BXBX NOVEL Chapter 206: Kagura
Chapter 206: Kagura
"Why is that?" Ikkaku was rather surprised to hear this. "In a situation like this, shouldn\'t you be inviting me to go after her with you? This is the perfect opportunity for us to join forces and take her down."
"Doesn\'t that go against the rules prohibiting teams from collaborating with one another."
"There\'s an exception to the rule if there are vendettas involved. The director\'s willing to make exceptions to most rules as long as it means more slaughter and bloodshed. You and I both have a vendetta against Oni no Miko. Diamond joined Miko\'s team because you\'re a shared enemy of theirs, so there\'s no reason why we can\'t team up against them."
"That makes sense."
Adam contemplated the situation for a moment, and he decided that with Ikkaku\'s help, this was indeed a good opportunity to face Oni no Miko.
Thus, he decided to diverge away from his original plan.
"We\'ll go and take a look first. There are more and more teams gathering around these parts. Even if we\'re going to attack, we can\'t be the first ones to do so."
"I agree." Ikkaku could see that there were indeed other teams approaching the area, and he turned to his teammates as he instructed, "Follow me!"
"You guys can come out as well. Let\'s go back to where Miko is."
Thus, Adam\'s teammates also came out from their hiding spots, and the two teams departed together.
The two teams amounted to a total of seven adapters, three of which were S tier combatants. In fact, both Adam and Ikkaku ranked in the top half of the S tier, so no one dared to mess with this newly formed super team.
More and more people were gathering in the nearby area, but all of them chose to conceal themselves.
"Generally speaking, only around half or just above half of the participants manage to survive to this point." Ikkaku was surveying his surroundings as he spoke. "There was a total of 136 participants to begin with. If we assume only around half of them are left, then that leaves 68 participants, nine of whom have claimed the three vantage points, so there will be a total of 57 participants looking to attack the defending teams. Is there any information you\'d like to share with me?"
In contrast with Oni no Hanzou, who was an assassin/ninja hybrid, Ikkaku was more like a traditional ninja, one that was very cautious and old-fashioned.
After some consideration, Adam decided that seeing as they were teaming up with one another, sharing information would benefit both sides.
Thus, he revealed, "Oni no Miko is even more powerful than I imagined, and that\'s why I initially tried to advise against going after her. She\'s able to invoke a mythical monster similar to Yamata no Orochi. I don\'t know exactly how powerful that thing is, but at the very least, it\'s several times more powerful than she is in her base form?"
When it came to the Oni Organization, Ikkaku was actually more knowledgeable than Adam was. He had already been studying the Oni Organization for many years, so he was aware that Oni no Miko ranked third among the eight Onis. Thus, she was already extremely powerful to begin with, and having to face an invoked entity that was several times more powerful than her was certainly a very daunting prospect.
"I wasn\'t aware of that. I thought I already had a very high opinion of her, but it appears I\'ve underestimated her." Ikkaku exhaled deeply, as if he were trying to release some pressure. "Invoking a powerful mythical being must be extremely taxing on her. What we can do is force her to invoke Yamata no Orochi, then immediately retreat and wait for her to exhaust her psychic power!"
Adam was very impressed with Ikkaku\'s quick thinking. This was the strategy that he had devised with his team, and it was very impressive to him that Ikkaku was able to think of the same strategy right away.
"Let me tell you a bit about my team. I\'m a wind ninja, I\'m sure you\'re already aware of that."
"I am. I\'ve done quite a bit of research on you."
Adam had watched past match footage of all of the S tier combatants in preparation for this battle royale.
Just like Nie Yiyi, Ikkaku also fought using the wind, but his mastery of wind-style ninjutsu was far superior to Nie Yiyi\'s wind-based abilities.
Ikkaku was an adapter whose powers were on par with Oni no Hanzou\'s. Judging from his past match footage, Adam could tell that there wasn\'t much of a power gap between the two, and it really was quite difficult to predict who would\'ve come out on top had Ikkaku gotten a chance to battle Oni no Hanzou.
"These two are friends that I recruited from the outside, Ice Elemental and Fire Elemental. Unfortunately, we lost a member on the way here," Ikkaku introduced. "They\'re able to control the power of their respective elements to unleash extremely powerful attacks."
Adam turned to find that both of Ikkaku\'s teammates were standing at over two meters in height. One of them was entirely enveloped in scorching flames, making it impossible to make out his facial features, while the other was giving off a glacial aura, leaving a trail of frost on the ground in his wake.
"How would you rate them?"
"I\'d say they\'re both on about the same level as King Arthur," Ikkaku replied as he took a glance at King Arthur.
The two of them had clashed on many previous occasions, so they were very familiar with one another.
"Oh? Is that right?" King Arthur was rather unconvinced by this assessment, and he turned to the pair of elementals with a combative expression, only to find that they were looking right back at him with completely uncompromising demeanors, and that seemed to have earned them his respect. "You know what? I like confident people. I have faith in their abilities."
Fire Elemental and Ice Elemental both burst into laughter upon hearing this, and the former\'s laughter sounded like the crackling of a flame, while the latter\'s laughter resembled the sound of ice being crushed.
Their combined team quickly arrived within 10 kilometers of Oni no Miko\'s location.
At this point, the sky had already turned dark, but light was beginning to appear on the vantage point.
Countless demonic creatures were basked within the light, gathered at the top of the hill as they screeched and howled menacingly to those at the bottom. At the point where the light was at its brightest, the dancing figure of a woman could be seen.
"What is she doing?"
Adam was too far away to catch a clear glimpse of Oni no Miko.
"She seems to be performing some type of strange dance."
Through his telescope, Hook could see that Oni no Miko had already removed her outermost garment to reveal the witch robes inside. At the same time, she was holding a folding fan and a bell while dancing to a strange rhythm. With each beat, the bell in her hand would chime once, and a circle of light would spread through the surrounding area.
Basked within the light, the ghostly apparitions were extremely excited, and the black energy wafting from their bodies was becoming more and more potent as they howled and screeched incessantly.
"That\'s a ceremonial dance known as kagura. Essentially, it\'s a ritual performed as a way of prayer in the east." As a ninja, Ikkaku was far more familiar with Japanese customs and traditions than everyone else in the group.
"The Hyakki Yagyou seem to be growing more powerful."
Even from 10 kilometers away, Nie Yiyi could sense the ghostly energy surging through the air.
"Why is she using such a powerful ability from the get-go?" Hook asked with a perplexed expression.
"She\'s doing this for intimidation. She\'s showing all those who want to attack the vantage point that she\'s not to be messed with. With so many people gathering in the area, I\'m sure she\'s also worried about being attacked by everyone at once. However, it seems like her intimidation is working." Ikkaku closed his eyes as he spread his telegnosis throughout the surrounding area, then remarked, "There are very few people here, and most of them leave after taking a brief look. It seems like they would rather try their luck against Dead Wood\'s team rather than fight the Hyakki Yagyou here."
This wasn\'t exactly a surprise. For the average battle royale participant, facing a duo consisting of Oni no Miko and Diamond was already an extremely daunting prospect, and the menacing sight of the Hyakki Yagyou presented even further discouragement.
"We\'re the only ones left. Should we give it a try?"
Adam took a deep breath as he watched the gradually approaching green barrier in the distance, and in the end, he decided to invoke Clown.
"We\'re definitely not going to leave before at least making an attempt."
Ikkaku made a hand seal and vanished on the spot amid a gust of fierce wind.