Hunter of Immortals

Chapter 207: Child of the Wind

Chapter 207: Child of the Wind

Following Ikkaku's departure, Adam also disappeared in a flash after fusing with Clown.

Both of them were extremely fast and capable of self-concealment, and by the time they reappeared, they were already near the summit of the hill.

As soon as they drew close, the three-tailed foxes, the horse head demons, and the other apparitions among the Hyakki Yagyou with keen senses of smell immediately detected that something was amiss, and they instantly cried out to warn their companions.

"Look out, Diamond! We've got trouble!"

As soon as Oni no Miko's voice trailed off, a ninja suddenly appeared directly above her. The ninja was holding a kunai knife, which he thrust directly toward the top of her head.

With that attack, a powerful tornado came descending out of the sky.

Oni no Miko didn't allow the attack to interrupt her dance, merely invoking the shikigami to shield her from the attack. Immediately thereafter, the bell in her hand began to chime incessantly, and the Hyakki Yagyou around her rose up into the air before converging toward Ikkaku from all directions in a frenzy.

"Wind Style, Air Wall!"

Ikkaku plunged his kunai knife into the shikigami's body, then manipulated the wind to fly up into the air like an agile bird. At the same time, he spread his palms open, and the surrounding air was instantly compressed from a series of walls to stop the Hyakki Yagyou in their tracks.

However, Ikkaku wasn't going to get the one-on-one battle that he desired.

The walls of air were as hard as reinforced glass, but as soon as they took shape, they were immediately mowed down by Diamond, who crashed through the walls like a wrecking ball before leaping up into the air, launching himself straight at Ikkaku.

"I didn't know you were so eager to die, Diamond!"

Despite his cocky taunt, Ikkaku refrained from engaging Diamond in a direct clash. Instead, he spread his arms open and rose up with the wind to an altitude of around 100 meters. Immediately thereafter, upward-rising air currents were generated beneath his feet, allowing him to stand in mid-air while he made a string of hand seals.

"Hundred Tornado Technique!"

As he flashed through a sequence of hand seals, the air around him became extremely turbulent, much like a petulant child that was about to throw a fit at any moment.

In the instant that he thrust his palms downward, a ferocious storm of wind took shape at once, and dozens of tornadoes came sweeping down from the heavens, descending upon the Hyakki Yagyou down below.

The tornadoes possessed immense tearing force, sweeping up all of the smaller demons in the blink of an eye, while the larger demons were also picked up before being violently slammed into the ground, shattering their bones and snapping their tendons.

In the face of such a violent storm, even Oni no Miko was unable to continue dancing, and she was swept straight up into the air.

At this point, Clown finally emerged out of thin air, and as soon as it appeared, it immediately conjured up 10 clones of itself. All 10 clones were wielding old-school chainsaws, and after being turned on with a sharp tug on their recoil starter cords, the blades of the chainsaws were plunged forward, aiming at all parts of Oni no Miko's body.

"I'll cut your heart, I'll cut your neck, I'll cut your feet, I'll cut your belly, I'll cut your legs..."

The ferocious storm of wind was filled with the sound of Clown's deranged cackling.

Both sides were quite familiar with one another's abilities, so they were all going all-out from the get-go, making no attempt to hold back or conserve power. In a battle between adapters of their caliber, taking one's foot off the pedal even for a moment could result in catastrophic consequences.

The technomancer wanted to use his illusions to assist Oni no Miko, but he had only just raised his hands when he was also swept up into the air.

Diamond's enormous body weight ensured that he wasn't swept up by the storm, but having just sprung up into the air to attack Ikkaku, he had landed quite far away from Oni no Miko, so he wasn't going to be in time to save her.

In this crucial, juncture, it was the Shelled Tiger who sprang up into the air to save the day.

As he rose up into the sky, his body transformed into a ball of light, which enveloped Oni no Miko's body right before she was struck by the chainsaws. All of a sudden, Oni no Miko's entire body was encased in a suit of green armor.

The suit of armor was as hideous as a turtle's shell, but it was extremely practical, and even compared with Mummy, its defensive prowess wasn't inferior by much. The chainsaw blades being wielded by Clown's clones raised bright trails of sparks upon striking the suit of armor, but were unable to do anything other than leave a few faint marks.

So that's what his role on the team is!

At this point, everyone else from Adam and Ikkaku's teams had already arrived, and after assessing the situation, Nie Yiyi finally understood why the Shelled Tiger had been included in Oni no Miko's team.

She had faced the Shelled Tiger in battle before, and she certainly didn't have a very high opinion of his powers. Given Oni no Miko's power and status, she could've easily found a more powerful teammate than the Shelled Tiger. In fact, even the Technomancy Tiger was a far more powerful adapter than his fellow Tiger.

However, everything suddenly made sense now.

The Shelled Tiger's main role wasn't to engage enemies in direct battle. Instead, his job was to complement Oni no Miko and cover her bases.

Oni no Miko's defenses were very lackluster, but the Shelled Tiger could address that weakness.

"Don't get distracted, we have to focus on what we need to do!"

In the sky above, the storm of tornadoes gradually subsided. Maintaining an attack of such a massive scale was extremely taxing on one's psychic power, and even a powerful adapter like Ikkaku couldn't keep this up for very long.

This attack had only been designed to create chaos and ward off the Hyakki Yagyou to create an opportunity for Adam to attack Oni no Miko.

Now that this objective had already been accomplished, there was no need to maintain the attack any further.

Around 20 to 30 of the Hyakki Yagyou had perished in the storm of tornadoes, but all of the stronger ones were still largely unscathed, and after landing on the ground, they began to attack Clown and Ikkaku.

Even though both of them were capable of self-concealment, there were many demons among the Hyakki Yagyou with extremely sharp senses of smell. In addition to that, Oni no Miko no longer had any weaknesses, and that, combined with the technomancer's illusions and Diamond's raw physical prowess, meant that they were immediately able to gain the upper hand over Adam and Ikkaku.

Thankfully, Adam and Ikkaku still had reinforcements to come.

.

At this point, Fire Elemental and Ice Elemental had already climbed halfway up the hill, and they immediately entered the fray from there. The first one to attack was Fire Elemental. He took a deep breath, then exhaled violently, and a flurry of flames was instantly released, sweeping directly toward the Hyakki Yagyou.

The flames that erupted out of his mouth were completely different from Diana's flames. Diana's dragon flames were released in the form of a pillar, and they were unable to change direction or actively seek out targets.

In contrast, the flames unleashed by Fire Elemental resembled a fire spirit that was dancing through the air, and not only was it capable of actively tracking down targets, it could even seek out the oxygen in the air and all other flammable substances to make itself stronger.

Initially, the fire released by Fire Elemental had only been roughly the size of a basketball, but by the time it reached the Hyakki Yagyou on the summit of the hill, it had already swelled to the size of an entire basketball court, and it was tearing through the Hyakki Yagyou tremendous destructive power.

After that, it was Ice Elemental's turn. He raised his hands before rubbing them together incessantly, and an ice spirit that was as translucent as a snowflake quickly took shape. As soon as the appeared, it immediately skipped its way onto the battlefield and flew over to Oni no Miko, who was in the process of aiming an arrow at Ikkaku. However, she had only just pulled back the bowstring when her arms were frozen to the spot, thereby allowing Ikkaku to avert the crisis.

While Oni no Miko was frozen to the spot, Ikkaku lashed out in retaliation, sending three shurikens spinning through the air. As the shurikens flew toward Oni no Miko, they spun faster and faster with the assistance of the wind, and the in the end, they were spinning so fast that they resembled a set of black circles of death.

The shurikens struck Oni no Miko right as they reached maximal rotational speed, shattering the ice around her with a dull thump and cracking the suit of green armor that she was wearing.