First Landing [Invite]

Thread PL: 5,000 | Items: None

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"Gah, where's Runie when you need her?"

For the past few days, Meister has been busy at work dispatching various different criminals in the alleyways of Central City, but with no Runie around, he's had to dispose of the bodies himself. Thankfully, Meister was finishing up with the very last bag, shoving the body inside and tossing it into the nearest dumpster. He brushes whatever remaining blood was on his skeleton hands and begins to walk towards the end of the alleyway until...

"Think we can go for a couple more? I can definitely go for a couple more," Guerre pipes up in Meister's mind. "Frankly, no Guerre. I've been far too busy cleaning these streets for today. I would actually like to get some rest now so that we can actually move about tomorrow."

"Can't we? I want to see how far our body can go before passing out, you know, see what our limit is now?" Ekibyo asks. "I already told you two I'm done for today, I just need some-"

It was at this point that Meister has sensed a presence. Someone with a power level of about 5,000 was approaching. "Now I wonder who that could be?" Jihuang questions as Meister moves towards the new presence. He exits from the alleyway and sees a rather strange looking creature before him. The thing almost looked like one of those axolotls that he's seen in one of his books back in hell, yet obviously bipedal. "Aw, isn't she adorable?" Muerte asks the others in Meister's mind. "Now isn't exactly the best time, Muerte." 

Considering how large the demon was in comparison to this creature, Meister leans towards the small one and asks, "Well hello there, young one. What brings you to this neighborhood?" all the while Meister's beady white eyes were trained on the stranger. 

It was strange seeing a creature so small and innocent looking address the demon with little fear. Then again, she is quite a capable fighter herself, if the ki Meister's sensing proves to be accurate. The little creature tells Meister that she came here in an attempt to meet up with someone who could make her stronger, which takes the demon aback. This was all rather strange to him, and he's been around for 122 years. "Well, if it's a teacher you desire, perhaps I could be of some service." 

"Come on Meister, can't you just give her a little pinch for me, just this once?" Muerte requests. "Yeah, no. We've just met this little creature, we are not doing that right now," Meister thought to himself.

"Hey, if she really does have a similar power level to us, she would make for an excellent challenger, wouldn't you think?" Guerre then pipes up from within.

The demon audibly sighs to himself and realizes that he's still talking to the little creature in front of him. She introduces herself as Malt and reveals that she's from the planet Cereal. "Well, it's nice to meet you, Malt. I am Meister. I myself originated from Hell, but I frequent this land. Forgive me if I seem a bit distant at times, we're not the only two here, after all. I mostly deal with ridding the streets of evil, but you've caught me at a most opportune time, I say."

"Really? Last I checked you were on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion, or were you faking that?" Jihuang jokes from the back of Meister's mind. Meister ignores this comment, chosing instead to maintain his focus on Malt.

Thankfully, Malt didn't seem to mind the fact that Meister's acting a bit aloof at the moment, but he attempts to compose himself a bit more. Hopefully the others will remain quiet for a bit while he continues conversing with Malt. She appeared to be a bit confused as to what he meant by they weren't the only ones here, but time will eventually reveal the answer to her, especially if she's going to be taught by Meister.

"If I may, I do believe I've heard of this Cereal planet before, though my memory is a bit hazy at the moment," Ekibyo remarks.

Malt then plainly states that the reason she's here is because she wants to become strong so that nothing bad can ever happen to her planet again. It was quite a valid claim to want to become stronger, so perhaps Meister doesn't even need to look into her soul to see the truth for himself.

Before the demon could respond, however, Malt conjures up some sort of energy whip out of nowhere. Meister was taken aback by this action, but just as he was about to get struck by Malt's whip, he grabs it with his skeletal hand and grips it tight. "An eager one, aren't you?" Meister guesses as he plans out what he's going to do next. "It's a nice trick you've got there, being able to conjure up a weapon made up of your own energy. If you'll allow me, I will return the kindness and show you one of my own tricks. Your training begins... NOW!"

A giant puff of black smoke appears where Meister is, completely shrouding him in darkness. At this point, Meister's body begins to deteriorate, and he lets go of the energy whip. The smoke keeps building up, and even splits off into four separate clouds, two of which move behind Malt. After a few seconds, the smoke finally clears, and Meister was no more. Four new individuals show themselves to Malt. A black knight with flames in his eye slits, a shrouded figure with a jack-o-lantern for a head, a robed woman with a face decorated to look like a skull, and a woman covered in plague attire were now all that remains of Meister.

"So you've challenged us, Miss Malt? Them let us see what you're capable of, and how you can stand against Guerre!" The black knight shouts as he raises a giant two handed sword into the air

"Between you and me kid, Guerre over there's a bit too enthusiastic, so I'd watch for him specifically. But hey, what do I know, I'm just Jihuang," The pumpkin man jokes as he brandishes his axe.

"I do see Guerre's point though. It has been a while since we've been called out. This would make for some great practice. You can call me Muerte, little one," the robed woman states as she slowly lowers her scythe.

"I myself have never fought against anyone from your species. This would be great for my journal, wouldn't you say, Guerre? Oh, and I'm Ekibyo," the plague woman mutters while adjusting one of the straps on her messer.

"To put it simply kid, the four of us combined are Meister, but here we are in our own individual bodies. Pretty neat, right?" Jihuang answers before Malt could even question it.

"But enough talk! Let's see what you're made of!" Guerre bellows as he charges in with his zweihander, intending on striking the little creature.

"Don't you think you're going a bit overboard on this one, Guerre?" Muerte asks as the rest of the demons stand back to see just what happens.

It appears as if Guerre's attack was at the very least slightly successful, and Malt is forced back after receiving a tiny little gash. Guerre pumps his fist after landing a blow, feeling a bit of a sense of accomplishment for drawing first blood. The others weren't nearly as enthusiastic as Guerre, however.

"Congratulations, Guerre, you managed to barely scrape Malt with your GIANT SWORD. You must be so proud of yourself right about now," Jihuang mocks as he raises his axe up and prepares himself to strike next.

"Hah, you're just jealous that you weren't the first one to draw blood! Now stand aside while I take care of our little pupil here!" Guerre shouts as he slowly approaches Malt while pointing his zweihander forward.

"Don't you think you might be taking this a bit too seriously, Guerre? You could seriously hurt her if you're not careful, and we don't have any senzu beans on standby," Muerte asks as she is generally concerned about how this will all go down.

"Oh hush, Muerte, how else do you expect the little one to get stronger? If she wishes for strength, then she'll have to earn it. Now, where were-"

It was at this point where Malt decides to sweep the entire floor using her energy whip. While Muerte, Ekibyo and Jihuang were paying attention and simply jump upwards to avoid the attack, Guerre wasn't so fortunate and was swept onto the ground, now lying on his back. The three other demons attempt to hold back their laughter as Guerre digs his sword into the ground to prop himself off of the ground.

"Well, you certainly showed her, Guerre." Ekibyo jokes as she continues to hold back her laughter. "Looks like I need to set a good example for the little one now."

After attempting to strike down all four demons, Malt had left herself open to a counterattack, which Ekibyo decided to make full use of. She closes the distance between the two fighters and swings her messer at the little alien. 

"First lesson: Never let your guard down."

Both Muerte and Jihuang's attempts at draining Malt's life force were stopped dead in their tracks when Malt was able to bring up some sort of rainbow wall in between her and the two demons. Their hands make contact with the wall, and the energy they used to activate Drain Life was sapped by the wall. Both Jihuang and Muerte retreat and regroup with Ekibyo and Guerre, who just now finished their little argument after having missed their opportunity to fight back against their student.

"Well, glad to see you two are done barking at each other," Jihuang mocks the two bickering demons, "You sure are showing Malt how we do things."

Neither demon had anything to say back to Jihuang, but all of their attention is turned back to Malt when she announces that she's run out of energy and that she wants them to throw as much as they can at her. Muerte, Jihuang, and Ekibyo stare at each other for a bit, and Muerte responds,

"I mean, this is all just practice. We don't want to harm you too badly in the process."

"Take this as lesson two: Always keep an eye on your energy. Make sure you have an answer to everything we have. See? No need to slash at you or anything like that," Ekibyo responds while clasping her hands together. "We'll do a short little break and then we'll-"

"You should never have run out of energy! Now you're all mine!" Guerre shouts as he charges at Malt.

"In hindsight, I really should've seen this one coming."

Guerre's blade begins to glow bright red as he shouts, "Retribution!" and attempts to land a series of swift blows that the eye can't see. "You should never let your guard down, little one! That is how you get hurt!"

"Guerre, don't you think you're being a bit hard on the little one?"

"What? Of course not. If she wants to become stronger, then she has to learn from her mistakes. She makes a mistake, and we punish. We continue this until she stops making mistakes. I thought that's what we were doing."

The four demons regroup in front of Malt, all leaning forward to get a better look at the little one.

"You're not hurt too badly, are you? Guerre should really watch where he points his sword," Muerte says as she snaps her fingers. Through the power of Magic Materialization, a roll of cloth appears in her skeleton hands. "Ekibyo, you're an expert on dressing. Could you assist me?"

"With pleasure," Ekibyo replies while using Magic Materialization to conjure up a needle and some silk threads. "Trust me on this one, Malt, I'm an expert at treating wounds. I don't have access to magic, but it's the least I can do." As both women were busy treating Malt's wounds and patching her up as best as they can, Jihuang approaches Guerre and asks,

"Feeling better after that, buddy?"

"You know as well as I do that she won't grow if we don't take this seriously," Guerre grumpily barks, "If we coddle her like we did with Marune, then she won't become strong."

"Well, little Runie turned out fine, didn't she?"

"Er, well, yes, but she's an exception."

While the two women were busy dressing Malt's wounds, stitching them closed while bandaging them, Malt asks if they could spend some more time at some point to continue training, to which Ekibyo replies almost instantly,

"Oh of course, Malt. We'd always appreciate making you stronger. It gives me some insight as to your own fighting style as well, so I can reap some benefits as well."

Once the wound have been properly dressed and both Guerre and Jihuang stopped their bickering, each one's cloths started to move on their own, as if they were being pulled towards the middle of where each one is.

"Well, aren't you impatient, Meister? Oh well, I suppose this is farewell for now, little one." 

The four demons each wave goodbye to Malt as they slam into each other and form a giant cloud of black smoke similar to what Meister had created earlier. After a few seconds, the smoke clears, and Meister has returned back, still with that hole through the chest that Ekibyo received earlier.

"I saw everything. You have done well for a first test."

Malt then asks about places where she could sleep, to which Meister apologizes and states, "I would offer my own home, but considering the fact that it's in hell, it's probably not going to work out for you. There are several hotels throughout the city, but this certainly isn't the neighborhood to find one. If you were to go three blocks south and one block west, you'll be sure to find some candidates for hotels."