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TOSDAG Chapter 23: Like a True Saiyan
🕑 Added 2025-03-10 02:28:02 +0000 UTCThird Person P.O.V
"We're far enough now, I'm going to check again and set up the barrier." Said Leek as he stopped alongside the two men.
They had been running for about 20 minutes at a considerable speed, so they should have left Hong Yue Zhou's camp far behind.
Leek closed his eyes for a moment, expanding his ki sense in the direction of the camp, and sighed in relief a few seconds later. "It seems like no one is following us." He said more calmly, earning nods from Huyan Xiong and Ye Shuo. "Now, I'll check if there are any demonic beasts ahead, once again, please keep in mind that these creatures can move, so even if I don't detect anything now, that doesn't mean something won't appear later." The young Saiyan warned before turning around and closing his eyes again, this time searching for signs of life on their path to the Dark Ruins.
Seconds passed, and this time it took at least twice as long as before, but when Leek opened his eyes again, his tone sounded a bit disappointed. "There's nothing important ahead, I detect some demonic beast signatures at various distances, but their strength ranges from bronze to a couple of silver"
And while the Saiyan was a bit disappointed at not encountering a powerful beast, Huyan Xiong and Ye Shuo were relieved that nothing would delay their journey.
"Alright, now I'll set up the barrier. It'll be a dome about four meters in diameter, so we'll fit comfortably, that should be enough to avoid the annoyance of the cold weather." Leek said, after all, the deeper they went into the St. Ancestral Mountain Range, the colder it got, it had only been 20 minutes since they left the camp, and they could already feel the temperature difference compared to when they were at the camp.
Clapping his hands a couple of times to focus, the Saiyan created a sphere of ki in his hand and expanded it until it completely covered the area where he and the two adults stood.
"Alright, remember that this barrier has me as its center, so we need to move at the same speed to ensure no one gets left outside"
"In that case, you should go in front, we will make sure to go at the same speed as you." Ye Shuo suggested, earning a nod from Leek before the three resumed their movement.
Minutes passed, and for the next hour, the trio encountered no problems, they came across some demonic beasts along the way from time to time, but as Leek had said earlier, they were only bronze or silver rank, so they didn't bother stopping to fight them.
However, they didn't go out of their way to avoid them either, simply passing through them, some tried to chase them, but due to the trio's speed, these beasts were quickly left behind.
As for the few unlucky enough to cross their path directly, they were sent flying after being rammed by Leek's barrier.
The problem arose when they reached a bridge that seemed to be in quite poor condition, it was the only way to cross a chasm with no visible bottom, and due to the seemingly permanent snowstorm, they couldn't see the other side where the bridge connected.
"Am I the only one who thinks this thing doesn't look safe at all?" Leek commented, pointing at the rope-and-plank bridge while dispelling his barrier.
"It's safer than it looks, the bridge was made as a deterrent for anyone doubting whether they're ready to continue, as we told you before, only black gold ranks dare to come to this place, so anyone scared of crossing this bridge should realize that worse things await in the Dark Ruins." Said Huyan Xiong.
"Oh, a test of courage? I guess that makes sense." Leek nodded, agreeing with the idea.
"Then let's keep going." Ye Shuo said, stepping forward to be the first to cross the bridge.
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Third Person P.O.V
"How long is this bridge?" Leek asked after they had been walking for a minute and still couldn't see the end.
"A little over four hundred meters." Ye Shuo replied.
"Well, it's pretty unsettling, I have to admit, even though I know I can fly, I can't completely shake off the feeling of vertigo"
"Look, I think the end is over there." Huyan Xiong pointed into the distance, through the storm, they could barely make out the end of the bridge.
"Finally." Leek seemed more animated upon hearing this.
But the problem was that the closer they got, the clearer a figure lying at the end of the bridge became, and perhaps because the bridge swayed slightly, the strings seemed to creak as they moved and tightened, the figure's attention was drawn to the group.
Leek's senses sensed the danger the moment he saw the figure, and when his ki sense scanned the creature, the fur on his tail stood on end, showing he was ready to attack.
Through the storm, a pair of icy blue eyes stared intently in the direction of the bridge, and before Leek could say anything, Ye Shuo shouted.
"Jump!"
The moment the words left the elder's mouth, everyone was already in the air, leaping off the bridge and covering the last dozen meters to reach the other side, this proved to be the right decision when a torrent of icy energy destroyed the bridge a second after they jumped.
"It's a fully grown Snow Wind Behemoth Lizard." Ye Shuo said as he fused with his demonic spirit, as did Huyan Xiong.
But just as they were about to leap forward to attack, Leek's voice stopped them. "Wait!" He shouted, creating another energy barrier that covered all three of them, just in time to block the attack of eight demonic beasts that leaped out of the snow toward them.
The screeching sound emitted by the barrier was like glass about to shatter as both spiritists, now fused with their spirits, looked at their attackers.
"Ice Mantises." Huyan Xiong growled, noticing how the beasts' blades had partially pierced Leek's barrier, which was now full of cracks.
"That's not the worst of it." Leek said with his hands extended, injecting more energy into his barrier to repair and reinforce it as much as possible for what was about to happen.
In front of them, the enormous figure of the Behemoth rose, measuring at least 55 meters, the beast had its jaws open once more, showing an icy beam ready to be fired at Leek's barrier while the mantises tried to pull their blades free to move and avoid the attack.
"Can your barrier hold?!" Ye Shuo asked quickly, it was true that he was a three-star black gold spiritist and that now, fused with his Sacred Snow Leopard, he was stronger, but that didn't mean taking a hit from a fully grown demonic beast at the peak of gold rank, just one step away from black gold, wouldn't cause him some trouble, and that would be bad, considering they were surrounded by at least eight Ice Mantises, another top gold-rank beast with incredibly hard exoskeletons, incredible speed, and blades capable of harming him.
"That thing's attack? Probably, but the problem is this other one." Leek said, drawing the attention of both spiritists, who turned their heads to see the Saiyan, and what they saw was another Behemoth of equal size behind them, also with its jaws open and ready to attack.
"Shi-!!" Huyan Xiong's curse was cut short as both breath attacks struck the barrier with full force.
"Ugh!" Leek fell to one knee while keeping his arms raised, injecting more energy into his recently repaired barrier, which was now covered in cracks again.
The barrier barely held for three more seconds before shattering completely, at which point Leek made it explode to disperse the breath attacks, causing a curtain of snow to cover him and the two men accompanying him.
The mantises, though unharmed thanks to their hard exoskeletons, were sent flying several meters away by the explosion, while the Behemoths seemed a bit confused, especially when a figure ran out of the snow cloud and raised its hands, firing a couple of energy spheres that hit both beasts in the face.
"Come on, you overgrown lizards! If you think you impress me, you'll need more than generic attacks like that!" The Saiyan shouted.
The Behemoths roared in fury, lunging to attack Leek, while a pair of mantises did the same, however, both were repelled, one receiving a punch to the face from a fist covered in dark golden fur and the other from a white-and-gray feline paw with black spots.
The mantises fell and rolled several meters back, their exoskeletons cracked where they had been hit, but before they could be finished off, the rest of their companions joined the fight by leaping at the spiritists.
"The kid said there were ten in total, right?" Asked Huyan Xiong, advancing toward the beasts.
"Yes, and he said two of them still were hidden under the snow, let's finish this as quickly as possible." Replied Ye Shuo.
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Third Person P.O.V
As he continued running, Leek turned his head when his ki sense warned him of the danger, behind him, both giant lizards advanced with their jaws open, and a bright light gave the signal that they were about to use another roar-type attack.
The attacks were fast and had a wide range, not to mention they seemed to freeze the ground around where they landed, so even if Leek managed to avoid a direct hit, the side effects could still affect him and hinder his movements.
"Or that's what would happen if I couldn't do this!" The Saiyan jumped as high as he could while doing a backflip, avoiding the crossed beams and rising into the air as he flew.
"SURPRISE!!" He shouted, spinning in the air, covering himself in a layer of ki, lifting his leg, and delivering a descending axe kick to the head of one of the lizards, which was still spitting its attack.
"RARGHH!!!" The beast roared in fury from the pain as its attack was interrupted at the same time as its head was pushed back with the Saiyan standing over it.
At the same time, the other lizard swung its paw, trying to hit him, but all it managed to do was leave claw marks on its companion's face as Leek jumped between its fingers.
The struck lizard fell backward, the wounds on its head bleeding, while the one that had attacked with its claw now watched as its tiny enemy ran at full speed along its paw.
The lizard covered its body in a pale blue icy energy aura in an attempt to freeze Leek, but it seemed to have no effect on the Saiyan.
"Bad luck, gecko! You'll need to try something stronger than that!" Shouted Leek, covered in a furious layer of ki that protected him from the beast's icy aura.
And as if it had understood its enemy's words, the icy lizard roared furiously, opening its mouth, which glowed with a pale light, signaling another breath attack.
'Four, five, six, SEVEN!' Leek shouted in his mind, timing the jump to get away from the lizard, just in time to avoid the breath attack and for the Behemoth to hit itself with it.
But to his surprise, the icy beam slid over the monster's body as if it were a gentle stream of water, causing no damage.
"They're immune to their own attacks?!" Leek seemed quite surprised, so much so that when he sensed danger, it was too late, behind him, the other lizard leaped with its jaws open, ready to swallow him.
"Shi-!" And just like Huyan Xiong earlier, Leek's curse was also cut short as the beast's jaws closed with him inside.
The monster tried to chew, but when it couldn't, its eyes widened in surprise as its jaws slowly opened.
"You're… not… going… to eat me!" Leek grunted with effort as he forced the lizard's jaws open from the inside, but his expression turned incredulous when a pale blue light began to glow deep in the Behemoth's throat.
"You've got to be kidding me." He said with a nervous smile, but his eyes widened when, once again, after the seventh second, the breath attack was fired, hitting him directly.
The attack, along with Leek, crashed into the ground, raising a huge cloud of snow, and the lizard, as if wanting to make sure it destroyed its enemy, took another step forward, bringing its head closer to the impact zone and roaring with even more power.
"AHHHHH!!!!" But unexpectedly, Leek stood his ground, stopping the attack with both hands.
"GRR!!" Leek growled, gritting his teeth as he felt his hands slowly freezing, but things got worse when he saw the second lizard stand beside the first and open its jaws, ready to fire another breath attack.
"This isn't good." Leek said as, once again, the seven seconds passed, and the second beam joined the first.
"ARGH!" Leek's knee gave out, resting on the icy ground now full of cracks, while his two hands began to turn blue, and his breath was clearly visible as vapor.
At that moment, Leek's hands glowed, and an energy attack shot out, clashing with the icy beams from both Behemoths, pushing them back little by little.
"MASENKOOO!!!" Leek shouted at the top of his lungs as the yellow energy beam advanced, gaining at least ten meters of ground before both attacks exploded, covering Leek and the Behemoths in a dark cloud of dust.
Without delaying a single second more than necessary, Leek flew out of the dust cloud, and as he looked at his hands, he clenched his fists several times. "I can barely feel them." He said worriedly, focusing his energy on his ring and summoning one of the small bottles Ye Shuo had given him and Huyan Xiong, he removed the cork with his teeth and swallowed one of the pills inside.
"Let's hope that works." He said before his eyes widened in surprise, the hairs on the back of his neck standing up, and he flew to the side, dodging the breath attacks that almost hit him.
"Come on, these kinds of attacks normally have a limited number of uses, but you cheaty lizards don't seem to have that limit." He said, flying from side to side, evading the energy beams, and when they finally stopped, he took advantage of the seven seconds he had to look toward Huyan Xiong and Ye Shuo.
There, he saw five of the giant mantises lying on the ground, and his ki sense told him they wouldn't get back up, while the other five were attacking the two spiritists.
Leek knew that if he dragged this out by flying out of the lizards' range, the two spiritists would soon come to support him, and without the group of mantises distracting them, the three of them could easily take down these two Behemoths.
But was that really what he wanted? Was that the way he wanted to fight? Did he really want things to be resolved like that?
Something in Leek's chest ignited, and the answer he arrived at was immediate.
NO!
His ki flared up stronger than before, and he flew back toward the Behemoths, who were preparing to launch another breath attack.
He would show these giant lizards who was the predator and who was the prey!
He would fight and win like a true Saiyan!
"HAH!" he shouted, extending his hands and firing multiple energy spheres that hit the beasts' faces, including the still-bleeding wound on one of the lizards' heads from its companion's earlier attack.
Both beasts moved while roaring in pain, trying to avoid the attacks on their sensitive points, such as their eyes or wounds, but even in this state, after the usual seven seconds, their icy energy attacks were fired.
Leek moved from side to side to dodge the attacks while continuing to fire energy blasts.
'I don't have much energy left, I need to hurry!' The Saiyan thought, feeling his energy reserves dwindling with each ki blast he fired, not to mention the cost of his flight technique.
He knew he had to deliver a fatal blow soon, no matter what.
Both beasts, blinded by Leek's attacks while still moving, could only see again when the Saiyan's attacks stopped, but by the time they found him, it was too late.
He was standing on the lizard with deep cuts on its head from its companion's attack when it tried to hit Leek.
"GAMMA BURST FLASH!!" He shouted, burying his hands as deep as he could into the lizard's wound and releasing a massive amount of energy.
The beast could only roar and thrash as the attack fired inside its skull, bypassing its tough scales and cooking its brain from within.
The other lizard tried to intervene, but when it struck its companion's head and sent Leek flying, it was too late, the wounded lizard stood completely still for a few seconds as smoke, and the smell of burnt flesh rose from its now-white eyes and open jaws before falling lifelessly to the icy ground.
The beast, seeing its fallen companion, roared in rage, lunging at Leek with its jaws open, Leek stood up once more, slightly dazed.
ONE
Leek started the countdown in his head as he saw the monster approaching, clenching his right fist and gathering almost all the ki he had left, covering his entire arm in a semi-transparent layer of ki.
TWO
The Saiyan bent his legs, pushing off with all the strength he could muster while using his flight technique.
THREE
The light in the beast's jaws grew brighter like a clock counting down to the end of the fight.
FOUR
Leek accelerated even more, pouring all the energy he could to reach the lizard in time, while the beast also didn't stop, advancing, ready to deliver the final blow.
FIVE
He had to reach it, he couldn't lose this fight, just a little more, just a few more meters, and he would make it.
SIX
Facing the open jaws of the Behemoth with that ominous pale blue light glowing, Leek raised his arm, held his wrist with his other hand, and shouted.
"BIG BANG ATTACK!!"
SEV-
The countdown was interrupted, the icy energy beam was about to be fired, but the energy sphere the Saiyan fired was faster, entering the lizard's mouth, colliding with the pale blue light, and exploding.
Leek was pushed back by the shockwave, but as he fell backward and saw the monster fall defeated, a smile spread across his face as he uttered a single phrase.
"I won"
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Another chapter finished, this was a curious one to write, in every fight and/or conflict I've written so far, both in this story and the other one (TAMCG), I always try to give it its own identity, you know, something that isn't just an empty exchange of blows.
In this one I tried to capture three things, Leek's analysis of the battles (also called fighting IQ), his inexperience in fights (remember this is his second fight to the death), and his attitude during them, since we can see that even though he received some surprises there was never a real fear of dying or losing, unlike Ryuichi, the protagonist of my other story.
You'll tell me if what I tried to express was done correctly or not.
Another thing I wanted you to know is that during the 20th and 21st of this month I will be completely busy, so I will try to publish the next chapter on the 19th, but if for some reason I don't manage to do it, then you will have to wait until the 21st late at night or the 22nd in the morning.
Besides that, I wanted to ask you the same thing I did with my other story, if you could please go to webnovel, which is the page where I publish this story, and leave a positive review about this story, that way it will reach more people, thank you very much!
That's all, see you in the next chapter.
