| Author: Carrot Sauce | Original Source: SFACG | Word Count: 2499 characters |
| Translator: Immortal Dreamer | English Source: Re:Library | Word Count: 1620 words |
| Editor(s): Robinxen | ||
The sunset glow gave a golden sheen to Lily’s fluttering hair as she raised the 120cm long Crescent Moon. This reach of 120cms was the final distance protecting Lily and Shimizu from harm.
“Step forward and you shall die,” There was nowhere for them to escape and Lily didn’t know how long she would be able to hold on for, but she never had any thoughts of giving up.
“Mirror girl! How dare you stop me from obtaining that useless woman?! Die!” The tallest red Hannya masked ninja, who seemed to be the leader of the Hannya masked ninjas, hollered in a gruff, inhuman voice and attacked Lily along with the other ninjas!
The look in Lily’s eyes remained the same as she saw those red Hannya masked ninjas rush towards her ferociously and sheathed her sword silently.
The first ninja who appeared before Lily pulled out blood-stained metal hooks and clawed them at Lily.
“Iai—Sakura!1”
A beautiful crimson sword light beamed out from the sheath suddenly.
“Spurt—!” The ninja with the two hooks was diced into pieces along with the ninjas beside him, hook, blade and all.
Her attack was too fast for their eyes! This was the fastest Iai strike that Lily had ever used and it sliced through the ninjas at the front before the ninjas at the back could even react.
“Hmm?” Even Yuki Mayumi, who was standing by close to strike at any moment, felt slightly stunned.
As for Shimizu, she looked at Lily’s valiant and slender back from behind dazedly as the beautiful draw of the blade seemed to have far surpassed her own in terms of form, technique and power.
“Lil’ Sis Lily obviously hasn’t undergone special instruction in the Iai technique. Did she actually learn it just by watching me use it a few times within this battle? She has even incorporated her intent into it… She’s much more talented than me. I’m just a useless woman who has been abandoned by even the mirror…”
The second wave of ninjas had arrived by the time she had finished her draw, so she sheathed her sword again and seized the chance to step back and dodge the attacks of the ninjas. She then cross-stepped forward and drew her sword again to strike the enemies before her by using the length of the blade and the chance in her position to her advantage.
After a few exchanges, she had already killed a good number of ninjas.
“Mirror girl! I’m not the same as them! Die!” The leader of the ninjas pulled out a tachi clad in demonic energy and struck at Lily. The tachi was much longer and heavier than Lily’s.
Lily didn’t respond to the attack immediately and instead stepped forward towards the sword as if she didn’t care for her life. She ducked down slightly the moment the blade got close to her, resulting in it passing over her by a hair’s breadth, and then slashed upwards!
“Spurt!”
The red Hannya mask split into two and a red line appeared on the gray serpent-like human hybrid’s face under the mask.
The maggot-like eyes of the ninja’s leader lost their light as he toppled forward expressionlessly.
The bodies of the ninjas laid before Lily while she hadn’t even taken half-a-step back. No one had managed to approach her Sister Shimizu, so she had protected her promise temporarily.
Behind Lily, Shimizu couldn’t help but feel astonished and saddened at the same time, “Lil’ Sis Lily is indeed a sword genius. I have never seen anyone within the Genji have such perfect control and reflexes. On top of being so talented, she’s also unbelievably calm and can actually maintain full control over her body during such a deadly battle. No, she is performing much better than usual! This is a real genius born for the battlefield! If she were given one more year or even just half-a-year, this Dijon would’ve been nothing for her, but it’s already too late now… It’s impossible to defeat two overpowered opponents by just relying on talent… simply impossible…”
“Why haven’t you withdrawn yet?! You aren’t this b̲i̲t̲c̲h̲’s opponent!” A tyrannical, fiendish energy seeped out from Hojo Dijon’s body as he shoved two ninjas aside and struck at Lily with a herculean strength that she simply couldn’t withstand.
Lily hadn’t lost her rationality within the battle and instinctively used the same footwork she used to avoid the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons back in Kamakura and dodged Dijon’s simple slash gracefully, giving his shoulder a flesh wound at the same time. However, it was a light wound since she couldn’t pack much strength into her slashes while dodging.
Dijon simply ignored this wound and turned his wrist to strike backwards at Lily. Meanwhile, Lily’s control over her body seemed to have reached an even finer stage within this battle. She had gotten used to Dijon’s fighting style and power!
She spun back gracefully, resulting in Dijon’s blade missing her breasts by a hair’s breadth, and in the next moment, she had already pulled a distance of a few meters from him.
However, a purple shadow attacked Lily from behind suddenly.
“Whoosh!” It seemed like Yuki Mayumi wasn’t planning to kill Lily immediately and wanted to play with her prey instead. As such, she only kicked towards Lily. However, this kick was pretty terrifying as it was powerful enough to shatter rocks.
Lily crouched suddenly and this caused Yuki’s kick to hit nothing but air. Lily seized the chance to sweep Yuki off her feet, but she jumped up in response to Lily’s attack, which prompted Lily to slash upwards and caused Yuki to unsheathe her sword to repel the attack2!
Their technique was almost on par considering the fact that Lily was able to counterattack to such a degree from a disadvantageous position. Lily had the upper hand in terms of form and technique, but…
“Bam!” Lily’s perfect form crumbled within this exchange and was forced to kneel on the ground. Although Yuki wasn’t power-oriented like Dijon, the gap between her and Lily was just too great.
Lily staggered and Yuki didn’t let this chance slip by her. She kicked Lily immediately and sent her flying with a bang.
This kick was so powerful that Lily was dazed momentarily, making her fall within the encirclement of the blue demons, red demons, snake women and spiders once again.
“Slash!” A cold, crimson light flashed across the battlefield and the monsters around Lily either met their deaths or were injured heavily. However, Lily’s reflexes had also slowed down because of the dizziness resulting from the kick she had received a moment ago. As a result, she was blown up into the air by the spiked club of a 7m tall red demon.
Although she had managed to block it with her katana in the end, the force behind the attack was quite terrifying!
As she was blown up into the sky, Lily felt a chill behind her suddenly. Yuki Mayumi had actually jumped up high and struck at Lily’s back.
“Scumbag!3” Lily barely managed to block it by turning her body around while gasping for breath.
“Bam!” A blue light flashed across the sunset-tinted horizon. The powerful impact hammered Lily towards the ground like a fired arrow!
“Boom!” A giant cloud of dust shot up from the ground.
“Sister!” Nanako screamed from under the cover of the parasol while the ponytailed girl pulled her back immediately. She would’ve lost her life if she had rushed out rashly.
Although Lily was sturdier than Shimizu by a lot, even she felt numb all over after receiving such a heavy blow. Blood seeped out from her mouth and she was unable to get up for a moment.
Meanwhile, Dijon and the demon soldiers surrounded Lily, who was within the circular depression in the ground.
Although Lily had abundant spirit power to resist the attack, her body still suffered from the aftereffect.
The demon soldiers and the monsters struck at Lily with their weapons while Lily rolled on the ground after recovering her consciousness with much difficulty to dodge them. However, she landed right before Dijon who intended to behead her with a single strike!
Dijon’s tachi shimmered with fiendish energy and the silhouette of a demon manifested behind him, “Die, Kagami Lily!”
In a moment of desperation, unable to get up, Lily struck at a blue demon’s axe intentionally and borrowed the reactive force to glide across the ground and dodge Dijon’s fearsome strike!
However, Yuki Mayumi appeared at the location Lily had escaped towards and borrowed the gravitational force to stomp directly on Lily’s belly.
“ARRGH!” Strong as she was, even Lily screamed mournfully in pain.
Lily wanted to strike back with her katana, but Yuki Mayumi manifested a rope made of spirit power that coiled around her right hand.
Yuki Mayumi stepped on Lily’s hair viciously with one of her feet4 and stabbed the straight sword within her hands down towards Lily after saying the following words, “Although I want to let Lord Dijon deliver the final blow, mirror girl, you are talented enough for me to kill you personally!”
Lily endured the pain she felt from her scalp and stomach and slashed sideways fiercely at Yuki by unsheathing her sword with her left hand. This slash was a desperate attack from Lily, so it packed an unbelievable amount of strength and managed to catch Yuki off guard, blowing her back. She landed at a distance after flipping over in the sky and wiped the blood off her mouth before smirking, “You’re really a stubborn girl. But is there any meaning in such a resistance? The outcome won’t change, isn’t that so?”5
