Solo Cultivation in The Apocalypse

Gigi pulled out some pills that increased his health after consuming them. Then he pulled out a health kit that healed most of his health. Next was a medkit that helped him in healing the burns.

Hitori snorted as he waved down to Fierce. He carefully lifted her wing to take a look at the wound. It looked like a trench, a narrow deep hole under his wings.

Everyone from the audience stayed silent, Kamiya and Reon watched as Gigi curled into a corner and Hitori boiled up in anger. Although Hitori's anger was not visible on his face, the duo and even the audience could feel the piled-up anger.

Hitori marched to the ice wall-- the ice wall was making Fierce feel even more pathetic-- so Hitori smashed the wall.

Gigi's ears pointed up when he heard the sound, he increased his speed of applying Aloe Vera's gel to his burns.

Hitori broke the wall, unmodified it into a block of ice that he threw on the other side-- Gigi did not even have to dodge it-- and bolted out of the partition walls, passed the entrance, and reached the floor's backside.

Gigi grabbed the wall next to him and stood straight, he then raised his arm.

Hitori held his head down and walked right in front of Gigi with empty hands. Gigi hesitated, Hitori continued to walk till he was standing a few feet away from Gigi.

Gigi's health bar had entered the green slot but the stinging pain had not left his body yet.

"You have hurt my pet..." Hitori's cold as ice voice entered Gigi's ears.

Gigi took a step back when Hitori lifted his head and his blue eyes flashed with enough anger to scare the shit out of Gigi and the spectators who got a close-up view.

Gigi's cannon slip down, Hitori raised his hand and reached for his gun on the side.

"This was a fight between us!" Hitori growled. His gun snapped out of his waist and stretched in front of Gigi.

Gigi's eyes stretched till the end, his jaw clenched at the sight of Hitori pointing a gun at his face.

"NO! No..." Kamiya clenched his fist. "Throw the gun!" He gritted his teeth.  Hitori disconnected the call.

"A gun?" Gigi's expressions changed drastically. His stretched eyes started contrasting. "How dare a fucking mage like you point a gun at me?!"

Hitori stepped back when  Gigi's cannon touched his head. Hitori curled down and pulled an ice shield.

Gigi's arm jerked and he fired a blast powerful enough to shatter Hitori's shield and even push him a few inches away.

Gigi did not stop there, he jerked his legs, and dashed past Hitori.

Hitori pushed his shield and stood the back on his feet. "Should not have done that, bastard." Hitori bolted behind Gigi who soon disappeared behind the partition wall.

"W-where is going?" someone asked.

"He is headed for the boss!" a shouted.

"Ryu would not catch up with him," Yaban added.

"He will not." Kuchiki nodded.

"God, shit, shit, shit!" Kamiya moved his fingers frantically through the control panel, trying to come up with perfect defense.

While running behind Gigi, Hitori moved his hand to his left waist and grabbed his katana's hilt. Hitori drew out his black katana. A few cannon blasts were heard, and Hitori increased his pace.

Hitori brought himself to a stop when he passed the partition wall. Gigi was already standing in front of Fierce.

She was hurt and hence could not stand up to fight Gigi away. She lay in her nest and her chest heaving up and down.

Hitori stretch out his katana to his left, gritted his teeth, lowered his eyes at Gigi, and rushed forward at full pace.

"Limitbreaker," Gigi announced, Hitori slowed down, his anger vanished and fear started building in.

"No." He shook his head. "No-- Fierce!"

Bright light emerged from Gigi's cannon into the whole floor.

But before he fired his limit breaker shot, Gigi turned to Hitori behind him and muttered, "It was always about your dungeon-- and never about us."

The glimmering light blinded the audience, the duo, Hitori, and even Gigi as it took over the whole floor.

Its recoil pushed Gigi back on the ground, he rolled till his neck was snapped-- or so the sound came.

As if the shockwaves were not enough, Fierce gave Hitori a sign of her death. Flames of fire erupted from Fierce's nest and engulfed the whole area in the fire.

Debris flew all over, and Hitori was blown away as fire swallowed Gigi alive. The visible shockwaves calmed down after tarnishing everything on the floor.

[The Hogosha Phoenix dungeon has been conquered by 'Gigi #1010'from the 'Emperor Onogi's Guild']

[Gigi #1010 from the 'Emperor Onogi's Guild' has lost the Hogosha Phoenix Dungeon]

Kamiya was silent. Since the whole floor was covered in flames, dust, rocks, etc. nothing was visible clearly and Kamiya did not want to waste a few yens on an air blower.

So he, along with the audience, waited till the dust was cleared. One thing was sure, Hitori was not dead yet as Kamiya received no message.

And so Probably was not Gigi, but who knew? Since Kamiya lost the Hogosha dungeon he would not receive the notification about the raiders' death but Kuzu would receive a notification for Gigi's death.

"D-does the dungeon belongs to us?" Reon asked in a clumsy voice.

Kamiya shook his head. "Hitori is still alive," he said.

Reon stared at Kamiya before speaking again, "H-have we lost the dungeon?"

"Y-yeah."

"But Gigi is dead, is not he?"

"Not sure," Kamiya replied. "Even if he is dead, Hitori will have to defeat Fierce once again... alone... to conquer the Hogosha dungeon bak."

Reon's eyes widened. "No way." She placed her hand on her head. "Hitori-san..." Reon flashed a glance at Kamiya. "Will we have to beat each boss again to conquer the dungeons back?"

Kamiya silently turned his head to her. "Hm."

Tick.

He turned his eyes back to the map but he could not see any dot on the screen. The dungeon did not belong to him anymore. He became just one of those hundreds of spectators.

"Why would you do that?" Reon furrowed her eyebrows. "Double work? Why?"

Outside, the audience was eagerly waiting for any one of them to rise and give them any kind of sign.

"They have conquered the dungeon, right?" Yaban and Kuchiki glanced across at a person who was staring blinding at the widescreen inf front of them.

"No," Kuchiki said. Yaban was surprised when his friend replied so calmly. "The dungeon belongs to the game now."

"To the game?"

"It was a guild raid, not a solo raid," Kuchiki told, "Unless the Scrap Picker-- Kuzu is alive-- or even a single person from their guild is alive, killing an individual will not get you your dungeon back."

The guy who had asked the question was delighted by the fact that Kuchiki, from the Unbeatable duo, had answered him.

'Still. This guy is interesting...' Kuchiki thought.

"It would not have been a trouble for us to kill the bosses one by one, later the battle." Kamiya turned his head to Reon. "This was not planned to happen," he said.

She went quiet. "...."

"Magus, what happened to the bird?"

"Phoenix, you mean, Fire Phoenix," said Magus, with a straight face.

"...yeah.' His friend found it strange, the way Magus spoke.

"The Phoenix is dead for sure. The fire did not emerge out of anywhere. It only happens when a Phonix dies, it burns to ashes."

"D-dead? Then the dungeon...?"

"I found their strategy strange from the beginning," Kuchiki spoke, "They sacrificed their weak dungeons as if it was nothing."

"Right," Yaban added.

"I do not know if they were dumb or if they have all of this planned... I can not see through their plan."

Yaban jerked his head to Kuchiki. "...what...?"

The other player had the same reaction.

Well, of course, the great strategist could not see through Kamiya's plan. The real plan was messed up by Hitori, after all.

"Kuchiki, what will happen?"

"W-what now then? Wh-what if Hitori-san's dead?" Reon asked, she gulped.

"With the dungeon's gone... what will they do?" Magus' friend-- ex-friend asked.

The audience anticipated that Hitori would get out of the dust, alive. But most of them, who wanted some action, wished that both of them would get out of the dust, alive.

But to their disappointment, no one made a move. The dungeon was silent, with not a single noticeable movement.

Kamiya removed his hand from his forehead, leaned back, and turned to Reon. "Then we will have to protect our territory," Kamiya said.

Kuchiki unfolded his arms as he shifted his toes to Yaban, he expected his friend to shout at him. "If Ryu has not protected himself against the fire, then he is dead. And their whole territory is in the hands of God's Hell and Leonine."

Magus glared at his friend. "'It is not easy to escape a dying Phoenix's fire...' they say." Magus adjusted his cape. "If it is true, then I am eager to meet him here any time soon." He moved his hand down his cape.

"But Reon-san..." Kamiya sounded chill when he was not. "He is Hitori. He has survived the fire once, he will survive it this time too," Kamiya said with confidence.

"We will know if this was a part of their plan... or purely a stupid blunder," Kuchiki said, he folded his hands again.

"But if the legend states wrong." Magus gulped. "he will have to make the Phoenix his pet once again."

A beam of water cleared the dust.