Goukei's scythe sliced through the air, unnatural red fire flaring in its wake as it screeched to a halt in between Akira's crossed knives. The ground ruptured under Akira's feet.

  "The dragon!" shouted Akira over her shoulder. "Go!"

  What was that supposed to mean?! Erina took off running, one massive head of the dragon filling its mouth with dirt where she'd been standing. Akira and Goukei clashed with the ringing of metal and deep thundering blows as Erina fired a barrage of lasers at the mythical beast's head. All bounced off save for one shot to the eye. Orochi's head drew up and bared its fangs at her—

  Erina's spear flew into its open mouth and erupted, branches of light blooming back out of its jaw with a flash of light. The head collapsed back to the earth, twitching with its red eyes half-open.

  She didn't have time to follow up. Erina dove into the tree line as a blast of flame roared by, scorching the earth black in its wake. One head closed its jaw and ceased the jet of fire as two more lowered themselves to the forest, their tongues tasting the air for their prey.

  Akira weaved and slid behind Goukei as his scythe bit into the earth. A powerful kick sent him flying down the path to the demolished encampment, Akira sprinting right after him. The heel drop that followed was met with a slash of the flaming blade, her strike parried away. Akira and Goukei skidded across the earth, twisting to face each other, and threw themselves back into it with a yell.

  Erina found herself flushed out of cover in moments. Orochi tasted her scent and struck, every lunge barely missing by a foot or two as she dove away barely in the nick of time. She ran after the other two, not knowing where else to go. Orochi took three more huge steps to follow them to the encampment. Its stricken head rumbled to life and lifted back into the air, now fixated on the girl that wounded it.

  "What's the matter?!" roared Goukei. Both blades of his scythe extended and rotated, locking into place as he broke the handle in half. One curved sword to block Akira's next attack and the other to very nearly run her through as she slipped away. "Gettin' tired already?!"

  "Stole the words right outta my mouth!" Akira's knee to the gut finally elicited a real reaction from the oni, followed by a leaping kick to the face that threw him on his back. Hellfire blazed as his blades whirled, Goukei spinning off the ground and back onto his feet with double scythe in hand, laughing all the while.

  A cloud of green orbs floated into the air. A column of dragonfire destroyed them as Erina rolled aside, a spear forming in her hands to launch into the fire-breathing jaws and bring that head crashing to the ground. A blackened trench lingered beside her as the flames faded. Embers floated through the wavering air as the forest burned. Lava flows made their gradual approach across the encampment.

  Erina panted as she got up with another glowing spear in hand. It seemed to give Orochi pause… but all that meant was time for its damaged head to regenerate. Erina could knock out its heads by aiming for the eyes and mouth, but the rest of them never let her do more than that, and the injured heads merely got up again in seconds. She couldn't stop it at all! Even her railgun didn't seem sufficient. It would be able to pierce its scales, but it simply wasn't large enough to sever or obliterate the head entirely. Not to mention, she'd still have the other seven to deal with!

  As if that wasn't enough, only half of Orochi was even bothering to fight her. One head was busy watching Akira and Goukei as they flew across the encampment, trading blows that sundered the earth. Three more were focused on tearing apart the scenery. Twined around the spiraling black Lynchpin at the top of the mountain, they easily toppled it and then turned their attention to lashing out aimlessly, biting and striking at the air.

  No, they were impacting something. A dull, low noise resonated every time one of the heads bounced off the sky. Orochi butted its head in the same place again, and again. It took one more lunge, and this time, its fangs broke through and sank into space itself.

  The head tore away and something broke, leaving spiderweb cracks in the air. Behind the shimmering cloudy sky was a clear blue sky, free of the Reverse's shimmering distortion. Three of the dragon's heads focused on that hole, ramming themselves into it and tearing the gap wider with their fangs.

  "What is that?" said Erina.

  One more blocked strike, and Akira skidded to a halt at her subordinate's back.

  "The other side," panted Akira. "Reality on the other side of the barrier that keeps mana on this side—that's the Surface!" Static crackled around her, faded, and then flickered again. She grimaced. "Damn, Goukei… You've really outdone yourself this time!"

  Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

  "Kehahaha! Like it?" Goukei spun the double scythe over his shoulder, approaching them at a leisurely pace. "It'll become a cascade effect real soon. All Orochi needs is a few hours to grow up and it'll be strong enough to tear down the whole boundary at once!"

  "Find out whatever he's doing and take it for ourselves, was it…?" Akira muttered under her breath, shaking her head. "What a pain."

  "Akira?" said Erina.

  "Hiro's orders. Well, doesn't matter how unreasonable it is… boss says he wants something, it's my job to get it for him. Don't worry about my problems, Erina. All you gotta focus on is staying in one piece."

  Goukei walked by the steel beams that used to hold the massive wine vats now rolling about freely. He reached out and casually uprooted one with his free hand, a steel beam the height of a building teetering precariously in his grip.

  "Y'know what?" he said. "I'm actually glad you two showed up! Normally, I'd never get to have this much fun with those seals off me!"

  Erina glanced at Akira. Static kept flickering and vanishing around her.

  "Is something wrong?" asked Erina.

  "Yeah," muttered Akira. "I've lost Shed Skin."

  "Shed Skin?"

  "My body shifting shut down. I can't quick heal. Something he's doing is disabling it."

  "That's my line!" Goukei shot back. Green light pulsed through the glowing marks around his right eye. "Fuck about you ain't lettin' me run my game plan?" A fanged grin grew across his face. "Not that I'm complainin'!"

  The steel beam whipped around, cutting through the air. Erina felt a dull impact and found herself skidding on her back. Akira had kicked her to the floor, sending Erina under the beam, and was struck by it herself for her trouble.

  Akira was dragged along for the ride as the steel beam smashed to a stop amidst the trees with several more bent or broken in its wake. She slammed off a tree trunk and hit the ground roughly.

  Lightning flashed. Branches of light pushed Goukei back, his feet sliding across the earth as the steel beam dropped from his grip.

  Erina sprinted to Akira's side. "Are you okay?"

  Akira's legs shook under her as she shot her a dry smile. "What… do you think…?"

  Erina helped her up. She looked to the approaching oni and his mythical beast. That slow, arrogant pace of his dredged up awful memories. But…

  "I'll fight Patriarch Kirigami," said Erina.

  Akira glanced over. "Did you hit your head?"

  "I can't harm Orochi in a meaningful way." Erina struggled to keep her voice from shaking. Her green eyes remained fixed on their opponents. "But I don't need to defeat Patriarch Kirigami, right? I just need to buy you time. If it's only that much… I can do it."

  Akira straightened up and steadied her breathing. "You don't need to push yourself," she said. "But I get it. Yeah. I can do something about his pet."

  They exchanged a look.

  "I'm counting on you," said Akira.

  "I won't let you down," said Erina.

  Goukei grinned and snapped his fingers. Half of Orochi's heads lowered their gaze to him. He looked up at the mythical dragon and then jerked his head at Akira.

  Its first lunge missed, Akira leaping over and onto its head. Orochi reared up with a deep rumble, the tiny girl hitching a ride with it before jumping and flipping between its heads as they took turns trying to smack her off of each other.

  "Kehaha!" Goukei bared his fangs as he turned his attention to Erina. "I like yer guts, kid. Careful you don't spill 'em. Is your blood as bright as your ether?!"

  His scythe dug into the ground and tore free with a wave of blood red flame. Erina leapt up, an asteroid belt of green orbs forming an orbit around her. Lasers shot down around Goukei, several finding their mark. He only grinned and launched himself after her, blowing back a plume of dust with the force of his jump.

  A spell circle flashed into being beneath Erina, offering a platform to push off and evade the huge flaming swing of his scythe. Goukei landed and spun in a flare of hellfire, his scythe whirling to deflect the lasers showering down on him.

  Erina briefly flipped upside-down, another spell circle forming above her. She launched straight down under his next jump and landed on one knee, motioning to replenish her orbit of glowing spheres.

  Goukei was coming right back in for another pass. Erina slashed with her arm, a large dragon's curve blooming in front of her—

  He tanked right through it! Erina hastily backed off from the first giant swing. Green light flashed and she drew her katana, eyes on the scythe's blade as it came around for the second pass. She deflected it up and over her head, feeling a terrible chill as it swept so close it shaved a few stray locks from the top of her head.

  Every orb fired at once into Goukei at point blank range. He stumbled, and Erina took her opportunity to immediately put some distance between them with a tenfold spatial distortion to boot. That was a bad idea. Engaging Goukei in close combat for even a second was a bad idea. One clean hit would decommission her at best, if it didn't kill her outright. She couldn't contest him up close.

  She leapt back into the air with a newly formed orbit. The second blade of the scythe emerged, and Goukei hurled it at her, the entire weapon whirling like a flaming buzzsaw.

  Erina's spear met it and erupted into branches of light that reached all the way to ground level, several tendrils striking Goukei as the double scythe returned to him. His next jump drove her to leap to a new aerial platform as he broke through her old one.

  When Goukei was in the air, whatever arc he chose was the trajectory he had to stick with. Even he couldn't violate every law of physics. Erina took the high ground and kept it, remaining frustratingly out of reach as she bombarded him with lasers.

  Sweat dripped down Erina's face. She wiped it away and kept on the move. She could do this. The way things were going, she could keep this up. The only problem… she wasn't making much progress on him. How long did she have to hold out until Akira turned the tide?

  …How long until something else changed for the worse?