The remaining participants kept their attention on Shiro's situation while also keeping tabs on themselves, Shiro was not the only person they had to worry about in this fight. Hotaru who had been cleaning his gun got up, his eyes never left Shiro as he watched him weave beautifully in and out of the enemies formation.
He pulled out one of the numerous guns from his pockets and stayed still. Gun shots were heard as one of the three remaining participants fell to the ground, the person who had been hit by the bullets was the person who had given the signal for the group to assault Shiro. Hotaru looked around again and saw Shiro look towards his direction, he gave Shiro a light smile before jumping into the fray.
Bullets flew everywhere as bodies dropped on the ground, in an instant he had annihilated one of the six groups who had banded together against Shiro.
Shiro saw that this person wasn't there to fight him so he didn't pay much heed to the person's activities, now that one of the group was gone, Shiro began going on the offensive. He used his tough skin to tank tome of the attacks while his blade continued to strike down the opponents weak points. Shiro wasn't done yet, he martial awareness zoned in on one of the ranged fighters, this particular guy had been the reason for Shiro's struggle.
In a normal fight the guy was useless, but his true abilities shown in a group fight like this, he didn't do much but he was able to restrict Shiro's, movements by the way he positioned himself and the way he cast his spells. The guy was an expert in positioning and his use of spells to close up gaps in which Shiro could use to escape made him a troublesome opponent in this battle.
Now that there was another person drawing the attention of the others, Shiro used this opportunity to dash towards the guy while using his sword to clear the path. The guy saw Shiro heading towards him but he was not flustered, he knew very well how to deal with this kind of situations.
[Flame Magic: Dance of Valhalla]
Four pillars of fire erupted from the ground blocking Shiro's path to the guy, the pillars of fire moved in such a way that if Shiro tried to go around one, the others would be there to block his way, their movements resembled that of four dancers who moved in such perfect harmony that it looked like it was a one person dance.
The spell dance of Valhalla wasn't meant to be like this, it was just a spell which created pillars of fire that were moveable by the user, this guy was only able to create four pillars whereas other users could easily conjure up to ten pillars, but in exchange of higher numbers, people usually forgo the innate ability to control this spell.
Seeing the guy control his spell, Shiro understood that this was not someone he could take lightly, he instantly sheathed his blade and chanted;
[Sword Style: Second Form; Sword less]
Sword Ki gathered around Shiro's hands, he performed a slashing motion with his hands which made the sword Ki in the area push forth and slice through the spell, Shiro saw the spell falter a bit due to his technique so he decided to push through. In an instant, his hands were back on the hilt of his blade as he used his fastest sword technique.
[Sword Style: First Form; Sword Draw]
Shiro's image turned into a blur as he zoomed past the spell, the guy was shocked greatly by Shiro's speed but his concentration did not falter, he immediately began casting another spell.
*
Bullets were still raining from the sky, Hotaru never stopped shooting at the large crowd, his bullets were fast and strong but they were not designed to kill which made them easier for the participants to tank through them, however, the fact that they did not kill didn't make them any less deadly, one wrong move and the bullet could instantly take one's sight.
These bullets were made from an earth type spell called rock pellets, this boy was able to cast this spell inside his gun which he made to increase his accuracy while reducing the number of pellets he wasted.
If this spell was cast on its own, the user would have a hard time controlling the spell as it would just shoot at targets within its range of attack without any real aim, but with the aid of this gun, Hotaru was able to maximize the potency of the spell.
Hotaru kept shooting the groups as he slowly made his way towards Shiro, his aim was to team up with Shiro then maximize both of their speed to break out of the encirclement, although, he was able to fight close ranged battles, magic users were originally meant for kiting and long distance fighting.
Hotaru moved quickly to were Shiro was battling and saw Shiro's opponent about to cast a spell, he instantly jumped behind the guy while facing the nozzle of his gun to the back of the guys head.
Just as the guy was about to complete his spell, he felt three strong hits at the back of his head which caused his concentration to waver directly interrupting his casting. The spell fizzled out as the guy lost consciousness and fell to the ground, he looked back to catch a glimpse of the person that had taken him out and was not surprised to see Hotaru standing close to his body still shooting at the opponents in front of him.
"We need to break out"
Hotaru said as soon as he came close enough for Shiro to hear his voice, he had been continuously casting the spell rock pellets and it was now beginning to take a toll on his mind, he was also running low on mana so he needed rest.
Shiro agreed with what the guy said, if he wanted to continue fighting, then he would need to use the God stigma which meant that he would not have anything to use against those that did not join this group assault. The God stigma took a huge toll on his body and was not something he could use anytime he wanted.
Once together, the two rearranged themselves with Shiro taking the lead while Hotaru gave him support from behind with his gun. Shiro began speeding through the enemy ranks while Hotaru used his bullets to interrupt the spells of the magic users, they needed to break away from the encirclement and the key to doing that was making sure that the magic users were kept in check, even one of their spells was enough to stop them in their tracks and foil any plans of escaping.