IDWTBTHQ Chapter 119 - A Lesson in Humility

For the second time that day, Blueskin was running for his life.

He had all but forgotten his plans of revenge and all he cared about now was to get the hell away from the Vex that chased him. The horrible memory of being swarmed over and hacked to pieces by the bug-like creatures was too fresh in his mind for him to even consider fighting them, and so the only option left was to escape.

Luckily he had completely recovered after devouring the Piraca Emperor and absorbing his aura, and being able to use his shapeshifting again made avoiding the bugs much easier. As soon as he had jumped out of the mansion he had assumed a form suitable for running, with long legs and a higher center of gravity, and he had easily smashed through the few Vex that had surrounded the manor before bolting into the forest to try and lose them in the trees. However, much to his chagrin, he had soon discovered that not only the whole place teemed with the bloody bugs but that a few of the flying ones were constantly following him from above, not giving him a chance to take flight. So he kept running like a hunted animal, trying to lose them on the ground.

In his panicked state, he didn't realize that the Vex were herding him in a certain direction.

After a few minutes of this chase, Blueskin entered a large clearing covered in grass and flowers, and the Vex suddenly stopped going after him, stopping at the edge of the clearing.

The oni kept running for a few more seconds before realizing that something was wrong, and he turned to stare at his enemies, who were now completely immobile at the border of the forest and seemingly waiting for something. The only ones that had crossed over were the flying ones, but even they kept themselves high in the air.

“What are they doing?” He wondered. “Why aren't they following me into this clearing? Is there something dangerous in here?”

After a moment, he decided that the reason wasn't important, and that he should just use their reluctance to chase him to put some more distance between himself and them. He then turned to move to the other side of the clearing... and froze as he realized that the Vex had completely surrounded the place.

Countless glowing purple eyes were staring at him from the shade of the trees, with a literal wall of chitin marking the edge of the glade in all directions. The oni desperately looked left and right, trying to find a way to escape, but unfortunately there was none.

Then, all of a sudden, the Vex in front of him parted, forming a corridor to allow the passage of a small procession, the sight of which made Blue's blood run cold.

At the back of the line but still perfectly visible because of their size were the four gigantic Vex that the oni had fought earlier that day. One of them was still lacking the arm he had cut off, but apart from that they didn't seem any worse for wear. And three humanoid figures were walking before them.

One was Yasen Harp, carrying his huge glaive on his shoulder and walking in a seemingly carefree and relaxed manner. However, his eyes were focused and the oni had no doubt that his lax attitude was nothing more than a facade.

What could be described as a mix between a Vex and a human girl walked besides the Aura Master. She wore a plain white tunic and had a completely blank expression on her face, plus the way she moved had something rather wrong to it, almost as if she was a puppet rather than an actual person. Blue assumed she was the Queen of the Vex, though she did lack the aura he had felt earlier that day.

And finally, marching in front of all the others, there was a tall female Lycan with snow-white fur, dressed just in form-fitting black shorts and a sports bra. She was extremely muscular but quite shapely, and despite not really having been a furry in his previous life Blue had to admit that she was really quite attractive, though this wasn’t the time for such appreciation. More than anything else, though, she quite literally radiated power and barely controlled bloodlust.

As he processed the situation he found himself in, Blueskin felt his anxiety grow more and more. The Vex and Yasen were serious threats by themselves and he couldn't see how he could get out alive when facing both of them together, and that was without taking into consideration the wolf woman, who by all accounts also seemed to be extremely strong.

That said, he wasn't quite driven to desperation yet, as he had been in seemingly hopeless situations many times before and he had always managed to survive. After all, such was the life of the main character.

Because of this, he just stood on guard and waited —or rather prayed— for anything that would give him a chance to escape or turn the tables. And it seemed that something like that was indeed happening, as the newly arrived enemies didn't attack him immediately together but instead started talking to each other.

“So that's the oni?” The wolf woman asked her companions while pointing at Blue.

“Yes.” Yasen replied with a nod.

“It doesn't look like much though. Can't even get away from a few bugs.” The Lycan sighed. “It seems that I set my expectations too high after all.”

“Do you want to leave it to us then?” The Captain asked.

“Nah..” The wolf woman shook her head. “After all I went through, I want to at least vent my disappointment a bit. And who knows, he might be hiding something interesting.” She turned to the other two and added in an adamant tone: “Remember what you both promised me. No interference. Understood?”

“Fine.” Yasen confirmed.

“As you wish.” The Vex-girl also said, in an emotionless and alien voice.

“Good.” The Lycan said with a smile before stepping into the clearing, leaving the other two behind in the trees.

She stopped at about thirty meters from Blue, who was still keeping his guard up, and then cried:

“My name is Alya Vilka, Grand Champion of the Federation of Thule. I demand a duel with you, oni!”

At these words, Blue had to struggle to keep himself from smirking. The wolf woman seemed very overconfident, and he could use that to his advantage.

“I am Blueskin, ruler of the Caligare Forest, also known as the Blue Terror!” He replied in a dramatic voice, glad that he had finally found an enemy with whom he could banter with. “I will agree to have a duel with you on the following conditions: that there will be no outside interference until one of us is dead! No chickening out halfway!” He smiled derisively. “Unless you're too scared to fight me fairly!”

“No problem.” Alya replied nonchalantly. “That's how I wanted it to be to begin with. I already told my friends over there not to interfere.” She started stretching her arms. “And tell you what, I'm feeling particularly generous today, so I'll give you a minute to prepare. Feel free to transform however you like. But if you try to run away then I'll kill you on the spot. Are we clear?”

“Crystal.” Blueskin answered with a feral smile on his face. He then started to transform, quickly assuming his full combat form. His muscles swelled, his scales grew into actual armor and a second pair of arms sprouted from his shoulders. His size also increased, until he towered over Alya like an adult compared to a baby.

“Fools!” He silently gloated. “They served me a golden opportunity on a silver platter! I just need to eat the wolf woman's head and use her aura and memories to get away from here! And then I'm going to get back to the forest, learn how to control my aura and become actually unstoppable!”

“Thirty seconds left.” Alya announced. “You better hurry blueboy.”

The oni heard her, but paid little attention. Instead, he prepared to strike, gathering his aura to deliver a killing blow in a surprise attack. He wanted to end this quickly, using his raw power to overwhelm the woman before she could do anything.

While watching the fight about to start through the eyes of his copy drone, Marcus was starting to feel a tad worried. It was quite clear that the oni planned to eat Alya and absorb her aura and memories and if he actually managed to pull that off things could get ugly. Besides, Alya did seem a tad overconfident, something which made the Vex Queen even more nervous.

“Uhm... Yasen?” He whispered through his drone. “Are we really going to wait and do nothing while Alya fights the oni?”

“We gave her our word that we would.” The Aura Master replied.

“Yeah, but it still feels like we're wasting a perfect opportunity to finally kill the bastard.” Marcus insisted. “And if he manages to devour Alya, it could become even more dangerous.”

“I'm aware of this, sir Marcus.” Yasen replied again, in a rather stiff and formal tone. “But we are knights, and we have to behave fittingly for our rank. To openly break a promise would besmirch both our honor and our reputation.” He paused for a moment and then added in a much less hard voice: “Besides, there is no reason to worry. I've seen Alya in action, and the oni is simply no match for her.”

The Vex Queen nodded at this explanation, but still he was far from being completely reassured. So, as the countdown ticked down and the beginning of the duel approached, he came to a resolution: he would let Alya have her fun and fight the Blue Terror alone, but if things turned south then he would intervene and kill the oni, consequences be damned. After all, there was too much at stake to care about hurting the wolf woman's pride.

“Ten seconds left!” Alya announced, before starting a countdown, without taking any guard position. “Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Fi-”

And then, without any warning, the Blue Terror attacked mid-count, darting towards the Lycan with his hand raised high to deliver a powerful blow. He was also incredibly fast, closing the distance between himself and his enemy in only about a second.

Still, he wasn't fast enough.

With inhumanly fluid movements, Alya gracefully stepped to the side to dodge the attack while grabbing the oni's arm. Then, apparently using his own momentum, she lifted the humanoid as if he was weightless and slammed him to the ground with such a force that his entire upper torso was buried in the ground, leaving his legs sprouting like some sort of weird tree.

The wolfwoman then took a step back, watching calmly as the Blue Terror struggled to pull himself free, moving his legs frantically in the air. It was an almost comical scene, and Yasen couldn't help but chuckle when he saw it, though Marcus was far too surprised to do even that.

Eventually the oni finally managed to break free, pushing himself out of the ground with his four arms. He was coughing and spitting pieces of dirt, but he didn't seem to have taken any actual damage aside from psychological one. He did seem pretty angry however, and when Alya spoke, her words made him even more mad.

“Was that supposed to be a surprise attack? Because anyone could have seen it coming from a mile away.” She said in a disappointed tone, like a teacher scolding a student. “You didn't even bother to hide your bloodlust and movements before you attacked. That was beyond amateurish and you should feel bad about it, if you have even a shred of dignity that is.”

“You bitch!” The Blue Terror roared, pouncing at the Lycan like a tiger and trying to grab her with his four arms.

That didn’t work either, as Alya simply jumped in the air to dodge the tackle while simultaneously delivering a powerful flying kick to the oni's jaw, sending him flying backward and landing on his back a few meters away.

“That's correct.” The wolf woman said with a smirk as she gracefully landed back on the ground. “I am indeed a bitch. Literally. But what you are is a moron if you think that such a reckless attack could ever hit me. Now get back up and stop playing around.”

The oni rose up and tried to say something, but the blow he received had dislocated his jaw and what came out of his mouth was just an unintelligible mumbling. Realizing this, he grabbed his jaw and put it back in the proper position with a cracking sound. He then gave Alya a venomous stare, but this time he behaved with much more caution and assumed a guard position instead of trying another assault.

“Good! You're learning!” Alya said approvingly, giving him a mocking applause. “Never neglect your defense while you attack! Now show me what you got!”

She stood there expectantly, waiting for the Blue Terror to do something, but the oni also remained immobile, just staring at her and tightening his fists. After a few seconds of this standoff, the wolf woman sighed.

“Really?” She said in an exasperated tone. “You're just standing still like that? Have you lost your mind or are you just that stupid?” She shook her head in disgust. “Here, let me show you why doing that is a bad idea, blueboy.”

She then started calmly walking towards the oni, as if taking a stroll, until she was just a few meters away from him. Then, all of a sudden, she darted towards her enemy, seemingly aiming for his neck. The Blue Terror reacted almost instantly, counterattacking with two of his arms while guarding his head with the other two. Sadly for him, though, as it turned out Alya's attack had been a feint to which he had fallen for hook, line and sinker. The wolf woman somehow changed her trajectory mid-jump and instead of going for the throat she passed under the oni's legs, where she stabbed his groin with her arm, driving it inside of the humanoid's body up to her elbow. Then, before her victim could react, she jumped away, tearing off a certain organ from the Blue Terror's body in the process.

The oni let out a high pitched howl and fell to his knees, while both Marcus and Yasen grimaced at this display of groin violence.

“Ouch!” The Vex Queen thought, instinctively covering his real body's private areas, even though he now lacked that particular organ himself. “That got to hurt.”

Meanwhile Alya studied the bloody and still quivering piece of meat she was holding.

“Uh... so this is your junk?” She commented snarkily. “For someone your size it's really not all that impressive.” She threw the organ away like a piece of garbage and shook her hand to clean it of the blood. “Still it is probably bigger than your brain considering how idiotic you've proven yourself to be. You should never give your enemy free initiative like that. You should keep them pressured and on their toes. You-”

Her lecture was cut short by the oni, who let out a furious roar and threw himself at Alya, growing long bone blades on his forearms and launching a series of wild slashes against her. But once again, the wolf woman effortlessly dodged or deflected every single attack, dancing around the Blue Terror like a butterfly but letting her opponent continue his offense without actually fighting back. This went on for a little while, until all of a sudden the Aura Master announced:

“Alright, I've had enough.”

Moving so fast that her arms appeared as a white blur, Alya launched four slashes with her claws, cutting all of the oni's arms and leaving him momentarily stunned. Then, before he could recover, she took a deep breath and karate punched him in the gut so hard that the blow created a noticeable shockwave.

The results of this punch weren't pretty.

The Blue Terror's eyes almost popped out of their sockets and then he bent over and started puking out a stream of blood, pieces of meat and other less identifiable but equally foul humors, forcing the wolf woman to jump away to avoid being showered by that vile concoction.

“Hey! Be careful!” She shouted angrily. “Do you have any idea how hard it is to clean that stuff off my fur?”

But the oni didn't reply, instead falling to his knees, alternating between puking blood and gasping for air, all while his arms struggled to regrow.

“Weird.” Marcus commented. “Why is the oni struggling to recover? I mean, he regenerated from being literally cut to pieces, so how did a single punch messed him up like that?”

“Oh, it's because that wasn't a simple punch.” Yasen explained. “It's a technique called Wave of Destruction. It bypasses armor and causes massive internal damage. I think that most of the oni's organs have exploded, so it's no wonder that he's in pain. If anything, the fact that he's still alive is much more surprising.”

“I see.” The Vex Queen replied.

Though the voice of his copy-drone was as emotionless as always he was actually extremely impressed. He knew how strong the oni was since he —or rather his drones— had fought with him earlier, and seeing the humanoid being toyed with to such an extent spoke volumes about Alya's strength. In fact, he was so in awe of the wolf woman's power that he had started feeling a familiar tingling sensation in his nether regions. However, unlike previous times, he decided that there wasn't anything wrong in being aroused by the sight of a big, beautiful woman enacting righteous violence on someone who absolutely deserved it, so he gave it a pass and just enjoyed the show. Especially because it seemed that it wouldn't go on much longer.

While the Blue Terror still struggled to get back on his feet, Alya clicked her tongue in disappointment.

“Well, this was a complete letdown.” She declared in an annoyed tone. “I had thought I could have a decent fight for once, but it seems my hope was misplaced.” She gave the oni an icy stare. “Listen here, blueboy. I'm tired of playing with you, so now I'm going to come at you with the intent to kill. If you have any trick up your sleeve now is the time to use it, otherwise you're going to die.”

She then started walking towards the oni, raising both of her arms in front of her with her finger flexed like claws. As she did so, she also took a deep breath and her hands started vibrating incredibly fast, generating some small sparks that crackled around her fingers, while a cold, murderous presence filled the air with a bloodlust so intense that Marcus was able to feel it even through his drones.