Strongest Among the Heavens
Chapter 428: Three Weeks Later

Chapter 428: Three Weeks Later

Kazi Hossain was officially level 83.

Three weeks of training, monster killing, and travelling throughout the north of Honshu Island. Matsue and Izumo were the unlockable regions of the island. Everything else was blocked by a reflective barrier. Any who walked into it would start on a path of endless ground or water. It was impossible to break out of. The barrier itself did not shatter.

No wonder the rest of Japan could not aid them. It was like Matsue was cursed to battle the Bake-kujira on its own.

Kazi Hossain ran with messy blood and hair. The number of monsters was wracking up to the thousands. If he wasn’t around to protect so many areas, the players might have been overwhelmed. Kazi Hossain’s existence is what stood between control and total chaos.

Morning and night. That was when they appeared. Two times at over twenty towns and areas. Right now, it was night.

His next stop? Yaegaki Shrine. He had not been here since his duel with Yoemon. Kazi would have preferred to politely greet and walk through the front entrance. Alas, there was no time. He landed on the front yard between the two large lamps. The shrine was a small, beautiful place said to bless couples with the love of marriage.

Kazi did not look back at the actual temple. He smiled and waved at the shrine maiden who had dropped her broom from the sudden intrusion of the brown-skinned temporary-samurai.

"Sorry, Lord Mosuke’s orders. I’m here to protect you people!"

People were visiting, praying, and buying omamori. People were living in their lives in a hurry. Yaegaki Shrine and its immediate area was unharmed by monsters. Partially because it was directly south of main Matsue and largely because of the power of the shrine itself. Kazi read and personally witnessed shrines warding off monsters. With the monsters attacking, many people naturally gathered and prayed harder—and so did the barrier around the shrine intensify. It was a phenomenon noted in the history books.

Not that it mattered. The monsters weren’t quite here yet.

"Any of you have bread?"

Kazi could afford a break. He was damn hungry. A minute later, he was served a plate of bread. "Thank you!" He beamed, and like a bunny, he hopped off.

He went further south, down to Sakusachu. A Japanese forest of pure green. The evil energy of the monsters was growing stronger. Kazi was closing the distance. So once Yaegaki Shrine was a kilometer away, he stopped. He waited.

Rustle of wings, check. The guttural caw of something unnatural, check. The monsters were coming. Tonight was no different. Lord Mosuke had begged for protection, and Kazi, true to form, had stepped in without hesitation.

The forest echoed by a hundred sharp cries. Kazi smiled, rolling his shoulders. "Here they come," he said. With his pinkie and thumb, he summoned small fires and hurled them aside. They became floating lamps that provided him an excellent view.

The shadows peeled back and he witnessed the first wave of creatures swoop through—birds, but grotesque and warped,. Feathers slick with an oily sheen, eyes glowing a sickly green and talons sharp enough to tear through steel.

They had not been expecting someone to intercept them. Oh, but someone did. Kazi pointed his both his index fingers forward.

"Alright, let’s get this over with. Fire Dart."

The first five birds dove at him, talons outstretched. Kazi fired five times in a single second, the darts punching clean through the creatures’ skull. They skipped like stones on a lake, dissipating into dark soil.

The rest of the flock did not hesitate. They were all instinct, all vengeance. Kazi side-stepped them and their charges with an almost lazy grace. From an outside perspective, it was as though he was teleporting between them. His fingers snapped.

Bang, bang, bang!

Behind, ahead, to his right, to his left.

Headshots, clean kills—he wasn’t wasting mana. Each creature he felled dissolved into nothingness, leaving only the acrid smell of mana in the air.

Through these weeks, he learned to add the concept of "homing" to his attacks. These Fire Darts didn’t just strike their target because Kazi was accurate.

’It’s because they are homing missiles.’

Bang, bang!

’Not too shabby.’

One large bird, double the size of a man, landed with a loud thump. Kazi didn’t even look. He casually shot a Fire Dart over his shoulder. The big bird’s head exploded in a spray of feathers and black ichor.

"Easy does it."

As if in response, a second wave emerged from the treetops. These were not as large as the previous but certainly larger than the average he had encountered so far. Faster and better spaced; no, the better term was better coordinated. "That’s more like it."

He equipped the katana he received as a gift from this world. He had figured out every tiny weakness of these monster birds and spread the word. A proper blow or strike to their neck was most effective, second to ridding its feet.

Kazi jumped.

A first bird lunged at his chest and he jerked his body to dodge it smoothly, bringing his blade down in a brutal arc. Another tried to dive at his head, only to meet the upward sweep of his katana.

So fast. Beyond fast.

Blood and feathers fell, but Kazi remained clean, He was a blur of motion in the air, jumping between treetops, zipping and bouncing, his katana flashing like silver lightning.

He really didn’t need to target their weak points. Mastered Flow of Mana was too strong. Still, he wanted to experiment. He wanted to see if there was anything else he could find out. After all, while he could kill these things in one hit, the average player could not.

The last bird of this flock was the biggest and, again, slightly different. The monster bird’s beak raged with corrupted fire mana and charged. Kazi caught it mid-flight, his bare hand stopping the beak, unaffected by the fire. The creature thrashed and screeched, but his grip was unyielding. With a flick of his wrist, he snapped its neck and tossed it aside.

"Next," he said, smiling politely.

The third wave came, and this time, the birds had a new trick. They spat globules of acidic mana, the glowing green projectiles sizzling as they hit the ground. Kazi slashed them aside, although...

’Hm, my mana did most of the work there. Is this acid meant to melt metal...?’

One glob splashed dangerously close to his feet. He didn’t care. Even if it could hurt him, he could heal it.

"This is new," he said, slicing through three birds without taking a single step. Casually, he slashed apart another spit of acid. "So it is as Lord Mosuke claims. These birds aren’t growing stronger, they are simply going back to their original prime forms during the battle."

The acid, it did not come as a surprise. It had been mentioned by the samurai as something to look out for. So far, the acid had not appeared, till now.

Kazi decided to jump.

Kazi killed and killed and killed. He fought through the flock like a scythe through wheat.

[ Mini Boss in vicinity! ]

"Wonder when you’d show up. This has been the longest wave of monsters I’ve fought so far." His eyes narrowed. He found it, the mini boss. The last bird that appeared during these waves of monster battle.

[ Name: Leader of the Bird Flock

Class: Monster Bird

Level: 40 ]

With a wingspan twice his height, red and black, it truly exuded the power of a mini boss. It was the largest bird Kazi had encountered so far and it swooped down with a shriek that almost rattled his ears. The monster bird wanted to catch and crush him with its talents. Kazi waited until the last possible second before slashing apart its precious talons. The bird did not make a sound. Its beak opened.

A hand reached out, touching the beak. A magic circle appeared.

"Ultra Aqua Bolt."

Fire and water and lightning. Those were his three elements. Each wielded with their own extreme degree of prophecy.

The mini boss did not stand a chance.

The remaining two birds hesitated, circling high above and reconsidering their chances. Kazi wiped a speck of ichor from his katana, glancing up at them. "Go on, fly back to whatever bone you crawled out of."

As if understanding his words, the annihilated flock let out a collective screech and retreated into the night, their forms vanishing into the shadows.

Kazi sheathed his katana. ’Before, I was slaughtering them completely. Not sparing a single one. This time, I gave them a chance to see what they would do and they actually fled. They analyzed me and then took the action. These monsters are not mindless, they have basic thought processes. They act like a pack with individual thoughts dictating to form a cohesive decision.’

He was going to have to adjust the plan according to that.

Except he wasn’t alone.

"Why didn’t you join in?" Kazi asked, looking over his shoulder. Leaning on a tree, cool and badass, was Booker Davis Jr.

"You had it." In his mouth was a white stick. Booker pulled it with two fingers and puffed out air.

"Booker, why are you pretending to smoke a lollipop?"

"Because it looks cool."

"Are you twelve?"

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