Keys of Divinity Chapter 6 (Patreon)

While in the Monster Hunter game, the monsters themselves were spongy as hell with inflated health bars to say the least.

In reality however, they were still very much of flesh and blood, and if you cut halfway through a monster's leg, it would be heavily restricted in their movements.

So while Gotoh acted as a wonderful 'Bard' drawing world-shaking aggro with her somehow magically enhanced screams as she ran around the arena in chaotic circles.

I was just trying to keep up with the damned oversized toad monster I could barely pronounce the name of as I tried to keep her from NOT being eaten and torn apart.

But even with Gotoh's screeches of fear of being mauled to super icky death in her own words.

The Chatacabra roared furiously as I worked to hack into it's other non-crippled leg. And the agony of its sole working leg made whatever spell Gotoh did as she strummed her guitar as she ran around break.

"Can you hit it with any spells or something!?" I asked helplessly as I swung my keyblade and the Chatacabra's massive armored tongue smashed into my keyblade and launched me backwards.

But Aqua's teachings on how to use a keyblade in combat were a damned good lesson to be had. As I could feel the energy from my keyblade all to clearly as it enhanced my body to withstand the blow.

"I can't! I can only anger monsters towards me, and make other people stronger!" Gotoh screamed as she collapsed onto the ground and held her guitar for dear life and just wailed.

Flooding my keyblade with my mana to make it glow, I threw it powerfully at the Chatacabra, with my keyblade exploding in a corona of violent energy.

And as the energy faded away with my Oathbound keyblade reforming in my hands, I decided... Fuck it. It only cost me like a twentieth of my mana to throw my keyblade like this each time.

So I held in my chuuni wish to yell out 'Strike Raid!' And the Chatacabra was violently pummeled with rapid-fire explosions as I kept throwing my enchanted keyblade into it repeatedly, with explosions ringing out.

And after dumping so much of my mana into the exploding keyblades,. Finally, as the smoke cleared.

The Chatacabra was slain as it was left as a pile of wrecked flesh and a massive bloody mess that was left on the rough stone platform we were on.

And with a flicker of noise, a dull male voice rang out. "The monster in the arena is dead. Go ahead and claim the spoils you so wish. Once you have collected what you wish, just clap your hands to be teleported out of the arena."

I looked towards the form of Gotoh, who was trying to seemingly melt into the floor to avoid my gaze as she turned her back to me.

I waited a moment to see if the puddle of social anxiety would reform into a 'normal' person. I could only cough and call out. "Do you want any of the drops from the monster?" 

Gotoh's body had a full visible shiver run through it at my question. And she let out this low groan at the mere thought of having to answer me.

But she managed to turn slightly towards me even though she remained in a weird crouching position, as she said in a dull, quiet voice. "Go ahead... I don't need any of it. I just wanted some of its skin to make a leather strap for my guitar."

Giving Gotoh a helpless look I just shook my head and went over to the Chatacabra's wrecked remains and, after a moment of thought. I just cut off its long armored tongue and one of its flanks and its connected leg. 

I was a fan of culinary exploration; I wanted to see if it actually tasted like fried frog legs!

With that done, I clapped my hands as I wasn't going to chance having such a dead-weight teammate again!

My vision twisted and I was teleported back into a new side room where the figure of Esdeath was casually lying sitting in a love seat with her hat pulled down low.

But that lazy laying position was a trap in of itself. I could feel the lethality of this woman just lying across from where I had teleported into the room.

Still, I spoke respectfully. "Did... You want something in particular, Esdeath?" As teleporting me here was definitely out of the norm.

Esdeath raised her head and seeing past the rim of her hat, a small smile grew across her face. "I like your inner strength; you didn't cower or lose your mind when your teammate was all but utterly useless besides being used for bait."

"This... Campus, this organization has an innate weakness. It's built with the goal of 'selfless kindness'. A load of lies, as many of the upper leaders are Things that gain strength from doing good things and keeping Order in the countless realms."

Esdeath lazily leaned her chin on her fist as she gazed at me and said. "A keyblade wielder... Someone who is innately able to quickly learn how to travel Worlds, to entirely different universes, and while not as insanely innately powerful as some cultivation systems. It's not like your Keyblades are just objects of power that can be stolen."

After she finished speaking, I exhaled and asked bluntly. "What do you want Esdeath?"

Her smile grew at my blunt question and she suddenly stood up and began speaking. "What I want is obvious. I want you to become one of my own people. I lead my own team to different universes to kill 'monsters' who are a threat to their own universe and world order. Along with saving heroines and such in the meanwhile."

I gave Esdeath a searching look before I said dryly. "Why me? Why not one of Aqua's Terra's or even a powerful Sora?"

A tsking noise left Esdeath before she said flatly. "Because they are already set in their ways. And the vast majority of them are liabilities should a mission go wrong. You know well what I mean, as you aren't like the retrieved broken fools that were dropped off here to be fixed." 

I understood what she meant obviously, as the VERY vast majority of the inhabitants here on this campus were people fresh from being mind-broken sex slaves. Or likewise somewhat rehabilitated people who were able to help others who had gone through similar situations.