Takamune was left in shock while he sat on the muddy ground. The bearded samurai was a powerhouse at the middle-stage Spirit Jade level and had slain several monsters and enemy troops back in Dewa, so he found it unbelievable that such a mighty man had died right after entering a few miles into Tanba’s lands.
“It’s an archdemon at the Permanence level! Don’t let your guard down, milord!” Ida was one of the top three powerhouses among the Dewa troops and was at the middle-stage Permanence level.
He dismounted his steed and stood in front of Takamune as he could not allow Minamoto no Yoritomo’s twelfth son to die even if the entire 600 strong Dewa troop was to perish.
His mission was to protect Takamune, and nothing else.
“A Permanence-level archdemon, you say? That’s just impossible!” Takamune stood up and strengthened his grip on his blade with his shaky hands.
Although Takamune was at the early-stage Permanence level, he had never fought against a truly powerful enemy until now because he ruled a relatively safer land closer to eastern provinces in the vast lands of Dewa.
The mountain chimera unleashed its late-stage Permanence level aura as it ran its terrifying gaze across all those in front of it and leaped forward with a loud howl.
“Fall back immediately, milord!” Ida pushed Takamune behind him and unleashed his aura as well. “Genji Swordstyle’s 4th Stage!”
Bam!
Ida’s blade created a loud sound as it clashed with the massive paw of the mountain chimera.
He had no other choice but to face the monster because his job was to protect Takamune, but even he could not withstand the heavy, mountainous blow from the chimera’s paw.
“Gah!” Ida fell to his knees, creating a crater underneath him as he spewed out blood from his mouth and used his blade to prop up his body with much difficulty.
“Oorah!” The samurai behind Takamune charged towards the chimera in the next moment.
The mountain chimera trampled on Ida and swung its massive paws, sending the samurai flying back and turning them into mangled masses of flesh.
The samurai who had not even attained the Spirit Jade level were not the archdemon’s match.
“W-Why did we run into this creature right after entering Tanba?” Takamune was left dumbfounded1.
Lily could also hear the battle sounds in the rear guard by now.
She unsheathed her blade and advanced cautiously from the flank when she heard screams coming from the dense mist.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
An ash-gray shadow, as well as a dark-green shadow, pounced down from the gigantic trees at this moment. The dark-green shadow was an incredibly powerful mountain imp that was at least four meters tall, had three eyes and four arms. He stomped the soldiers to death as he landed on the ground from the branch of the tree.
The mountain imp then swung his arm and swatted two spearmen to death with ease.
The ash-gray shadow, on the other hand, was a gigantic, red-faced, ash-furred mountain chimera that was at least six meters tall.
The mountain chimera targeted Lily directly as it pounced down from the tree, but Lily blocked its advance with a sword strike.
Bam!
The mountain chimera was at the peak-stage Permanence level and possessed a brutal nature that befitted its strength. A mere paw strike from it was several times stronger than a blow from a human at the same power level.
It was nothing much to Lily, though, so she just withstood the blow with a casual strike from her blade.
The same could not be said for her horse, though. Lily felt her body sink as her warhorse succumbed to the force behind the blow, falling sideways to the ground from having its legs broken2.
“Damn it.” Lily failed to predict this and leaped sideways from atop the horse swiftly to avoid getting crushed.
Splat!
The mountain chimera’s paw squashed Lily’s white horse to death cruelly in the next moment.
The horse had accompanied Lily for almost a month now, so she felt a little attached to it3.
“How dare you?!” Lily had little experience with mounted combat, so she failed to anticipate that her horse might not have the ability to endure the opponent’s blow even if she could, which resulted in it getting crushed to death by the mountain chimera.
The mountain chimera pounced towards Lily again and swung its powerful paws at her.
Clang!
Lily shuttled towards the mountain chimera’s torso with swift movements, though, and jumped up after arriving in between its paws before launching a strike on it.
Splurt!
The mountain chimera got cleaved into two defenselessly from the head to the torso Lily’s blade strike.
The runes on Yasutsuna shone with a glow after Lily slew the mountain chimera and absorbed the anima of this peak-stage Permanence level archdemon. Lily then charged towards the middle-stage Permanence level archdemon and killed it in one blow after dodging its attack.
She could still hear endless screams from the dense mist ahead of her, though, and had a faint premonition that the Dewa troops had suffered disastrous casualties when she saw streams of blood flow down the mountain.
The other two Permanence level experts of the Dewa troop, including Osawa Miyoshi, who was at the late-stage Permanence level and was the strongest one among them, arrived at the middle guard of the Dewa troop along with the other middle-stage Permanence level expert at this moment and rescued Ida successfully.
A lot of samurai had already perished under the black mountain chimera’s claws by now, though. Although it was just at the middle-stage Permanence level, it possessed a powerful bloodline, had extremely durable fur, and was much stronger than Osawa.
The top three powerhouses of Dewa could barely hold fort against the mountain chimera.
A burst of powerful eldritch auras rushed out of the woods in the next moment as a group of black mountain chimeras charged towards the middle guard of the troop.
“Argh!”
“Don’t come over!”
The weapons of the soldiers, as well as the samurai, were useless in front of the crushing strength of the chimeras, and they got squashed to death under the assault of the chimeras.
A valiant late-stage Spirit Jade samurai got cleaved into two halves from a chimera’s claws while another got squashed to death on a rock after getting flung aside along with his horse.
The weakest of these mountain chimeras was at the late-stage Spirit Jade level while the Permanence level chimeras had seven to eight heads.
Takamune was left utterly dumbstruck by the scene unfolding before his eyes. His troops could barely handle a single mountain chimera, so it was pretty impossible for them to handle so many archdemons.
“F̲u̲c̲k̲! This doesn’t make sense! How can the monsters here be so powerful?! Just what damned place have we set foot into?!” Takamune yelled in despair.
The top three experts of the Dewa troop surrounded Takamune with their backs against him to protect him, but even they had stupefied expressions on their faces.
The valiant Dewa troop was utterly helpless in front of the brutal strength of the chimera and lost over half the men in an instant. It was no longer a battle and just pure slaughter now.
They had finally realized that storming Tanba was equivalent to throwing their lives away.
Whoosh!
A samurai’s silhouette shuttled past the chimeras slaughtering the soldiers at this moment.
This samurai moved unpredictably with lightning-quick movements and passed through the group of chimeras in an instant, making them fall to the ground with blood gushing out of their torsos.
“W-What?! Who is it?” Takamune exclaimed in surprise.
The samurai moved with such speed and grace that even Osawa, the most powerful expert under Takamune, failed to discern the samurai’s appearance.
Swoosh!
The samurai arrived beside the trio in the next instant and passed by them, leaving behind a faint fragrance in the air.
The three-headed middle-stage Permanence level chimera to the front swung its massive paws towards the samurai heading towards it, but the samurai dodged its attacks with ease using mystical movements.
The samurai unleashed three crimson sword beams while dodging the attacks of the chimera, each of which sliced open the chimera’s neck, chest and abdomen, making blood gush out of its wounds, and landed on the blood-pooled ground lightly.
Takamune and his men looked around them and discovered that the samurai had actually killed all the eight-headed Permanence level and the Spirit Jade level mountain chimera within just a few breaths of time, leaving no monster alive. The most terrifying thing about this was that the samurai had killed all the monsters with a single blow regardless of their strength, giving them no chance to counterattack.
The samurai had slain the monsters that had slaughtered the valiant Dewa troops with ease.
Lily’s long, black hair fluttered in the wind as she turned around, allowing the Dewa troops to see her poignant, pretty visage.
“Aah!” Takamune’s words got stuck in his throat when he saw the face of their savior. “Y-You…”
Lily just looked at him in silence and disappeared into the dense mist in front of her.
Her blade flashed through the mist as she slew one monster after another, leaving pools of blood and monster cries in her wake.
The surviving Dewa troops looked at each other in dismay after hearing the monster cries stop a few moments later.
“W-Was that Kagami Lily just now, milord?” Ida asked in disbelief.
“How about we check out the situation ahead of us now, milord?” The bearded, red-skinned Osawa suggested.
“L-Let’s go!” Takamune led his men forward with his blade in hand and saw the bodies of the Dewa troops and monsters everywhere.
The group shuddered in fear when they saw the gigantic corpse of a reddish-brown ape monster that was at least ten meters tall.
“T-This monster’s corpse carries such a powerful aura even after it’s dead…” Osawa said nervously with wide-open eyes.
The men turned their gazes upwards and saw the long-haired Lily pushing her blade into the ape’s chest slowly while standing on the ape’s corpse with a calm look on her face.
The runes on her blade glowed red as the ape’s anima got absorbed into it, and her eyes shone with a crimson glow within the dense mist.
“Aah!” Takamune felt a shiver travel through his spine and fell on his butt from the fear. The samurai around him followed after him and also fell on their butts after seeing the terrifying gaze of the woman who had slain this gigantic ape, nearly mixing her up for a demoness.
Lily swung her blade aside to flick off the blood on it and sheathed it back before she walked down the ape’s torso. She undid her chest armor and tossed it aside while she walked down, allowing to slide down the ape’s torso and fall on the ground.
“This armor provides little defense and just hinders my movements. It seems like heavy armor really doesn’t suit me.” Lily soliloquized as she walked in front of the men ahead of her4.
“I-It’s really you… Ms. Kagami?” Ida looked up at her from the ground powerlessly.
Lily looked down at Takamune and his men before she said in a graceful yet indifferent voice, “The ones ahead are dead, monster and human alike.”
Lily passed through the group and walked into the mist behind them after saying her piece.
“H-Hold it!” Takamune yelled at Lily’s back. “Where do you think you are going?! You are my subordinate and must listen to my orders! I’m commanding you to stop at once!”
“Just let her go, milord…”
“How could I just let her do whatever she wants when she’s so powerful, sir? We should be able to slay the monsters and gain huge merit as long as we have her!” Spit flew out of Takamune’s mouth as he spoke quickly, “I’ll make her a deputy general at worst!”
Ida, however, just shook his head with a blank expression. “Forget it, milord.”
“What did you say?”
“Do you not get it yet, milord? I feel ashamed to say this as your instructor, but this gigantic ape is probably a peak-stage Permanence level archdemon… There’s no reason for someone who can slay such an opponent in an instant to heed your orders5.”
