Master Of Myths

The two figures of hold and black approached at sound breaking speed, each looking like they were about to give their all while the onlookers held their breath in anticipation of the resounding clash

At the moment of the swords and dagger meeting however a surprising thing occurred, the black figure of YuJu seemed to phase through those golden swords, his dagger aiming to quickly end the woman's life

Ting!

His dagger met skin, unbreakable skin, this surprised him into receiving a kick from her, before being shot at by spears from the winged men, thankfully he'd regained his calmness by then and easily evaded them

"For a moment you had me believe this would be a hard fight, but that was a skill wasn't it"

He said, earring himself a smirk from the woman

"You have your tricks, I have mine"

"Oh, but mine are not mere tricks"

He responded with a proud look speeding toward her under the hail of spears all of which seemed to pass right through him

Seeing how he could be troublesome to deal with she made a wide slash while backing off, alas he just went through it and slashed at her with his daggers

To this she smirked and stopped moving her blades, thinking that if he had to materialize to hurt her then he would be stabbed through

Slash!

"!!"

A deep cut to her neckline proved her assumption wrong as YuJu seemed to only 'materialize ' his dagger, the rest of his body seemingly unaffected

Before he could make any further attempts on her life a bombard of spears came stabbing down to separate the two, something he avoided for some reason despite his 'phasing' capability

This way both sides backed off and looked at each other calculative, both a little troubled on how to deal with the other

'That's some tough skin even without the skill'

YuJu could barely hurt her, in a prolonged battle he could win, especially since Abaddon was mauling every one of those armor clad woman while Anput's shadows were sniping down any birdmen trying to escape, the problem however lay somewhere else

'The palace is gathering some sort of energy, I must put an end to this fight at once'

Who knew what they were planning, if it was a signal for rescue they wanted to send then things would become quite troublesome

"Never thought I would be using that method after you forced me to use my special trick"

"Special trick? Do you mean your phasing thing?"

He ignored the question and spread apart his hands, a daring look in his eyes

"Tell me, Kaha, have you ever heard of Death Loop?"

"Hm? The hell is tha-" "No! RUN KASHA!"

All of a sudden one of the birdmen flew down to grab at her, clearly knowing what YuJu was up to

"Since you haven't seen it before let me give you a front row seat"

With eyes glowing like lanterns YuJu shot a green light from each of his fingertips, so fast and accurate the poor souls in its path could not avoid in time, punctured right through the forehead

It didn't end with ten victims however, the lights surged through them and traveled back through their eyes, sending two beams instead of one toward the rest, striking them through the heart or head as well

Each death sent two more attacks, none could avoid t, none could withstand it, and none could block it, for those beams targeted the weak, taking down one person after the other as they fed and grew stronger, by the time it was Kasha's turn she could only face the devastating rain of green with a pale face, the last she would make in her life

Her death marked the end of the light show, after which all the beams burst to particles and fed back into YuJu's body, giving him strength like no other

"Been a while since I had to use this, was it the Harbinger's Archipelago that last saw my performance?"

Speaking to himself he walked up to Kasha's dead body, as he did he felt a gaze from under it

"Oh? I didn't think you'd be able to survive, though this is not a sure kill method but someone at your level was ought to be dead"

"Cough cough! Kasha..she protected me"

Answered the birdman, laying under the armor with wings punctured through, the skill she used to shield him must have been too weak to fully allow him escape from death

YuJu made a gun sign with his hand, light forming at the tip as he raised it to the birdman's forehead

"Wait…before I die…I want to know"

The man swallowed the rising blood down and continued the question

"That skill, that's not a living being's skill…only the dead can learn….how?"

"You might have to be dead to learn it, you don't have to stay dead to keep it"

As YuJu said this a look of realization flashed across the man's eyes

"Now let me ask you a question in return"

"?"

"Do you believe in the afterlife?"

"....Who knows? But if it exists I know one thing….you will be at the very bottom of it"

This certainly put a frown over YuJu's face, and so he shot, ending this small chat

"Anput"

Assure that nobody was watching, and that the palace had stopped gathering energy, he called for the hound to come out of hiding

"Call for her shadow"

He commanded, looking down at the valiant corpse of Kasha, fighting till the end

"Awuuuu!"

At his behest Anput howled to the sky, dimming the surroundings as she called for her new servant

….Which never came

"Too strong to summon forth?"

"Awu wuwu awu!"

Unaccepting this refusal in front of her master Anput gave another howl, almost sending the place into darkness, a hissing smoke rising from all the corpses as they stood in heed of her call, feathered be they or golden

"Hmm, looks like she is a tough one, leave it be Anput"

He said, turning away to take another look  inside the castle, perhaps in a more carefree mood this time around

"Awuuuuuu!"

Yet the howling never stopped, even as he walked away

A rattling followed soon, one of heavy armor as the owner stepped onto land once more, earning a side glance from YuJu

There, before the slumped tired hound, was the valiant warrior, clad in her new dark gold husk, kneeling before her new mistress