Bullet Dance

The Demon Lord crashed into the ground creating a small crater from the impact. A bit of a stunned look surfaced for a moment as she didn’t catch what happened immediately. In the moment, Saki moved faster than her even if it was just for an instant. She became a blur to her eyes and the human overcame the demon.

However, she didn’t lay on her back for long. Kokonemu jumped back ready to see if Saki could repeat that effort. She closed in directly to Saki not going for the blind spot, but tested her head on. The blow made it through, but she could tell it was different. ‘She nearly blocked me in that moment. She’s almost able to see my speed.’

Saki stumbled back, but charged forward to the demon. They clashed exchanging rapid blows. Each of Saki’s punches tested her improving speed, while Kokonemu poked her defenses further. Fewer of her hits were landing cleanly against Saki. The steady decline continued until Saki was able to hold her own in a straight exchange. Neither of their blows could break through anymore.

She could parry and block now, though each block still made her feet rattle taking on the force of the hit. ‘I can see her movements!’ The success she achieved seemed impossible to her before, yet now nearly felt natural.

They pushed their fight further, resuming the dance of their battle. Saki dashed around the field with Kokonemu. They exchanged moments of chase, never consistent one following after the other. Moments broke with them finally hitting in a clash that crackled with power through the air.

After a half minute of high speed battle they paused with Kokonemu breaking away first. She no longer looked casual about their fight. A subtle hint of excitement slipped through into her eyes. The Demon Lord picked up a nearby rock pressing it between her fingers as she looked at Saki. “Matching a Lord in physical capabilities, you’re quite the special human.”

The change in action had Saki a little concerned. It felt like she was changing tactics in their fight. ‘She planning on throwing it at me?’ There didn’t seem to be anything random about the action. Whatever she did appeared deliberate. “I’m full of surprises,” she replied, not really sure where the demon was going.

“Yes, surprises. Let’s see how you fair with one of mine.” She pointed her partially open hand at Saki with her index finger targeting her directly. The rock started to float with sparks flaring up around the rock. An instant later, the rock shot out like a bullet straight at Saki.

Chapter 455 – Bullet Dance

The rock bullet flew past Saki’s head tunneling through her hair as she barely managed to evade it in time. Sweat dripped down the side of her face not expecting that sort of attack from the demon. She had wanted to know what sort of power that she had. Up until now, they had only been fighting with her their physical capability, something that she could manage now. But fighting against a power when she had nothing to combat it worried her. The only thing that she had to pride herself on was speed, which wouldn’t always guarantee her ability to avoid damage.

But Saki wasn’t completely clear on what her power was from just a single demonstration. ‘Is that telekinesis like with Yumi? Making that rock shoot like a bullet…’ She tried to replay it through her mind to analyze what she saw. The speed of the rock was going to make it difficult for her to be able to dodge and she didn’t know what sort of damage it would do. It wasn’t something that she really wanted to find out.

Kokonemu seemed pleased that Saki avoided the first shot. “You’re going to have a hard time without using any of your spells. You may not rely on them, but you’re going to need them now.” The Demon Lord still had made the assumption that Saki was like the rest of the Hunters. She figured that the chants and talismans weren’t her strength, focusing on the physical, but that she could still use them to a limited degree.

‘I’m going to be disappointing her…’ It wasn’t a piece of information that she planned to reveal. If the demon wanted to believe it, then she wasn’t going to stop her. Through the course of the battle she would end up figuring it out anyway. Until that moment happened, it was one less thing to disadvantage her. Though Saki felt it was hard to say that it provided any sort of advantage in her fight, it mostly was only a negative to her name.

The fight quickly increased intensity with the new power that the Lord displayed for Saki. It was no longer just a martial fight where she had to dodge in a high speed battle. Mixed into their fighting now were the projectiles. For the first few shots, she didn’t do anything, but seemed to show off the capabilities of it. She could fire it from her hand as well as just by levitating them in the air. No guide was required for the attack.

But it didn’t last with such an easy approach. She went back to fighting their speed battle while also attacking with projectiles. It started to become something more than Saki could handle. While she dodged a fist, a bullet came through and grazed her cheek, unable to evade it as well. The woman used both her body and mind, demanding a fight to draw away Saki’s attention.

In the fight, she had to spend so much of her senses on locating the woman by sound that she couldn’t spare it for the bullets. And this woman was a highly skilled warrior. She knew how to work her powers into the melee to make it difficult to anticipate. Even if she couldn’t see the path, at least seeing where the bullet started would have helped Saki. But she didn’t have that in the battle. She needed to react between moments with a nearly preternatural sense to even have a chance. Her reflexes weren’t so heightened that she could actually detect and then move her body in those moments between moments that the fight demanded of her. It was just beyond her body’s abilities right now.

Knocking back the demon to break the fight, Saki brushed the back of her hand against her cheek. ‘It’s shallow, mostly just a scrap. My body’s natural hardness probably protected me some, but that won’t always be enough…’ The lethality of the battle had increased, as though fighting a Demon Lord in a bare fisted fight wasn’t lethal enough. ‘What sort of damage do these do?’

Saki danced around restarting their battle. They darted about the hill with the battle dragging more into the forest. While she couldn’t control where the bullets came from, it did at least give her a better chance of seeing the damage. Enough trees were around them that she could see what one would do.

It didn’t happen immediately, she wasn’t that lucky. She had to dodge bullets while keeping their fast-paced battle going. Slowing down even a moment to try anything would have meant pain and maybe even death for her. Waiting in the time out left her taking more hits from the bullets and sometimes her fists when she focused too much on reaction.

This sort of battle was clearly where the woman specialized. She could keep the dance up taking advantage of openings that her bullets created. In the off-balance moments, she capitalized perfectly on the weaknesses that she created in Saki’s defense. Tears in her kimono’s sleeves appeared and small cuts on her arms.

Eventually, she managed to get what she wanted and saw one of the bullets completely obliterate the trunk of a tree. The force seemed more like it was a cannon than just a small few centimeter rock. But that was just a tree. Because of the angles of the attacks, it ended flying outside of her range or breaking down before it got too far. So she couldn’t get to see what sort of crater it would make, which would tell her better than anything the destructive power of it.

However, the real problem that she faced was still before her. ‘I’m not making any progress against her. Just when I showed that I could match her to some degree, she steps things up. I have no way to counter projectiles. I need a different method to win against her… My previous battle experience against Atlanteans isn’t going to be of any use to me. She’s going to have at least the same amount of stamina, likely more than me…’ Such thoughts made her pensive, while she tried to figure out a strategy against the demon.

Since she never came into the battle with any real battle plan, she found herself having to play things more by ear than she liked. ‘I’m honestly used to quick battles, not these drawn out ones. I don’t really have any good plan to turn an extended battle around. She’s got control of the fight right now and I’m not sure what I can do to change that…’

Their battle paused again with Saki taking advantage of the moment to have more to concentrate on tactics. She noticed how much her clothes started to get ripped up. Small wounds over her body were adding up, though the pain could still be suppressed for now. ‘I’m getting a little better at feeling out the changes in the air created by her bullets, but it’s still not enough.’

“You’re developing at a surprising rate,” Kokonemu noted.

Saki snapped to attention, staring at the woman. She examined her face and eyes to get a read on her, still a difficult thing for someone that appeared so relaxed even now. ‘Is she implying that she’s trying to make me get stronger? Just so that she has a better battle?’ It was purely speculation on her part. The thought that her enemy was trying to train her just so that they could keep fighting seemed absurd. They were trying to kill each other, she should be focused on that. Yet, Saki knew that she hadn’t brought out her full power. It might have been because she was confident that she could end the fight without needing her full power, but could it also just be intentional for a different goal.

If any of that was true, then what was her purpose or even in fact any of the demons’ point in all of this?

“I’ve already stopped the ringing from my hair pieces, but you can still read my movements without that.”

“What?!” she gasped, not even noticing it until the demon pointed it out. ‘She’s right! Thinking about it, I haven’t been hearing the ringing like I was. Have I really improved that much or was I always capable of this?’

“What more will you show me before this is over?”

Saki got the feeling that she really wanted to see her spells, but she was going to have to remain disappointed in that area.

Their battle resumed with Kokonemu appearing to have said what she wanted. She seemed to only want that break to have another conversation with her. During the whole fight, she kept up the strange level of cordiality that contradicted what Saki was familiar with. Everyone that she ever fought came at her with easier to read emotions. Even someone like Rheia, who she still had trouble understanding, clearly wanted a fight. This wasn’t the sort of feeling that she got from Kokonemu. Saki knew the demon wanted the fight, it was all she seemed to want. Yet, she didn’t show that in her face. It disconnected with the way she fought. Perhaps it was their age that did it, someone that had lived for as long as them ceased to express and emote in the same way as humans did.

She might never have an answer.

And in the middle of their battle, she knew that wasn’t what she should be seeking anyway. Focused on dodging bullets, Saki tried to find a way to change the pace. It was all she could do at the moment. She couldn’t remain following the pace of the battle set by the demon. Control had to change or the battle would end with her death.

Saki changed her stance against the Lord mid step. It was enough to slip her a little off balance, not being in the same alignment as planned. The demon pivoted quickly despite the balance issue, but it changed everything that she had planned for Saki. Rather than focusing on a defensive strategy where she dodged and evaded, Saki turned to offense. It was the first time that she went directly to offense rather than keeping reactionary. She only countered and parried before.

The switch up prevented the same angle of attack that Kokonemu had planned for her projectile. With Saki aggressively in front of her striking it closed the field. Things tightened up within the Lord’s space limiting the angles that she could attack from. It went exactly how Saki wanted. A limited firing angle meant that she could more accurately predict where the bullets would come from. If she couldn’t see them, she just had to force them to come to her where she expected them.

A well played strategy. However, outside forces had other plans. The ground suddenly shook for them, completely distracting both of them. They looked back in the direction of the Capital only noticing it now that a massive light and blast took over the horizon. While not near enough to have been directly affected by it, gusts of wind picked up into gales as the meteor impact effects spread further out.

Saki looked stunned at what happened, “Yuki…everyone…” She didn’t know what happened over there, only guessing that it had to be one of the demons that did it. There was no way of her knowing if they even survived such a hit.

“Would seem that Lord Guri got worked up. His powers are not suited to battles such as these.”

‘The Capital is gone…’ Saki focused her attention back on the Demon Lord, who now became a wall that stopped her. Her drive and focus honed in further. ‘I’ve got to get back and find Yuki and the others!’ The ground underneath her cracked from the pressure her legs forced down. An explosive blast kicked back behind her as she no longer worried about the control of her power on the environment. Saki disappeared from the demon’s eyes, suddenly appearing in front of her landing a deep punch to her gut sending her flying for the first time since their battle started. “I’ve got no time to waste now.”