Bow and Arrow

Chapter 60 — Hanging Out with the Ancient One



Hanging Out with the Ancient One

 

 

"I want to know your name."

Tongqiu's decisive and soft voice traveled through the entire floor as it reached her... ears?

Upon hearing his first question, the shadow visible trembled for a second before adopting a straight, graceful stance as she spoke: "I don't know! Uh... I-I-I... was never given, hic, was never given a name before they, they... hic-hic, sniff... I don't have one!!!"

RUMBLE~

An agonizing pain made its way from Tongqiu's ears all the way down to his feet. Her voice went back to its previous destructive, rumbling nature, but this time it went even further than before. Fortunately, it was merely a kind of altered state and not an actual action, otherwise he would've been on the ground already.

Tongqiu's eyes flashed! He knew he had to recuperate as fast as possible, before she went berserk or whatever else! He still believed there were hidden dangers aimed at both, him and the Ancient one and, if he didn't made it easier for both of them, then they'd surely fall down to the schemes of those shadowy hands' owners from before!

"Alright, alright~. Then please, tell me of yourself, how do you look? That way I'll come up with a name for yourself, I'll choose one that is both beautiful and... cute." Insides churning, Tongqiu nonetheless gave it his best to not have a change of expression and immediately went a few steps forwards as if to demonstrate he isn't afraid of her and that he intends to keep her company, make her feel secure.

Sure enough, little girl coaxer professional Tongqiu's talent was not for show as the female shadow figure stopped trembling out of control and raised her head before turning it towards Tongqiu.

Hic... Hic-sniff!

"Okay." A soft, delicate and unearthly yet girlish voice replied Tongqiu after some crying noises being restrained were heard.

"Um, now tell me about your looks. Ah, you don't need to tell me about your personality, I already have more or less an idea of your cute and... great personality." Ah, Tongqiu had to blink some times to remain composed as he kept on his nonsensical talking.

"Alright! Then, I'm not human, like you. But! I am a... uh, ah! The word is 'humanoid'! Mn, mn, mn! There's beautiful, luscious vegetation all around my body, and, and, and... ah! There's this extremely beaaaatifuuul, adorable red petals around some parts of my body too! Essentially on top of my head, hehe~~ is really cute!!" When the shadow began speaking, its head moved up and down like a chicken pecking down on rice. Tongqiu could swear he saw the glint of a pair of eyes when the voice mentioned the red petals all around her body.

'A dryad? Demon perhaps? Ah! It's a... flower humanoid?...' Before he would start getting anxious by overthinking, Tongqiu stopped all his train of thoughts before standing straight up and his face taking a determined change, lifting up his head and speaking again.

"Tell me, do you know flowers? Do you like any?!"

Towards the sudden, direct question of his, the Ancient one perplexedly answered honestly: "I only know there's a bunch of them in this world. But I've never seen petals this beautiful before! I uh... no?"

Blink. Blink.

"Ehem! Al-alright, well I got an idea now, wanna hear it?" Clearing his throat, Tongqiu blinked twice before once again 'advancing' towards the little girl's heart.

Nodding like crazy and with her voice growing in an excited tone, she answered: "Sure! Tell me, tell meeee~!!" 

"My lady, your voice is ethereal and knows no filth nor obscenity, but if wanted to, it could be as imposing and graceful as that of an immortal. Hearing my lady's voice alone causes my heart to melt, and my eyes to shine to no end! My lady's beautiful, celestial and humble appearance is that of the longing for freedom and desire for beauty! Since I am here, I'll tell my lady the truth. It is not only finding you my mission here, it is also of that of freeing you! I wasn't sure if I was capable of such an act but, now, even if I die ten thousand times, no! Countless times! I'll still choose MY lady over anything else, even my own pride!"

"My lady, please! Allow me to name you, grace me with the honor of giving you a name to relish upon in the future and in the endless, boundless universe!" Reaching this point, Tongqiu solemnly took a knee onto the ground as his head was lowered enough for her to see one of his greatest weak spots, granting her the possibility of instantly finishing him off. But also enough for him to be able to see her feet; even if her body was enormously large, he'd be able to deduce by the slightest of movements of her feet what she was about to do next, unbeknownst to her.

The owner of the girly voice, no longer playful as it saw the serenity and devotion of Tongqiu's commitment, even became serious and solemn in its reaction! Its silhouette within the mist also no longer kept on acting childishly as it turned genuine and gracious.

"My warrior, mn. I award you, who has gone through greater hardships, all in order to find and free me from my unquestionably powerful perpetual imprisonment; the grace of naming me. For you, and only you, are deserving of myself." Along with gracious movements of the shadow's arms and what seemed to be a lifted chin; Tongqiu was then pointed at by her -possibly- index finger of her left hand as the rest of her fingers layed there, lazily intertwined.

'Me.., deserving of herself?! That... is oddly specific!'

Nevertheless, Tongqiu couldn't allow himself to become an idiot... right now. Still with his head lowered in devotion, he gratifyingly yet sharply spoke: "My most precious thought, once I knew of my lady's appearance was my sole reason for creating this name for you... I wholeheartedly name you... Rosey!"

Ah, a coinflip. This was definitely playing with fire, his only hope was that of her not minding his idiocy or not realize about it. In any case, as long as he had a pass, he should be fine.

Tongqiu: "..."

Rosey(?): ◔ ⌣ ◔  --->  (ノ◕ヮ◕)ノ*:・゚✧

"Yeppiii! Hahahe~."

Pheeew~

Hearing her joyous, ringing bell-melodious giggles and exclamations, Tongqiu knew he had successfully overcome this tribulation. After all, Rosey has been acting all naïve through this whole time, maybe she was actually so.

Afterwards, she and Tongqiu had a nice somewhat long little chat to which he patiently went through and strangely, he even felt enjoyment from their little relaxing atmosphere. Through the entire time, Tongqiu tried asking her many different questions whose answers were quite specific, some for the sake of digging out information for a possible fight and some others, were actually asked by his own will! However, she never seemed to have an answer for any of his questions, as for Tongqiu, he himself 'felt' she genuinely couldn't answer them due to not having something to relate to, at all. Ignoring the somewhat sad discovery, they continued chatting., more and more congenially, affectionate and even warmly.

Tongqiu got asked many, many questions in return; such as what does he eat, what does he like eating, colors, flora, clothes, hairstyle, what does he do as a person, what kind of woman he likes, what does he like from women a lot, what weapons he uses, which ones he has, how does he acts with other people, if he's lonely, if he had a family, someone to rely on, if he liked children and wouldn't mind acting as a big brother for them, to what extreme would he go for his important close ones, if he likes hugs, receiving them, giving them... Tongqiu didn't dare to lie as he truthfully and genuinely answered each and every question thrown at him. After all, if he could know whether or not she was being sincere even to the point of understanding her state of mind and emotions as well as the current most stirred emotions and feelings... then she would've be able to do that and much more to him, a 'lesser' being, for sure. In fact, she had already showcased such ability before, when using Fatima's image, the moment he thought of a certain important person of his and so on...

Undoubtedly, they both became unquestionably closer to the other as time went on and their chatter extended, their 'ice' had long ago been broken into dust and Tongqiu found himself more fond of her by each second, Rosey herself felt more and more attached towards him and felt increasingly safe around him.

Going through this endless questionnaire of sorts had Tongqiu realize that he was indeed dealing with a little girl; a still ignorant child. He couldn't find himself capable of ignoring such a fact as he promptly asked her in a worried tone: "Rosey, about your origins, could it be that you're many more times your age compared to your looks-"

"No, no, no! I'm genuinely 13 years old in uh... general life progression! It's... it's just that..."

Seeing her not hesitating but her mental fortitude crumbling instead, he decided to do something he hadn't dared before, even when they were getting warmly closer to each other- to step into the mist. That was because he could easily sense her warning signals from whenever he tried to probe her into going into the mist or just physically closer towards her in general.

"Look, I'm here. Hey... I'm here, am I not? Look at me." With his softest tone possible and with a tender touch to it, he spoke towards her as he inched closer and closer, now a few meters into the mist.

"AH! Do-d-d-don't!!!"

With Rosey screaming at him in a clearly alarmed, frightened tone, Tongqiu stopped advancing as instantaneously as he could. He stood there with an inquiring, puzzled look in his eyes as he did his best to find hers.

Watching him be so frightened and concerned eased up Rosey, while at the same time distracting her- pulling her away from her previous mental state falling down, allowing her to relax again and speak to him with a clear, chiming-bell and ethereal girlish voice: "I am 13 years old, from when it comes to being awake... I was imprisoned at this place when I was merely a child, if it wasn't because of my Masters, I would've become a withered leaf; forced to live every passing trice... for as miserable... and sorrowful as it sounds. He... hehe..."

"Rosey..." Tongqiu unconsciously spoke out her name when a deep sense of abandonment flooded his every being, his heart twisting to such reveal. He unconsciously spoke out again, softly and slowly: "how... just how long have you been- in here?!"

Rosey's ethereal, heavenly voice gently reverberated within the mist: "That... for eons... I think? Did you know? Ever since the very moment you entered these Mysterious Hidden Grounds, I woke up? The Essential Mist my Masters left for me is now utterly deteriorated and my entire time was spent regaining as much power as I could... but I've already noticed their presence. They're already within these grounds and prying from the outside perimeter of this floor... me and my Masters' last line of defense from their direct assault..."

"Do you want to know about my myself?! All about my life?!?" After a slight pause Rosey's trembling, hopeful voice resonated thunderously inside his head.

"Mn." Seeing the quiet, listening Tongqiu mildly nod, Rosey then started to recount her extremely short-lived past.

She suddenly grew quiet, her entire shadow figure was obviously downcast as her posture was truly one of a little girl that has been through a traumatic event: "By the time the unexpected war had been on-going for who knows how long, I-I... think... I was born... I also had inherited a bloodline that even my greatest Master became too shocked for! But... but it was then that we were taken off-guard and... I-I-I don't know what happened! I-I was induced into an unconscious state and when I woke up, I... was already in this room! So, empty and... and lonely and scary! But my Masters told me that I was going to be fine so that I shouldn't worry but... I was rather scared about losing them... I was young but, sniff, but not a fool. Sniff; since then, I've been in a perpetual fixated space-time separated dimensions technique which... burned my Masters' entire lifespan, soul and even their- sniff, Essence. The mist is exactly that which allowed me to still be teached by them even after their deaths, heheh, I can even remember all of the information that the Essential Mist engraved inside of my head; all those beautiful sceneries, animals- OH! My most treasured ones were all those beautiful flora! I can't help but want to have lots and lots of them!"

Becoming increasingly cheery, no longer despondent, she continued in the same girly voice: "Ah! Right, right, right, right, right! Essential Mist is also the main factor at avoiding myself from becoming vulnerable to the G-uh-wah! Can't say that, ehem; basically, in other words once this Essential Mist withers away into existence, you'll have to defeat me with all your might. Big brother, you'll do it for me right? Also, big brother, when you free me from this cold and ugly place, could you give me lots and lots and loooooots of all kinds of flora?! I really, really, reaallyyy~ would... like that. Can you promise me, big brother?"

13 years old... imprisoned for... eons?

Just a girl, completely alone, and for that long. Even if she wasn't conscious and her awareness was completely focused on learning what her 'Masters' had left for her... it is impossible for her not to feel her surroundings, not with that kind of incredible awareness.

Sigh, just what is this game on about.

Tongqiu set his eyes towards the enormous shadow's head as they turned resolute and determined, his voice akin to that of talking towards his own little sister: "Rosey, I promise. Trust me."

"Mn." The shadow's enormous head and body nodded ever so cutesy, making Tongqiu involuntarily grin for a moment there.

Rosey spoke again, this time with a strangely doting and reassuring tone: "Are you ready then? I won't be merciful! You'll have to use your mightiest, full power! Understood, big brother?"

"Yes, Rosey. Let us start." He responded with an equally doting tone.

"Mn!!"

Woosh!

Woosh!

Woosh!~

'Sigh... at the end I didn't even got any advantageous information from her... and I even have to fight her, tsk.'

While Tongqiu was having any kind of wild thoughts, the surrounding Essential Mist started visibly shrinking, as if being eaten by space as it was slowly minimizing itself all around him.

Sigh...

A long yet in relief sigh resounded; who else could reveal such an emotional sigh but Rosey at this moment? Tongqiu looked up towards Rosey and was instantly surprised, though not much since it was clearly obvious it was going to happen, since the Essential Mist was becoming scarcer by moments alone.

What he saw was Rosey's true appearance, her real, exotic form.

Ignoring her colossal, large body; she was basically a beauty, a beauty with human skin at that. Her skin was an entirely pale-silver, while she also had leaf-like clothes perfectly covering her bosom, neckline, back, shoulders as well as bottoms and from her abdomen all the way down to her knees; covering 3/4 of her slender, jade-like thighs, barely.

Those leaves covering her body were unbelievable soft-looking, it even gave one the impression that they had smooth, furry hair on top of them.

There was also the red colored petals she mentioned earlier, what she did not mention however, was where exactly did those petals covered her body for. Her prominent, G cup teardrop shaped breasts were one of those parts which was very well hidden yet gave on an extremely alluring feeling just by looking towards those soft, luscious and very well adapted red petals. Her crotch area -along with her pelvis and inner thighs- were also covered by such petals while her pear 'A' shaped bottoms were hidden as well, and just like her breasts, it was but specially tantalizing with how perky and upright they were. Her abdomen was very well covered by the leaves too, but Tongqiu's Mental Prowess usage allowed him to blatantly take a clear peek onto her abdomen without any qualms; it was an extremely slim yet aesthetically toned-looking abdomen and along with her breast, buttocks and slim, soft legs, made it impossible but to become aroused at the visualization of the entire picture. If she were naked... 'kingdom toppling' beauty is even less than a underestimating her beauty to catastrophic levels!

Her hair was of long length while it was also bright-red with a radiant, fiery glow to it. Not only her hair was as such, all of her facial hair was exactly like that, her eyebrows were specially tantalizing as Tongqiu couldn't take his eyes off her face. If he already had trouble looking at her body, then even more so was he now more lost than before!

Her iris were of a clear, pure pale-violet color while her pupils were of a deep black-crimson with a crimson little flame fluctuating every once in a while, which was also surrounded by a transparent, black mist.

She had her lower lip was meaty and juicy, glistening ever so appetizingly while her upper lip was thinner yet seductive to a paramount degree. Her nose was a small pointy upwards, east asian cutely shaped nose. Which made quite the contrast with the rest of her body being ever so damn goddess-like in appearance.

They looked at each other silently, admiring and delighting each others' body at the same time.

"Sigh, Rosey, you forgot to mention your unbelievable beauty, don't you think?" Asked Tongqiu in resignation and abandonment.

"Hehe! Do you really like my body so much? I'm glad!" Rosey however, was in tremendous joy and anxious to get more compliments.

"Mn, mn. How can you omit such blatant gorgeousness like this eh? You were not completely honest, Rosey."

For some reason, being called in that exactly way by Tongqiu gave her a magnificent bashful enjoyment and satisfaction. Not like she was receiving praise for just having a beautiful body but merely felt Tongqiu's urgency at making her feel more... alive, out of this 'place'.

However, good things don't last forever.

Pvvviinnng~

Horrendous, scalp tingling sounds of ripping were heard as a pair of shadowy, gigantic hands seemingly appeared out of nowhere while being bizarrely dragged. Improbably as it may, these clearly different shadowy hands actually teared the void open, however they wanted! Or rather, almost as much as they wanted, as they were trembling and twinkling every now and then, from which Tongqiu incredulously discovered something about them.

These gigantic shadowy hands, besides being 3-4 times bigger than the previously shadowy hands known as 'big shadowy hands' would turn to appear to be made of flesh and bones! Tongqiu realized of this the very first time he saw them twinkling, it seemed as if a mirage of someone's real arm and hands entirely, were being used but at the same time not, to enter into this area.

However, he wouldn't stupidly lose his composure like this, no, because he had to do something as 'they' went directly towards Rosey!

He materialized his essential weaponry as his arms and shoulder blades took the marvelous transformation effect once again as two arrows had already been let loose!

He had used 'abnormal' state right away without even thinking. Since those fuckers came back, and for his Rosey at that, then he'd no longer give a shit about it and get involved!!

Rosey however, had a tranquil, serene expression as all that happened. When she saw Tongqiu adamantly refuse to let anything happen to her though, a dazzling, heavenly smile formed from her lips as her eyes dangerously narrowed.

Tongqiu saw this, of course, but he would never falter before such in the face of danger for his little Rosey!

Bong~ Bong~

His arrows jumped backwards however; but Tongqiu wouldn't allow such a tremendously unbelievable thing to happen! He rapidly used his Mental Prowess as his two bounced back arrows immediately took aim again and launched themselves at the shadowy hands again, this time- exactly at the moment they twinkled back to the mirage-like image!

Trsick! Trsick!

Another creepy, blood-curdling couple of sounds were heard as the shadowy hands broke apart into shattered pieces of glass, all of them still trying to take upon the task of seizing Rosey.

MPI-SVING!!!! MPI-SVING!!!! MPI-SVING!!!! MPI-SVING!!!! MPI-SVING!!!! MPI-SVING!!!!...

PUK-BKOM PUK-BKOM PUK-BKOM PUK-BKOM PUK-BKOM PUK-BKOM PUK-BKOM...

Innumerable arrows shot from the 'abnormal' state went all off almost at the same time and exploded in perfect co-ordinance to protect Rosey.

At least a dozen and a half of explosions which stirred up one another because of how insanely close they were went 'boom' in the most terrifying of ways, even more than the previous two sickening noises; were heard as the shattered pieces of glasses disintegrated at the slightest touch.

"Huff, huff! Huff, huff... huff, huff... huff... Rosey? Eh- hah, you, are you okay?" A Tongqiu with a paler than pale white skin, bleeding through all his 7 orifices and even from within his nails and some pores on his chest was raggedly breathing in clear need of air and stabilization inside his body, even then he asked with all of his sheer will power towards the Rosey who he could only see in a blurry image.

"...Big...big brother! Ah, yes, I am, I am fine, yes. This you, what, why did you- sigh..." After hearing his voice, she was somewhat speechless as she genuinely didn't thought Tongqiu would be not only be this decisive and unhesitating but also so damn extremely powerful and flexible!

"Ah-haaah~, those fuckers, those... are they the ones from that time, long ago? Huff..." Tongqiu sat down as he took enough air to talk like a decent being as he asked her.

"Mn, mn... but, big brother, how can you fight me in this state, aaaah? What am I supposed to do with you... haish, forget it, but after this you'll have to do your best to defeat me!" As she spoke, she closed in on him as she extended her left arm and her slender, 4-5 meters long fingers towards his glabella.

Tsnnn!~

Upon her index finger making contact with his skin, a strangely pacifying, soothing sound went and reverberated through his entire being at an instant, before slowly leaving a lasting, angelical sound behind for a little few seconds.

At the same time, on Tongqiu's body; his not even drying blood from the still ongoing streams of blood all around his body flowing in a  somewhat rapidly pace started to move backwards from where they stemmed from. As that bizarre-regenerative sensation occurred, Tongqiu's pale countenance turned creamy before becoming rosy and his body regained energy as well as his boundless vigor being entirely restored.

'Hm, seems to me, girls really do take care of me, eh.' With the remembrance of Katia, and that little girl from the Saddened Fallen Summoner soul; Tongqiu gratifyingly involuntarily grinned as he stood up and looked directly towards Rosey's eyes.

She now had a cute, startled expression as her arms were clumsily retracted as well. She looked somewhat confused yet quite elated too.

Seeing this, Tongqiu involuntarily snorted softly before calling out to her: "Well, are you ready to dance?"

Rosey tilted her head in confusion and contemplation, after some seconds had gone by she flinched her head backwards and replied in a shocked tone: "Gasp! Big brother, how could you... you... be so perverted?!"

'Per-ah? EH?! Girl...' Nothing to talk back with, Tongqiu went speechless for a good while.

Rosey: ಠoಠ

Tongqiu: ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ  ---> (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻  ---> ¯\(°_o)/¯

'What the hell am I supposed to do? Am 'I' the perverted? Or is it 'YOU' the perverted for being the only one knowing what makes 'me' perverted?!'

'Oh gosh~! Is my big brother this much? C-could I... could I deal with it efficiently? Oh gosh ,oh gosh!'

Neither of them having a single clue of each others' thoughts, kept on getting one-sidedly flustered and... excited?

In any way, they both went wild as they peculiarly progressed in their relationship, ah.

 

...


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