Shovels In Spades

Daz's vision faded out and was soon replaced by a scene of the future.

"To think even more foreigners are invading our homeland... You're sure he'll be back soon, Hsin-yi?" a handsome Taiwanese man in his early 30s asked.

The young woman stood next him playing on her phone peeked over its screen to answer, "Yeah. I already told you he will. Stop doubting my God-rank skill, sheesh."

She stretched her neck and looked over at the bear-like man lying down on the grass of the hill they were all on which overlooked Yilan City and said, "Kun-kun can be such a dick, huh, Chun-chun?"

The large man turned his head to look at her. "Stop calling me that. Kuan-yu too. You know we don't like your stupid nicknames. He has every right to doubt you when you get unclear images at best."

"Boo!" Hsin-yi responded as she returned her gaze to her phone.

The fourth person present stirred from his prior stone-like state. He was a short boy of about 15-years and next to him wagging its tail was a husky dog. "He's back."

Kuan-yu glanced at the only female of their group and smirked. "See? Why are Pai-han and John so much more accurate than you?"

"Because John's a super dog!" Hsin-yi protested. "Of course he can smell a massive fuck-off Yaoguai from a billion miles away."

Kuan-yu chuckled before he looked back at the large man who had now gotten up on his feet. "Ready, Chun-hung?"

The man nodded. He held his hand out and shook his wrist, resulting in one of his many bracelets starting to glow.

The next moment it had transformed into a 7-foot-tall longbow made of pure metal. Even the string itself seemed to be made of some sort of stretchy alloy.

He shook his other wrist resulting in an arrow that resembled a missile just from size alone. Chun-hung nocked the arrow and focused his senses. "Ready."

"Great. We'll show these foreigners that Taiwan isn't theirs for the taking," Kuan-yu said with anger and indignation filling his tone. "We've been walked over enough."

The 4 of them waited patiently as only the sound of John the husky panting filled their ears. 20-seconds later a tiny black blur became visible in the distance.

Almost immediately Chun-hung let his arrow fly. Less than a second later he smiled very slightly. "Hit."

Daz's golden eye stopped shining, returning it to its normal lacklustre hue of grey.

Sweat covered him but he naturally didn't care for that. A frown made its way onto his face as he mumbled, "I was hit? That arrow definitely struck me right in the heart. How did my halo not avoid it? Was it not a fatal wound? How?"

Daz had so many questions but a few were far more pressing than others. "Is that future unchangeable?"

This thought had lingered in the back of his mind ever since he had felt himself enter a trance of sorts when he lived through the vision he had seen of Crusher healing Rose during the level-2 awakening of her esper power.

Another question bothered Daz somewhat. "Does me seeing the future actually change it or does it change nothing?"

Thus far he had looked into the future twice; once to see how his sister did during her awakening and the other time to determine why he needed so many merit points. Both times his future self hadn't shown any signs that they were aware they'd seen the future.

"And we're back to the trance again... It's the only explanation." Daz held his chin in thought as he pondered over the topic.

"But if it changes nothing... Then what point does Future Vision serve? Why does it exist? Surely in the non-life-threatening environment that Earth was before the system, Future Vision was the reason the Hamilio family was so powerful despite having such a non-combative esper power..." Daz felt he may be onto something.

"Perhaps... there's more to the ability than meets the eye?" he whispered in wonder.

All that made sense to him right now was trying to alter the future he had seen only moments ago. "Yaoguai," he called with his voice now raised.

"Yes, King Daz?" the beast answered as it continued to run back towards Yilan City.

"Chang-" A massive jolt a pain coursed through Daz's body as he tried to speak. He felt his Hamilio bloodline begin to suck him dry of all of his remaining Internal Energy.

The Yaoguai, as well as Dorian, Crusher and Master Merit, noticed Daz's odd condition. "Are you alright? Humans and the additional child of the system, is this normal?"

Master Merit shook his head as he walked along the massive creature's back. "Absolutely not. I've never seen him like this before, in truth. Though perhaps Mr Elkwood or Miss Crusher here know more. They have been with His Majesty for far longer than I."

"Never seen him like this either," Crusher shrugged.

"Me too," Dorian answered honestly.

Crusher approached Daz and supported him with one arm. "Can ya speak, Uriel? You gettin' attacked or something?"

Her words were casual but her tone was serious. Her free hand was gripping her warhammer tensely. If someone as strong as Daz was put in this state by another person then Crusher felt she was justified in being incredibly worried.

"I'm... fine," Daz spat out at great effort.

He raised a hand to hold his head only for his palm to get covered in sweat. "Great... even... Yaoguai, stop... us... here. I... need... time... to... recover..."

"Of course," the demonic bear replied before slowly lowering itself in the field they were in. The monster then proceeded to curl up into a ball.

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Master Merit stroked the right twine of his long moustache as he smiled. "Does this perhaps relate to that time you claimed you had almost killed yourself in the Mercenary Guild, Your Majesty?"

"Yes... and... no. I'd... rather... if... you... didn't... ask... further... questions... until... I've... regained... my... strength," Daz said rather pointedly and with very little patience.

"Ah, my apologies," Master Merit responded with a slight bow after taking his top hat off and holding it at his chest.

Daz nodded and closed his eyes in an attempt to focus on recovering as much of his internal energy as he possibly could to make the pain he was experiencing lessen even if only a little.

Soon, 10-minutes had passed with no visible improvements to his condition. Seeing that this might actually take a while, Dorian got himself comfortable again and began fiddling with his mechanical arm.

Master Merit stood at Daz's side though his eyes seemed unfocused. He was likely busy asking the system questions. About what, only he knew.

Crusher, on the other hand, was amusing herself by running her fingers through Daz's halo. She'd claimed she'd always wanted to but either couldn't find Daz, was busy herself, or felt it'd be a nuisance to the man.

Daz couldn't care less about her playing with his Halo of Absolute Judgement but the spirit of a certain demon princess certainly wasn't best pleased.

'Ignorant Fool! Get her to stop this instant! That is our bed she is so haphazardly manhandling with her sausage-like fingers!' Reika yelled in protest.

Daz sighed lightly. Trading one headache for another, opening his eyes and looking at Crusher, he requested, "Crusher... stop... it... would... you?"

"Haha, sure, Uriel. Interestin' as fuck though how its incorporeal like that," Crusher commented before she stopped supporting Daz's back and instead laid him down on the Yaoguai's spine.

Reika puffed out her chest in victory as she watched the 8-foot-tall Titan lumber over to Dorian's side. 'Hmpf! Of course he would side with us, foolish woman! He is our contractor, after all.'

Daz closed his eyes once more as he shook he head lightly, choosing to rest instead of humouring Reika any further.

Daz groggily opened his eyes. 'Did I fall asleep? I must have since my body doesn't feel like it's on fire anymore. System, what time is it?'