krYD
"Whoa!" Sun slid his staff underneath him and extended it, propelling himself upwards to avoid a piercing foot from a Fire Blight.
Its mouth burst open and went to catch Sun but Ibaraki shot an arrow through its head killing it instantly.
“Oof! Ooooh… Wow. Hey.” Sun landed in a pit of Fire Blights that began to attack him. Snapping his staff in half they would bend and extend into Twin Tonfas with spikes on the front.294Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBE32tRXj1x
“Bring it ooon!!” Rushing in Sun engaged the blights while Ibaraki kept The Brood Mother distracted.
“Ugh this thing is so gross just popping out those eggs- urp..” Ibaraki felt sick.
"Ibaraki! Watch this!" Looking over she watched Sun swayed his head left and right creating clones from his hair that jumped around and attacked the various Blights, then he dropped down on one knee and stood up doing a pose and-294Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWWJb0ddxmy
"Kaboom!" He clicked his Tonfas with confusion, he then rapidly clicked them as The Blights rushed him before-
KABOOM!
Various large balls of fire erupted behind Sun.294Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeuaFiWmWHx
"Whoops."
Sun leapt up, summoning more clones and swarming The Brood Mother attacking from all angles, The Brood Mother spit flames at the clones trying to destroy them. Ibaraki took this time to assess the creature, all bugs have been killed in similar ways in the wild, aiming for the joints. She took out her bow, ignited her hair, heated up the tips of her arrows, took aim, and fired.
SKREEE!
"Nice!" Sun cheered when Ibaraki shot off one of its legs. He ran past and stuck blades into the various joints in the beast's body and then blew it up, jumping back and regrouping as The Brood Mother body crashed down.
"Alright let's finish this!" Sun began to run in but stopped when Ibaraki grabbed his tail.294Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgoewV9aC00
“Hey! That’s my-”
FWOOOSH!!!
The Brood Mother erupted into a burst of flames — screeching and launching magma everywhere.
"Slow down monkey man, I know fire and those are pretty damn hot. We have to wait it out." Ibaraki told him as she leaned back against a tree.
"You sure ya wanna wait? It’ll call more." Sun stopped and swayed his tail dodging it from being burnt.
"Eh whatever. We're in the thick of it anyway, remember?" Ibaraki reached into her bag for some fruit to eat while they waited.
"Easy to say, never seen so many in a colony before. Must be mating season."
THWACK!
"Ow! Hey! Why'd you hit me?!" Sun rubbed his head looking at a pretty irritated Ibaraki.
"Because you have a knack for last second information!" Sitting in a tree the pair watched The Brood Mother exhaust itself trying to survive, Ibaraki fired arrow after arrow killing any Blights that came to its aid.294Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdP8tIDfBlH
"So. What's the story huh?" She suddenly said.
"What story?" Sun asked while eating.
"I mean like how you came to be a Fiend."
"Oh that's nothing too crazy. I was wandering around just trying to figure out my next mark, ran into a guy wandering with a pouch full of goodies so I politely asked him-"
"You tried to rob him?!" Ibaraki shouted at Sun with a shocked expression.
"I TRIED to ask him to hand the stuff over, he refused, so I THEN tried to rob him. Which resulted in him kicking my ass and well yeah. Now I'm a fiend, I'm chilled out, less of a thief and working to take care of folks now." Sun had his hands up defensively hoping to not get hit.
"So someone kicked your ass and made you realize you weren't the biggest beast out there huh?"
"Basically yeah."
"Did you ever figure out the man's name?"
"Yeah his name was Ax- What’s that?"
SSSSSSSSS. SHINKBOOM!!!
A crimson cross slammed into the back of The Brood Mother and erupted into a pillar of pure red energy causing an explosion so powerful and so intense that it not only completely eviscerated The Brood Mother but nearly wiped out the entire forest around with the shockwave. Ibaraki summoned a net and fell against it with Sun using all the energy she could muster to keep them from flying away.
When the dust settled they dropped to the ground landing on their feet. Looking up they saw the visage of a person in the mist.
“Hmph.”
CRUNCH!!!
Bringing his foot down he stomped The Brood Mother's exoskeleton head breaking it into dust.
“Dude… That attack was so freaking cool! I mean yo-” Sun’s ears perked up as he heard heavy rapid breathing, choked, fearful. Like the whines of prey that’s been caught. Looking to his right he found the source. It was Ibaraki.294Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4rVaOFiJdh
“Ibaraki? What's wro- Whoa!"
Grabbing Sun she dipped down into a nearby hole holding him down along with keeping herself low.294Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4cbnhRNVCi
"Sun. Listen to me, we are not to engage him. That's not our ally, no regular demon, he's far worse." Sun tilted his head and leaned out examining the person alongside Ibaraki. Looking at The Man they'd see him dusting off his top and shaking his head. As the dust settled the figure became more pronounced.
"The Realm Outside The Void, It's Been Far Far Too Long Since I've Last Been Here." Asmodeus groaned and began to stretch his muscles and examine the area.294Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlkvCy6DIVD
"What's This? I Could've Sworn There Were Life Signatures Around Here Moments Ago." A Fire Blight screeched leaping out and to attack Asmodeus his gaze focused on The Blight and he began raising his hand.
"Sun No!" Sun leapt out and kicked the blight aside, firing two shards into it and detonating it. Ibaraki ran out and constructed a solidified purple mask to hide her face.
"Hm? What’s with- uuuuuuh these Blights am I right?” Sun played off Ibaraki’s mask looking at her and then towards Asmodeus.294Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkD6knAih2k
“You okay?”
“Absolutely. What Of You? I Hope I Didn’t Stress You Out… Wouldn’t Want Any Wrinkles On That Handsome Face Of Yours~” Asmodeus flirted with Sun who proudly looked at Ibaraki. She didn’t say a thing and Asmodeus looked around.294Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWI8C3RNah0
“I Wonder Where I Am Now… This Isn’t Where I Was Last.”
“Where ya came from bro? I could give ya some directions if ya need em.” Sun offered.
“A Strapping Young Man Helping Me Out? This Must Be A Dream. Well Last I Checked I Was In Ōkoku Was It?”
“Oooooh then you’ve made a journey to the west, it's pretty far from here man, if ya keep going that way you can head back but I wouldn’t recommend it. Some pretty bad demons are that way.” Asmodeus examined the direction Sun pointed him in and gave a smile.
“I See What You Mean But I’ll Have To Make The Trek Regardless… I Have Family That Way. Thank You Very Much.” Asmodeus took a deep breath and began to walk away waving goodbye to the two without much incident.
FWOOSH!! FWOOM!!!
“Ibaraki slow down!” Sun called out while giving chase after Ibaraki.
“No way! We’ve gotta- UWAH!” Ibaraki shrieked and swung behind her, just barely missing Sun and falling. Swiftly hanging upside down Sun caught Ibaraki — gently setting her down on a branch and hanging in front of her.
“Look. I don’t know who that guy is but I know one thing. My intuition is good and he is definitely going west. We have no one stationed that way, especially not Xenthos or Utsukushī. So lets just relax alright, we make a hammock up here, camp out and head back in the morning. We’ll tell our findings then.”
“Sun, we need to go now.” Ibaraki was very serious but Sun refused.
“Look. It’s late, okay? You’ve gotta relax. I know you’re really scared of that guy for whatever reason but you’ve gotta be a bit patient about this. If we die out here no one will ever know what we need to say. Remember we’re surrounded by Miasma and the waves from the moonlight reflect Miasma pockets more which make the demons stronger, you’re clearly not well accustomed to how things work around here and I’m not gonna let a lovely lady in my care get killed.” Sun would place a hand on Ibaraki’s shoulder as he talked her down.294Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDOwbRli6Ut
“Just trust me, okay?”
“Ok-Okay alright Sun… Plus I’d feel really bad if I just left ya here to go tell everyone.” Ibaraki was breathing heavily but slowly started to calm down.294Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡicuufItPEq
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“And I’d be very worried if ya did. Now you stay up here and watch me.” Sun began to swing around through the trees snatching branches, twigs, vines and as many leaves as possible. He gave Ibaraki the occasional laugh when a branch or two would fall down and smack an imp on the head causing them to look up in confusion and then angrily fight each other.
Sun kept swinging around and began to tie branches together and with Ibaraki’s magic she constructed some pretty sturdy branches and soon two hammocks were made spaced out with hers being higher than his own.
“Explain.”
“What? It's just so you’ve got a better vantage point, you can see more, and in case anything climbs it’ll nab me before you and well since you’re so experienced you’ll wake up and then blam pow pshew pshew-” Sun continued rambling on and Ibaraki giggled patting him on the head. She climbed up to her hammock and laid down on it.
“Goodnight Sun.”
“Rest up well Ibaraki.” Sun laid down on his hammock and then felt something hit his face. He jumped for a second only to notice it was a blanket. He looked up and smiled at her before covering himself up and falling asleep for the night.
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