Yakuza Death Beam (2)
“Guhhh...”
Leonard, caked in dirt, forced himself upright.
“Ugh...”
Clinging to his fading consciousness, he checked his body. No serious damage. His copper armor was still intact.
Drip. Drip.
Only a few splinters of wood embedded in his cheek, drawing thin lines of blood.
“Hah...”
He plucked them out, sealed the wounds with mana, and exhaled a ragged breath. The gate that every soul in Goldon had poured their time and passion into had been reduced to rubble in an instant—by a method no one could have imagined.
“Aigoo...”
“Mother!”
Having lost every defensive advantage of a siege, the soldiers of Goldon screamed. Terror spread like wildfire and found Leonard as well.
“...”
His body trembled. Why had he come to Goldon in the first place? Nothing more than the childish tantrum of a pathetic old man.
Even if I die here, what would it mean? The citizens of Goldon are all going to die anyway.
Unlike him—who had fled midway—the fellow knights who had stayed and fought to the end at the Battle of Tellas rose unbidden in his mind. Deaths that protected no one. Truly meaningless deaths.
This is not my death. This is not my final battlefield. At least let me die somewhere that still has a little value.
With that half-hearted justification complete, Leonard looked around.
“You bastards! Over here! This way!”
Sayleen, still refusing to give up, stood before the ruined gate and poured out a cry thick with resentment.
“—nard, sir!”
Just as Leonard turned away from her with sorrowful eyes, someone called his name.
“Sir Leonard!”
A man came running, sweat pouring down his face.
“John?”
Leonard paused at the familiar face.
“You remember me! I’ve come to join you!”
“...The young man who said he wanted to become a knight.”
Ignorant youths always yearned for the knights of fairy tales.
“That’s right! Miss Sayleen has already gone ahead, I see?”
“...She has.”
Young Leonard had been the same. That was why, after blood-soaked training, he had become a knight and joined the Silver Fox Order.
“...Sir Tren is gravely wounded. We need a commander.”
“...”
Had the other knights been the same? He would never know now.
“Hah...”
The version of himself that had suddenly wanted to run felt like a complete idiot.
How pathetic had I become, thinking of dying like that?
“Sir Leonard? Are you all right? Ah, there’s blood on your face...”
John watched the sighing Leonard with concern.
Like the knight I dreamed of in my youth. Like those guys.
Leonard steeled his heart and drew his sword.
“Bring the other soldiers this way. I’ll take command.”
“Understood!”
John shouted and began gathering the dazed soldiers.
“Miss Sayleen! Over here!”
“Do you have a plan?”
“We’ll make one.”
Sayleen, who had been glaring at the approaching bandits, fell back and joined Leonard’s side. Before long the soldiers of Goldon, recovering their wits, formed a defensive line with Leonard at the center—and the bandits poured in.
“Kill the ones with weapons first!”
The fastest of the horse bandits spurred their mounts and encircled the formation. Curved blades gleamed in their hands.
“Just do as you were taught! Thrust and withdraw! Understood?!”
Leonard roared to raise their spirits.
“Yeah. Dying like this won’t leave any regrets.”
“Let’s do this!”
“Long live Goldon!”
“I’m Hammerhead John!”
The soldiers answered in kind.
“Yaaaaah!”
Just before the two forces collided, a black shadow dropped from the sky.
“—The only ones getting wiped out today...”
Clang!
In a single flash of the shadow’s blade, the horse bandits’ heads went flying.
“...are the yakuza.”
The black superhuman who had appeared out of nowhere planted his feet on the earth and glared at the remaining bandits.
“W-who is that?”
“An ally?”
The soldiers of Goldon milled about in confusion.
“Who are you? Have you come to help us?”
Leonard asked directly when no one else would, but the man gave no answer—only watched the flustered movements of the horse bandits.
“I-it’s the Runaway Ninja! He’s come to help us!”
Orphe, standing among them, shouted with a strangely embarrassed look.
“Runaway Ninja? What’s that?”
“I’ve never heard of it either.”
“Wazabyot~!”
The sudden intrusion of the Runaway Ninja threw the battlefield into chaos.
Fuck. I knew something felt off—turns out I’d put my pants on backward.
While I was using the Ninja Undressing Technique, a sudden explosion went off, so I threw my clothes on in a panic and ended up like this. I should have calmly used the Ninja Dressing Technique instead.
Still, this level of inconvenience is tolerable.
Tatatatat!
I pumped my legs hard and arrived at the battlefield. Orphe was fighting with everything she had.
“Haahp!”
Still not going for the Instant Death Thrust to the end. Ruthless. Truly ruthless.
Anyway, Orphe was safe. Diana was nowhere in sight, but she was probably fine. Being a yokai at her core, she wouldn’t die that easily.
“Th-that bastard! That’s the guy! The one who was spying on us last time!”
A yakuza in a bamboo hat who had been peeking out from the rear bellowed at the top of his lungs. The same guy I’d seen in the tent village. Looking at him again, I almost felt a little glad.
“Y-you’re right!”
“He was on Goldon’s side?!”
“Smith-sama said he was suspicious!”
“All because of that idiot Dorn!”
I have no hobby of listening to yakuza trash talk. I immediately accelerated and charged.
“You bastard!”
Mounted yakuza riders swung curved blades that looked like chili peppers (the vegetable kind).
I dodged lightly and gave them each a solid knuckle-rap to the skull.
— Watermelon Smash Assassination Art
Pung-pung-pung-pung—!
“Kyaaak~!”
The yakuza’s watermelon heads shattered beautifully. An indirect experience of a summer beach.
Ihihiing~
The horses, having lost their yakuza masters, neighed in distress that echoed across Goldon.
“C-crazy! Bare-handed?!”
The yakuza trembled like an older brother who had beaten his little sister on a cold evening and been kicked out of the house naked. Definitely not a personal anecdote.
“Nin-nin.”
Fewer of them were wearing armor than I’d expected. Fists were more useful here, so I sheathed my ninja blade. One ninja punch would be enough to finish these guys.
“Advance! We’re advancing!!”
Leonard must have finished assessing the situation; he led the soldiers in a charge. Overlapping ranges of movement would be dangerous, so I’d stick to thrashing the ones farther away.
Hop!
“Whoa!”
“H-he’s flying!”
I flipped through the air and landed behind the yakuza. The relatively sharp-eyed bamboo-hat guy charged, swinging his sword.
“Which bastard punched the hole in Goldon?”
Pak!
Too lazy to dodge, I simply grabbed the blade and yanked it toward me. By now I could read the movements of most ordinary opponents.
“Eeh?”
“Answer me.”
I seized the collar of the bamboo-hat yakuza who had come along with the sword and gave him a light shake.
“Oof!”
Crack!
I was sure I’d cradled him gently, yet his neck snapped. Fucking confusing.
“I don’t care who—just answer!”
Thud!
I used the bamboo-hat guy’s body as a blunt weapon and smashed it into the other yakuza.
Boom!
“Uwaaaaah!”
The flying yakuza head-butted the ones behind them, then—
Tumble-tumble—
—rolled across the ground.
“I-it’s Delbanas!”
“Please spare us!”
Of course, the idea of sparing a yakuza is something that wouldn’t happen even if a Buddha statue split in two.
“Thanks.”
Thud-thud~ Boom. Tumble-tumble—
I shook them a few more times with a nice sense of rhythm, and before I knew it they were all dead.
“Wh... what the hell is this...”
New-face yakuza pouring through the gate stood with their mouths hanging open, staring this way. Goldon had become an all-you-can-eat yakuza buffet. There were still so many of them—if I kept punching them one by one bare-handed, there’d be no end to it.
“K-kyaaak~!”
While roughly disciplining the approaching yakuza, I looked for something I could swing. A pillar that had broken and become a bit shorter caught my eye. Worth a try?
I lifted the pillar with both hands.
Rumble-rumble.
“Mm...”
Yeah, this is a little heavy. Looks like I’m not Super Runaway Ninja material just yet.
“Hiyah—!”
Whoosh— whoosh— whoosh—
A dazzling pillar-spinning performance captured every yakuza’s gaze.
“D-don’t just stand there staring—dodge!”
Too late.
Whoosh—
The “Wrath of Goldon” flew true.
KABOOM!
The yakuza who kissed it were instantly flattened into pancakes.
“Uwaaaaah~!”
A few terrified yakuza fled. At this rate the soldiers of Goldon should be able to fight easily enough. I’d focused on killing the yakuza riders, so only infantry remained—should be fine.
“Delbanas.”
Time to head outside and catch that bastard. Whatever dirty trick he’d pulled, the fact that he’d punched a hole through Goldon in an instant meant he was someone I couldn’t afford to underestimate. Even Delamion hadn’t possessed an area-of-effect technique this powerful.
Come to think of it, both of them are “Del” guys.
Tak-tak-tak—
I headed straight out through the gate. Outside, there were still a fuckton of yakuza. Enough to make me wonder how I was going to kill them all.
“Loose!”
Tatata!
I dodged the arrows of the yakuza archers while searching for Delbanas. The red-haired one-eyed yakuza I’d been looking for was venting steam from his body like a rice cooker.
“What are you? Why are you interfering with me?”
Delbanas demanded a self-introduction right out of the gate.
“What do you think I am, you fucking bastard? When you ask something like that, you’re supposed to introduce yourself first.”
An ignorant yakuza who didn’t even know basic manners. Compared to this guy, Delamion was a gentleman.
— Ninja Encirclement Formation
Dodging the yakuza archers’ arrows was easy enough, but since that guy had an area-of-effect attack, dispersing around him was the most rational tactic. Dozens of afterimages, each gripping a ninja blade, charged forward with me.
My pants are suddenly bothering me again.