Flat-Brim Samurai Chapter 143 - To the Next Floor
After screaming, Apollo immediately sensed that people were coming towards his location. He gathered the strength that he had and started heading towards the end of the hall. He absorbed enough energy from the dead wolf to recover his physical body. His Qnison reserves were at an all time low and his mental capacity was reaching its limit. He looked down at where his right forearm and hand used to be, gone. He walked behind a pillar and mixed his Quison in with the rest of the surroundings. The bodyguards and skinners were roaming the hall, surprised to see the sight of the dead wolf. Each step echoed through the room. They were getting closer and closer with each step to his location. He gathered the minimum amount of Quison he needed to conceal his presence and climbed up the pillar.
At the top of the pillar he looked down as the guards started looking everywhere to try to find the intruder. They saw the blood on the ground and knew that someone was nearby. Just as Apollo released the art that he activated they all looked up at once. Apollo clicked his tongue and jumped on top of the first skinner that he saw STIK. He drove his blade straight through the top of its skull and absorbed all of its energy. He jumped off of the shoulders of that monster and flinged himself at two of the bodyguards and sliced at both of them. Both of his slashes leached energy and cut at their throats SLASH. He stabbed straight through both of their hearts one after another. He then sensed someone coming up behind him so he dropped to the ground and slid on water that he formed to slide under the guard. He raised his sword and sliced right through the bottom half of the bodyguard SLICE. He then flew into the air to completely slash the man right down the middle.
He was slowly regaining his strength from fighting these low level fighters. He created a barrier at his feet and pushed off of the leverage that he created to launch straight at a group of skinners. He stabbed one of them through the skull and punched the other one with his stump of an arm and wrapped his body around one of them, snapped its neck and ripped it off of its body. Covered head to toe in the blood of his enemies, he looked around and noticed a doorway on the side that the wolf came from.
He walked over to the area and noticed another huge door. There was a keyhole, but he didn't know where the key was. He looked around and sensed his surroundings. He found that a statue in the area had a torch that was connected to a mechanism. He went over and pulled the torch KERCHUNK. The door opened without even needing a key. As the door opened he noticed that there was a wide platform in the middle of the room that just opened. He walked into the room and stepped on the platform FWOOM. The platform started moving upwards at a nice speed.
FWOOMP The elevator stopped and another door in front of him was stationed, except this one opened on its own. He stepped through the doorway and saw an interior that had a lot of stairs and passageways. It looked as if it was the interior of a big house. Of course all of this was in a castle so it definitely made sense that there were places for people to stay. He walked around the area and noticed other guards around, he went up behind one of them and stabbed him right through the neck, without making a sound.
Apollo found a room and went inside of it with the body. He activated Art: Flame to incinerate the body. He then noticed a bed and other amenities that complimented the tastes of the castle. He locked the door and went over to the bed. Thanks to his sensory abilities, he could sense any of these low-medium level fighters around him. He slumped into the bed and closed his eyes, he immediately passed out.
…When he woke up, he slowly got out of bed. When he walked out of the room he sneaked around the corridor to find his way around. Tons of staircases and rooms lined the entire room that was as big as an entire mansion. It was a weirdly shaped room however, it was "sloped" with staircases and levels going down to the center of the room. He walked up the stairs away from the center and went around the guards that circled to hallways. Upon going up the stairs for a long enough time, he saw a doorway in front of him that he opened.
It was another long throne room that had a chair in the center. On the chair was a giant humanoid figure, standing 4 meters tall, flames pooling around his hands. The giant looked directly at Apollo. Apollo immediately knew that he screwed up as he entered the room. The giant got up out of his chair and darted towards his location. Apollo summoned his sword. This giant was even stronger than the wolf, and Apollo had to do this without an arm.
Apollo swung his sword and blocked the punch from the monster TONK. The fist felt like striking metal. Apollo flew back because he hadn't fought with one arm before. The giant followed his movements and Apollo slowly got back to a new fighting posture. Anger welled up inside of him as his mind went blank. He dodged the next punch from the beast and countered with slashing at its wrist. The beast didn't stop moving however. It grabbed Apollo with the other hand and started burning Apollo with the flames it produced. Apollo summoned Arts all around him which didn't have any effect on the monster. He then concentrated and absorbed the energy that the monster was letting off, he formed Spiritual Weaponry around his body. Blades formed from his body and pierced the hands of the giant.
It winced and let go of Apollo, giving Apollo time to start fighting back against the monster. Apollo darted towards the beast's eyes and summoned another Spiritual Weapon as he stabbed both eyes of the monster with his swords, both Akarui and his less refined Quison Katana. He started spewing water inside of the monster but it was rejecting Apollo's attack. Apollo, knowing that it wasn't working like he thought it would, darted out from the beast and accelerated all across the room and slashed at the monster numerous times SLSLSLSLSLLSLSLSLSLSLASH. Space distorted and Quison converged all around him, a faint green light illuminated his hair and eyes, he loosened all of his muscles and shot forward like a cannon, sticking Akarui right through the throat of the monster right in front of him STIK BOOM.
The giant fell to the ground. Apollo repaired the burns from before and looked at his body, even more scarred than before, an angry frown appeared on his face, twisted in malice. He got on top of the monster that was already dead and started plunging his sword in and out of the monster, bathing in its blood. His mind felt as clear as it ever had before but at the same time as muddied as ever. His haunting face twisted in a form of pleasure and rage. Then suddenly he stopped, his breathing stopped and his mouth started to twitch. He was horrified as he started to cry, it felt like his mind was ripping apart. He breathed in and out slowly to calm down his body. He then got off of the giant and started walking towards the end of the hallway and entered exit this floor.