What am I thinking, you thought, I can't so recklessly throw myself into battle just yet. I'm not priest or shaman, gods don't watch over me. I need a blessing from one of them, only then will I be ready to depart on my quest.
There's a certain shrine nearby, which also served as a house of a powerful priestess, renowned across the land as one of the kingdom's greatest monster girl exterminators. She defended many towns and villages from monster attack.Whether you were rich or poor, powerful or weak, smart or stupid, each human life was precious in her eyes, and she would come to your aid. You still vividly remember that one time you were in need of her help.
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It's been two years since them time our village was plagued by giant footprints that suddenly began appearing on the roadsides near our village. With monster girls being a thing in this world, it's no surprise that people began worrying that they must've been left by one of them. Things got worse when people started finding crushed corpses in those footprints, as well as chewed out human bones near them. The village began sending search parties every night in order to find and kill the beast, but they were never able to find anything. Whatever it was, it preferred dealing with smaller prey.
One evening you were all alone on your farm, the rest of your family had some business to deal with in the village. It's been a normal, quiet evening, until you began hearing some commotion outside. You quickly left your home, a pitchwork in your hand, in order to deal with whatever the problem was. What you saw terrified you.
A young man, no older than you, running for his life, and a giant girl "slowly" following him, laughing all the way. The giantess had a few distinctive features: two long horns sprouting from her head, a long, ginger hair, and soul-piercing red eyes. Her body was covered in some black-striped,yellow cloth, probably made out of a few tigers. Although she was gigantic, her body was in structure similar to a younger human. You knew well that she wasn't young, though. She was an oni, an ancient, horned beast from old myths and legends. Those demons are as old as they're big, and this one was very big.
Your eyes trailed back to the boy, clearly exhausted from all the running. You were debating whether to try and help him, or stay back and protect your home. The inner hero finally won, and you broke into a run. Shortly after you did, the boy finally fell on the ground, unable to move. The oni smiled, her prey finally worn out, allowing her to take a look around the place... And finally notice you.
You froze as her eyes met your own, the blood-red orbs spelling your doom, the sight instantly sucking out all of your bravado. With a sudden jump in energy, you turned around and began running rowards the village, the only safe place around. He heard the giantess laugh in your direction, and a sound of heavy steps, followed by a scream and a wet crunch. Looks like she forgot about her previous victim, and focused on a new prey. Although her steps were big, you were just too far away from her, and the risk of you reaching the village's walls before she cathes up to you was too high. Thus, she broke into a run herself.
The sudden increase in earthshakes made running away very difficult. It would be difficult to stand under those circumstances, let alone run. You quickly fell on your knees and began crawling away. There was no hope of outrunning her in this way, the quakes growing louder and louder. When they were literally right behind you, you jumped into a run once again, only to immediately crash into a giant foot that suddenly appeared before you. You fell on your back, looking up at a smiling face on the oni girl. A cruel smile, to this day still haunting you in your dreams.
The view of her face was quickly replaced by the dirty sole of her enormous foot. The thing was massive, able to easily cover your body from head to toe under just the arch itself if she wished to do it. Instead, she's decided to put your body under the ball of her foot, with your head sticking in between her big and second toe, just so you could see that smile again. She began squeezing it "lightly", putting you through incredible pain. You seriously thought your head was going to burst just from the pressure. Your screaming head an undortunate side effect: some sweat that accumulated in-between her toes found its way into your open mouth, forcing you to cough and gag, and the disgusting taste of the bodily fluid almost making you vomit. The oni found this predicament very amusing, and so instead she stopped squeezing your head, and instead pressed you head into the crevice in-between her toes, slwoly rolling it around, using your still open mouth and hair to clean it as much as she could. When she deemed the job well done, she released your head once again, and move her foot so that you'd be right under her arch. She pressed down, forcing you to scream out loud in pain, and once again take some sweat and dirt into your mouth. She wasn't giving you a break from the pain either, the pressure just kept on building and building. You thought your bones were about to snap, but just as they were about to reach their limits, she let go. You let out a big sigh, taking in the fresh air. You opened to your eyes to great the evening sky, but instead you were greeted by an image that's still burned in your memory.
The oni stood to her full height, easily dwaring you, making you feel like an insect. Her foot was hanging high above, positioned right above your body. This was it, she was going for the kill. You had no strength left in you to move out of the way. You looked her one last time in the eyes, those blood-red eyes. She gave you a wink, and you broke up crying. Her foot fell, this was the end... When suddenly!
A burst of light filled you vision. Though it was bright, it wasn't painful to look at. You were watching as the oni was being slowly vanquished by the column of holy light she was being bathed in. When it finally stopped, the oni was gone, only a small pile of ash left on the ground. Up above it you saw a silhoutte of some woman, hovering in the air. After a closer look you've realized you're looking at the priestess from the nearby shrine, or at least that's who you thought she was. You never saw her in person before, only heard her appearance being described by folks from the village. She was clad in red-white overalls, including a red top with white sleeves, and a red skirt with white wavy patterns on it. Her feet were covered by white tabi.
The priestess landed on top of the oni's remains, skattering her ashes to the wind. You've heard the oni simply impossible to kill permanently, they will eventually regenerate, getting rid of them is only temporary. That day the priestess made one powerful enemy, just to save one soul. You wanted to thank her, to get on the ground and kiss her tabi out of gratitude. Alas, you were too tired to do anything. Your head fell back to the ground as you finally let yourself pass out.
When you woke up, you were back in your bed, your family standing around it, happy that you finally regained consciousness. They asked you what happened, and so you explained them what happened the last night. Their faces went from pure shock and terror to those of relief. Your dad sent two of your younger brothers with a few sacks of our finest corn and rye to the shrine as a way to show gratitude for saving his son's life. A few days later, when your wounds healed and your strength and vigor came back, you were ready to go back in the fields and work off those sacks.
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Your long reminescing of this event made the trip towards the shrine pass very quickly. You were able to finally see the stone pillars that would then lead towards the shrine itself. You sped up your pace, motivated by the prospect of being guided and strengthened by the gods themselves, and becoming the next defender of those lands. When you finally reached the shrine...
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