How to Kill a Starfish
The lump of flesh at his feet writhed. Crushed steel plates mingled with blood, producing a grotesque scraping sound.
Regeneration. A recovery speed that was utterly horrific and perversely rapid.
He had no hobby of standing around watching the monster resurrect itself. He kicked off the ground and shot upward.
—Whoosh.
In an instant, he put hundreds of meters of distance between himself and it, high in the sky.
He spread his right palm wide, facing downward. He drew mana from his body and compressed it into the center of his hand. Blue light intensified, bleaching his vision white. He took aim. Fired.
—KABOOOOOM!
A massive energy beam poured down toward the earth like a waterfall. The regenerating flesh and the ground beneath it vaporized entirely. An ear-shattering explosion. Dust rose in a tsunami across a several-kilometer radius.
Floating in midair, he looked down. A choking cloud of dust completely obscured his view. At this output, it should've burned away down to the cellular level.
—Screeeeech!
That was when it happened. A black shadow pierced the dust cloud, rocketing upward. An elephant's trunk. A colossal mass of steel armor, thousands of tons heavy, whipped through the air like a lash.
He didn't dodge. He wrapped his entire body in mana, pushing his physical durability to the limit. He grabbed the oncoming trunk head-on.
—BAM!
A tearing sound exploded from his palm, as if it might rip apart. The steel surface crumpled, perfectly caught in his grip. Brutish strength. The corner of his mouth twisted upward.
"Where do you think you're going."
He injected mana into the seized trunk and squeezed. He twisted his body half a turn in midair. Using centrifugal force and his overwhelming muscle power, he hoisted the beast's main body clean off the ground.
—Rumble rumble crash!
The mountain-range-sized beast's bulk broke through the dust cloud, dragged into the sky. The thrashing mass of metal. He wrenched its direction and slammed it mercilessly back toward the earth.
—KABOOOOOM!!!
The ground split in two. The earth's crust warped like an earthquake, carving out another massive crater. The shockwave swept through the canyon once more.
—GRAAAAAHHH!!
The beast let out a rending roar. Its back skin burst open, bones shattered—but it staggered to its feet again. Surrounding metal scraps and rocks clung to the shattered areas, instantly patching the wounds. Tenacious regeneration.
The beast gaped its maw. Deep in its massive esophagus, a crimson furnace-like glow flickered.
—BOOM!
A sonic-boom rupture. Tens of thousands of compressed metal chunks rained down like anti-aircraft fire. Each one a massive projectile forged from tank armor plating.
The sky went pitch black. An area-denial barrage with no room to evade. Annoying. Even swatting it away felt like too much hassle.
He deployed a spherical mana barrier beneath his feet. Meters-thick impenetrable defense wall.
—Pit pit pit pit—BANG!
Metal spines shattered against the barrier with ticking sounds. Not a single crack on its surface. But the assault didn't stop.
The shattered fragments reformed in midair, twisting into massive chains that targeted his ankles.
"Where do you think you're going."
He gathered mana at his toes and stomped down on the incoming chains.
—Crack!
The chains exploded into fragments. At the same time, he kicked off the air and dove vertically. If it kept getting back up no matter how much he smashed it, he'd pulverize it until it physically couldn't.
He dropped onto the crown of its head in a flash. He raised his right hand. He compressed mana to an extreme degree, visualizing a gigantic hammer in his mind.
"Sit."
With that indifferent word, he drove his fist down.
—KABOOOOOM!
An invisible impact hammered its back. The beast's massive four legs buckled, slamming into the ground. Crunch crunch. The sound of its steel spine pulverizing echoed through the canyon.
Blackish blood mixed with molten metal spewed from its mouth. But it wasn't over. It sucked up discarded Chinese armored vehicles and metal scraps with its trunk.
—Crunch crunch.
A chilling sound. Its shattered spine reconnected in seconds. The armor plating was far thicker than before. The freakish mechanism: the more it took hits, the more it ate, the tougher it got.
Tough bastard. He had dinner waiting. Irritation bubbled up.
He kicked off again, diving straight for its face. The lion-like lower body sprang up, slashing with razor claws. A trajectory that could bisect a skyscraper. He charged right into it.
—Thwack!
His small fist struck the root of the elephant trunk first. The shockwave punched through to the back of the monster's skull.
"Kieeeek—!"
With a agonized shriek, half the trunk tore off. He didn't stop. He spun in midair and drove a kick into its jaw.
—Clang! Crack!
The thick steel armor crumpled like paper, the lower jaw flying off entirely. The beast toppled sideways, unable to support its bulk. One-sided beatdown. Blood and metal shavings sprayed everywhere.
But the instant he blew off its jaw, the severed trunk writhed grotesquely and regrew. From the jagged stump of its broken jaw, sharp metal shards sprouted like blades, aiming for his throat. A blind-spot ambush stab.
"Get lost."
He swatted the blades with his left hand. They shattered the moment they touched his slender wrist. His mana-coated durability was hundreds of times tougher than that scrap.
He leaped back into the sky to adjust distance. The beast rose. Its body was even more bloated now, as if it'd absorbed every trace mineral from the surrounding dirt and rocks.
The beast roared and slammed its forepaw into the ground.
—Whoooosh!
A bizarre magnetic pulse. Every scrap of junk metal and armored wreckage within dozens of kilometers levitated. Tens of thousands of tons of ferrous trash whirled into a massive storm centered on him.
A steel prison. An impenetrable dome of metal blotted out the light, intent on crushing him. Steel walls groaned from all sides, closing in.
Boring. He explosively vented mana across his body.
—KABOOOOOM!
One mana burst. The multi-ton steel dome encasing him erupted outward in a sphere. He rocketed upward through the downpour of fragments.
The beast, which had focused solely on defense, began reshaping. Its massive trunk split into three prongs, morphing into sharp spears. It kicked off the ground and lunged at him from all directions in the sky.
Clang! Clang clang! Boom!
Mana barrier clashed with steel spears, sparks flying. He twisted trajectories, dodging or deflecting them all. The beast's attacks accelerated. Lion claws and elephant spears alternated, blurring his vision.
A tedious war of attrition. Pure physical blows weren't cutting it. Smash it and it reforms; break it and it regrows tougher. At this rate, it'd take all night.
How long is this gonna drag on? Driving me nuts. He pinched his brow and let out a short sigh.
Messy brawls weren't his style. If physical damage couldn't breach its regeneration limit, he had to decompose it down to the cellular level, leaving no room for recovery.
Enough of this tiresome back-and-forth. He raised his right hand, pressing index and middle fingers together. Flicked lightly.
—Slice. Slash slash!
The steel hide sliced like tofu. Limbs severed, torso diced into perfect cubic chunks. Blood cascaded like a waterfall.
But still not over. The cubed flesh extended grotesque veins, drawing back together. Absurd vitality. At this point, he could perfectly guess the beast's true nature.
'Eats metal to grow. Elephant trunk, lion lower body. Immortal regeneration.'
The form and habits were crystal clear. A monster from ancient legends. Starfish Yokai. The unkillable beast.
'Why's a yokai from East Asian legend popping out of a gate?'
A question flashed through his mind. This was leagues beyond the goblins and orcs he'd diced up before. A creature straight from Earth's myths emerging from a gate. Too suspicious to dismiss as coincidence.
But philosophical pondering could wait for bedtime. Right now, priority was perfectly incinerating this annoying lump of meat.
'The Starfish Yokai legend.'
The only way to kill a monster that ate metal and regenerated endlessly: melt it with extreme heat.
He extended his right hand into the air. He transmuted his body's pure mana into seething ultra-high-temperature flames. The surrounding air shimmered like a heat haze as oxygen combusted.
Crimson flames gathered in his grasp. He cupped both hands before his chest. Between his fingers, an ultra-compressed ember of extreme heat flickered to life. The air warped again, oxygen burning away.
He slowly drew his right hand back. A bizarre, unique stance, like drawing an invisible bowstring. The ember at his fingertips roiled, devouring all light and heat around it. Mana overload made the space around it seem to blacken and burn.
Aim complete. He gazed indifferently down at the Starfish Yokai, which had finished regenerating and was roaring ferociously once more. In a dry voice, he spat it out.
"You swallow everything whole, right? Eat this too."
He flicked his fingers. The compressed ultra-hot ember shot toward the ground.
—Whiiiiiish!
The tiny ember tore through the air. Black charring trailed its pinpoint path as the atmosphere ignited. It landed precisely on the Starfish Yokai's crown as it bellowed savagely.
That instant. No explosion sounded. The compressed absolute heat expanded mercilessly, swallowing all noise and air in a breath.
—FWOOSHHHHH!
A blinding flash erupted, as if the sun had crashed to earth. The tens of thousands of tons of steel armor coating the Starfish Yokai's body melted like ice cream. Overwhelming incineration left no chance for regeneration.
—Kieeeek!!!
The monster's horrific death cry echoed through the canyon, then vanished into the inferno. Bones, flesh, fused metal—all reduced to molecular ash. The legend held true: before overwhelming firepower, even an immortal beast became a handful of cinders.
The flames gradually died down. The barren rocks on the ground bubbled red-hot like lava from the heat. He slowly descended into the crater's center. Suffocating heat. He blocked the hot air with a mana barrier and scanned the surroundings.
The colossal beast was gone without a trace. Only black ash and pools of molten metal remained. In the middle, something small and round glowed faintly.
He approached and reached out. Telekinesis pulled the object to him. It settled in his palm: a red orb the size of a ping-pong ball.
"Mana stone?"
No. Regular gate mana stones had rough, irregular crystal surfaces. But this orb was perfectly smooth, like it had been artificially polished. And the energy wavelength it emitted.
Not the crude, violent mana of a monster. Incredibly pure, refined—eerie in its clarity and heat. Just like a neidan from a wuxia novel.
The corrupted ancient tome he'd seen in the guild master's office last time. The East Asian legendary yokai Starfish. And now this unidentified orb. Too many suspicious pieces falling into place to call coincidence.
"What's really beyond the gates?"
Bitter taste in his mouth. Handing this orb over to the Association or government agents would just mean annoying investigations and summons. Right now, his top priority was clocking out and resting. He shoved the orb deep into the pocket of his training pants. Better to roll it around and analyze it alone in his room later.
He kicked off the ground and soared back into the sky. His earpiece crackled with the operations commander's trembling voice.
"Dishes are done. Handle the cleanup and debris yourselves. I'm out."
He cut the comms. The fighter squadron waiting overhead approached, wagging wings in escort formation. Operation over. Time to head back to the penthouse, shower clean, and stuff his face with the hanwoo omakase he'd promised his sister.
He shot south. Even as he broke the sound barrier, slicing through the metal-scented wind, the red orb in his pocket emanated a faint warmth. Legendary creatures and neidans. A nagging, ominous doubt about the gates' origins lingered in his mind. A tiring commute home.