Chapter 6

Seeing that the giant of a man is gaining in on us, I forced myself to create more heads that could explode and sent them to his face, hoping to at least hold him back for one or two seconds.

I lost count of how many heads I've made since the beginning of this incident, or this day for that matter. The fatigue from today's training has yet to fade and I'm already pushing beyond the limits of my energy reserves.

Cirno, Rumia and Daiyousei are throwing attacks of their own to help out despite all of us being tired to varying degrees.

The commotion managed to attract the attention of Reimu. She looked back in suprise seeing the four of us following behind her, becoming the rearguard of their group.

Although I wanted to signal to her not to tell Sekibanki, it was already too late as her exclamation of suprise made one of her heads glance back.

Sekibanki abruptly turned her main head around, eyes wide in shock, clearly bewildered. she was about to yell something but I suddenly felt my heads rapidly disappear.

Sharply looking below, the underlings of the man were shooting at us with either their quirks and guns. They have visible bruises and injuries from their earlier fight with Reimu. Some are even limping as they give chase.

Seeing this, Daiyousei provided cover fire with her Danmaku as I grit my teeth and made more heads to supplement the ones that were lost.

I can no longer bear to have the capability of create exploding heads so the pressure on Cirno and Rumia increased as they continue holding back the giant.

I notice that Sekibanki tried to send some of her heads to cover us but they were shot down fast by the goons. Reimu was raining on them with her Danmaku but her aim was off since she couldn't concentrate because of her injuries.

Innumerable trees have been broken and sent flying as the giant keeps sending burst of sharp air and searing flames. The debris and dust flew high blocking everyone's vision and making it harder to aim and the occasional spikes would even cause some friendly fire.

'He's enjoying this chase.' I thought. 'He's toying with us... like a cat with its mouse.'

'Just a little more... I can already see the Hakurei shrine in the distance.'

Even if the Shrine is without Suika, the place is still equipped with defensive measures layed down by the the previous generation of head priestesses. It is a last resort in the event of someone really strong went rogue or berserk for one reason or another.

'Buy some time. That is all we need to do and await reinforcements.' We can get through something like this. Plenty of Incidents happen in gensokyo after all.

'The others would have known that something has happened considering all the ruckus we've made. The only reason they haven't arrived yet is probably because they're already fighting some small fries. It maybe they are also implicated by some other matter... or worse...' a shiver when down my spine. 'They got drunk and started fighting amongst themselves for some dumb reason.'

The gathering is always done close both to the Hakurei Shrine and the village in case the alcohol or the food wasn't enough. Which is occurs often as plenty of individuals here have big appetites.

A sudden feeling of unease went through me and without hesitation I dropped the altitude of the heads lower, as close to the ground as I can.

BOOM!

Above us, a thick pillar of lightning went by. The heat started a fire with whatever isn't disintegrated and the loud noise made my concentration falter.

My hold on my heads went awry and most of them dispersed and sent us tumbling to the ground. Rumia is the quickest one to recover and helped us to our feet, only to then notice that we were surrounded by the goons.

The only saving grace is that the electric move took a lot of power and is currently on cooldown. Now the giant was either disinterested in us or confident in his underlings to catch us as he continues chasing after Sekibanki's group.

The sky has already turned dark and the full moon is visible.

Rumia turned her darkness cloak into her armour to boost her defenses and charged into the fray with her fist.

Daiyousei is providing us some light, nothing too bright but it's closer to the luminance of fireflies. She is staying close to me as I am currently putting my focus into recovering more energy.

Cirno is using her ice to take out her opponents but from the slight flush on her cheeks, I can tell the she is reaching her limits. Her manipulation of coldness can bring a slight increase in her internal body temperature. The more she uses it, the higher it gets and Cirno is normally very cold and her body has adapted to such temperatures therefore too much heat can prove fatal to her.

A cry can be heard from behind the group of goons.

When I turned to look, what meet my eyes was a flying head. It had an expression of fear on its face and what's surprising was that it wasn't mine or Sekibanki's head, it was one of the goons.

A howl sounded out as the some of the goons turned around and fired in the direction of the howl.

I wasn't the only one who visibly brightened when we heard that noise. Cirno and Rumia expended more effort to finish their opponents quickly, this time a lot more bloody.

Gensokyo does have a no-kill policy in place since the people here number less than a thousand. Problems and skirmishes are usually solved using Danmaku and other 'Game-fied' moves.

But this policy only includes the residents of gensokyo, not these people who broke in. Their lives can be considered forfeit the moment they attacked but this doesn't mean I'm used to it.

This is the first time I've seen someone die, and multiple people lost their lives Infront of me. Oddly enough, my body only felt some discomfort and a small urge to vomit. But my mind got a bit shaken, telling me that this is normal.

I shake my head to get rid of these thoughts. 'They attacked this place and they should have been prepared for such a fate.' I comfort myself by thinking like this.

I divert my attention back to the battle that just ended. I see Cirno talking to a large bipedal lycanthrope, Kagerou who turned into a werewolf since tonight is a full moon.

"I see... I understand the situation now." Kagerou nods after Cirno finished explaining. "I know that we will be dealing with a dangerous enemy but our manpower is a bit stretched thin and we need all the help we can get, even if it's just clean up. I will help you kids get to the shrine."

We begun running in the direction of the shrine. I noticed that only Rumia isn't shaken by the deaths. Daiyousei and even Cirno seemed a bit bothered by it.

Little by little, we eventually got to the foot of the mountain where hakurei shrine resides. Already, the sounds of battle reach out ears from such a far distance.

Having recovered enough energy, I created more heads to carry everyone to the top as fas as possible.

Coming closer, it appears that they just started fighting and that the defensive barrier has just been broken.

The small fries are being handled by The Three Fairies of Light; Sunny Milk, Luna Child, and Star Sapphire who lives behind the shrine.

The stronger goons are being taken down by Sekibanki and Aunn Komano, the one who occasionally drops by to voluntarily guard the shrine. Unfortunately however, Suika isn't here as expected and Kosuzu is inside the Shrine, still recovering but barely awake.

Meanwhile, the big boss himself is being entangled by Reimu and Clownpiece, who lives underneath the shrine.

Reimu is currently flying by standing on her pet, A very large turtle that has the ability to fly, named Genji who lives in the pond behind the shrine.

We decided to split up and help. Daiyousei and me with The Three Fairies of Light, Kagerou and Rumia with Sekibanki and Aunn, and lastly, Cirno as an icicle cannon with Reimu and Clownpiece.

Now normally, The Three Fairies of Light should have beaten the small fries and won by now but the main problem that these guys have is that not only do they have quirks but they are also armed with guns and explosives.

Being from gensokyo, never-before-seen items like these made the three of them cautious and take their time attacking from the distance with their Danmaku. Same goes for Sekibanki's group.

Our arrival is the reinforcements they need to turn the scales in our favour as we used our Danmaku in a tight formation that didn't allow them to retaliate and focused solely on defending.

It became a battle of attrition that we would've won sooner if not for the need to constantly move around the place in order to avoid getting flattened or turned into swiss cheese from the shrapnel and debris.

Evading was hard since night has befallen. The only other sources of light other than dim torches are from the Danmaku weaving across the battlefield. A single mistake would cost a limb or worse, a life.

After the taking out the last of the lackeys, I look around to see that the stronger ones among them have also lost against Aunn.

All that's left now is to deal with the root of the problem, the outsider.

What makes me worried was that the sounds of ice breaking has long been silenced. Glancing around, I found Cirno leaning on a tree and her breathing was labored.

Getting closer to her, I found that her skin has taken a shade of red. Reaching my hand out to her forehead, it felt hot. She had a really high fever from overusing her power.

"Cirno has a fever! Someone get her away from here!" I alerted the others.

" *Heave* I can *Huff*...still fight..." She weakly objects between deep breaths.

"No. Any more than this and you might die." Said Kagerou as she picked up Cirno in a princess carry. "I'll take her to a safer location. I doubt I'll be much use against that... thing. I'll also notify anyone I come across."

She looks back at us one last time and said "You kids, I know I won't be able to change your minds... that's why promise me that if it gets too dangerous, please fall back." We nod at her.

Seemingly satisfied, she started to go on her way.

Turning around to face the giant, I began to make more flying heads to carry the three of us individually. My exploding heads cost a lot of energy and they are hardly efficient enough to create stronger explosions with the same input.

So instead, I'll play support to help ease the burden of the heavy hitters of the group. Namely, Reimu and Clownpiece.

The outsider should have gotten a lot of injuries by now from the repeated barrage of Damaku's, but I've noticed that not only does he have a regeneration quirk but also some sort of stamina and endurance quirk making this whole ordeal harder.

Using the night of sky, we started by entangling the giant's legs with Rumia's shadow bind, inspired by black whip. It almost worked and he did fall, just not how we expected it to go.

The giant shrunk and turned back into the white-haired man and started to attack in that form. From a hulking mountain to a quick hitter, my guess is that his change in form and style is the result of him trying to make us showcase our abilities more.

Almost as if that this isn't a battle of life and death. To him, this is hardly any different from a casual shopping spree.