1.8 Dark and Cold: Kusanagi no Tsurugi

It’s over. Behind the bear I saw more crimson red eyes peer through the darkness. It’s all over.
“Tsk.” The girl behind me clicked her tongue. She raised her hand high above her head, “Set the world ablaze, heavenly sword of gathering clouds, Hi-Kusanagi no Tsurugi!”

In a swift motion she lowered her hand, leaving behind a trace of small flickering flames in the air. It seemed as if she was winding her arm up by holding it far behind her other shoulder. Just as quick as before, she swung her hand through the flames and made the legendary sword, whose name she had called, appear.

“…She can’t be… right?”

For a moment, everything went silent, everything but the sound of her sprinting footsteps. She ran much faster than this morning and stood in front of me, her back facing the monster.
Calm, composed and oozing with confidence, she delivered a line straight from a theatre play, “This will only take a moment.” She blocked the bear’s attack over her head without looking.

Without giving herself, me, nor the bear a moment to breathe, she turned around, her black sword burst into flames. Firmly holding her sword in her right hand, she ran up to the bear.
In front of it, she brought her left hand onto the blade as well, “Stance change!” She stopped running and spun around in place, circling around with her blade, leaving a spiral of flames around her.

Whenever she said stance change, she switched between piercing through the bear in a straight line at rapid speeds to spiralling around in circles of flames—flames only dimmed after hitting her target—which all of her circles did.

In the blink of an eye, she killed not only the bear in front of me, but two of its kind that crawled out of the woods with her stance-change style of combat.

When the fourth bear was damaged enough, she pierced through it with her piercing stance. The fourth one was down in no time as well.

Unlike some other families of monsters, these red eyed sleuth bears care for each other. Even though their fear of fire makes their blood run cold, they won’t leave a bear to die and much less let their comrades’ deaths be in vain.

The two bears left stood face to face at quite the distance with the girl standing in between them.
I tried to think of something I could do, but looking at her, it was obvious that I, the so-called Klutz of Justice, should know when my duty ends. Without my blades and with absolutely no spells in my arsenal, I’m about as useful as a winter cloak in a desert.

The two bears charged in one line opposite of each other. When both of them were but a few strides away from reaching their target, she softly said, “Ignition.”

Every place where she had changed stances turned into a larger circle of fire. Even the place where she was standing was completely surrounded in a big circle of flames. When the fire died out, both bears were long burnt to death.

Ever so composed, she walked up to me. “We should hurry and get some rest now.”
I, still in disbelief, asked her, “Are you—”

Before I could finish my question, she tripped me over, somehow without making direct contact, and pointed her sword no more than a fingertip away from my eyes.

“Do not ask me if you already know.”