There was a whistling roar and the sound of tearing cloth, hissing and screaming. Hiding in the shade of an overgrown tree, I saw a mixed battle. A pair of Ayakashi held a whistling and buzzing elemental shield, saturating it with energy, while projectiles of water and fire orbs repeatedly struck it, splashing against the defense.
A few paces away, the rest of the Ayakashi fighters stood in a chain, but in such a way that no particularly large hemisphere covered them all.
I wasn't attacked. It was clear who was attacking, and judging by the speed and density of the attacks, a very serious, but worse, well-coordinated group had arrived. The swaying bushes to the left of the Ayakashi group, the twitching twig to the right — I could see it, but my allies didn't seem to.
— Ryuko, — I said quietly, almost whispering, not taking my eyes off the flank of the encirclement. — Go deep into the trees, but not too far. Hide and don't move, don't make any noise. Bad people came, came to kill, and I have to help my... — I interrupted, because I was grabbed by the fabric of my jacket and squeezed hard, obviously not wanting to let go, I turned to the child and looked into the frightened eyes. — Don't be afraid, I won't leave you and I won't let anything bad happen to you. Now hide!
The girl hesitated for a few moments, then let go of my hand and quietly disappeared into the shadows of the trees. I exhaled heavily, preparing for battle, and sent a shikigami bird with a fan of seals of protection and concealment after the girl.
Tsurugi was in my right hand when I touched the buckle of my belt, and in my left hand, I began to gather sand — from the protective techniques of the earth — the best elemental defense, sand listens to me best, allowing me to create active shields on the move.
Crouching down, I moved deeper into the shadows of the forest and began to make my way towards the attackers. By the way, they are very professional — they move very quietly and hide magic, not forgetting the emotional background, I don't even remember smells, because even the simpletons have a standard to repel smells.
A light trance allows the spectrum to shift into the magical gray area. After a minute I saw movement ahead of me. I had to slow down a bit more when I heard a rumble and an electrical crackle somewhere on the other side of town. I froze and looked around.
This group is more numerous than I thought — they outnumber me almost three to one, and there are mages here as well. I've already tried the plan with the shikigami: six sealing birds scattered and attached to the protective vests of the mages, and I'll hit the four remaining ones myself, with magic grenades of my own making.
Combat alchemy, in a stone shell, was no worse than the good old F-1. But the contact fighters will have to be dealt with later — they are scattered in a wide chain, and it's impossible to destroy more than one grenade at a time.
And I only have a dozen grenades like this, but there are gas grenades, which Ba-san will now blow in the right places and activate together with me. The enemy of indeterminate affiliation began to prepare to attack from the flank, but I started before the mages finished the spell "Mystic Chain" — the analog of the radio, only with a short range. Normal radios burn out in magical combat.
The Mudra of Concentration, and six blue flashes pierce through the six mages, creating through-holes in the area of the heart. The sound of breaking glass is loud and resounding, and the shock wave and shards kill the remaining mages, while some of the fighters are gassed.
Amazing — with one blow, almost the entire attacking group is destroyed! Over the comms come images of Ba-san: gasping, wheezing, people spewing black clots, scratching their faces and necks, with bulging eyes and horrible wounds on their skin.
The visions shift to the side as I sense a mage rushing toward me, a battle staff in one hand and a ball of light in the other. In a series of flickers, I see the mage's face, clearly not Japanese or even Asian.
The mage moved from place to place several times, strangely as if drawn to a point, and reappeared in the same way. The fourth time, he appeared behind me to my left, and a translucent shimmering beam shot out of his wand at me, but I somersaulted to the side and turned around.
The mage moved again, this time clearly behind me, and shot something at me again, and he didn't stop at a single spell. I had to jump three meters to a sturdy tree branch, then somersault sideways, turn my face in his direction, and receive bright red and dark blue rays from some curses on the sandy whirl that sent shivers down my spine.
A magic-infused sword sent a streak of raw energy into the mage, who barely had time to move, and leaves and splinters flew into my back from another curse.
The lightning that nearly struck my left side struck a squishy bush, partially igniting, partially scattering the branches and following my sideways somersault to a sturdy tree.
A second, and the sword in the buckler seal, and I have two hands free. I leap out from behind the tree and catch the lightning with my right palm with the vampire seal, immediately feeling a surge of power literally ripping out of the mage, but I don't get carried away and bounce away, destroying the seal.
I can't forget that temporary seals are a crude substitute, working less and less. The overflowing reserve feels like severe overeating, with heartburn and bloating at the same time. I somersault away from a dark cloud again and summon a stream of flame on pure power, even without the wisps.
It hits for the first time, but the mage moves immediately. A backflip, and the blast finds its victim again, jumping away again. The mage's wide bracelet burst on his arm, scattering his pearls.
He rolled forward and immediately jumped up, grabbed a branch, swung and jumped back, hiding behind a tree, into which several simple knives flew, appearing in the air, around the staff.
What to do with them? An idea! I jumped away from the pieces of stone in the back, another jump, pushed off the tree and made a sideflip, from which I threw an alchemy flask at the gray beam. A bright blue flash illuminates the forest for fifty meters, good thing I hid behind a tree again. I throw a blob of fire at the blinded mage, but he instinctively runs away.