Arc 7. Death to what came before

  Road to a Hero:

  Three Chances in Another World

  Chapter 16. From within the Owl's home

  The air around Gray is faint, telling him slowly coming to the conscious body that he’s high in the air. But the room is also cold, dark, and tuff, as the rigged floor beneath him annoys his sleeping legs. Instead of instantly opening his eyes, he feels around himself, trying to leave his body through the astral form. When he does this, runic symbols on cloth bindings that hold his arms light up, forcing the astral form into his body. He sighs, understanding that he won’t be able to use mana, so he won’t be able to fight. This leads him to open his eyes, tensing up when he sees the strange creatures around him. Rhino-sized Toads with green, blue, and pink oozing, sticky skin. They were beside a large disgusting mosquito made completely of mana and spirit mana, with a woman sitting on top.

  They all sat inside wood, which seemed odd to him at first, because he was unknowingly within a massive tree high in the air. Something he’d soon come to learn.

  The beast looks to be another summon, obeying the woman cloaked in leaves bound together, with wooden arm guards, leg guards, and a mask to provide protection. The woman looks into Gray's eyes, seeing pure determination, rage, and the fact he’ll strike the second he gets the chance to. So, to vanquish her curiosity, she waves her wrinkled hand into the air, which seems to cause the ruins on the binds to vanish. Within a second of them vanishing, Gray bursts forward, with intent to kill. While right behind her is the bright light of the outside, he’s solely focused on the beasts around him. His mana explodes from his OD, washing over his body. All of this mana near these large spirit beasts is like waving a feast in front of starving, feral men, so they all charge him. Out of the three large Toads in the room, behind him, to his left, and to his right, they all seem to move as one unit.

  To his right, the large Toad shoots its large tongue at him, while the one from behind him leaps forward, and the one to his left stands still, waiting. Gray quickly stops himself, jumping backward to move out of the way of the Toad's landing, while also forcing it to get hit by the fast-moving tongue. Gray’s armor, weapons, and cloak of darkness have all been taken from him, so he’s wearing his standard clothes, taking many advantages away. So he’s forced to fully rely on his mana’s multiplication of his strength, leaping toward the just fallen Toad in front of him. While right above it, he forces all of the mana his hand can handle, hitting it in the center of its head.

  Gray {MANA OVERDRIVE!}

  The Toad's dense body and sturdy skin protect it from being killed, causing Gray's mana to awkwardly flow off. While the large beast is stunned, he then flows the maximum amount of mana to his leg, kicking it in the head. This slams it to the ground, knocking it unconscious for the time being. The old woman in front of him continues to remain still, sitting on the sleeping soul of the giant mosquito, while the two Toads left shoot their tongues toward Gray. He quickly closes his eyes, absorbing the pure spirit energy in the air, opening his eyes to reveal the blinding white light of the spirit state. He then forces it down, causing the once bright white light to become a slight glow over his normal eyes, showcasing his control over his abilities to the woman.

  The long pink tongues stretch out, almost snatching up Gray, but he floats between them. His accurate, perfect movements look like a butterfly flowing through the wind, but his deep-seated anger throws him off. The tongue flicks up, sticking to Gray's feet, pulling him in. With Gray unable to free his feet, and the Toad now leaping toward him with an open mouth, he’s close to being swallowed up. But an idea quickly comes to mind, because he readies himself as he’s right about to be eaten.

  Gray: “El-CENIC!”

  A large amount of dark smoke bursts around Gray, which is swallowed up and fills the large Toad's stomach, squishing it’s strange otherworldly insides.

  Gray {It’s alive!?}

  It begins to flow in a circle, pushing itself back out, causing the toad to fell sick. The room quickly fills with the thick blanket of mist. The Toad begins to shiver from the strange feeling, blinded in everything but thought, giving Gray a chance to use all of his strength to free himself. He tugs with his mana to get away from the tongues in a swift motion, focused on what’s next.

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  Now with the other monster blinded, he moves it to strike it, flowing a large amount of mana into his palm. He swirls it around, and creates the Titans Impact. Flinging into the monster's large gut, it swirls and expands, blasting the monster into the wooden wall behind it. He looks around, finding all of the Toads slowly standing back up, seemingly without any damage done to them. Now, to add further to this forsaken situation, he senses other life forms, looking up to find two terrifyingly massive centipedes, a large disgusting worm, and a horrifying caterpillar all crawling on the ceiling, dropping down on him.

  Gray {I HATE BUGS!}

  Even with his sickness, the cloak holding him down, his anger toward the Sect, or his grief about Rosemary, he still managed to some how scream out in a played up manner; Gray curled back, shivering with chills and goosebumps at the sight of the creatures. He holds his hand above him right as all of the beasts leap at him, so he casts another spell.

  Gray: “El-WALNIC!”

  A large, angled, multi sided dome of transparent blue mana forms around him, protecting him from the beasts. But all of their combined strength cracks the shield, though all he needed was a few seconds, forcing all of the pure spirit mana in the area around him. But within this Ever-biome, an area filled with spirits, it’s far stronger than he expected, which helps him in his plan. The always-starving animals absorb the pure mana, but it overloads them, causing them to shake and convulse, trembling from this overloading energy. They all fall down, overfed, but this immense explosion of energy also breaks through his dome, which he uses to its advantage once more. He sends all of this excess mana toward not the woman, but the spiritual summon of the beast she sits on, overloading the form, causing it to glitch and bubble, vanishing within the air.

  Gray: “GOT ANYTHING ELSE!? OR ARE YOU GONNA KEEP WATCHING!?”

  The strange woman falls to the ground as her seat has just vanished before her, chuckling the entire time. Gray, filled with adrenaline, moves it to attack, flowing his mana all throughout his body. Due to that burst of spirit mana, he’s been forced out of the spiritual state, and cannot reenter it as his astral body has been strained. With a strong right hook flung straight toward the nonmoving woman, he confidently assumes he’ll be able to get a strike in, but he’s quickly proven wrong. The giggling old woman moves like a snake, curving around Gray’s body, grabs him by the back to turn him, and kicks him in the side of the face right after. Her strong blow sends him tumbling back into the bark wall, slamming into it. While his mana protects his body from serious damage, he’s once again forced to face a seasoned warrior, similar to the Lion Demi-human. But she’s much older, slower, and weaker, but she’s far more elegant than the brute force of Gray Kyojin. This barbaric movement is slowed down by his constantly thinking brain, his poor mana control, and his overall lack of strength in the greater scheme of things.

  “You’re fierce, you hold the flaming soul of a warrior, but you’re held back by such simple matters.”

  Her loud, growing voice erks Gray, who continues to move without thought. The old woman sighs, puts her hands together, and pulls them apart. Her hands shake, as she creates lines of mana that begin to cross, forming a magic circle between her hands. The second it’s ready, she spreads her arms, forcing the circle to mix with itself, creating a circular shining vortex of mana, which shoots out toward Gray, forming the shape of a large transparent Buck. It charges Gray, so he quickly stops and flows all of his mana into his palm, and right as the Buck slams head toward Gray, Gray hits the beast with a sturdy palm strike. The Buck smashes into itself, popping like a balloon. But the weak beast was just for the woman to get an opening, so she suddenly gets right in Gray's face. She had dragged her hand across the ground, using whatever magic she was using to force some of the bark on the ground over her hand like a glove, smashing it into Gray’s face.

  Gray {I can feel it in the air…she’s forcing the spirits, and what’s made by spirits to follow her will! This isn’t the spirit arts, a mark of providence, but spirit magic! The sister side of the Spirit Arts. I’m fighting uh… a Witch!}

  Her perfect flow of mana, mixed with the strong spiritual-infused bark that makes up both the floor and the walls, creates a massive impact and cracks Gray's jaw. He holds his position, even amidst the great attack, grabs her arm, and rolls to the ground while using his legs to move and kick her behind him, launching her away. While the woman lands gracefully, she’s a bit confused as to why he didn’t attack, until he begins sprinting out of the large opening in the space. She’s unable to stop him, but he stops himself once he gets out, finding himself in a dangerous position. He’s standing on an enormous tree that scales to over one thousand feet tall, a giant to the rest of the vast Bog-Swamp area. On this giant tree are various platforms that lead to each other, holding homes, shops, and areas for cooking, like a giant tree house. Then in front of him are various other women wearing the same leaf-made robes and wooden armor as the one running toward him from behind.

  But what’s taking up the rest of his attention, is the Lion man he faced once before staring at him with a smile on his face and a child at his side, looking around the age of fifteen, with a striking resemblance to what Gray assumes is his father. He stands still, confused, warry, and surrounded. He plans on just testing his luck with jumping out of the tree, but he’d be leaving Dema as well as his things behind, though it may seem like his best chance at victory. But, like a light of shining hope, the Lion man from before holds his hand out, ready to shake Grays. So Gray, still shaken up, decides to shake the man's hand, causing the old woman whom he was fighting before to stop her assault, standing still behind him. The Lion man holds Gray’s hand firmly and begins speaking to him.

  Ander: “My name is Ander, and I’m happy to have you here, Gray Kyojin.”

  End of Chapter Sixteen