Lilian was gone.
It can’t be!
“Celestial Art: Divine Thrust!”
Fan whirled around to see a spear traveling toward her. With no time to counter, she threw herself to the ground, allowing it to travel over her head.
Gunshots rang out like thunder. Fan rolled along the ground. The earth she left behind was scorched as bolts of red youki struck it.
“Celestial Art: Orbs of an Evanescent Realm!”
She tried to scramble to her feet, but nine orbs whizzed around her on all sides. Fan ducked to avoid the spheres. More gunshots rang out. Panicking, she rolled backwards, just barely avoiding several youki bullets that would have put a hole through her head.
An orb struck the ground as she rolled to the left. It exploded, sending chunks of rock and gravel in all directions, showering her. Fan had no time to curse as three more orbs descended from the sky like shooting stars crashing to Earth. She normally would have blocked the attacks with her shield technique, but gunfire kept her from being able to channel her youki. Instead, when she stood up, she reinforced her body and threw herself to the left.
The orbs struck the ground. There was no explosion this time. An illusion? She didn’t have time to figure out the answer to her own question. Two more orbs came in, and several more bullets were fired. She gritted her teeth. Dammit! She couldn’t even conjure her qiāng!
She moved again, running toward the tree line. Several bullets of red energy flew past her head. The boy’s aim was off for some reason. She knew he was actually a good shot. She remembered how he’d struck the gas line that caused the junior high building to explode. She also remembered when he shot her in the kneecap. Did that mean the pain he felt from her illusion was causing his aim to be askew? She didn’t know, but she was thankful nonetheless.
“Celestial Art: Shaolin Brilliance.”
Youki flowed through her tails and exploded in a brilliant blaze of light. The orbs stopped coming. The gunfire ceased. Knowing that she couldn’t fight them out in the open, that she needed time to rest and recuperate, Fan ran into the foliage.
It did not escape her notice that this time, she was the one who’d been forced to retreat.
***
Lilian looked at her mate in worry.
Thanks to some quick thinking, Lilian had managed to create a very convincing illusion of herself to fight Fan. She’d watched Kevin’s style enough to create a mock style similar to his that relied entirely upon dodging instead of counterattacking. When their enemy was properly engaged, she’d released Kevin from the illusion that had held him, but the damage was already done.
Even though his body did not look injured, she could tell that he was in pain. His limbs shook. The guns twitched in his grasp. His fingers were shaky and weak. He’d barely been able to pull the triggers; she was actually surprised he’d managed to pull them at all. Labored breathing, the rasps of a man who’d just undergone excruciating torture, filled the night air with each breath Kevin took. She was sure he would collapse soon.
She did what she could to help him, infusing him with her youki, but that did very little. Kevin was not injured. The damage done was all in his mind. The illusion made his brain think he was being injured when he really wasn’t. She could mend bones, close holes, heal cuts, and repair organs. She couldn’t heal damage caused by mental trauma.
“Beloved, are you okay?”
“I’ll manage,” he grunted. “We need to defeat that woman.”
Lilian wanted to disagree. She wanted to tell Kevin that he should stop fighting and rest up, but she didn’t do that. She knew that Kevin wouldn’t stop. As long as she was in danger, until Fan stopped being a threat to her well-being, her mate would not stop. He was stubborn like that. She both loved and hated that part about him. She also accepted that part about him.
“Then should we go after her?”
Kevin nodded. “We’ll need to be careful, though. She’s probably planning to ambush us. How well would you say you know these forests?”
“Better than Fan, that’s for sure.”
Kevin smiled at her. It was shaky, showing clear signs of the agony he felt, but it was still a smile. “Then what do you say we show her how foolish it is to fight on your home turf? It’s time for round three.”
CHAPTER 11
IN VICTORY LIES DEFEAT
The battles on the beach were not the only battles taking place.
Violet also found herself locked in combat. She had been searching for the brat when it happened, traveling through the part of the forest that was thick with life. The brat liked nature, she knew, though she didn’t know why. Either way, she had figured he would be in a place where there was a lot of nature.
That had probably been a mistake, she conceded, if only to herself. She’d gone so far outside of her home that when someone attacked her, there was no one around who she could call for help. The person who was trying to kill her—with several dozen kunai to the head, no less—was one of her half-brothers, and the person who’d been trained in the shinobi arts to protect the matriarch.
Violet growled as she cracked her knuckles. “I don’t know why you’re doing this, and I don’t really care. I’m gonna kick your ass for daring to attack the Great Lady Violet!”
Hayate clicked his tongue as Violet charged at him. “Out of all the matriarch’s daughters, you’re the one I hate the most.”
“Shut up!”
Violet threw a punch right at Hayate’s face. Unfortunately, Hayate was just an illusion. Her punch went straight through him like he wasn’t even there, and instead her fist smashed into a large boulder behind him.
“Gah! My hand! Ouch, ouch, ouch!”
Hayate appeared several feet away and gave her a disgusted look. “This is why I hate you. You’re a useless failure of a kitsune. You have no talent for our arts. You're short. You lack sex appeal. You have nothing going for you aside from that brutish strength. And yet, despite all that, the matriarch favors you over me. For no other reason than because you are female and I am not. You don’t know how galling that is.”
“Grr! Shut up! Shut up, shut up, shut up!” Violet ignored the pain in her hand and rushed at Hayate with every intention of pounding his ass into grass. “I’ll show you talent when I rearrange your face!”
Once again, Violet did not hit Hayate. Instead she hit a tree, which snapped under the power of her fist and fell to the ground with a loud crash.
A sigh came from behind her. “You say that you’re going to rearrange my face, but how can you do that when you can’t even tell the real thing from an illusion?”
Violet gritted her teeth. He was looking down on her! It pissed her off so much!
“Extension!”
Her three tails tried to impale Hayate, who merely burst into a series of glowing silver butterflies. The butterflies gathered, tracing an ample ring around her, increasing in number until they had her completely surrounded. She eyed the fluttering, ephemeral creatures warily. Was this some kind of illusion? A specialty technique? She didn’t know, so she guessed it would be best to just be ready for anything.
The butterflies enclosed the ring like a tightening noose.
Violet tried to punch them away.
That turned out to be a mistake.
One of the butterflies touched the skin of her arm, glowing briefly before sinking into her skin like her body was absorbing it.
“G-ga-ah!”
Violet fell to her knees. That seemed to be the cue that the other butterflies were waiting for. They swarmed her en mass, latching onto her skin, glowing, and then being absorbed into her body. Violet shrieked as she fell onto her stomach. She squirmed and kicked, flopped and trembled and clawed at her skin as though trying to pull out the butterflies that had already sank into her body.
“Spirit Art: Butterflies Fluttering Within the Netherworld.”
Hayate’s voice came from somewhere in front of her. Violet saw bare feet and the bottom of a toga appe
ar in her field of vision.
“You can feel it, can’t you? Every single butterfly that touches your skin pulls your soul closer to the Netherworld. You see that? Your body is already shutting down.”
“W-what a pathetic technique,” Violet choked out. “Butterflies? W-what k-kind of man uses butterflies… in his technique?”
An exasperated sigh came from above. “I see that even at the end of your life, you still remain obstinately stubborn. Where has that stubbornness gotten you? Dead at my feet. This is what happens to kitsune who don’t know their place.”
Violet gritted her teeth as her vision became blurry and indistinct.
“Now then, goodbye, my dear sister.”
***
Camellia kept her breathing even as she ran up the wall of the main resort building, the hotel which served to house the many humans who paid exorbitant amounts of money to spend a few days there. It was empty now, just a large structure that no longer served any purpose. The once grand construct seemed hollow. Its rooms were empty. The many lights that often shone on it from below, lighting up the magnificent columns and showing off the structure’s grandeur, had been turned off.
The wall below her exploded as something smashed into it. A giant, golden hand with massive and deadly claws. Camellia winced as the several-story building shook. She almost slipped off, but she applied youki to her feet and kept running.
She’d managed to draw the dragon’s attention. Zhìlì had sent it after her while he dealt with Daphne and Kotohime, who had run into their battle while searching for Lilian and Kevin. She didn’t know whether to be honored or worried.
Reaching the top of the building, Camellia spun around. The dragon soared overhead, letting out a terrifying roar that sounded almost real. She knew that it was just an illusion, a way of shaking her up. It didn’t work because she knew that, but it was still a terrible thing to hear.
The dragon’s glowing red eyes swiveled within their sockets. It suddenly locked onto her. With another roar, it unleashed a breath of golden fire.
Camellia started to dance. Graceful yet formless. Choreographed yet free. Her body moved almost without conscious thought. She surrendered herself to the dance, becoming one with it, allowing it to consume her.
The fire reached her, threatening to engulf her in its shimmering conflagration and burn her in holy energy.
She reared her fist back and, with a resounding boom! like a nuclear detonation going off, Camellia punched a hole straight through the flames. They spewed around her on all sides, surrounding her, yet not engulfing her, almost like the flames refused to go near her.
The dance continued. The dragon, unable to comprehend what had happened because of its limited sentience, could do nothing but attack again. The fiery breath that it spewed met the same fate as its first attack.
Smoke rose from Camellia’s hands as she continued to dance. She hoped Daphne and Kotohime could defeat Zhìlì soon. She didn’t know how much youki this thing had, but if it was already damaging her despite her dance, then it wouldn’t be long before even her enhanced strength would stop protecting her.
***
Kotohime considered herself to be quite lucky. During her search for Lilian and Kevin, she had stumbled upon her injured sister. Kirihime had been on the verge of death, but she’d been able to heal the younger kitsune.
After healing her sister, Kotohime had come across Daphne’s battle with Zhìlì. The battlefield around the two was surprisingly clean for such a high-level fight. Kotohime figured it was because of their styles. Zhìlì used hand-to-hand combat and techniques that didn’t damage the surroundings. Daphne relied mostly on illusions to fight. There were only a few craters on the sandy beach to mark where a destructive technique had been used.
She had joined the battle not long after coming across it. Zhìlì was a dangerous foe and Daphne looked like she was having trouble. Even if it was just a bit, even if she could only provide a distraction, Kotohime wanted to help.
“River Art: The Moon Goddess’s Surging Waterfall.”
“Celestial Art: Aegis of Divinity.”
Kotohime watched as the giant tide of water she created crashed against a shield composed of light. Her attack did nothing, but then, it wasn’t meant to harm, but to distract.
“Spirit Art: Damned Souls, Colossal Thunder.”
Darkness gathered overhead and a bolt of white lightning struck Zhìlì, who raised another Aegis to stop it. The bolt hit the shield, then disappeared like a ghost wavering in the wind.
An illusion.
“Ikken Hissatsu. Ougi!”
Like jets had been placed under her feet, Kotohime shot forward. Her katana slid from its sheath and she swung it in a horizontal slash to cut her foe. Zhìlì blocked her attack by creating a Chinese falchion with his youki. Her blade hissed as it met Zhìlì’s weapon, but it held together. It would take more than a celestial attack of that caliber to destroy her katana.
“Spirit Art: Soul Ravager.”
Seven tails composed of icy spirit energy converged on their location. Kotohime created a water clone and used one of Ayane’s ninja arts to replace herself with it. The tails converged, cutting through the clone and forcing Zhìlì to jump high above the ground to avoid the attack.
Kotohime was there to meet him.
“Ikken Hisatsu. Ichi.”
Her blade sprung from its sheath as she rotated her body like a hacksaw. Her wakizashi also came out, increasing the appearance of the saw’s spinning blade. It struck Zhìlì full on. A loud screech of metal issued forth. Sparks flew as her blade scratched against armored plating. Then Zhìlì plummeted back down to earth at rocket speed.
Then he disappeared.
An illusion.
She landed on the ground. An explosion several yards away alerted her to combat happening between Daphne and Zhìlì. The illusion must have been a distraction to get her out of the way. She rushed over just in time to see the two trading attacks.
“Celestial Art: Celestial Dragon.”
“Spirit Art: Poseidon’s Spear.”
Two attacks met in the center of the battlefield. A white-hot spear forged from the souls of damned men, women, and children taken from the Sanzu River, and an eastern dragon composed of golden energy. They slammed into each other with a thunderous roar, the backlash of which caused Kotohime to slide several feet back, her feet digging small trenches within the ground.
Fierce winds whipped by her. Kotohime raised an arm to shield her eyes from dust and gravel. She could feel abrasions appearing on her skin as the sand slamming into her tore a layer or two off. When the winds died down, she lowered her hand to see Daphne staring blankly at the sky. What was she doing?
“That was an impressive attack,” a voice said behind her.
Kotohime’s eyes widened. She tried to turn, but her right arm suddenly snapped as someone grabbed and twisted it in a way that it was not meant to go. Her katana clattered uselessly to the ground. Her knees shook, but she didn’t fall—not until the person behind her broke her other arm, too. Only then, with pain and shock filling her, did she fall to her knees.
“You know, it’s a shame we’re enemies,” the voice spoke some more. “You really are an amazing woman. Granted, I like my women a little more weak-willed than you, but for someone of your superior beauty, I might have made an exception.”
A figure emerged out of her peripheral vision. Looking down as she was, Kotohime only saw his grieves, which clanked and clinked as he walked, sparkling in the faint traces of moonlight. Those grieves stopped directly in front of her. She finally looked up. His armor plate gleaming as if freshly polished, without a single scratch on it, Zhìlì looked down at her with an expression that somehow combined easygoing and harsh.
Kotohime gritted her teeth as she sent youki into her arms. She could feel the wounds slowly healing, her youki’s regenerative properties causing them to snap back into place. Just a little bit more and—
“A-ah…”
A gasp escaped her lips as an overwhelming pain erupted from her chest. She looked down to see a golden falchion impaled between her breasts.
“A-ah…”
She tried to speak, but the pain overwhelmed her. Having lived as a mercenary for a good portion of her life, Kotohime had been in many battles. She’d experienced pain before. She thought she knew pain, how it felt, what it was like. She thought she understood pain.
She was wrong.
The sword piercing her chest felt like it was burning her from the inside out. Every muscle in her body clenched up, stiffening as if they were undergoing rigor mortis. She couldn’t move. She could barely breathe. Her lungs felt like someone had dunked them in acid.
“I do apologize for doing this.” Zhìlì still sounded easygoing, as if he hadn’t just stabbed her in the chest. “However, right now I really do need you to stop fighting me. That Daphne chick is going to break through the layered illusion I cast over her. I have to admit, she’s awfully good at recognizing illusions and breaking through them. I suppose that’s her specialty. Fighting certainly isn’t.”
“A-ah…”
Kotohime didn’t know when she fell onto her back. She couldn’t even feel the ground underneath her. Everything had gone numb. She wondered if that meant her nerves had been burnt out.
“By the way,” Zhìlì continued. “I should probably tell you that this is also an illusion. That sword in your chest, that strange feeling of numbness seeping through your body, even your inability to wield youki is all part of the illusion. Celestial Art: Zhuge Liang’s Hidden Fang is an illusion that requires seven tails to cast. It’s not really something a four-tails like yourself can break out of.”
Which explains why he’s telling me this. It was a bitter thought, to know that she didn’t even register as a threat to him.
Standing above her, Zhìlì stretched his arms above his head, his armor clinking. “Welp, it looks like I need to go defeat that hot silver-haired chick. What was her name again? Ah, well, I suppose it doesn’t matter. See you later, busty swordswoman.”
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