Volume 7 - Mount Ooe: Chapter 61 – Surrounded

Volume 7 - Mount Ooe: Chapter 61 – Surrounded

The overwhelming demon army emerging from the dark woods poured into the valley in front of Honganji Temple.

Lily stood on the steps and watched the demons run amok in the valley, sensing multiple powerful eldritch auras from the distant woods.

“It looks like the demons are going on the offensive this time,” Airi commented while standing beside Lily, her spectacles reflecting the moonlight off them as she narrowed her eyes and faced the wind which made her short hair flutter about on the front of her forehead.

“Do we let the vanguard pass again like last time, Lily?”

“Yeah,” Lily nodded.

Lily had already noticed the arrival of the court’s fleet and saw that they were mooring on Tange River’s riverbank right now, so she was certain that the court’s army would be able to retreat as long as they succeeded in repelling the next attack of the demon army.

Lily believed that it would not be that hard for her to retreat with her companions once the court’s army retreated.

“Fortunately, most of the court’s army is still here. We can attack the demon army’s flank again as long as they’re here,” Lily thought.

Just as Lily expected, a large number of demons began passing through the valley soon after. It seemed like they had not learned their lesson from last time and insisted on passing the valley forcefully.

However, the demon forces this time were much stronger than the ones from the last time.

There were several towering, red-haired blue demons, one-horned demons, purple-eyed giant spiders, giant red centipedes, as well as mountain demons with rock-like torsos present among the attacking demon forces.

“Do you think increasing the strength of the vanguard is enough to deal with us? I guess that’s the best these demons can come up with. Although they are powerful, they have no idea how warring works and pale in comparison to the court’s army in terms of strategy,” Ijuin sneered while standing on the steps.

Although Lily held the same opinion, there was one thing she felt baffled about. She did not believe that Ibaraki Doji would make the same mistake again if he was still the commander of the demon army.

However, even Lily could not predict exactly how Ibaraki planned to turn the tables with a plan like this.

Although thousands of demons passed through the valley, they did not head towards the riverbank this time and began to surround the mountain Honganji Temple was on instead.

Lily snorted icily when she saw this, “So that’s what Ibaraki is planning. Did you think that I wouldn’t have predicted that you would try to capture Honganji Temple first, huh?”

“The demons have surrounded us, Lily.” Airi looked at the massive forces of demons underneath Honganji Temple, taking notice of orange-colored lanterns flashing through them from time to time. The demon forces seemed to also have one-eyed, pulsating lantern demons that had their tongues stuck out in addition to normal lantern-holding demons.

“Let’s bide our time for now. We’ll launch long-range attacks on them if they attack us,” Lily said.

“Should I signal the court’s army on the riverbank to ambush the demons’ encirclement from behind?”

“Don’t do that yet,” Lily said, “Letting the court’s army ambush the demon army from behind once we’ve lowered their morale should net us better results.”

Airi nodded approvingly as Lily’s words made sense.

Following a series of screams and sounds of drums with a strange beat, the demon army finally began attacking Honganji Temple a while later.

The giant spiders, as well as the giant centipedes, which were good at climbing, began crawling up the steep cliffs of the mountain, depicting a terrifying scene even when seen from afar.

“Release the arrows!” Airi commanded.

The Uesugi cavalrywomen pulled their bowstrings and made demon slaying arrows rain down on the insect monsters.

“Fireballs!” Ijuin followed up after Airi immediately and commanded the jade maidens, as well as the mirror girls to unleash spells on the insect monsters.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The weaker monsters on the cliffs and in the valley died the moment the fireballs and demon slaying arrows struck them. The powerful demons were also inflicted with injuries of varying degrees, leaving the chain of command in a mess.

The demon forces consisting of the blue demons and the one-horned demons began attacking Honganji Temple from the relatively flatter terrain of the hillside, which was pretty hard to defend.

However, Lily heard the screams of women from the temple the next moment.

A samurai woman came running towards Lily and said, “There’s been an emergency, Ms. Lily!”

Lily summoned Kagura immediately and returned to the temple with haste, leaving behind such a message, “Guard this location for now, Kagura!”

Although the samurai woman in the temple had killed numerous demons rushing towards them from the front, the demons still continued their reckless charge with no regard for their losses.

A giant spider and a mountain demon leaped onto the steps in front of the temple and engaged in close combat with the samurai woman at this moment.

Slam!

The giant spider spun around swiftly and knocked down a samurai woman by dashing into her while the mountain demon, which remained unaffected by the arrows and fireballs because of its sturdy body, punched a bow-wielding cavalrywoman, sending her flying into the temple.

The mountain demon raised the stone lantern in its hand the next moment and threw it towards Ijuin, who was battling the spider right now.

“Watch out!” Airi rushed forward and cleaved the stone lantern into two with a slash.

“Ms. Airi!” Ijuin broke out in a cold sweat.

“There are too many monsters! I never thought they would attack us so crazily!”

Airi charged towards the mountain demon as she spoke to Ijuin, gripping the mace in her hand harder as the mountain demon slapped at her with its massive, rocky palm. She dodged the mountain demon’s palm attack swiftly by going around a pine tree and swung her mace at the eye on its head.

Bam!

A Permanence level ape demon shot up from underneath the cliff at this moment, though, and struck Airi away with a powerful slap, sending her crashing into the temple’s front garden.

“Ms. Airi!” Ijuin cried out in alarm.

No one could stop the ape demon as it made its way through the cavalrywomen. Although they tried to go up against it, all of them swatted away by it.

The cavalrywomen’s blades, spears and arrows simply had no effect on the steel-like fur of the ape demon, and even the powerful demon slaying arrows just inflicted minor injuries on it.

It looked like the demon ape was controlling its strength to avoid killing the cavalrywomen as much as possible and was trying to knock them out instead. The demon ape jumped several meters high and landed in front of the immobile Airi who still had not recovered her senses. Her fair underbody, which had minimal armor, attracted the attention of the ape demon, prompting it to grab her and flee.

“Ms. Airi!” Ijuin rushed towards the ape demon immediately, but a massive centipede which had just climbed onto the steps blocked her way the next moment.

“Ms. Airi!” Ijuin could only watch as the ape demon took Airi away as the centipede was in the late-stage Permanence level, a level much higher than Ijuin.

Although the centipede pounced towards Ijuin menacingly, its head flew across the sky before it could even bite her to death.

Followed by a crimson flash, Lily arrived in front of Ijuin with her blade raised up.

“Are you okay?”

Ijuin shook her head hastily and said, “I-I’m fine! That demon ape took Ms. Airi away!”

“What?!”

Lily looked at the direction which Ijuin had pointed and saw a black demon ape shuttling through the woods on the hillside while carrying Airi on its shoulders

2.

References

Robinxen: This thing is broken as hell.

Robinxen: I wonder if it’s actually our probably-not-traitor recovering her sister.