Mushoku Tensei: A different path

(Third POV)

As Rudeus attempted to attack Death God, his opponent was sighing in his mind how simple-minded the kid in front of him was.

While his magic may turn out to be tricky to deal with, his movements were still predictable.

Randolph only needed to evade to the other side than before and slash at his wrist as a feint to aim at his neck.

That second attempt of his was useless, though, as the young magician didn't plan for his [Fireball] to hit in the first place.

Rudeus made it explode while it was in his hand and protected himself with Barrier Magic.

The resulting smoke was meant to blind Randolph and give him an opening.

Randolph forfeited his attack and instead evade for real.

A few [Rock Bullet] spells came flying at him, and he dodged them all.

After he dodged the last bullet, his footing became loose, and his stance wasn't firm anymore.

The air started to get heavy for him, but before he could get pushed down to the mud, he jumped away from the spot.

Rudeus wasn't done yet and shot a [Blizzard Storm] at Randolph. And again, the spell was easily dodged by him.

"Hoho, you sure can blast some nifty spells there, boy. But just shooting them mindlessly won't work against me. Probably should come closer to shorten the distance."

His mocking didn't reach Rudeus's ears. In fact, Rudeus vanished after the smoke cleared.

Death God was confused and soon enough realized what he was planning.

Stepping away from his spot, Randolph was about to get hit by a black [Stone Pillar].

At every spot, he once stood would appear another pillar aimed at killing him.

Inside Randolph was a feeling that he thought he had lost a long time ago.

Thrill.

The feeling any battle obsessed warrior gets when facing an enemy that is unpredictable and new to discover fighting against.

Chantless Magicians are too rare to be much of a challenge for him in his youth. But this kid awoke something back in him, he thought he lost after getting fed up with it.

And he just now proves that with his next move.

The pillars weren't just placed randomly. They were meant to surround him and give way for an attack from above, and so they did.

Without the Death God's notice, a cloud had formed and was about to strike him where he stood.

His feet got frozen to the ground with the mud stuck on them and keeping him in place.

Lowering his hip while simultaneously punching the with his gauntlet, he broke the ground and then jumped to the side like a frog.

The lightning bolt struck, missing its target completely.

Randolph used his chance to escape this roofless cage by cutting one of the pillars.

That, however, proved to be difficult as a single slash only made it crack a bit.

In the second try, before getting hit by another lightning, he hit the pillar harder and managed to at least make it fall apart and escape.

But he didn't have time to get another breather as surprisingly, Rudeus came from below him with his hand formed into a sword and aiming at him with a chop.

'Well, would you look at that?'

Randolph then used a technique he didn't think he would ever use again since his promise to develop his own ones.

'Water God Style, secret technique, [Flow].'

Redirecting Rudeus's attack, he sent him flying up.

Rudeus was confused about what happened, but not before Randolph gave him a punch to the solar plexus.

With Rudeus rolling off on the ground, Randolph noticed the mud sticking to his armor.

"You are just full of surprises, aren't ya? Hiding in your mud pool and then attacking while you're down there was clever, I'll give you that. But, you should have stayed there and kept on shooting those spells from above me to get me disoriented."

Rudeus was getting irritated while groaning in pain from the sudden punch, which he didn't block with his Touki in time.

The reason why he didn't stay down any longer was because the air was tight for him, and he needed to get back up to catch a breath.

But even as he got up and attacked, his breath was getting shortened.

Rudeus started glaring at the person known as the fifth strongest in the world. Randolph found that quite pitiful of him.

"I gotta say, that Touki of yours is sturdy but uncontrolled. To see any Magician with prowess like yours seems uncanny. However, as you have compelled me to venture beyond my comfort zone, I must sincerely pray for your assistance in accomplishing this feat. You know, from warrior to warrior."

"Don't *cough* compare me to you."

Rudeus wasn't just angry at Death God, but at himself for not at least immobilizing him to escape with the others while the monsters were on their way here.

Speaking of which, they were nearing them slowly by each second.

As Rudeus looked around, he noticed that Sara and Soldat hadn't left the area and we're nearby.

The other three were… gone.

"Wait, they didn't-"

"AAAAHH~."

*Boom*

His fears were about to get worse, as the two creatures that he was getting too close to were closer than it was comfortable.

One of these creatures had the build of a hound, with the exception of having various unfitting features.

The most notable would be that it was two-headed. Dragon heads with massive visible jaws. Around the heads were mains made out of scales. Its tail is like a maze adorned with spikes that ooze out purple liquid. The legs are equipped with sharp claws, with the front legs having wing flaps on the side, which it noticeably cannot use for flight anymore. Most of the body was otherwise covered in deep black scales.

Within both of the monster's mouths was something that it was still chewing on.

It spit both out in a fuming manner while the objects were still dissolving from the acid it had in its mouth.

They were human skulls that had some of the flesh still on.

The two-headed creature proceeded to look a bit up and started to growl.

Everyone, including Randolph, looked over at the direction the monster looked at and found the second one.

This time, the build of the second monster was more abstract than the black canine one.

The lower part was with scales covered tentacles that are equipped with the ultramarine scales in the shape of arrowheads, small and big one alike. The upper half was an eel that had thin and transparent teeth that were showing from its long mouth. It had three shark-like fins. One on the top of its head and one on each side.

Just like the two-headed dragon, this aquatic atrocity had captured a person.

Held by of just one tentacle, the man, previously grouped up with Rudeus and the others, slowly lost the strength to try and break free due to massive blood loss.

A second tentacle advanced for his neck and effortlessly sliced off his head. With the head now tumbling on the ground, the body was then devoured by the creature whole.

Once the aquatic abomination was done, it also glared back at the two-headed monster.

The two growled and fletching their teeth before finally roaring and going at each other.

Scratching, biting, and rolling, making the surrounding terrain damaged more quickly than you'd imagine.

Rudeus was just in awe over the bizarre design of the creatures they had been looking for.

Even though he saw many of such things before in his time as an adventurer, none could compare to what he sees now. The best he saw was in video games where the design of the enemy monsters had a lot of work put into despite the craziness they had on them.

He was awakened by Soldat from his translucent thoughts.

"We need to go. Now!"

"Y-yes."

Abruptly but necessarily, he grabbed both Soldat and Sara with [Specter Force] and lightened their weight with Gravity Magic to lift.

Before he was about to take off, though, he noticed that he had forgotten about the three underlings and intended to take them too.

To their demise, however, the black monster shot out an acidic fluid from its right mouth, which was aimed at the ocean creature.

It evaded, and the two underlings Rudeus previously knocked out got showered in the acid.

The sudden burning sensation woke them up and made them squeal in pain due to their vocal cords getting melted.

It wasn't just over yet. Next was the ocean monster with its own counterattack.

Twirling three of its tentacles into a spiral, it unleashed them by untangling them at frightening speed.

I'm unpredictable patterns, the tentacles swung all around before the blue creature and aimed at the black one.

The black creature, however, evaded the attack with little effort like it had observed that move long enough to know the pattern.

It looked like that at first, but then one of the tentacles bent weirdly and finally hit the black monster on its front legs.

But as a counter, the tentacle was bitten and pulled on.

This reached the owner's body soon enough and made the ocean monster lose balance and accidentally swing the other two tentacles at the last underling.

Inedible, that underling was already awoken by the previous screams of his last two comrades and froze upon the sight of the creatures fighting for what might be territorial purposes.

That one underling had to receive the cruel fate of getting cut in half horizontally by the accidental attack of the ocean creature.

Rudeus was in shock. Not because of the underling's death itself, but rather how he died. The guy wasn't even dead yet. The cut was clean and made him lose blood fast after losing his lower half.

The scenario made Rudeus remember the first vision he had back in Millishion.

"Rudeus, go!"

Soldat's scream made Rudeus face reality. As the situation made it clear that he cannot save him anymore.

Ready and already on the move, he and his two group members left the scene.

For now, Rudeus decided to take it easier with the running, as his body may not handle more intense use of his Touki.

That, however, turned out to be the wrong choice.

Having forfeited their who knows how many matches, the two monsters decided to hunt for the same prey.

Their desire and pride being evidently clear for Rudeus's emotion sensing.

He was their main target, unknown to him for what reason other than being their next snack to enjoy on.

It became even clearer as he felt a surge of mana being concentrated in the two-headed monster's mouth.

'That stuff is made with magic?!'

Cancelling his run for the moment, he pointed both hands at the direction of the monster's trajectory.

Knowing all too well that blocking it with Touki or Barrier Magic was futile, he instead went for the method of counter attacking for defense.

With a full powered [Water Canon], he shot the tons of water beam at the incoming acidic fluid. The two attacks collided and stopped each other at the spot.

But that gave the blue monster the chance to chase up to Rudeus.

Surprisingly, it was rather fast when using its tentacles like crab legs with feet made of scales.

As it came near him and the other two, the monster swung three tentacles individually at the three.

Also knowing well enough that the edges of the scales are impossible to defend against, Rudeus had no other choice but to use his recently discovered technique.

Recreating the circulation of the mana flow inside his head, he sped up his mind to perceive the world at a slower rate.

With the two people to take care of, Rudeus had to be three times careful with the scaly tentacles, and three more times careful with himself and his teammates.

Gravity Magic was his best companion in this death game of extreme group tag.

During the first time he ran away from those monsters, he made another discovery he thought he just imagined.

At first, Rudeus simply used Gravity Magic to change the weight of an object from light to heavy. But recently, he used it to change the direction of the gravitational force entirely.

It was back when he grabbed on to the group when he ran away from his first encounter of the two strange monsters attack.

With his mind having nothing but fear and the thought of retreat inside, he wasn't paying attention when actually accomplishing this feat.

And that exact new feature is saving him and his teammates from ending like that last underling.

Spinning and twisting around with the extra help of [Specter Force] he somehow made it to evade all the ocean creature's swipes.

Chances of attacking the back were very rare and not long enough to concentrate on evading either.

Occasionally, his mana arms got cut off by the ultramarine scales, something that never happened before.

Whenever one arm got cut, another would be ready to take in that place again.

But as fate wanted them to struggle hard, the black monster already made its way towards them, albeit in slow motion in Rudeus's perception.

'What are they after? It's like these two are… after Magicians. That has to be it. The Blizzard Dragon definitely has a connection with them.'

But he cut the train of though off and proceeded to save their asses.

There were only three options for them to take.

One of them was to advance backwards, worsening the danger of being cut by the tentacles, since the tips are faster.

The other, less accommodating option was to instead fight them head first, endangering of getting overwhelmed by their opponents.

Lastly, there was the option of left or right, to either try to get a better opening, or try and stall out for the monster to get tired from its attack.

None of those options were worth the risk, but he had to make a choice quickly before things got too heated.

In the end, he chose for option number two as his head started to hurt from using his technique for too long.

Time began to move at a normal pace and Rudeus put a hand on his head to heal it before his brain is getting 'well done' too much.

Evading still turns out to be difficult, but at the very least a small attack pattern could be recognized after seeing it in slow motion.

Multitasking his efforts into evasion, he began attacking back.

Multiple shots of [Rock Bullet] spells were shot at the main body, but most got cut in half by the sharp bladed scales.

A few did hit the mark, but the damage was minimal at best.

By now, the black two-headed monster neared them too, ramming against the oceanic monster.

This gave a chance for a bit of air to step back and take a breath.

A fountain of sweat drooled from Rudeus as he still wasn't used to this much physical exercise.

"Urgh… blergh…"

"Huh?"

Something had slipped his mind. Unlike him who simply exhausted himself, his two companions were thrown around like rag dolls, resulting in severe nausea.

Soldat had to throw up while Sara was having her eyes twirl inside her eye sockets.

"Oops."

Rudeus was about to apologize to them but refrained as their lives were at stake at that moment.

The current state they were in was certainly better than the worst-case scenario.

Putting much further away from the current battle/roughhousing, he conjured them a stone hut.

The reason why he doesn't use this chance to run away with them is simple.

Should they decide to run, and the two creatures decide to forfeit their fight again, the danger of getting people in town could highly likely happen.

So for now, dealing with them is a priority even if it seems impossible.

Fortunately, there was an ally that Rudeus knew wouldn't let this chance slip.

As Randolph appeared to the proximity, Rudeus spoke to him.

"Let's have a temporary truce. These two will be just in our way if we ignore them."

"True. These monsters are a number on their own." He snorted. "Hm, fine by me. I'll take the two headed Black Dragon. The Sea Dragon seems to be your favorite."

'A nice sushi or calamari with my rice wouldn't be so bad. Maybe even Takoyaki. Also, Black Dragon? This has turned into an all-dragon meeting, hasn't it.'

Just as agreed with each other, they each handled their target on their own.

Randolph was I bit more adaptive by dealing with the Black Dragon due to his own way of swordsmanship.

He wouldn't let the monster hit nor splash him by sneaking up on it and using its blond spots to strike the joints of mainly the front legs.

Meanwhile, Rudeus fought the Sea Dragon on his own.

Having already seen the basic pattern of the tentacle whip attack, it was only a matter of minutes until he managed to get good hits on the thing.

Of course, he had to risk getting hit himself a few times, but that provided him the information about a weak point he needed.

The edges are the only strong point the scales have, as the middle of the flat side can be easily damaged and break the entire piece altogether.

After getting to that revelation, taking care of the monster was easier but still hard on its own.

After ten minutes of the resumed fight, the two monsters grew tired over having lost the upper hand.

The Black Dragon spewed a massive amount of poison up into the sky to make it rain all over the place.

On the other side, the Sea Dragon decided to just ditch the effort to hit one person and swing the unknown number of tentacles it has and attack everything in its proximity.

Rudeus started to panic as he couldn't Touki or Barrier Magic to defend those two attacks. The best he could do now was try to use Attack Magic for defense.

A combination of [Earth Fortress] and [Water Shield], he tried to defend not just him, but Randolph and the other two.

But that came to a halt as the Black Dragon got its attack interrupted by the tentacle swipes.

It was only a short rain, making [Water Shield] have a short usage.

The problems, however, didn't seem to stop, as the [Earth Fortress] spell wasn't enough to keep them safe, including Soldat and Sara.

Soldat, in his nauseous fragmented state, was unfortunate enough to step out of the stone hut, two of the tentacles coming dangerously close to him.

Running to get them even further away from here, Rudeus ran and simultaneously used Water Magic to try and freeze them before arriving at the least optimal destiny.

The spell turned out to be futile as it instantly broke free from the blocks of ice it was caused in.

'Of course it would. It's an ocean dweller! What did I think about this?!'

Taking the risk of another brain burnout, he circulated his mana within his head again to slow down time and figure something out on his run towards them.

But then another strange occurrence came forth. Not from the monsters, not from the Death God, but within Rudeus's perception.

Time has not just slowed down, it stopped entirely.

All that was within his sight was the scattered shards of ice in the air, blocking the sight of the tentacles coming for his companions.

'Missed me?'

Within one of the reflection of a bigger piece of ice, was the person Rudeus had thought to be dead for good.

He named the mental representation of his past lives persona Kagami.

///