Looking around some more, Kevin saw Christine and Iris lying on the ground several feet away. With Lilian’s help, he made it over to the pair, and while his mate knelt next to her sister, he dropped down beside Christine and scooped the girl into his arms.
“Christine?” He touched her face. “Christine? I need you to wake up.”
“Nnggg…” Christine groaned as she cracked her eyes open. “Kevin?”
“Hey there.”
Christine blinked several times. A slow dawning appeared in her eyes, which widened the longer she stared at him. Kevin would have questioned her, but before he could, she reacted in a way that he hadn’t expected even though he really should have.
“Kya!”
“Ooof!”
Stars appeared in Kevin’s vision as Christine’s forehead cracked against his face. His head jerked back, then his body followed. Then his head went for another hit, this time to the back, when it smacked against the ground.
“Owch…”
“K-Kevin?!” Christine squeaked. “I-I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to do that! A-are you okay?”
“Yeah… I’m fine.”
Christine appeared in his field of vision. Kevin felt her weight on top of him and realized that it was because she was straddling his waist. He tried not to shift at this realization, lest she notice his arousal.
Damn teenage hormones.
“Geeze, Christy, you really know how to treat a guy right, don’t ya?” Iris said somewhere out of his line of sight. Kevin didn’t need to see her to imagine the smirk she wore.
“S-shut up!”
“Christine, could you please get off me now?”
“Eep!”
As Christine scrambled off him, Kevin climbed to his feet. He only felt a little unsteady, and even that was fading. Lilian was getting a lot better at healing techniques, it seemed.
“How are you two feeling?” Kevin asked. “Do you think you can keep fighting?”
While Christine’s body shook, her eyes blazed with an unusual fire. “I-I can keep going.”
“I think I’ve got a bit more left in the tank,” Iris said. Kevin noticed that her eyes were back to their normal whites. That would probably change when she started using the Void again.
“Good, because we need to help Polydora deal with Hebi,” Kevin told them.
“In that case, I have a plan that should, at the very least, grant us an edge in this conflict,” Kotohime said, walking up to the group. She smiled at them. “Would you care to hear it?”
Nothing seemed to work. No matter how many attacks she threw at him, no matter how quickly she moved, nothing she did made a difference in this battle.
She’d long since lost her broken batons. They were useless now anyway. She thrust out her left hand to spear Hebi through the throat, but he moved around her hand like water, and it was instead she who received the attack to her throat. Polydora gagged and held a hand to her neck, choking.
“You’re slipping, my dear,” Hebi said with a leer. “You really should do a little better.”
Growling, she launched a high kick at his head. He ducked under the attack and, before she could recover, kicked her left foot out from underneath her. The cold ground felt hard against her back. Polydora groaned as sharp rubble, the remains of a wall she assumed, dug into her spine and shoulder blades.
“Come now.” Hebi spread his arms wide as she sat up. “You’re making this far too easy for me. At least provide me a bit of a challenge, or would you prefer me to just put you out of your misery?”
“How about we put you out of your misery?” a voice said.
Hebi looked to his left as the chugging of gunfire filled the air. Several dark projectiles impacted against Hebi’s scales, but they merely bounced off.
“I see that you’re still alive,” Hebi said to Kevin, who stood before him with a determined expression. “However, you’ll have to do better than—”
“Void Art: Void Fire!”
“Tch!”
Hebi hissed as a compressed ball of black flames hit him in the back. He stumbled forward, right into Lilian’s awaiting tails.
“Extension!”
The tails slammed into him like a freight train. Hebi was lifted off his feet and sent into the air.
“Nya ha ha! I guess that means it’s my turn!”
Her ears twitching and her tail waving behind her, Christine created a massive fireball in the air above them, which she then brought down right on top of Hebi. The explosion from the fireball was incredible. A powerful shock wave hit them.
Weakened by her fight against Hebi, Polydora was nearly blown away, but Lilian extended her tails and kept her from soaring off. When the heat died down, she looked up in time to see Hebi’s body, smoking like a meat patty being barbequed, fall to the ground with a dull thud.
“Did we get him?” Lilian asked the question that everyone else wanted to know.
“No, I am afraid you did not,” Hebi said, standing to his feet. His lips curled in a parody of amusement. “It was a good try, though.”
His trench coat was ruined, so Polydora and everyone else could see that his entire body was covered in white scales. They gleamed in the moonlit night. There wasn’t a scratch on them, showing that none of their attacks had even damaged him.
“Lilian!” Kevin shouted.
“Celestial Art: Orbs of an Evanescent Realm!”
Six golden orbs appeared around Lilian. Controlled by her will, they shot into the air and then descended on Hebi like falling bombs from an air raid.
Hebi leapt away from the orbs before they could hit him, yet they followed him tenaciously. Even so, he shuffled around the attacks with almost casual movements.
“Extension!”
Iris’s tails wrapped around Hebi’s legs. Unable to move, he could do nothing as the orbs slammed into him one by one. The first one struck him in the chest, detonating in a brilliant sparkle of light particles. The second and third hit him from behind, then the fourth came in when he stumbled forward and exploded against his face. The fifth and sixth ones came at him from above. Merging into a single orb the size of a basketball, it crashed against him and unleashed a massive wave of golden energy that engulfed his body in light.
The light died down, and Polydora almost swore when she saw Hebi still standing, his body completely unharmed.
“That was a good try,” he said. “Now, then, I believe it is my turn.”
Hebi shot forward faster than Polydora could track. All she could do was follow the trail of dust that he left in his wake.
“A-ahh!”
“Lilian!”
Three screams pierced the air. His target was Lilian. Blood drizzled around his hand, which had pierced the two-tail’s shoulder. Her face was a grimace of pain, yet that didn’t stop her from responding to his actions.
“Celestial Art: Divine Light!”
Two blinding balls of light struck Hebi in the face. He must not have been expecting that because he screamed in pain and stumbled back, covering his hands with his face. It was for this reason that he didn’t see Kevin, his two guns charged up, open fire.
A pair of dark lances shot from the handguns and struck Hebi in the chest. They splashed against his scales like water, but even so, Polydora could see that they did do some damage. Two black marks marred his chest. Black blood oozed from the wounds, which had cracks spreading from them.
“Kevin Swift! Everyone!” Polydora shouted. “Aim for his chest! It’s been damaged!”
She didn’t know if they heard her or not, but in her current state, that was all she could do.
“Take this, nya!”
Two balls of fire burst into existence on Christine’s hand. With a strange shout that sounded like “Nya!” she tossed the fireballs at Hebi’s chest.
They never made it. Scowling, Hebi batted the fireballs away. One struck the ground and exploded, while the other flew off into the air.
“An attack as weak as that could never�
��”
Hebi was cut off from saying anything further when Kevin, who must have replaced his ammo, shot several wind projectiles at him. Each one was the size of a baseball. They flew straight and true, yet much like the fireballs, these were also batted away with impunity.
“All of you are beginning to annoy—”
A fireball detonated on his face, ending his words before he could finish his sentence. The attack didn’t damage him, but from the scowl marring his face, he was clearly beginning to get annoyed.
“While I applaud your efforts, all of you are clearly out of your—”
“Extension!”
A pair of black tails wrapped around Hebi’s legs, jerked him off his feet, and threw him into the air. Kevin changed cartridges again, aimed his guns at the airborne Hebi, and charged them. Meanwhile, Christine created a ball of fire that appeared almost as large as she was. Kevin released the triggers at the same time that Christine tossed her fireball at Hebi. Three massive fireballs were launched at the snake yōkai. They struck the airborne figure.
Polydora winced and shielded her eyes as a powerful shock wave that burned hotter than lava pushed against her. Squinting up at the giant ball of expanding fire, Polydora saw a figure high above it descending quickly. It was Kotohime. With one hand on the hilt of each blade, both of which she’d brought to bear in front of her, the woman fell head first toward the destructive ball of heat and flames.
“Tsuin. Ikken Hisatsu.”
Kotohime burst through the fireball, then came out the other side seconds later. Behind her, the large flame was split into four segments in the shape of an X. Landing on the ground, Kotohime bent her knees, then launched herself into the air like a spring.
“Ichi.”
Eight flashes of light appeared in the air around the four sections of still-burning fire, splitting the four flames into thirty-two more segments that quickly dispersed, unable to remain cohesive any longer. Within the dying embers, Hebi hung there, his mouth wide open and blood spraying from thirty-two different wounds.
“Ni.”
Tossing her wakizashi above her head, Kotohime snatched it out of the air with her tail. The small sword began glowing a brilliant blue, then water gathered along the blade, glistening brightly as it hardened.
“San.”
Like a trebuchet, Kotohime’s tail flung the wakisazhi forward at startling speeds. Hebi was impaled through the chest, the blade piercing through his scales easily, and he shot back toward the ground, where he landed with a massive crash that upheaved the earth.
“Yon.”
Gripping her katana with both of her hands, Kotohime allowed herself to fall back towards the ground and, more importantly, Hebi.
“Ikari, Tsukuyomi no Mikoto.”
Polydora had a single second to glimpse Kotohime’s katana impaling Hebi through the chest.
And then the world itself seemed as if it had come to an end.
Lilian had always known that Kotohime was strong. Her mother might technically have been more powerful, but she didn’t have Kotohime’s strength. Her maid’s prowess with a blade was as enviable as her grace. She remembered the time where she’d watched from the roof of a building as Kotohime battled against Luna Mul. She also still recalled the moment where Kotohime, overpowered and completely outmatched, had stood firm against the greatest Celestial Kyūbi to ever grace the earth.
She felt like both of those times had been understated. In one of them, Lilian had been too far away to really see her maid’s prowess. In the other, she’d been half dead and Kotohime so overmatched that it hadn’t been a battle so much as a one-sided slaughter.
However, here, now, watching her maid attack Hebi with one of her most powerful techniques, Lilian felt like she understood the true strength of her maid.
“Ikari, Tsukuyomi no Mikoto.”
The words were like an intonation of doom. She heard them clearly above the cacophony of explosions and other sounds of battle. Seconds after the words were uttered, Kotohime landed on Hebi and impaled him with her katana, and the entire area around them was torn to shreds.
Before anything else could happen, Lilian was hit with a massive shockwave. It crashed into her like a giant mallet being swung by an angry god.
“Lilian, get down!”
Kevin tackled Lilian to the ground before the worst of it could hit her. She stared up into his face, her eyes wide as he gritted his teeth. She could tell that he was trying to muffle his screams—not that it mattered either way. The wind around them roared like an enraged beast. Lilian could hear nothing over the ferocious howl.
Celestial Art: Barrier that Protects the Princess!”
She couldn’t even hear her own voice over the force gale winds threatening to destroy them. But she still saw the results of her words. A golden barrier shimmered into existence above them, translucent and ethereal, yet also strong. Kevin’s face, once a grimace of pain, relaxed. He sent her a grateful smile and mouthed, “Thank you.” She smiled back.
The winds eventually died down, going from a shrill shriek to a soft whistle before trickling to nothing. In the stillness that followed, Lilian could hear Kevin’s pained rasps.
“You’re always putting yourself in harm’s way for me.”
Kevin’s smile both brought her unimaginable joy and terrible pain. “Isn’t that the job of a mate? To protect the person he’s mated to?”
“I feel like I should be the one protecting you,” Lilian mumbled as she cupped his face. “You’re so reckless.”
“I’m only reckless because I know you’ve got my back,” Kevin retorted.
Lilian knew that she wouldn’t be able to offer a retort. Kevin only acted like this for her and his friends, which she guessed was understandable.
Instead of rebutting him with words, she grabbed the back of his head with both her hands and pulled him into a kiss. She could feel the warm liquid sticking to his hair, his blood, which was coming from a wound on his scalp. Ignoring the feeling, she curled her tails until they were over his body and began the process of healing him.
Celestial Art: Divine Healing was an external healing technique. It was different from Celestial Art: Divine Kiss , which she had made for the purpose of healing internal wounds. By releasing the healing essence of her youki through her tails, Lilian could heal any external wound barring fatal wounds and missing limbs. It wasn’t as good as Kotohime’s Water Art: Tsukuyomi’s Balm or Kirihime’s Water Art: Spring Rain , but it was a higher-tier technique that no two-tailed kitsune should have been able to use.
“You really are bad,” Kevin mumbled as he broke their kiss and rested his forehead against hers. “Kissing me while I’m sweaty and gross.”
“We’ve been so busy lately that we haven’t had many chances to kiss.” Lilian pouted.
“True,” Kevin mused before kissing her again.
Lilian didn’t even care that their bodies were covered in sweat and dirt and who knew what else, or that Kevin stunk of B.O., or that they were currently lying on the ground in the middle of what had once been, and might still be, a battlefield. She wished, in that moment, that she could ignore the rest of the world and pretend it was just the two of them.
Unfortunately, the world itself rarely waited for anyone. Lilian knew this, and so she reluctantly let go of Kevin, allowing him to have his lips back. He was already healed anyway.
They both stood up and looked around. The area had changed. Kotohime’s last attack had been powerful enough to reshape the area’s geography. Where once there had been a building, now there was only a massive crater. Lilian couldn’t begin to guess at how large it was, but it must have been at least a couple dozen yards from one side to the other. Scattered around the edge of the crater were the derelict remains of the once large building.
“Whoa…” Kevin muttered.
“Whoa is right,” Lilian muttered. “Come on, Beloved, let’s help the others.”
“Right.”
It was only natural, bu
t the first people they went over to were Iris and Christine. As Lilian expected, Iris had protected Christine with her own body, and she in turn had been protected by a large wall of ice.
“Hey, Christine, are you—Inari’s hairy ball sack! There’s a huge wall of ice behind me!”
“No, shit,” Christine muttered sarcastically. “I made that wall to protect you.”
“Did you? Damn, I think I’m gonna give you a kiss for that.”
“Kiss me and you're dead!”
“Iris!”
“Lilia—eh?!”
Iris was rendered speechless when Lilian practically pounced on her, pulling her into a hug and squeezing hard enough that she groaned.
“I’m so glad you’re okay! You, too, Christine!”
“What? W-wait! Don’t—kya!”
Christine tried to run, but Lilian snatched the girl up with her tails and pulled her into the hug.
“W-what are you doing?!”
“I’m sorry. I was just so worried about you two.”
“Well, you can stop worrying. We’re fine. Now get off me!”
After the hugging was finished, the group moved around and went over to the fallen yama uba. Most were fine, albeit, they would be waking up with massive bruises come the morrow. Some, however, like Androdaïxa, needed to be healed. A few of them had been poisoned. It was only thanks to their hardy constitution that they lived long enough for Lilian to heal them. When everyone regained consciousness, the group gathered around. It was only then that Lilian noticed they were missing someone.
“Where’s Kotohime?” Lilian asked.
“I do not know,” Polydora said. “The last I saw of her was when she stabbed that fiendish yōkai in the chest.”
“Do you think she’s at the bottom of that crater still?” Euryale asked.
As one, the group moved over to the crater. It was a lot deeper than Lilian had originally suspected. Down at the bottom, she could see two figures. One of them was her maid.
“Kotohime,” she whispered before leaping over the lip and sliding down.
“H-hey, Lily-pad! Where are you going?!”
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