by Eric Vall
I summoned red flames into my hands. There was no way this fucker could survive a point-blank blast of Hellfire to his face. I reared back, but before I could release my spell, I felt a gust of wind rush up from underneath my body. The massive fireball shot off into the sky, and my sword flew out of my grip and clanged against the ground harmlessly.
My vision was completely blocked by the swirling funnel of dust and wind that surrounded me, and I felt my body being lifted up into the sky like a ragdoll. Then, as quickly as the funnel had begun, it disappeared. I hung in the air for a second and then began to plummet.
Directly down toward Sora’s waiting blades.
Yeah, not today, asshole.
Using one hand, I threw out a portal of green Hellfire in front of my falling body. In the other, I called forth my yellow flames and prepared for the attack.
I passed through the interdimensional gateway and then reappeared directly behind the bastard. Without hesitation, I unleashed a slew of yellow shuriken into the back of the assassin’s skull.
Sora let out a high-pitched squeal of agony, but he didn’t go down. Instead, he spun around like lightning and struck me in the chest with two of his blades.
Thankfully, I was still wearing my armor, so the blow only caused me to stumble backward with a spray of sparks. If not for my breastplate, my guts would currently be hanging outside of my body. I reoriented myself and took another swing at the fucker, but he easily dodged my blade with a quick sidestep.
Before he could retaliate, I heard a handful of loud “pops.” The assassin spun around, lifted up his hand, and caught the incoming bullets with a gust of wind.
Now was my chance to disarm this asshole. Literally.
While the Kamaitachi was distracted, I raised the Unhallowed Sword up above my head and brought it down as hard as I could against the creature’s left shoulder.
There was the sound of slicing flesh followed immediately by a sharp, metallic clang, and my sword bounced off. Sora’s arm was still attached to his body, but there was a gnarly gash on his shoulder. Blood spurted from the wound as the assassin shrieked in pain and whipped around to face me.
As he turned, the bullets from Tris’ gun came with him.
I ducked down to the ground as fast as I could, just as the bullets zipped over my head and nearly missed spilling my brains on the ground. Before I could make another move, the Kamaitachi threw out his hand, and I was blown backward by a powerful gust of wind.
I smashed into the ground and skidded across the rocky surface until I finally rolled to a stop. As I pulled myself to my feet, I saw my breastplate was dented and scratched beyond redemption. I briefly considered summoning my purple Hellfire armor, but that would have limited my mobility.
And when you were facing an assassin as nimble as a Kamaitachi, agility was not something you could afford to lose.
As I dashed back to the battle, I saw all four of my friends were engaged with Sora. Cupi was on the ground, zipping around the assassin and lashing out at him with her polearm. Meanwhile, Todd was hovering above, launching down tiny fireballs while screaming “feel the thunder!” Tris kept her distance, but she would chime in with the occasional round of bullets when she thought her target was distracted.
Libidine was up close and trying something new. Her hands were aglow with the yellow Hellfire of hatred, but she wasn’t tossing projectiles like she normally did. Instead, it looked like she had summoned her enchanted daggers into her hands and were using them as a sort of makeshift spiked gauntlet. The dark-haired succubus was never a master of hand-to-hand combat like Cupi was, but it looked like she was holding her own against Sora.
More importantly, though, Sora was holding his own against them.
The Kamaitachi assassin was moving as gracefully as the wind he summoned as he knocked away the polearm, dodged Liby’s blows, and flipped and twirled out of the way of Todd and Tris’ projectiles.
He was taking on four opponents at once, and it didn’t even look like he was breaking a sweat.
Maybe we just needed the element of surprise.
As Liby reared her spiked hand back, I threw up a portal of green Hellfire in front of her. She must have gotten the gist of the maneuver, because she continued with her follow through, and her hand passed through the interdimensional portal. It reappeared behind the assassin’s head, and he let out a wail as the back of his skull was impaled.
Liby’s attack threw the assassin off his mark, and he was instantly assaulted by fireballs, the polearm, and a few bullets.
The Kamaitachi screamed, but he didn’t fall. Suddenly, he began to twirl is body around in a circle at rapid speed, and he created a miniature tornado of wind and razor-sharp blades.
I threw up a wall of purple Hellfire just as he lunged at Liby, and the deadly twister bounced off my shield harmlessly.
He went for Cupi next, but she was quick enough to backflip into the air and dash away on her wings.
“Why isn’t he going down?” I growled as I ran up to my friends. “He should be missing an arm and a brain at this point. The Unhallowed Sword can cut through anything.”
“You see that glowy shit around his arms?” Todd asked as he floated over. “That’s lovely ectoplasm magic that cancels out Hellfire. Kamaitachi bones are made of the same shit as their blades, bro. It’s like you didn’t even watch the anime I sent you.”
“It was five-hundred episodes,” I admitted with a twinge of shame. “I really didn’t have the time to spare.”
“No excuses,” the imp shot back. “I’ve seen each of those episodes at least twenty times. And now I know everything there is to know about Kamaitachi. So, who really gets the last laugh here?”
“Him, if we don’t figure something out!” I yelled.
The whirlwind of blades came back around, and we all scattered like bowling pins as it zipped between our group.
I rolled across the ground, sprang up to my feet, and summoned forth my bronze Hellfire of judgement. My eyes followed the deadly twister as it tore across the landscape of the Fourth Circle, and I unleashed a beam of the spell directly in front of the whirlwind.
The ground in front of Sora splintered open to reveal a massive crevice, and the spinning ball of deadly knives fell down into the chasm.
As his body fell downward, I summoned forth my green Hellfire, spread it around the edges of the chasm cliffs, and forced them to close around the Kamaitachi’s body. The roar of his miniature tornado rumbled beneath the ground as the rocky earth beneath my body shook violently.
“That’s not gonna hold for long, bro,” Todd mused.
“No,” Cupi agreed, “but it might give us enough time to regroup. If his bones are enchanted by the same indestructible ectoplasm as his blades, how on earth are we going to knock him off?”
“Maybe we just need to get him high enough off the ground?” Tris suggested. “Everything’s got a breaking point. We need to find his.”
“Kamaitachi bones are stronger than twenty-foot thick concrete, Slothy,” Todd argued. “I don’t think we can possibly get him high enough to reach his breaking point.”
“What about the Lake of Fire?” Libidine suggested over the roar of the quaking ground. “The Hellfire there is enchanted to burn through anything it touches.”
“Negative,” I sighed. “We’re too far away. Besides, this guy is a seasoned assassin. There’s no way he’d let us lead him all the way out to the Lake of Fire, he’s way too clever for that.”
“War of attrition?” Tris mumbled.
“What, you mean like we keep going at a stalemate until he gets tired?” I asked, unconvinced. “There’s no way we can make that work, even if we outnumber him five to one.”
“No, Jacob … ” Tris said with an overexaggerated sigh. “Like, couldn’t we just keep hittin’ and hittin’ him until he finally breaks down? His flesh totally looks like it can be damaged.”
“I like where this is headed,” Cupi cooed. “We rip him apart, little by
little, until there’s nothing left.”
“Exactly!” Libidine said as she clapped her fist into her open palm. “Even if his bones can’t be destroyed, they won’t work if there’s nothing to attach them to!”
“Twisted, barbaric, and sadistic,” Todd whistled. “I love it. Crazy Eyes would be proud.”
Just then, I felt the ground directly below my body start to shake, and I looked at my friends in a panic.
“Move!” I commanded. “Now!”
The five of us rolled out of the way just as five small wind tunnels shot up from beneath the ground with a spray of debris. There was one where each of us had been standing, and the attack formed a sort of circular formation on the ground. Each funnel sounded as loud as a freight train as they slowly moved inward, caught each other in their turbulence, and morphed together into one massive tornado.
The sudden gust of air threatened to yank me into its depths, but I quickly stabbed the Unhallowed Sword into the ground and held on for dear life. My body was yanked around the hilt of the weapon, and I felt my legs lift up into the sky as Sora’s attack played tug-of-war with my body.
I let out a grunt of frustration as my fingers started to slip and my grip began to loosen. Behind me rose the sound of crumbling brimstone, and then there was a loud crash as chunks of the earth rained down around me.
“What’s the matter, ‘my lord?’” Sora mocked. “Don’t have as good of a grip on your Kingdom as you thought?”
I was Jacob Ralston, the King of the Fourth Circle. I wasn’t going to have my reign ended by some two-bit assassin for hire.
My hands were slowly sliding off the hilt of the blade, and if I didn’t act fast, I was going to be dragged helplessly toward the razor-sharp talons of the Kamaitachi.
If ever there was a time to improvise, it was now.
I summoned bronze Hellfire into my hand, blasted it down at the ground where my sword was embedded, and rocked it free. The Unhallowed Sword dislodged from the ground with a dull “shluck,” and I was now fully in the tornado’s grasp.
I twisted my body in the air, snatched my blade by the hilt, and spun around as I rocketed toward Sora. Small pebbles of debris struck my face as I was swept up in the whirlwind, and the sound of the swishing funnel was deafening.
The second I was inside Sora’s grasp, I felt myself turn sideways. I wasn’t in control of my body anymore.
At least, that’s what I wanted the fucker to think.
Then I summoned purple Hellfire into my hands and launched it down at the empty space beneath my feet.
Two small, shimmering platforms just wider than my feet appeared, and my momentum was halted.
I ducked down just as Sora took a swipe at my neck, and then I propelled myself forward. I tossed down a few more small platforms and ran across them as I used the counterforce of the tornado to keep myself horizontal. Eventually I ended up behind the assassin, and I swung my sword at the bastard’s shoulder.
The Unhallowed Sword came down into the Kamaitachi’s skin and stopped when it hit his unbreakable bones. Then I summoned a gauntlet of purple Hellfire around my hand, grabbed my weapon by the point, and let gravity do the rest.
Sora cried out in agony as I slid down the flesh of his furry arm and degloved it like a banana peel. Blood splurted onto my face as the fucker’s skin and muscle were separated from his bones, and he flailed wildly.
I felt a wave of pain shoot through my leg as one of his blades connected with my upper calf and sliced it deep. Then there was no more flesh to sever, and I was sucked back into the swirling windstorm.
“M-my arm!” Sora screamed over the roar of the wind. “You--you just sliced open my arm!”
That was far from the worst I was going to do to this bastard.
Suddenly, black Hellfire spread up the length of Sora’s tornado, and the whirling winds dulled down to a calm breeze.
One of the succubi flew over, grabbed me from behind, and fluttered me gently to the ground.
Sora was not so lucky.
The Kamaitachi’s eyes went wide as his spell was broken, and he plummeted toward the rocky ground. He raised his bladed hands out to catch himself, but he still slammed into the ground at breakneck speed. His furry body bounced off the earth, and then tumbled a few feet to the side.
As I tried to regain my bearings, I saw the rest of my team had joined the battle.
The tiny redhead, Sia, was just decasting the black Hellfire that had saved my life.
Meanwhile, both of Ira’s forms, the sub and the Dom, were at the ready with their whip and their morning star in their hands, and Gula bared her teeth as she stared over the top of her battle axe.
Then there was Invidia. The Sister of Envy stood there in her black corset and thigh-high boots with her arms crossed over her massive breasts. In her hand was a small dagger that must have been no bigger than a boning knife, but everyone knew just how lethal she was with the tiny blade.
“Nice save, Sia,” I called out to the madame, and she gave me a playful bow.
“Ewwww,” Tris laughed next to me. “You just peeled his fucking skin off like a candy wrapper!”
“I’ve had that done before,” Ira’s sub moaned happily. “Nothing gets me off like a good degloving.”
“You lot are all sorts of fucked up,” Sora growled as he lifted himself back into the air on a tiny funnel. “You deserve each other. You really do.”
The assassin was now looking much worse for wear. The arm I had attacked was now hanging uselessly at his side with a small strip of flesh hanging off it like a ribbon. His enchanted bones were completely exposed, and they glowed eerily with dark ectoplasm. Clumps of his fur were matted with coagulated blood, and there were visible bruises underneath his hair.
At least we were doing some damage. And, now that we were all together, we were about to do a fuck-ton more.
“Looks like your plan worked,” I mused to Tris. “Everyone, go for the soft flesh!”
“Noble plan, mortal,” Sora hissed, “but you’ll have to get to it first!”
Gula, the Dom, and Cupi were the first ones on the offensive.
Sora knocked away Ira’s morning star with one bladed arm, and then he flipped up into the air and dispeled blows from the polearm and axe. As he somersaulted over his attackers, he let loose three more small twisters, and the succubi were all tossed into the air.
Tris fired on the fucker as he landed, but he quickly shot up and cast another gust of wind to knock the bullets away.
Liby and Invidia were on him next, and I couldn’t help but be on edge as they both engaged him in close-quarters combat.
Watching Vidia work was almost like watching a dancer on the stage. Each movement she made was swift, graceful, and calculated. She would easily dodge a blow from Sora’s sword and then follow up with a jab of her own without missing a beat. Her weapon flitted back and forth between her two hands so effortlessly, I almost wondered if she had rehearsed her assault beforehand.
Libidine, on the other hand, was much less graceful. Her glowing yellow fists swung at the Kamaitachi, but she was struggling to land a blow. Her attacks were more brutish and slow, easily dodged by assassin, but that was fine because every time Sora dodged Liby, it left an opening for Invidia to cut with her blade.
Finally, Invidia knocked Sora’s blade upward and hit him point-blank with her silver Hellfire.
The Sister of Envy’s magic normally would knock the soul clean out of somebody, but it didn’t seem to work on the Kamaitachi.
It was that fucking ectoplasmic magic. We’d encountered it a handful of times before, when we went up against the deadly Raksashi, Aruna. It’s power came from the very soul of its user, so it countered any sort of Divine or Hellfire magic and made it almost obsolete.
If we wanted to kill Sora, we were gonna have to do it the old fashioned way.
I looked over at Ira’s sub and nodded.
We both charged the assassin while his attention was on the other succu
bi, but he somehow was still prepared.
Small funnels of wind shot up from the ground directly in our trajectory, but Sia was quick on the draw. She hit each of the small tornadoes with a blast of her black Hellfire, and they all dissipated harmlessly as we passed through. Once we were in range, the sub and I prepared for the attack.
The sub used her flaming red whip to catch Sora around the neck, and he let out a surprised gasp as it burned into his flesh.
At the same time, Vidia was able to land a flurry of quick stabs with her blade, and blood began to pour out of the fucker’s side like a waterfall.
Sora roared as he lashed out at the succubi, and I was forced to throw up a shield of purple in front of Libidine seconds before she was disemboweled. The assassin caused a violent gust of wind at his feet, and it sent all three of the succubi tumbling to the ground as he shot up into the air.
“Not so fast, asshole,” I growled and hit the ground with a cast of bronze flame.
The ground split apart, and the sudden rift caused Sora’s downdraft to disappear. He plummeted toward the ground and caught himself on another small tornado, but it was too late.
I created a series of violet platforms in front of me, climbed them like stairs, and swung the Unhallowed Sword as hard as I could at the assassin. The blade caught him in the side of the head, and there was a spray of crimson as his skull whipped to the side and flesh flew from his cheek.
The Kamaitachi responded with an instant blast of air, and the next thing I knew I was flat on my ass.
“Eight on fucking one?” Sora sneered from above. “What kind of fucking King are you, Jacob Ralston? You need your succubi to fight your battles for you? Your rule will be even shorter than--”
Before he could finish his sentence, Sora’s body lurched down as if something had landed on top of his head. Then, he let out a scream of pain as both of his eyes were ripped from their sockets. They dangled down, still attached to their retinas, as the Kamaitachi flailed wildly. Then they popped loose from the assassin’s head, tied themselves into a little bow, and then began to whack him in the groin.
“I just took the ‘I-C-U-P’ joke to the next level, bitch!” Todd’s disembodied voice cried out from atop Sora.
