#114 Mount Hakuba 3

----The west side of the mountain----

*Clang* *Bang* Dull sounds of metals clashing could be heard in the vicinity but that wasn't all, there was also sound of gunfire.

"Cora! Why are you doing this?!" Poney shouted with an angered yet confused expression while looking at her former teammate while also doing bullets from another enemy in front of her.

"I don't think you have the luxury of taking your eyes off me!" A woman with a huge rack and pistol in hand shouted with her face filled with hatred and rage. It was the same woman who was with

It was indeed the truth since Tsukushi was already done, however, fortunately, she wasn't dead yet since these people wanted them to suffer so they wouldn't kill them too quickly. She just took a surprise bullet into her shoulder, nothing too serious.

"Poney, forget about Cornelia! She is no longer with us, just focus on the enemy in front of you!" Najasho shouted with a stern expression while blocking one of Cornelia's punches with his blade but he was still thrown back despite successfully blocking it.

Although he said those cold words, he himself didn't want to fight his friend, however, he was aware that if he will show such weakness, the enemy will try to exploit it and his own friends will also lose the will to fight. Such was the burden of a leader, not showing his real emotions to motivate his team.

*bang* *bang* "Yes, listen to your friend and focus on me more so I can have more fun while avenging Kouga." Mashiro coldly said while glaring at Poney as if she wanted to tear her into pieces.

"Tch! Annoying cow-tits!" Poney shouted at her with an annoyed expression while slowly getting closer to her while making sure to dodge all bullets coming at her.

"Oh my, someone is insecure about their breast size. However, it is truly nice that you can still jest, I hope you will keep that attitude once we will be breaking your bones, haha!" A man in attire similar to one of the gravekeepers said while laughing like a madman. It was the leader of this group, Mudi.

'That guy must be the reason why Cornelia is controlled like this. He is also keeping a distance from us so it looks like he isn't combat-oriented Gravekeeper...I have to try it since we are already surrounded from all sides.' Najasho thought while glancing around himself just to see that they were fighting inside the circle made from those "bandits" that are occupying this mountain.

"Cornelia! You should be dead, Gai is already waiting for you there!" Najasho shouted right at her face when he exchanged blows with her and he noticed that her eyes widened although her expression remained stoic.

'Now!' Najasho sprinted around Cornelia who was frozen in place from hearing his words. Najasho already knew that she was still the same Cornelia as before only being controlled so giving her information of the death of a man who loved her and chased after her, must have affected her a bit.

"?! What are you doing?! Come back!" Mudi showed a bit scared expression when he saw Najasho bypass Cornelia, running straight towards him. He quickly shouted at Cornelia and her expression distorted in pain before she made a quick spin and literally kicked off the ground, flying towards Najasho while throwing a punch at his open back without any hesitation.

'Tch! I can't just ignore her, her punching strength is something even I have to be aware.' Najasho thought with an annoyance visible in his eyes before he spun around to parry her Crushing King shingu to the side with his own blade.

"Mudi, are you sure you don't want any help?" A tall muscular man standing in front of these bandits asked while looking at Gravekeeper.

"Very nice of you to ask, Suzaku, however, I have no intention of using your help unless necessary and it also seems that it's not all of them. I suspect that red smoke was signal for their comrades, maybe more of them will come so be ready to intercept them while we will enjoy our sweet revenge." Mudi replied with more composed expression than before when he was finally protected by Cornelia once again.

'...Tch, toying with your enemy is never a good thing. You should always deliver swift death to them so they can't adapt to your methods. Nevermind, they have no escape route out of here so it's irrelevant, I just hope they won't torture them in front of my boys since I wouldn't want my unit to apply such methods during battles.' Apparently a leader of those bandits named Suzaku thought with an annoyed expression.

After Najasho and Cornelia's small exchange, they returned to their original positions while Mudi was hiding behind Cornelia's back.

'Should I transform here? If I would do it, I am confident in defeating Cornelia in a minute without actually killing her but she knows that I need some time for transformation since it causes me to feel an enormous pain in the beginning. She probably won't let me transform, I have no idea how well he has control over her but even if I can transform. I won't have enough time to break through this blockade made by these bandits. I will run out of my transformation after killing those 2 in front of us and transforming for the second time in a row is too high risk!' Najasho was thinking of a plan. If he wanted to, he could simply hack his way out of here but he wouldn't be able to make it so both Poney and Tsukushi would be able to retreat together with him. Their lives were his responsibility so he couldn't make any careless decisions.

He kept exchanging blows with Cornelia and on the other side Poney and Mashiro already engaged in close combat battle. Poney was quite astonished when she noticed how Mashiro was able to protect herself so well despite being so proficient with a gun.

'These kids...what scary talents. That girl with a ponytail can actually fight evenly with Mashiro who has been a special agent for us in the past. It even looks like she is even slowly getting the upper hand in their fight. At this rate, we will be forced to help them...' Suzaku was astonished by Najasho and Poney's talent and strength. Mudi's group actually spent some days inside his fortress and he got to know how exactly strong is that woman named Cornelia so he was surprised that he can see someone who is fighting her with a nonchalant expression.

*Clang* *Clang*

Najasho was once again thrown back after trying to advance towards Mudi but he easily rebalanced himself in the air and landed on his legs.

'Looks like I will have to take a gamble, I hope it won't cause me any life-lasting injury.' Najasho thought and buried the tip of his blue broadsword into the ground and suddenly his hair started to grow longer.

"?!" Cornelia felt threatened and instantly darted towards Najasho to interrupt whatever he was doing.

When she was close enough, she threw a punch towards Najasho's face, intending to punch off his whole head but Najasho's closed eyes suddenly opened and his growing hair suddenly reverted back to original state.

"I am sorry, Cornelia." He said and slashed with his buried broadsword in an upward motion, making quite deep cut across the entire Cornelia's body. The cut was indeed deep from the outside look but Najasho avoided any vitals and since she was raised in the wildness, she shouldn't bleed out unless she keeps fighting. Her toughness was probably the second-best in the entire group right after Gai.

"Huh?" *Thud* She looked at Najasho with a confused expression before she dropped down on the ground with her back first.

"?! Fuck, Suzak-" Mudi instantly panicked since he didn't think that Najasho would cut down his own friend.

"Too late!" Mudi only heard Najasho's voice nearing him at an incredible speed.

When Najasho was close enough, Mudi's scared expression suddenly disappeared and was replaced by a twisted smile as he took a gun from behind his back and shot at Najasho at point-blank range.

*Bang*

However, instead of getting shot in the head, Najasho leaned forward, dodging the bullet just by a few centimeters and then he swung his blade from above his head in a vertical arc, intending to split Mudi into two halves.

*Splash* "GYAA!" Mudi screamed when he put his hand in front of him to protect himself but his hand was cut off which resulted in Najasho's slash to lose its effectivity. He was unable to cut him into two halves but instead, he cut off his right hand and made not too deep cut on his chest.

Despite failing to kill him on first try, Najasho simply followed with another slash in an upward motion.

*Whoosh!* However before his sword could make contact with Mudi's body, a wind vortex has blown him a few meters away from Mudi.

Najasho regained his balance and looked at the attacked just to see Cornelia standing in front of Mudi without caring for her injury.

'She can still move with that injury? She is killing herself by standing and moving around so much. Should I wait until father or Green's group come to help us or should I transform right away and try to break through this encirclement.' Despite feeling furious at how his comrade was being used and controlled, he still kept his nonchalant expression on his face.

"You fucker, I will get you for this. How unfortunate that your comrade will die when I die so be careful about planning your next attack. If you think that by killing me, you will free her, you are extremely wrong, haha!" Mudi quickly used his clothes to stop bleeding before he started cursing at Najasho and then laughing like a madman.

Najasho looked at Poney's situation just to see her getting upper hand over her opponent but she still had to be careful not to get shot from the point-blank range.

'Even if we will defeat them, we will have to face thousands of bandits afterward. This situation is bad...even if others will come to help, all we can do is to retreat.' Najasho was hesitating what to do in such a situation but after a very short moment of having his eyes closed, when he opened them, there was a new resolve and decisiveness.

"Poney! Go and get Tsukushi!" Najasho shouted with a stern tone and Poney despite being confused didn't even ask anything and just simply followed his instructions. She distanced herself from Mashiro and she, on the other hand, was angered that her enemy was retreating from her so she started shooting at her once again.

Cornelia once again sensed that sense of dread and she tried to interrupt Najasho once again like before but despite not caring for her own injury, her body definitely cared and didn't let her move as fast as before.

This gave Najasho enough of time to complete his transformation and his hair became much longer and his pupils became slit, eyes resembling that of a dragon. He kicked Cornelia to her side in the location that wouldn't worsen her bleeding any further while making it look like he wasn't hesitating to hurt her at all.

Poney kept dodging bullets until she got close enough to Tsukushi but while she was getting her onto her back, she was at the most vulnerable state.

"I won't let you!" Mashiro shouted and sent numerous shots aiming at her non-vital spots which only showed that she was dead set on torturing them.

'This is getting out of hand!' Suzaku thought when he observed the entire fight. He quickly issued a command to get ready for an attack in case they try to run away.

Before those bullets could reach Poney, Najasho appeared in front of Poney, slashing all those bullets in half.

"What?!" Mashiro and others were shocked by his new speed and not only his speed of traveling but also his speed of handling his sword. Everything about him became at least twice faster and maybe even stronger in raw strength.

"...Let's go!" Although Najasho wanted to at least kill one of them, he knew that he should focus all his energy on escaping together with Poney and injured Tsukushi since his transformation can hold on only for a few minutes.