The ice on the Warden's skin shone brightly as it suspended itself in the air. Yanira prepared herself for a standard poison spit attack, but instead, the ice underneath her shifted.
Icy vines filled with poison shot up and entangled around her legs, immediately penetrating her skin.
"Ugh! Damn worm!" She swiped her odachi, burning the vines to ash, but the acidic poison remained, attempting to 'melt' her skin and bones.
She clenched her teeth and unleashed a burst of fiery Qi in her legs, exploding the poison out of her while self-inflicting pain.
Around her, the rest of the Wardens, which must've been at least a dozen, wriggled their way around them. Their icy exoskeletons glowed, and the interior of the cave shook.
Mira and Yanira's expressions changed. They leaped into the air, watching as hundreds of spikes filled the ground. Suddenly, Yanira felt a strong hand on her back.
"Go kill one of those bastards! I'll distract the rest of them for now!" Mira yelled and launched her toward the Warden that first attacked them. Then, she gracefully landed on the ground and faced off the rest of them.
"Bitch! Don't just throw me however you like!" Yanira cursed but still readied her sword. The worm seemed to sense danger as it spat out a web of poison at her, but she swept her odachi in a wide arc, cutting it in half.
Busting through the poison, she raised her sword and brought it down on the worm's head. The ice exoskeleton sizzled as she penetrated it. Yanira smirked and added more strength, watching as her blade sunk into its flesh.
But the Warden wasn't going to let her act freely. Pores opened along its skin, releasing plumes of poison.
Yanira clicked her tongue and jumped up, only to be met with its tail slamming into her. She was sent spiraling through the air and crashed into the wall, embedding herself in it. With a groan, she peeled herself off and waved her hand. Her odachi flew out of her hand and floated in front of her.
She jumped on top of it and shot back toward the Warden, controlling it with her Divine Sense. Jumping high up into the air, the odachi returned to her hand.
'Inferno Slash!' She muttered, using the first and most basic inherent technique engraved into the sword.
A massive eruption of fire burst from the sword. The heat coming from it caused the surrounding ice to melt, including the Warden's exoskeleton.
Yanira let out a battle cry and slashed with all her might, bringing the mass of fire down on not just her Warden but the entire cave.
It cut cleanly through its body, chopping its head right off while continuing forward and cutting anything it came into contact with apart.
However, even more amazing were Mira's movements. She moved like a mirage through it all, making her real body difficult to sense. Other than that, the way she swung her scythe was like she was some sort of cyclone.
She moved so fast that the poison fog couldn't get past her, and it was as if she could calculate dozens, if not hundreds, of moves ahead, planning her movements and strikes that led her to the most optimal path.
'...This woman's a monster.' Yanira couldn't help but praise. Although she might hate Mira and her disrespectful attitude, but she had to respect her. The word genius was too much of an understatement.
'I thought she was just a master with her fists. How come she's even better with a scythe?' She shook her head, finding this whole situation incredulous.
"Woman, stop watching and come down!" Mira shouted, somehow finding a way out of the enclosement to leap near Yanira. "Fine! I'll just come to you!"
"Bitch! What're you doing?!" Yanira screamed, attempting to dodge the bombardment, only to receive a leg kick to the back of the head. "Ouch! What the fuck?!" She tumbled down, forcing herself to unleash another 'Inferno Slash'.
"Less watching, more doing! Let's go!" Mira shouted as she dove down into the ash, using this as a chance to get closer to one of them.
"Tch!" Yanira could only follow.
Mira twirled her scythe, using the [Hidden World] technique to blend into the surroundings before coming upon one of the Wardens. Standing right in front of it, the worm sensed her presence and opened its mouth to shoot another wave of poison, only for Mira to take this chance to dive into its stomach.
She covered Hana fully with her tails, immediately feeling her skin melt.
'Let's hope this works! [Scythe Manifestation]!'
A hazy fog of death and destruction burst out of her scythe and formed a domain around Mira. The hourglass engraved on the side rotated, and 'sands' slowly fell into the bottom section. She could feel a wave of vitality surging into her body as she devoured all life inside the domain.
'I might not be strong enough to break through your exoskeleton and skin with my Qi restricted, but I can surely devour you from the inside out!' Mira smirked as she began twirling her scythe, making countless small and large cuts along the inside of its stomach.
The more cuts she made, the faster the 'sands' in the hourglass fell. Although it was still quite slow due to the difference in strength and cultivation, there was nothing it could do to stop her. Its gastric acid wasn't strong enough to kill her instantly, and by absorbing its vitality, she could stay 'healthy' for longer.
Mira felt a prick in her mind as her mental energy, akin to willpower, was consumed, but she wasn't in short supply of that.
She continued swinging for what felt like a dozen or so minutes before she started seeing parts of the worm disintegrate. She knew what this meant: all the sands were about to fall.
Her scythe could now dig deeper into its skin, hastening the process. She continued ripping out chunks of flesh before a 'click' went off, and the worm stopped. An influx of Qi and vitality washed over her as the worm collapsed. She hurriedly dashed out of its stomach, stored the corpse, and came back to a ruined battlefield with Yanira battered and bloodied.