Take Down Chapter 62: Taking On A Whisper

You waited a little, wondering if the thing in the corner of your vision would come back but nothing did so you shrugged and focused on the scenery again.

The mist from earlier was obviously caused by the sheer number of giant waterfalls spread out among the streams and ponds on this level and you saw one ridiculously high waterfall at one end, that you assumed was the main source for all the other waterfalls and streams to get their water from.

“What an amazing place,” you whispered once again. This was by far the prettiest level.

Your admiring gaze was, again, suddenly disturbed by this flittering, swirling thing in the corner of your eye and you scowled as you looked at it again.

“What is that!” you huffed with annoyance, “it’s like when you get that squiggly line in the periphery of your eye and whenever you try to look at it, it scurries away.”

You stayed still, looking ahead but slightly down, all of your attention focused into the outer edges of your vision.

There it was again, an almost see-though being, it’s shape undetermined because it kept twisting a swirling. You waited, refusing to look at it as it twitched and changed shape.

“Ha!” you called, judging that this thing was close enough into your strike range for you to be able to get it with your sonic attack.

As you called your attack, the [ENGAGE] sign popped up and you heard a sound, like a scream mixed with the rushing sound of water and you flinched.

“Was that the sound of that… thing?”

You stepped away, keeping the unknown misty entity in the corner of your eye.

“I need to get closer again to try ‘spin’.”

“Spin!” you called as you side stepped closer to the swirling flickering mist.

Immediately, purple mixed with brown and green swirled out forcefully from under your foot, puffing out and around the mist being.

Another haunting scream emitted from its ghost like mouth and then it burst into crystals and floated away.

“What was that?!” Hansu asked, having witnessed the whole thing.

“I honestly don’t know. But you can’t look at it when fighting. It’s hard to fight from the peripheries but my attacks worked.”

You opened your information panel for the level and quickly read down the stats. 

“Oh! It says here that they’re called ‘whispers’. They’re the field monsters for this level. They don’t actually attack but will hound you from your peripheries… which is exactly what this one was doing,” you said with annoyance.

Hansu nodded.

“Well…” you continued, “it would be good to get practice fighting from the corner of my eye… just in case I ever come up against someone who does a sneak attack.” You turned to Hansu and smiled. “I’m gonna practice my whip attack on these whispers. I’m used to attacking directly in front of myself but I’ve never even entertained the idea of getting the line of attack off to one side.”

A soft breeze lifted from the waters nearby and ruffled your hair as you stood pondering how to best execute the new move, then you started heading towards one of the ponds.

“Where are you going?” Hansu asked.

“Not sure. I just wanted to try something…”

He followed curiously and watched as you stopped at the waters edge and looked in. As you expected, it was teeming with fish, and you watched them swim lazily around before taking a step back and calling forth your first attack.

“Move!” you called, the blue sparkling whips appearing in the palms of your hands as your body started to rotate.

You went with the movement then tried to adjust the whips so that they would move the red line to the side of your vision but it didn’t work and you ended up striking at the water way off the mark.

Humming with a thoughtful look on your face, you tried once again but it still didn’t do what you wanted.

“Having fun?” Hansu teased from behind you.

Slightly frustrated, you turned to face him, digging your foot into the ground as you spun.

“This stupid move won’t—,”

As soon as you said the word, the blue whips appeared in hand and a protractor angle popped up, immediately shifting the red line to point in the direction of your toe that was still pressed into the ground. 

The line fell directly across Hansu and you jumped forwards, whips in hand. 

It all happened within the blink of an eye (for Hansu ) and he ended up getting smacked across the head and shoulder by your whips.

“ARGH?!” he yelled in pain and surprise, jumping backwards to get out of your way, but you had already completed your move and had disengaged.

“That’s it!” you cried excitedly, “everything is dance related so it makes sense that footwork would be incorporated into the move!”

“You hit me!” Hansu replied with indignation.

“And it helped me figure out how to adjust the red line,” you replied cheekily, “thanks Hansu.”

He grumbled something as he dug out a health potion to restore Migata’s avatar to full health again and you chuckled then turned back to the pond.

“Now be quiet. I’m trying to fish.”

After a little trial and error, you worked out that pointing your foot and sliding it along the ground to the angle you needed the red line to be at, was the best way to control where it ended and in no time you were managing to get about a 30% hit rate with moving objects such as the poor fish in the pond; and Hansu stood back and watched you improve at an alarming rate.

“Ok. Let’s take on a whisper,” you said to him after a decent amount of practice, puffing a little from all the exertion.

“Make it quick, because time is almost up,” he reminded you.

You looked around and headed towards one of the waterfalls nearby, hunting down a mist being.

“I’m assuming they like to be where it’s misty so they can blend in more,” you said out loud to no one in particular. 

As you got closer to the waterfall, you saw something flicker and twist in the corner of your eye and you slowed down.

There it was again.

Quickly judging the distance the whisper was from you, you paused then touched your toe down to the ground and did a slow arc with it, delicately marking a line from in front of you, out to about 50° from your midline.

“Move!” you called, grabbing the whips and flicking one of them out to the side as your other one came up over your shoulder to act as a blinding sparkly shield.

<<< Take Down Chapter 61: Level 5

Take Down Chapter 63: Exploring Level 5 >>>