Fox in The Court

Chapter 10 (Festival arc finale!)

Chapter 10
The Festival Part 2

Out of the hole beneath the bushes, many glowing eyes pierced through the darkness. Then monsters came bursting out of the cavity, humanoid snakes. They struck down the guards who were nearby, tearing one of them in two, the other's head got bitten off. Anyone who noticed the sight began to scream. The monsters went slithering toward the crowd.
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Atsumi chuckled at the screams of the people. "You have all gathered up so nicely." The maid said as she continued to laugh.
"Atsumi-san?" Honghú's eyes widened.
"Oh! I bet you are surprised! Shook to the core are you not?" Her hands began to glow a piercing lime color. Her hair and clothes began to float, as her whole body began to glow, her pupils became elliptical, like that of snakes. "I am sssurprisssed you did not figure me out ss! Maybe you just didn't care enough ss?" She began to hiss as she spoke and stuck out her tongue, which had become forked.
"It was you.." A shiver ran down Honghú's spine, facing the sight of a witch. "Wow ss.. Sssuch impresssive detective work sss!" Asahi was about to unsheath his blade, but Atsumi anticipated the action and blasted a snake-shaped energy blast at the pair. They only dodged it by a hair, the ground and wall behind them got wrecked, debris flying all around them. Asahi went to sheath his blade again, only to get blasted again; this time, he had deflected it with his sword."Foolisssh! You think you can win? I have power beyond your comprehenssion!"
"Can you spout some less generic villain lines?" Honghú said, frowning. Suddenly, she appeared behind Atsumi and went to punch her in the head, but she was blasted away. Atsumi turned around to find nothing. "Hm?.. That was the illusion then, huh?" A pebble hit her in the back of the head.
<Good. She can't tell illusions apart from reality..> Honghú noted mentally.
"Ssseriousssly? Do you want to throw rocks at a witch, ss?"
<Her hissing is annoying..> The girl thought. "Why? Did it maybe hurt?"
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The maids ran away from the monsters, to varying degrees of success. Some got caught by and met the same fate as the guards, who tried to stand up to the monsters. A monster attempted to sneak up on Reina, but its reward was a quick and gruesome demise; as the samurai had unsheathed her weapon, holding it by the middle of the chain, she swung both blades at the creature, cutting it into three. "Don't compare simple Ashigaru to Samurai, foolish Hebito."
"Well done, Reina-sama." Her right-hand woman commended.
"Yes, not bad, cousin." Mizumi said, while halving a monster herself. "Tsk. Want to see who kills more?" Reina challenged. "Why not? Protecting the servants is still the main priority."
"You say it like I would forget it." Instead of replying, Mizumi dashed off to slay another creature. Meanwhile, Maoko shot one down using her bow, the arrow piercing the monster's skull and splashing its blood. "Tsk, Aoi make yourself useful and cut down as many bastards as you can!" Reina ordered her follower. "U..Understood!"
Reina then dashed off to lower the number of rampant creatures, not wanting to stay behind in the 'competition' with her cousin.
A bit away, a bolt of lightning had cut down a pair of snakes. "Where did these even come from?" Daisuke wondered, before going to confront more monsters to save those who couldn't protect themselves. The twins fought back-to-back, cutting every monster that was close to them. "They aren't all that strong.." Shun said. "But there are many of them." Shi added.
There were indeed many, and even the samurai had problems getting all of them.
Tatsuo dealt with a few, to protect his wife and the two ladies in waiting, but even he was not quick enough to keep up with the numbers. One of the monsters caught Etsuko, wrapping its long fingers around her neck. Shinobu and Chinatsu managed to avoid getting caught. "Etsuko!" The two of them yelled her name, frozen in shock. The lady gasped for air and struggled to get free but to no avail. Tatsuo turned around but did not react in time. Etsuko's struggle had ended, in the strong grip of the creature. Tatsuo threw his spear, piercing through the snake's head. Both it and Etsuko fell to the ground, Chinatsu and Shinobu went to check on the lady. Her neck was bruised up, blue and purple from the hold, she no longer took breaths. "N..no.." They were both saddened, but there was no time to cry. Tatsuo picked his spear back, with a dark flame in his eyes.
"You two get to safety, I will handle the pests." He commanded. The women did as such and ran to find shelter. The monsters seemed to be mindless, yet there was the tiniest hint of organization between them. <There must be one who the rest follow.> Tatsuo concluded, and while cutting down a few more creatures. There has indeed seemed to be a more formidable one, among the bunch. Bigger and uglier than the rest, this one had four arms to boot. "Freaks.. Hey big ugly!" Tatsuo yelled over to it, which caught its attention. "Ah, a brave one, sss."
"I must commend your foolishness! You all most certainly had a death wish."
"Foolisssh human! You think you have a chance against us?"
"I do not think, for I am certain. Look around! You are dropping like flies under our blades."
"Ss!" Enraged, the creature attacked Tatsuo, who smacked it in the side with his spear. It would have knocked others off balance, but the monster's body was flexible, and it quickly attempted to strike him with its tail. Tatsuo leaped over; however, the creature managed to grab one of his legs and threw him aside. Stabbing his spear into the ground, he managed to stick a landing and leapt back into action. Thrusting his spear toward the creature, Tatsuo's eyes were filled with clear and unshakable killer intent. Despite his attack getting evaded, the samurai did not waste time to make expressions, instead immediately swinging the weapon and hitting the snake in the head. With the same momentum, he avoided the monster's attempt at sweeping his legs with its tail. Using its four arms, it unleashed a barrage of punches, which got either dodged or blocked. Annoyed by this, Tatsuo unsheathed a katana. Wielding a spear in his left and a katana in his right hand, the samurai was determined to end the clash and his opponent. With the katana, he swung at the creature. ≈Dance of Water: Flowing Slash≈ Which has narrowly dodged it, only for Tatsuo to follow up with an attack using the spear. ≈Erupting Spring≈ : A spear thrust, followed by a huge burst of water, hit the monster, sending it through a building.
"Sss, You are not bad, human.." It said, while getting up from the rubble.
"You are not easy to get rid of." Tatsuo stated.
"Did you expect to me to be?"
They resumed their clash, the snake throwing punches, that did not land, Tatsuo continued slashing and thrusting, that too did not land.
Meanwhile, Mizumi and Reina competed in who would slay more monsters. Their score was about equal. Encircled, the two of them fought back to back, killing the creatures with haste and brutality. "I have to admit, you are not a joke." Reina stated, while splitting a monsters down in the middle. "The same shall be said about you." Mizumi answered, while beheading a snake herself.
Unlike the two of them, not everyone made sport of the situation. Aoi found herself a bit overwhelmed, cornered by three creatures in her tiring state. To her luck, one by one, the creatures were pierced by arrows. Maoko was not struggling, but her arrows were running low. Thus, she was forced to switch to melee combat, drawing the two wakizashi sheathed on the back of her waist. "Do they not run out?" She wondered in annoyance, slashing down a couple of snakes.
The non-fighters managed to hide, some peeking out to watch the unfolding carnage. "This is horrible.." Chinatsu said with tear-filled eyes. "There is no way to disagree.." Shinobu said, she herself shaking in fear. "Let's just hope it will be over soon.."
"I just hope Hon-chan managed to get to safety too.." Chinatsu said and stopped peeking outside.
Kanata, as expected, was shaking in a corner, mumbling. "This is terrible.. I hope Honhu-chan and Atsumi-chan got to safety."
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