Akira surged forward, his steps swift and silent, the air rippling gently around him as his newly awakened wind energy surged from his fingertips and formed a hundred or so tiny but incredibly sharp wind blades.
He felt adrenaline ignite his veins, his heart pounding like a war drum beneath his ribs. The acrid tang of scorched stone and burnt mana still hung heavily in the air, mingling with the faint metallic scent of blood and sweat.
His strategy against unknown beasts with extremely thick armor was simple and consistent.
Go for the eyes, and then from there, into the brain!
The long and devastating fights found in stories made for excellent entertainment, one the unskilled masses without any desire for real fights could enjoy. Their hearts would pound and their adrenalin would pump, even just a little.
But there was very little truth in such folk tales.
Real battles were usually short and anticlimactic. Even extremely powerful beasts could fall to a much weaker person if the right strategies were employed!
In the words of the illustration used previously, Akira aimed to dismantle the nuke before it detonated.
"Wait! Shinobi-sama!" Princess Yuki cried out in alarm, her voice ringing clear but distant behind him.
Akira barely heard her, his mind already locked onto his targets.
He leaped upward, a silent shadow spinning through the heated air, propelled by a violent gust of wind energy.
As he rose above the beast's jagged armor blocking his attack path, his vision narrowed onto a single point: the cluster of grotesque, blinking eyes along the beast's serpentine head.
With pinpoint precision, he released his wind blades in a fierce, spiraling torrent, all hundred or so surging forward and hitting their targets accurately.
Alas, the best strategies successful in hundreds of past engagements was no guarantee of present success.
The nuke that was the Shinigami was not so easily dismantled.
It responded by simply closing its eyes, and its supremely strong eyelids easily deflecting all of Akira's attacks.
And at the same time, dozens of razor-sharp appendages burst violently from its massive body with a grotesque tearing sound, slicing through the air toward Akira at alarming speed. A chilling metallic hiss filled the air, accompanied by the foul scent of the beast's rotting flesh.
"Crap!" Akira cursed sharply as a heavy sense of impending doom crashed down on him.
The Shinigami's sudden release of so many appendages had completely blindsided him. He was midair, and had absolutely no counter that was strong enough to deal with such a vicious move!
"Use my ice lotuses and dodge!" Came a shrill scream from behind him.
From the corner of his eyes, Akira caught sight of several thick ice lotuses blooming near him.
Step!
Without hesitation, he used them to rapidly change his direction.
Shua shua!
Akira's body blurred as he leapt from one ice lotus to the other, dodging the appendages furious attempts to catch him with great difficulty.
If he wasn't a Shinobi King in his previous life with a shocking amount of accumulated experience in dealing with high speed fights, he would have definitely been caught right there and then.
As it were, Akira managed to disengage and return to his original position, his chest heaving as he panted wildly. Sweat clung to his brow. His arms trembled slightly from the strain.
"What the hell are you thinking? That was so reckless!" Princess Yuki shouted at him, her voice sharp with fear and fury, even as she continued casting a powerful defensive spell, her hands glowing with pulsing energy as strange layers of space energy formed around them.
"The best defense is offense. Big sis, he is right. We cannot just stand here and wait to die. We need to attack!" Princess Sora said grimly, her tone low and steady despite the chaos rumbling all around.
But the situation was already spiraling out of control, and the Shinigami had no intention of waiting for their strategy session to end.
Arooooaaaa!!
The Shinigami roared in fury, a monstrous, bone-shaking sound that rattled the air like a drum of doom. Its massive frame surged forward again, the ground splitting under its weight. In its gaping maw, a ball of dark energy twice as large as before was already forming, crackling violently with streaks of purple and black lightning.
Akira stood firm, wind whipping around him, his eyes still burning with defiance. But inside, his heart was caught in a storm of panic and conflict.
His Wind Energy gave him confidence. He could dodge, escape and ultimately survive.
But the Ninth Battalion? Princess Yuki? Princess Sora?
They weren't fast enough. They wouldn't make it.
Running was an option, but only for him. Staying meant death.
So what was he supposed to do?
His fists clenched. His throat tightened.
Should I run? Abandon them? Or stay and fight a losing battle… hoping for a miracle?
"Damn it!" he shouted in his heart.
Am I really going to die again so soon, right after being given a second chance?
He cursed the gods, all of them. Whoever had the sick sense of humor to send him back, just to laugh at his struggle.
And then, just as the pressure mounted to its peak, Princess Yuki finally completed the incantation she had been chanting for the last twenty seconds.
A small portal shimmered into life beside her, humming with strange light.
"The Shinigami is after you. Get in there and hide! If it loses track of the mark it placed on you, it might retreat!" Princess Yuki grabbed Akira by the collar and shoved him into the portal.
The air around him twisted, cold and weightless, as he stumbled into the strange shimmer of space. Before he could even react, she turned in one fluid, desperate motion and reached for Princess Sora.
But Princess Sora knew her sister far too well.
The moment she saw the portal take shape, she had already understood. That was Space Pocket, Princess Yuki's ultimate defensive spell.
A hidden, alternate dimension that could protect them temporarily.
But Princess Yuki had only just mastered the spell, and the Pocket Space she could conjure at that moment was too small, barely enough for two people.
And Princess Sora knew exactly who her sister intended to take.
As Princess Yuki reached out to pull her in, Princess Sora acted first.
She raised her palm and summoned a sudden, sharp gust of icy wind.
It hit Princess Yuki square in the chest with a burst of frost, sending her stumbling backward into the portal.
The cold air hissed. Snowflakes spiraled.
"Stay alive, big sis… I will definitely make it out alive as well." Sora tried to sound strong, firm like a warrior, but her voice cracked, trembling at the edges.
Tears welled in her eyes, but she refused to let them fall.
"Nooo!" Princess Yuki screamed, reaching out with a shaking hand.
But it was too late.
The portal shimmered once, flickered like candlelight… and vanished.