Izou pulled the black jacket around himself even tighter as a cool wind blew through the pumpkin fields, lifting up autumn leaves that were in its way into the air. A half smile etched itself into the knight-errant’s face as a sudden wave of memories flooded his mind, memories from a time he considered as his previous life. But despite his resolution to forge a new path for himself, it was still difficult to forget the countless duels he had had against his rival, Gengo, until it had cumulated into their greatest bout yet. The one that had earned him the title: Autumn Leaf Battle God.
Walking aimlessly among the pumpkin patches while he watched a few others carrying on with their pumpkin picking, no doubt for the same reason that Izou was here, the newly joined Dies Irae member began to sense something wrong with the weather. It wasn’t supposed to be so windy today, and yet the chilling gusts had persisted. The others around him hadn’t noticed this, too occupied with their harvest. The only thing they did was to pull their jackets, coats and scarves tighter to keep themselves warm.
Izou frowned as a sudden gust of wind that finally triggered exclamations of surprises from the others in the pumpkin field, was accompanied by a cacophony of squawks from a group of ravens perched on the bare branches of a tree at the edge of the field. A look of alarm flashed across Izou’s face as he sensed the ominous air of magic begin to descent on the pumpkin fields. At the same moment, the crows began to take flight into the air with the sky growing darker by the minute. Upon reaching a certain height, all of them turned at the same moment and began to divebomb everyone on the pumpkin fields.
“Damnit!” Izou cursed as he ran fast as his legs could carry him, away from the horde of crows that were zeroing in on him. But run as he might, Izou wasn’t oblivious to the ones in need of help. The black-haired man crossed his arms in front of his chest in a ‘X’ and then swung them apart. A suit of red armor appeared on his body with a flash of red as well as a spear in his right hand. With his Demon Subduer armor equipped and his Evil Annihilation in hand, Izou leapt forward at the closest group of civilians who were fending against the pecking crows with their arms.
“Get down! I’ll take care of them,” Izou shouted to the civilians. They heeded his instructions quickly and crouched to the ground with their arms over their heads. With two quick flashes of his spear, the ravens attacking the civilians as well as the ones chasing after him were swept out of the air. But the blows were light and undecisive enough. The knight-errant repeatedly jabbed at the crows that tried to flap themselves into the air, until none of them got back up.
“Come on, let’s gather with the others. Whatever’s happening isn’t natural. This has to be the work of some mage,” Izou urged the normal people to follow him, as he charged forward first at the other group of civilians with the others running behind him. Unlike how he had dealt with the first horde of crows, Izou leapt into the air and slashed horizontally with his spear, cutting the crows down with a single stroke. The hurried and heavy footsteps of the first group of civilians told Izou of their arrival, many pumpkins smashed as they ran without looking. It was regretful but nothing could be done about it.
However, the crows were the least of his worries. The dead crows were beginning to disperse into dark shadows, and the group watched, mortified as the shadows began to gather and slowly take form.
“GET OUT OF HERE NOW!” Izou roared at them, pointing them in the direction of the gate that led into the pumpkin fields. But that moment of distraction had cost him. The knight-errant was swept up into the air with a powerful upwards swipe, and as he righted himself in air, Izou barely succeeded to hold his spear across his chest as a gigantic fist punched him. The armored mage was thrown backwards but he rolled out of the drop and was already on his feet, scrambling to find a more advantageous positon.
Screeching demonically, the monster that Izou had decided to call the Lord of Crows moved with a ghost-like smoothness as it charged at him. Smirking at the challenge, Izou continued running around as the two of them circled each other. The Lord of Crows might be powerful but it wasn’t intelligent. It repeatedly tried to catch Izou with its talons and its extending arms. Izou dodged each of them by the hair of his teeth, until he finally found the opening he needed.
When the Lord of Crows used both of its arms to try and attack him, the knight-errant took the lag in its movements as it retracted its arms. He needed to close the gap, so he stabbed his spear into the ground and swung himself into the air before landing with a much-awaited double kick to the Lord of Crow’s face. Another round of ghastly screams and shrieks erupted from the Lord of Crows that seem to be emitted from all over its body. Shaking his head at the monstrosity, Izou landed on the ground after his double kick.
“Dragon Tooth!” Izou called out the name of the move he had just used, a straightforward stabbing attack into the Lord of Crows with explosive strength. The monster shuffled backwards from the attack and attempted to swipe down on the puny mage within its attacking range, but its prey hadn’t even stopped. Izou retracted his spear smoothly and held it low while he spun around, whipping the spear across the monster’s legs and causing its top-heavy physique to tumble over. Without even waiting for the monster to complete its fall, Izou had once more grabbed his spear halfway down the shaft and stabbed forward again into its heart.
The Lord of Crows erupted into dark smoke with that final attack but not before catching Izou off guard with another round of earsplitting wails and screams that put him off balance. Izou took a few steps backward from the attack to his ears as the Lord of Crows disappeared, but he had never counted on another opponent approaching. A light slash caught him across his back when he took his last step backward, metal screeching horribly against metal, and he quickly spun around on his right heel to face this new opponent.
“Polishing’s not gonna get that out, buddy!” Izou complained as he stepped forward and pushed his spear in the same direction for a two-handed thrusting attack but the scythe-wielding scarecrow leapt back with an agility that he hadn’t expected from the two bent legs he was standing on. Izou’s spear struck nothing but air, and before he had completed retracting his weapon, cursing himself for the rookie mistake, the scarecrow had begun attacking again. With dexterity unbefitting his thin, wooden arms, the scarecrow began to swing his scythe all over around him.
There was no pattern or technique, just erratic movements built upon a solid foundation of attacks. The cackling of the scarecrow as it attacked seemed to have a weird effect on his mental state as Izou found it hard to concentrate but the knight-errant persisted. Brows furrowed, Izou continued taking step after step backwards, keeping himself barely out the scarecrow’s whirlwind. It was rather difficult to keep his patience but Izou resisted the urge to go all out in a mindless frenzy of attacks, no doubt an effect of the cackling. Finally, when his patience was almost stretched out, the scarecrow finally slipped.
Izou pounced on the chance, and started off with a one-handed thrust right into the scarecrow’s upper torso, pushing the creature back. But Izou wasn’t letting it off so easily. As he pulled back his spear, Izou spun around as well and swept at the creature’s legs with a low blow, easily catching the light creature off balance and off the ground. All of Izou’s attacks were quick and swift, flowing into each without pause. After the low sweeping attack, Izou swung his spear upwards and then slammed it down into the scarecrow’s upper torso again. One of the side blades on his cross spear had pierced into the creature’s chest, so Izou easily used it to hook onto the creature and swung it over his head and slammed it directly into the ground. With his spear pulled clear, the knight-errant quickly swung his spear in the air and stabbed it downwards into the scarecrow’s head.
The moment the spear stabbed into its head, the insane cackling began to soften until it eventually faded, peace and quiet temporarily restored. For less than a minute.
As Izou stood in the middle of the pumpkin field, a fog began to roll in from every corner of the field towards him. The knight-errant sighed and kicked the end of the spear resting on the ground so that it swung right into his hand and he was once more on guard. A blood-curdling chuckle started right beside his ear, and Izou immediately leapt away, repositioning himself to face his opponent. He could see nothing as the fog began to blur his view. But as he looked away, an orange glow began to appear from where he had last stood.
“Years, for years, for years, you humans have selfishly harvested us for your petty traditions. Today, I, the Pumpkin Patch King shall make you pay for all your sins!!!” a loud roar sounded as the glow of the lantern began to rocket in Izou’s direction. Caught by surprise, Izou held his spear out in front of him horizontally just in time for a black wraith with a pumpkin for his head grasp at his spear with with long nails. Izou’s eyes widened at the sight but he managed to react, spinning his spear to break the Pumpkin Patch King’s grip and leapt backwards.
But the Pumpkin Patch King was no slouch either. A ball of dark energy was shot out and collided into Izou while he was in mid-leap. The latter had no way to evade and took it head-on, forcefully breaking his evasive maneuver and smashing him into the ground, amidst the pumpkins. While still catching his breath, Izou caught sight of the shadow rushing at him again and hastily rolled to his side, just in time for the Pumpkin Patch King to swoop past, its long arms extended below it and the long nails slashing through the dirt.
“That would have definitely ruined my armor,” Izou commented to no one in particular. The Pumpkin Patch King made a turn in the air and immediately came for him again. But Shane was now ready for him.
“Dragon Breaks the Ranks!!” the knight-errant roared as he swept up dirt in his wake as he charged, spear pointing forward and slashed through the Pumpkin Patch King. A roar reverberated all around Izou as his technique came to an end and he quickly turned around. He had successfully slashed at the monster length-wise but it definitely wasn’t enough to put it down. The Pumpkin Patch King had done the same and turned around, and as it did so, it fired a blast of dark energy once more from its mouth. Izou jumped back slightly and pushed his left palm forward, sending out a surge of his own magic energy in retaliation. Both attacks met and the resulting shockwave caused the mist around them to swirl and dissipate slightly, allowing Izou more visibility.
But he wasn’t done. Charging forward again, Izou slid forward after a few steps and swept upwards with his spear in a single-handed strike, pushing the Pumpkin Patch King higher into the air before extending his spear with both arms up into the air and smash it down on the monster. It crashed into the ground with another horrendous roar that made it seem like it was everywhere at the same time, but Izou was unyielding. It was time to end the fight.
Once more, he pushed out his left palm and send the Pumpkin Patch King tumbling head over tail away from him. While the distance grew between them, Izou wasn’t idling by. The knight-errant chased after the Pumpkin Patch King with a huge leap, spear held above his head and with all of his strength, swung it down on the monster rolling through the pumpkins with all of his strength.
“Draconic Crusher!!” Izou roared as his spear came down, hacking directly into the Pumpkin Patch King, which let out a high-pitched shriek, shaking even Izou to his core, causing him to drop to his knees and clapping his hands over his ears. The teeth-grinding shriek persisted, the pitch increasing and increasing until it suddenly ended when it reached an all-time high, with the mist all over the pumpkin fields vanishing with a whoosh to the corners of the fields again. If no one had been there to witness it, it would have appeared that Izou had gone berserk with his spear and had been recklessly smashing and stomping the pumpkins in the field.
Except for the pumpkins that were unfortunately crushed during the battles, nothing remained of the enemies Izou had fought so far, except for the scarecrow that laid broken amidst the pumpkins. The dead tree standing at the side of the pumpkin field was still there, minus the crows. A light wind blew over the fields, and Izou stood up with uncertainty. He would have also questioned his own sanity, if not for the people that he had saved earlier that were now running towards him. The stream of thank you kept on coming and Izou accepted it in embarrassment with a sheepish smile on his face.
When they all dispersed, no one wanting to stay on the pumpkin fields any longer, Izou finally realized the exceptionally large pumpkin on the ground near him. He had missed it when he was being crowded earlier. He moved forward and remembered he was still in armor, and with a flourish of his left hand as though sweeping something away from his front, the armor and spear was returned to his Requip dimension, leaving him in his normal clothing. He looked nothing like the imposing warrior from earlier in his white and red hoodie and jeans.
“You… really gave me a lot of trouble. But I guess just bringing you should be good enough for the completion of this errand,” Izou said to the giant pumpkin, poking it once with a shake of his head. Carrying it with both hands as he stood up, Izou balanced it on his chest before fully wrapping his two arms around it in a hug and began walking out of the fields.
[2511 words]
Walking aimlessly among the pumpkin patches while he watched a few others carrying on with their pumpkin picking, no doubt for the same reason that Izou was here, the newly joined Dies Irae member began to sense something wrong with the weather. It wasn’t supposed to be so windy today, and yet the chilling gusts had persisted. The others around him hadn’t noticed this, too occupied with their harvest. The only thing they did was to pull their jackets, coats and scarves tighter to keep themselves warm.
Izou frowned as a sudden gust of wind that finally triggered exclamations of surprises from the others in the pumpkin field, was accompanied by a cacophony of squawks from a group of ravens perched on the bare branches of a tree at the edge of the field. A look of alarm flashed across Izou’s face as he sensed the ominous air of magic begin to descent on the pumpkin fields. At the same moment, the crows began to take flight into the air with the sky growing darker by the minute. Upon reaching a certain height, all of them turned at the same moment and began to divebomb everyone on the pumpkin fields.
“Damnit!” Izou cursed as he ran fast as his legs could carry him, away from the horde of crows that were zeroing in on him. But run as he might, Izou wasn’t oblivious to the ones in need of help. The black-haired man crossed his arms in front of his chest in a ‘X’ and then swung them apart. A suit of red armor appeared on his body with a flash of red as well as a spear in his right hand. With his Demon Subduer armor equipped and his Evil Annihilation in hand, Izou leapt forward at the closest group of civilians who were fending against the pecking crows with their arms.
“Get down! I’ll take care of them,” Izou shouted to the civilians. They heeded his instructions quickly and crouched to the ground with their arms over their heads. With two quick flashes of his spear, the ravens attacking the civilians as well as the ones chasing after him were swept out of the air. But the blows were light and undecisive enough. The knight-errant repeatedly jabbed at the crows that tried to flap themselves into the air, until none of them got back up.
“Come on, let’s gather with the others. Whatever’s happening isn’t natural. This has to be the work of some mage,” Izou urged the normal people to follow him, as he charged forward first at the other group of civilians with the others running behind him. Unlike how he had dealt with the first horde of crows, Izou leapt into the air and slashed horizontally with his spear, cutting the crows down with a single stroke. The hurried and heavy footsteps of the first group of civilians told Izou of their arrival, many pumpkins smashed as they ran without looking. It was regretful but nothing could be done about it.
However, the crows were the least of his worries. The dead crows were beginning to disperse into dark shadows, and the group watched, mortified as the shadows began to gather and slowly take form.
“GET OUT OF HERE NOW!” Izou roared at them, pointing them in the direction of the gate that led into the pumpkin fields. But that moment of distraction had cost him. The knight-errant was swept up into the air with a powerful upwards swipe, and as he righted himself in air, Izou barely succeeded to hold his spear across his chest as a gigantic fist punched him. The armored mage was thrown backwards but he rolled out of the drop and was already on his feet, scrambling to find a more advantageous positon.
Screeching demonically, the monster that Izou had decided to call the Lord of Crows moved with a ghost-like smoothness as it charged at him. Smirking at the challenge, Izou continued running around as the two of them circled each other. The Lord of Crows might be powerful but it wasn’t intelligent. It repeatedly tried to catch Izou with its talons and its extending arms. Izou dodged each of them by the hair of his teeth, until he finally found the opening he needed.
When the Lord of Crows used both of its arms to try and attack him, the knight-errant took the lag in its movements as it retracted its arms. He needed to close the gap, so he stabbed his spear into the ground and swung himself into the air before landing with a much-awaited double kick to the Lord of Crow’s face. Another round of ghastly screams and shrieks erupted from the Lord of Crows that seem to be emitted from all over its body. Shaking his head at the monstrosity, Izou landed on the ground after his double kick.
“Dragon Tooth!” Izou called out the name of the move he had just used, a straightforward stabbing attack into the Lord of Crows with explosive strength. The monster shuffled backwards from the attack and attempted to swipe down on the puny mage within its attacking range, but its prey hadn’t even stopped. Izou retracted his spear smoothly and held it low while he spun around, whipping the spear across the monster’s legs and causing its top-heavy physique to tumble over. Without even waiting for the monster to complete its fall, Izou had once more grabbed his spear halfway down the shaft and stabbed forward again into its heart.
The Lord of Crows erupted into dark smoke with that final attack but not before catching Izou off guard with another round of earsplitting wails and screams that put him off balance. Izou took a few steps backward from the attack to his ears as the Lord of Crows disappeared, but he had never counted on another opponent approaching. A light slash caught him across his back when he took his last step backward, metal screeching horribly against metal, and he quickly spun around on his right heel to face this new opponent.
“Polishing’s not gonna get that out, buddy!” Izou complained as he stepped forward and pushed his spear in the same direction for a two-handed thrusting attack but the scythe-wielding scarecrow leapt back with an agility that he hadn’t expected from the two bent legs he was standing on. Izou’s spear struck nothing but air, and before he had completed retracting his weapon, cursing himself for the rookie mistake, the scarecrow had begun attacking again. With dexterity unbefitting his thin, wooden arms, the scarecrow began to swing his scythe all over around him.
There was no pattern or technique, just erratic movements built upon a solid foundation of attacks. The cackling of the scarecrow as it attacked seemed to have a weird effect on his mental state as Izou found it hard to concentrate but the knight-errant persisted. Brows furrowed, Izou continued taking step after step backwards, keeping himself barely out the scarecrow’s whirlwind. It was rather difficult to keep his patience but Izou resisted the urge to go all out in a mindless frenzy of attacks, no doubt an effect of the cackling. Finally, when his patience was almost stretched out, the scarecrow finally slipped.
Izou pounced on the chance, and started off with a one-handed thrust right into the scarecrow’s upper torso, pushing the creature back. But Izou wasn’t letting it off so easily. As he pulled back his spear, Izou spun around as well and swept at the creature’s legs with a low blow, easily catching the light creature off balance and off the ground. All of Izou’s attacks were quick and swift, flowing into each without pause. After the low sweeping attack, Izou swung his spear upwards and then slammed it down into the scarecrow’s upper torso again. One of the side blades on his cross spear had pierced into the creature’s chest, so Izou easily used it to hook onto the creature and swung it over his head and slammed it directly into the ground. With his spear pulled clear, the knight-errant quickly swung his spear in the air and stabbed it downwards into the scarecrow’s head.
The moment the spear stabbed into its head, the insane cackling began to soften until it eventually faded, peace and quiet temporarily restored. For less than a minute.
As Izou stood in the middle of the pumpkin field, a fog began to roll in from every corner of the field towards him. The knight-errant sighed and kicked the end of the spear resting on the ground so that it swung right into his hand and he was once more on guard. A blood-curdling chuckle started right beside his ear, and Izou immediately leapt away, repositioning himself to face his opponent. He could see nothing as the fog began to blur his view. But as he looked away, an orange glow began to appear from where he had last stood.
“Years, for years, for years, you humans have selfishly harvested us for your petty traditions. Today, I, the Pumpkin Patch King shall make you pay for all your sins!!!” a loud roar sounded as the glow of the lantern began to rocket in Izou’s direction. Caught by surprise, Izou held his spear out in front of him horizontally just in time for a black wraith with a pumpkin for his head grasp at his spear with with long nails. Izou’s eyes widened at the sight but he managed to react, spinning his spear to break the Pumpkin Patch King’s grip and leapt backwards.
But the Pumpkin Patch King was no slouch either. A ball of dark energy was shot out and collided into Izou while he was in mid-leap. The latter had no way to evade and took it head-on, forcefully breaking his evasive maneuver and smashing him into the ground, amidst the pumpkins. While still catching his breath, Izou caught sight of the shadow rushing at him again and hastily rolled to his side, just in time for the Pumpkin Patch King to swoop past, its long arms extended below it and the long nails slashing through the dirt.
“That would have definitely ruined my armor,” Izou commented to no one in particular. The Pumpkin Patch King made a turn in the air and immediately came for him again. But Shane was now ready for him.
“Dragon Breaks the Ranks!!” the knight-errant roared as he swept up dirt in his wake as he charged, spear pointing forward and slashed through the Pumpkin Patch King. A roar reverberated all around Izou as his technique came to an end and he quickly turned around. He had successfully slashed at the monster length-wise but it definitely wasn’t enough to put it down. The Pumpkin Patch King had done the same and turned around, and as it did so, it fired a blast of dark energy once more from its mouth. Izou jumped back slightly and pushed his left palm forward, sending out a surge of his own magic energy in retaliation. Both attacks met and the resulting shockwave caused the mist around them to swirl and dissipate slightly, allowing Izou more visibility.
But he wasn’t done. Charging forward again, Izou slid forward after a few steps and swept upwards with his spear in a single-handed strike, pushing the Pumpkin Patch King higher into the air before extending his spear with both arms up into the air and smash it down on the monster. It crashed into the ground with another horrendous roar that made it seem like it was everywhere at the same time, but Izou was unyielding. It was time to end the fight.
Once more, he pushed out his left palm and send the Pumpkin Patch King tumbling head over tail away from him. While the distance grew between them, Izou wasn’t idling by. The knight-errant chased after the Pumpkin Patch King with a huge leap, spear held above his head and with all of his strength, swung it down on the monster rolling through the pumpkins with all of his strength.
“Draconic Crusher!!” Izou roared as his spear came down, hacking directly into the Pumpkin Patch King, which let out a high-pitched shriek, shaking even Izou to his core, causing him to drop to his knees and clapping his hands over his ears. The teeth-grinding shriek persisted, the pitch increasing and increasing until it suddenly ended when it reached an all-time high, with the mist all over the pumpkin fields vanishing with a whoosh to the corners of the fields again. If no one had been there to witness it, it would have appeared that Izou had gone berserk with his spear and had been recklessly smashing and stomping the pumpkins in the field.
Except for the pumpkins that were unfortunately crushed during the battles, nothing remained of the enemies Izou had fought so far, except for the scarecrow that laid broken amidst the pumpkins. The dead tree standing at the side of the pumpkin field was still there, minus the crows. A light wind blew over the fields, and Izou stood up with uncertainty. He would have also questioned his own sanity, if not for the people that he had saved earlier that were now running towards him. The stream of thank you kept on coming and Izou accepted it in embarrassment with a sheepish smile on his face.
When they all dispersed, no one wanting to stay on the pumpkin fields any longer, Izou finally realized the exceptionally large pumpkin on the ground near him. He had missed it when he was being crowded earlier. He moved forward and remembered he was still in armor, and with a flourish of his left hand as though sweeping something away from his front, the armor and spear was returned to his Requip dimension, leaving him in his normal clothing. He looked nothing like the imposing warrior from earlier in his white and red hoodie and jeans.
“You… really gave me a lot of trouble. But I guess just bringing you should be good enough for the completion of this errand,” Izou said to the giant pumpkin, poking it once with a shake of his head. Carrying it with both hands as he stood up, Izou balanced it on his chest before fully wrapping his two arms around it in a hug and began walking out of the fields.
[2511 words]
