“… Yuu?”

Anten and Dauma could sense it was her from the Particle, but when they could finally get a proper look at her, they could hardly recognize the girl who had emerged from the thing and was now flying around it, dodging its attacks and striking at it with those of her own.

Her red and white clothing had been completely covered by a full-length black hooded robe with the Soul Particle acting like a pinned badge on her outfit.

The hood that did not seem to slip off even as she wildly moved now hid most of her face in shadow, only exposing her mouth.

To finish off the new look, she was wielding a giant scythe in her hands that was almost the same length as her whole body. Upon taking a closer look, they saw that the blade was already covered by some kind of white and black liquid mixed together in a strange medley of opposites.

That’s… different, was Dauma’s only thought as he slowly adjusted to her new look.

She looked like a reaper, an agent of death, more than anything else. That was the only thing he could think of to describe her.

“That does it!”

“Prepare to die, wretch!”

“Say goodbye!”

However, this was no time to admire the new changes as the thing began to attack again.

Now, its entire body was shaking in anger as it pressed its hand against the wound she created, which was now leaking the same black liquid that coated her scythe.

Panicked and furious, it had chosen to ignore its other attackers and focused its attention on the one that got away from it, sending its arms barreling towards her while saving only a select few for the other two.

However, something had clearly changed when she burst out of it, as all of them gradually realized. The speed at which it was attacking was now much slower, giving Yuu multiple chances to dodge it effortlessly.

“Do you never give up?”

Without hesitation, she opened her mouth and addressed it confidently. Her new voice was deeper and more mature, much different than how he normally heard her.

“…”

Anten had remained frozen while floating in the middle of the sky since she saw her, her expression half confused and half intrigued at the same time.

She had no idea how to respond to the rapid development, but as one of the thing’s arms rushed towards her, she quickly recovered and moved out of the way again before promptly shooting an arrow back.

“Anten! Yuu!”

Taking a deep breath as he ran along the ground, Dauma loudly called out to the two of them, who immediately stopped what they were doing and stared at him.

“We should regroup at a safe space! That way, we can properly come up with another plan.”

“Not necessary.”

In response, she immediately rebutted his proposal with one of her own.

“When I came out, I took out a large chunk of its souls. Those souls are the things that power it. If I can get another clean shot, I can easily get the rest. Just cover me while I do so.”

“I… see…”

There was nothing to say anymore. She had clearly grown at an exponential rate, to the point where he was unsure if she even needed their help at this point. Despite this, both he and Anten agreed to her proposal and began to fend off the multiple arms reaching for her. She had been readily given the greenlight.

“This is finally my chance to be save everyone…” she gripped her scythe and muttered to herself.

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However, as she landed on the ground, inhaled deeply, and readied her weapon, she discovered a major problem in her plan, one that she had just realized.

“Uh oh…”

She had no idea how to do the attack again. Slightly rattled by this discovery but still staying firm, she gripped her weapon even tighter.

“Alright… come on… just do what you did earlier… it’s just swinging at it, right?” she mumbled.

The precious seconds ticked by while she still prepared herself, and in that time, the thing had already begun to regain its speed to overcome its current shortcomings.

In addition, as Dauma had predicted, its resilience was slowly beginning to kick in as his blade made shallower and shallower cuts with each subsequent attack.

Damn it, we’re running out of time!

As more and more arms continued to emerge from its body and be barely scratched by his weapon as they rushed towards the three of them, he slowly started to panic.

Sticking close to Yuu, who had now bent down in a crouching position while reciting some kind of confidence mantra to herself, he parried the ever-increasing hands as best he could without stopping.

“Clang! Clang! Clang!”

As his sword repeatedly broke and reformed more and more frequently, he knew that even in his current enhanced state, he could not sustain it for long.

The situation was getting incredibly close, and he had to do something else to turn the tide.

If I can’t hurt them… maybe I can restrain them. Restrain… restrain…

As he concentrated on that thought over and over again, his sword began to change. It loosened up into individual strands of what appeared to be fibers that immediately tied themselves together, forming a singular object that wrapped itself around his hands.

Before he even realized what he had created, he had created a flaming rope.

Well then…

As the next wave of hands approached them, he knew that he could not waste any time, and that he had to use the new tool in his hands to their advantage.

Even though he knew that attempting to secure the multiple arms was going to be near impossible given their high speed, he quickly thought of another way to use it, one that was easier to accomplish.

Jumping high into the sky, he spun the rope around in circles again and again, getting faster and faster, before wrapping them around the concentrating Yuu, who opened her eyes as soon as she felt the strange thing tightening around her body.

“Huh?”

With a massive tug, before any of the hands could reach her, he had flung her high up into the air as he fell back down, where he was quickly grabbed by one of the hands.

“Now, Yuu! We cannot waste any more time!” he desperately yelled as he felt the hand slowly squeeze him tighter and tighter, unexpectedly giving him an unpleasant reminder of the crab beast that ruled the Great Lake.

“Shit, alright! Come on… come on!” she cursed in response as she flew above the thing’s body, preparing her scythe once again.

“Not on my watch!”

“Get her!”

“Don’t let her attack!”

It was getting more and more distressed at this point. Its prey had been constantly slipping between its fingers each and every time, and like her, it also knew that she could completely destroy it with her next hit.

“Let’s see if you like this!!!”

It had to respond quickly, and it did so by extending all of its hands’ fingers into claws before turning them all towards her.

“Yuu!” Dauma gasped out amid the tightness he was feeling that was slowly beginning to rob him of his strength.

In his current condition, he could not do anything, and neither could Anten, who was still busy parrying away the arms on her side.

“Alright…”

With her support either incapacitated or occupied, Yuu knew that it was make or break time.

Positioning her weapon behind her back, she took a gamble and focused on the numerous hands converging on her instead of the main body. If she did not take them all out with one swing, she could be in danger.

“I need to do it…”

“BANG! BANG! BANG!”

However, right as she prepared to strike, several gunshots rang out, and the thing screeched in pain again.

“Huh?”

“ATTACK!”

The voice she heard sounded familiar. It was different from what she had heard before, and much like her current voice, it was several times louder than usual. Regardless, she still immediately recognized who it belonged to.

“Who is that?”

“Another enemy!”

“Why is my life like this?”

The thing screamed in despair as it laid its eyes on the new group of Foxes that had suddenly appeared above them on the surface of the city above.

Standing directly in the center of all of them and aiming a rifle at its body was Chief Aleby himself, giving out orders to fire.

“Go get it, spirit girl!”

“…”

At that moment, Yuu knew. She knew the importance of opening her eyes, of expanding her own world. Other than the people who would hurt her, there were those who would give their all to support her, and she could not let it go to waste.

“You guys… thank you… but I’m good now…”

“STOP! STOP! STOP!”

Despite all of the thing’s pleas, there was no stopping the Reaper anymore.

With a bright flash and a low thundering sound like a lightning strike, she carried out the final blow before making a powerful landing on the ground, facing away from it.

“…”

It said nothing else as its gelatinous body slowly began to melt like butter, getting smaller and smaller, until what was left of it was just a few claws left over from its detached hands and an enormous puddle of black fluid.

“Haaa… haaa… YEAH!!!”

They were all exhausted from the fight, but with tears welling in her eyes, Anten began to cheer loudly, and very soon, everyone followed suit.

“We did it!”

“That’s what I’m talking about!”

“Three cheers for the spirit girl!”

As the sun rose to signify the new day, so too did the spirits of the Silver Foxes as they celebrated the end of the fight.

Against all the odds, despite the losses they had incurred, they had won against the most dangerous enemy they had ever faced.