Chapter 162: Impossible Odds (II)

For a second absolute silence stretched.

What was once a sophisticated map of buildings, now turned into a mess of broken rocks, timber and metal rebars.

Kaori landed in a crouch several meters from where the dragon had staggered, breathing hard. Her right hand was still smoking from the released energy.

She looked shocked that the attack had actually worked.

The dragon straightened slowly, working its jaw with audible pops as bone and cartilage realigned. It touched his face with his hand and his eyes narrowed.

Then it looked at Kaori with quite interest and lethal intent. He sized her up a few times before he smiled. “Well now,” the dragon said. “Aren’t you a spirited little thing? Such fire, such passion in that strike.” Its gaze lingered deliberately. “I do enjoy a woman who knows how to use her hands. Perhaps after I’ve dealt with the others, you and I could discuss more…”

Kaori’s face twisted in disgust. “Are you seriously—” She gestured at the dragon’s completely naked form. “Trying to hit on me? With your thing dangling down? I’ve met perverts before, but you’re actually worse than a certain someone I know.”

“Because nobody wants to see that!” Kaori shot back, face flushed with embarrassment. “You’re a perverted, mass-murdering lizard with—”

The dragon picked up a massive chunk of debris from a nearby ruin, easily the size of a horse and hurled it toward Kaori with ballistic velocity. The projectile moved too fast to dodge and too large to evade.

“Mouthy too,” the dragon observed with clear satisfaction. “I like that in a potential bride.”

Kaori gritted her teeth and stood back up… but she wouldn’t be able to move away from the incoming attack, she didn’t have enough momentum to use her skill.

’Shit…’

Suddenly as she stepped back… Ice materialized between her and certain death.

A crystalline and flawless shield of frost… It refracted the crimson moonlight into a thousand fractured rainbows. It had rose from nothing in the span of a heartbeat and yet it was thick enough to be opaque, gleaming like diamond.

The debris struck the frost shield with earth-shattering impact. The collision sent shockwaves rippling through the air.

The ice shield held, however deep cracks spiderwebbed across its surface but it did not break as more ice covered even the ball of debris, absorbing the kinetic energy.

Behind the barrier stood another figure.

Yuki’s pink hair caught the moonlight like cherry blossoms in spring, pink eyes glowing with cold determination as she maintained the construct with one outstretched hand. Ice slowly formed around her other hand… soon taking shape of a curved blade… frost crystallizing along its edge.

The dragon’s eyes widened fractionally, then they returned back to normal.

“Oh my,” it said, golden eyes now fixed entirely on Yuki. “Pink hair and pink eyes? How delightfully exotic.” The dragon’s gaze traveled over her form with the same appreciative hunger it had shown Kaori. “A frost maiden with hair the color of sakura blossoms. It seems this age has improved in at least one regard—the quality of female specimens has certainly exceeded my era.”

The dragon laughed again, clearly delighted. “And you have the spirit to match the hair color! Wonderful! You know, three thousand years ago, pink hair would have marked you as the Goddess of Spring. Warriors would have fought wars for the privilege of your hand.”

As the dragon was busy talking… something moved from the shadows behind him.

Thick and viscus darkness flowed from the ruins of collapsed buildings like oil from ruptured tanks and then it coalesced into spears.

Not one or two… but dozens of them.

It was pure crystallized blood… so dark that it appeared nearly black, surfaces gleaming wetly in moonlight, with edges honed to molecular sharpness.

They materialized as fully-formed spears and launched in the same instant, propelled by someone in the deep shadows.

The dragon sensed them as his instinct warned him of genuine danger. It began to turn, wings folding to enable faster rotation—

Too slow.

The blood spears struck from multiple angles simultaneously. Three punched through wings with wet tearing sounds. Two more embedded themselves in the dragon’s back where wings connected to his flesh. One grazed its neck, carving a line that wept golden ichor. Another drove deep into its thigh, sinking to half its length.

The dragon roared… a sound of fury that shook buildings and sent cracks racing through already-damaged structures. Windows three streets away shattered from the sonic pressure alone.

Kaori, Yuki… Filch and the guy with the blade covered their ears with both hands.

The dragon spun wildly, ripping the blood spears free with savage motions, golden blood sprayed in arcs that painted the marble street with luminous spatters.

From the shadows stepped Arthur Sterling’s body—or rather, what wore Arthur’s flesh like stolen clothing. Blood wings spread wide behind it, crimson liquid dripping and reforming constantly in defiance of gravity.

More blood spheres orbited its form now comparing to sometime ago when it had left.

The demon’s expression was cold and utterly devoid of mercy or hesitation.

“Sorry,” it said, voice carrying both Arthur’s British accent and a feminine quality that didn’t match the body it inhabited. “If you are not willing to give that orb willingly than I have no choice but to take it by force. It is a necessary Item that will help me revive the one I worship and the one who gave me my life.”

More blood spears materialized from pooling shadows—dozens more and they surrounded the dragon in a forest of crystallized crimson. Each one aimed at vital points with surgical precision.

“This time… I won’t miss your heart.”

The dragon looked at the demon, then at Yuki and Kaori and at the blood spears surrounding him.

Then he cracked his neck and said as his golden eyes blazed brighter. “What a rude way to treat an elder… I got out of my slumber after so long and you maggots won’t even let me enjoy my life.”

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