Instinctively, Seiji and Saki split off from Saki in their dires without further need for coordination. Saki plunged deep into the mass grabbing up a wolf looking demon and flinging it into the mob to create an opening. It gave her enough room to work with as the rallied demons charged in around her.

  Dodging around the first wave of demons, she disappeared to the sed wave taking two down with a swift kid threw the third behind her into the fused first wave. Dang around the field, she skillfully evaded ons and demonic spells, the low level grunts were barely a match for Saki’s speed. Only their numbers worked against her, she couldn’t stay still or end up being ered quickly.

  For Seiji, it went a little more straightforward as to be expected from him. His fists went first and nothing more to add. Strength alone for him kept the demons off him pletely. But he quickly became surrounded, having to elbow and head butt where he could just to keep them off him. They made more progress against him than Saki, but still fell into a stalemate that wouldn’t push further.

  Deeper still, Yumi faced down with the strange reviving demon. As a leader of the demons it certainly presehe necessary aura of one and strength. The ability to not die from having its head removed definitely put it up there. Though she worried if it ossible to actually kill it. With su ability, Yumi didn’t know what it was going to take to kill the thing.

  Not knowing the extent of its powers couldn’t stop her. She had t ao the fight over her. Whatever it took to kill the demon, even if she had to be more thh than normal in killing.

  She jumped towards the giant demon with bdes in her hand and gravity orbs trag in her wake. Swinging down both bdes, she sought for another win. As she had been taught with fighting demons, a fast kill was the best. The hat surrounded her and wanted her blood couldn’t allow for anything else. Yet, that didn’t happen.

  Maybe it was because the demon didn’t see it ing before. Or it was unprepared and had its defenses down. But it didn’t happen so easily as st time. Her bde stopped, uo pierce the skin of the demon. It didn’t quite repel, but resisted in a hardeate. The white bdes of energy groaned against the demon’s skin, uo make even a scratch.

  In her moment of surprise, the demon took the time to deliver some retribution for the beheading. Unleashing a wound up arm, long cws that looked more like bdes themselves glowed in the light of the sun as they came for Yumi. Smashed into her barrier, the cws pierced through the gaps in her prote digging in towards her head. She struggled to re-enforce the barrier even with the demon closing dangerously close to her.

  The prick of the point of the cw broke skin on the side of her temple drawing up blood. She had lost the opening round in the fight. That became clear from the way things turned against her. Summoning her orbs in front of her, she threw them at the front of the barrier as her sword sliced through the spheres. Cleaved aabilized, it only took moments for the energy delicately gathered to violently explode.

  White and purple light coughed up, pleting over taking Yumi and the front of the demon. Shards of the barrier exploded outward f the demon’s hand bad recoiled the body a little from the force of the bst. Out of the bst Yumi flew backwards accelerated by her explosion trailing smoke off her clothes.

  Eager demons lined up on her predicted fall wanting a piece of her for those already dead. However, Yumi remained in trol of her fall and watched carefully her surroundings. Before hitting the ground her barrier went up once more followed by her array of bdes taking up sides along the equator of the barrier. They spun around quickly slig through any demon that dared to approach her.

  Yumi stared up at the giant demon ing towards her. Their fight would tinue despite her wishes. “Dammit… This isn’t going to be easy…”

  Chapter 421 – Three Way Struggle

  Surrounded on all sides by fearless demons, she groueeth together. T in the distance was their ander. She failed her first attempt and now her sed as well. Yumi tried to figure out a method that would kill the demon. ‘My swords aren’t enough to cut through anymore… What ged?’

  While she kept her thoughts busily fixed on figuring out a solution, her body had to deal with the demons around her. Leaping out of her barrier, she nded further away from the ander. Even with the demon numbers, she bought time to face down the real target.

  Yumi grabbed a hold of one of the bdes floating at her side and stabbed the demon ing up to her in the head. Throwing the demon back, she leapt on its falling body direg the remaining bdes behio keep her fnks free. As the demon colpsed, she tossed the bde forward, dropping the charging bird-like thing. Her hands materialized another bde in each hand blog ons that swung down on her. A giant hammer and axe increased the pressure on her, magic sparking uhe collision.

  Several nearby demons saw the opportunity with her tied up with defeo strike. Crushing the head of the hammer with her psychic power, the shaft remained behind with a rough point. Yumi grabbed the middle of the metal rod and pulled against the off bance demon. Direg the point into the demon on her right, she freed herself from defeo quickly slice the heads off the approag demons.

  With even more dead demons at her feet, she had no further advances in her pn to kill the leader. The giant demon marched towards her, getting annoyed with her tinued sughter of their ranks. It seemed to bee clear enough to it that the rank and file wouldn’t do anything against her. “Enough! This is between us!” ahe demon.

  A gap cleaved through the swarmed ranks. Broken and heavily troddeh unveiled from the cloaked forms it wore as demons. Yumi could remember how it used to be grass, tall and blowing freely in the winds undisturbed by nothing unnatural. Only chaos remained painted within the dirt now. That which she issioned by her own as.

  The clear path to the demoarget, was wele. Though she remained no further to an answer on killing it. With the ck of a meaningful answer, it sadly came down to the only remaining option avaible to her. It hardly seemed any more trustworthy for her, but it should get results. She just o apply enough to it. Which became the more important question for her. How much power she o actually kill it.

  Yumi focused her bdes forward at the demon preparing for her charge. Before she could make a move though, the demon struck first. eling the fme seen before it stretched out like whips ing around her ankle and wrist. Before anymore mao grab a hold of her, she cut down the fmes. But the two still attached bur her skin slowly fighting her natural resistance.

  She tried to use her strength aloo pull free, but the demon’s power held together better than the ones she sliced up. ‘Damn…I ’t break free… I’m going to lose my hand at this rate…’ Yumi tried with her bdes and gravity orbs. Nothing worked ohis time. The power used ged signifitly as though the demon eled everything into them.

  The demon ander marched closer to Yumi, likely looking t ao her struggle. “You’re certainly tougher than the death seekers. My fmes melt a normal human in mio nothing but ash.”

  “You’ll find I don’t burn that easily.”

  “Yes, I see that.” Pulling out a metal rod from behind its back, fmes came out from the demon’s hand filling the metal from the ih a hot white glow. The metal however didn’t seem to be melting from the intense heat. Despite appearahe white glow didn’t actually seem to be ing from the fme at all. Rather a different meism pletely was at work. The white turned blue and decreased in iy being simple lines over the surface, but with trated strength. It was hard for Yumi to watch without feeling her eyes hurting from the light gathered.

  Then to her surprise, the rod ged shape. rusions of metal came out of the rod expanding into a deep curved bde like a scimitar. The part of the rod that remained in the demon’s hand became the hilt and the blue glow sank through the metal. Air around the bde ed from the heat tained within. “Let’s see how that toughness fairs against this!”

  Yumi groueeth together, witnessing the murderous i surface strohan ever before. It was thid suffog bleeding off the demon with life of its own. If she hadn’t faced down tless demons before it might have paralyzed her. But she could still feel the strength through their desire to kill her. It pletely eclipsed what she felt from it before at the start. They had gotten serious, as it were.

  More than anything the fmes themselves could do to her, Yumi worried about the sword that appeared. With a length that easily matched her height, the force behind the on already augmented with their power made it the most deadly demon on she had faced. ‘ my barrier hold that babsp; With my range limited, it’s going to make sure I ’t move…’

  Some of her movement still remained, but the demon was no doubt skilled in finding the exagle of attack that she wouldn’t be able to dodge. Tied up, she could only rely on her barrier to hold. Her own power wouldn’t be enough to bare hand it like she had doo demons in the past.

  The test of pan quickly for her. Any preparation that she made with her barrier didn’t feel like it would be enough at the start. The impact aloroyed three yers to her barrier with three more vaporized uhe sheer power. ‘A ten-fold barrier nearly destroyed this easily…’ Yumi struggled with trying to rebuild her barrier uhe weight and pressure. She pushed everything that she had to create the barrier. If she had more time, it might have been stronger, but she had so little time to react.

  Sparks flew off with vibrations through the interlocked tiles. Quakes rippled through the barrier bug uhe pressure. The demon had more than just power a w against her, but physical strength as well. ‘This feels so much differently than with Manekamaru… I don’t feel—‘ She cut her thought off before she could finish it.

  Fog on the power of her barrier, she tried to keep it from destroying her defense. Defense alone wasn’t going to be enough to win though. The lohat it went on she uood that. ‘I need a different answer… I ’t move the way I want tied up like this and pinned down by the on… I needed a free moment to attack…’

  Crushing uhe sword wasn’t an option for Yumi. She stared intensely at the on looming over her. ‘This won’t hold… No matter how much I stre, the demon’s winning… It’s stronger… I’m going to have to do something…’ Yumi gritted her teeth as she came to a clusion.

  The only way out of the spot made her tense up her body. She locked her determined gre at the demon for what she decided. ‘It should at least give me the opening I need…’ Yumi acted quickly knowing that aation from her would only make it harder.

  Cracks quickly spread out over the barrier as she siphoned aower. It wouldn’t be long before the rge sword sliced through the defeh ease. She summoned up her bdes at her side with a side step. The demon made a slight turn in its arm seeing how she moved. Everything was in pce.

  Shattered instantly as she gave up the fight, the on sliced through at a blinding speed. But she moved just so to finally free herself. With a deep roar of pain Yumi appeared in front of the demon’s face, caught off guard from the terattack.

  She swung her white bde at the neck of the demon once more, but it did nothing. The bde shattered on the skin as she grabbed another with her one hand. Bdes shattered quickly on the demon. ‘Stronger! I need a stronger sword!’ Two swords fed into oh an intense light from them. It was still not enough. She needed more. Another bde sacrificed itself to power it up more as the bde transformed shape into a bastard sword. Bdes smashed into her swiving it more power until the light blihem both.

  Yumi appeared behind the demoing a massive energy sword over her shoulder. She hovered close to the ground, no longer able to stand. However, the demon’s head only remained separated for a brief time. The fmes restored it once more to health.

  Turning around to face her, it looked down at Yumi’s state. “Sacrifig limbs for victory. You’re a very dangerous woman.”

  Blood slowly dripped from her wounds with her powers trying to keep things held back from passing out. Blood loss was her battle now. ‘Fortunately I was able to use my barrier shards to stop the bleeding, but the demon’s still alive… I ted on it being dead and only dealing with the trash…’

  Fmes burst out from the demon lighting the sword on fire as well as its body. “I o longer hold back my power it seems. I will crush you with everything I have!”

  “Damn…”

  Across the battlefield iown, Yuki yelled out orders to the surviving townspeople. He watched as the st remains of the towowards Nerine. The barrier kept the demons out, though Yumi and the others were doing a fine job getting their attention. However, he saw a rge red fme explode into the air towards their fight. “I don’t like the looks of that… Please be safe…”

  With his Field providing a passive s of the area, he no longer found any alive humans still iown. He slowly moved towards the fighting with things suddenly being very still. “Nerine, I’m going to check out the battle,” he unicated to her through a small earpiece he crafted, “Something’s wrong.”

  “But the pn—“

  “We finished our job. It’s too quiet and I’m seeing too many demons still for it to be our win.”

  “I’ll e too!”

  “I’ll take point, watch my back.”

  “Yes!”

  Yuki switched over to the sed Law set in his Field, one he prepared for on the off ce he would o fight. It was his simple traditional mist form. He didn’t need more attention. “Yumi…guys…” As he stepped through the ravaged outskirts of the town, he came to the field of dead demo behind from his friend’s fighting.

  The silence became more unbearable the closer he came to the sourost of the fighting. Alive demons formed a wall between him and his friends. He stepped closer as their attention remained away from him. None of them seemed to care about him.

  “What’s happening?” pined a demon, which like him couldn’t see what was happening. But the silence from the fighting made them all want answers.

  “Is the Hunter dead?”

  “She stopped moving!” a demon from further up reported.

  “The Hunter’s dead!” cheered the demons, breaking the silence.

  “Yumi…no. No!” Yuki released all of his mist in every dire knog demons carelessly aside to make room for him. He charged forward casting any demon away that found it unfortunately in his way. He didn’t want to believe it, even though his mind had already goo that pce.

  He burst through the wall of demons into the clearing where he saw Yumi ying face down in the dirt surrounded by blood. “Yumi!” Running over to her side, he looked around and found Saki colpsed on her back breathing shallow along with Seiji. A cough from Yumi gave him the relief to know that she was still alive. “Yumi!”

  “Sorry…Yuki…I lost…”

  Instinctively, Seiji and Saki split off from Saki in their dires without further need for coordination. Saki plunged deep into the mass grabbing up a wolf looking demon and flinging it into the mob to create an opening. It gave her enough room to work with as the rallied demons charged in around her.

  Dodging around the first wave of demons, she disappeared to the sed wave taking two down with a swift kid threw the third behind her into the fused first wave. Dang around the field, she skillfully evaded ons and demonic spells, the low level grunts were barely a match for Saki’s speed. Only their numbers worked against her, she couldn’t stay still or end up being ered quickly.

  For Seiji, it went a little more straightforward as to be expected from him. His fists went first and nothing more to add. Strength alone for him kept the demons off him pletely. But he quickly became surrounded, having to elbow and head butt where he could just to keep them off him. They made more progress against him than Saki, but still fell into a stalemate that wouldn’t push further.

  Deeper still, Yumi faced down with the strange reviving demon. As a leader of the demons it certainly presehe necessary aura of one and strength. The ability to not die from having its head removed definitely put it up there. Though she worried if it ossible to actually kill it. With su ability, Yumi didn’t know what it was going to take to kill the thing.

  Not knowing the extent of its powers couldn’t stop her. She had t ao the fight over her. Whatever it took to kill the demon, even if she had to be more thh than normal in killing.

  She jumped towards the giant demon with bdes in her hand and gravity orbs trag in her wake. Swinging down both bdes, she sought for another win. As she had been taught with fighting demons, a fast kill was the best. The hat surrounded her and wanted her blood couldn’t allow for anything else. Yet, that didn’t happen.

  Maybe it was because the demon didn’t see it ing before. Or it was unprepared and had its defenses down. But it didn’t happen so easily as st time. Her bde stopped, uo pierce the skin of the demon. It didn’t quite repel, but resisted in a hardeate. The white bdes of energy groaned against the demon’s skin, uo make even a scratch.

  In her moment of surprise, the demon took the time to deliver some retribution for the beheading. Unleashing a wound up arm, long cws that looked more like bdes themselves glowed in the light of the sun as they came for Yumi. Smashed into her barrier, the cws pierced through the gaps in her prote digging in towards her head. She struggled to re-enforce the barrier even with the demon closing dangerously close to her.

  The prick of the point of the cw broke skin on the side of her temple drawing up blood. She had lost the opening round in the fight. That became clear from the way things turned against her. Summoning her orbs in front of her, she threw them at the front of the barrier as her sword sliced through the spheres. Cleaved aabilized, it only took moments for the energy delicately gathered to violently explode.

  White and purple light coughed up, pleting over taking Yumi and the front of the demon. Shards of the barrier exploded outward f the demon’s hand bad recoiled the body a little from the force of the bst. Out of the bst Yumi flew backwards accelerated by her explosion trailing smoke off her clothes.

  Eager demons lined up on her predicted fall wanting a piece of her for those already dead. However, Yumi remained in trol of her fall and watched carefully her surroundings. Before hitting the ground her barrier went up once more followed by her array of bdes taking up sides along the equator of the barrier. They spun around quickly slig through any demon that dared to approach her.

  Yumi stared up at the giant demon ing towards her. Their fight would tinue despite her wishes. “Dammit… This isn’t going to be easy…”

  Chapter 421 – Three Way Struggle

  Surrounded on all sides by fearless demons, she groueeth together. T in the distance was their ander. She failed her first attempt and now her sed as well. Yumi tried to figure out a method that would kill the demon. ‘My swords aren’t enough to cut through anymore… What ged?’

  While she kept her thoughts busily fixed on figuring out a solution, her body had to deal with the demons around her. Leaping out of her barrier, she nded further away from the ander. Even with the demon numbers, she bought time to face down the real target.

  Yumi grabbed a hold of one of the bdes floating at her side and stabbed the demon ing up to her in the head. Throwing the demon back, she leapt on its falling body direg the remaining bdes behio keep her fnks free. As the demon colpsed, she tossed the bde forward, dropping the charging bird-like thing. Her hands materialized another bde in each hand blog ons that swung down on her. A giant hammer and axe increased the pressure on her, magic sparking uhe collision.

  Several nearby demons saw the opportunity with her tied up with defeo strike. Crushing the head of the hammer with her psychic power, the shaft remained behind with a rough point. Yumi grabbed the middle of the metal rod and pulled against the off bance demon. Direg the point into the demon on her right, she freed herself from defeo quickly slice the heads off the approag demons.

  With even more dead demons at her feet, she had no further advances in her pn to kill the leader. The giant demon marched towards her, getting annoyed with her tinued sughter of their ranks. It seemed to bee clear enough to it that the rank and file wouldn’t do anything against her. “Enough! This is between us!” ahe demon.

  A gap cleaved through the swarmed ranks. Broken and heavily troddeh unveiled from the cloaked forms it wore as demons. Yumi could remember how it used to be grass, tall and blowing freely in the winds undisturbed by nothing unnatural. Only chaos remained painted within the dirt now. That which she issioned by her own as.

  The clear path to the demoarget, was wele. Though she remained no further to an answer on killing it. With the ck of a meaningful answer, it sadly came down to the only remaining option avaible to her. It hardly seemed any more trustworthy for her, but it should get results. She just o apply enough to it. Which became the more important question for her. How much power she o actually kill it.

  Yumi focused her bdes forward at the demon preparing for her charge. Before she could make a move though, the demon struck first. eling the fme seen before it stretched out like whips ing around her ankle and wrist. Before anymore mao grab a hold of her, she cut down the fmes. But the two still attached bur her skin slowly fighting her natural resistance.

  She tried to use her strength aloo pull free, but the demon’s power held together better than the ones she sliced up. ‘Damn…I ’t break free… I’m going to lose my hand at this rate…’ Yumi tried with her bdes and gravity orbs. Nothing worked ohis time. The power used ged signifitly as though the demon eled everything into them.

  The demon ander marched closer to Yumi, likely looking t ao her struggle. “You’re certainly tougher than the death seekers. My fmes melt a normal human in mio nothing but ash.”

  “You’ll find I don’t burn that easily.”

  “Yes, I see that.” Pulling out a metal rod from behind its back, fmes came out from the demon’s hand filling the metal from the ih a hot white glow. The metal however didn’t seem to be melting from the intense heat. Despite appearahe white glow didn’t actually seem to be ing from the fme at all. Rather a different meism pletely was at work. The white turned blue and decreased in iy being simple lines over the surface, but with trated strength. It was hard for Yumi to watch without feeling her eyes hurting from the light gathered.

  Then to her surprise, the rod ged shape. rusions of metal came out of the rod expanding into a deep curved bde like a scimitar. The part of the rod that remained in the demon’s hand became the hilt and the blue glow sank through the metal. Air around the bde ed from the heat tained within. “Let’s see how that toughness fairs against this!”

  Yumi groueeth together, witnessing the murderous i surface strohan ever before. It was thid suffog bleeding off the demon with life of its own. If she hadn’t faced down tless demons before it might have paralyzed her. But she could still feel the strength through their desire to kill her. It pletely eclipsed what she felt from it before at the start. They had gotten serious, as it were.

  More than anything the fmes themselves could do to her, Yumi worried about the sword that appeared. With a length that easily matched her height, the force behind the on already augmented with their power made it the most deadly demon on she had faced. ‘ my barrier hold that babsp; With my range limited, it’s going to make sure I ’t move…’

  Some of her movement still remained, but the demon was no doubt skilled in finding the exagle of attack that she wouldn’t be able to dodge. Tied up, she could only rely on her barrier to hold. Her own power wouldn’t be enough to bare hand it like she had doo demons in the past.

  The test of pan quickly for her. Any preparation that she made with her barrier didn’t feel like it would be enough at the start. The impact aloroyed three yers to her barrier with three more vaporized uhe sheer power. ‘A ten-fold barrier nearly destroyed this easily…’ Yumi struggled with trying to rebuild her barrier uhe weight and pressure. She pushed everything that she had to create the barrier. If she had more time, it might have been stronger, but she had so little time to react.

  Sparks flew off with vibrations through the interlocked tiles. Quakes rippled through the barrier bug uhe pressure. The demon had more than just power a w against her, but physical strength as well. ‘This feels so much differently than with Manekamaru… I don’t feel—‘ She cut her thought off before she could finish it.

  Fog on the power of her barrier, she tried to keep it from destroying her defense. Defense alone wasn’t going to be enough to win though. The lohat it went on she uood that. ‘I need a different answer… I ’t move the way I want tied up like this and pinned down by the on… I needed a free moment to attack…’

  Crushing uhe sword wasn’t an option for Yumi. She stared intensely at the on looming over her. ‘This won’t hold… No matter how much I stre, the demon’s winning… It’s stronger… I’m going to have to do something…’ Yumi gritted her teeth as she came to a clusion.

  The only way out of the spot made her tense up her body. She locked her determined gre at the demon for what she decided. ‘It should at least give me the opening I need…’ Yumi acted quickly knowing that aation from her would only make it harder.

  Cracks quickly spread out over the barrier as she siphoned aower. It wouldn’t be long before the rge sword sliced through the defeh ease. She summoned up her bdes at her side with a side step. The demon made a slight turn in its arm seeing how she moved. Everything was in pce.

  Shattered instantly as she gave up the fight, the on sliced through at a blinding speed. But she moved just so to finally free herself. With a deep roar of pain Yumi appeared in front of the demon’s face, caught off guard from the terattack.

  She swung her white bde at the neck of the demon once more, but it did nothing. The bde shattered on the skin as she grabbed another with her one hand. Bdes shattered quickly on the demon. ‘Stronger! I need a stronger sword!’ Two swords fed into oh an intense light from them. It was still not enough. She needed more. Another bde sacrificed itself to power it up more as the bde transformed shape into a bastard sword. Bdes smashed into her swiving it more power until the light blihem both.

  Yumi appeared behind the demoing a massive energy sword over her shoulder. She hovered close to the ground, no longer able to stand. However, the demon’s head only remained separated for a brief time. The fmes restored it once more to health.

  Turning around to face her, it looked down at Yumi’s state. “Sacrifig limbs for victory. You’re a very dangerous woman.”

  Blood slowly dripped from her wounds with her powers trying to keep things held back from passing out. Blood loss was her battle now. ‘Fortunately I was able to use my barrier shards to stop the bleeding, but the demon’s still alive… I ted on it being dead and only dealing with the trash…’

  Fmes burst out from the demon lighting the sword on fire as well as its body. “I o longer hold back my power it seems. I will crush you with everything I have!”

  “Damn…”

  Across the battlefield iown, Yuki yelled out orders to the surviving townspeople. He watched as the st remains of the towowards Nerine. The barrier kept the demons out, though Yumi and the others were doing a fine job getting their attention. However, he saw a rge red fme explode into the air towards their fight. “I don’t like the looks of that… Please be safe…”

  With his Field providing a passive s of the area, he no longer found any alive humans still iown. He slowly moved towards the fighting with things suddenly being very still. “Nerine, I’m going to check out the battle,” he unicated to her through a small earpiece he crafted, “Something’s wrong.”

  “But the pn—“

  “We finished our job. It’s too quiet and I’m seeing too many demons still for it to be our win.”

  “I’ll e too!”

  “I’ll take point, watch my back.”

  “Yes!”

  Yuki switched over to the sed Law set in his Field, one he prepared for on the off ce he would o fight. It was his simple traditional mist form. He didn’t need more attention. “Yumi…guys…” As he stepped through the ravaged outskirts of the town, he came to the field of dead demo behind from his friend’s fighting.

  The silence became more unbearable the closer he came to the sourost of the fighting. Alive demons formed a wall between him and his friends. He stepped closer as their attention remained away from him. None of them seemed to care about him.

  “What’s happening?” pined a demon, which like him couldn’t see what was happening. But the silence from the fighting made them all want answers.

  “Is the Hunter dead?”

  “She stopped moving!” a demon from further up reported.

  “The Hunter’s dead!” cheered the demons, breaking the silence.

  “Yumi…no. No!” Yuki released all of his mist in every dire knog demons carelessly aside to make room for him. He charged forward casting any demon away that found it unfortunately in his way. He didn’t want to believe it, even though his mind had already goo that pce.

  He burst through the wall of demons into the clearing where he saw Yumi ying face down in the dirt surrounded by blood. “Yumi!” Running over to her side, he looked around and found Saki colpsed on her back breathing shallow along with Seiji. A cough from Yumi gave him the relief to know that she was still alive. “Yumi!”

  “Sorry…Yuki…I lost…”