Kaijin Fighter: So I Have to Make Monsters, So What?

[Okay, looks like we have our possible leader,] Nepeherage determined as she watched the mother defend her child. [I don't think we have much compatibility since maternal love doesn't always translate to heroism, but I can work with—]

^Hey! Leave them alone!^

[Oh?]

Before Mange could properly lash out against the mother and child, another one of the slaves, a young Bloodliner woman with shockingly orange yet disheveled hair, tanned skin and a lion's tail, interfered in a most unexpected and endangering way.

She caught the whip before it could fully lash out and deal damage.

Ordinarily, such a trick wouldn't work because the application of [Chaos] would negate any aether defensive coatings or enhancements that would enable the girl to keep themselves protected while performing such an act.

However, this trick actually ended up working because of one very important factor: she wasn't using any aether.

[Now this is interesting...] Blazejudicator admired from afar.

As a kaijin whose whole core was focused on [Heroism], Nepeherage knew heroes when she saw them.

Or at the very least, people who had the potential to be them.

At a glance, the Bloodliner slave appeared to be using raw physical might and perhaps a touch of her innate Bloodliner ability to hold back the whip. However, if one knew what to sense for, they could sense that she was actually using the smallest application of anima to enhance herself.

[Huh...you know, I don't think we ever actually determined if anima can do anything to us,] Blazejudicator noted. [I mean, aside from that time Screamira drove someone nuts when they tried to peer into her mind.]

[Untrue,] Nepeherage corrected Blazejudicator. That maid who works for us was an enemy anima wielder once. Oddly enough, its one of the few energy types in the world that's actually able to defend against Chaos.]

[Oh?]

[Can't break through it though.]

[Odd.]

To provide better clarity to Nepeherage's words, anima was energy that's produced by the mind, ergo, an anima wielder needs to be able to keep their mind steady and control their emotions in order to properly manipulate anima.

[Chaos], on the other hand, reacts incredibly volatile in the presence of emotions and erratic behavior, and has the tendency to amplify such feelings.

As such, anima can technically be used to counter [Chaos], but only if the opponents in question were of equal level.

In other words, despite the lion girl's initial strong showing of being able to momentarily stall Mange's whip, the latter was objectively stronger than her.

[Raah!]

^Gah!^

So much so that all that Mange had to do was pull back on his whip with both hands in order to free it.

This action would've torn open the girl's palms had she not cost them in anima, but her protective actions had mitigated most of the damage.

As such, her hands only appeared to have been mildly scratched at worst.

But now, she had even bigger problems to worry about.

[Stupid, little cat!] Mange growled in stereo, [how dare you interrupt disciplinary action!]

^Disciplinary, my ass!^ the lion Bloodliner roared with indignation. ^I am sick and tired of your abuse, and I will not allow you to act any further!^

[Oh, I really like her.]

After making this bold declaration, the girls proceeded to cost her arms in anima once more while enhancing her muscles with aether.

The manner in which she performed these moves suggested that she was a self-taught fighter, as Nepeherage and Blazejudicator could see the relative crudeness of her actions.

That said, that also meant that there was plenty of room for improvement.

[Should we intervene before she gets inevitably whacked away or after?] Blazejudicator asked.

[Give it a moment. If we get involved at the wrong time, she might just straight up die from distraction,] Nepeherage answered, recalling the many stories she read of how one small misstep led to the death of a hero.

Then again, some of those deaths led to otherlander shenanigans like her master, so it wasn't too terrible...but not in this case.

^Take this!^

Unaware of the musings of the watching kaijin, the lioness rushed forward with the intent of landing a haymaker on Mange.

Unfortunately, she was too slow.

Mange didn't have to dodge; he could've easily tanked the blow and countered, but she wanted to give the wild lioness the faintest idea of hope...up until he decides to smash it.

Alongside her ribcage.

[There it is.]

The lioness slave managed to launch a total of six punches before Mange decided that enough was enough and landed a spinning push kick into her abdomen.

The sound of crunching bone and battered muscles reverberated through the girl's body as she was sent flying into a filled minecart and was buried by its contents.

[Hehe. Stupid little cat.]

However, this normally fatal blow wasn't the end for this lioness.

During the brief moments she was flying through the air, Nepherage had launched herself towards her and proceeded to activate [Possession] before anyone could notice.

In that brief window in time, Nepherage and the lioness came to an accord.

...Let's do the mind warp again…

'Fuck…FUCK!'

For as long as she could remember, Lyona was a slave of the [Mines of Malevolence].

However, unlike the others who were born and died here due to losing their ability to care, she had managed to grow up to be a young adult with fire in her belly and steel in her spine.

But how did a girl born in such a wretched place manage to grow so tough?

Was it because she was technically a Bloodliner of lion descent, although, she wasn't entirely sure which lion progenitor she was related to?

No.

Was it because she was partially an Anima Wielder, allowing her to defend herself from the worse abuses from her tormenters?

No.

Was it because of her innate personality allowing her to shrug off the worse effects of handling [Malevolent Gold] and [Azure Lead]?

No.

The reason why Lyona was able to live that long and become this way, was because she had the luck to be raised by a family who has never given up even in the face of despair; and she also had the luck to witness how a pair of regular aether warriors were able to fight back against these monsters she had once thought invincible.

But alas, her luck had finally run out.

When Lyona picked a fight with that hateful kaijin known as Mange, she had done so because she thought she finally had a chance.

With the overseer and most of his monsters out on some stupid hunting expedition, one of the largest she had seen so far, Lyona figured that now was the best time to act.

She would start with taking down one kaijin, then two, and eventually, organize a group of like-minded allies and take down this shitty mine.

That's what she had hoped would happen.

Those hopes, however, were shattered with her ribcage and parts of her clavicle.

All that awaited her after these horrendous injuries was death.

However, life and fate had other plans in mind.

As she soared through the air, her life flashing before her eyes,a strange ball of energy had suddenly impacted her in the back.

Once the energy suffused with her body, the world around Lyona suddenly came to a stand still as a strange presence suddenly made herself known inside of Lyona's mind.

Needless to say, she wasn't exactly expecting to be hearing voices in her head right now.

Well, not this one at least.

[Huh, I guess the old saying is true. Diamonds can truly be found in the rough. Although, it feels like you're about to shatter like quartz soon.]

'Huh?! What the fuck?! Who the fuck are you? Why are you in my head? And why am I swearing so much more than usual?!'

[Oh man, I have missed freaking people out with this sort of thing,] the voice continued while laughing at Lyona's expense. [Well, to make a very long story short; I am a spirit of sorts that has a vested interest in hero types like you and I'm probably your only chance in being able to take down that mangy triple-faced mutt. And all you have to do is simply say yes and I can lend you the power needed to kill that dog and help you become the hero you were destined to be.]

'Uh...huh...'

If Lyona wasn't soaring through the air with a massive pain in her gut, she'd have an incredibly skeptical look on her face.

First lesson from her brothers: no such thing as a free lunch.

'Alright, hypothetically speaking, what would happen if I said no? Wait why do I know what that word means?'

[If you say, "no", then I'm pretty sure that you're going to die right here and now and probably get eaten like a roasted chicken by the Mange motherfucker. He looks like the type to eat people.]

'Ah...in that case...'