Fana’s wind magic instantly clears the smokescreen of the ninja group.
“We’re saved!”
“There may be many of them, but we outnumber them still!”
“Don’t let them get even a step closer to the Shogun!”
A few had been wounded in the ambush, but the guards’ morale burned high. Every one of them was a seasoned warrior, and with such elite gathered, confidence in their own strength was only natural.
“Got you! W-what!? ….My blade won’t cut!?”
“Same here!? These bastards have something hard hidden under their robes!”
But things were not so simple. Apparently, the enemy wore armor beneath their garb, blunting the swords’ edge and denying them any real damage.
“What’s with this speed!?”
“Kuu! My arrow….. They dodged it!?”
The so-called ninja toyed with the elite guards, weaving between blades with acrobatic movements and formidable swiftness. And their means of attack were by no means ordinary. Even while engaging in close combat with short blades, they hurled strange throwing weapons—shuriken, as they were called. They also blew darts tipped with poison, or even flung small explosives. Their style was anything but honorable.
It was the craft of assassins and schemers, not soldiers. Worse yet, they cloaked themselves with stealth, vanished in the shadows, and they clouded the battlefield with smoke bombs.
They are troublesome foe in every sense.
“Yagyu shinnen-ryu… Waterfall!”
At that moment, Karen’s strike cleaved true, smashing into a ninja’s skull. The man’s head caved in grotesquely under the force of her blade.
Surely no man could withstand such a blow.
—Or so it should have been.
“W-what!? A counterattack!? M-my strike… it had no effect at all!?”
Karen faltered in disbelief. She had caved the enemy’s skull. No ordinary human could move after that.
“Mn.”
Fana’s blade cut cleanly across the ninja’s torso.
“…Metal?”
Beneath the torn fabric gleamed not flesh and bone, but the cold glint of steel.
“Don’t tell me….. these guys had their whole bodies turned into karakuri!?”
As if to confirm my prediction, the ninja’s wrists snapped. There were gun barrels in their places. The bullets fired hit the guards. Some of the ninjas also began firing shuriken from the toes of their feet.
“Who are these guys!?”
“I’ve never heard of ninjas like this…!?”
The guards were having a hard time against this unique group of ninja, something they had never faced before.
Meanwhile, one of the ninjas, using a blast of wind from his back, took a giant leap and closed in on the carriage carrying the Shogun.
“I won’t let you!”
“Don’t think you can get close to the Shogun, you mere ninja!”
“I will protect the Shogun with my life!”
It was the elite of the elite swordsmen who met the charge of the ninja. Around the carriage, a furious clash erupted.
“This is getting interesting!”
With a grin, Anje drove a brutal kick into a ninja’s head, sending him flying. Ordinarily, such a blow would have been fatal—but the ninja rose as though nothing had happened, and from the wrist of his arm, a bullet was fired.
Anje raised a wall of earth, intercepting the shot.
“Sturdy, aren’t you? But let’s see how you handle this!”
Anje closed the distance, seizing the ninja without warning. In the next instant her legs coiled around his head, locking it tight.
Crack. Crack. Crack. The ninja’s neck twisted grotesquely in directions no living body could endure.
“This is chokehold from the karate dojo! If I snap your neck, there’s no way you can still move!”
“Oneechan, watch out! Get away, now!”
“Huh? Wha—”
DOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!
A thunderous explosion ripped through the battlefield. The ninja had self-destructed.
“W-what the hell was that!?”
Anje, who had instinctively thrown up a wall of earth and leapt back, was barely safe from the explosion.
“They’ll even blow themselves up when they’re beaten…!? Everyone, be careful!”
She shouted a warning, but the enemy was already one step ahead.
Whenever they seemed on the verge of defeat, the ninjas would suddenly latch onto their opponent, clinging tight—and then detonate.
“Ghh—! G-get off me, damn it…!?”
The first to fall victim was Karen.
DOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!
This is translated by Yume Neiji. Kindly read at yumeineijiworks.wordpress.com.
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