Strongest Among the Heavens
Chapter 359: Monster Otohime

Chapter 359: Monster Otohime

The sea churned violently.

Monster Otohime’s whimper echoed, a sound of both pain and defiance.

"Haa...haah..."

The platform beneath the lone player faded and he began free-falling. Before he dropped, his mana swelled, left eye pulsing, and the footing returned. Kazi Hossain should have been at top-shape but he wasn’t. He dropped to his knees, his nerves twisting at the ends. His whole body burned his flesh, every individual strip of it felt and turned up with heat.

’Expending all my mana like that...probably...’ His right arm drooped, suddenly heavy. ’Not...good...!’

For a moment, it seemed as though Kazi’s strike had landed a decisive blow. The water around them hissed and steamed from the residual energy and arcs of blue lightning danced across Monster Otohime’s enormous form. Kazi stood on the chaotic waters, weakly elevated by his mana platforms, his breath coming in ragged gasps.

’I should have known.’

The smoke and steam cleared and he saw that much of the energy had been absorbed by Otohime’s impenetrable shell. The monster’s armored back bore the brunt of the attack, the hard surface only slightly scorched. Kazi cursed under his breath, realizing he had misjudged himself. His control had been limited and while he tried to divert the strike to her arm, he failed.

But this failure did not spell defeat. It was a stepping stone to victory. He ran, left arm summoning up a Super Spark Strike.

Slash! He stabbed that left eye again and this time, blood gushed out. The eye was finally pierced.

Kazi immediately kicked himself off and ran along the shell. There, a shadow engulfed him, the limbs of Monster Otohime chasing after him. He outpaced the arm and dashed over to the tail.

"Activation! Cast!" The Super Spark Strike rapidly grew in size. He was already getting better, yet the result wasn’t remotely close to what he did before. "Gargantua Spark Strike!"

Although half the size of his previous Gargantua Spark Strike, it was enough to slash the thick, sinewy tail from base. The fierce, electric blue light cut like a hot knife through butter and the tail was officially severed.

Monster Otohime’s roar of agony caused huge waves. Her massive form thrashed wildly in the water, creating waves that threatened to capsize Kazi. The severed tail splashed into the sea, sending up an additional geyser of water.

His left arm was only half-numb. Lucky.

What wasn’t lucky was that Monster Otohime was alive and kicking. Kazi was hurled off its shell and stopped himself with a footing to his feet and elbows. The momentum ceased and he was facing Monster Otohime again.

His mana was near zero. He needed to wait and regain that precious mana. The little mana platforms supporting him were fading.

’Come on, come on...!’

Suddenly, Otohime’s eyes glowed with a feral intensity. She began to gather a tremendous amount of magic, her turtle shell pulsing with mana. Kazi did not need Foresight to see she was planning something big and bad.

His own body responded. Despite not even a minute passing, he regained his mana. He was back!

Kazi’s left eye pulsed urgently with the power of Foresight and he glimpsed a terrifying future: a colossal spherical white bomb of energy, powerful enough to turn Kazi to ash and destroy the entire island and everyone on it.

’Has she lost her mind!?’

Monster Otohime’s roar reached a fever pitch as the energy coalesced into a massive, glowing sphere above her. The power radiating from it was immense, the clouds sucking into it. If she unleashed that attack, it would be the end.

The end.

He refused to let the page toward the end flip.

Summoning every ounce of his strength, Kazi sprinted across the water, creating mana platforms beneath his feet to propel him forward. He needed to get far away, far enough to intercept the attack at its weakest. The platforms flickered and shimmered with each leap and step, a path of light in the increasingly chaotic sea.

Fifty feet away from Otohime, atop the shores of her island, Kazi stopped and planted his feet firmly on a sturdy platform. He raised his hands, summoning his Ultra Magic Barrier. A sphere of protective energy enveloped him, glowing with a fierce, blue light. But he knew one barrier wouldn’t be enough to withstand the devastating blast.

Drawing on every last drop of mana, Kazi began to stack barriers around him. One, two, three, four, five, six—over ten barriers layered in rapid succession, each one glowing brighter than the last. Then he began transforming them, substituting everything toward one side. The front side. The defending side.

This wasn’t just about Kazi, it was about everyone living on the island. He wasn’t fast enough to move out of the way either.

The death of Otohime’s Island depended on him.

"Come on," he muttered through gritted teeth, his nerves screaming from the effort. "Hold it together."

Monster Otohime’s eyes turned blue and she unleashed the colossal nuke. The pure white sphere of mana shot forward with terrifying, nearly akin to light itself, a blinding comet of destruction aimed directly at Kazi. The impact was immediate and cataclysmic.

The first barrier shattered under the force, then the second, the third, and the fourth. Each layer of protection absorbed some of the blast but not enough of it. Never enough of it. His barriers seemed to be silly distractions for this nuke. Kazi gritted his teeth, the skin of his fingers peeling off from the heat, his vision narrowing to a pinpoint of light.

The final barrier held for a heartbeat longer before it, too, shattered.

The remnants of the blast slammed into Kazi Hossain.

For a moment, everything went blue and blurry. The world spun around him, the roar of the ocean mingling with the ringing in his ears. But Kazi forced himself to focus, blinking against the haze of pain.

He crashed into the sand of a nearby shore, blood everywhere and bones broken and his mind forcing itself to stay awake. Pain radiated through every fiber of his being as he struggled to push himself up. His left arm was burned black. He could no longer feel the mana in there.

To Ascend meant to understand one’s self, however. Liters upon liters of blood spilled out. Liters upon liters of blood were replaced.

The weeks of medical research he did; to regrow limbs; to remove curses. They could not work on others, on William and Marta.

But it did work on himself. Divine Healing Circulation was the skill he ultimately created. A combination of curse-removal, raw healing energy, and mental strengthening.

His vision blurred. He forced himself to clear it up. Through the haze of regeneration, he heard something.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

MonsternOtohime’s massive legs were moving towards him. Fuck! Unlike him, she wasn’t injured! Unlike him, that attack merely stole away mana, not blood.

He pushed himself to his feet, his body protesting every movement. Blood dripped from a gash on his forehead, and his vision swam with each heartbeat.

"Divine Miracle Water..." He didn’t think he had mana yet somehow he forced this upon himself to heal. Heal, heal, heal!

Thump! Thump! Thump!

He healed as fast as he could. It wasn’t enough.

His vision blurred, but he forced himself to focus and heal. He saw Otohime’s massive legs moving towards him, ready to crush him beneath their weight.

Kazi picked himself up.

Kazi toppled into the sand.

The shadows embraced him.

’Getupgetupgetup! Kazi Hossain, you cannot die here! To lose is to lose the world! To lose means dooming humanity! Get up! GET UP! MOVE!’