Isher Notra

Stella:

"Not today, edgelord..."

She was pinned against the dirt by a Weasel, their hands locked on the assassin's scythe hilt in a battle for her life. The Human's arms shook with every drop of effort her muscles exerted. Her teeth clenched as her brain searched for any leverage she could grasp. If anyone would claim her life, it sure as hell wouldn't be THEM!

With one more burst of golden Saniya coursing through her atoms, her arms gained the well-needed surge of strength to push him off her, gaining the opportunity to pull a rock the size of her head from underground and fling it at her assailant as her feet restarted to support her weight!

Unfortunately, the Weasel swung his arms in a smooth arch to his side, redirecting the great stone with a subtle breeze. After completing a complete rotation around him, the projectile was turned against its original caster!

Stella, while sprinting at the ninja, ducked the rock without losing much momentum, a shiver of adrenaline bristling every hair on her body when she felt the slightest graze on her scalp. Her golden fists immediately flared back to life, relentlessly assaulting the white-furred mustelid, who swiftly guarded with the weapon's hilt.

His reflexes were unbelievably sharp, weaving his way out from damage no matter what angle Stella considered. His uncovered eye glared at her with unbreakable discipline, yet she couldn't help but feel something was off about him and his pals. Their usage of air spells was few and far between, opting for their questionable physical prowess most of the time. Hanaken had mentioned, while they rested in the cave, that she imprisoned the trio with her secret Oni technique, using sikpha crystals to disrupt their Saniya. It clearly took a toll on those weebs...

After repeating a pattern of punches to lure him to a false sense of security, the girl lowered herself. She swept his leg to throw him off-balance, surprisingly working if not for the skilled ninja conjuring a wind blast between his palms and propelling him away before his back touched the ground.

Stella braced herself as her opponent redirected himself in the air, curling into a ball and spinning before lunging right back at her. She stomped the ground, erecting yet another large rock and commanding it to intercept him.

The projectile successfully repelled him a couple of feet. Alas, before it could crush the scythe wielder against a bamboo tree, the mustelid climbed the earth spell and jumped off it in midair.

Witnessing him swinging his over-the-top weapon above his head, Stella steeled herself, coating her hands with the thickest layer of stone she could conjure without hindering her finger motions before the white devil struck from above!

Inches from her face, the Human caught the curved blade between her rock gauntlets, the friction threatening to cook and peel her skin off. Then, she frantically shook the tiny assassin like a magic 8 ball, praying to divorce him from his weapon! Still, his grip on it was obsessive, as if this scythe contained his very soul.

Of course, the challenge only pushed Stella to go even further beyond, mustering all her Saniya-enhanced core strength to swing her arms above her head without ever losing hold of the weapon. At last, the Weasel's tiny claws weren't enough to stand a chance against centrifugal force, being flung far through the bamboo, granting the girl ample time to make her next move.

She finally held the scythe with both hands, which now radiated golden energy that seeped through the cracks in her gauntlets. She wasted no time lifting it as far as possible for her short arms, then conjured a great, pointy rock before her. Over and over again, she slammed the middle of the scythe, destroying the outer wood shell and gradually denting the durable metal core of its hilt while needing to regenerate the stone with each strike. Her muscles cried for help as she held no mercy for them, desperation sinking in as this proved much more challenging than she had anticipated. That Daien's flute was child's play compared to this.

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When she heard a loud screech coming from her side, a final surge of might coursed through her veins. She flared her Saniya as feasibly high as she conjured her most durable barrier spell, buying her just a little more time as the rest of her natural energy powered her arms for one last attempt.

"THAT'S FOR ALMOST KILLING ME!!!" she screamed, barely acknowledging the pressure put on her protective spell before she slammed the titled metal hilt with so much strength the rock was shattered beyond repair!

The expression on the assassin's face wasn't as much terrified as frustrated as he witnessed Stella holding the halves of his precious scythe with each hand. Before he could make any movement, the barrier spell started wavering.

"GOTCHA!" The spell erupted into a golden explosion! Unfortunately, once her eyes adjusted to the sudden light, she saw the mustelid standing far away from her, apparently unharmed. That asshole might be even faster than Lien...

Shit. She didn't check on Lien for quite a while, did she?

Thankfully, the pup hasn't strayed too far from her. The young huntress and her prey hopped from bamboo to bamboo, creating restless shadows that distracted her from the potent, invisible force pressing on her chest, sending her stumbling a couple of feet and forcing her to let go of the scythe's halves.

"Damn you!" Stella clutched her chest, panting while her eyes burned with vengeful wrath, laser-focused on the scythe-wielding Weasel, who was slightly swinging his body, holding the now shorter sickle, preparing himself to launch one horizontal air slash!

Before the spell could come to fruition, something slammed against the ground between them. Soon after, once the dust had settled, the Human could glimpse that it was, in actuality, someone. Most importantly, not anyone she was hoping for...

"LIEN!!!" Stella cried, running towards the shallow crater her packmate lay in with a hammering heart.

The Wolf wasn't limp. She was awake and stiff, save for the occasional twitch her tail produced. What lay behind her wide, milky eyes was unmistakable - a more extreme version of what she felt when Yuki-onna flew past them.

Stella's first instinct was to guard her beloved Lien within her arms, pulling the petrified canine's muzzle to lean on her neck.

"Lien, please..." she begged, her voice trembling with despair. "Say something... Do something..."

The moment a white blur moved abruptly at the corner of her vision, Stella jumped away as fast as her legs allowed, Lien still tucked in her arms. A surge of hatred pulsated violently within her heart as she glared at the three Weasels, witnessing them.

"HOW COULD YOU?!" the Human snarled. "LIEN'S STILL A KID! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU FREAKS!?"

Her expression softened an inch once she noticed the genuine concern etched on the samurai-looking and the (no longer) scythe-wielding assassin. The third one, carrying two kunai and wearing a yellow bandana around the arm, had not a shred of sympathy, almost pouncing on them if not for the leader blocking his path with his tiny paw.

"幸運な農家とは、家畜の子供を虐待しない農家のことである。" The katana-wielding one spoke with a deep, baritone voice as he adjusted his comically large hat to conceal his eyes.

Such beauty in those words, echoing in the ears of whoever was blessed by them with the calmness of a spiritual guru who achieved a complete understanding of the building blocks of creation...

...Or so Stella would think if she understood a lick of the Weasel's language. At least, her ignorance brought levity to her shivering nerves, pushing her through the anxiety until Lien's head tilted to the side.

"Stella..." the pup whispered, her tone hoarse as her paw clutched her splitting head. "Yuki-onna... I've never felt so much Saniya in a single place."

Damn it. Why are the people gunning for her life such freaks of nature, even by those literal fantasy monsters' standards!? It was as if the Human girl was constantly struggling against deities just for the right to live.

"That bitch..." And the anger returned. "She freezes an entire city full of people, backstabs her own friends, and somehow I'm the problem?!" She turned her wrathful gaze back at the ninjas. "WHAT ARE YOU IN FOR?! MONEY!?" She coughed, her vocal cords unable to keep up with all the yelling. "I fucking hope so, 'cause that ice whore doesn't know what loyalty is. Ask that hairy lady if you don't believe me."

The Weasels' eyes widened with quiet shock, not from Stella's previous outburst but something about her last remark. She could tell their curiosity was growing by the second as they mumbled amongst themselves.

...

While Lien gradually loosened her hold, an idea formed inside Stella's mind. They were awfully shaken by the mention of Hari-onagu, weren't they?

Well, whatever it was, perhaps the Human could use it for her and Lien's benefit. If those Weasels were actually close to that hairy freak, as she suspected, they would've hit the jackpot.

"I know where Hari-onagu is! She's not well!" Stella shouted, immediately robbing the assassins' attention. The look on their faces, usually smooth and barely expressive, carried undeniable concern.

And that was all Stella needed to know her demise wouldn't arrive yet.