Road to Recovery (Part 1)

I checked the stats of Onizakura again.

"No way...she got Kibuki!? She's not even a Battle Oni! Only Onis in the Battle section can only attain this!" I thought to myself. These skills were exclusive for Battle Onis and nothing else. For Onis to evolve a higher form of the Battle Onis, they must obtain equipment of a certain rarity, reach a certain level, and participate in wars.

Also, PTSD...I never seen that before, even in the games.

I can't forget that I haven't fully recovered my magic should things go south. I dropped my halberd and put my arms forward, slightly crouched forward and opened my hands. I assumed a wrestler's stance to hopefully restrain Onizakura before her rampage goes out of control.

*SHOOM!*

Onizakura dashes forth and performs a flying dropkick.

*THOOOM!!*

*Crack!*

The kick was explosive, pushing me back further than before. It also fractured my bones tanking that kick.

"Grrgh!" I grunted and spat blood from my mouth as the powerful kick rattled me from the inside. But as she made impact, I grabbed her with my entire arms to hopefully restrain her.

[Warning! Your rib cage has been fractured!]

[Damage detected, now regenerating...]

"Hey, Metsuka, mind telling me why is she like this?" I asked, expecting her to give a general understanding.

"It's because of the Battle Onis, those with the jagged horns are those who live through the thrill of battle. They respect strength and only strength." Metsuka explained.

I then notice Onizakura tremble. She began trembling and her breathing became rapid to the point of hyperventilation.

"Let go...! Let go! I don't wanna go!" Onizakura yelled in desperation. "We will not join any more wars, grandfather!"

Onizakura thrashes around and pleads her grandfather, who is not even there. Her bluish aura began to glow furiously.

I can't allow her go on a rampage here, I better use my skills.

[Thought Acceleration activated.]

I used the skills and used Mental Magic to put her to sleep. But as she began experiencing it, she reacted violently.

"NOOO!! I won't let you! I won't let you send our people to their deaths!" Onizakura screamed and flailed even more. Her aura began to blaze violently and is interfering my concentration, causing me to lose my grip.

"I guess I have no choice then." I said.

[Berserker activated.]

[Tyrant Spirit activated.]

With those two messages, I began emitting a dark, intimidating blood red aura mixed with black and dark purple.

*GWOOOM!*

My aura looms over the onis, overwhelming her blue aura. As the onis saw my aura, instead of rushing to save the chieftain, Onizakura, they lay there frozen, frozen in fear.

"Sorry, girl, but I need you to take a nap." I said and began using Mental Magic on her. She began resisting and flailing around until she fell limp.

[Berserker deactivated.]

[Tyrant Spirit deactivated.]

[Thought Acceleration deactivated.]

My aura faded away and I carried Onizakura in my arms. She gives off a peaceful sleeping face and no longer in pain. I walk towards Metsuka who is also stunned.

"Hey, take her to her room." I said, lending Onizakura to Metsuka.

"Oh...okay..." Metsuka replied and carried her off of my arms. Metsuka then walked away. She then commanded the other onis to prepare me a room.

I heaved a sigh as the problem is over for now, but how will I explain everyone here? The onis were shivering in fear, Metsuka is confused, Friis is speechless, and worst of all, I resurfaced Onizakura's trauma with just my appearance alone.

I looked at Friis and he stepped back a little from my intimidating appearance.

"Sorry about the look, Friis. But I got a good explanation for this." I said.

"You were a human before. How is that possible?" Aria said. Before I reply, a female oni came and spoke to us.

"Y-your room is ready." the female oni stammered, trembling from looking at my appearance as a Oni Warlord.

We began following the female oni, Zala jumped into my shadow in order to avoid any more complications.

As I went in, I had to duck downwards to get into the entrance since I am much taller than before. The female Oni showed me a guest room and we went inside the room. She then bowed and hurriedly left.

We sat down, but both Aria and Friis have their bodies stiff and tense, looking at me with anxiety. I'm not even using Tyrant Spirit, Bloodlust, nor Menace on anyone, but my looks alone disturbs them.

"Friis, if you stare at me so intently, I'll get embarrassed." I said in a joking manner to lessen the tension in the air.

"It's just...you look intimidating while keeping your resemblance." Friis replied.

"Crazy, right? Who knew that I turned into an Oni by Onizakura's drink?" I shrugged my shoulders. "But in all seriousness, the reason how did I become a Oni Warlord is because I fought in multiple battles."

"Multiple battles? Are you implying that you fought multiple battles before heading to Dystoark?" Aria said.

"Yeah, I fought multiple beasts, bandits, mercenaries, more bandits, and now Hellkins." I said.

"It's sounds unbelievable, but he's not lying." Metsuka said, walking in. "When he came here as a human, he was able to match my son, Gourai. No...he was above him."

Metsuka also sat down and began explaining Onizakura's past.

"The reason she reacted violently towards you is because of her trauma. The trauma happened when she was a High Oni back then. We onis came from a place called Yatsuchi." Metsuka said.

Yatsuchi or the Eight Lands continent is where the nations are separated by races which is Human, Elf, Beastkin, Aerokin, Seakin, Dwarf, Oni, and Lizardmen ruling said territories, Onis rule in the southernmost region. However, it has plenty of neutral regions under the Nonaggression Agreement, made to prevent multiple races from killing each other into extinction.

"The reason we moved away from Yatsuchi is because we have to run from her grandfather, Oumetsu who was a Battle Oni when she was born and then evolved to Great War Oni. Oumetsu tried to start a war as we have the smallest region out of the eight." Metsuka began explaining.

"Kiba, her father, opposed Oumetsu's decision because he knew it would bring needless deaths of their people. Most of the people agreed and protested as they wanted to negotiate." Metsuka said and she clenched her fists. "But because of that, Oumetsu took that as a form of betrayal and a large battle broke out. As a result, Kiba died and Oumetsu was wounded."

Friis and Aria was shocked that Onizakura had such a terrible past. They only saw her as a imposing chieftain who made tough decisions for her people. There were 50,000 Onis and declining due to the famine. Oumetsu tried to save his people through war out of desperation as he hated waiting. Kiba tried to negotiate, thinking that fighting would bring extinction far quicker.

I did fight Oumetsu when he was a Oni Champion. He is one nasty motherfucker in the battlefield when he was at level 670. I was a level 700 Ancient Oni and despite me being higher in evolution and levels, he's still a force to be reckoned with.

"After the fight broke out, Oumetsu began gathering even more onis, including the elderly and the young. Those who fought back were killed while Onizakura and I watched helplessly..." Metsuka said. "When her mother, Lady Yakumo got the ship ready and led us there for us to sail to Dystoark."

"Did she go with y'all?" I asked. But I already knew that Yakumo, the Grand Oni died not from directly fighting Oumetsu, but from his aura.

"She did on the ride to Dystoark, but from the effects of Oumetsu's Kibuki made her very weak. It came to a point where she could not walk or even stay conscious." Metsuka answered. "When Onizakura became a High Oni, Lady Yakumo cannot wake up at all even after Onizakura became Chieftain and a Grand Oni."

The aftereffects of Kibuki and Kihou does nothing to onis, but for Yakumo to be in a coma is simple, she had been affected by Aura Contamination. However, aura is a type of energy that must travel somewhere. It takes no longer than a week for all the contamination to be removed.

Since onis have a long lifespan and age slowly, it could take decades. This must mean Yakumo has been in a coma for at least 100 years.

"I know onis are resilient, but they're not immortal. If she's in a coma after Onizakura became chieftain, did you at least give her food and water?" I asked.

"We did, she was unconscious for over 150 years. We tried multiple remedies and Healing Magic, but none of them made her wake up." Metsuka shook her head, showing a sad expression.

For Yakumo to be in a coma for this long must mean that it's Aura Stagnation. It's a rare occurrence where foreign Aura remained trapped for a long periods of time and began to affect the victim, degrading their condition. Although rare, it's fatal if left untreated for months, even for onis according to the lore.

But for Yakumo, she had that condition for over a century. She could've been dead long ago.

But since we're on our way to recovery, I will wake Yakumo up.