Bare Dance

Kokonemu stood up slowly from the small path of destruction in the forest. Around her were several trees felled by her crash. It caught her off guard. Unable to use her powers to slow her speed, she left wreckage in her wake. However, despite the hit and damage little of it seemed to have little effect on her.

She dusted off her dress a little and walked back out of the path that she carved up reaching Saki. “You were holding back,” she commented in remarks to the sudden increase in her power. It was a dramatic jump in what she had been displaying previously.

‘I hoped for a little more than just looking a little disheveled from that…’ However, she couldn’t deny to the Lord that she had been keeping power in reserve. Saki glanced over her shoulder at the destruction that it caused with her unfiltering her power. A small trench carved through the earth from where she shot out at the demon.

The Demon Lord stared at her seeking a reason. If Saki saw it clearly, she looked a little bothered by the fact that she held so much of her power back in the fight. Clenching her hands together, she could see now that she had no more choice in how she fought. Getting back to the others, finding the survivors. And the woman in front of her refuses to accept anything else.

Saki looked away for a moment from the judging eyes of the woman. “It’s no disrespect to you. I just can’t control my full power right now.” Imagines of the Capital of Atlantis flashed through her mind. The innocents that she never saw caught up in everything. Her disastrous battle with Rheia haunted the back of her mind. “The last time I used my full power I made mistakes that I don’t wish to repeat.”

“A warrior brings all their strength into a fight holding nothing back.”

“You’re still holding back on your power.”

“Our fight isn’t finished.”

“I don’t consider myself a warrior. I have my own way of fighting and my own reasons.”

“Warrior or not, you fight. Show me everything!”

Chapter 456 – Bare Dance

A rough swallow in response left Saki as cornered as she expected. ‘I get the feeling now that she knows, she’s going to force me to use my full power or she’s going to kill me…’ She felt like a little solace could be found in that they picked an isolated area for their battle. But she thought about what Yuki did to the mountain. That sort of power was beyond her, but she could still cause trouble for others depending on what happened. Their battle could trigger rock slides or send objects hurdling like meteorites. She had enough power to cause real damage if an accident was made.

Suddenly, several rocks of larger sizes than before floated up into the air. They were easily the size of her head. ‘Dammit…she’s not going to let me hold back…’ Anything of that size would kill her with the way they had been flung around. Sweat dripped down Saki’s back with the tension jumping for her. This was no longer the same sort of battle.

Bracing her feet into the earth, Saki prepared for the return to battle. She tapped into her deep reserves, the ones that kept sealed away. The strength of her body could handle so much more than she put to it. ‘What’s going to happen once I start fighting? If I let go completely, how bad is it going to be?’ Thoughts and doubts had no place for her as the battle started suddenly.

Saki only saw the briefest of flashes from the rocks as they shot at her. Nothing more than dodge passed through her mind. She couldn’t worry about how far she dodged or when to start. Being out of the line of sight of those projectiles was the only thing that she held in her mind.

The earth crumbled and kicked away with her launching into motion. The force of her leg slammed through, spreading out the power wildly. The nearby tree became uprooted as another trench dug through the ground. On the other end, Saki pounded heavily into the earth kicking a thick cloud with her landing. She clawed into the dirt with her hands trying to bring herself to a stop. ‘Damn, it’s been a while since I’ve used this…I’m not used to this much speed…’ Her feet slid more than five meters even firmly planted into the earth and carving up troughs.

Only the explosive and reckless dodge in the before and after came through to Kokonemu. She had managed to disappear from her eyes for a moment. ‘That a human could possess such natural physical speed is unheard of…she could be the one after all…’

Behind Saki, she felt the shockwaves blast forward from the impacts that the rocks made. She felt the ground vibrate from the damage. It wasn’t the same anymore as she already knew. Saki narrowed her eyes on the demon. ‘…life or death once more…’ Another demanded her attention and strength. Her mind continued to trace back to Rheia.

Her body remembered the feeling more than she consciously did as it shot her forward. It could remember the punches that they exchanged on that wall. Each punch called out for another. Saki soared through the air, clashing directly with the demon. She slammed into the woman almost like a tackle.

They crushed the earth beneath them as the demon supported Saki. Her power started to rise to meet what Saki brought out. Green began to fade out from the leaves as she fought back. Saki leapt off of Kokonemu into the air. She disappeared from the woman’s sight between the leaves, but sounds still tracked her.

Saki flung away from the sight with the tree top snapped off. Landing more than a kilometer away up the mountain, Saki crashed into the earth, cratering and tossing up chunks of rocks. Before they even had a chance to complete their arc, Saki shot back towards the forest, another shockwave of destruction left behind her.

The wind pulled all of her hair back and rippled through her skin as she careened at the demon. Her body smashed through any tree that was between her and the target. Another collision with the demon completely destroyed the ground beneath Kokonemu. The shockwave and concussive force from their impact tore through earth and fauna. What wasn’t rendered to particles by the force at the epicenter scattered to the wind.

A deep crater ripped into the side of the hills breaking down the centuries old trees that had their home on the mountain. More than ten meters below, the two struggled directly in their clash of power, but the demon pushed back against Saki. Speed was her advantage making it obvious that she would lose in a direct confrontation on strength alone.

But Saki had what she wanted and leapt back hitting the edge of the crater and bounced off another side to strike from the blind spot. Kokonemu didn’t have enough time to fully turn and took the punch directly to the cheek, lifting her off her feet. Saki slammed her feet into the ground to bounce back.

They no longer danced together. It changed into an acrobatic routine. The demon fought to keep up with the increasing speed that Saki presented. It was more than she anticipated Saki to be capable of and she only seemed to continue to increase. ‘I might have to…’

Any tree in the area quickly died from the increasing density of the demonic power in the air. Nothing green survived on the mountain side as even from kilometers away a spot began to appear perfectly cut into the face where only dark brown remained. The Lord’s power continued to rise finding no end either. She could still manage to tank whatever Saki delivered to her, even if the earth itself couldn’t withstand the pressure.

Saki bounced around the crater lining up her next attack. ‘She’s continuing to get stronger…how much more does she have?! I need to try to finish this!’ The woman could still track her even at this speed. In brief moments, she could slip ahead, but she quickly managed to catch back up. Even after everything the pace hadn’t changed hands, though it seemed more of a struggle now than domination.

Their struggle mounted with the Demon Lord able to hold back Saki even with her rapid movements. She needed something more to be able to surprise the Lord. Slipping her pace, Saki released a faint image of herself that broke through catching the demon off balance with the timing. A direct hit landed inside her chest, but it wasn’t enough. Her hand stung from the hit with her not certain which hurt more from that.

‘Dammit! Still not enough!’ Charging around the crater, Saki noticed the debris outside of the battlefield that she created. Shifting her running stance, she threw out several delayed images of herself making enough copies to hide herself.

Kokonemu glanced around tracking each of the movements that she made. The effort that Saki displayed for her was impressive considering her eyes. There was more going on than she could keep track of. ‘Where is the real one? These are all feints…’ Like the previous attack, the Lord expected Saki to leverage it for a surprise attack. But not the sort of attack that Saki ended up making.

Carrying an entire tree trunk under her arm, Saki broke through the feints wielding it like a spear. A shocked expression painted over her face for a moment before she tried to dodge out of the way. However, even that one was a feint. Behind her was the real Saki catching the Demon Lord completely off guard.

The trunk pierced through her stomach, not able to hit her heart like Saki aimed for. Kokonemu had managed enough of a reaction to avoid a lethal hit, but still lost much of her side to the trunk as it rammed through a full twenty meters before Saki came to a stop.

Coughing up blood from her mouth, the demon’s eyes shook and pupils shrank. The earth rumbled and creaked from an unknown pressure that threatened to crush it. Saki felt her stomach almost immediately jump and then twist as the deadly feeling flu symptoms arose for her. ‘Demonic energy!’

Saki reflexively leapt back as the air felt a little more breathable for her. She could only watch as the woman’s figure began to distort and rip. It was then that Saki understood what was happening. “This is her true form…the illusion is breaking!”

The woman’s long hair transformed suddenly into tails that started to grow larger in size. Each tail that she grew easily dwarfed the size of her human body. Animal properties started to appear more over her face and arms. The elegant and beautiful woman disappeared with a fox replacing her.

Even from where Saki stood she could feel the demonic energy increasing. All around her the trees began to rot and decal from the immense pressure. Earth under her feet almost felt like it was turning into liquid with how thick the energy was in the air.

She saw more tails appearing on the demon form as Saki recognized the form. Anyone that knew even a little about Japanese mythology would recognize it. “A nine-tailed fox…wait…” Countering the tradition, Saki counted more than nine tails on the fox. It easily had at least fifteen tails and she couldn’t even keep each one straight with their movement. “…a multi-tailed fox demon…”

Saki reflexively coughed as the demonic aura started to negatively affect her body. She couldn’t even get near the demon. ‘How am I supposed to fight something like this?!’ With each delayed moment, the demon grew larger until the crater was too small for it. Saki jumped back trying to get to a safer distance.

“Damn, she’s massive…” Kokonemu the demon fox reached her final height making a village seem small. Against such a large foe, Saki had no clue how she was supposed to fight it. ‘I can’t get close, the aura like miasma is going to kill me before I do anything…’

Unfortunately for Saki, she didn’t get much time to think about the problem as a massive chunk of earth flew past her completely breaking her arm with the near miss. It nearly tore her arm off if she hadn’t managed to dodge it as much as she did. Saki ground her teeth together holding her arm staring at the demon as it suddenly disappeared on her. ‘It can move that fast?!’

Up until that moment, the movements of the demon had been visible to her. Even as a blur or streak, she could see them even if they disappeared once at full speed. The start and end remained trackable for her. But it was back to the beginning again, where she couldn’t see anything.

The tailed fox demon landed on top of her pinning her to the ground with the demon energy leaking into her open wound on her broken arm. Saki screamed in pain feeling like death was already strangling her tightly. ‘…too strong…I’m sorry, Yuki…I gave it my all…’

“This is your true form demon?” asked a familiar voice suddenly interrupting into their battle.

Saki struggled to turn her head as her body was in rapid collapse. Her eyes barely managed to focus on the interloper seeing a gleaming blade in their hand slowly marching towards the enemy. “Masa…?”