The Battle of Monsters

The Flame Scorpion hissed and swung her venomous tail at Kazuya. The latter was frozen in horror by the discovery of Kasane wrapped in cobwebs. The enormous spider-scorpion monster sneered at him, with her voice still sounding like his elderly neighbour’s. He trembled, speechless, and couldn’t dodge her attack.

But the tail didn’t stab him. He felt sharp fangs tugging at the collar of his shirt and pushing him aside, while the white fur rubbed against his shoulder. It snapped him out of his daze. He looked at his rescuer, expecting to see Inuko. But it was Ginrei. He let go of his collar and snarled at him, his nine white tails bristling.

“Focus!” His deep, resonant voice echoed from his muzzle. “And this is for the bullet earlier.”

He grunted like a displeased fox and turned around, glaring at the Flame Scorpion. Ms Kegawa, the monster, cackled. She wiped her long, lean pedipalps against her eight black eyes with white pupils – a spider yokai’s equivalent for blinking.

“You’re dying slowly, Ginrei.” She screeched at the fox from above. “Those darn humans can’t do anything right… I hoped you’d be shot in the heart! But no matter… You can’t save this human girl even if you try_” Her speech was cut.

Three consecutive shots sounded. Ms Kegawa squeaked in pain, with three bullet holes marked on her belly at the rear – the place where spiders’ hearts were located. Thick blue blood oozed out of them.

Kazuya’s pistol was still letting off steam. He glowered at the scorpion, with the pupils in his green eyes dilated. It indicated the activation of the zoom-in ability of his Absolute Sight Magic. His face was pale and his jaw tight, his nostrils flaring with killing intent.

I shot her in the heart with Dairyū’s scale bullets. He thought. It may not be enough to kill her, but it should make her faint.

His deduction was wrong. The bullet holes began healing as the scorpion screeched. The human body wrapped in the cocoon of her cobwebs stirred, and the webs glowed green as though some energy was flowing through them, from the cocoon to the monster. Kazuya raised his eyebrow in confusion, but Kenzō, Ginrei, and Inuko realised what was afoot.

“You hag!” Kenzō growled in his high-pitched, resonant voice, his eyes wide in distress and rage.

“She’s stealing energy from Kasane!” Ginrei yelped, bending his knees on his hind legs and lowering his nine tails with worry. He turned to Kazuya and warned, “Don’t hurt her anymore, or she’ll drain Kasane faster!”

“But what are we supposed to do, then?!” Kazuya exclaimed, with beads of sweat streaming down his brow. He jumped aside to evade another tail whip from the scorpion.

“You’re supposed to die!” Ms Kegawa hissed from the cobwebs above. “I’ve been patient with you all, but you had to pierce me with those disgusting dragon scales! Now, I’ll teach you why my race is called ‘Flame Scorpions’…”

She coiled on her webs near the ceiling and readied her tail for another attack. She pressed her pincers together and activated her magic. Her whole body flared up in crimson fire. Kazuya recognised it from ten years ago – the blaze that looked like foxfire but carried no fragrance of burning spider lilies, characteristic of fox magic. Kazuya shivered as trauma overpowered him. He was going frozen stiff again, but shut his eyes and shook his head to snap out of it. He frowned, reopened his eyes, and clutched his pistol. He got ready to deflect the upcoming attack.

Ms Kegawa opened her mouth and blew fire at them. Ginrei and Inuko jumped before Kazuya to protect him, for he’d be charred otherwise. Inuko blasted orbs of lightning out of her mouth at the incoming flames. Ginrei, on his part, spread his nine tails like sun rays and blew purple foxfire, smelling like burning wisteria, from each of their tips. He created a massive firewall, which, along with Inuko’s lightning orbs, collided with Ms Kegawa’s flames and caused an explosion. It sent sparks all around the stone chamber. The sparks also hit some of Ms Kegawa’s cobwebs, burning threads of them and tearing certain nodes.

Ms Kegawa squeaked in distress when she saw the loosened webs. She hurried to throw some fresh cobwebs out of her tail to reestablish the connections. Kenzō’s reptilian rainbow eyes detected her movements, and his pupils dilated with excitement. A fresh idea had struck him.

“I’ll distract her!” he cried to his friends. “You guys tear the cobwebs apart, but don’t hurt Kasane! We need to sever her connection from the scorpion.”

“What?” Kazuya gasped. His strategy makes sense, but how is he planning to fight that monster alone?! His heart throbbed. “Wait, Ken! We must stay close, or_” But he couldn’t finish his sentence – Kenzō had already run off. Kazuya clenched his fist, upset that he couldn’t protect Kasane and now seemed unable to protect his distant cousin either. “Ugh, why am I so useless?!”

“You’re not,” Ginrei’s grunt reached his ears.

He looked quizzically at the fox, whose crimson, vulpine eyes pierced his. He did look older than 1000 now, with the wisdom exuding from his serene fox face.

“Kenzō warned us not to hurt Kasane,” he said. “Neither Inuko nor I can do that with our flashy magic. Her Lightning and my fire will spread through the cobwebs and reach Kasane in the cocoon. The only one who can tear them apart without hurting her is you. Shoot at the necessary nodes! Your Absolute Sight is perfect for that. Inuko and I will provide cover for you.”

“Right!” Inuko barked, wagging her tail.

Kazuya widened his eyes. He looked at his pistol in his trembling hand. He knitted his brows and clutched the weapon, determined to make every shot count. He nodded to Ginrei and Inuko.

“Let’s do this!” he said.

They looked at Kenzō. The moment he distracted the scorpion, Kazuya would shoot at the few nodes that held Kasane’s cocoon. But Kazuya still didn’t know how Kenzō would distract the beast, so he kept an eye on him out of worry, too.

Ms Kegawa sneered when she saw Kenzō approaching her alone, with his sword sheathed.

“What is it, brat?” She screeched. “Just because you’re Dragon God Dairyū’s son, you think you can defeat me with your bare hands? Your father couldn’t kill me with his biggest tsunami!”

“But he injured you so hard that you need to eat human hearts to stay alive, right?” Kenzō smirked, making her coil her tail with irritation. Seeing that he had touched a sore spot, Kenzō grinned. His pupils narrowed to slits, his hands itching to torture the monster. “Can’t even keep your human form young anymore, can you?” He broke into laughter, his voice tinkling like a thousand pearls, echoing through the cave. “You had to be a wrinkled old hag all these 200 years!”

“You p-pesky little_” Ms Kegawa sputtered and hissed. She glowered at Kenzō with her beady black eyes and swung her venomous tail at him. She opened her mouth and added a blow of fire, so much she wished to burn him alive for his insults.

“Ken!” Kazuya shouted in fright.

Gusts of vapour erupted around Kenzō, hiding him from everyone's sight. For a moment, all went silent. Kazuya stared at the steam in worry, while Ginrei and Inuko had their tails tensed. Even Ms Kegawa shuffled her many legs, watching the vapours in confusion. She passed her pedipalps over her eyes again, as a form of her blink.

The beast that emerged from the vapour made Ms Kegawa shrink on her cobwebs, shivering in all her limbs. Ginrei and Inuko stuck their tails between their legs, and Kazuya gasped in fear and awe. It was a gigantic purple serpentine dragon with blue horns, claws, and spikes, writhing and coiling in the air. He opened his muzzle, baring his sharp, blue crystal fangs and sticking out his serpentine tongue. To Kazuya’s dismay, his rainbow eyes made him uncannily similar to Kenzō. Indeed, Kenzō’s high-pitched, tinkling voice came out of his mouth.

“You’re through, old hag!” He growled at the scorpion.

He dashed at her, wrapped his long body around her, and dropped her off her cobwebs. Ms Kegawa squealed and grabbed him with her pincers, but his purple scales were too sturdy for her to slice. Soon enough, the two gargantuan monsters were engaged in a deathly battle in the rumbling stone chamber.