Chapter 94 In the Midst of Battle

With a katana in one hand and her metal umbrella in the other, Shizu slashed at gengiri as if their carapaces were paper. The quality of her new weapon made by Azi still amazed her, since as long as she kept fueling the weapon with magic energy it seemed to keep its edge.

After making quick work of a group of 3 gengiri, Shizu stepped back from the fight to get a feel of her surroundings.

In front of her were still a swarm of gengiri and kengiri, while a large figure stayed in the back as it watched over the fight. Shizu kept her eye on it and wanted it to stay away as she would not like to fight it again in this situation. To her left was Azi who was a few paces in front of her as he was in the middle of loading what looked like a metal square to Shizu into his gauntlets.

She then saw Kajima, forcefully pushing and dragging the group of old blacksmiths away one by one from the fight.

"Lady Shizu! We are here to help. Where do you need us?"

Behind her came a shout coming from Nosuri who was followed by her brother Ougi and some village guards. Making a snap decision she ordered them to hold her position as she instructed Azi to join her in dispatching the kengiri.

"Azi! Can you use your fireballs on all the Kengiri?!"

"I can but the gengiri are in the way, they are too bunch up."

Azi said this as he punched a hole into a gengiri's under belly with an uppercut, he backstepped away to give him a brief moment to catch his breath. He looked over and saw that Shizu had raised her umbrella up in the air. He knew what this meant as it was one of the features he had built into her weapon.

He prepared himself for what was to come as this usually meant that they were going to cut loose a bit.

Shizu infused magic into her raised umbrella which caused a red aura to spread out into her surroundings. This invigorated the people near her and made sure to not let it spread to the group of blacksmiths as they would be too much trouble to deal with if they went out of control again.

"Come Azi, it's time we show the results of your training."

"YES MA'AM!"

The veins on Azi's legs glow red and with that Azi let out a battle cry as he charged forward with an audible boom that left a crater on the ground he initially stood on. Shizu quickly infused magic into her body to fortify herself to run faster than normal.

Punching forward at the air, Azi let loose a fireball that traveled in a straight line. It bored a path through the swarm of gengiri as their bodies turned black and fell to the ground. Its range was short but it created a makeshift corridor a few meters ahead through the monsters. This was then lengthened by Shizu who had then let loose a fiery slash that traveled down the same path as Azi's fireball.

This allowed the pair to run through the swarm unimpeded to get closer to the Kengiri. In the short time Shizu let out a slash, Azi had reloaded another blood steel square into his gauntlets and again charged forward.

He ran through the somewhat fiery path through the swarm and got close enough to jump at the Kengiri for an attack. From above the kengiri, Azi brought down his fist onto its head.

It impacted but Azi clicked his tongue as the kengiri's head did not explode. Instead, all Azi did was strike the Kengiri with his fist that was not infused. It was a substantial strike but was not a killing blow.

Before the kengiri got its bearings Azi made to throw an upcut with his other gauntlet which successfully activated the intended fireball to explode the kengiri's head to bits.

Azi then looked down and saw that he was about to land in the middle of a swarm of gengiri, but he only smirked as this as he knew what was going to happen next.

Part of the swarm was abruptly set on fire by Shizu's follow up attack which cleared an area for Azi to safety land. The actions taken from Azi's first fireball to Shizu's last fiery attack took only a couple minutes.

They continued this cycle of attacks of opening a path and then subsequently striking at the kengiri to only do it all over again until all the kengiri were dead.

From the rear, the blacksmith group looked on in amazement as the pair worked in absolute perfect coordination. They wondered, just what is up with those weapons? Or, how is that kid so strong? And even, are those two even human?

Edgar was also stunned silent as he was being tended to by Rulu. Kajima had successfully got all the blacksmiths to the rear as the enemies were now focused on Azi and Shizu. While Nosuri's group held the front line, Edgar took the chance to ask.

"Kajima? Tell me, did that boy, Azi, make those weapons? Aren't they something you made?"

"No, the gauntlets that Azi showed us were made solely by him. He has quite the creative mind, I wasn't expecting such explosive results in such a short amount of time."

Edgar and his group of blacksmiths were dumbfounded by Kajima's words. Some knew of Azi's technical mindset from his house's blueprints but had no definitive proof of his production skills. They thought, unfoundedly, that his creations would be subpar or more like the musings and toys of a child.

But now, they had substantial proof that could not deny the quality and functionality of Azi's creations. This got the blacksmith's creative spirits up in arms and they began to second guess the initial assumptions of the boy.

It took only an hour for the swarm of kengiri and gengiri to be wiped out. Azi and Shizu eventually made a path to the otherside of the large swarm. They then shifted focus from the kengiri to the gengiri.

Due to Nosuri's observant eye as an archer, she understood what the pair was doing so she prompted her group to push forward instead of staying on defense.

With that, the swarm was caught in a pincer from the front and back. Some of the blacksmiths who regained their calm rallied with Kajima to help Nosuri push the line forward.

*****

When all was done, everyone regrouped and began discussing the large unknown figure that had apparently disappeared from the battle. They moved to an area with a few trees and boulders that acted as cover for the wounded.

Azi helped Rulu tended to the wounded as the use of his disposable breastplates with healing magic came in handy. He had yet to learn any healing magic but could at least close up simple wounds, such as light bruises and light cuts with bandages.

Azi had to hold himself back from puking from the sight of the more injured men but kept his composure the best he could as he talked with the injured blacksmiths about other interesting topics to help take his mind off the gore.

The battle was harsh as it seemed the monsters were whipped up into a frenzy, so the number of wounded and dead had cut their fighting strength in half. Off to the side, Kajima asked Shizu about the current situation.

"The kengiri and gengiri are too numerous. Were they worked up by cursed bait again?" queried Kajima.

"No, since the last incident we have been using our thaumaturges to investigate the area for curse bait. It gives off a magical energy signature that can be discerned with magic and we have had no reports about curse bait these last few weeks. This is something else and I bet that bastard Jerome planned this."

Kajima sighed at Shizu's words as it seemed that this would soon turn into a political headache, but he nonetheless added his own advice.

"In any case, we have to end this soon. The village will be endangered at this point, I'm sure you saw it."

"Yes, me and Azi fought it first hand. It seems a larger monster is leading the attack. I have no idea how intelligent it is but it seems to be smart enough to run when you and Nosuri's group showed up. It used the swarm as a distraction which is troubling as it might have a degree of cunning."

"What was it?" Asked Kajima, who noticed Shizu's trembling hands.

"I think it was a gengiri but it was different from usual. It was enormous and no matter how many times me and Azi attempted a killing blow, it seemed to heal itself. Azi's fireball infused punches left only a few cracks, luckily my blade could cut through its hard carapace but I could not get a good hit on it due to all the other smaller monsters getting in the way."

Kajima's face turned into an expression of surprise. Gengiri were the weakest monster in the nearby area, for Azi and Shizu to have such a hard time surprised him. But he kept this to himself as he remembered his past experience as a soldier.

In battles, surprises were bound to happen no matter the place, so taking a deep breath to calm himself Kajima suggested.

"For now, let's regroup at the village. Rulu should take the wounded back, she can't be…."

"NO!!!"

Turning to the shout of refusal, Kajima and Shizu saw Rulu scowling at the pair but before they could ask what she meant, Rulu explained.

"Sister, please. Let me join you in this fight. I can…"

"FIGHT!?" Shouted Shizu.

To this Rulu stumbled back and fell onto her butt. Shizu approached and towered over her younger sister with a fiery stare that conveyed how angry but concerned she was. Her expression then turned soft as she knelt down and placed a comforting hand on Rulu's cheek.

"This isn't like the stories I have told you before. This is real life and your life will be endangered if you come with us."

"But I can…!"

"NO!" Yelled Shizu, who then hugged Rulu in a tight embrace to stop her from moving. "YOU WILL STAY WITH THE INJURED AND YOU WILL TEND TO THEM!"

Shizu's voice turned to a plea. "Please…. I can't lose another family member."

Rulu knew who Shizu was referring to and she tensed up as sadness began to overcome her. Unknown to anyone but her, Shizu had visited Rulu in secret after their mother's funeral. Shizu came to support Rulu but they both ended up crying themselves to sleep that night.

Returning her sister's hug, Rulu embraced Shizu and they conversed about a compromise.

While this was occurring, Azi was tending to the wounded. He had just bandaged a blacksmith's arm and was examining it with his inspection magic that were infused into the goggles he now wore over his eyes.

Making sure that the bandage was secure and that there were no physical or magical abnormalities, Azi used a higher level of inspection magic to air on the side of caution. This made him see the flow of magic, but as he was examining the man's arm. He noticed a fluctuation from the corner of his eye, he turned his head away from the injured man and began to survey his surroundings.

His eyes widened when he looked in the direction of Shizu and Rulu, but it was not their conversation that was his concern. In a snap decision he got to his feet and ran to the front of the group as he yelled a command.

"GET TO COVER, NOW!!!!!!"

Azi ran past Shizu and Rulu. The latter was confused but Shizu diligently got Rulu behind her. Unfortunately, everyone else was caught off guard as they all looked around in confusion.

In the matter of a few seconds, Azi loaded another blood steel square into his gauntlets and grabbed a few more from a pouch hanging from his tool belt into his hand. He then formed his hands into fists and pounded them together in front of him.

A red, blue, and white light emanated from Azi and a somewhat visible barrier of blue aura surrounded the group. Everyone noticed the blue barrier and wondered what it was for, but it soon became clear to them all.

*CLINK CLANG CLINK CLINK CLANG BOOM BOOM CLANG*

Numerous projectiles impacted the blue barrier and made violent sounds that caused everyone to grimace in discomfort. The group was surrounded by a cacophony of loud noises as the projectiles continued its assault on Azi's barrier.

"AZI! What is….?!"

Shizu attempted to get an answer from Azi, but as she approached him from his right with Rulu behind her, she noticed how Azi grimaced in pain.

His hands were tightly balled into fists as he was bumping his two gauntleted fists together in front of him. The runes on his equipment glowed red, blue, and white seemed to fluctuate as it seemed that the flow of magic energy was unstable.

Initially, Azi was going to perform this magic spell during his demonstration and it had the original intent to create a barrier around his body. This was Azi's invention to create a pseudo fortification spell to reduce the drain on his magic energy from the constant use of basic fortification.

He would store the needed energy in the blood steel squares and use them when needed, but due to how Azi needed to protect everyone from the unexpected attack. Azi opted to overload the spell and modify it manually to expand the barrier from his body.

This costed him a large amount of blood steel squares and took its toll on his equipment as audible cracking sounds could be heard from the white knuckles pieces on his gauntlets.

A couple of white knuckle pieces broke and started to dissipate into dust, which in turn, caused the blue barrier surrounding the group to weaken as white cracks started to appear on its surface.

"DAMMIT, COME ON!!!!!"

Azi screamed out to motivate himself as the veins in his arms started to glow a blue white color. He began to supply the spell with his own magic energy which worked as the cracks started to stop spreading out.

After a few minutes passed, the projectiles stopped its assault. Azi subsequently fell to his knees as he attempted to catch his breath with long and heavy breaths. While Azi's magic energy capacity was large, holding a physical barrier up for a few minutes took its toll as the impacts the projectiles created were intense and could likely punch though refined steel with ease.

Shizu knelt down to see if Azi was alright but before she could ask, Azi told her through his heavy breaths.

"That *Huff* Attack was *Huff* too strong. *Huff* You need *Huff* to dodge them."

Azi judged that the projectiles could easily punch through refined steel and feared what they could do on a human body.

"Ok, but what was that? Where did it come…..From!?"

In the next moment, Shizu could feel the ground beneath her trembling and the sound of a blood curdling screech reach her ears.

The less battle oriented group held the hands over their ears in an attempt to block out the painful sound. Shizu looked in the direction of the horrifying noise and gulped down the knot in her throat.