The Salvation Ninja (7)
What filled my vision were forty bee yokai, every last one of them sporting a splendid shell helmet.
Elite guard yokai—living proof that this chamber mattered.
A sacred relic had to be here. It was inevitable.
Runaway Ninja and the Forty Yokai
The upside of yokai you can’t talk to is that you can shout whatever technique name you want while you kill them. I could list every dish I wanted for dinner and these things would still just freeze in terror without understanding a word.
Shuk-shuk-shwak-shwak-ssak!
With a cheerful string of sound effects I sliced through five necks in an instant. Helmets or not, nothing protected their throats—easy work for someone who always aims for the vital point.
Biene!
The panicked bees yanked their heads down into their shells and waddled toward me. Being elites, their stance shifts were sharper than the rank-and-file. I should have taken out ten with that first ambush. A little disappointing.
I’d rested while stealthed, but the fatigue stacked up from earlier fights hadn’t fully cleared, so my speed was a notch off. If only this were a game with recovery potions. Something like a “Royal Jelly Potion,” given we were inside a hive.
I sheathed the ninja blade and clenched my fists. Chopping through shell after shell would dull the edge; time for a pure brawl.
Pow!
I drove my reinforced fists into their philtrums one by one. Faces collapsed into bloody pulp and the bodies dropped on the spot. Soft as modeling clay. One-punch ninja time.
Fifteen down without a scratch on me. Twenty-seven. I could feel their fear. They tried to use those longer arms for reach advantage, but their body structure kept them from moving with any real flexibility.
Thirty-three. One of them fought back hard enough to nick my right thigh. I retreated three steps, sealed the wound with mana in a flash, and dove back in.
Forty. I smashed the skull of the last thrashing bug as it screamed and charged.
“Haa…!”
Wipeout complete.
Both fists were mottled with bruises; my whole body was soaked in sweat. I sank down and used the Ninja Breathing Technique to cool the heat roaring through me.
“Fuck, that was rough.”
Every single elite had been skilled. Felt like taking down about forty 0.7-Aileens.
I bandaged the cut on my thigh, rested five minutes, then pushed myself up and stepped into the chamber. No more yokai came hunting me—the other warriors must have been holding their own.
I walked the corridor for a few more minutes.
“What a shit-luck day.”
The short story about the rickshaw puller who came home with seolleongtang only to find his wife already murdered by a ninja floated through my head.
Qeeee…
A colossal humanoid bee yokai lounging against a throne of wax greeted me. A giant monster queen bee over twelve meters tall.
Not a treasure-chest stage after all. This was the boss room.
You killed all my elite soldiers? No matter. I can simply birth more children.
A middle-aged woman’s voice rang inside my skull. Telepathy? I’d seen spirit-yokai use it before, so I didn’t flinch.
Who are you to interfere with me? Speak your name.
“Where’s the sacred relic.”
Human. Answer my question first.
“Where’s the sacred relic!!!”
I charged with ninja blade drawn. I had nothing to say to a Delvanas-type bastard who skipped introductions and started digging into someone else’s business.
Delvanas… You know of Delvanas?
Those words stopped me cold, like a car slamming the brakes at a red light.
“How the hell do you—?!”
I hadn’t even spoken that bitch’s name. This thing was reading my thoughts. Was a giant yokai allowed to have a cheat ability like that?
Only a little. Did you come to kill me after hearing Delvanas’s plan?
“What kind of bullshit is that.”
Delvanas had gotten her ass handed to her in a one-on-one, turned into some underground national-level threat, spat acid breath, transformed into a golden-crested fruit bat, become a soccer ball, vomited out a spirit-yokai, and died. She’d been too busy dying to monologue about grand schemes.
Honestly I wasn’t even sure what I was saying anymore. What the hell had Delvanas even been up to?
Even a brief peek makes me dizzy. Your mind is far too chaotic.
“That’s because you’re an idiot.”
Nonsense. She promised me. She would gather my kin and hand over the territories the humans occupy.
“I killed that bitch!”
I was done playing along. The great yokai rose from the throne and stretched its long arms; I attacked its legs. Massive body, telepathy, mind-reading—like someone had mashed the top three most annoying villain powers from every story into one package. It had to die.
When no word came I seized the altar first… all for nothing, it seems.
Screeeeech!
Only a grinding noise. The ninja blade wouldn’t sink in! Whether it had gorged on a ton of royal jelly growing up, the shell covering its body was absurdly hard.
That won’t work. I grow stronger by the day…
“You fat bug bitch. Did you steal every last drop of jelly from your family? Where are your malnourished brothers and sisters—inside your gut?”
From the looks of it, you are the one who ruined our plan.
The queen bee ignored my taunt and slammed all four arms down at once. Strikes from four directions, viciously sharp.
Shak!
I barely deflected the high-speed, pinpoint attacks with the ninja blade. Two clashes and my bones were already ringing. Should’ve eaten more calcium like Mom always said.
Not bad. Your reaction speed is excellent.
It kept talking inside my head while swinging those arms—insanely annoying. A tactic to scramble focus; anyone else would have lost concentration and taken a hit by now.
Piercing that shell was impossible right now. To land a real blow I needed the face, but the size difference was ridiculous.
Ninja Encirclement Formation
I created about twenty afterimages and moved. Buy time, climb the walls, seize the high ground. Only then could I take control of the fight. Fail this and I’d be stuck doing the drip-water-wears-through-stone grind of cracking the shell by hand.
What a peculiar trick.
Charr-rr-rr!
The queen spat yellow jelly from her mouth, blasting the afterimages. The sticky stuff hardened in seconds into something brick-solid. Any afterimage hit by it vanished instantly. Catch that area attack head-on and I might end up a bug trapped in amber—so I weaved and dodged.
Without a real body they are no threat. Mere parlor tricks.
Confirmation complete, the queen swung an arm over six meters long again.
Whoosh—!
The great yokai’s fingertips sliced the air and grazed past my ear by a hair. Five afterimages left. The moment the queen’s eyes locked on the others, I sheathed the ninja blade, leapt like a frog, and stuck to the wall.
Scritch-scritch-scritch-scritch!
I scrambled upward lizard-style. Any second now she would turn.
There you are.
I vaulted onto the queen’s back just as she opened her mouth to spew more jelly.
Ninja Piggyback
Waaah.
I sprang up, drew the ninja blade, and drove toward that repulsive head. The queen thrashed and twisted in panic, but she couldn’t shake my perfect balance.
Plastic Surgery Technique
Her glossy face met my ninja blade. A little off-center, not deep—but a clean cut all the same.
Kyaaaaaah!
I savored the queen’s howl and tried to drive the blade deeper—
Tong!
A massive antenna whipped out at lightning speed and sent me flying. Damn it, I don’t know why, but this always happens at the decisive moment.
Buddha, are you watching? I always give everything fighting the minions of the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven, yet luck never sides with me. What are you doing right now? You’re not just taking a nap, are you?
“Ghk!”
I slammed headfirst into the floor while still lost in thought. At least it was wax—my skull didn’t crack open. Small mercies.
You… how dare…!
Qeeeeeeee~!
The enraged queen’s roar filled the chamber.
If only I’d had a little more time to absorb the sacred relic…! I will not let you die cleanly!
Her hand scooped me up. I wanted to resist, but I was too groggy to move a muscle.
You killed Delvanas, ruined the plan, and scarred this exquisite body?
The queen’s face—now bearing a deep gash—loomed over me.
I shall go forth myself and slaughter every last intruder in the royal palace. Kill them all and turn them into nutrients. You will watch every moment of it with your limbs severed. And after that…!
Those filthy words snapped me wide awake. She was still ranting curses with her eyes rolled back. Short on real combat experience? I would have finished the job already. She wasn’t reading my thoughts anymore—hatred had clearly short-circuited her brain. Greenhouse weeds who’d never even been smacked by their parents always acted like this.
“No…! St…op…!”
I flailed both arms like a lunatic while babbling. One throwing knife was hidden in my sleeve. A full-power, heartfelt throw straight into the brow would not leave her unscathed. Regeneration? If she had it, too bad. I’d do what I could.
First, shall I cut off those arms?
One chance. I poured every scrap of focus into the moment—
KRAAASH!
The wall exploded and a female knight in crimson armor burst through.
Yoo Geomkyung?
“Surging Gale!”
A wave of red energy slammed into the queen bee.
You…!
The queen’s head whipped around. No—this was the worst possible timing. All my carefully built tension got dumped straight into the trash.
Ninja Breakfall
I slipped free of the queen’s grip first.
“You—you’re the Runaway Ninja! So the rumors were true!”
Yoo Geomkyung’s eyebrows quivered. At a glance it looked like she’d come to help me fight the great yokai. Reality was the opposite. Both Yoo Geomkyung and the bee yokai wanted me dead.
“No choice. Temporary alliance—just this once.”
I had to sell it as naturally as possible. This ninja wanted to live.
Luckily the queen seemed to buy the alliance without question and split her attacks between us.
“I still haven’t settled things with you…!”
“Save the petty stuff for later…. Here it comes!”
As naturally as I could.