Hail Sorrow flourished with deathly precision decapitating one of the Mara-Struck abominations with a clean slice, sap coating its blade. As the head rolled away, Sunny leaped forward and grabbed it, all three of his shadows moving from his body to the Mara-Struck's head.
Having augmented it thrice, he held it in his hands, raising his leg with a grin on his face as he got into a pitcher's stance.
Before him, mere foot away from him, was an endless horde of those cursed by Mara, their soul decaying and leaving space for the Abundance. Bladed arms, serrated claws, and limbs replaced by branches aimed to skewer him. Violently, most likely.
Unfortunately, they didn't quite understand violence as well as Sunny did.
Otherwise, they would have avoided the incoming skull of their brethren.
"STRIKE!"
That's what they said in baseball, right?
Through pure, unadulterated force, the decapitated skull of the Mara-Struck turned the first in line into dust. The one behind it had a gaping hole where its chest one was. After that, those who were directly struck by the head-turned-ball took less and less damage, its velocity decreasing with every Awakened it penetrated.
The rest of the Mara-Struck, who hadn't been directly impacted, were blown away like the pins in a bowling alley.
The shadows shifted. Tendrils pierced up into the sky, impaling the Mara-Struck who were left alive.
[You have slain an Awakened human, Mara-Struck.]
[You have slain an Awakened human…]
[You have slain…]
Finding his hands empty after throwing the skull, Sunny summoned the Lance of Preservation, amber flames dancing in his palms as it materialized from nothingness.
Just in time for a horned, seemingly muscular creature of Mara to ram into him… or rather, the black haze seperating it from him. The horns stop its head seemed to sink into the black, ink-like barrier that suddenly appeared before it — if it weren't for the sparks that Sunny saw, he would have thought that it wasn't a solid object.
He used the chance to get a closer look at the creature. Four legs, two horns that angled themselves forward, and golden leaves that completely covered the rest of its body. Due to those obstructions, it was a little difficult to tell, but Sunny deduced that this creature was:
'This is… the legendary bull!'
A wide open-mouthed smile appeared on his face as he cut off his Essence. The inky barrier fell apart, allowing the bull to rush forward with an endless rage. Sunny wondered why a bull was conveniently around to be infected by the spread of Mara — it seemed somewhat contagious to non-humans(?) — but he wasn't complaining! How else would he meet such a mythical creature?!
Sunny spread his arms apart as the bull mindlessly tried to turn him into an ornament for its horns.
"Come on, come on~."
Just as his — unbiased fact, by the way — sexy, sculpted chest was threatened — not really — to be impaled by the bull's horns, Sunny took matters into his own hands and grabbed them, using his absurd strength to lift the bull upwards.
At that moment… Sunny found himself sharing a moment with the bull, who was held with its behind towards the sky for all to see. Although the golden leaves — a common characteristic for Mara-Struck — covered its face, Sunny knew that he and the bull were making intimate eye contact.
Eye contact which unfortunately had to end, as Sunny slammed it into the ground, its body splattering all over.
[You have slain a Dormant Beast, Mara-Struck Deviation: Bison.]
'Ah.'
Sunny wiped some sap off his face, wondering if the sticky liquid was all converted from the blood of the Mara-Struck before they were… well, struck by Mara.
More importantly, that wasn't a bull. Sunny had never been more disappointed.
'The hell is a bison, anyways?!'