Chapter 203: The Swordsman, The Fool and The Magician
"Fuuka! Kenta! and Yuki! Pay attention to your teacher's attacks, or you will get hurt!" Yumiko's voice was now distorted and demonic. Yet still kept the familiar tone and pitch of her teaching voice. The sudden contrast to how she spoke caused them to hesitate.
"Eh?! Teacher?" Fuuka's voice trembled, her eyes open wide as she watched the ethereal fox with three white fox tails and beautiful movements flow through the desert like an eastern dancer.
"Miss Sakurai!?" Kenta mumbled before he saw her body leap into the air, twirling and flipping twice as she descended towards them. He tried to stop her with his shield.
Like a typhoon, her fists rained down upon the shield of Kenta, whose eyes were open wide upon hearing her voice before a loud bang sounded from the west. Erika's clash with Haruki was now in full swing.
Yumiko's blows caused the Guardian to stagger back, his feet slipping in the sand, before she stepped back to avoid Fuuka's blade that sliced through the air ahead of her face.
The next moment a burst of ice shattered, with ice blades raining down around Fuuka to protect her from Yumiko's roundhouse kick.
'I hope they can break free of the church's control...' Yumiko thought to herself, while happy that Asmodeus allowed her to fight them for this reason. To connect to three of her former students.
In the back, Ciela's magic bow gleamed with beautiful colours as she fired arrows to support Asmodeus and Yumiko.
"Yumiko, I'll keep the big guy at bay!" Ciela called out, her beautiful figure one of the most ethereal after Yumiko when in her demonic form, the silver hair and her dark skin a vision to behold.
"The mage is mine." Liana's demonic voice was the most natural and beautiful. Filled with seduction and power, she stepped forward with four arms of pure scarlet flame swaying behind her.
"Thanks, I'll focus on them," Yumiko responded before she leapt over another set of ice blades.
"Teacher! Why did you become a demon or rather a beast?!"
Fuuka's blade cut once again, deflected with silver sparks from the gauntlets of Yumiko, who twirled and fluttered through the battle using her flexible demon body and the traits of a shrine maiden to increase mobility.
"This is my freedom. A path to power, strength and the freedom to stand beside the man I love! You lot are no longer my students. However, I do not wish you to suffer! So, prepare yourselves," Yumiko announced in a calm tone as she ignored her former student's plea.
She would show them her resolve and break their will to fight.
A loud rumble echoed across the desert, the impact of Fuuka and Yumiko colliding causing small craters of sand, as Yumiko wrapped around the right side of Fuuka, her fist connecting with the younger woman's ribs, a sickening sound and crunching bones.
"Hah!"
As Fuuka screamed, Yumiko's body swapped positions with the falling Fuuka, her leg raised into a strong axe kick to hit the back of the head.
"Hagu?!"
However, as if she could detect the danger, her body vanished, appearing a few steps away, then repeating the same skill several times to build distance as her body glowed with a blue light.
"I will not lose," Fuuka muttered, a spark of determination shining within her eyes.
"Kenta! Fuuka!"
The tall male who served as a guardian bellowed, his muscles starting to swell like Haruki's as he began to charge through the empowered arrows of Ciela. The talented elf fired rapidly, draining his health with her elemental shots—like a fairy in the desert.
She dashed across the sand to maintain her distance.
"Liana!" Yumiko shouted, seeing Yuki Ito chanting, her eyes returning to Fuuka, who began to slash at her with multiple slashing techniques.
"Got it!"
Liana's crimson hair fluttered in the wind, her demonic voice and body attracting all gazes. She walked without care towards the wizard before pointing towards him and uttering a single word in a demonic tongue.
"Silence!"
"Ugh?! Heh?!" Yuki looked as if he was screaming, yet no sound came from his lips! He couldn't cast any spells while Liana didn't relent, her four arms all pointed forward, a swirling magic aura forming out of pure darkness, before they shot beams towards his body.
Yuki threw himself to the floor as a black beam tore through the ground and into the air, slicing off his arm before colliding with the arena's immense barrier and exploding into a cloud of sand and dust.
"Guh!"
The shockwave pushed Kenta back, causing him to stumble on the ground and receive several of Ciela's arrows.
"Dammit! I will kill this bitch!!" Kenta roared as his eyes turned red, blood oozing from the corners of his pupils.
Yuki quickly tried to crawl away, his body shaking in fear before Kenta's massive arm reached out and grabbed his neck.
"Hehe, don't die too fast," Kenta's tone was a twisted voice, filled with aggression before he forced Yuki to swallow several red pills with black veins throbbing across their surface. Before a sudden glow encased them both, each of them growing in size as their power exploded.
'They are becoming monsters!'
Yumiko's eyes widened as she dodged the slashes of Fuuka, the speed of the latter increasing with each second.
"Ugh!? Ghu..GRA!" Yuki screamed into the skies before his mouth emitted a ball of ice that froze the sand nearby.
His body had grown to a height of six feet. His skin was now covered in a red leather surface, his face resembling that of an ogre or oni.
"Yuki..." Yumiko's voice softened, her eyes saddened by the state of her former student.
"What the hell have you done!?"
She turned her gaze towards Kenta, who had become a being like Yuki, albeit much more powerful and muscular, a tall beast over seven feet tall.
"You caused this, Miss Sakurai! You led us here to die... Then joined the Demon Lord!" Fuuka's eyes flared open. Her teeth clenched in anger as she yelled and charged towards her former teacher.
"You are not yourself! Wake up! Come on! Wake up!" Yumiko chanted, her words causing her former student to stagger and shake her head.
"N-no!"
Fuuka followed up with a rapid blade-drawing attack, followed up with a flurry of accurate slashes aimed at Yumiko's torso.
"Ahhhhh!"
Yumiko's eyes narrowed, her body flowing like a gentle river as she avoided the strikes, her right and left fists landing light blows to Fuuka's face and chest each time she dodged a blow before her left leg slammed into Fuuka's body with a heavy sidekick.
'Yuki is not a threat, so long as he can't use magic... But Kenta! Can Ciela stop him?!'
That moment as Yumiko was distracted, a blinding light exploded from the west, causing her to turn and shudder with widened eyes.
A divine light from the sky fell upon Erika's figure while Anne and Asmodeus were locked in a brutal battle, her blade tearing through his wings as he tried to fly towards Erika.
"Erika!"
The moment Yumiko shouted, a blade flashed in the corner of her eyes; before she could recover, unbearable pain and a splash of blood covered her right cheek before her arm dropped to the ground with a thud.
"AGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!"
Yumiko's roar echoed across the desert.
"Yumiko! Erika," Asmodeus bellowed before Anne's foot smashed into his face, knocking him back into the stone ruins.
Meanwhile, Fuuka seemed dazed, almost stunned. Her sword trembled within her hands as she witnessed the severed right arm of her teacher drop to the sand, a river of blood flowing out of the wound, and the agonised cry of Yumiko. "T-Teacher..."
"I'll kill you." Yumiko's voice became calm, yet for the first time, Fuuka felt murderous intent as the face of Yumiko became different. The beautiful and charming lips and nose extended, elongated and formed a fox-like snout and maw before her tails numbered nine!
Yumiko opened her mouth full of sharp teeth before releasing a low growl. Two sharp horns growing from her forehead, like Erika.
"Teacher?" Fuuka stepped back, her heart and mind filled with hesitation and fear.
"Die!"
The next second, Yumiko appeared beside Fuuka, her right hand shaped like a knife as it penetrated her chest before lifting her in the air and slamming her headfirst into the ground.
"Hah?! Ugh!" Fuuka's mind went dark, the impact shaking her brain before she felt her body floating through the air, an agonising impact making her abdomen ache with a dull sensation.
Yumiko roared, her body shifting towards the giant Kenta and the ogre-like Yuki.
However, she saw a golden blade that almost took her head, dodging it with her berserk animalistic instincts as the Hero Haruki, missing his left ear and arm, attacked her.
"Haruki?" Fuuka vomited blood as she called out his name, but he was nothing like the hero or friend she had known for so many years.... his face was full of swollen black veins, bulging and pulsating while his blood turned black!
'Erika?!' Yumiko's berserk heart began to explode in rage, madness and uncontrollable anguish at the thought Erika lost because she couldn't sense her magic aura or pressure anywhere!
"Filthy beast, I will kill you!" Haruki's twisted voice, like a monster, echoed as he rushed forward, a speed close to Anne's. Yet it was apparent this caused him to suffer more damage to his body and muscles.
His holy blade tore through the gauntlet of Yumiko's right hand before he pulled back, using the delicate holy sword now like a club instead of any semblance of swordsmanship while Fuuka lay in the sand, her blood turning it red.
"DIE!"
The moment Haruki lunged towards Yumiko, a hand pulled her back before a black gauntlet pushed towards his blade, and a soft voice echoed.
"Queen of blood, devour my foes and offer my sacrifice to your champion!"
[Bloody Crucifix]
Erika's figure was covered in wounds, her armour half destroyed, with only cloth wraps hiding her breasts, now stained red, as her lips formed a huge, distorted grin with her fangs showing.
She mimicked the spell Asmodeus used as a spear of blood penetrated Haruki's crotch and flung him into the air before it spread through his organs and muscles, tearing his disgusting body apart.
"Haa....haa.....ha.... it takes so much magic.... Ryu is such a troublemaker..."
Her gaze focused on Haruki in mid-air, her eyes shining with an amethyst light while he struggled and roared like a beast, only making the medicine spread faster because of his rapid regeneration skill.
"Suffer, Agonise and repent!" Erika yelled at him while forming dozens of bloody spears around her body, her eyes sparkling as she gained the power to mimic her beloved man and his iconic spells.
She pushed her hand forward and licked her lips.
"My bloody spears, seek out the enemy and crush their bodies and drink their blood!"
[Spear of Blood - Barrage!]