Song 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEYI-zfc544
Song 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZp5gf9xgnE
"Wha...?"
(Constellation of-?)
[Constellation "Innumerable Hand of Longing" urges you to rise.]
I get up, listening to the Constellation. I hate this subservient feeling, but it feels like there's a different change in the air.
"Ssssssszzzzzaaaaaa!!!"
The Nightshades charge but I dodge and weave again, kicking myself against the riverbed to lift off and propel myself. I land half dozen meters away thanks to my stats.
[Constellation "Innumerable Hand of Longing" suggests a long distance approach.]
(Rocks.)
My obsession with close-quarters combat fooled me into functional fixedness. I need to approach every situation with flexibility. I am not a ronin, some lost sword looking for a lord or purpose.
I reach into the river bed and start chucking. I'm literally that meme "random bullshit go!"
I grab the biggest rocks I can find and start chucking them at the Nightshades, but the damn monsters start weaving better than pro-boxers.
(Avoiding something I do is a form of control, but how to apply this tactically?)
I throw a rock at a Nightshade's head and it ducks, thus not expecting the second, bigger rock to its face. The other two Nightshades try to flank, but I run and use the dazed Nightshade as an obstacle to obstruct the other two.
(Control your environment and the how the enemy moves around you.)
[Constellation "Innumerable Hand of Longing" will offer some information.]
(Oh no. Will it be for free? Or will there be a price?)
Constellations don't do anything without a price. They're selfish beings.
[Constellation "Innumerable Hand of Longing" states that the Nightshade's weakness are its arms.]
[Constellation "Innumerable Hand of Longing" states that the venom apparatus of the Nightshade's arms will close to intense flame.]
[Constellation "Innumerable Hand of Longing" states that heat will not destroy the Nightshade's venom, but will damage the means of delivery.]
[Constellation "Innumerable Hand of Madness" is pouting because the fun's been ruined.]
So, why was this Constellation different?
"Heh," I say as I dash around the Nightshades, "Act so damn nice, you're gonna ruin my perception of Constellations for a moment."
[Constellations of the Nebula "Black Cloud" wonder what that perception is.]
[Constellation "Secretive Plotter" is face-palming towards the Nebula "Black Cloud."]
[Constellation "Innumerable Hand of Longing" states: "The strongest man becomes the weakest if he does nothing."]
[Constellation "Innumerable Hand of Longing" states: "They did not want to be weak."]
After successfully dodging and running from the Nightshades, I put a decent two dozen meters between us. It wouldn't be enough to escape, though. It just was enough to get my supplies and grab some important items.
"Oh, so you helped me for your own satisfaction, dear Constellation-san?"
[Constellation "Innumerable Hand of Longing" agrees with you.]
(Heh. Knew it-)
[Constellation "Innumerable Hand of Longing" also states that men lie to themselves the most.]
"What-"
[Constellation "Innumerable Hand of Longing" wishes you success in your scenario.]
[Constellation "Innumerable Hand of Longing" has left channel #HE-2020.]
-Tsutsutsuchut!-
[Heh. That weird Constellation was giving so much information, I felt compelled to mute them for a moment. It's no fun if all the answers have been given, right?]
Dokkaebi Herald appeared and a smug grin tugged at my lips.
"Yeah, but it's also boring to see a one-sided scenario with no hopes of winning."
[Is that how you saw yourself?] Dokkaebi Herald challenged.
"I'll be honest, I did feel that way, so I'm thankful to Constellation Longing-san."
[Interesting way to refer to them, but alright,] Dokkaebi Herald said. [So, what will you do now?]
"What else?"
I dug into the grocery bag and pulled out a bottle of wine. I didn't give a damn about the alcohol and I also didn't have the time to uncork it. All I paid attention to was the alcohol content and whether it was high enough.
Using the handle of my knife, I shattered the top of the bottle and some of the wine spilled out into the river. I dumped a bit more until a quarter of the wine bottle was empty.
[The Nebula "Maenads" are raging at you for wasting the alcohol!]
"Eat your heart out!!"
[The Nebula "Maenads" say: "Fuck you!"]
The Nightshades begin walking towards me. They retract their tendrils and tongues and their arms hang at their sides.
(Acting like statues again, huh?)
Either they were conserving energy or trying to lull me into a false sense of security. Or perhaps they were hesitant from what I was doing. Sure, give me the time. I grab a different bottle from the bag, except it's much easier to open.
[Constellation "The Black One, Lord of Muspelheim" is interested in your actions.]
[The Constellations have sponsored 300 coins for your endearing survival.]
It's a bottle of kerosene. Thank God that the house I raided was your typical White American abode. Grill in the backyard, a charcoal bag, and this bottle of flammable fluid. Summer was right around the corner and people were prepping with your typical summer gear.
I smile. This time, a wicked grin.
[Constellations are interested in the changing expressions of Incarnation "Ethan Nakamura."]
***
Ethan squirted kerosene into the wine bottle as the Nightshades blithely approached him. He swirled the contents in the bottle until he was satisfied and grabbed a bag of mini-towelettes. Using his knife to tear the plastic, he stuffed a mini-towel into the bottle's opening and swirled it some more until the mixed liquid soaked into the cloth.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a green Bic lighter.
"Now it's time for the fun part," Ethan said with a wide grin.
[Constellations are surprised by the sudden joy of Incarnation "Ethan Nakamura."]
It was very strange. A few moments earlier, this boy was running around in fear, trying his darnedest to fight, only to net zero results. Now with a little direction, he was preparing to attack from a new angle. He stabbed the wine bottle until seams began to appear, like the fearsome cracks in a layer of unbroken ice. He made sure to not shatter the glass, lest he showered himself in liquid fire. Just enough cracks to break against a strong impact.
"Saaaagghhhhhh!!"
Against a Nightshade.
One of the Nightshades approached. Ethan took a page out of their book and stood completely still. Unmoving and unnatural, he remained steadfast and unblinking. The tense standoff of silence lasted for minutes, but surprisingly... it was the Nightshade that made the first move.
Twenty-one meters. The Nightshade continues its slow approach while the others stand still.
Fifteen meters. The Nightshade unfurls its arms into its tendrils and its wiry tongues emerge from its gullet.
Ten meters. The Nightshade walks in a slow, concise manner, now re-displaying its aggression.
Nine meters. It stops.
Nine meters. It bends its knees and leans forward. It launches itself like a mini-rocket.
Seven meters. The author made a cheeky reference to themselves.
Five meters. The Nightshade is practically flying above the water, diving towards Ethan as it closes the distance.
Four meters. Ethan rears his arm and throws the bottle as the Nightshade's tendrils undulate and pulse towards the boy.
Three meters. The Molotov cocktail is instinctively caught by the Nightshade's tendrils, gripping the cracked bottle.
This was Ethan's Hail Mary moment. Would it shatter?
Two meters. Ethan is diving backwards again, this time into the foliage of the other side of the gulch. Meanwhile, the malevolent arm of the Nightshade grips the Molotov cocktail so hard, it finally breaks. The fire explodes, licking away at its tendrils. They writhe and shake.
The other arm still poses a threat to Ethan, but the Nightshade swings wildly, only to get its undamaged arm caught in the foliage its prey dove into. The Nightshade screams out. The meter countdown is now rendered useless because the Nightshade's prey has vanished. Ethan was now in the trees.
[Constellation "Innumerable Hand of Madness" is grumbling!]
The other three Nightshades intently watch one of their brethren suffer. They were... ascertaining their next move.
[He h, a ss.]
***
My heart was beating my chest faster than a tsundere does to a dense anime protagonist. Shaking harder than Hitori Bocchi did when she thought about getting social media. My heart felt like it was going crazier than David did when he went cyberpsycho in the Arasaka Cyberskeleton.
I kept myself silent though, only breathing through my nose. My chest racked with pain, but I endured.
A mixture of elation and disappointment coursed through me.
(I didn't even kill it...)
The Nightshade I ignited didn't even die. Only its right arm was incapacitated. Plus, there was the three others.
(I didn't kill it...)
Eight humans flashed across my mind. How easy it was... how accessible to kill them.
(I can kill eight humans but I can't kill one monster...?)
My body began to shake from a different pain, but it wasn't due to my lack of breath.
(You can't even do one thing...)
"You absolute fool."
[Constellation "Abyssal Black Flame Dragon" likes the dangerous expression on your face.]
Yeah, I know what this is. This is anger. This is rage. At my own incompetence, my weakness, my lack of capability. Infuriated at no one but myself. I had so much bravado and I was willing to die for it, yet here I cower.
(Die...)
Yes, I was willing to die for this fight. Then my fear got in the way. Then it led to hesitancy. Still, this feeling remains. The four Nightshades in total are creeping to my side of the gulch but I want them to die.
(I'll kill you.)
"I'll kill you," I mutter.
I'll kill you I'll kill you I'll kill you I'll kill you I'll kill you all the men the women the children and the elderly the elite and the commonwealth I'll kill you I hate you I'll kill you I'll kill you the humans the monsters the demons the stars in the sky I'll kill you I'll kill you I'll kill you I'll kill you all...
I'll kill the world.
***
He wants to scream it again, but the young boy... he does the unnatural. He eats his rage, cannibalizing it, storing it deep within himself. He knows he can't win a one-on-one fight, so he schemes. His resolve burns.
Because that is what this child wants to do. Burn them all.
-!Shlick!-
"Saaaarrggghhhh!!"
The Nightshade looking through the foliage is stabbed in the stomach with Ethan's obsidian knife. The tendrils search harder now, suddenly-
-!Crash!-
A different Nightshade gets a rock thrown at it. The projectile rips through the trees, heading towards the Nightshade's head, but it caught it. The burning Nightshade stops looking and dips its arm into the river water. It doesn't erase the fire completely but its flesh slowly stops burning. The other two linger, but their bodies portray the itchy urge they feel to grab Ethan and choke the life out of him.
More rocks are thrown out. The Nightshades catch and throw them back or outright dodge them. Sometimes they hesitate, fearing another burning bottle.
They creep near the edge of the river's shore. Now they're closer to Ethan's side of the gulch. That's when he does it. He throws one more item. The Nightshades simply twist their bodies to avoid it. An unwise decision with no escape because this boy stole more than food from those private homes.
A bundle of fireworks. The type you have to bury in the dirt. Now it hovers in the air between them all, the fire traveling down the wick faster and faster.
It explodes.
"Haagghh!!"
"Ssaaaaaa!!!"
"Fwaaarrrgghhh!!!"
Bright colored streaks of gunpowder shoots everywhere, hitting the Nightshades, the water, and the woodland.
That's when he does it. Through the bright explosions of gunpowder and fragments of paper casings, Ethan dives out of the foliage. He doesn't carry a melee weapon anymore. In both of his hands are burning Molotov cocktails.
He would ignite all of these Nightshades and drag them away from the water. Even if it killed him too.
***
(If I say I'll kill you all, I'm gonna do it.)
Shock and awe tactics. Acting like the Viet Cong. I cannot win in a conventional battle nor wage a conventional war. Not yet, anyways.
My feet smack into the water with a "splash-splash" as I flank the Nightshades. I pour all my strength into my legs and hope my stats are enough. The Nightshades turn to me like how Clark Kent did in that shitty Justice League movie by Zack Snyder, but unlike Ezra Miller's Flash, I was fast enough to flank them.
(Blindspot.)
One Nightshade whirls around, striking with its right arm, meeting the Molotov cocktail I just threw. It recoils but I chuck another Molotov at its body, hitting center mass.
"SSAAHHHARRRGGHHH!!"
This Nightshade is fully alight. It's not enough though. It'll never be enough. Further. I need to take this further.
Still gripping my Molotov cocktails, I prepare to do the insane. I can feel it on my face: a rictus grin from ear to ear, showing the canines.
[Constellation "Secretive Plotter" realizes something.]
[Constellation "Secretive Plotter" realizes you are absolutely unstable.]
I leap towards the Nightshade's burning arm. I grab it. The fire... it burns me. It coils and licks me. The tendrils shake and quiver from the flames and from my grasp, but it somehow must be enough heat to damage its body parts, preventing it from injecting me.
Gravity pulls on my body and I tug the Nightshade down onto the ground. Not the river where it can put itself out. The ground.
(Let's all burn together.)
I grip my obsidian knife and stab it into the Nightshade's arm.
[Investing 810 coins in Strength.]
[Strength Lv. 5 - Strength Lv. 8]
With new strength, I hack at it as it screams. The fire has spread to its other arm, which grabs me, chokes me, clenches me, all as it burns.
[Constellation "The Black One, Lord of Muspelheim" is disturbed by your lack of self-preservation.]
[Constellation "The Black One, Lord of Muspelheim" admires your tolerance to fire.]
My body stings from the Nightshade's grasp, from the fire and from something else. Despite it all, I slam the knife's blade into flesh, stabbing less and crushing more than anything. For some reason, a burst of strength surges through me and-
-!Crack!-
The Nightshade's arm has been hacked off.
The other arm unclenches me and now the Nightshade is trying to drag itself away. I look at its face and I can see it now - a sense of self-preservation. It could bite my body into bits if it wanted to, but now I see a new process in its body language - survive.
(I see. Even if something can win, there's a price to winning, so animals will evaluate the worth of the attempt.)
If the price is bigger than the payout of victory, was it worth it?
(I see now.)
I understand now.
"Hahahaha!!"
[The Constellations are looking at you.]
[Constellations of Absolute Evil love seeing your path of self-destruction.]
[Constellation of Absolute Good are evaluating your character.]
[Constellation "General-Slayer" is sad to see you do this to yourself.]
[Constellation "Chained God of Trickery with the Poisoned Face" wishes they could clap their hands!]
[Constellation "The Black One, Lord of Muspelheim" is evaluating you.]
I grip the severed Nightshade's arm. Now I own its whip-like appendage, which still burns. The Nightshade I maimed is crawling away from me, but I grab a Molotov cocktail and throw it at its head.
"SAAARRGGHHH!!!"
It screams out and finally lunges at me, now seeing how pointless it is to escape, now lashing out like the primal animal it is, man-made or not.
Before the teeth can even reach me, I lash out with the Nightshade's burning, severed arm, catching it across the face, blocking its biting attack, then I rush in by sidestepping at an angle and-
-!Schlick!-
-stab it in the throat.
-!Schlick!-
-!Schlick!-
-!Schlick!-
I do it once, I do it twice, I do it thrice, I do it as many times as it needs to take until its dead. With every wild stab, every flutter of flames that make me blink, I flash back to that night every single time I close my eyes.
(That night.)
As if I didn't kill my neighbors this morning.
I dive past it and the other Nightshades look down at me, seeing the flaming objects in my hands. This time, in their weird, beady eyes, I see something akin to fear.
A Nightshade is vibrating, leering at me, still trying to get to me, but this time, I chuck a Molotov at the ground, and it implodes at the Nightshade's feet, rising up and hitting its entire body.
(OH!)
The other two Nightshades in the river start retreating. I can see it in their eyes: "This isn't worth it."
The Nightshade before me screams and I grab my other Molotov Cocktails and chuck 'em. I do this again and again and again until everything's on fire, even me. I'm on fire alongside my enemies. It hurts... but it also feels so good.
The other two Nightshades are almost out of the river as I burn. The fire licks my legs and burns my pants to my skin, but I still stand.
(I won't...)
***
Through the fire, a boy screams: "I WON'T LET YOU GET AWAY!!!"
Human words merged with the crackling flames, as if the fire grew a malevolent soul, earned a voice.
Through the riveting conflagration, he leaps out, ripping through the river water. His legs sting and agonize from his burning nerves cooling off, but yet he runs. Towards the Nightshades.
With simple, fluid motions that were better than before, the young boy dodges the near-desperate swings of the Nightshades despite his injuries.
With the severed arm, with his rowan bokken, with his knives and his Molotov Cocktails, he does every conceivable thing he can until he grabs the Nightshades and drags them towards the raging fire.
All the while laughing.
"Hahahahahaha!!"
Their venomous tendrils undulate in the water uselessly as they inch closer to the flames. They scream out and try to bend and contort and lash out at the boy, but he drags them by the feet, tapping into a deeper strength to do so.
Soon they are at the shore fire, which now licks the foliage and the trees, adding to its power. To pull the monsters in, the boy would have to go in first and drag them.
A small moment. A small moment, which allows the boy to smile once again, a small moment that allows the Nightshade's to see it. These demented creatures are no longer smiling. Now, inch by inch, they are dragged into the fire ever so slowly, and the flames reaches out and caresses them, hungry to touch.
Now fully in, he writhes, the Nightshades writhe, and they all scream out in agony. Their tendrils touch him now and wrap around him and choke him but they're covered in flames so he doesn't feel the envenomating sting of their tendrils but it doesn't matter because the pain of the fire matters and it's so much better.
Despite the lack of oxygen, Ethan Nakamura still laughs.
Soon, his world grows black.
[Constellation "Innumerable Hand of Madness" is no longer pouting!]
[Constellation "Innumerable Hand of Madness" is clapping from Incarnation "Ethan Nakamura's" performance!]
[Many Constellations are shocked by Incarnation "Ethan Nakamura" and their actions!]
[Is this the end of this young life?] Dokkaebi Herald said.
The Dokkaebi still remained, silently watching Ethan with no interference.
[That was one of the best "scenarios" I've seen in a long time. An organic performance. Pure emotion.]
Though they sent no words, the Constellations watching the broadcast agreed with the broadcaster. Dokkaebi and Constellation alike all watched Ethan Nakamura as he burned and charred and so they didn't notice the splashing of water at first.
[Oh-hoh?] Dokkaebi Herald said, his attention now elsewhere. [A new element enters the board?]
Something was about to happen.