Yamiyo no Hotaru

Chapter 53

The battle in the camp was already in the form of a melee or a mud fight.

　"Ggh!! My bow doesn't work...!!"

　Ayaka bites her tongue. If she put her enormous spiritual power into the bow, which was made of sacred wood, and drew it with a custom-made arrow with multiple curses on it, not only the great youkai but even the calamity youkai would not be able to escape unharmed. In other words, the opponent was not a good match for her.

　But the calamity youkai, the embodiment of a certain plague... the tiger wolf raccoon (Toragoni) was a greater threat to the raiding party, which had been heavily equipped against kappa, than its original rating.

　More precisely, this youkai manipulated water. The power to manipulate water within an area centered on oneself. By making the water in the opponent's body rot, spit out, dehydrate, and kill... it was the very symptom of the plague from which this youkai was derived, along with the sight of the servants of the various houses around it slumped in grief.

　And what is more troubling is that the power of this youkai seems to extend to the inorganic matter as well. It rusts iron and withers trees. The team was only focusing on physical weapons against kappa, and since spiritual techniques were ineffective against kappa anyway, tools of this kind were also in short supply. And then...

　"Hey, Ayaka! Something going on at your side!!"

　"!?"

　The kappa attacked from the side, and before she knew it, several kappas were closing in on her. Ugly green creatures with fangs and claws clawed at the girl, but the next moment their heads fly up into the sky.

　"And behind you!!"

　"Huh!? Aah!?"

　The young exorcist, who had managed to decapitate all the kappa with a single swing while running at full speed, threw a small knife (kogatana) at Ayaka's head. The small knife (kogatana), which passed just a little beyond Ayaka's head, pierced the head of the ground spider, which was hiding in the ground and trying to surprise the exorcists. Thus, the giant spider plunged into the ground past Ayaka.

　"Calamity youkai alone is a nuisance, but hey, look what is this...!!!"

　Even after the brain in its head is crushed, the spider, whose nerve cells spread to various parts of its body, shivers, and trembles. Kizuki Touya stabbed the spider in the belly with his sword and tore its body apart, completely disabling the youkai.

　"This is an ugly thing. I didn't expect such a melee against such a group of people."

　"No, but this one is still better. Compared to the battle over there...!"

　Ayaka replies to her old friend's words, breathing a little heavily as she shoots and kills any youkai she sees. As she answers, the other exorcist turns his gaze in that direction.

　There, a storm of destruction is raging.

　'Roarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!'