Kesshō stood in front of all nine of her opponents, ready to fight. She could tell this would be dangerous, but she could still feel her heart racing. All of them seemed stronger than most enemies she fought up until this point. While Kesshō wished to duel someone more than anyone else, Sapphire showed no desire to fight, and Kesshō could tell all these people would serve as good practice till she accepts a duel.

All nine of them surrounded her, keeping distance from her tails which were prepared to defend her from any attack from behind, and also to get out of the way when Kesshō attacked. She bared her fangs towards the vampire, who stood the closest to her. The vampire unsheathed her sword and bared her own fangs at Kesshō, which Kesshō didn't take well, and sprayed a jet of venom at the sword, some of it splashing on to her hands.

The other eight glanced in surprise as the vampire girl yelped in pain and dropped her katana, tripping over a chair and rolling on the ground in pain. Her hand melted where the venom hit, exposing the flesh and corroding some of it. None of the venom managed to make its way into the blood stream, but that did not reduce the damage by any significant amount, the sword also having melted away entirely. The other eight backed a few steps from Kesshō, knowing that being too close will prove to be far too dangerous.

Snow and Kristine snapped their fingers, a large number of stone and ice spears forming around Kesshō. Lyrule boosted the power of the attacks and Freya prepared to shoot three arrows at once, Thunder also prepared to shoot a lightning infused arrow. Kesshō took in a deep breath as they all unleashed their attacks at once, leaving her escape route.

Ni no kata: Kodokuna tsuki.

She performed six slashes, forming crescent moon blades that wrapped around her, forming a dome and blocking all attacks. Her nine phoenix tails swung downwards with great force, creating a moon blade each and sending it towards all 8 of the opponents with great force. The blades tore through the ground, missing four completely, while Frost and Kristine blocked it easily, Freya and Blitz dodging to the side.

Kesshō planned to take down the biggest threat first, dashing forwards towards Freya, killing her momentum with her tails right in front of her and jumping up. Zhe kicked Freya in the chest before she could move away, sending her flying towards a wall. Freya slammed into it, startled, but still very much conscious and mostly unharmed.

Kesshō ducked as a blade arced towards her head, glancing at it from the corner of her eye. Two of her tails hit the blade from below, knocking it out of Blaze's hands and embedding it into the roof. Three other tails struck him in the abdomen, sending him flying out of the inn through a wall.

Kesshō swung her blade and sliced two arrows which were aimed at her by Thunder. Several ice spears shot towards her and she flipped backwards to dodge them, bringing her body close to the ground to dodge the last few which followed her even after. They went just over her head, just inches away from her face. The ice spears exploded as they were above her, splashing water on her. Snow closed her fist, the water instantly growing colder and turning to ice, freezing Kesshō and encasing her in it.

As Snow breath out a sigh of relief the ice encasing Kesshō slowly cracked, slightly melting at the same time. Snow attempted to freeze it again, but the speed of its melting proved to be faster than she could freeze it, even after Frost helped her. Seeing that it didn't work Frost dashed towards Kesshō, jumping into the air and raising his sword to the sky, prepared to bring it down with great force.

The ice shattered as Kesshō channeled energy through her body, blue-pink lines glowing throughout her body. Frost slammed his sword into her, hoping to have sliced her in half, but his sword was stopped in its way by Kesshō's katana. Frost clicked his tongue and kicked at Kesshō but her tails grabbed his leg and flung him across the bar, sending him crashing through some selves behind the counter. Kesshō raised her wings and tails to the air and hissed, a blue-pink glow visible through them, along with her chest and neck.

"What is she even doing?" Snow questioned.

"A threat display," Freya answered, coming up beside her. "She is trying to make herself appear bigger and dangerous, an instinctual response. She fights mostly on instinct, only her sword skills are something she has practiced for a long time."

"Why are you not helping us take her down?" Snow inquired.

"Not worth it, and I am just trying to see if you all can take her down, if I wanted this would already be over," Freya shrugged.

Snow clicked her tongue and swung her arm, sending a wave of ice crystals towards Kesshō. Opening her jaws Kesshō unleashed an intense and focused blast of draconic fire and pure energy, blasting through the ice crystals, the inn's wall, and also many houses behind it. Snow barely dodged it by jumping out of the way, Freya not even trying to dodge, knowing flames won't harm her as she is a phoenix.

"Master?" Blitz exclaimed rushing to Freya, not where she stood a few moments ago.

Freya lay by the broken wall, slowly regenerating her burnt flesh and blown off arm, groaning in pain. Snow's expression changed to one of shock on realising that a fire based attack succeeded in harming Freya, a phoenix. Snow heard a footstep behind her, intentionally having been made audible. She turned to see Kesshō with her katana raised to finish off Snow, causing Snow to freeze in panic.

Kesshō stood like that for a moment, thinking, before kicking Snow in the head with a charged attack, knocking her out. She tilted her body sideways as an arrow passed by her head. Though she looked around, she didn't see the one who shot the arrows. The only ones still capable of fighting she saw were Blitz, Lyrule, and Kristine, and none of them used a bow. She stood there thinking for a moment, not paying any mind to the three of them.

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Kristine shot two rock spears towards Kesshō while she remained deep in thought. Kesshō didn't notice the rock spears and they crashed right into her body, breaking apart on impact and not harming her in the slightest, though they made her stumble to the side. Kristine stared at Kesshō, startled by the endurance of her scales. Lyrule's eyes were closed, her mind focused on something as she took in deep breaths. Kesshō smiled as she figured it out and sheathed her katana.

Material Creation.

She held her left hand out as a normal recurve bow formed in it, a dragon-bone arrow forming in her right hand. She took a deep breath and aimed her bow towards Lyrule, waiting a few moments to pull at the string. Kristine raised a wall in front of Lyrule on noticing it, trying to protect her, but failed to realise what Kesshō targeted. Pulling the arrow Kesshō released it an instant, the arrow embedding itself into the wall, blood dripping from its tip.

Kesshō spotted a blood droplet as it hit the floor and quickly dashed to there, punching the invisible enemy in the abdomen and sending him flying through several chairs and tables. Thunder landed in a pile of splinters of wood and groaned in pain, not willing to continue fighting as he lay there motionless.

Kesshō turned to Kristine and prepared to target her now, but just as she did several feathers appeared around her, shooting into the ground like arrows and wrapping her body with bright red strings. Kristine took the opportunity to strengthen the ground around the strings, holding them in place more strongly and also sealing Kesshō's feet with rocks.

"As I said earlier, if I wanted to it would have been over by now." Freya sighed, holding an orb in her hand.

Kessho tilted her head, the strings pressing against her scales but failing to slice through them. Blue-pink lines pulsed through her body, glowing steadily brighter and pulsating more rapidly. Kesshō released the blast of condensed energy from her body, unleashing a shockwave that knocked back all those who remained standing, along with destroying the strings and feathers, and shattering the ground she stood on. Wasting no time, she charged a breath attack and shot it at Kristine.

The blast destroyed many of the chairs and tables around it, sending rubble flying all around as it exploded. Kristine succeeded in surviving by forming a dome of stone around her, but still passed out from the power of the breath attack, the dome already blown away. Blitz shot a jet of fire towards Kesshō but it didn't affect her in the slightest, being part phoenix herself.

Dashing out of the raging inferno Kesshō grabbed Blitz's face and slammed her head into the ground with all her strength, cracking the ground and causing her to pass out. As Kesshō stood over Blitz she got knocked away by a rock pole, causing her to crash onto a chair and break it. Kesshō got up quickly, being hit in the face as a square piece of the ground rose suddenly, knocking her back to her feet as she staggered backwards, getting hit in the back by another rock.

Kesshō turned her focus to Kristine again, glaring at her, causing her to hesitate before another attack, giving Kesshō the time to dodge just as a sharp rock spear shot out from the ground, missing her head by a hairsbreadth.

"Over to you!" Kristine exclaimed as she ducked out of the way when Kesshō sprayed a jet of venom her way.

The venom splashed on the table behind her, slowly melting it to the ground. Kesshō's eyes followed Kristine but her acute senses alerted her of condensed mana behind her. Kesshō turned to her side just as a beam of light blasted through her, blowing off her arm and part of torso. Lyrule fell to her knees, having used a large amount of mana and energy in that attack. Kristine rushed to her side, crouching by her and inspecting her.

"I am alright, just exhausted," Lyrule panted.

"It's fine then, rest, I will take care of the re-" Kristine reassured, being interrupted as a breath attack shot at the two, striking them before they could react to it, neither of them having noticed it in time.

Kesshō puffed a small burst of flame after her breath attack, already having regenerated herself. She looked around at everyone lying around, having been easily taken out by her. While she doubted they didn't go all out and held back great, not having expected her to be this powerful, she did defeat them while they didn't try to lose on purpose.

Kesshō could tell they would all be back up soon fairly soon, and then it won't be easy for her at all. She took a deep breath and grabbed the handle of her katana, preparing to extend the time on her hand by a fair amount.

Ju-ichi no kata: Hajikeru hansha.

Kesshō moved around at high speed, leaving several afterimages around the room. She got back to the the center of the room, where she started from, taking a breath and touching the kissaki of her katana to the ground. Just as she did all the afterimages burst into a barrage of explosive moon blades, exploding on impact with their surroundings and destroying the entire inn. The attack caused the inn to collapse, gravely injuring all her opponents, but she could tell it would still not be anything lethal for them.

She panicked on failing to find Kurai, looking through from over the inn's debris. As she looked around a hand grabbed the back of her coat and lifted her into the air. The person slowly turned her around and looked into her eyes. Kesshō could tell the blue eyes were similar to Kurai's, but with less light, the scent of the person also being much different. The soul of this person also carried more black, and she already didn't like him much.

"Hello there," Alan smiled.

Kesshō, not wanting to have a conversation, kicked on his face with her right foot as he held her up, pushing off his face to free herself. Alan released her as Kesshō jumped backwards and unsheathed her katana, pointing it at Alan, prepared to fight him as well.

"You defeated my subordinates," Alan sighed. "Perfect, just how you wanted you to be, just as strong as I expected, stronger even."

Kesshō blinked once and he disappeared from where he stood, appearing right beside her, his fist just an inch away from her chest. Kesshō could tell taking the hit would be painful and will very likely incapacitate her for a short while considering the power behind it. She closed her eyes knowing it is too late to try block the hit or reduce the damage, bracing her mind for the impact and to recover quickly afterwards.

She stood with her eyes closed for a short while, confused as to why the hit never came. As she wondered and planned to open her eyes she again felt a tug as someone grabbed ber from the back of her coat, this time being pulled away as someone ran, drawing her into an embrace to protect her from harm. Knowing the identity of the person full well, Kesshō didn't retaliate and simply rested her head against Kurai's chest and let herself drift to sleep, having used far too much energy at once after a long time.