3rd Pov:
Xicor and the chief of the 2nd unit continue to stare at one another, waiting for the other to make the first move.
The chief is breathing heavily, steam escaping her body with sweat glistening on her forehead whereas Xicor has several broken and fractured bones as well as a few bruises underneath his trench coat but is still managing to keep up.
His cursed energy still has a decent amount to keep going. The silence was broken when the floor beneath Xicor was lifted into the sky.
Xicor's eyes widened in surprise before focusing on the source to see Iwa with both hands up and her wound was gone and the poison was no longer in her system.
'There's a healer among them' Xicor thought as he pointed two fingers at them before flipping them up as Iwa was dragged away from her spot and a pillar of magma shot up.
Xicor now shifted his gaze from them to the chief who stood in place glaring up at him. The rock platform he was standing on had tilted to where his vision was inverted, making him turn his head up to face her.
Xicor lowered himself to the rock before leaping off it, turning the platform into dust. The chief slapped up her hand as a wall of fire to force Xicor into it.
But instead, he went through it and punched the chief in the cheek causing her to recoil back but she managed to stop herself from being thrown back by placing her foot behind her as it dragged back a bit.
She reeled her fist back and punched him in the stomach, Xicor grabbed her wrist a move it out of the way for him to strike with his knee but she stopped it with her hand.
She took a deep breath and blew fire on his knee but it did nothing, he let go of her wrist and quickly hit her in the stomach while using the ratio technique to maximise the damage.
The strike sent her rolling before she came to a stop, she vomited on the floor. Just as Xicor was about to continue his assault, he jumped out of the way as someone crashed down where he was standing.
Landing a few feet away, Xicor analysed the new combatant. It was a woman with brown hair tied in a bun and brown eyes, her hands, legs and bits of her cheek had obtained green reptilian scales as well as a robust tail.
"You will not take another step towards my chief" she said determinedly as she took a stance, ready to fight me.
Xicor raised a brow, 'Is she trying to distract me so their healer can reach their chief?'
He didn't have time to think further as the woman appeared in front of him and struck him in the chest which pushed him back.
She followed after him and appeared behind him before striking down with her leg on his shoulder, forcing him to kneel.
Gritting his teeth, he grabbed her ankle and smashed her against the ground in front of him before stomping on her back, he grabbed her by the hair and lifted her before letting go as his free hand struck her back with Ratio.
She was sent flying into a wall, the area was covered in smoke and rubble, making it difficult to see where she was.
Xicor appeared on a boulder, watching her rising form before he leapt at her while reeling back his arm, ready to strike her face but she blocked it with her forearm.
She thrusted her free hand at him but it was blocked with his own forearm. Both of them raised one of their knees as they struck together, soon the two were clashing together with their hands and knees.
They leapt from one to another, each one trying to gain ground or any sort of advantage. The other demon defence force members watched on as one of their members' hands had a green flow going into their chief.
Xicor spotted this and memorised her face, but that came at the cost of the woman he was clashing with connecting her fist into his shoulder, throwing him off balance before she swung her leg at him, aiming for his side.
But Xicor used cursed energy reinforcement to tank the hit and trap her leg between his body and arm as he held it in place. Xicor thrusted his elbow forward but she stopped it using both hands and both kept pushing.
Seeing as how his attack wasn't landing, he lit her leg on fire almost immediately which caused her to yell out in pain before Xicor pulled his elbow back and grabbed her face before throwing up in the sky.
He formed a hand sign as cursed energy swelled around it, "Ryu" he whispered, trying to mask his voice from their ears.
The Chinese dragon came rushing out of reality and flew past the woman but its tail swiped her, sending her into the side of a cliff, rubble fell from where she was impacted before she started falling to the ground but a rock platform stopped her from hitting the ground.
She was brought over to others as her reptilian scales slowly faded but her leg where Xicor had unleashed his flames was almost burnt to a crisp.
'Guess I held back' he thought, also eyeing her injuries.
All of the demon defence force members stared up at him on the hill as one of his eye holes had a red glow to it. Xicor was about to unleash more of his flames but something stopped him.
'That's enough Xicor, you can return, more demon defence force members are coming, even more chiefs as well' Shikoku said in his mind.
Xicor looked at the members below, the chief was already on her feet but her breathing was heavy before he shifted his gaze to the distant where could sense around 12 people heading this way.
'I could barely handle one chief with her vice-chief but now more are heading this way and they seem stronger, best to retreat, I've already completed my objective anyway' he thought as he jumped on Ryu's back and flew away fast.
The members attempted to chase him but their chief stopped them, Xicor glanced back as the distance between them grew further and further before he refocused on his retreat, the wind blew against him as the trench coat came undone, it fluttered through the wind like a cape.
Soon he de-summoned Ryu and ran through the jagged wasteland until he reached his furthest hideout, far from the battle.
He breathed a sigh of relief as he took off his mask and placed it on his shelf and hung his trench coat up before slumping against his bed.
He lifted his hands to find them shaking, not out of fear but excitement, the pure joy of adrenaline coursing through his veins with each strike he landed and all the movements he's done.
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[Jogo Template: 73% ]
[Cursed Technique: Disaster Flames]
[Speciality: Fire resistance]
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'So close, may as well just mess around, oh wait I have a roll so I should use it while I'm at it' he thought as he spun the roll.
1st Pov Xicor Samiel:
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[Rolling Template]
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[Aoi Todo Template]
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[Aoi Todo Template: 0% ]
[Cursed Technique: Boogie Woogie]
[Speciality: Boxing]
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Quite a nice pull, I could use this with my shikigami and the rocks I infuse with cursed energy and swap with them.
Aoi Todo's cursed technique, Boogie-woogie, allows him to swap with anyone who has cursed energy but he can swap with objects by infusing them with cursed energy, just by clapping his hands but he it can sometimes be a fake if he chooses, as a way of tricking his opponents which did work against Sukuna.
But the problem here is that there is no cursed energy in the people I'm fighting so I'll have to use rocks and shikigami.
If Todo were to ask my kind of woman, I would go for a short woman with a big ass if she has a shy personality that's a plus but if it's a goth girl then that's a fucking blessing.
But damn that battle, I rolled my shoulders as the shifting of my arm resulted in a slight pain in my sides or more specifically, my ribs.
I may be resistant to fire and my body is more durable but holy shit that rock hit like a truck, Jesus.
This goes to show I shouldn't underestimate those other than the chiefs, lesson learned.
I ignore the pain and prepare some food for Shikoku and me. I light the fire and prepare something different but still delicious.
While I waited for the pot to finish boiling, I messed around with my disaster flames to increase the template since I'm just 2% away from another roll.
I let the flames dance around my palm, like a spider waiting for the right moment to move but slow. I obviously held back with my attacks as the objective was to test their strength and I could say they would be a problem if stronger chiefs were on their way to the battle zone.
Now that my existence is revealed to the demon defence force, I'll need to be more careful when I'm out there if they send out active hunters to subdue me.
On the plus side is that my gender is still unknown to them as they probably still think I'm a woman from a foreign country but I will need to hide my hair since it was clear to them.
I let the flames enlarge and shrink before dispelling the flames as steam flowed from my palms.
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[Jogo Template: 75% ]
[Cursed Technique: Disaster Flames]
[Speciality: Fire resistance]
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[Congratulations for Reaching 75% on a Template]
[Reward:
[+1 Template roll]
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[Rolling Template]
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[Mei Mei Template]
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[Mei Mei Template: 0% ]
[Cursed Technique: Black Bird Manipulation]
[Speciality: Battle Axe proficiency]
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Not terrible but it's okay. Mei Mei's black bird manipulation allows her to control crows with her cursed energy, she can see through their eyes and broadcast it on a TV for others to view, which makes a good spying technique.
She has one offensive skill called bird strike that basically turns the crow into a missile by removing all of its cursed energy but at the cost of its life. It was so strong that nobody could dodge it and even one-shot a special grade curse, with the sole exception of Gojo Satoru of course, as well as Sukuna and Kenjaku, as she stated in the manga.
Once the pot was finished I filled the bowls up and just as I finished pouring my own portion, Shikoku's voice called out behind me.
"Ah~ here you are Xicor and I see you prepared some food for us how kind but you're gonna need another bowl as I brought someone with me~" she said with a hint of amusement.
Another person?
Curiously I turned around and saw a woman with striped yellow and black hair tied in twin tails reaching her shoulders with vertical slit pupils in her blue eyes. She had a yellow jacket covering her shoulders and arms but her chest was revealed with the only thing blocking everything being a thin black bikini and black shorts.
She has two stubby yellow horns in the shape of lightning bolts with a fierce look on her face, almost like she's judging me.
"You're the human who's got sister Shikoku talking so much?" She said, almost demanding.
"Yeah, I guess so" I responded before grabbing another bowl and filling it up before passing it to her, "want some?"
She looked at the bowl, then at me and then at Shikoku who had picked up her bowl and was devouring her portion but taking it slow, to savour the flavour.
She snatched it out of my hand and tilted her head back and devoured it. After a second she let out a breath and brought it in front of me.
"More!" She demanded as there were stars in her eyes.
I shrugged my shoulders and filled it up before it was snatched from my hands again, almost instantly but this time instead of quickly devouring it, she slowly ate it, like Shikoku she savours the flavour.
I quietly enjoyed my portion while analysing the new person, she's very powerful and it's hard to say who's stronger between her and Shikoku but I can already guess her personality being loud and expressive.
Soon the pot was empty as the new person had a slightly sad, yet exaggerated, expression, "Don't worry, I can make more in the future" I reassured the woman as her expression brightened up.
"Thank you, Chef!" she said with a grin.
'I'm not a chef but okay' I sighed before turning to Shikoku who was sitting quite close to me, with our shoulders almost touching.
"So can you introduce this new person?" I asked curiously.
"Oh~ right~, this is one of my younger siblings, Naruhime, Naruhime this is Xicor, the human that has interested me" she introduced.
"You, human, you're strong!" she said with crossed arms, "I watched you fight those mortals and now I wanna fight you" she said leaning forward and placing her hands on the floor.
"I would agree but my injuries would put me at a disadvantage as well as give you a boring fight" I explained my condition.
"Ah, you're right, that would be boring!" she said leaning back and had a thoughtful expression before she brightened up and I could've sworn I saw a light bulb above her head.
"I know, once you're fully recovered, we fight!" She said with a massive grin.
"Absolutely" I replied, having a training partner will not only improve my template but also my general experience in hand-to-hand combat.
"Do you want me to heal you again?" Shikoku asked.
"Nah, I'm good" I refused, as this would be a good opportunity to try and get rct, highly unlikely I would be able to get first try but I could get the general idea and work with that.
Shikoku watched on with her signature smirk as she giggled from our interaction, "I knew you two would get along" she said before her expression turned curious.
"Tell me Xicor, what's your opinion on the chief's?" She asked.
I thought back to the fight, the times when the chief was able to hold their own against me and not just the chief but the others assisting them.
"Honestly, I would say they are powerful on their own but with their members they would be able to defeat me if I didn't have my summon distract the rest of their unit" I recounted the events before remembering their reinforcements.
"But the other members coming over were stronger so I would need to use my abilities to their fullest potential if I even stand a chance"
"I see, then we need to be more careful when facing them, we'll silently grow our numbers and strike from the shadows, if a chief is replaced then at some point we'll test them but we can't do it consistently as they'll catch on what we're doing" Shikoku said, surprisingly taking my words to heart.
Naruhime gritted her teeth before kicking the ground in frustration, "Why do we have to hide every time and let the humans wander in our dimension and let them take our peaches!" She said as lightning cackled around her form.
Shikoku looked at Naruhime seriously, "because the females of that species gain abilities from our peaches and you know that those peaches hold abilities that can rival even ours, they were originally intended for our Shuuki's to gain abilities and evolve but their numbers are now scarce that we rely on Jaku'un to create them and even that takes time" she explained before she turns her attention to me, her serious expression softens into a smile and her eyes held hope.
"But with Xicor here, his unique energy and the information of those mythical creatures he showed and explained to me may change the course of control over our home" she said as Naruhime raised a brow.
"The strange energy I sense, yes yes, but mythical creatures, what's that?" She asked, tilting her head to the side.
Shikoku turned to face me, silently asking to which I nodded. Going over to my shelf I picked the book about mythical creatures before going back to my seating spot where Shikoku leans closer and rests her head on my shoulder like it's the most natural thing.
Naruhime raised a brow, looking at Shikoku's position she mimics it and looks at the book in my hands, "What does it say" she said but instead of loud, it's softer, likely aware of the distance of my ears and her mouth.
"I'll read it for you so you don't need to worry about that, all you need to do is use your imagination and use my words to create the creature I describe" I explained.
She nodded against my shoulder and closed her eyes, I began to read, slow as to ensure they have a detail on what I'm talking about but the more I read the more anxious I'm getting which is strange.