Summoner Sovereign

Crowing, Rei slashed at me with his katana, and I was forced to draw both Gan Jiang and Mo Ye, I mea Hei Yue and Bai Ri to parry them. Yeah, I"m sorry for still not being able to get the names of my swords right. Force of habit. I spent too much time pretending to be Archer (basically Kanshou and Bakuya were the j.a.panese names for Gan Jiang and Mo Ye) that I totally forgot the real names of my swords.

Oh, well.

Rei didn"t hesitate, and continued to swing his katana from what he thought was an unexpected angle, teasing out an opening from me and darting his katana through an apparent gap in my defenses. I reversed the grip on Hei Yue and caught his curved blade with mine, causing sparks to fly between us as silver metal screeched against black steel.

Drawing a deep breath, I counterattacked with Bai Ri, the white blade arcing from my left. Hissing, Rei quickly withdrew and deflected my white sword, but I was already thrusting Hei Yue at his chest with my right hand, forcing him to jump back a couple of steps to escape the range of my sword. Refusing to let him go, I kicked off the ground and pursued, both of my swords seeking his vitals, but Rei skillfully parried them.

"Those sword techniques…you definitely didn"t learn them from Ruff Fielding."

"Teacher Fielding taught me combat magic, not swordsmans.h.i.+p," I responded without thinking. Even as the words left my mouth, my arms continued to move rapidly, delivering a barrage of strikes that actually forced Rei into the defensive.

"Heh…I see."

Rei"s mouth thinned into a cruel smile, and he retaliated with a riposte that almost caught me wrongfooted. Fortunately, I was able to twist Bai Ri around to swat it aside. A frantic slash from Hei Yue compelled him to duck and then put some distance between us.

"Not bad, not bad! I didn"t think someone of your age would be this skilled!"

The master a.s.sa.s.sin laughed as he swung his katana. Deadly tendrils of shadows began curling from the curved blade.

"But…it"s not enough!"

He then unleashed a volley of shadows in my direction, forcing me to jump back. Gritting my teeth, I conjured Scutum Sobiescianum. The shadowy projectiles collided violently against my Constellation s.h.i.+eld, cracking the metallic surface and driving through it. Biting back a curse, I staggered a few steps back before cutting down a couple of shadowy spikes that had managed to penetrate past my defenses.

Chuckling, Rei pressed onward with his attack, slas.h.i.+ng at me with his shadowy katana and sending more deadly black trendrils in my direction. Not only was I forced to defend against his relentless attacks, I also had to stay on guard against his shadow magic. Throwing my head back to prevent a shadow spike from stabbing into my face, I twisted to just barely avoid yet another lethal projectile before counterattacking with my swords.

Rei effortlessly deflected them before responding with a riposte that would have cleanly run through my chest had I not whirled out of the way in time. Both of my blades glowed and I sent black and white blasts of mana at him. Jumping a few steps back, Rei swung his katana and unleashed his own shadow spell that slammed into mine and exploded.

"Kuh!"

I staggered another few steps back, holding up my hands to s.h.i.+eld myself from the shockwaves that buffeted me. Rei didn"t seem affected at all, and he grinned as he slowly approached me, twirling his katana almost playfully.

More shadows emerged from behind him, almost resembling a hydra. At his mental command, they surged forward to pierce through me.

"Hah!"

With a determined cry, I swung both of my swords and obliterated the volley of shadows in a single black and white blast. Embers and dissipating bits of shadow fell around me, writhing at my feet before disappearing from existence. I sucked in a deep breath and glared at Rei, who was already raising his katana for another attack.

"Good!"

Guffawing, Rei charged at me and thrust his katana forward. No sooner had I deflected it than he suddenly reversed the trajectory of his deadly weapon and sent his curved blade lancing from the side in a slas.h.i.+ng motion. Bringing Bai Ri down, I just barely managed to parry it amidst a shower of sparks and the tortured screeching of metal.

"Hu…"

Exhaling, I counterattacked with Hei Yue, but Rei practically danced out of the way. His katana lashed out from another unexpected angle, seeking to probe my defenses, but I easily repelled it with Bai Ri again.

"Ho…"

Rei was musing to himself as he retreated, probably to regain his bearings and a.n.a.lyze my movements. He grinned.

"I see…so you"re from the Miyamoto School."

"No, I"m from Jing Tian Academy," I corrected. Rei snorted.

"Funny. I mean your swordsmans.h.i.+p. That"s the Miyamoto style."

"Uh huh." I saw no reason to refute him. The guy could tell if I was lying, so I might as well just admit it. Besides, I had more important things to worry about. Like catching my breath and planning my next move, for example.

"I wonder which style is superior? Your Miyamoto sword style, or my Kagetani Swordsmans.h.i.+p?" Rei was grinning as he held his katana up in an aggressive stance. I tried not to sigh.

"Who cares? And even if you win, that doesn"t mean the Kagetani style is superior. It just means you are better than me at swordsmans.h.i.+p, that"s all. No one ever said I was a master of the Miyamoto style. I"m just a half-baked kendo apprentice with absolutely no talent at all. Even if you utterly destroy me in swordsmans.h.i.+p, it"s nothing impressive. h.e.l.l, it"ll be embarra.s.sing if you lose to me in swordsmans.h.i.+p, considering how much I suck at it."

My specialization didn"t lie in swordsmans.h.i.+p but magic, after all. No matter how much Dad trained me, or how great a teacher he was, there was only so much he could do if I was an untalented and incredibly slow learner.

"…I see." Rei regarded me for a moment, and then shrugged. "Well, it doesn"t matter. My job is to eliminate you anyway, not to compare swordsmans.h.i.+p. As such…"

Shadows burst out from behind him, that hydrlike spell that was going to bombard me viciously like before. As expected, he launched the shadows at me.

However, this time I didn"t just obliterate the bombardment by swinging my swords and unleas.h.i.+ng an energy blast.

"!!!"

Instead, Taurus descended upon an unsuspecting Rei, almost pulverizing him as he rammed his horns against the bald a.s.sa.s.sin. Unfortunately, the professional killer"s reflexes were nothing short of G.o.dly, and he managed to leap away before Taurus smashed a crater into the ground where he was standing a millisecond ago.

"You…!"

Flipping around in midair, Rei threw out a hand and altered the target for his shadows. The hydrlike shadows snaked around and hurtled toward Taurus, who merely grunted and pawed the ground. The giant bull"s jaws opened and he unleashed a stream of fire that incinerated the approaching shadows.

"Tch." Rei clicked his tongue as he watch Taurus"s Aldebaran spell destroy his shadows. He wasn"t given much time to curse any further because Capricorn and Ariies came from two opposite directions, flanking him and destroying the entire terrain with their charge.

Rei managed to throw himself to the side, flipping himself up to land in a kneeling position, his katana stabbing into the ground.

"Ugh…!"

My three Constellation spirits turned around and barreled toward Rei. He calmly corrected his breathing and stood up, holding his katana in both hands. Wisps of shadows continued to flood out of his katana, writhing and almost howling silently.

"Kagetani Style. Beast Slayer."

It was almost as if the earth itself had opened up, a chasm materializing as the ground split open from the sheer force of his technique. Monstrous shadows erupted and swallowed up my three giant Constellation spirits, but they managed to smash apart the first wave of shadows as they closed in on their target.

And then three silver flashes, so quick that I almost couldn"t follow them with my eyes. The next thing I knew, my Constellation spirits were cut apart. As the shadows faded away, Rei turned to grin at me, twirling the katana almost casually in his right hand.

"Monsters and Soul Beasts won"t work on me, boy."

"We"ll see about that," I replied. As if on cue, a scorching blast of destructive mana engulfed a stunned Rei before culminating in an explosion.

"?!"

Canis Major bounded forward with a howl, after he had unleashed Sirius. Rei staggered out of the devastating spell, his body smoldering and parts of his flesh burned, but he was still grinning. He slashed out with his sword, beheading the gigantic wolf.

"Not bad, eh?"

He was upon me before I could react, and I crossed both of my swords to parry his sword strike. Spinning around, he kicked me in the chest before sending me flying a few meters away. The breath knocked out of my lungs, I lay sprawled on the ground for a second before scrambling back to my knees and bringing Hei Yue up to deflect Rei"s next strike.

Rei grinned as he struck again. This time, I managed to catch his katana with both Hei Yue and Bai Ri, but he continued to bear down on me. Increasing the pressure of his weapon, he slowly forced his curved blade closer to my face.

"!!!"

Then Ursa Major"s immense paw swatted him away…or would have, if Rei didn"t react in time and flip away from the powerful swipe. He retaliated gracefully with a slash, but Ursa Major intercepted the blade with his claws. Even so, blood trickled down the thick, brown fur that covered his paw, and the huge bear growled.

Right when he landed, Rei was struck by a golden pillar of light. He roared in agony, writhing for a few moments, before tumbling out of the powerful spell. As he did so, he managed to bring his katana up to parry a swipe from Leo"s deadly claws, but despite successfully defending himself, the sheer strength of the blow sent him hurtling across into the forest.

"Ugh…!"

Flipping himself over, he managed to bend his knees and slam his feet against an unfortunate tree, causing its trunk to buckle and splinter. Then he launched himself back at Leo, spinning rapidly before unleas.h.i.+ng another shower of shadows.

However, the king of beasts stood firm. Golden mana erupted from his body once again and obliterated most of the shadows. The remaining shadowy spikes struck Leo, but found no purchase against his supposedly impervious fur. After all, Leo"s fur was the same material that was used to weave Hercules"s legendary armor.

While he was distracted by Leo, Ursa Major lumbered up behind him to crush him with his ma.s.sive paws. Rei"s eyes darted backward, even without him turning his head, and he smiled as he sheathed his sword.

I suddenly felt a chill.

"Ursa Major! Retreat!"

Too late. Hundreds of shadows burst out of the ground and impaled the huge bear, almost ripping him apart. The ma.s.sive Constellation spirit dissipated in just a few seconds.

"I told you, didn"t I?" Rei sneered, his voice filled with scorn. "Soul Beasts won"t work on me, boy."

"…"

I glared at him, but didn"t respond to his provocation. Nearby, Leo fired another Regulus spell, but Rei cleaved it apart, allowing what little energies remaining to disperse harmlessly against his body and blade.

"Don"t feel bad. It"s just that it"s a pretty bad matchup. I"ve been trained to kill a large variety of people, summoners being one of them." he grinned. "But I must say, you"ve put up quite a good fight, boy. You and your friends."

At that, I glanced at my team. My friends were still holding out against the fifteen a.s.sa.s.sins for now, or…that number had been reduced to twelve. None of them had fallen…yet. But I could see the injuries piling on them, and exhaustion showing on their faces. In contrast, the a.s.sa.s.sins were withdrawing and watching them intently, displaying no sign of weariness. In a battle of attrition, the ones with higher numbers would eventually win out. Even more so, it appeared that Harrison had risked everything on a quick and decisive battle in hopes of taking all of them out, but his plan had failed.

They had only defeated three, at great cost to themselves. This wasn"t looking good at all.

"d.a.m.n it…"

If I fell here…if I failed to stop Rei, he would then proceed to slaughter my exhausted teammates. He might not even have to, at this rate. His disciples were quite clearly having the upper hand for now.

"Leo!"

I decided to launch a coordinated attack, hoping to catch Rei by surprise. Both my Constellation spirit and I charged forward from two different directions. Even if it was Rei, he still had to split his attention between two enemies, and could only guard in one direction. I also noticed that his shadows mainly came from behind him. If that was the case, what if we attacked from the sides?

"Ah…sorry to disappoint you."

"!!!"

Rei casually parried my swords, and he kicked me. I spun away, winded, but managed to thrust Bai Ri at his throat, which he effortlessly deflected with his katana before retaliating with a strike that I just barely managed to parry with Hei Yue.

"You seem to misunderstand my shadow spells."

"Grr…?!"

I watched in horror as shadowy spikes erupted from Rei"s right side and impaled the roaring Leo, annihilating him. Gritting my teeth, I tried to push back, but Rei"s elbow rammed into the side of my head, knocking me over. While I managed to deflect his katana, he followed up with a kick to my gut that sent me flying.

Rolling to my feet, I lunged at him again, and he grinned as he parried my strike.

"Checkmate."

"?!"

I sensed an immense surge of mana below me, and I threw myself to the side in reflex. And not a moment too soon, too. A microsecond later, hundreds of shadowy spikes burst out of the ground, and would have torn me apart if I had still been there. Despite my prescient evasion, I still ended up getting grazed by at least a few dozen of those shadowy spikes. Blood spurting from my mouth and several dozen wounds, I crashed heavily onto the ground.

Summoning spell…I need to summon something…

Before I could complete another spell, Rei stood over me, ready to deliver the finis.h.i.+ng blow. His katana flashed downward, and even as I raised both my swords, I knew I couldn"t deflect his blade in time to avoid getting my head stabbed.

Clang!

"?!"

Rei"s katana never reached me. Instead, he stumbled back and spun around to swat aside something with his weapon. A familiar-looking dagger clattered on the ground a meter or two away from me, its silver edge laced with poison.

"You…!" Rei"s face contorted in fury as a familiar figure stepped out of the foliage.

"Yes, me." Anastasia smiled brightly as she came into full view, dressed in a thick, verdant winter coat, dark leather boots and a snow cap that still allowed her long, green hair to flow out from underneath it, instead of that flamboyant, frilly green dress that she usually wore. "Hi~ Miss me, everyone?"