A Fox's Alliance (American Kitsune Book 10)

by Brandon Varnell

  However, the Void had a will of its own. It was dangerous to use, especially when there were so many allies nearby. The Void didn’t care who you were. Its only desire was to consume. It would even consume its owner, should the one wielding it prove too weak. That was why Iris rarely used a true void technique anymore. It was just too dangerous.

  It’s a last resort power. That’s why we keep Iris in reserve when facing something like this.

  “So, what should we do?” asked Iris.

  “The only thing we can do,” Kevin said, sharpening his desire to win until it was a finely honed blade. “We lure it to a place where no one else is and use the Void to destroy it. I’m sorry to ask this of you, Iris, but we’ll be relying on you for this.”

  “Heh, just leave everything to me, Stud,” Iris said, a confident grin plastered on her face. Kevin recognized a facade when he saw one, but he didn’t say anything. “Just remember, you and Lily-pad owe me for this.”

  “Put it on my tab,” Kevin replied dryly.

  ***

  Luring the Yōkai Killer away from the battlefield was a lot harder than it looked. It was a chaotic throng of numerous battles between yōkai and Yōkai Killers. Even surrounded as they were, the Yōkai Killers held the upper hand. Lightning lanced through the airspace, only to dissipate against a silvery metallic surface. Water flew toward them with cutting force, only to splash harmlessly against it. Even Kuroneko, who was fighting her own Yōkai Killer one on one, couldn’t seem to catch a break.

  “Technique on your left!” Lilian shouted.

  Lightning crackled to their left, forcing the group to swerve. The Yōkai Killer recognized it as a technique from a yōkai, and it turned to face this new threat. Kevin jumped into the air, rotating, and fired off two rounds with his guns. They pinged against the silvery surface, doing no damage, but serving to get the machine’s attention.

  It continued chasing after them.

  “Fire coming from the right!” Iris screamed over the din of battle.

  They hit the ground, and were just in time to avoid a large column of fire that flew over them. Again, the Yōkai Killer tried to shift its attention to this new target, but Lilian wouldn’t let it.

  “Gomu Gomu no Extension!”

  Her tails slammed into it. The Yōkai Killer was shoved backwards, skidding along the sand for several feet. Its head swiveled back to them, and once again, the chase was on.

  The beach was set on a lower elevation than the rest of the city. This was done so that, in the event of a storm, the waters wouldn’t come into the city itself—unless the storm happened to be massive.

  “Lilian!”

  “Right!”

  As they ran toward the large wall of sand, Lilian grabbed Kevin with her tails and launched him into the air. He flipped around while midair, orienting himself until he was facing the Yōkai Killer. His guns went off as he squeezed the trigger, sending projectile after projectile at it. Fire flared, then went out. Water splashed against the gleaming hull. The youki bullets bounced harmlessly off its skin. However, it served its purpose: Turning its attention to him.

  Kevin landed on the elevated platform seconds later and took off into the city. The Yōkai Killer followed, leaping into the air, bypassing the stairs as it landed on the boardwalk.

  The city was a mess. Kevin hadn’t seen it when he was down on the beach fighting, but now that he was up here, he could see how terrible the aftermath of this battle had been. Several buildings had been partially destroyed. Walls had crumbled. Ceilings had collapsed. Windows were shattered.

  Bodies lay in the streets. Broken, battered, their limbs twisted at awkward angles, they stared sightlessly at nothing, their mouths open and their eyes blank.

  If the Sons and Daughters of Humanity had never outed yōkai for what they were, this would have never happened.

  A sound pierced his thoughts—the whistling of metal as it sliced through the air. Kevin threw himself across the ground, rolling along his shoulder and leaping back to his feet. The place where he’d been standing had been pierced by a metallic tendril.

  “Tch!”

  Kevin spun around and fired sixteen rounds, all of which hit the sixteen tendrils coming at him. While they didn’t do any damage, each projectile knocked a tendril off course. They speared the ground all around him, but none of them hit him.

  Unclipping a fragmentation grenade from his bandolier, Kevin unhooked the pin and tossed it at the machine behind him. The grenade bounced off the Yōkai Killer and exploded, sending fire and molten pieces of steel everywhere—too bad it didn’t do any damage. The fire couldn’t harm this monstrous creation, and the shrapnel was merely absorbed into its body.

  Undeterred by the sight, Kevin unloaded twenty bullets into his foe’s visored face. Bullets lanced from his silver gun and erupted into particles against the Yōkai Killer. In response, it sent twenty more tendrils at him that he avoided by predicting their paths and using his guns to divert their course when they came too close.

  Kevin ducked behind a building and entered a narrow alley. He raced across the alley, dropping an incendiary grenade that was set to detonate in three seconds. Plumes of smoke emitted from the grenade, rising up like the ashes of a phoenix. Exactly three seconds later, the Yōkai Killer entered the alley, raced toward him, and stepped on the grenade just as it burst into flames.

  The flames won’t do much, but that should at least mess with its ability to target me properly.

  Fires from incendiary grenades were not natural fire, but chemically created fires. These chemicals had a bad habit of scrambling sensors and other machines that relied on cyberoptic vision, a form of visual acuity that processed light particles in a way that was different from human eyes. The chemicals in the fire distorted the light particles, which in turn made actions like judging distance and angles difficult.

  The Yōkai Killer sent sharp tendrils at him, but all of them missed. Walls were pierced like a hot knife through butter. Small trenches were carved into the ground. Kevin swerved from side to side, presenting an even harder target to hit before bursting out of the alley and into the street.

  The street was mercifully empty. There wasn’t a single person in sight. There weren’t even any bodies lying on the ground. That was good. He didn’t want the Void to consume any more than it had to.

  The Yōkai Killer walked out of the alley, its form gleaming as sunlight reflected off its metal body. Clawed feet bit into the concrete as it stalked forward. Kevin didn’t know if it could sense the shift in the air, but its moves were almost halting, as if it was worried. The notion was ridiculous, of course. It was a robot. It couldn’t perceive shifts in the atmosphere like humans and yōkai did.

  Red-visored lenses stared into his eyes. Kevin tried to calm his racing heart. This was it.

  “NOW, IRIS! FINISH THIS THING OFF!” he shouted as loudly as he could.

  Nothing happened.

  A soft breeze blew through the clearing.

  Nothing happened.

  The Yōkai Killer tilted its head, almost as if it, too, was waiting for something to happen.

  Nothing happened.

  “Oh,” Kevin breathed out as he realized that Iris was not here. “Oh, this is so not good.”

  ***

  Loud explosions rocked the ground. The sound of steel slicing through concrete echoed across the street. Lilian and Iris ran as they were chased by another Yōkai Killer, which had happened upon them not long after Kevin rushed off with the first one.

  “This is not good! This is so not good!” Iris shouted.

  “Kevin’s gonna be upset with us for sure,” Lilian agreed.

  “That’s what you’re concerned about?!”

  It flew over them, firing tiny shells of liquid silver from its fingers. Lilian and Iris used reinforcement, boosting their physical abilities and dodging accordingly. They only used short burst reinforcement, however, as neither of them had the youki to use prolonged reinforcement. The silver bullets p
unctured the ground, then leapt back out and flew at them again—or so it seemed, until the bullets sailed straight through their bodies like they were ghosts.

  Lilian and her sister reappeared several yards away, running in the opposite direction. The Yōkai Killer swiveled around and chased after them.

  Lilian could’ve cursed. If she wasn’t so out of breath, she would have cursed. They were supposed to have followed Kevin and helped him deal with the YK unit he was fighting. Instead, another Yōkai Killer had been thrown into their path, and it had designated them as its new targets. Now it was hounding them with relentless tenacity. They were just barely keeping ahead of it!

  “Ha… ha… this… really is not good,” Lilian panted. “If this keeps up, then I’ll…”

  “Dodge!” Iris shouted.

  Lilian grunted as she shoved more youki into her limbs. She swerved to the left, avoiding the tendrils that stabbed the ground like it was made of mud. The Yōkai Killer wasn’t deterred by its lack of success. The tendrils retracted and it fired more bullets at them both. Lilian was able to fool it using a technique that distorted light, making certain objects appear farther away than others, but she couldn’t keep wasting youki like this. She was already running on empty!

  Her left shoulder stung, but she ignored it and continued to swerve around as she ran.

  “This is so not how shōnen battles are supposed to go,” she ground out.

  Her lungs burning with a need for oxygen, Lilian grabbed Iris’s wrist with a tail and rushed behind a building.

  “Ha… ha… you know this… isn’t going to… fool it… right?” Iris said between deep breaths.

  “I know…” Lilian muttered, wincing as she touched her shoulder. Blood stained her shirt, showing that one of the Yōkai Killer’s bullets had grazed her.

  “What are we gonna do?” asked Iris.

  “We can’t help Kevin like this,” Lilian said, biting her lip. “We need to deal with that Yōkai Killer first, but…”

  “We don’t have any idea what kind of element it’s using as a power source,” Iris finished. Lilian nodded.

  She could have Iris use the Void, of course. That would take care of the Yōkai Killer, provided she used enough youki to consume the whole thing. However, Iris couldn’t use her void powers very well. At most, she was good for one or two attacks, maybe even only one, depending on how much youki her first attack used up, and they needed her powers to help Kevin. They couldn’t afford to use that here.

  A clicking sound reached Lilian’s ears. Eyes widening, she grabbed her sister and raced away from the wall seconds before it exploded.

  The Yōkai Killer burst from the wall and charged at them. Lilian and Iris leapt away from each other, forcing the machine to choose one of them to go after. This caused it to hesitate, which Lilian capitalized on.

  “Extension!”

  There was no “Gomu Gomu” this time. Lilian extended her tails, which shot past the Yōkai Killer and wrapped around a light pole and a fire hydrant. She then retracted her tails, using them to slingshot her at the yōkai killing machine.

  This action made the Yōkai Killer designate her as its target. Metal bullets shot from its fingers—

  “Celestial Art: Barrier that Protects the Princess.”

  —but they were blocked by the golden shield that sprang around Lilian. The shield didn’t stay long, and when it dissipated, Lilian channeled as much youki into her legs as she could.

  Like an explosion going off, Lilian’s feet slammed into the Yōkai Killer’s face with a loud bang. The Yōkai Killer was launched off its feet, flying parallel to the ground like a hover car. It slammed into a wall on the opposite side of the street, then plowed through it and continued on. More sounds erupted from inside: Crashes and bangs and the shout of objects shattering under extreme force. Seconds later, the building crumbled, collapsing like a video game building after she planted explosives near its support pillars.

  “Ha!” Lilian laughed, clenching her fist and adopting a suitably heroic pose. “How do you like that, jerk! Even if you are some super powered battle robot, you can’t beat someone like me!”

  “Would you stop trying to pretend you're an anime character already?!” Iris shouted.

  The rubble of the now collapsed building exploded outward, and the Yōkai Killer emerged unharmed.

  “So not fair. There’s not even a scratch on it!” Lilian complained. “He must be using some kind of cheat code.”

  “This isn’t a video game!”

  The Yōkai Killer shot forward. It raced across the street, closing the distance between it and them—until a red-skinned figure descended from the sky and crushed it beneath her feet. The earth shattered as a large crater formed underneath the Yōkai Killer. Not giving it a chance to recover, the figure launched another punch at it, then another, and another. Silver liquid flew out from underneath the widening crater like blood, splattering along the ground. When the person pounding it was satisfied by the damage they’d done, the figure leapt out of the now twenty-foot crater and landed several feet from Lilian.

  “It’s the kijo!” Lilian exclaimed, surprised.

  “I have a name,” the kijo growled. “It’s Hina! Use it!”

  “What are you doing here?” Lilian ignored Hina’s anger.

  Hina clicked her tongue. “I saw that Yōkai Killer chasing after you. Since I know you plan on helping my honey, I figured I’d take care of this one while you two go on ahead.”

  “Your honey?!” Lilian scowled. “Listen here, you two-bit secondary character! There’s no way someone like you is going to be a part of Beloved’s harem!”

  “Is now really the time to be arguing about this?” asked Iris, who paused. “And why can’t she be a part of his harem? I think it would be kinky to add such a, um, masculine woman into the mix.”

  “I don’t like you!” Lilian growled, pointing a quivering finger at Hina. “You annoy me.”

  “The feeling is mutual,” Hina shot back, scowling. “However, now isn’t the time for this type of argument. I can’t use the Void, so I can’t help my honey, which means you two are the only ones who can help him. I’ll keep this thing distracted until Kuroneko-hime can come and help me.”

  “Come on, Lily,” Iris said, tugging on her sister’s shirt. “Let’s go and help the Stud.”

  Lilian stared at the kijo for a while longer, then sniffed and let Iris lead her away. “You’re right. Beloved needs us.”

  Casting one last glance at the kijo, Lilian hurried off with Iris to find her mate.

  Please be okay, Kevin. Please.

  ***

  “I don’t have a harem!” Kevin screamed for no particular reason—and then he squealed like a little girl when the Yōkai Killer tried to eviscerate him.

  Its arms had formed into a pair of large claymores, which it swung with ease, as if they were lighter than feathers. Kevin avoided having his body sliced in twain by knocking the first sword aside with his silver gun. He sidestepped the second swing, which crashed into the black top and split the ground.

  Kevin backpedaled, firing off sixteen shots, all of which splashed against its surface like water against a boulder. He then leapt from left to right, zigzagging as several tendrils shot from the Yōkai Killer’s chest. Each tendril came at him with the intent to kill. They were aimed for the eight most vulnerable points on his body: larynx, spine, lungs, liver, jugular, subclavian artery, kidneys, and heart. Kevin knew this because he was purposefully leaving these areas open to attack.

  When someone with a killer instinct attacked another person, they always aimed for the openings. Even if they knew they were being led into a trap, they couldn’t help it. It was instinct.

  In that same way, Yōkai Killers were just like that. Their entire purpose was to kill. Kevin would even go so far as to say they lived solely for the sake of killing. And, just like any other killer, they always took openings presented to them—even fake ones.

  Kevin tilted his head. A
tendril shot through the spot it had been. He then knocked it further away with his gun, while at the same time he dodged to the left, avoiding the tendril that had tried to pierce his spine from behind. Another tendril came at him from the front, aiming for his chest. Kevin leapt aside, smacking the tendril further away with his black gun, then spinning around and using his silver gun to smack away the tendril aiming for his heart. He ducked a second later, allowing him to avoid having his subclavian artery pierced, then he rolled backwards, and two tendrils struck the ground where he’d been standing.

  When he leapt back to his feet, it was to see the Yōkai Killer already there, its large claymore set to skewer him.

  Kevin gritted his teeth and threw himself to the left. He flinched when debris exploded into the air, pelting his body and leaving bruises in their wake. Still he moved, and when the Yōkai Killer tried cutting his lower half from his upper half, he fell onto his knees. Wind generated from the swinging sword buffeted his hair. His eyes watered, but he ignored the stinging pain and rolled along the ground. The road split apart seconds later when a giant claymore sliced through it like a lightsaber through soggy toilet paper.

  He pushed himself to his feet, then dove between the legs of his enemy. His shoulder jarred as he rolled incorrectly along the ground. He bit back a scream when his shoulder popped out of its socket. Coming to his feet, he grabbed his limp shoulder and snapped it back into place, tears leaking from his eyes as he blew out a deep breath.

  More tendrils jutted from the Yōkai Killer’s back. Kevin did what he’d been doing, falling back on his training. He shifted back into his stance and presented openings for the machine to attack. They came at him and he predicted their trajectory, weaving back and forth, using his guns to knock them aside, and doing everything humanly possible to stay alive.

  However, Kevin’s shoulder still hurt, and that pain was making it harder to grasp the complexities of predicting his opponent, especially since the Yōkai Killer was launching numerous tendrils at varying angles and trajectories. Since these machines could create tendrils from any part of their bodies, it made predicting them hard enough without his mind being addled by pain.