194 194 – The Duo
“Like I said earlier.” Kurosaki, the commander in the second army, said. His men had deliberately invaded the village late. This is because they allow the first army to attract more demons, so the second army has more freedom to attack the castle in the middle of the field. “You are free to do whatever you want, Miss Gina.”
Gina, walking next to Kurosaki, who was in front of the troops, raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t expect you to believe me so quickly.”
“You were sent by god here.” Kurosaki flashed a smile. “Surely your arrival and your friends have a meaning. Just like back when the kunoichi named Yua and the warrior named Elise came to us. Yes, they did make a mess, but in the end, we got Taka, one of our outstanding soldiers.”
Gina glanced at Taka, who was walking next to her. They were walking with the troops on a quiet village street. The woman doesn’t know, can Taka’s condition be said to be a blessing? After all, Taka isn’t a normal human anymore.
“He has a great sense of duty.” Tamayo, who was also walking beside Taka, chimed in. “No matter what, he will continue to defeat evil.”
The squad members continued to check the existing houses, but no one had found a single demon yet. Gina felt uncomfortable because of that. The place was too quiet. Not even the sound of birds or insects could be heard.
“Remember, if you can’t find the demon, you’ll keep looking in the next house!” Kurosaki gave the order in a loud voice. “Don’t be lazy!”
Suddenly Gina widened her eyes. She felt something on the ground. “Watch out! They are coming from below!!!”
Suddenly, the demon bodies sprang from the ground and caught the bodies of several soldiers. The other soldiers tried to help their friend free. However, the demons were too strong. They pulled the bodies into the holes they made. The stab after stab of the other soldiers didn’t have much effect on their bodies either.
Only Taka can eradicate them. However, even with the ninja’s high speed, he still couldn’t save many of his comrades. Many were pulled into the ground in no time.
“Shit. It’s like they expected this invasion!” Raymund snorted. “They don’t use this when attacking my servants! It’s like they’re waiting for an invasion from those soldiers!”
Gina tried to stay calm amidst the chaos. She put her palms on the ground, then closed her eyes. The mage could sense that many demons were still underground, digging at high speed to reach the top.
As soon as the woman opened her eyes, all the demons—including those capturing the soldiers—came to the surface with their bodies wrapped in soil, rendering them immobile. The monsters could only scream while trying to free themselves.
“Attack them now!!!” Gina screamed with all her might. “I can’t hold them back any longer!!!”
With such a high speed, Taka slashed the heads of the demons with his sword, making blood splatter everywhere.
“Put the explosive seal on them!” Kurosaki gave the order again.
The soldiers stuck the palm-sized paper to the foreheads of some of the monsters, something they couldn’t do when rescuing their comrades earlier. That’s because their comrades can be harmed if the seals are used.
They immediately ran as far as possible after attaching the seals. The writing on the seals started to glow brightly, then loud explosions occurred. The heads of the demons were crushed instantly.
In just a short time, the demons were defeated.
“Aaarghhh!!!” One soldier’s shout caught the attention of the others.
It turned out that the soldier’s neck was being strangled, and his body was lifted high by a demon with a red body.
“Tamaki.” Kurosaki hissed, already recognizing the shape of the long horn on the demon’s head.
“You know him?” Gina asked, already pulling her hand off the ground.
The commander’s facial muscles tightened. “Of course. He is the strongest demon we have ever met and their leader.”
Taka attacks the demon. Without letting go of the soldier at all, Tamaki dodged. Not just once, but many times. And the demon did it while still strangling the soldier. In fact, many times, she used her captive as a shield. Taka’s movements were hampered.
“No one interferes!!!” Kurosaki gave a warning to his soldiers who wanted to help the cyborg. “Remember what I said! We won’t interfere if Taka fights a strong enemy! We’ll just get in his way!”
Gina grimaced when Tamaki finally threw the dead soldier away. “Sorry if I was rude and sounded pretentious. However, I think Taka still needs help. None of his attacks can hit the demon.”
“Therefore, I ask for your help, Miss Gina.” Kurosaki continued his speech. “You will be a support to Taka, while we will use another route to infiltrate the castle.”
Gina chuckled, feeling like she had no other choice. “Well, I’ll do as you say, Commander Kurosaki.”
Kurosaki gave orders to his soldiers to leave that place. Gina glanced at Tamayo, who was hiding behind the house guarded by several soldiers. The woman is special support and is responsible for repairing Taka’s body when needed.
Taka gets a brutal hit that sends him flying far away. Gina sighed, then put her hands on the ground again.
The earth boulders that had trapped the demons flew over to Tamaki. However, Tamaki could easily dodge or block all of them.
“You won’t be able to beat me with these attacks!!!” Tamaki laughed like crazy. “Soon, I will defeat you and catch up with your bastard soldiers….”
Tamaki stopped her words because there was a giant shadow shrouding her body. He looked up and saw a giant boulder swooping down on him at high speed. The demon jumped back, but the boulder followed him, and a lump of earth suddenly trapped his body.
He could escape, but the trap was enough to delay his movement. That boulder was already very close to him.
The giant boulder destroyed houses, made the ground tremble and made a deafening thump. Gina desperately kept her cloak from being exposed by the wind from the boulder’s fall.
“Even I don’t know where you got that boulder from, Gina,” Raymund commented while clapping his hands. “That’s pretty awesome, but stay alert.”
Even she couldn’t believe that she had just performed such an insane feat. She chuckled as she looked at her trembling hands. Even though she could do that with the divine power she received, it didn’t mean her body was fine. She is at her limit. “Well, I can only hope that the attack just now had a significant impact on that ugly monster….”
Gina choked when the boulder on top of Tamaki’s body started to crack. She ran into one of the houses as the cracks spread and got bigger. Then, the boulder exploded hard, sending chunks of ground in multiple directions.
“You think you can beat me with something like this, huh!?” Tamaki roared with rage. His body is now covered in black blood. “I will kill you all! I will kill you all!!! You guys are ordinary humans who are nothing compared to me!!!”
Taka jumps from one of the houses and swings his sword, but Tamaki easily catches him, then throws him far away. The demon screamed, and slowly his body started to grow.
Instead of directly attacking again, Taka stood up with his katana blade pointed downwards. Both of his hands tightly gripped the hilt of his weapon.
Gina looked around with wide eyes. Suddenly, the surrounding scenery turned black and white. The soldiers and Tamayo also saw the same thing. They seemed confused by what was going on.
Gina’s gaze fell back on Taka. The mage didn’t know what the ninja was doing. Is this magic? However, Gina did not feel any magical traces from the cyborg.
Then, duplicates of Taka appeared one by one from the ninja’s body. They jump, run, and even crawl on the ground. Their only goal is to come to Tamaki.
They then surrounded Tamaki while pointing their swords forward, thrusting their weapons into the demon’s body. The monster’s mouth had opened wide, its face also showing extreme pain. However, no sound came out.
The colors returned to normal seconds later, Taka’s duplicates disappeared along with their swords, and Tamaki’s roar of pain resounded again. More and more blood smeared the demon.
“Taka!” Tamayo ran to the ninja, whose mechanical parts started to fall off one by one.
The man then collapsed and could no longer move.
“Hey….” Gina walked out with wobbly legs. Her eyes widened again, and her lips trembled violently. “Why is he smiling?”
Yes, the two corners of the monster’s lips did go up.
“Are you able to repair Taka-san now, Tamayo-sama!?” One of the guards asked Hitomi’s twin. “Without him, we can’t do anything!”
Tamayo could only hold her head and look at Taka’s shattered body with tears starting to flow.
Gina looked at her, still shaking hands. After making that big move, she couldn’t do much, even though she still had a lot of mana.
“Let me fight it.”
The mage looked back and found Olga walking from a distance. The red-haired woman was still in good shape. Her breathing was steady, and she didn’t look tired at all.