Kaijin Fighter: So I Have to Make Monsters, So What?

Location: The Prison Cavern

[Will you just stand still long enough so I can separate your stupid head from your stupid shoulders?!] Delictum shrieked while attempting to stab down a pair of sword-like [Taboos] in Depth Strider's direction.

[No,] the oceanic horse kaijin snorted before sinking into the earth and avoiding the attack entirely.

[SKREEEEE!]

On paper, the match-up between Delictum and Depth Strider was in favor of the former.

Depth Strider may have been larger, tougher, and covered in armored plates that could tank even the nastiest of Obsidious's missiles, but Delictum was a viciously fast and aggressive fighter that was used to taking down such opponents.

The sheer number of rival kaijin over the decades that had attempted to kill him by just touching him was mildly ludicrous, to the point that it was just agreed by everyone in the [Mines of Malevolence] that being faster than Delictum was the only way to actually beat him.

In practice, though, Depth Strider was swimming circles around Delictum.

Literally.

From the moment they had entered the prison cavern, Depth Strider demonstrated an ability that was quite similar to Gumba's [Earth Dive] but in a significantly more refined manner.

Gumba's movement through the earth was like how a catfish might move through muddy and murky water, while Depth Strider moved like a submarine through open water.

Granted, Delictum had no idea what a submarine was, so this comparison would've been lost on the owl-like kaijin.

Then again, he was more focused on trying to kill Depth Strider through any means possible.

[That's fucking it! Taboo, expose!]

Releasing an ear-piercing screech, Delictum manifested a pair of repeating crossbows that were originally a pair of crow kaijin and carelessly fired in every direction that he was able to fire.

On top of these bolts, Delictum fired off his own feather arrows to effectively double the amount of projectiles.

The bolts and feathers released by Delictum were enhanced with [Chaos] and were able to puncture through sheer rock like it was construction paper.

Delictum's idea at this point in time was to just fire, forget, and hope that at least one of these projectiles would nail Depth Strider in a sensitive location.

Unfortunately, Delictum didn't account for the one thing that was actually a key part of his opponent's name: depth.

His projectiles could dig deep into the stone, but Depth Strider could go even deeper.

Depth Strider literally floated in the stone as failed bolt after failed bolt stopped short of actually touching him.

His initial plan was to ignore the bolts entirely and surface in order to strike, but the longer he stared at the increasing number of bolts appearing before his face, the more his brain began to churn and focus on a singular idea: "turnabout being fair play."

'Alright, let's try this,' Depth Strider thought to himself as he holstered one of his bone spears upon his back.

Manipulating his surroundings with a wave of his hand, Depth Strider began to gather as many of the surrounding crossbow bolts and feather arrows as he could feasibly reach without drawing suspicion.

Once Depth Strider had gathered enough of these projectiles, he didn't immediately fire off the projectiles back into Delictum's face.

Instead, he began to clump the projectiles into indiscrete balls, surrounded them with the thin layer of earth, and filled the cavity with water.

He did his little trick about a dozen or so times, all while Delictum kept indiscriminately firing like an idiot.

'And now we wait.'

[Determination] meant more than having the strength to keep going in the face of danger. Sometimes, one needs patience to handle the mundane and inane.

Of course, hiding away as a psychotic bird attempts to perforate you with bullet holes was anything but boring.

Eventually, though, Delictum stopped firing out of a mix of tiredness and unwillingness to continue a pointless task that produced no results.

[Okay…at least one of those bolts, or at least one of my feathers, should've nailed the bastard in the leg at least,] Delictum thought aloud between heavy gasps of air.

If one were to take quick inventory of the area surrounding him, they would see that practically every surface in a wide twenty-foot radius of him was covered in feathers and crossbow bolts.

[Screw it!] Delictum eventually spat out after not seeing his opponent's projectile-riddled corpse in eyeshot. [I'll just forget about the bastard and go assist the boss with-]

BAM! BAM!

[Ey yo? What the hell?]

Before Delictum could commit to his course of action, a pair of stone balls suddenly shot up out of the ground and flew towards his location.

From these orbs, Delictum could sense not only the [Chaos] that was constantly radiating off of Depth Strider's armored form, but his own mixed in as well. On top of that, he could sense that there was a great buildup of heat and pressure coming from these strange stone orbs.

'Wait…oh, bollocks.'

It took Delictum only a few seconds to process that these balls contained the collected projectiles that he had just fired and that they were about to be used against him in a rather glorious fashion.

[Fire in the hole!]

Delictum didn't even have time to fly away when Depth Strider determined that now was the perfect time to strike.

To be more precise, Depth Strider had channeled his [Chaos] through his spears and fired off two shots of superheated water that agitated the airborne balls full of shrapnel and caused them to burst through the resulting steam explosion.

[Gah!]

The bolts and feathers proceeded to tear through Delictum's flesh, while the superheated steam burned the wounds and made things even worse for the owl-like bastard.

Delictum was the perfect picture of misery in the moment, while Depth Strider was positively giddy.

In fact, Depth Strider was so giddy over his attack reaping such powerful results that the man proceeded to spill the beans on some rather personal information that was shared between them.

Of course, this information was shared after Depth Strider had popped out of the ground and made his presence known.

[Haha! While the amount of wounds inflicted is nowhere near equivalent to the thousand cuts you used on me before, I think all those shrapnel wounds and burns are a good start!]

[Thousand cuts?] Delictum repeated in confusion. [I've never even met you until now, what do the thousand cuts have to do with anything between us?]

[Ah, right,] Depth Strider sighed before answering. [My brothers had to do the same, so I guess I might as well.]

Taking one of his hands, Depth Strider tapped the side of his face and proceeded to transform it.

Gone was the iron helm-like face akin to a horse, replaced by an all too human head of a young man with deep blue eyes and a tough face that had this underlying gentleness to it.

Depth Strider didn't even have to say anything as Delictum simply glanced at the man before letting out an indignant squawk of surprise.

[You?! How can this be? I killed you. I slashed your throat open and bled you like a pig at the slaughterhouse! How are you alive? None of you were Aether Saints. No, how are any of you Kaijin now?!]

Satisfied at this reaction, Depth Strider restored his face back to its new default state.

[Short answer: I answered the call of the War Chief,] Depth Strider explained while preparing to strike. [Long answer: the War Chief is ten to twenty times the Kaijin Lord that Dante is, and such a thing comes with abilities that make his monster-molding nightmare schtick look basic in comparison.]

After making this statement, Depth Strider charged towards Delictum with both of his spears drawn and coated with a thick layer of [Chaos] that took on the form of dark blue water that was colder than ice.

[For example, the war Chief was about to bestow upon me the knowledge what happens when you apply extreme cold to a burn!]

With a roar, Depth Strider swung both of his spears down and released a cold slash of energy that forced Delictum to block with his injured wings.

[SKRREAAAA!]

Needless to say, this was a terrible idea.

Being subjected to superheated shrapnel, and then immediately followed up with extreme cold, caused Delictum's wounds to undergo a process that would normally shatter glass in an instant.

Or in this case, caused the muscles and flesh in his wings to rapidly contract and expand to the point of tearing and worsening the wounds that they might be carrying in the moment.

This sudden pain caused Delictum to drop out of the sky, as fucked-up wings weren't exactly conducive to floating in the air.

[Oh, you ain't going anywhere!] Depth Strider called out as he dove after Delictum and prepared his spears, wielding both in such a manner that he was ready to stab forward when the timing was right.

And that timing was going to be much sooner than expected.