Polydora and Menippe took up guarding her from either side, while Thoe remained in the vanguard. Any kitsune who tried using extension to reach her was defeated with either an accurate piercing of Polydora’s spear, bashed into a ground beef with Menippe’s club, or received a kunai to the chest via Thoe. And behind the four, acting like a literal whirlwind of activity, Euryale used her bare fists to thrash anything that tried sneaking in from their blind spots, her yama uba ability to sense danger serving her well.
Kevin hung behind them, his guns blazing. A quick check of his guns’ power levels revealed that he was about halfway through each cartridge. He had four full cartridges left. However, changing cartridges in the middle of intense combat was tricky business. At the moment, he didn’t trust himself with loading ammo in mid-combat. He would have to be careful.
His eyes strayed to the side corridors as they ran. This place branched off into many hallways, which was how he and the others had found themselves surrounded in the first place. Sharp blue eyes counted the number of corridors, watching as kitsune dressed in the robes of Shaolin monks, with bald heads that looked really out of place with their furry ears, poured out of them. He waited until they had passed the vast majority of interconnected corridors before initiating his on-the-fly plan.
“Iris!” Kevin’s voice blared loudly over the din of battle and the roaring of his twin handguns. “Destroy the roof with your void fire!”
It was a testament to her trust in him that Iris didn’t question his command. Void fire burst to life on the tips of her tails, hovering over them like incandescent black holes. The flames grew in size, growing from a small, flickering fire to a raging inferno before being compressed into tiny balls.
“Void Art: Void Shot.”
The two balls of void fire blasted the ceiling apart like it was made of Legos. They detonated with the destructive force of C4, blowing chunks out of the ceiling and causing the entire thing to crumble like a house of cards.
Kevin grabbed Iris and pulled her behind him just in time to avoid having the roof collapse on top of her. Several of the kitsune chasing them weren’t so lucky, and Kevin grimaced when a number of them were crushed underneath the falling debris, which flickered black as the void fire slowly consumed it.
“Come on.” Kevin shoved his feelings to the side and began running down the hall. “Let’s head to the nearest tower.”
“I’m afraid I can’t let you do that,” a voice said before they could get too far.
Kevin, Iris, Phoebe, and the others skidded to a halt as someone appeared in front of them. Towering over them like Goliath, he stood before the group, arms held loosely at his sides, stance relaxed. He wore garb similar to the Shaolin monks they’d been fighting, but a little more ostentatious, with shoulder pads, gauntlets, and greaves acting as both protection and decoration. His dark hair and eyes contrasted with his pale skin. Five tails writhed behind him.
The five-tailed kitsune stared at him with an incomprehensible expression.
“You are Kevin Swift, if I am not mistaken. I see that you have recovered from your wounds quite admirably. I am glad to see that, for I take no pleasure in killing.”
“You…” Kevin frowned at the man. “Who are you, exactly?”
“My name is Li,” the kitsune introduced himself. “I am Lady Fan’s bodyguard and one of the people who brought your mate here.” Kevin clenched his hands into fists. “I know why you are here; I know that you seek to rescue Lilian Pnév̱ma. However, I cannot allow her to escape with you. I would like to ask that you leave peacefully.”
“Leave?” The whispered word sounded surprisingly harsh to Kevin’s ears. His knuckles turned white from the force with which he clenched his hands. “You want me to leave? After coming all this way, after fighting through numerous horrors, you think I am going to leave?”
“That is, indeed, what I am hoping for.”
Lips peeled back to reveal gritted teeth. Kevin glared at the kitsune standing in his way.
“Lilian is my mate,” Kevin said quietly, almost too quietly to be heard. “I may be human, and I may not know exactly what it means to be a kitsune’s mate, but there’s one thing that I do know. I love Lilian. I love her, and if you think for one second that I’m just going to walk away, that I’m going to leave after traveling all this way to rescue her, then you have got more than a few screws loose, pal.”
“I see.” The kitsune known as Li sighed, shoulders slumping. He seemed resigned. “I do understand your feelings. Very well then. I shall not try and convince you to leave anymore.”
Kevin tensed when the atmosphere suddenly shifted, becoming charged with what felt like an electric current. The skin on the back of his neck prickled unpleasantly as Li’s body posture changed. It was barely noticeable, but the relaxing of Li’s shoulders and slightly wider stance could not be mistaken for anything but someone preparing for combat.
“I hope you will forgive me,” Li said, “but I cannot allow you to pass. Know that killing you will not bring me any pleasure. I only do this because you have left me with no other recourse.”
***
Lilian had a plan to escape.
It was a relatively simple plan, but she knew that sometimes the simple plans worked the best.
She hadn’t moved from her spot since Li vanished. Still leaning against the wall, Lilian watched as Fan tended to her brother, fussing over him like the overly affectionate siscon that she was.
Is it wrong that she reminds me a lot of my own sister?
“What are you staring at?” Fan asked, scowling at her. Lilian resisted the urge to snap at the woman.
“Nothing, really. I just thought I saw Jiāoào moving is all.”
“What?! Really?!”
Fan immediately turned her attention back to Jiāoào, eager to see the young man actually move, something that he hadn’t done without help after becoming like this. She leaned in close, invading what most people would have considered their personal space, her eyes shining as she watched and waited for the sign that Jiāoào was recovering.
Nothing happened.
Several seconds passed.
Nothing happened.
Fan only realized she’d been fooled a full five seconds after Lilian’s words, and by then, it was too late.
“Extension.”
The three-tailed kitsune turned her head just in time to receive two youki-enhanced tails to the face. Because she’d not been using enhancement to reinforce her own body, or even had a chance to use enhancement techniques at all, it hurt. A lot.
With a sound similar to a cannon going off, Fan’s body left the bed, flying through the air, flipping end over end. She hit the floor on the opposite side of the bed, rolled several times, and then came to a stop after smacking against the wall.
Lilian waited a few moments for the woman to get up. When Fan remained still, she declared the three-tails unconscious and walked toward the only exit in the tower.
“All right!” Lilian declared as she left the room and started the long walk down the stairs. “It’s time to go meet up with my beloved and Iris… and those five other women, too, I suppose.”
The sound of Lilian’s voice trailed off as she left the room. In the silence that soon permeated the lavish interior, no one heard the croaking voice that spoke up from the bed.
“Li… li… an…”
***
“Achoo!”
Iris and Kevin sneezed at the same time. They were then forced to throw themselves to the floor when Li appeared in front of them, his body moving so fast it seemed as if he had teleported.
Kevin rolled along the ground, skipping back to his feet. Li went after him, having either determined that he was the biggest threat among them or because he wanted to take out the weakest link first. Kevin didn’t know. He supposed it didn’t matter. What did matter was proving to this fox that he wasn’t some weakling who would go down so easily.
Li moved faster than any opponent Kevin had eve
r faced. His punches didn’t just come in quicker than the human eye could track. It was almost like his fists were instantly teleporting themselves directly into Kevin’s gut. Before leaving on his mission, Kotohime had informed him of how this man’s power worked, just in case they had to fight him.
According to what he’d learned, Li had the ability to change his body’s composition into celestial youki, which was what allowed him to move at near-light speeds. Kevin likened his powers to Borsalino’s—a character from an anime he and Lilian enjoyed watching called One Piece—ability to reconstruct his body from energy particles and move at the speed of light. The difference lay not in the mechanics, but in the origins. Borsalino’s powers came from eating a Devil Fruit, while Li’s abilities were the natural result of his celestial affinity. Although seemingly making him invulnerable, Li’s power had several weaknesses.
His ability did not protect him against void or celestial powers. As the polar opposite of celestial energy, the Void could not be defended against by a Celestial Kitsune, unless they met the void attack with an attack equal or greater in power. Since Li’s ability was a passive power, its very nature was not conducive to attacking.
Celestial techniques also worked against him. This was because of the very nature of yōkai powers. Affinities of the same nature always had the power to cancel each other out. It had something to do with how, because they were of the same nature, the same affinities didn’t work on each other the way they would on another affinity.
There were other weaknesses, like how if you could damage him too quickly for his reconstruction ability to work, you could injure him. However, Kevin didn’t have the ability to move faster than light, nor did he have Kotohime’s ability to attack from several hundred directions seemingly at once. He was just a normal human.
That didn’t mean he didn’t have a plan.
Having already predicted that Li would attack him from his blind spot, Kevin spun around and aimed his gun, firing off a single round at almost the same time his enemy appeared to attack. True to form, Li did not move from his spot—no doubt he expected the attack to phase right through him. It was too bad for him that this bullet was made of void youki.
Pained and surprised hissing was Li’s response when, instead of going through him like a normal projectile would, the attack slammed into his chest and lit his clothing ablaze with black fire. He put the void flames out by overpowering it with his celestial youki, but by then, Phoebe and Polydora had closed the distance. Most unfortunately, they did not have the ability to attack him, as all of their damage was physical in nature, and they lacked Kotohime’s immense speed. Phoebe’s club went right through him, same as Polydora’s spear. Both then became victims of Li’s fists, which sent them flying straight into a wall.
“Phoebe! Polydora!”
Kevin watched horrified when the wall around them cracked from their bodies’ impacting against it. They hit the ground with a sickening crunch and didn’t get back up.
“You should never take your eyes off your opponent,” Li said from behind him.
Instinct alone saved Kevin. Even while his mind and eyes were trained on the scene of his companions’ broken bodies on the ground, his body reacted the way it had been trained.
Torso bending to the left, then twisting in the opposite direction, he avoided the fist that almost broke his spinal column. At the exact same time, he lifted his right hand, the barrel of the silver gun pointing at the arm that attacked him, his finger squeezing the trigger. Li’s arm jerked back as a bright flash emitted from the barrel. The shot missed, instead striking the ceiling and leaving a black burn mark.
Having learned through experience, Kevin knew better than to remain still after his failed counter. He was already twisting away from Li, whose fist blurred through the spot where his head had been. Kevin raised the black gun in his left hand and fired off a round of dark energy, which Li avoided entirely by disappearing, his ability to move at near-light speeds coming into play.
“Void Art: Void Fire.”
Iris tried to offer support by blasting Li with void fire, but his speed made hitting the five-tails impossible. He simply moved too quickly for Iris to get a lock on him, and his reaction time easily trumped hers.
“Ugh, this is like trying to fight the freaking Raikage when he’s using his lightning armor,” Kevin complained to himself.
“I do not know who this Raikage that you speak of is, but my abilities make fighting against me a hopeless endeavor, especially for a human, a two-tails, and a group of yama uba.”
“Are you telling me to give up?” Kevin asked through narrowed eyes.
“No.” Li shook his head. “I know that you will not give up, no matter what I say or how logical my words are. I have seen your kind before. Even if it is a hopeless battle, you will continue to fight. Nothing I say will change your mind.”
While Li was talking, Menippe and Euryale tried attacking him from behind. Euryale launched a powerful straight, while Menippe’s club descended upon Li’s head. Kevin was not surprised when both fist and club went straight through Li’s body like he wasn’t even there.
“Like I said…” Li’s left arm smashed into Menippe and sent her flying. “It’s useless to attack me physically.” His right fist caught Euryale in the chest, and she was blasted backwards with more force than if she’d been shot from a Gundam launchpad.
Thoe appeared above him. Li spun and tried to attack her, but then she replaced herself with... a log? Yes, that was a log. She replaced herself with a log, appeared in front of him, and stabbed him with a kunai.
The kunai went right through him.
Thoe was sent flying.
Kevin, already knowing better than to look at Menippe’s, Thoe's, and Euryale’s broken bodies, raised his guns and fired off several rounds. He tried tracking Li as the fox moved, but that was even more impossible than trying to keep track of a lizard rushing through the desert. His eyes simply weren’t capable of moving at that speed. Even when not relying on his eyes, he couldn’t track Li. Only his knowledge, his ability to control the flow of battle through body language, allowed him to avoid having his insides turned into his outsides.
The massive fist that swung at him was dodged when Kevin, having presented a vulnerable flank to Li, reacted accordingly. Moving to the left, he aimed the gun in his right hand at the extended arm and pulled the trigger. The youki bullet hit. Li grunted in pain before flickering away in time to avoid the next gunshot. The void fire from his black gun exploded against the wall before dispersing, as the projectile didn’t have enough youki to last for more than a few seconds.
“Void Art: Rising Darkness.”
The ground was suddenly consumed by void fire—or so it appeared to Li, being nothing but an illusion that only he could see. At least, that was Kevin’s hope. It was a hope that would be dashed when Li didn’t respond like Kevin wished—that being leaping into the air to avoid the flames, where he would be vulnerable—and instead unleashed a massive burst of celestial energy that, if Kevin understood right, dispelled the technique before he could truly become trapped in it.
“Those illusions are going to become bothersome if I allow you to keep casting them.”
As if it happened in slow motion, Kevin watched in mute horror as Li appeared behind Iris and swatted her away like a fly. As she went flying toward a column, his instincts kicked into high gear. A massive surge of adrenaline gave him the speed necessary to move in the path of her flight. The airborne vixen slammed into his chest instead of hard marble, knocking him to the ground and also depriving his lungs of oxygen.
“I-Iris…” Kevin wheezed. He wanted to curl into a ball, but the vixen on his chest prevented that. “Are you… are you okay?”
“I’ll live,” came the painful admittance. “I managed to reinforce my body before he hit me, so I guess that means I’m pretty lucky.” She raised her face to stare into his eyes. “Thanks for catching me. I didn’t want to test my talent at reinforce
ment against solid marble.”
“No problem.”
“I apologize for attacking you two while you’re down.” Kevin’s eyes bulged when Li suddenly appeared before them like a phantom. “While I would normally not do something so dishonorable, you have proven yourselves to be difficult opponents. Know that I only do this because it is my duty and not because I hold any malignant intentions toward either of you.”
Kevin had watched many anime where the main character, upon having their death staring them in the face, saw everything happening in slow motion. He also knew that animators did this to make these moments seem more suspenseful. Knowing this, he’d never subscribed to the belief that it could ever happen in real life.
It was funny how life worked out sometimes.
For some reason, despite the fist moving at speeds he shouldn’t be able to see, Kevin could see it coming toward him. He could see it slowly moving closer, could see it curving slightly away from him, could see it—
—wait.
What?
Kevin had just enough time to understand what was happening before the fist created a large hole mere inches from his head. Acting on sheer instinct, he hooked one of his feet behind Li’s left knee and yanked. The kitsune, unprepared for such an action, was unable to reactivate his light ability in time and fell onto his knees… and then received a kick to the testicles. The cross-eyed look on Li’s face was almost comical.
“Extension. Celestial Art: Light Sphere!”
The shout came seconds before two bushy red tails shot into view. White orbs hovering over the tails’ tips slammed into Li’s face. He closed his eyes as a bright flash emitted from them. He winced when the occurring detonation nearly blew up his eardrums.
A loud yell of pain was somehow heard over the explosions. The light behind his eyelids died down, and Kevin opened his eyes to see Li’s body embedded into a wall, cracks spreading from the center of impact.
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