Chapter 78: Struggles

Will Geto's group be able to survive fighting the first-grade sorcerers or will this be their demise? This question will be answered soon. A few minutes passed and Larue was still lying back first slowly bleeding out. His eyes were hazy, staring at the sunset. Larue's heart was slowing down from the lack of blood.

But through pure determination, Larue pushes himself off the ground gritting his teeth in pain. Larue gingerly looks to the left and sees Nanako and Mimiko fighting off another horde of cursed dolls. Nanako is almost completely out of curse energy. 

Mimiko pulls on the noose wrapped around her plushie creating a noose that is wrapped around a blue monkey cursed doll. Mimiko spins throwing the doll at Yaga, who is watching with his arms crossed. 

Yaga unravels his arms and gently catches the cursed doll. Before rubbing its head and speaking to Mimiko. 

" Didn't Geto teach you that cursed attacks made out of one's own cursed energy will have a lesser effect? "

Yaga gently places the monkey back on the ground before it dashes forward. While Mimiko and Nanako are barely able to keep up with the swarm of cursed dolls. Their situation wasn't nearly as bad as Negi who is currently battling Mei Mei and Nanami at the same time. 

Negi is covered in blood. Constant attacks have been landing on his bruised body. Negi's technique might let him predict attacks using sound, however, keeping up with two first-grade sorcerers' speeds at the same time is simply something he isn't capable of. 

Negi narrowly sidesteps an axe swing before a blunt blade slams into his right side sending him flying through the air. Negi's eyes start to become hazy as he flips in the air, dragging his hand across the ground, stopping his momentum.

Negi gingerly stands tall before he starts to gasp for air as Nanami and Mei Mei slowly approach him before dashing at him in unison. Negi takes a deep breath sensing the attacks Mei Mei and Nanami are about to throw. Negi raises both his hands and braces himself to block their attacks.

Negi stares through his guard watching Nanami come to a sliding stop. Before violently swinging his blunt blade across his own body. Negi bends his knees narrowly ducking under the swing before he glances right before dashing back. Dodging a downward axe swing from Mei Mei. Negi comes to a sliding stop, a few feet away from them. 

Negi's body trembles with sharp pain that ripples through his body. Negi's eyes have changed. He's completely giving up on going on the offensive instead he plans on stalling until Geto defeats Yuta and steals Rika. Negi takes a calculated step forward with his hands tightly held in a guard. He stares at Nanami and Mei Mei slowly walking towards them. 

However, as soon as Negi took a sharp inhale, Mei Mei and Nanami swiftly dashed toward Negi. Mei Mei's hands blurred from her swinging her axe at intense speed. Negi sees the trajectory of the axe and crouches ducking under the swing. Negi stares at Mei Mei's torso before seeing Nanami twirling around her swinging his clothed blade. 

The cloth blade slams into Negi's forearm, slicing a massive gash into his arm. Negi dashes back gritting his teeth in pain while Mei Mei appears to his left swinging her axe. Negi stares at the axe until Mei Mei feints the swing and throws a kick.

The kick slams into Negi's solar plexus making him vomit blood, as his feet skid across the ground from the force of the kick. Negi drops to one knee breathing heavily, until his technique predicates an attack, causing Negi to roll out of the way, dodging a kick from Nanami.

Adrenaline runs rampant through Negi's body as he rolls onto his feet before sidestepping a crow. The crow circles around flying toward Negi while Nanami and Mei Mei sprint next to the flying crow. Negi stares at them before blood starts to pour out of his nose. The reason for the bleeding nose is simple, Negi is overusing his innate technique. Negi smacks his lips while wiping his bloody nose with the back of his hand before he watches the crow fly mere inches away from his face.

With insane precision, Negi leans his head to the side making the crow graze across his face, missing before Negi tightens his guard blocking a powerful roundhouse kick from Nanami. Negi turns his body spinning off the kick while reaching out his right hand and grabbing onto Nanami's forearm. 

Negi throws a quick knee into Nanami's forearm causing him to drop it on the ground. The blade rattles on the ground before it is swiftly kicked away by Negi. Nanami notices that Negi has disarmed him and raises his guard. Nanami slaps away Negi's palm before he feels someone pushing off his right shoulder. Nanami glances up and sees Mei Mei floating above Negi. 

Negi glances up at Mei Mei before she slams a powerful kick into Negi's chin sending him crashing onto the ground, sliding feet away from Nanami and Mei Mei. Mei Mei watches as Negi gingerly stands up before she whispers to Nanami. 

" You see the plan correct? "

Nanami starts to glance around the area before he looks at a piece of collapsed building on the left and nods his head at Mei Mei. A sinister grin appeared on Mei Mei's face as she watched Negi stare at them breathing heavily. 

The reason Mei Mei and Nanami haven't been able to get rid of Negi yet is fairly straightforward. During their first exchanges, Nanami and Mei Mei landed countless blows on Negi. However, with Negi switching his game plan from attacking to only relying on defense a problem emerged for Nanami and Mei Mei.

To answer this problem, an example must be used. So, imagine this fight as a standard boxing match. However, one of the boxers is fighting passively and the other is relentlessly charging in. If the passive boxer only plays defense, he'll manage to survive the 12 rounds and make it to a decision, because the relentless boxer will not have opportunities to KO his opponent.

But this fight isn't a 1v1 instead it is a 1v2, which makes the playing field completely different. However, due to Negi's technique of predicting others' attacks with sound, this evens the field. Even with Mei Mei and Nanami working together, much like the relentless boxer, they won't be able to KO Negi.

Negi stands still, clearly fatigued. His body is covered in blood and bruises. His eyes are sunken in, hollow-like. Until suddenly his eyes regain light. Negi's body was running off pure determination. With this determination, Negi gained a second wind. A random but pure burst of energy.

Negi starts to walk towards Nanami and Mei Mei not wanting them to scheme out a plan. Unfortunately for Negi, a plan had already been made. Negi's footsteps became faster as he sprinted towards a grinning Mei Mei and a poker-faced Nanami. While sprinting towards them, Negi's eyes suddenly widened as he sensed several different attacks from a variety of directions. Negi looked around before seeing around twenty crows flying towards him.

Negi glanced at the crows keenly watching them approaching him until Negi's eyes widened and he shot his head to the right but it was already too late. A massive slash appeared across Negi's chest causing blood to pour down his clothes. Negi glanced to his left before seeing Kusakabe tightly holding onto his sword in a stance.

The barrage of crows was nothing but a ploy that would overwhelm Negi's technique. Mei Mei knew that Negi could only fend her and Nanami off while using his technique. In other words, Negi relied on his ability too much leaving him open to attack. 

Negi starts to stumble forward towards Nanami who is staring at him intensely. Negi holds onto his chest feeling blood dripping through his fingers until his head snaps straight after hearing a heavy step. Negi sees knuckles mere centimeters away from his face. Directly above the knuckles are two piercing eyes staring in complete focus at Negi. The eyes dilate before the air begins to crackle from the punch. The air swirls off the punch rapidly until it connects contorting Negi's chin. Black lightning flies off the fist as the powerful force of the punch propels Negi's body back, flipping through the air.

Negi's eyes are blank. Negi flips one more time then crashes facefirst into the ground coming to a grinding stop next to the bleeding Larue. Negi is unconscious, his chin is broken with blood leaking out of his mouth. Larue stares at Negi with his side gushing out blood. He glances to his left and sees Mimiko and Nanako getting pushed back rapidly. Larue stares at them until he grits his teeth and shouts out. 

" Nanako and Mimiko get behind me. "

Mimiko and Nanako look at Larue confused before they dash back in unison getting directly behind Larue. Mimiko stares at the back of Larue until she glances down and sees the mangled Negi. While Mimiko stared at Negi, a voice suddenly spoke to her. 

" Hurry and get Negi then run as far as you can away from here. "

While Larue says his body starts to glow bright yellow. Mimiko's eyes widen as she quickly grabs onto Negi's bruised wrist before wrapping his arm around her neck. Nanako glances at Mimiko before they nod their heads dashing back while carrying Negi. Larue glances back at them fleeing before he looks forward and starts to walk forward toward the first grade sorcerers. 

Yellow particles begin to float off Larue's body. As he tightly grips his fists. Mei Mei stares at Larue with an amused look on her face, before she speaks. 

" Is this going to be your noble sacrifice? Life isn't a fairytale. Your sacrifice will mean nothing. We'll kill your friends shortly after you. "

Larue scoffs at Mei Mei's comment before the floating light particles become more rapid. And he clapped his hands together. The floating energy in the sky stops before morphing into a veil that quickly falls out of the sky, trapping all of the first-grade sorcerers. Nanami looks around staring at the veil before he speaks. 

" So you plan on trapping us in here until the others can escape? "

Larue shakes his head before he starts to weakly chuckle. Cracks start to appear all over Larue's body, Nanami stares at the cracks in shock, and massive amounts of cursed energy start to pour out of the cracks. 

Saying Larue couldn't use any offensive attacks with his innate technique wasn't fully true. Larue did have an attack however, he could only use it once. Larue's only attack was self-destruction. Ripples of cursed energy start pouring off Larue's body while more cracks form on his body. Larue created the veil to make sure the first-grade sorcerers couldn't escape the blast. Nanami's eyes widen while the waves of cursed energy blow his hair in the wind.

Yaga walks next to the other first-grade sorcerers before sticking his hand forward. Kusakabe quickly dashes behind Yaga before speaking. 

" You better have a plan Yaga. You're the one that got me wrapped up in this battle. "...

A mile away from the barrier. Mimiko and Nanako could be seen sprinting through the street while carrying the unconscious Negi. They kept on running until they heard a massive explosion. Mimiko and Nanako run into a dark alleyway before it is illuminated by a massive explosion. Skyscrapers collapse onto the ground as screams of help ripple out.

Mimiko and Nanako stare at the explosion in awe. Before they heard the sound of flapping wings above them. Mimiko and Nanako looked above them and saw an eagle with several wings. The eagle was a cursed spirit. The eagle flew down landing on Nanako's shoulders before it suddenly spoke. 

" Hurry and meet on the right side of Shinjuku. We need to regroup our forces. I am sorry to say that Larue is dead. The coin in his ear only proved this. His attack was futile. A huge cursed doll was created that blocked the explosion, shielding the first-grade sorcerers. "

The voice speaking through the crow was Suda. She watched the battle through the coins paranoid. Noticing that the tides were turning badly, She used a cursed crow that Geto gave her to order around the remaining members of Geto's group.

Nanako and Mimiko shake their heads before slowly heading towards the right side of Shinjuku...