Fighting without the ability to hear wasn't impossible. Sam could name a few people who were quite skilled at it. Some are born without hearing, and some lose it later in life. It hindered, but it never stopped anyone.
It was hindering Sam a lot at the moment; he forgot about haunting it and was not able to hear anything or feel his fist rushing the wooden head of a puppet, but did not hear the sound of the wood breaking. To know something was swinging as his head, but not hearing the air part as he ducked under it.
It made Sam think he had taken sound for granted as he fought,' Well, I think that's enough self-reflection for this fight," jumping into a split kick. He turned to the arm that was pulling itself out of a widening portal. Right as several magical seals appeared and slammed down on the portal, trying to force it closed.
'Slowing it down, but how do we stop this?' They needed to stop the massive puppet and the portal. 'It'd be best if he could close the portal on the puppet.' Few things could survive something like that. Nothing Sam has fought ever has."Okay, what do I know about closing portals again?" This portal was nothing like the tears in space he made with his demonic power.
Witches could make portals; ghosts could not. Well, not the way living beings made portals, more like phasing through space. Which was a lot more complicated than they made it look. Some could teleport. Sam was still too material to do it the way Ghost did. Still had knowledge of how it worked.
Using runes mid-fight, he analyzed the portal, trying to understand how it was working, 'it's definitely not a spatial tear. Not exactly a wormhole. This is a different kind of spatial manipulation than I'm familiar with. Any guesses?' he asked the helper, who was silent for a moment, 'poeckt dimeson movement.'
'...what?' Okay, the world sort of made sense.' It sounds like you're saying the beast moved a pocket dimension.' The helper gave affirmation.' Great, how?' he slipped through a few puppets while the helper formed the lecature. The short version of it was a long time ago. Longer than the dinosaurs walked the earth.
There was an invasion about the use of pocket dimensions. These were used for storage, secure housing, farms, bases, etc. They found they could be moved, and then figured just open the portal you've broken into a place. Of course, there are numerous defenses to this and ways to break through them and ways to defend against, etc.'
Blocking a punch, he lifted the puppet off the ground and swung it into several others before bouncing it off the ground. Jumping, he used a few of his opponents as footholds before he came back to the drink table, grabbing a glass of water off the table. " So the beast has brought over a pocket space of puppets?"
"No, the emission coming through the portal does not say that,' stopping Sam increased the power of his nose and sniffed the puppets and then the air coming from the portal." It's using the pocket space as a portal. The air had two distinct scents: one that matched the many puppets that contained to pour out, and the smell of the ain't puppet. It smells older and strongly of lust.
'Blinking, he called on the lust core, causing his eyes to gain a heart-like marking. 'Well, that's new,' the giant puppets looked like it was entirely made of lust. Also, the massive claws of lust that just seemed to be holding the portal open.
"Well, that's definitely an option," Sam was suddenly hit by how unimaginative he had been. He's had power over the last few months now, he's had the core.' I've been too busy trying to contain it to properly explore the possibilities. Of course, it was the beast near contact attempts to cause trouble.
'Still, I explored my other powers,' then he realized a problem. He explored them over a course of several hundred years. In the total of his life span, a few months wasn't actually that long. 'Well, no time like the present to try something.' Reaching into his lust core, he pulled more energy. Until he had enough to coat his sword, he sharpened the energy until it was a blade. Focusing a bit more, with his other hand, he focused it into a small ball.
With a quick aim and a flick of his fingers, he sent it hurtling toward the massive claws. Shattering without harm, either way, Sam smiled.
'Test complete!' smiling, he focused more energy through his arms and through the ribbon. Letting his grip slack so he had a foot of ribbon. 'Now the wind up!' Swing the ribbon-bound sword, he sliced through several puppets before bringing the weapon above his head, rotating faster and faster until it started to become optical.
The kitsuna paused in its carnage to look at the same, 'what is that energy?' It was something she couldn't place, which made her heart race. Reminded her of what she wanted, of her many mates. But at the same time, she saw a weapon, a very dangerous yet somehow familiar one. 'Seems like he's got a plan.' Better than the one she had, which was to wait for the right reinforcements. There was already a special expert on their way, 'even if he fails, there are still other options.'
Feeling the momentum was right, Sam spun under a puppet. Swing his weapon through it, bisecting the creature before letting it fly. To cut through the air, right over the portal." You missed, Natal called. But to her surprise, the lust-coated sword struck its target, and for a brief moment, the portal edge flickered.
"Oh, that's going to work!" With a laugh he couldn't hear but felt from the depths of his heart, Sam moved. Racing through the head of puppets while pulling his sword back. One puppet trying to hold it only proved to be an anchor for Sam to dual stomp it in the face. grapping the ribbon, he began to wind up again as he continued fighting, twisting around attacks, slashing his spinning blade through puppets.
The lust burning around his blade was greater than before. 'Ugh,' he thought, throwing it through the air into the same fingers. This time, it was enough to strike. 'Well, that worked,' he wasn't particularly happy that the lack of skill had worked. Kicking off the face of a puppet, he used the ribbon to pull himself onto the limb.
Hands and feet coated in energy, 'this feels so different from the energy I wield. So different from what I see on any other creature so far.' Was this the lust of the beast? No, the beast is trapped, sealed tight.' So, probably something else, somebody else? 'I'll figure it out later.' Ripping his sword out, he directed the energy. Focusing it along the edge of the blade.
"HA!" he swung directly into the ineludible appadange.' about steel level dubiously, he looked at the severed point. Cutting through it several times will wear on me." Even as he tried to think of something better, he began hacking at the fingers. Only pausing when she felt the air shift, it was only matching her movement that stopped Sam from accidentally sticking his mother. She quickly used South Korean sign language to ask him what he was striking.
"Weird fingers holding the portal open, probably the work of the beast. Very likely the portal will close once I can break them," she nodded, twisted her hammer so she came down on a pod of puppets, scattering and breaking them. Before jumping back up, "I don't know if I can help. Any suggestions?"
"You know a better way to cut through something steel level," he couldn't follow his usual thing and use his demonic power. Who knows what that would do? He didn't want to deal with that when they were already heading towards deep waters.
"Well, since you're not using your demonic power, it's mostly like another form of power." She couldn't sense any mana. Why he was limiting it, she could only guess. At the same time," well, in this actuation, I would try shaping the energy into different forms. See what effect that has." Sam nodded, reminding himself that he could do that.
'My other powers have power behind their form, except mana.' Even then, he only uses form for runes. He wasn't that rusty with it, hopefully. Focusing on the energy wrapped around his sword, he shitefed into dozens of sharp teeth before giving them motion.
With his sudden chainsaw sword, Sam swung into the weapon. Feeling the teeth bite into the digit, one by one, slicing into it. Deeper and deeper. 'Oh, this will work much better.' Grinning, he put more power into the format nd speed. Bits of energy flying off.
In a matter of seconds, that felt like hours with the puppets trying to climb up to them. His mother and the fox yokai are doing their best to keep them at bay. The puppets continue to pour into this dimension like water. He broke through the finger. The portal shuddered as he swung to the next finger. slaming his makeshift chainsaw into the edge, already cutting it as he watched the end slow smaller.
"Yeah, this will work," but they could be faster about it." I know something about this." Something about his sword. Plus his ghost powers, he couldn't be sure. "in a forest somewhere. A wendigo, lumberjack ghost," he muttered to himself, cutting through the second finger and moving to the third. His patchy memories of a lumberjack he met, helping through, even if the situation around them was funky. Why was he hunting a wendio? How did he meet the Ghost? Why did he stay and learn to chop trees?
'Is that the branch?' he looked down at his trusted sword. Feeling the wood of the handle. 'Is that where I got this?' Sam looked at the wooden. It's been by his side for a very long time. 'It was soaked in my power, except lust. I'll have to fix that,' mentally, he wondered how long that was going to take.
Onto the fourth finger, he thought about how this would go faster if he had more blades. 'But I only have one sword.' Without a good medium, the shape of his chainsaws would be off. The energy construct teeth were off already. 'Is there something I can use for this situation?' as he pulled his sword away from the digit. He took in the two puppets jumping at him from opposite directions.
His mind flashed through two options: simply cut in a large circle and take them both, or what he taught me,' he finally remembered what the lumberjack had taught him. "shard of the night, phantom blade's.' his sword glowed a ghostly white, running along with the light purple pink glow of lust.
Like ghostly semi-transparent blades, they appeared, glowing in the same mixed lights. "Let's get chopping!" The phantom blades split up, and several of them rushed at the pullets. Despite their transparency, they were just as durable as shards of night. The remaining blades shifted their last energy, shifting into the fangs of chainsaws that began to rapidly rotate. Each sinking into a finger.
'I half remember this being a touch easier, ' it was probably the years without practice. Why hadn't he used this technique more?' Sam wondered as he quickly cut down puppets and fingers." Just one more!" he shouted, the portal already cutting into the massive puppet as it struggled to push itself through the portal on one side or another.
In the meantime, a little wave of puppets was met with a hailstorm of ice. Moving fast and hard enough to crack the ground and spread or knock down every pump they struck. "Oh, she's starting to let loose." Natal chucked, lifting her hammer above he head. "Let's shoot her the people who are interested in the feral both." Pressing against the shaft, she activated one of the runes engraved upon it.
Spinning it faster and gathering it glowed with momentum and force. "Let's shake the earth," then she brought down that shock that the entire room. Knocking down each puppet, "and the heavens will fall." Her husband brought down his bush, causing dozens of runes to light up, linking together and forming a massive way of energy that came over to drip a vicious liquid. Each drop melted the puppets, but not the ground." Mm." the kistuni muttered," It doesn't stink. Actually kind of floral." She muttered, walking through the drops, shaking them off her fur.
"Let's finish this," Sam muttered, reaching for the final fingers. Pushing several chainsaw swords drawn, firing at once. At once, they dug into the final digit, which pulled back, dodging his attack as several other fingers came pushing inside, pushing the portal open.
"Oh, course," he groaned. Glaring at the fingers, he pulled some of the fingers away and launched them at the new fingers. Unlike the last batch, they didn't sit there and take his assault. Small bits are splitting off to bash as his energy constructs.
Battle-forged instinct caused him to dodge to the left, causing the fingers to miss their attempts to gouge him." Not gonna happen," he muttered. Turning, he slashed his physical sword right into the underside. The finger twisted, trying to claw out his eyes. "Wow!" Rolling against the ground, he pulled one phantom sword downward. Right towards the tip of the finger nail.
Causing the finger to come toward the ground and right through it, 'right. Just energy!' coming away from the fingers. He pulled the second sword into his free hand, holding it where the finger tried to stab up against him. Twisting both swords, he brought them closed like scissors. Closing them, he cut deeper into the finger.
Checking, Sam saw his southern sword cutting into the fingers. Slowly sawing through. But as he looked into the twisting depths of the portal, he could see numerous other fingers coming through, ready to take their place. "Oh, you're fighting dirty!"
This couldn't turn into a battle of stamina; Sam generally couldn't fight like this forever. Either it came to be the effects of lust energy or the chance of him overdrawing what he could wield. "This needs to end pretty soon!" Did he need to level the building?