Killing Impact

Moments later a blast of dirt and debris exploded from deep within the ranks of the demons. A heavy cloud of dirt spread rapidly through the field and into the town blotting out everything. Everyone paused, staring towards the impact in confusion. Demons turned around trying to figure out what attacked them.

“Hunters?”

“Of course not, you idiot. There’s no Hunters on this side.”

“None that want to live anyway.”

“It’s that woman!”

“The one that killed the Lord!”

Back within the town, Yuki and Nerine stared at the blast wave of dirt coming into the street. A bit of sweat dripped as he looked at Seiji’s plan. “I guess that’s a way to get their attention…” he muttered. Moments later, the clouds surrounded them, cutting off any sort of sight that they might have on the coming battle. Yuki could only make his move as promised. “Get into your position, Nerine! It’s begun!”

Chapter 420 – Killing Impact

Amidst the confusion and storm of clouds a white light flashed from within shooting out streams of narrow beams. Several demons went down in an instant while others lost limbs. Roars of anger directed at their clouded foe sent several blindly charging in. Yet before they could even reach their target a couple of demons flew haphazardly in their way, cutting off their path suddenly.

The demons turned in even more confusion towards the direction of the town where the demons came from. Out of the thick clouds two lines of light glowed brightly to announce the presence of another enemy for them. Splitting their attention between the two, they flung several weapons at the target.

However, to their unsettling discovery the weapons all came to a stop suddenly gathered up together. They stepped out of the thinning clouds first, before Saki revealed herself to them. The oversized weapons of the demons casually slung over her shoulder. “Reckless charge as always,” she shot back with Seiji stepping forward.

“It got their damn attention didn’t it?” he replied, grinding his hand into his palm excited for a fight.

“I think Yumi did that, not you.”

“That was sort of the point.”

Then a blast of wind carved away all of the dispersing dust from around Yumi as she revealed herself to the demon mass. White blades hovered around her along with sparkling shards of her barrier. Gone from her face was the confusion and doubt. Focused and deadly, she only had a single thought to be read on her face.

Death.

“There’s two of them.”

“Which one is the one we’re after?”

“No one said anything about two women.”

Seiji walked up alongside Yumi with Saki following, as they monitored the movements of demons trying to decide what they were going to do. “Looks like they’re fighting over which of you two to kill.”

“Doesn’t really matter, they’re all dead anyway.”

‘I never thought I’d hear such cold words from Yumi,’ Saki commented to herself. She was glad that the doubt and hesitation disappeared for Yumi. Yumi gained enough focus in protecting the innocent that she could push past her dilemma, though Saki didn’t expect to see such a different sort of Yumi. ‘I understand why Yuki’s worried. This is a more dramatic shift than I was expecting as well.’ It made her remember the path of corpses she left behind for them to follow. That had been Yumi as well.

However, Saki knew that she had to focus on the immediate problem for now rather than the one with Yumi. They had demons fully surrounding them and not even the worst had arrived yet. These were merely the grunts. “Just be on your guard, we don’t know the strength of these demons.”

Yumi walked out in front of them with her blades quickly shifting into an offensive stance. “It’s fine. I’ve learned how to fight with these sorts of odds.”

“Let’s just kill them all to be certain!” The demons seemed to have reached a consensus that they could agree to in the end. None of them had a problem with the proposal. Though it was just as likely that they planned to kill every human anyway.

“I’m not a damn woman!” Seiji protested.

“I thought you wanted to fight them.”

“Of course! But this shit is different.”

“The human’s right.”

“Maybe we just ignore him then?”

Saki staggered a little feeling like Seiji’s stupidity was contagious. She had trouble believing what she was hearing. Rubbing her hand against her face, she just wanted to end this farce.

Then a large half bird and humanoid looking demon pushed through the ranks. They stood significantly taller than all of the other demons in the group. From Yumi’s experience it still was smaller than Manekamaru, but the other demons roughly were only about a half to twice their height. Somewhat small for the demons that she had been slaying for weeks now.

An oddly soft woman’s face came from the demon looking down at the others fighting over what they were going to do rather than killing. Her presence seemed to halt debates going on as they all went silent. “Cease this prattle. We’re here to exact revenge, kill them all. The one that still lives is the one we’re seeking.”

“The Commander’s right!”

All of the demons refocused their attention with a unified goal now. Their weapons came to bear on the three friends along with the glow of demonic energy in the air. The air quickly became ignited with thick pressure of murderous intent.

Saki prepared herself for the fight to come. “Seems your stupidity wore off.”

“Whatever, I’m ready for this shit!”

Behind them a barrier suddenly grew up around the town with a simple, but elegant flare. Saki glanced over her shoulder at the Field that rose. He kept it appearance wise to fit within the bounds of the setting for the world. She could tell he was being careful to keep attention off his powers. ‘He’s being smart about it or getting caught up in the world, not completely sure which. But this works…’

Immediately jumping before the demons resumed their attack, Yumi grabbed one of her blades at her side and in a flash beheaded the Demon Commander. The demons stood in shock at Yumi’s lethal opening move, not expecting her to go straight for the kill and pre-emptive attack. Equally shocked were her friends. They saw a completely different side of Yumi that seemed almost alien to the friend that they knew before.

“Commander?!”

“What the hell are you doing, Yumi?” Seiji yelled with uncontrolled shock. He tried to charge forward to reach her, but she immediately continued her assault on the demons, wiping out more than a dozen with little effort. It stunned him watching Yumi mercilessly slaughtering demons that couldn’t even manage to fight back from her swift movements. A barely uttered word came from him watching her.

Saki kicked a demon out of the way that came flying at Seiji, tossed carelessly by Yumi. It was already dead by the time it reached them. Most of the demons that had been surrounding them weren’t even paying attention to them anymore. Yumi had completely stolen their gaze. “Seiji. Seiji!”

He absentmindedly looked back at her, not fully recovered. “…Saki…”

“You need to get your head in the fight.”

“But…”

“I know it’s surprising to see, but she’s out there alone right now. Considering the numbers she won’t survive once the shock of her attack wears off.”

Like with Saki before, Seiji started to see where Yuki came from during their conversation about Yumi. He had trouble believing that things had changed this much. Seiji wanted to know where his friend had gone.

To their surprise, the Demon Commander that Yumi slew in the opening attack rose back up in front of the two. It burst in the flames along with the head darkening the field beyond the source of the light. Even Yumi paused out of curiosity at what was happening, evaluating the threat.

“What the hell’s going on now?! Yumi killed that thing!”

“Maybe it’s going to self-destruct?”

“It wants to win that bad that’ll kill us all with that shit?!”

“I’m just guessing…”

However, the flames didn’t seem to be burning the demon or growing. Rather the flames seemed to have some sort of life of their own transforming into a hand. Stretching out through the air, the flames called out to each other.

“Is it searching for its head?”

“Is that even possible?! How the hell is it alive still?”

Alerted to the danger, Yumi snapped back on the attack. ‘I don’t know what’s happening, but I guess this sort of demon doesn’t die so easily. I’ll need to be more thorough with it…’ Demons stepped in the way trying to slow her down, but she used her gravity orbs to pull open a path. All her struggling was in vain however as the demon found its head before she could reach it. Throwing her blades in a futility attempt did nothing to slow it down.

Connected with its head through the flame, the head quickly returned back to the demon with the flame disappearing. Once more the giant Demon Commander stood staring down at Yumi only coming up to its knees. “I’ve missed seeing such a ruthless human, it’s been too long!”

Yumi ground her teeth, annoyed that she couldn’t prevent the revival. The reason didn’t matter to her, only that she had to kill the demon once more. Her blades returned to her side preparing for the next fight. ‘If it can come back from that, I’m not sure how much it’ll take to actually kill the demon…’

On the opposite side of the demon, Saki and Seiji tried to get closer to Yumi, but the revived demon gave a bolstering effect to the demon army. They fought back stronger than before keeping them separated.

“Shit, we’ve got to do something! Yumi’s completely surrounded!”

It surprised Saki a little how quickly he dropped the other issue that previously chained him down. But he wasn’t wrong. Priorities in their survival came before everything, no matter the personal moral crisis before them. “Then we just need to go around them!”

“What?”

She leapt over the demons landing sharply behind Yumi watching her back for the demons that wanted as much of a piece of her as their Commander. This was all she could do right now. The immediate problem needed to be solved first before anything.

Crashing through the demons in the way, Seiji arrived with the group kicking a few off that were still in tow. He looked around at their completely surrounded position. It somehow looked worse than when they first dropped in at the start. But he found his fighting spirit. “We’ll keep this shit off your back!”

“Focus on the big one!”

“I will!” Yumi charged at the Commander while her friends split the demon horde between them. The struggle to protect the town hit a new wall, but they would keep punching through.