Mob Sorcery 5 - Ch37

Note: Chapter 34-40 are being posted together. Be sure not to read them out of order. Commentary will be in Ch40.

Kigenai swung one arm out to her side, and conjured a familiar and terrifying rod of uncontrolled lightning. Her barrier crackled around her, but wasn’t the impenetrable sphere she typically used.

Vince’s dragon uncoiled and barreled across the parking lot. Fireballs rained down on her. Hell opened up beneath her thanks to a flame column. Neither did anything, and he’d already wasted the precious few seconds he had. A concentrated flame laser ripped forth from the dragon’s maw.

Kigenai met his strongest attack with her elbow. Her lightning barrier broke apart, allowing his searing laser to burn deep into her flesh. Against an ordinary person, Vince would have won. His spell would blast through her arm, her chest, and internal organs, ending the fight.

Instead, an enormous mass of violet magic poured forth from the Qilin. Her eyes glowed a vivid purple as a matching glow overcame her entire body. His laser burned out on her body, leaving behind only char marks on her elbow.

Belatedly, he realized she’d done this several times already. Her suit lay in tatters, revealing the collared shirt beneath it, but it was in ruins as well. Kigenai’s underwear fought to keep her modest through the holes in her clothes, because she sure as hell didn’t care. Her condition matched that of the heist, when she’d appeared unwounded but with damaged clothing.

His efforts slowed down her spellcasting at least, even if they didn’t permanently harm her. The Sword of Dangun remained unstable. Yet an unending tide of flame lasers wouldn’t accomplish much. Kigenai summoned a solid field of light in his direction, which reflected the next one.

A huge earth spike exploded against the Qilin’s outstretched arm to no avail, as did a separate flame laser from a window inside the loading dock. Gaby loosed a roar and turned into a streak of light. Her fist cracked the shield protecting Kigenai from Vince. But she quickly retreated when Kigenai spun the unstable spell toward her.

Vince gritted his teeth. Any second now and they’d have fucked it up.

Ashley snarled and ran her claws along her bloodied body. She exploded forward in a charge, jets of wind propelling her toward Kigenai in a flash. Her eyes shined with both red and blue magic, as if the two fought for dominance.

The blood on the fox demon’s body congealed and formed a glowing blade around one arm. She swung it at Kigenai’s outstretched arm before the Qilin could even react.

For the first time tonight, Vince heard Kigenai scream in pain.

Ashley’s blood blade scythed through Kigenai’s barrier and arm. The fox demon moved stiffly with the blade summoned, her legs locked in place like a statue as she swung. Even as she finished her swing, she struggled to stop her momentum and the blade dug into the ground.

The Sword of Dangun collapsed into prismatic light again. But this time, it shimmered unstably as Kigenai arced with lightning. The spell ruptured explosively.

A blast obscured both women for a moment, before a lightning bolt struck the area and blew away the dust. Ashley staggered, her arm severed cleanly where she’d summoned the blood blade.

“I will not fall to a mere demon,” Kigenai bellowed.

Solid violet light formed a new arm to replace her missing one, and she slammed it into the wavering Ashley. Without her barrier, Ashley went flying from the thunderbolt. Smoke followed her as she tumbled across the broken concrete.

“We need to keep the pressure up,” Vince said.

He kept launching spells at Kigenai alongside Nina, Fia, and Gaby. Hopefully, Kiyoko was resting somewhere and would rejoin the fray.

Pola grimaced from nearby, then glanced back at Hamelin’s pickup. The necromancer had leaped out of it at some point, and now stood near her immobile bullfolk undead.

“How long does this stupid thing last?” Hamelin called out. “She’s going to remember she wanted to save Juliet soon.”

Kigenai raged in the distance, using her lightning sword to repel Nina and Gaby’s onslaught. With any luck, that wouldn’t be the case.

“No clue,” he said. “It lasted at least a few minutes last time, but she showed visible strain casting it. This time…”

Well, Kigenai showed visible strain merely from existing at the moment. Despite his worries, they were pushing her to her limits. Any injury forced the Qilin to consume massive amounts of magic, destabilizing her physical form.

Something struck his dragon and he winced, cradling his head with one hand. Even Daji’s will wavered. Chains of lightning battled the unending inferno his dragon put out as Kigenai grappled with his summon.

“Do whatever you can with Juliet,” Vince said. “Then help us the second you can.”

He charged toward Kigenai, ignoring Hamelin’s cries behind him. A lance of light burst on the Qilin’s back, and she flung her lightning chains around her with reckless abandon. Gaby and Nina hit the deck. His dragon leaped away, but each time the chains struck its scales, huge prismatic rents in its body opened up. Vince pumped magic into it to keep it going.

Kigenai stopped for a moment. Her chest heaved and her eyes gleamed with divine power. She closed her eyes.

For the briefest of instants, Vince thought she might be surrendering.

“Kumicho… Mei… It has been an honor,” Kigenai said. “Thank you for believing in me.”

The Qilin raised her hands above her head, level with her horn. Arcs of lightning erupted from her twisted horn. They gathered in her hands, and something akin to a barrier began to form in the air between them.

Vince’s stomach cratered. The Drum of Dangun remained active, which meant this could only be one spell.

The Mirror of Dangun. The spell Kiyoko had been confident Kigenai wouldn’t use.

“No!” Kiyoko yelled from above, panic throughout her tone. “Don’t cast it! Dal-Rae!”

A crackling sphere of lightning surrounded Kigenai. Her barrier repelled Vince’s hastily cast flame laser. Fireballs exploded on the shell, and his flaming nets accomplished little. No matter how much magic he hurled at her, she ignored him.

Kiyoko cannoned through the air with an air-splitting crack, and concrete debris exploded in her wake.

Only for her to dip and strike the concrete. She tumbled end over end, gouging holes in the concrete with each impact. Her barrier protected her, but when she rose, it was in great pain. Blood streamed down her face, a burn marred an entire half of her torso, and sections of her wings had lost their feathers. Her ice blue eyes swam with emotions Vince rarely glimpsed when he spoke with her, and almost never anytime else.

“Kiyoko, catch!” he shouted.

He hurled a healing infusion at her. Unfortunately, he’d never been a good baseball player. His throwing arm sucked, and the arc fell short.

The tengu’s head spun to face him. She stuck her hand out and pulled the infusion through the air to her fingers with a flick of a wrist, preventing it from shattering on the ground. Presumably, she’d already burned her other healing infusions.

Her healing would take too long to help, however. He continued pummeling Kigenai, aided by the fact the Qilin struggled with her own spell. Her legs shook and the lightning conjured by her horn wavered in intensity.

Nina maintained an odd stance nearby, with her gauntlet cocked back. Amber and green magic swirled around the magical focus.

As the “mirror” in Kigenai’s hands began to solidify, Nina leaped forward. She didn’t make a sound, other than that of her boots cracking concrete with the force of her jump.

Her gauntlet slammed into Kigenai’s sphere, and each of its claws dug into the crackling barrier. An explosion of wind and earth magic rippled backward from Nina’s arm. The air inside the sphere pulsed and Kigenai’s clothing flew from an invisible wind.

Blood flew from five large holes in Kigenai’s chest. Her sphere remained intact.

Instantly, she lost control of the mirror spell. The sphere shattered a moment later.

Nina followed through with an earth spike.

A roar escaped Kigenai and she blew apart Nina’s spell with a swing of an arm. Her leg flew upward like lightning, then axe-kicked the lioness into the ground. Amber shards scattered across the ground as Nina’s barrier shattered. She collapsed against the ground as electricity arced across the ground, causing her to twitch and gasp in pain.

Kigenai cocked a fist. Lightning pulsed around it.

Vince’s dragon blocked the lightning blast at point blank. He ignored the growing feeling of losing control of his dragon, as each blow ruptured the threads he used to manipulate it. Even as Daji tried to repair them, he knew the spell had to be recast soon.

“Nina, run,” Vince said.

The lioness scrambled to her feet while chugging an infusion. Her boots glowed and she dashed away.

Kigenai jumped backward, avoiding the inferno that erupted from the dragon.

Then she raised her hands again and began casting the damn mirror spell. This time without her sphere, and merely a normal barrier.

Vince turned his dragon’s head, but his flame laser came out far weaker than usual.

“You need to recast it,” Daji told him. “It’s not the Ship of Theseus. At some point, you need to remake it entirely. The spell is operating at less than half its original power, and so are you.”

He refused to admit that, even as taking a breath caused heat to sear his lungs. Downing a magic-restoring infusion, he ignored the headache and unleashed another barrage of spells at Kigenai. She hunched her shoulders, but her barrier remained resilient.

“Flagellum,” Fia yelled.

A flaming whip coiled around one of Kigenai’s arms. Fia stood twenty feet away, armored up in enchanted clothes and covered in a barrier. She pulled on her whip.

“Flagellum,” she snarled again.

Another whip joined the first and she yanked on Kigenai’s arm. Her demihuman strength budged the Qilin just enough. The mirror spell broke.

A furious wail broke free from Kigenai. She grasped the lightning magic she’d lost control of before it dissipated into raw magic, and conjured up her bow. The power shattered Fia’s whips.

Gasping, Fia summoned a triangular barrier in front of her, similar to the one Pola used. The first arrow blew it apart.

The next blasted Fia’s barrier open, and the wolfgirl spun.

“Fia!” Pola screamed.

Wind claws tore apart the ground beneath Kigenai’s feet, causing the next arrow to whiz past Fia’s head. Fia hit the ground on all fours, then recast her barrier just in time to be sent rolling by another arrow.

A vortex struck Kigenai’s back, but she shrugged it off and focused her arm.

“Fuck no,” Vince snarled.

While his dragon hit her with everything it could, he pulled his sword free from his cane. A black beam of fire arced across the parking lot and intercepted Kigenai’s bow.

The lightning weapon erupted into a conflagration the size of a house. Kigenai’s hand glowed solid purple as she stepped backward, eyes wide, while Daji’s flames battled her divine magic.

Gaby shot across the concrete and picked up Fia, then streaked away. Her horn still glowed, but dimmer. Both Ashley and Nina remained missing.

The magic-consuming flames died out within seconds, and Kigenai steadied herself. Pola circled on the far side, rapier out and uncertain. Vince’s dragon remained standing, but with numerous holes in its scales that revealed nothing beneath them.

“We need a final push,” Kiyoko declared as she stood up, only half-healed.

Vince hid his surprise at her state. Were Ally’s infusions less effective on immortals?

Kiyoko met his gaze. Even without her speaking, he felt he knew what she wanted him to do. He’d intentionally held off on his other meister-tier spell until dealing with Juliet’s abyss because they hadn’t known how it would affect her. Plus the risk of it being dispelled.

“I will cover you and allow the others to regain their strength.” She raised her katana in both hands and her wings extended to their full length.

Kigenai bared her teeth at her former comrade. “You will deny me the honor of battling you in my true form?”

“This is your true form, Dal-Rae,” Kiyoko said. “We must build our future with the choices we make, not claw at a past that will never exist again.”

“That hasn’t been my name for nearly a century.” Kigenai shook her head. “You are far too sentimental for someone Knightsgate trusts to kill traitors. Of all the people I have fought alongside or against, you are the one I understand the least.”

Kiyoko rocketed across the concrete, and Kigenai met her blade with an electric one of her own.

As much as he’d love to watch, Vince had spells to cast. Every second spent gawking was wasted time.

Which mattered even more as he didn’t know how much time he even had. Casting his fire tornado and resummoning his dragon would take a minute. Sure, they’d spent far more than that battling Kigenai already, but every conflict with her cost them an immense amount of stamina. Most of the team were licking their wounds while preparing for another charge.

He spotted Ashley creeping back into the parking lot, her arm healed. Pola and Nina circled back around to him. Hamelin’s phantoms remained inert, and Kigenai had destroyed all of those within a hundred feet of herself. Gaby and Fia were nowhere nearby.

Daji, you need to help me, Vince said inside his mind.

“You know you don’t need to ask.” Nevertheless, Daji sighed. “Remember that this comes at great cost to you, and not just the seal.”

He remembered the immense exhaustion after relying on her power against Mei. If he went too hard tonight, they’d never take out the fox.

On the other hand, if he held back, he’d never make it to Mei. Or lose someone he truly loved.

He raised his cane to the cloudy sky and let Daji’s power meld with his. Raindrops pattered against his barrier.

A whirling inferno erupted from him, spiraling outward so that it encapsulated most of the parking lot. Concrete sizzled and many of the damaged trucks burst into flames. Small explosions sounded off as the fuel tanks ignited. He hoped Hamelin wasn’t too close, but couldn’t worry about her.

The flaming vortex did little else at first. Vince felt its presence easing the pressure on his mind and body, however. Ironic that such a powerful spell made his life easier.

Kigenai hurled her lightning chains around her again, chasing Kiyoko away. The sphere appeared around the Qilin again. By contrast, Kiyoko gasped for air. She didn’t show the same signs of magic overuse as Kigenai and lacked the regenerative power, but she’d clearly reached her limits. Determination filled her blue eyes regardless and her knuckles whitened around her katana.

“As always, it is truly a treat to witness your mastery of domain spells,” Kigenai said, staring at Vince. “Regardless of whether this is your feat or that of the shard inside you, it hardly matters. We fight with the weapons creation gives us. I cannot and will not respond with anything less than my best.”

For the third time, she raised her hands over her head. In hindsight, he should have seen this coming.

He fired a Daji-empowered flame laser at Kigenai, wreathing her in black fire. Her sphere transformed into an orb of darkness. Fireballs from his dragon added to the blaze, causing it to grow in size, but it remained stuck to her barrier. Power continued to build inside the sphere, and Vince knew he needed more.

His dragon at full strength, at minimum.

With a thought, he banished his dragon and the magic-consuming flames. He held his cane out and began summoning it again. With Daji’s help, it would only take seconds.

But so would Kigenai’s spell. She showed no signs of slowing inside the sphere.

Kiyoko let out an odd keening noise before slamming into the barrier. Her sword once again unleashed a rainbow as it split the sphere apart.

Lightning erupted from the sphere before it shattered. Jagged arcs of electricity shot out for dozens of feet, impaling phantoms, turning raindrops to steam, and searing Vince’s barrier. Pola hissed as one struck her and cracked her barrier. For some reason, she stood far back while gripping her rapier at both ends, wind magic whirling around her arms.

The blast of lightning sent Kiyoko sprawling across the concrete, and a vortex of wind covered her body.

Invisible whips slammed into Kigenai’s back. The Qilin’s backup barrier wavered, but remained intact. Ashley grimaced, but merely continued her attack. The concrete transformed into a moving walkway beneath Kigenai, but she ignored it even as Nina slammed her fists into her.

Gaby joined in, and Kigenai’s barrier appeared to crack. Then lightning streamers rose up from the ground around her.

“Get back,” Gaby snapped.

She tackled Nina to the ground, right as a lightning bolt exploded over them. Vince grimaced. He’d seen as much when Nina fought Teru, but more skilled opponents could use weaker spells at the same time they focused their big ones. Usually, Kigenai channeled her sphere, but she appeared to also use offensive spells that didn’t use her arms.

The mirror gained far too much clarity. It appeared almost completely solid.

Prismatic flames burned around Vince, and he roared his dragon incantation. The huge summon exploded to life around him once more. Daji took control of the threads again, and the holes torn in the beast were no more.

Even as he charged a flame laser, he knew it might be too late. Something shimmered in the mirror conjured between Kigenai’s hands.

Then Pola blinked behind the Qilin, rapier outstretched. An overwhelming amount of wind magic rippled off her body. Errant gusts of green light trailed her feet, torso, and even her hair. Her rapier glowed solid green. She moved so fast it looked like teleportation.

She only became visible when her rapier struck Kigenai’s back. Her wind magic increased in intensity, and a wind tunnel formed behind her, sending whole chunks of concrete flying as if kicked up by TNT.

Abruptly, the tunnel vanished. Her sword shined and Pola’s entire body vibrated.

Pola juddered forward three feet—the full length of her rapier’s blade. Kigenai’s barrier shattered, and the rapier protruded from her chest. A blast of wind followed, blowing a fist-sized hole in the Qilin’s chest.

A triumphant grin crossed Pola’s face.

But a matching one stretched across Kigenai’s. She looked up into the shimmering mirror forged of lightning, hovering right above her eyes.