DID YOU KNOW? YOU CAN NOW READ THREE TO SIX CHAPTERS AHEAD. CHECK MY PROFILE FOR THE LINK.
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"Looks like they're going all out." Rimuru grinned, cheering for Hinata as he watched the battle unfold. "Hinata's using even greater summons than when she fought me."
The Greater Elemental Spirit of Water, Undine, burst apart beneath the force of Hachi's punch, her body scattering into shimmering droplets of spiritual energy before disappearing completely.
Rimuru's grin slowly faded as he watched the remaining spirits struggle to make any meaningful impact. "They're not doing any damage, though." He slumped forward slightly, his expression becoming one of reluctant sympathy. "Insectars are really unfair, huh?"
Luminous, however, had a thoughtful look on her face, her eyes never leaving the battlefield. "I'd assumed that her unusual affinity with nature would come at the cost of other aspects of her power. Hinata should supposedly be the worst matchup for her."
Rimuru paused.
Hearing Luminous's words, he turned his attention back toward Hachi and Hinata, carefully observing the battle once again. Hachi was effortlessly keeping up with Hinata while simultaneously dealing with the large number of powerful spirits surrounding her. Every time one of them approached, Hachi either destroyed it with overwhelming physical force or simply avoided its attacks, her four arms and six wings moving with frightening coordination.
'Hey, Raphael, didn't you say that Hachi was a bad opponent for Hinata? Why's Luminous saying the exact opposite?'
<<...>>
For several moments, Raphael remained silent. Then the familiar mechanical voice finally answered.
<
'Spiritrons? What's that?'
<
Rimuru's expression immediately changed.
'Oh yeah, that was pretty scary stuff.' He remembered the terrifying attack, his expression becoming slightly more serious as he watched Hinata. 'So you're saying that this spirit stuff can get past Hachi's defense? Or rather, it's supposed to get past her defense, but Luminous is surprised that it isn't doing that?'
<
'Whoa.' Rimuru's eyes widened slightly. 'That's what the Holy Barrier is made of?'
<
'But it's not like Hachi's just going to stand there and watch while Hinata casts the spell.' Rimuru scratched his cheek, his eyes returning to the battle. 'And I don't think Kaede is going to let any of us live if we actually kill Hachi, either.'
He paused for a moment. 'She supposedly beat Guy Crimson in a fight, and he's, like, supposed to be the strongest.'
<<...>>
Rimuru stared at the battlefield. Then at Luminous. Then back at the battlefield. "...Yeah. Let's make sure nobody dies."
Back within the barrier, Hinata slid several meters backward after narrowly avoiding Hachi's crushing punch, her boots scraping against the fractured ground as she fought to regain her balance. The same, however, could not be said for her Greater Elemental Spirit of Fire, Ifrit, who had been caught directly in the path of Hachi's attack and was sent flying by the sheer force behind it.
Both women stood across from each other for a moment, neither immediately making another move. The battlefield had become strangely still, the lingering dust and particles of spiritual energy slowly drifting through the air as the two warriors simply stared at one another.
"Are we done warming up, then?" Hachi asked, her metallic voice carrying across the battlefield.
Hinata exhaled slowly, a faint cloud of steam pouring from her mouth as she steadied her breathing. Her grip tightened around Moonlight.
"Indeed."
Five tears suddenly appeared behind Hinata.
Each one was pitch black, their surfaces rippling unnaturally as thick, murky magicules dripped from their edges and vanished before reaching the ground.
Rimuru's eyes widened. "Hachi's still got more summons?" he whined. "Is this going to be some kind of numbers game?"
"No, that's..." Kaede muttered, her expression changing as she realized what Hinata was doing. She stared intently at the five black tears, clearly surprised by their appearance.
Hinata allowed herself a small smile.
Even though she couldn't see the expression hidden behind Wickerman's insectoid armour, she could tell from Hachi's sudden stillness that she had managed to catch the Antari off guard.
The five tears began to stretch.
Their edges warped and twisted as they slowly extended toward one another, the separate portals bending across the space between them until they finally connected. What had once been five individual tears became a single, enormous and irregular wound in reality, its surface churning like a messy splurge of darkness that refused to remain still.
"You seem to have put quite a lot of effort into this particular creature." Hinata entered her stance, Moonlight held firmly before her as black feathers suddenly began fluttering down around her like rain.
The feathers descended slowly, yet there was something deeply unnatural about them.
Each one seemed to absorb the very reality surrounding it, causing the space around their edges to distort as they fell from the enormous floating figure that had emerged above Hinata.
The creature itself was monstrous.
Its body looked like the unholy combination of a crow and a praying mantis, its dark, angular form covered in blackened armour while enormous blades were conjoined to its limbs, forming grotesque weapons that appeared to have grown directly from its body.
Rimuru's eyes widened.
"Whoa! That doesn't look like something Hinata would have." His gaze darted between the creature and the five merged portals. "Is that Hinata's [Usurper] at work? Did she steal one of Hachi's monsters?"
"Directly from my dimension?" Hachi muttered, her head tilting slightly as she examined the creature. "No... That's not it. I would know if that were the case."
Her four arms slowly shifted. "Back at the beginning... That was when, wasn't it? Every time I opened a portal, you were able to steal one of my servants."
"Are you offended?" Hinata asked calmly. "I'm only using everything in my arsenal."
Hachi was silent for a moment before the metallic sound of her laughter echoed from within Wickerman.
"No, no. Use whatever you have at your disposal." She spread her arms slightly, her posture becoming almost relaxed despite the monstrous creature looming above Hinata. "Honour my kin by showing me power that eclipsed hers."
Her voice carried a strange mixture of amusement and anticipation.
"However..." Hachi's six wings suddenly shifted behind her. "...since you seem to prefer my methods so much, I think a change is in order."
Four of the six wings abruptly detached from Hachi's back.
The enormous appendages separated with a sharp metallic snap before rapidly straightening, their translucent membranes hardening and transforming as their shapes became increasingly rigid. The delicate wings elongated into four magnificent blades, each one taking on a deep moss-green colour that matched the organic tones running across Wickerman's black armour.
Hachi reached out.
One hand grasped the hilt of one blade.
Then another.
Then another.
And another.
Within moments, all four swords were firmly held in her four hands, their edges gleaming beneath the strange light of the barrier.
Hachi lowered her body slightly, four blades spreading around her in a stance that was anything but conventional.
"I don't think I'm too shabby with a sword."
Hinata released another breath, then burst forward, closing the distance between herself and Hachi in an instant.
At the same time, the malformed creature flexed its enormous black-feathered wings, sending a barrage of sharpened feathers shooting toward Hachi at speeds that made them little more than streaks of darkness.
Hachi barely seemed bothered by the attack, her four moss-green swords moving in small, precise motions as she deflected each feather one after another, never allowing her attention to leave Hinata as the Saint began circling around her.
Hinata suddenly vanished, reappearing directly behind Hachi with Moonlight already descending from above, but Hachi blocked the attack with her lower right arm without even bothering to look back.
The moment their weapons met, the creature swooped down from above, folding its wings inward as its feathers twisted and mixed together, the enormous appendages blooming outward like the petals of some grotesque flower before rotating violently and forming a gigantic, feathered drill.
Hachi shoved against Hinata's sword, sending the Saint flying backward, then immediately brought all four of her swords forward until their tips met, forming a single point directly in front of her.
The creature's drilling form crashed into the crossed blades with enough force to distort the space around them, the ground beneath Hachi cracking apart as the air behind her shattered and bent before seemingly melting away from the sheer pressure of the collision.
Despite the incredible force behind the attack, Hachi dug her feet into the ground and pushed back, her four arms straining as she slowly forced the creature away from her. With one final surge of strength, she redirected its momentum, sending the malformed monster flying directly toward the still airborne Hinata.
Both of them slammed into the ground with enough force to send chunks of earth flying, but Hinata was already back on her feet before the dust had even settled, immediately rushing toward Hachi once more.
The two warriors collided again, their swords ringing through the battlefield as Hinata exchanged blow after blow with Hachi, but once again, Hachi's superior strength forced her backward. Hinata used the force of the final clash to her advantage, spinning with the momentum and launching herself back toward Hachi rather than allowing herself to be thrown away.
Hachi shifted her footing, lowering her body as she raised all four swords, her stance strangely resembling a pitcher preparing to throw a ball. Every muscle in her monstrous frame tightened as she prepared to put as much force as possible behind the next strike, and Hinata's instincts immediately screamed at her that allowing that sword to connect would be a terrible idea.
She narrowly slipped past the incoming blade, feeling the immense force of the swing tear through the air beside her, only for the creature to return at the same moment, slamming its entire body into Hachi.
The impact forced Hachi backward several feet, her feet carving deep marks into the ground before she managed to regain her balance. Rather than allowing the creature to follow up, Hachi twisted her body and seized it, using its own momentum to hurl the malformed monster toward the edge of the barrier.
It struck the boundary but immediately recovered, spreading its wings and taking to the air, only for Hachi to send a barrage of sword slashes after it, each one traveling at such speed that they seemed to tear through the air as invisible blades.
The creature twisted and turned through the storm of attacks, blocking some with its hardened limbs while narrowly dodging others, but one slash finally found its mark, carving a long gash across its malformed shoulder. Black blood sprayed from the wound, splattering across its dark feathers as it shrieked and continued flying.
Hinata was having little better luck on the ground, finding herself increasingly overwhelmed by Hachi's four swords, each blade moving independently while somehow tracking her every movement. She blocked one strike, leaned away from a second, flipped over a third, then attempted to parry the fourth, only to discover that the force behind it was far greater than she had anticipated. The impact sent her flying across the battlefield, her body crashing into the ground and carving a long trench through the earth before finally coming to a stop.
The creature shrieked again before rushing toward Hachi, but this time Hachi vanished from its path, reappearing directly above Hinata as she swung one of her massive swords downward.
Hinata's eyes widened as she hurriedly raised Moonlight to meet the descending blade, the two weapons colliding with a deafening crack.
She grit her now bloodied teeth as Hachi's sword pushed Moonlight aside through sheer physical strength, forcing the Holy Sword away from the center of the attack before Hachi continued the same motion, dragging the blade across Hinata's body from shoulder to hip.
Blood splattered across the ground as Hinata staggered backward, one hand instinctively moving toward the wound while her expression hardened against the pain.
Hachi was already preparing to follow up when the creature slammed into her from the side, having returned to its feathered-drill form once again.
The impact caught Hachi before she could properly react, driving her backward as the spinning mass of black feathers tore through the ground beneath her. A long trail of destruction was carved across the landscape as Hachi was dragged along by the creature's momentum, earth and debris exploding outward in her wake.
Hinata spat out a mouthful of blood as she steadied herself, then carefully began applying healing magic to her wounds. She couldn't simply flood her body with restorative energy like an ordinary fighter might, however, because the nature of Hinata's own existence meant that her body could disassemble the magicules contained within the healing magic if she wasn't careful.
Every bit of healing therefore had to be controlled and directed with precision, making the process slower than Hinata would have preferred, especially while the battle around her continued to rage.