Book 1: Chapter 48: Unyielding Blade
Book 1: Chapter 48: Unyielding Blade
Lily was trapped between the pine trees that reached up to heaven. They were so tall that they might as well be a cage under the night sky.
The moonlight shone upon Akira’s back and outlined his stout body. His face couldn’t be seen due to poor lighting, but the sinister flash in his eyes was clearly visible. The corner of his lips curved into a sneer.
“Kagami Lily, you are nothing but a nameless and powerless Low-tier Samurai, and yet you dare to put a smudge on the glory of my Daidouji Clan time and again, injuring my nephew with treacherous methods, and now you want to talk about the pride of a samurai? I can kill you without sparing any effort at all! However, I will give you a chance. Put down your weapon and let us capture you obediently, Then you will come with us to Daidouji Mountain Town and apologize to my nephew! If you do that, perhaps we can spare your life!”
“Apologize?” Lily’s eyes were covered by the shadow of her hair as she lowered her head, “Hmph, it seems that as long as you intend to mistreat me with strength, I will be guilty no matter what I said. My sin lies not in the fact that I wounded your blockhead of a nephew, but in the fact that I am a powerless and nameless woman!”
“That’s right, you ⓕⓤⓒⓚⓘⓝⓖ ⓢⓛⓤⓣ! How dare a lowly woman as you go against the great me! If it is not because of your good looks, we will have already killed you without giving you a chance to talk! Why don’t you just kneel down quickly and beg forgiveness!” scolded Takano as he pointed at Lily.
“Hmph, you are exactly right. In this Heian Empire, power and authority make right! But you do not have the qualification to talk sense to me, not when you are merely a straw bag that relies on your father!” Lily’s tongue was also getting venomous, but her real goal was to provoke Takano since this was the only opponent she could easily deal with!
Regardless of what Lily did, it was unlikely for Daidouji Akira and co to let her off. If she had to suck it up and beg forgiveness, she might as well die!
Since that was the case, Lily steeled her determination to go for the kill.
“If you want my body, then exchange it with the life of your son!”
Ever since she saw the soul of her senior sister innocently sleeping in the mirror’s domain, Lily had never thought of being a good person in this parallel world!
If anyone dared to stop her from searching the methods to awaken senior sister, if anyone dared to threaten her purity or trample on her noble spirit, she would fight back without caring about the consequences!
As expected, Takano unsheathed the katana in a fit of rage. The tall and robust him seemed to have forgotten Lily’s test results in the heat of the moment as he took large strides towards her. It was as though he saw Lily as nothing more but a weak little fowl.
Akira had not fully understood Lily’s level of strength, so he wasn’t particularly mindful. All he thought was that his son should be able to deal with this kind of woman. After all, Takano was a lot stronger than Taro.
Noboru tried to get up at this time even though he was gravely injured.
“Bind!” That aged onmyoji threw a talisman at Noboru. As soon as the talisman was stuck on Noboru’s forehead, the character on the talisman suddenly flashed and materialized. That materialized “缚” word let out a divine light as it floated in front of Noboru’s forehead.
After the “缚” word materialized, it resonated with the other talisman that was stuck on Noboru’s shoulders and back. A purple cage made out of spirit energy was formed and trapped Noboru within.
Even though Noboru had every intention to break out of the cage, he was tightly confined. He wasn’t able to break out no matter how much brute force he exerted!
The old onmyoji waved his gohei and shot two spiritual bullets from his finger. The bullets hit on Noboru’s face directly and half of his face was scorched by the explosion.
But the old man also seemed to be a little weary. He stopped his attack and took a deep breath over there.
This was the first time Lily saw how an onmyoji fought. Her face was colored in surprise. She couldn’t even begin to fathom the workings of those bizarre artes. What she did know was that those talismans were the most dangerous weapon of an onmyoji and she must avoid getting hit by one at all cost.
At this time, Takano’s lofty figure had already blocked Lily’s line of sight. He was already in front of Lily, but evidently, he didn’t want to give Lily an easy death. Rather than unsheathing the katana, he lifted it and attempted to smash Lily’s head with the sword handle.
Even though Takano was fat, the speed of his smashing attack was still very fast!
Even though Takano’s arm should have become a blur due to the sheer speed of the swing, it was played in slow motion with Lily’s dynamic vision.
Too slow! That was Lily’s impression.
As Takano lifted his arm in an attempt to smash Lily with the sword handle.
Lily was already gripping the handle of her own sword.
“Shing—!” A blue light drew an arc in the darkness of night.
Takano only stared blankly at her. He felt something was not right. Why was it that the sword handle hadn’t smashed Lily’s head and knocked her out when he already exerted strength into his arm?
Soon after, he felt the upper half of his arm becoming lighter.
Takano’s arm had been cut off since a while ago.
“What?!” Only now did Takano finally realized that only one-third of his thick arm were left attached to his body. And in front of him was the petite Lily with a flickering katana in hands. Her actions indicated that she had just performed a slash.
“Ahhhh—!!!” By the time Takano registered all this information, he drew back in a panic while covering his bloody arm.
Akira and the rest of the Martial Monks were also colored in surprise.
Actually, Lily had a lingering fear the very second she cut off Takano’s arm. With her reaction speed, perhaps she could’ve subdued Takano with a less damaging method, but why was her means so vicious whenever she made a move! Why didn’t she have any hesitation? Her sword speed was so fast that the notion of kindness never occurred to her!
And now, the die had already been cast!
After seeing Lily cut off the arm of his dearest son, Akira became furious. His eyes became bloodshot as he shouted, “Ⓑⓐⓢⓣⓐⓡⓓ! Kill her!”
He originally intended to take Lily back to Daidouji Mountain Town to play with her, then slowly torture her until she died. However, now he only wanted to kill Lily on the spot, the sooner the better!
“Kill her!”
Three Mid-tier Martial Monks charged at Lily from all around with their iron club lifted!
A smash from Mid-tier Martial Monks contained at least 500-600 kan of striking force! After all, a club was heavier and more powerful than a sword. Even if one didn’t die from a single strike, they would still be disabled!
There was no time for Lily to keep blaming herself, she immediately switched to battle mode and quickly ran sideways before the three Martial Monks surrounded her. However, the line of sight was still closely observing the Martial Monks.
The Martial Monk closest to Lily changed his direction as he ran towards Lily. The big club in his hand came showering down on Lily.
Lily waved her sword to deflect the club. The heavy impact on her sword made her arms go numb!
The club used by the Mid-tier Martial Monk was made from excellent quality Grade Two hardwood. It wouldn’t be an easy feat for Seiwa Tamashi to cut it in half.
The impact caused Lily to lose her balance and stagger.
That Martial Monk raised his club a little and swung it toward Lily’s back.
Lily couldn’t see the attack but she detected it with her spirit perception. She dodged the club by rolling to the front. After she got up, rather than balancing her body, she let it continue to fall forward and abruptly swung her sword around.
“Pfff!” The sword tip just so happened to cut one inch into the lower leg of the Martial Monk and cut off the tendon!
That Martial Monk responded by sinking his knees into the ground.
Lily also fell forward, but that was due to her own action so it didn’t post any major problem.
The other two Martial Monks also raised their club and ran over here.
Lily quickly got up and ran towards one side.
But unexpectedly, the other two Martial Monks that remained stationary ran over and outflanked her.
Lily was confronted from all sides!
“This is bad!” These Martial Monks couldn’t be put on the same level as those bandits. Each of them had the ability to hurt her. It was already quite strenuous to face one of them, but with four of them attacking from all sides, Lily was also out of countermeasures.
Since the Martial Monks outflanked her from all sides, Lily could only run deeper into the encirclement.
However, Daidouji Akira was waiting there for her with the gold spiked club in hand. Furthermore, the onmyoji was right behind him. It appeared that he had already recovered and was ready to hit Lily with all kinds of arcane artes!
Lily had absolutely no idea how to deal with arcane artes!
“You are finished!” Akira glared at her with a fiendish face!
Lily noticed that the old onmyoji was already reciting an incantation! Noboru was already on his last gasp, this arte was definitely aimed at her!
‘I am really done for! If I can’t even defeat Akira, how am I supposed to deal with this powerful and coordinated group!’
For an instant, Lily showed hostility towards Akira, the one who pushed her into this desperate situation. If she couldn’t defeat the underlings, then a change of strategy was required. She was not expecting to kill Akira, but as long as she could injure him, then the other side would definitely fall into disorder!
Lily kicked the ground with her slender leg and charged into Akira with no holds barred!
Those cold eyes filled with naught but killing intent also shocked Akira for a split second.
But Akira was also a seasoned fighter, and his power was much stronger than Lily. Although Lily was fast, it wasn’t to the point that Akira couldn’t deal with!
As a matter of course, Lily already went all-out with her Spirit Power. The possibility of another sudden burst in speed wouldn’t happen now.
Akira remained motionless like a mountain. He waved his gold spiked club to smash Lily with enough force to cut into a mountain. Lily had already anticipated this, so she changed her footwork to dodge the attack. She continued to dash towards Akira with a slight change of direction.
Akira had a cold glint in his eyes, who would have thought that he didn’t attack with full power just now. He was well prepared and lifted the club to pound at Lily.
The range of his attack was too big, and with extreme speed added on top of that, it was impossible to dodge it. Lily had no choice but to give up her assault and go on the defense.
“Bang—!!!”
That Grade Three gold spiked club was as heavy as a huge pillar. It almost caused the web between Lily’s thumb and forefinger to split open. Even the sword was nearly sent flying away from her hands.
“Ahhh—” She let out a feeble cry as she was knocked away by the club.
Lily was airborne for a few meters before she hit the ground and rolled until she was in the vicinity of where Noboru was trapped.
That feeble cry just now seemed to have touched something deep within Noboru’s soul. His bloodshot eyes were stubbornly fixed on Lily who just fell to the ground.
“Beat her to death!”
A few Martial Monks rushed over and swung their club at Lily.
Lily felt a painful heat at the pit of her stomach and it was a little hard to breathe. She used up three-tenths of her Spirit Power just now to defend against that hit!
“Damn it! These Martial Monks are too strong, especially that Akira!”
She got up with difficulty and knelt there with one knee touching the ground. Her arms still felt numb from that hit just now, and yet she found the Martial Monks already before her eyes and ready to hit her with their heavyweight club!
An unrelenting flash could be seen in Lily’s eyes.
All of a sudden, the ground began to shake. A surge of violent eldritch energy burst out from Noboru’s body. With an explosive sound, the cage that was binding him broke into pieces! That was truly a feat of a miracle.
“Aomi—!!! Who dares to harm my Aomi!”
Noboru let out a howl and brandished the machete wildly with his hill-sized body.
“Scram—!” Noboru waved his machete and deflected all the clubs that were aimed at Lily. The force from the unexpected counterattack caused the Martial Monks to stagger and fall.
The giant monk Noboru was bleeding all over, but his resentment was so strong that they had condensed into clearly visible purple gas that covered his entire body. Noboru moved in front of Lily to cover for her, then he raised the machete and said;
“You guys dare to hurt my Aomi! I want you dead!!”
Akira and the Martial Monks were caught unprepared. They didn’t expect this half-dead monster to still possess this much power. No, this power didn’t come from his inner strength, he was purely driven by strong obsession!
An obsession to protect his daughter Aomi at all cost!
That Noboru stood in front of Lily to cover for her without a care for his own wellbeing like any father would. He would protect her even if he had to exhaust the last of his power to do so.
Noboru suddenly took out something from his clothes and passed it behind to Lily without any explanation. That was a round object that emitted serene light.
“Aomi, take this with you and run! Daddy will cover for you! Daidouji! I will not let you guys do as you wish!” Noboru urged Lily to run with a howl.
Lily looked at the object Noboru just passed to her. That was an orb with a warm luster and about the size of a pomegranate.
“That is the heirloom of my Daidouji Clan! Put it down immediately!” Akira began to panic as soon as he saw the orb.
“Run! Aomi! Run quickly! Take that thing and run!” Noboru shouted with anxiety as he blocked the Martial Monks in front with a swing of his machete.
Lily’s eyes instantly became ice-cold. She had all the intention to tell Noboru that she wasn’t his daughter Aomi, but she had changed her mind.
Looking at Noboru’s current condition, it was likely that he was already at the end of the line. It was the least she could do to let this man die a noble death by allowing him to protect his daughter in the last moment!
He was the first bona fide man that had earned Lily’s greatest respect in this parallel world!
Lily silently gazed at the back of that gigantic figure. She didn’t say much and just turned around to run!
“You ⓕⓤⓒⓚⓘⓝⓖ ⓢⓛⓤⓣ!!! Don’t let her escape!” Seeing that Lily was running away with his family heirloom, Akira almost exploded with madness! The group wanted to go after her.
But the demonized Noboru was blocking their path.