As the creature screamed, Shota jerked the chain back and spun it once more, only this time, flames began to crawl over the ball as well, making him look like a fire dancer as he prepared to attackagain.
The creature on the right began to dance from foot to foot, its huge hands waving above its head in a motion that would have seemed carefree if it hadn’t been sosinister.
“Damnnuribotokes,” Raiden said, bringing the dragon scalekatanato bear as he moved to my side. “Normally you can get rid of them by trapping them within a circle of salt until morning, at which point they’ll evaporate along with the sun’s rays. But I’m guessing that won’t worknow.”
“Not unless you have salt and a lot of time,” Shota said, his hands tightening on the grip of his weapon and swinging it even faster, causing it to whirl through the air in a blur of motion. “Have any other ideas?” He took a deep breath, eyes flicking between the two monsters. “Baiken and I can keep knocking them down, but we’ll definitely have to do somethingfast.”
“Are they dangerous?” I asked as thenuribotokeShota had knocked down scrambled to itsfeet.
Its lips broke out into a huge, grotesque smile, and it lumbered toward us once more, but this time the movement was so quick I could barely follow it. The creature’s long arms trailed behind it, and its head fell backward as its legs propelled it forward like one of those disgusting creatures inAttack onTitan.
“Yes, which is why I told you to run!” Raiden said as Shota intercepted the creature, wrapping up its legs with his chain and pulling them out from under it. As the creature hit the ground with a thud, its comrade charged, and this time, Shota’s weapon was too bound with the firstnuribotokefor him to stop it. Worse, I wasn’t sure I wanted himto.
“Raiden,” Shota cried, muscles straining as he fought to keep the creature from escaping. “You have to get that one. If I let go of this one, it’ll getfree.”
“Right!” Raiden took a step forward and slashed at thenuribotokewith hiskatana. But instead of slicing through the monster, the blade slammed into it with a hardclang.
The thrum of the impact rang in my ears as thenuribotokekept coming, barely slowed by Raiden’sattacks.
As Raiden stumbled backward, the creature’s hands snapped out with whip-like speed, grabbing hold of him by the shirt and hauling him in between thenuribotokeand thetengu.
Myyokaipulled up short, its blade glinting in the air as Raiden stumbled, falling off balance. His arms shot out to the side, and thekatanain his hands went flying across the room and clattering uselessly onto thestone.
“Raiden!” I cried, reaching for my own power and instinctively drawing upon thekyuubi, since her flames had proven to be pretty unstoppable. As I felt her presence in my mind’s eye, I called her forth. She exploded into being in front of me in fireball form, and as Raiden tried vainly to free himself from hisnuribotoke’sgrasp, it dragged him back toward the woodenshrine.
I grabbed hold of thekyuubi’sspirit and slammed it into me. Fire came to my call as I sprinted forward and threw a handful of it at thenuribotoke. The blast caught it full in the face, tearing it free of Raiden and flinging it backward across theroom.
“Little help here!” Shota called, and as I swung my eyes back toward him, thenuribotokegrabbed hold of the chain with its hands and jerked on it. Shota instinctively released the weapon, and as it left his hands, the creature fell on itsass.
“Get the shrine—that’s the source of its power!” Raiden cried, scrambling toward his droppedkatanaas thetengurushed in to help Shota, leaving me a precious moment toact.
“On it!” I yelled as thenuribotokeI’d blasted leapt to its feet like it was some kind of kung fugod.
It snarled, spraying spittle in every direction, but before it could do much, thetenguwas between us, throwing the monster backward with his powerful muscles. The othernuribotokewas in pieces on the ground, torn apart by thetengu’spowerful claws. To my horror, I saw that the pieces were slowly inching back toward each other, like some kind of zombie trying toreform.
“I’ll hold it,” he said, and I nodded, calling upon thekyuubi’sflames. Her fire surged through my veins and coalesced in my hands as I flung it forward at theshrine.
The fireball slammed into the wooden shrine like a nuclear blast, blowing it to pieces and charring the stone beneath it. Thenuribotokescreamed in agony, staggering backward as its skin began to catch fire. The smell of burning flesh hit my nose as it fell to the ground, writhing next to the flaming pieces of his brethren, and I had to swallow back a wave of bile as my stomachheaved.
A moment later, I felt Raiden’s hand on my shoulder. “Good job,” he said, steering me away from the burningyokai. “Now let’s get out ofhere.”
“I agree,” thetengusaid, loping over to us, and somehow its creepy smile seemed a little sadder than it had before. “We still have much darkness toface.”
“Yeah, all right,” I said, nodding as I released thekyuubiback to her charm. She went without a word, and as her power left me, I felt a little bit worse. We’d barely stepped into the place and had nearly been undone by a pretty weak monster. What would happen if we found something wayworse?
Either way, I couldn’t focus on it. I had to keep movingforward.
“Mom?” I called, walking into the room. It was completely unlit. Faint, pained moans filled the air, sending a shiver down my spine. Oh God, was she hurt? I lifted my torch to try to see better, and nearly dropped it at the sight of a badger hanging from a rope attached to theceiling.
“What the hell isthatthing doing here?” I squeaked as Raiden and Shota came up besideme.
“Help me!” the badger squeaked. Its back feet were tied together by the rope, and it spun in a slow circle in the center of the room. All along the walls were steel cages, with humans curled up inside them in various states of unconsciousness. The smell of old blood marred the air, and my heart twisted in sympathy. How many of them were wounded? “I’ve been stuck up here forever. You have to get medown!”
“Ignore it,” Raiden said, edging warily toward the cages. “Badgers are tricksters. They can’t be trusted. The moment we take him down, he’s going to attackus.”
“Okay…” I said dubiously as Raiden crouched down in front of one of the cages. He reached in to touch the forehead of the unconscious maninside.
“These shamans have all been drained of theirki,” he growled. “That bastard Kai has been taking theirpower.”
