Isher Notra

Stella:

Their glowing fists crashed against the dome. Its surface remained prim and polished.

...

It was their sixth attempt.

"Fuck!" Stella shouted, clenching her teeth and hands so tightly that the latter cried with pain. The distorted reflection of herself across the barrier gave her anger a face to direct her desire for destruction. "Why can't our problems be resolved with senseless violence?!"

Lien's posture slouched after this significant drain in her Saniya pool. "Right?" the pup muttered between breaths, her tongue hanging out. "I don't think Mr. Kreef can hold that lady for long."

Shit. One more thing to worry about. The Amikiri was practically the last paper-thin wall between them and assured failure. A euphemism for one of them...

"Well, we don't have the time to wonder how he's doing." Stella quickly gathered more Saniya, coalescing around her swelling arm. "Ready?"

However, Lien did not join her. Rather, her milky eyes squinted in thought while she stroked her chin.

"Lien, we-"

"HOLD IT!" the young huntress interjected, loud as if her life depended on it, stretching her arm, her claws narrowly missing her packmate by an inch. "I got an idea!"

Oh. Another one was surely needed. Frankly, the Human was beginning to be convinced that whatever freak accident occurred back at the fight against Hōkō was a one-time miracle they would never, EVER, repeat in a million years.

Stella blinked twice, followed by an unwavering gaze. "I'm listening."

"Hear me out," Lien pleaded, gently pressing her shimmering paw on the dome's smooth surface. "Remember how we trained for earth magic? Finding the right rhythm that the element could react to?"

Although not following her thoughts exactly, Stella mirrored her action. The heat emitted by the golden Saniya bravely fought against the ravenous cold. "You want to... manipulate the dome?"

"No, no!" The Wolf shook her head, her tail lashing at her girlfriend's leg. "What if the key to repeat that accident... is for us to find a rhythm that suits both our Saniya?"

...

......

"Lien?" Stella uttered after a few seconds.

"Mm?" Lien's head tilted, and her ears twitched.

"I will kick your ass if you ever say you're not smart."

Yuki-onna:

Perfect. The Amikiri was but a fly in her web.

The flying, surprisingly formidable, crustacean quivered once he heard about his companions' fate. Granted, the Baku's was still undetermined. But she was not enthused to disclose that information.

"You still have the energy to defrost one of them, at the very least. The Baku is much smaller, but the Oni is a more reliable bodyguard." Her hand gracefully gestured to convey trustworthiness. Her tone, against her efforts, still carried the slightest hint of contempt for this semiaquatic delinquent. "You could go either way. Of course, you will not save anyone wasting your Saniya so fruitlessly."

His yellow eyes shifted to the ground, his pincers gradually halting their incessant snapping. Could this reckless young Monoke finally attain a snowflake's worth of reason?

His eyes shut. His closed claws were brought below his beak. Yuki-onna would've resorted to freezing the bastard if she weren't running so dangerously low on Saniya herself...

...

......

.........

After an eternity of agonizing wait, she decided to make a decision for him, creating a gap between her bare feet and the frigid grass.

"If you intend to ponder your options, allow me-"

"DON'T!" the Amikiri shrieked. An invisible pressure landed square on her forehead, strong enough to daze and ground her once more.

"Impudent fool," Her scowl returned while she rubbed her bony fingers against the dull ache. "I gave you the easy way out. Why is that Human so important for you to protect?"

"That stupid brat is essential to my friend's plan! His happiness depends on her dreams!" He dramatically pointed his pincer at her. "Think of me as a coward all you want! Usually, you'd be right! But now, I can't stand around and betray my friends!"

So loud. Yet, as the Amikiri's voice ruthlessly ravaged Yuki's sensitive eardrums, something within her resonated with the undeniable resolve coating his drivel. A blossoming respect, begrudging as it was. Loyalty was scarce these days.

"As you wish," she conceded, taking a deep breath while summoning a kunai in each hand. "I shall give you a warrior's-"

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Her telepathic words halted as she witnessed the crustacean perform a 360° arch in the air before striking the soil with his beak, rotating rapidly like a drill until he was entirely underground.

Huh. Yuki supposed the respect could now be retracted.

She hopelessly tried to sense his Saniya through the thick layer of dirt. Unfortunately, hers was even lower than anticipated, only managing to perceive a faint signature, enough to know he was still there.

...

No, she would not waste any subsequent second with this scaled buffoon. The younger Human was almost within her-

A piercing, burning ache struck her foot, prompting a wail from the sorceress that threatened to tear her throat apart.

"HOW?!" She questioned with her authentic voice, lowering her gaze to see a glowing scale lodged in her bloody foot, impaling all the way through the other side. She never left the floor so fast in her entire life.

She removed the weaponized keratin piece, but the blood was still an issue. How would she heal this wound?! She would waste the last drop of her Saniya doing so.

The core... She needed to absorb more of its Saniya NOW!

Adrenaline pumped through her veins as she compelled the air around her to send her soaring to the beacon of turquoise light that colored the horizon! However...

A speedy blur intercepted her path, almost finishing her if her reflexes, honed through millennia of conflict, didn't narrowly save her. The damned Amikiri, covered in rippling energy, lashed his serpentine body throughout the sky, his scales falling one by one.

"Out of my way!" Her kunai were sharpened with an extra layer of Saniya. "If you value your life!"

"You think I'm listening to you?!" The ocean of green around the crustacean swirled and coalesced around his beak, forming a long, intimidating blade, born to pierce through anything. It reminded her of stories about divine swords, sealed in impossibly durable stones, forged by divine hands or the now extinct Dwarves. "You're finished!"

Yuki-onna's heart accelerated. She could feel her precious ichor gradually escaping its vessel as the ominous glow of the Amikiri's makeshift rapier practically cut through the wind.

Although the Yūrei fought to deny it, her chances of victory were... less than ideal, to say the least.

"Losing to the Amikiri, of all Monoke..." she thought to herself, utterly discarding any more waste on communicating through those. "No. I will not stand for this..." Her clenching fingers cracked the fragile blades, her breath hitching with frustration. "That must be something I haven't considered. Any-" Her eyes widened.

She had another option, a last resort from when she was utterly depleted of Saniya. It wasn't as if she had forgotten about it throughout her hardships in this conflict. Still, the toll it would produce in her body was too risky to consider until now.

And the best part was? Her weapon was already spilling free, besmirching the grass.

The Amikiri remained stationary with his energy-coated beak activated, meaning a lack of killing intent, although his eyes remained vigilant. No matter. The time window she needed was shorter than his reaction time.

By her command, she raised her wounded foot. She commanded the gushing redness to flow against the laws of physics, surrounding her fractured weapons in a crimson layer that swallowed even the ethereal turquoise, reduced to a noticeable glow beneath it. By the time it was done, the Amikiri was still in the middle of his swing, so slow she managed to sidestep her way out, granting her enough time to consume the tiny portion of liquid blood left.

However, as the fluid returned to its home, albeit through the wrong hole, a surge of intoxicating energy spread across every cell in the sorceress's body. She had forgotten how exhilarating this felt.

Blood control, her final trump card. Since her war days, she cultivated a considerable part of her Saniya inside her veins, tending to and restoring it with each discarded and replaced blood cell. Although she couldn't use this liquid to freeze anybody without sacrificing a deadly amount, it was an outstanding material for her weapons. And more, she could replenish her energy pool by directly consuming the Saniya-laced blood. Energy she now used to finally close the wound made by that pesky scale.

Still, tearing and/or consuming such an essential component of one's body made the user's overall constitution frailer, their movements sluggish, and their reflexes duller once the initial rush was over. You can imagine what that would mean for a species known for naturally weak bodies...

The Amikiri kept thrusting at the desperate, fatigued sorceress with a furious, almost blinding flurry, sending a rush of dread through the Yūrei with each evasion. The energy she received from blood absorption was not nearly enough to restore her prime. Moderation was essential, even at moments like these.

And yet, she could still see through his every move with such ease... Interesting.

Seemingly, the Amikiri's "Sword Beak" technique condenses too much mass in a single point, demanding strength beyond what the wielder could provide. In summary, his spell was too advanced for his own good, like a young boy trying to swing his parent's blade.

Frankly, Yuki-onna couldn't bring herself to mock the younger Monoke. The worst part was that the intimidation factor of his technique worked too well. If she had realized his weakness earlier, she wouldn't have used blood control to evade him. Her regular ice kunai would've been enough. What little remained of her regular reserves would've been enough to heal her wound while not compromising her speed, maybe only needing to ground herself again.

He fueled her desperation and tricked her into making a rash decision, whether he intended to or not. "Curse him."

No use dwelling on her mistakes, she assured herself. She could still turn this around by absorbing the rune grid's Saniya. Those two weaklings would not be enough to pierce through the barrier, regardless of how long she took here.

Still, it was good that they had reached out to warn her, regardless of their clear disapproval of her methods. Although, in hindsight, she should've finished off the older Human before burning her Saniya reserves to fly her way towards the core as fast as she could. Again, it was hard to argue against such urgency in their tone.

The Amikiri's movements slowed without the slightest intervention from her. His own amateurism would be his own downfall...

"Shit..." The crustacean's energy blade started to fade out as his body approached the floor, and his eyes grew heavy with fatigue. "N-No... Not now..."

Yuki-onna stared intently at her opponent, courageously aiming at her for one last thrust!

...

He missed, of course.

The Amikiri ultimately found his fate with the welcoming dirt. The last wisps of green leaving his beak, while his claws loosened - the definitive sign of his defeat.

Yuki-onna waited a few more seconds, her eyes darting to detect any more surprises from her surprisingly formidable enemy. At most, there were the jagged, broken bits of glowing scales littering the battlefield. Not a problem for one who was midair.

Carefully, the Yūrei compelled herself to be transported by the breeze towards her final goal. As long as the core was still there, she would have the resources to handle-

An eye-sizzling flash leaped between the trees, forcing her to cover her face with her hands. Like thunder, the rumbling noise came seconds after, reverberating through her bones.

To her misfortune, the oppressive light would not cease. Instead, her eyes would need to adapt the hard way.

"It... It's coming from... the core?" she wondered while her eyelids dared to venture further. There, she could see not only whiteness...

...

"Golden...?"

Her heart raced with recollection. While her Saniya-sensing was gravely impaired by weariness, the sensation coursing through her skin was all too familiar...

"No... Not this again..."

She soared dangerously close to the floor. She braced herself as she was about to penetrate the deep woods, knowing well the pain from the branches she'd need to push through.

"How...? How can THEY also accomplish it?!"

She finally understood the urgency from the one who alerted her about the core.

The Rokro always knew more than they let on.