Instinctively, Seiji and Saki split off from Saki in their directions without further need for coordination. Saki plunged deep into the mass grabbing up a wolf looking demon and flinging it into the mob to create an opening. It gave her enough room to work with as the rallied demons charged in around her.

Dodging around the first wave of demons, she disappeared to the second wave taking two down with a swift kick and threw the third behind her into the confused first wave. Dancing around the field, she skillfully evaded weapons and demonic spells, the low level grunts were barely a match for Saki’s speed. Only their numbers worked against her, she couldn’t stay still or end up being cornered quickly.

For Seiji, it went a little more straightforward as to be expected from him. His fists went first and nothing more to add. Strength alone for him kept the demons off him completely. But he quickly became surrounded, having to elbow and head butt where he could just to keep them off him. They made more progress against him than Saki, but still fell into a stalemate that wouldn’t push further.

Deeper still, Yumi faced down with the strange reviving demon. As a leader of the demons it certainly presented the necessary aura of one and strength. The ability to not die from having its head removed definitely put it up there. Though she worried if it was possible to actually kill it. With such an ability, Yumi didn’t know what it was going to take to kill the thing.

Not knowing the extent of its powers couldn’t stop her. She had to bring an end to the fight over her. Whatever it took to kill the demon, even if she had to be more thorough than normal in killing.

She jumped towards the giant demon with blades in her hand and gravity orbs tracking in her wake. Swinging down both blades, she sought for another clean win. As she had been taught with fighting demons, a fast kill was the best. The number that surrounded her and wanted her blood couldn’t allow for anything else. Yet, that didn’t happen.

Maybe it was because the demon didn’t see it coming before. Or it was unprepared and had its defenses down. But it didn’t happen so easily as last time. Her blade stopped, unable to pierce the skin of the demon. It didn’t quite repel, but resisted in a hardened state. The white blades of energy groaned against the demon’s skin, unable to make even a scratch.

In her moment of surprise, the demon took the time to deliver some retribution for the beheading. Unleashing a wound up arm, long claws that looked more like blades themselves glowed in the light of the sun as they came for Yumi. Smashed into her barrier, the claws pierced through the gaps in her protection digging in towards her head. She struggled to re-enforce the barrier even with the demon closing dangerously close to her.

The prick of the point of the claw broke skin on the side of her temple drawing up blood. She had lost the opening round in the fight. That became clear from the way things turned against her. Summoning her orbs in front of her, she threw them at the front of the barrier as her sword sliced through the spheres. Cleaved and destabilized, it only took moments for the energy delicately gathered to violently explode.

White and purple light coughed up, completing over taking Yumi and the front of the demon. Shards of the barrier exploded outward forcing the demon’s hand back and recoiled the body a little from the force of the blast. Out of the blast Yumi flew backwards accelerated by her explosion trailing smoke off her clothes.

Eager demons lined up on her predicted fall wanting a piece of her for those already dead. However, Yumi remained in control of her fall and watched carefully her surroundings. Before hitting the ground her barrier went up once more followed by her array of blades taking up sides along the equator of the barrier. They spun around quickly slicing through any demon that dared to approach her.

Yumi stared up at the giant demon coming towards her. Their fight would continue despite her wishes. “Dammit… This isn’t going to be easy…”

Chapter 421 – Three Way Struggle

Surrounded on all sides by fearless demons, she ground her teeth together. Towering in the distance was their commander. She failed her first attempt and now her second as well. Yumi tried to figure out a method that would kill the demon. ‘My swords aren’t enough to cut through anymore… What changed?’

While she kept her thoughts busily fixed on figuring out a solution, her body had to deal with the demons around her. Leaping out of her barrier, she landed further away from the commander. Even with the demon numbers, she bought time to face down the real target.

Yumi grabbed a hold of one of the blades floating at her side and stabbed the demon coming up to her in the head. Throwing the demon back, she leapt on its falling body directing the remaining blades behind her to keep her flanks free. As the demon collapsed, she tossed the blade forward, dropping the charging bird-like thing. Her hands materialized another blade in each hand blocking weapons that swung down on her. A giant hammer and axe increased the pressure on her, magic sparking under the collision.

Several nearby demons saw the opportunity with her tied up with defense to strike. Crushing the head of the hammer with her psychic power, the shaft remained behind with a rough point. Yumi grabbed the middle of the metal rod and pulled against the off balance demon. Directing the point into the demon on her right, she freed herself from defense to quickly slice the heads off the approaching demons.

With even more dead demons at her feet, she had no further advances in her plan to kill the leader. The giant demon marched towards her, getting annoyed with her continued slaughter of their ranks. It seemed to become clear enough to it that the rank and file wouldn’t do anything against her. “Enough! This is between us!” commanded the demon.

A gap cleaved through the swarmed ranks. Broken and heavily trodden earth unveiled from the cloaked forms it wore as demons. Yumi could remember how it used to be grass, tall and blowing freely in the winds undisturbed by nothing unnatural. Only chaos remained painted within the dirt now. That which she commissioned by her own actions.

The clear path to the demon, her target, was welcome. Though she remained no further to an answer on killing it. With the lack of a meaningful answer, it sadly came down to the only remaining option available to her. It hardly seemed any more trustworthy for her, but it should get results. She just needed to apply enough to it. Which became the more important question for her. How much power she needed to actually kill it.

Yumi focused her blades forward at the demon preparing for her charge. Before she could make a move though, the demon struck first. Channeling the flame seen before it stretched out like whips wrapping around her ankle and wrist. Before anymore managed to grab a hold of her, she cut down the flames. But the two still attached burned at her skin slowly fighting her natural resistance.

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She tried to use her strength alone to pull free, but the demon’s power held together better than the ones she sliced up. ‘Damn…I can’t break free… I’m going to lose my hand at this rate…’ Yumi tried with her blades and gravity orbs. Nothing worked on them this time. The power used changed significantly as though the demon channeled everything into them.

The demon commander marched closer to Yumi, likely looking to bring an end to her struggle. “You’re certainly tougher than the death seekers. My flames can melt a normal human in minutes to nothing but ash.”

“You’ll find I don’t burn that easily.”

“Yes, I can see that.” Pulling out a metal rod from behind its back, flames came out from the demon’s hand filling the metal from the inside with a hot white glow. The metal however didn’t seem to be melting from the intense heat. Despite appearances, the white glow didn’t actually seem to be coming from the flame at all. Rather a different mechanism completely was at work. The white turned blue and decreased in intensity becoming simple lines over the surface, but with concentrated strength. It was hard for Yumi to watch without feeling her eyes hurting from the light gathered.

Then to her surprise, the rod changed shape. New extrusions of metal came out of the rod expanding into a deep curved blade like a scimitar. The part of the rod that remained in the demon’s hand became the hilt and the blue glow sank through the metal. Air around the blade warped from the heat contained within. “Let’s see how that toughness fairs against this!”

Yumi ground her teeth together, witnessing the murderous intent surface stronger than ever before. It was thick and suffocating bleeding off the demon with life of its own. If she hadn’t faced down countless demons before it might have paralyzed her. But she could still feel the strength through their desire to kill her. It completely eclipsed what she felt from it before at the start. They had gotten serious, as it were.

More than anything the flames themselves could do to her, Yumi worried about the sword that appeared. With a length that easily matched her height, the force behind the weapon already augmented with their power made it the most deadly demon weapon she had faced. ‘Can my barrier hold that back? With my range limited, it’s going to make sure I can’t move…’

Some of her movement still remained, but the demon was no doubt skilled in finding the exact angle of attack that she wouldn’t be able to dodge. Tied up, she could only rely on her barrier to hold. Her own power wouldn’t be enough to bare hand it like she had done to demons in the past.

The test of power began quickly for her. Any preparation that she made with her barrier didn’t feel like it would be enough at the start. The impact alone destroyed three layers to her barrier with three more vaporized under the sheer power. ‘A ten-fold barrier nearly destroyed this easily…’ Yumi struggled with trying to rebuild her barrier under the weight and pressure. She pushed everything that she had to create the barrier. If she had more time, it might have been stronger, but she had so little time to react.

Sparks flew off with vibrations through the interlocked tiles. Quakes rippled through the barrier buckling under the pressure. The demon had more than just power and heat working against her, but physical strength as well. ‘This feels so much differently than with Manekamaru… I don’t feel—‘ She cut her thought off before she could finish it.

Focusing on the power of her barrier, she tried to keep it from destroying her defense. Defense alone wasn’t going to be enough to win though. The longer that it went on she understood that. ‘I need a different answer… I can’t move the way I want tied up like this and pinned down by the weapon… I needed a free moment to attack…’

Crushing under the sword wasn’t an option for Yumi. She stared intensely at the weapon looming over her. ‘This won’t hold… No matter how much I strengthen it, the demon’s winning… It’s stronger… I’m going to have to do something…’ Yumi gritted her teeth as she came to a conclusion.

The only way out of the spot made her tense up her body. She locked her determined glare at the demon for what she decided. ‘It should at least give me the opening I need…’ Yumi acted quickly knowing that any hesitation from her would only make it harder.

Cracks quickly spread out over the barrier as she siphoned away power. It wouldn’t be long before the large sword sliced through the defense with ease. She summoned up her blades at her side with a side step. The demon made a slight turn in its arm seeing how she moved. Everything was in place.

Shattered instantly as she gave up the fight, the weapon sliced through at a blinding speed. But she moved just so to finally free herself. With a deep roar of pain Yumi appeared in front of the demon’s face, caught off guard from the counterattack.

She swung her white blade at the neck of the demon once more, but it did nothing. The blade shattered on the skin as she grabbed another with her one hand. Blades shattered quickly on the demon. ‘Stronger! I need a stronger sword!’ Two swords forged into one with an intense light from them. It was still not enough. She needed more. Another blade sacrificed itself to power it up more as the blade transformed shape into a bastard sword. Blades smashed into her sword giving it more power until the light blinded them both.

Yumi appeared behind the demon hefting a massive energy sword over her shoulder. She hovered close to the ground, no longer able to stand. However, the demon’s head only remained separated for a brief time. The flames restored it once more to health.

Turning around to face her, it looked down at Yumi’s state. “Sacrificing limbs for victory. You’re a very dangerous woman.”

Blood slowly dripped from her wounds with her powers trying to keep things held back from passing out. Blood loss was her battle now. ‘Fortunately I was able to use my barrier shards to stop the bleeding, but the demon’s still alive… I counted on it being dead and only dealing with the trash…’

Flames burst out from the demon lighting the sword on fire as well as its body. “I can no longer hold back my power it seems. I will crush you with everything I have!”

“Damn…”

Across the battlefield in the town, Yuki yelled out orders to the surviving townspeople. He watched as the last remains of the town fled towards Nerine. The barrier kept the demons out, though Yumi and the others were doing a fine job getting their attention. However, he saw a large red flame explode into the air towards their fight. “I don’t like the looks of that… Please be safe…”

With his Field providing a passive scan of the area, he no longer found any alive humans still in the town. He slowly moved towards the fighting with things suddenly becoming very still. “Nerine, I’m going to check out the battle,” he communicated to her through a small earpiece he crafted, “Something’s wrong.”

“But the plan—“

“We finished our job. It’s too quiet and I’m seeing too many demons still for it to be our win.”

“I’ll come too!”

“I’ll take point, watch my back.”

“Yes!”

Yuki switched over to the second Law set in his Field, one he prepared for on the off chance he would need to fight. It was his simple traditional mist form. He didn’t need more attention. “Yumi…guys…” As he stepped through the ravaged outskirts of the town, he came to the field of dead demons left behind from his friend’s fighting.

The silence became more unbearable the closer he came to the source of most of the fighting. Alive demons formed a wall between him and his friends. He stepped closer as their attention remained away from him. None of them seemed to care about him.

“What’s happening?” complained a demon, which like him couldn’t see what was happening. But the silence from the fighting made them all want answers.

“Is the Hunter dead?”

“She stopped moving!” a demon from further up reported.

“The Hunter’s dead!” cheered the demons, breaking the silence.

“Yumi…no. No!” Yuki released all of his mist in every direction knocking demons carelessly aside to make room for him. He charged forward casting any demon away that found it unfortunately in his way. He didn’t want to believe it, even though his mind had already gone to that place.

He burst through the wall of demons into the clearing where he saw Yumi laying face down in the dirt surrounded by blood. “Yumi!” Running over to her side, he looked around and found Saki collapsed on her back breathing shallow along with Seiji. A cough from Yumi gave him the relief to know that she was still alive. “Yumi!”

“Sorry…Yuki…I lost…”