“Run!” Uesugi Rei shouted, her eyes glowing a chilly blue as her body erupted with ice spirit power.
Nakajou was still clutching his arm desperately while Hatano didn’t know what to do, clutching her small dagger staring at the enemies emerging from the forest.
To Hatano, a small spirit jade adept, the existence of a throne realm expert already made everything else pointless. She only felt fear stemming from the depths of her soul, a terror not allowing any thoughts of resistance.
“Run!” Uesugi Rei turned sideways as her long hand delivered a backhand to Hatano’s chest.
“Kya—!”
This sudden spike of pain on an unusual part of her body woke Hatano up from the haze of fear.
Her face went from white to red as she clutched her chest and stared at Uesugi’s back and felt the determination emanating from Uesugi’s soul and body.
“RUN!” She grabbed Nakajou and desperately ran towards the lower reaches of the river!
“Ehehe, they’re running, why don’t you run? They’re insignificant trash, killing them would be meaningless, but that makes me want to kill them even more! Ahahaha—!” The small long-blue-haired man suddenly jumped off the shoulder of the arch-demon and swung his gigantic blade, slashing out a blade light at Uesugi Rei. That blade light was filled with surging waves with power similar to the Tanba river.
“You’ll definitely stop me right? You overestimate yourself, you weak little sword miko! I shall show you the power of one of Shuten Doji’s Ten Demon Enforcers, Aokiba Takamizu’s power!”
This man called Aokiba Takamizu’s speed was fast to the extreme, he was like a stream of rain as he swept past Uesugi Rei’s side.
“So fast!” Uesugi’s eyes narrowed!
Clang!!!
Instantly, Uesugi swept her tachi sideways and backwards, slashing out at Aokiba’s legs! Without any choice, he could only hastily block with his big blade!
“What!!!?” Being repelled, he leapt back and adjusted his posture, “This woman can keep up with my speed? Could it be that she saw through my intentions and pretended to be unable to react to set a trap for me?”
“B̲i̲t̲c̲h̲!!!” Recovering from the attack, he ignored the escaping people and stomped down, dashing towards Uesugi.
Uesugi turned to face him, and suddenly with a kick, she accelerated directly at Aokiba.
Just before they collided, Uesugi Rei twisted her foot, sending herself spinning around and bypassing Aokiba.
Aokiba’s eyes narrowed sullenly, the spirit power of a throne powerhouse burst out as he swung out, a slash powerful enough to split mountains was aimed at Uesugi Rei’s waist!
Uesugi Rei held her tachi in both hands and blocked!
Clang!
As the blades connected, a circular shockwave spread, the surrounding raindrops exploded like countless projectiles smashing against the three fleeing and drawing blood.
It was as if Uesugi Rei had held back the river, the terrifying impact sending her skidding back, but Aokiba was also surprised, he too was sent a dozen steps back.
“What!??” Though he had the upper hand, Uesugi Rei had still blocked the full powered strike of a throne powerhouse. That he was also knocked back from the impact was beyond his understanding.
Even the huge ghost behind him, stared at the two with eyes filled with interest and amazement, grinning weirdly as he rushed forward.
Taking advantage of the blade impact, Uesugi Rei let herself fly back a bit before landing.
Bang! Her long beautiful legs slammed into the mud as she landed and she actually showed an excited expression on her face1, “As expected of throne experts, you’re stronger than I…”
Taking advantage of her opponent’s surprise, she slashed out.
Crash! Mud and rocks flew into the air forming a landslide as she slashed out a giant gap between herself and her enemies. Quickly turning around, she fled.
“Escape? Dream on!” Aokiba leapt, his speed especially fast, his form traced a trail through the rain as he chased after Uesugi. The giant Touko Chakura also rushed after her with giant strides, his large body bowed down, it seemed as if he refused to stand up straight even when running. He would be more than ten meters tall if he stood straight, demon clouds and misty rain seemed to burn around his form and a smokey wolf scent came from him as he ran in a strange wide stride, his meter long mouth cracked open in a weird smile.
From all around, ghosts howled and emerged from the trees and terrain all jumping at the fleeing people.
Chop! Minamoto no Kenki exterminated one with a harsh downward chop, shouting, “Run! Leave these guys to me!”
Rolling on the ground, Hatano evaded the pounce of a gray demon hound. Unwilling to delay, she continued to flee without fighting.
Nakajou also fled for his life, rolling and crawling on the ground.
Chop! Chop! Chop! Three heads flew up into the air as Uesugi Rei swung, sending out a blade light at the monster chasing Nakajou and Hatano.
At this moment, Aokiba had caught up, though Uesugi Rei was fast, Hatano and the rest were too slow.
Slash! With a ten meter tall Nioh phantom behind her, Uesugi Rei met Aokiba with a slash of her tachi.
Boom!!! Her mountain cleaving swing collided heavily against Aokiba’s great blade.
With the blessings of her domain and Bishamonten, she was evenly matched with Aokiba! Though blood oozed down the corners of her lips, her eyes glowed with excitement.
“To think a mere permanence staged sword miko would be so arrogant! Ahahaha, no wonder his highness, Lord Shuten is taking you seriously!” Pushing his blade up, Aokiba kicked out fiercely, ripples of water followed his foot as he kicked Uesugi Rei back.
Aokiba chased after, but Uesugi Rei flung out an icy lunar blade light!
Startled, Aokiba hastily blocked, Bang!
“What! B̲i̲t̲c̲h̲!” The blade light contained the true meaning of ice. Just like an iceberg crashing into a fast moving ship, Aokiba was blasted flying!
As Aokiba was knocked back, multiple monsters came rushing out of the forest and Uesugi Rei hammered out a single blow! Bang! A row of countless meter high spikes of ice shot out of the ground running along the road. The spikes riddled several hundred meters of mountain road with holes, the monsters were either frozen stiff or pierced through as they fell off of the road into the Tanba river below.
“Awroool——!” The giant Touka Chakura arrived with an ancient sounding hurricane-like howl. He jumped high and came down with a slash from his tree thick giant blade!
Boom! Uesugi dodged the blow, her form turning into afterimages and ice crystals scattering behind her. The giant blade turned bright red from the blow, directly melting a section of the road, turning it into flowing lava.
Uesugi felt the terrifying temperature with her feet and as she explosively retreated, she swung out and sent three icicles at Touko Chakura, but his giant form flourished his blade and brought a terrifying heat melting the ice.
“Powerful!” Uesugi coldly scoffed before sneaking a look at her companions. Seeing that they had run far, she turned and retreated.
She was sharp, bold and didn’t lack power. She could resist the combined attacks of the two throne realm demons, but she knew that if they really got into a life and death battle, then the two arch-demons would definitely use ancient artes or strange treasures that she could not counter.
She had never thought about winning over the two!
There was a rushing river on one side and a forest on the other, the road was the only path. Uesugi was flexible and used all sorts of techniques to cover her retreat, even the throne experts were unable to do anything to her.
The throne-realmed arch-demons were fast, but not only were they repeatedly knocked back by Uesugi and her domain, but she would from time to time destroy the road, they were infuriated.
As for the weaker monsters, it was even more impossible for them to stop Uesugi.
An early-staged permanence black ferocious ghost laid in ambush in front of Uesugi, but she didn’t even spare it a look before spearing it with a stab.
Pressing the ferocious ghost into the ground with her foot, she pulled out an eighth-grade kodachi from her waist and precisely stabbed it into the ghost’s spirit jade absorbing the permanence staged anima.
Although her main weapon, the nameless tachi was still sealed, she had defeated a permanence staged undead general and stolen its treasured blade.
Since the blade had no sword inscriptions, spirit tempering was unavailable, but Uesugi was still able to use it for a blade maiden’s spirit manipulation.
Of course, a low quality blade would be unable to endure a permanence staged anima. With the treasured blade in hand, she could proudly kill demons and absorb their anima. Only with this had she managed to reach the realm of peak-staged permanence so fast.
With Uesugi Rei covering the rear and three in the front avoiding an encirclement, they fled.
Hatano pointed at the front, “Look! There’s a bridge!” her finger was pointed at a suspension bridge over a 800 meter cliff.
The other side of the bridge was very close to the port!
“Faster!” Uesugi shouted as she spun in a circle, sending a few silver ice blade lights at the pursuing demons, killing a few and blocking the pursuit.
“No! If they flee to the other side, we won’t be able to do anything2!” Aokiba was furious, two throne realmed arch-demons and several hundred demons were unable to capture a single peak-staged permanence sword miko. If Shuten Doji found out, his anger would be immense!
Boom! Aokiba aura burst out in full, completely serious now, he chased full speed!
Touko Chakura also accelerated, bringing with him a sea of massive eldritch clouds.
“Sword Miko—surrender!” Aokiba’s big blade slashed down and the resulting sword light was like a huge wave sweeping in and slashing towards Uesugi Rei!
