Tactician's Ploy

Yuki nearly shouted at the surprise. He looked around into the empty void. Any attempts he made to be able to see anything failed, moving around, putting his hands to his face. Distance didn’t matter in the slightest for what happened.

Despite the lack of sight, he knew that he kept the same orientation. It was something that he made sure of since he knew that he could easily get lost without it. ‘If I go straight I’ll be able to escape or find her in here. Though I don’t know if she’s under the same problem as me.’ The size of the void she created could have changed since she started. He only hoped that he could find a way out of it.

However, even measuring his steps to track his distance, he was no further outside of the void. Along the way, he nearly tripped and stumbled on the up-turned earth. Yuki came to a stop reaching the only likely conclusions. ‘Either she expanded it to a size that’s going to be too difficult to escape or she’s moving it around to keep me inside.’ More than that, he was certain why she picked such a technique to use against him. ‘I’ve managed to elude her analysis so far because of my power. She wants to see exactly what my power is and how I’ll escape this. She’s desperate for data on me.’

Chapter 449 – Tactician’s Ploy

Outside of the void, a completely black sphere surrounded Yuki’s position. All light disappeared upon hitting the darkness, not allowing anything to escape. Nothing special fit around it as though it might be naturally occurring rather manifested through magic or power. It just looked like a product of nature.

Anumera monitored it closely waiting for the move that Yuki would make. ‘He should be getting desperate now. He’ll make a move…’ Yet as she watched, Yuki did nothing. He merely stood there almost as though he was waiting for her to make an action. ‘Is he really going to just stand in there?’

‘I’m a little surprised that she hasn’t made an attack on me. She’s got the perfect opportunity to do so.’ The beam attack she made could easily hit him without him even knowing it was happening. Any sight of her attacks was gone. There would never be an easier shot for her to make the killing strike. ‘She tossed out any honor or pride in having a fair fight, so that shouldn’t be the reason…’

The more Yuki thought about the situation, he arrived at the only likely possibility. ‘She can’t actually attack me while I’m in this space. So whatever this is made up of prevents her attack. She’s not getting hung up on wanting to see my attacks.’ His decision to wait her out became the correct one the longer he delayed.

Unspent seconds into minutes clicked by for them. Each delay only increased the tension further with the anticipation of an attack. Neither wanted to make the move and slip more of their potential.

Yet it was the demon that finally broke the silence to charge into the void after Yuki. He heard the footsteps, but his hearing wasn’t so refined to be able to know where she was coming from exactly. A general direction only put him in more danger as he faced her taking a hit straight to the face.

Yuki slipped back, having prepared himself for being hit. He knew it would break through any sort of defense he might attempt. Only helping direct it to a less lethal position was what mitigated the damage.

She had free reign against him and it became clear that the Lord would take advantage of it. Naturally, not the sort of plan she counted on in the fight, she still could use it against Yuki. Unlike him, she could easily see through the void without any troubles. Each punch and kick that she delivered pushed Yuki around. Knocked over, he rolled over the ground with his head still reeling from the blows.

Bruised and bloodied from the pounding, Yuki pulled himself back up to his feet. His body hadn’t given out just yet. ‘Dammit…it’s harder than it seems relying on only sound.’ Another kick came to his ribs cracking one of them as he staggered over, but held himself up. This wasn’t the sort of thing his body was built to take.

The failures started to add up. He almost had the feeling down finally. Yuki was glad his body held out as long as it did against the hits. In the next kick, Yuki had the timing figured out and grabbed a hold of her leg. He brought his elbow down on her leg trying to judge where her knee would be. Accuracy was something that he still failed, but did still score a direct blow to her lower thigh.

Anumera quickly wound up her fist to break his hold. She limped back a little trying to gauge the damage done to her leg from Yuki’s hit. ‘He can take a hit better than I expected… I was too slow…’

Suddenly, a gust of wind blew through pushing on them. It nearly felt like a typhoon had come upon land with the intensity of the wind increasing rapidly. Unlike Yuki, the Demon Lord could see what was happening and looked on in frustration and shock. “That idiot! He’s going to destroy the whole area!”

“Hey, what’s going on?” shouted Yuki wanting some sort of play by play in his blindness.

“If you don’t want to die, protect yourself.”

“Against what?”

“A meteor…”

“You can’t be serious!” He didn’t get an answer back and he suddenly felt an unusual warmth in the air that made no sense. The winds nearly knocked him over as he knelt down to grab a hold of something. He dropped his Field and immediately flipped it over to a defense barrier at the moment of impact made the ground feel like it leapt. “I’m not a RPG hero that can tank a planet buster attack, dammit!” Most of his words disappeared in the wind and heat as the shockwave rushed over them.

Watching the eruption from a far distance still felt like a threatening event for Yuki. He knew that he had enough time and distance to react to any of the changes that happened. Each quake and heave he still felt, but it never felt like he was in the middle of it. There was something about it that still felt in control.

Nothing felt further from that reality than now for him. He couldn’t see anything still with the void intact. Feeling the intensity was his only way of knowing anything about the impact. Even in all of the earthquakes that he lived through in Japan, nothing felt so much like riding a wave of earth as was described sometimes with the major ones as it did now. He wasn’t sure if the earth actually moved or it was just the feeling it created from the violent shockwaves and force blasting through the earth.

Yet as much as he wished he could see what was happening, once he finally could see with the concentration of the demon breaking, he immediately regretted that. The massive plume of smoke and fire from the meteor strike with the walls looking like they barely managed to keep things contained, he felt like his life was only moments from instantaneous death if they collapsed as superheated chunks of earth would fly straight at him. Never mind his barrier that would protect him.

This wasn’t the sort of front row seating he ever wanted to buy.

Once the worst of it seemed to finally pass, he stood up focused for a moment on the Capital. “…Seiji…” he muttered knowing that he was fighting that hulking giant of a demon in there. “There’s no way…he could have survived that…”

“I’d worry less about your comrade at the moment,” the Demon Lord reminded, drawing his attention.

Noticing that she held up a talisman, he could see that she seemed to have figured out what he had been doing. It made him realize that he had changed his Field. Before she could take notice of the change, he went back to the previous Field that he prepared for her.

Anumera glanced at the talisman having only a cursory knowledge of them. “The symbols have changed quite a bit in the centuries since the war.” While she slept away from the human world the development of their spells and language had changed. At the time of the war, she took her time learning everything she could about their enemy with their weapons being the most important to her. “It’s similar to a defensive talisman, but it’s different here and here.”

As she pointed out the changes, Yuki composed himself from the meteor attack, forced to confront the demon still. A new plan of attack had to be put together now that she had figured him out. ‘Seems I’m going to have to move on to the lethal options now…’

“Found it buried in the earth. Thanks to Guri I was able to find them. You laid out traps everywhere for me.”

“Well more accurately for your army if we’re being honest. But they didn’t get used so I figured it’d be a waste not to use them.”

“So you actually are a priest or monk and you’ve been lying to me. Though I still haven’t figured out how you managed to activate these remote spells with no signs or words.”

“I’m just unique.”

“Yes you are, but what will you do with your traps and illusions exposed now?” She motioned with her hands as multiple white beams ran through the earth, slicing it up indiscriminately. Without the chant to trigger them, what she did would do nothing. However, it changed the landscape so that he wouldn’t have the same sorts of advantages. Everything that he had planned around fell apart.

Yuki could see the confidence building in the demon’s face as she felt that she gained mastery of the situation. ‘The only issue is that I haven’t figured out her power yet. She’s given me clues, but I need more. But I’m running out of options now. She knows more than anything what the talismans are capable of doing. She’ll be able to anticipate attacks now…’ It was hard for him to argue with the situation as she saw it. Thanks to outside interference, she figured out what he was doing far sooner than he wanted. Any chance of dragging the fight out further shrank quickly.

Matching with her assured expression, Yuki went into his offensive stance once more prepared to resume their fight. “I guess I will have to drop the charade then.”

“Finally conceding the tactical victory to me, Priest.”

Lowering a little, Yuki charged forward for a direct attack. The Demon Lord could see the move easily and went to counter it, having developed a strategy against his style of martial arts. She went to parry his arm away, but felt a sharp pain through her arm that felt like he cut through her muscles and tendons. “What?!” Defensively, she threw out her beams to force him away.

She watched him strangely glide away with his legs not following the way the rest of his body moved. It seemed almost like something pulled at him to keep him out of harm. The brief window of build up with her beams had been just enough for him to react to pull out. Though the reaction time seemed faster than what he had been capable of achieving before.

Yuki’s mystery for the demon grew.

Pain struck her arm again calling out to the damage that he managed to inflict upon her. She tried to move her hand, but it was completely disabled. There were no wounds that she could see yet blood gathered under her skin exposing the damage internally. Anumera looked back at Yuki wanting an answer. “What sort of monk are you?” This was completely foreign to her as a method of attack. “Is this your real power?”

“Something of the sort.” He locked back into his stance sizing up his next opening that he could take. “Since my tactics are no longer possible, I’ve decided it’s time to bring this fight to an end.”

“Bring it to an end?”

A straightened figure and complete shift of demeanor from the demon worried Yuki. She looked to have reached the same point that he did in ending their game of mind games. Killing intent in her eyes grew more than he had seen from her before.

The atmosphere suddenly became sickeningly heavy for him. He found himself coughing involuntarily from something that had wormed itself into his throat. Yuki felt the haze nearly split his head open in pain with him dropping to one knee. ‘What’s happening…it feels like that one time with the other Demon Lord…’

Anumera’s body glowed brightly in light, completely covering her up. Blinding Yuki if he stared at her, he turned away as the light exposed a faint outline of her form. Expanding in size quickly, the ground beneath her crumbled under the weight. Her transformation from her human form blasted rays of light into the clouds. The presence of her power made even the eruptions hesitate. Nature became still under the oppressive force.

Yuki fell to the ground in pain, unable to hold himself together any longer. ‘Dammit…this is even worse than before… He must have been holding back! She could kill me just by transforming and I can’t even attack…’

Light from her body drew up into the sky weaving through the clouds and back to the ground. Shining intensely from her serpentine form, light snapped and bent out along her body. Seconds later everything shattered with particles of light falling down and the quaking growing even more intense with her body winding through the entire field.

Weakened severely from the immense pressure of the demonic energy, Yuki could only look up seeing parts of her true demon form. A massive serpent dragon with more than a dozen wings and a body that he couldn’t see the end of as it wrapped around everything. “Crap…this is a little more than I bargained for…”