Chương 33: A Slight Misunderstanding

The taste of ramen was still fresh on my tongue as Smoke and I continued on the road.

"I don't like admitting it," I said, scratching my stomach through my tunic.

"But damnation, that was really good. Made the detour worth it."

"Agreed, Father." Smoke grinned up at me. Which, on a feline, was an unsettling expression.

"Perhaps we could raise hogs for their meat? And make noodles of our own?"

"It would be nice..." Though I really had no idea how 'noodles' were made. Maybe I'd ask that chef if we visited his inn on the way back. Though he had been taciturn, even by my standards. Still, it was worth a try. I raised the map and took a moment to inspect it. We were taking a winding path, now flanked on either side by stretches of dense wilderness that had been labelled as the Grasta Woods. Once we cleared them, we'd be on a hilly stretch of plains that would lead us straight to Low Moon.

Certainly, it was a trip that would have taken much longer at an entirely human pace.

"Alright... we're getting close. I have to imagine the city watch may be wary about letting a hellcat into their city, but... I assume if you behave yourself, there won't be a problem?" Smoke grunted, managing a shrug as he padded along.

"We shall see. I do not wish to part from you, either way, Father," he said. This behaviour of his could be a problem in the future, I knew. Loyalty was nice, valuable, but Smoke would need to get more independence on his side. I didn't plan on having him follow me for every waking moment.

"Listen, I-" There was a figure in the road, a few dozen meters ahead of us. A lean woman, perhaps in her twenties, her hair a dishevelled bird's nest of dark hair. She wore a ragged cloak, framed from end to end with overlapping bird feathers. Streaks of dark purple paint ran down her cheeks, all the way to her jawline. I sighed just at the sight of her. Sometimes you can tell, just at a glance, that someone is about to do something very stupid. I raised a hand to hail her.

"Hel-" The woman thrust her hands toward me, a swell of magicka rising at her command in an invisible shock wave that shook the nearest trees. And the world shook and wobbled around me, like a pool of stricken water. Darkness engulfed the clear blue sky, and the trees in the wilderness stretched high until they reached far enough for the canopy to brush the clouds. Smoke had vanished, as if he had never been there at all. And all at once the air was filled with a chill.

"Oh," I said, scanning my surroundings.

"An illusion. This is an illusion..." Many wizards had tried to trap me in them in the past, but it never worked. The boiling heat of my own magicka burned such things away easily enough. I let power bubble up inside of me, red hot heat surging through my veins until they glowed faintly under my skin. I focused, and breathed to release a small pulse of my power.

And just like that the illusion dissolved away, the rippling and distorted reality torn away like plumes of smoke from the small push of my power, revealing the reality beneath. The woman was at my side, eyes widening, a gleaming knife clutched in her hands. Smoke started, shaken to awareness when my power tore the illusion away from him. She was shocked but still thrust forth, aiming to drive that blade into my neck. I caught it, felt the ground shudder and rumble at my feet.

She was stronger than she looked, probably could have thrown Yamato aside without much trouble. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. To me, however, that meant little. I snapped the blade, grunting in annoyance as I did so, and Smoke pounced on her. The hellcat snarled, aiming his fangs at her throat, and the weight of his pounce had the cloaked woman skidding back.

She righted herself, spun on her heel, and launched Smoke far down the dirt track.

"I don't know who you are, but-" The woman leaped away before I could finish, crossing at least twenty meters in the blink of an eye. Her power swelled, an aura of violet light shining around her. She held her right hand aloft, the index and middle finger curled around each other.

"Rain of Arrows," she hissed. Sparkles of white light shone around her, and a hail of silver darts erupted toward me.

"Oh come on-" The ground shook as Sakura's Rain of Arrows struck the mysterious man. Though tiny, like needles, each one could punch a deep crater in the earth. As a unit they carved a deep smoking trench in the dirt, tearing a few trees from their moorings and sending them groaning to the ground. She grimaced. Destroying nature was not something a majo should have done, but... well it was a necessity at times, and she would be able to at least replant those trees once all was said and done.

A small shudder ran through her as her feet touched the ground. He'd brushed her Mind Prison aside with terrible ease, as if the illusion hadn't existed at all. She had managed to catch cultivators and yokai with that technique, able to keep them trapped in it more than long enough to take them out properly. She didn't even think anybody could brush it aside. The smoke cleared, a few acres of the roadside land having been scored and pockmarked by her attack.

The man stood there, only marked by a few scratches and scuffs. And those small wounds were already closing up.

"Father," the hellcat shouted. A spirit beast? That would explain the strength she had felt in that kick... The stranger raised a hand, keeping the feline in place.

"I'm fine. Keep back." His eyes were blazing now, like coals, and he sucked in an angry breath through his teeth.

"I don't know who you are, or why you are attacking me... but I would advise you to stop." He spoke those words with great difficulty, anger grating on every syllable. Sakura reached for her belt with a trembling hand. She always carried a sealing jar with her, just in case a forest yokai were to pounce upon her, and she had to hope the sealing talisman writ upon the gourd was strong enough to suppress this bastard. She felt his anger boiling over, the evil karma of his soul churning and rising skyward.

One chance to seal him. If her illusions, if her Rain of Arrows could do nothing to him, then sealing him was the only trick she had left.

"CONTAIN!" Her qi swelled and pitched from her outstretched hand as a blinding vortex of white light. A force that she had used to contain the town-sized ogama last year, which she had used to uproot an entire cluster of dark spirits from the Haunted Copse mere months ago, it was a vortex of power that easily overwhelmed and lifted wicked yokai, a tide of power they could not resist. And it did not budge the man an inch as the churning white light smashed into him.

The foreign giant planted his feet, snarling as he forced back the energy that tried to lift him. Sakura felt his qi pushing outward, an unseen halo of force that ripped the swirling white light away from him. It shouldn't have been possible, just... ignoring a sealing ritual like that. What in the world was this man?! Sweat born from terror poured down Sakura's face, and the ache in her arm grew stronger and stronger.

She could only push her qi to that extreme for so long before she dropped it, the glow dying down and then fading entirely. She gave a shuddering gasp, huffing for breath. The man grit his teeth, and the blaze around his eyes grew stronger.

"Damn," Sakura whispered. Was this it then? She wanted to try and stop this wicked presence, but... it seemed she was out of her depth. And with how he was glaring at her, she could tell her life expectancy had just been reduced to the span of seconds.

"Lady Daji... I'm sorr-""DAMNATION GIRL, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Lady Daji was standing only a few paces down the road, her jaw hanging open.

"Are you seriously attacking strangers on the road?!"

"I..." Sakura swallowed.

"You... Lady Daji, use your Third Eye, you can see-" And the older woman marched over, an irritable look on her face, and she whacked Sakura on the top of the head with the flat of her hand. Not hard, not enough to hurt, just enough to make Sakura wince a bit. The same way Daji oft did whenever Sakura did something to annoy her.

"Good grief," the older woman huffed. She turned, forcing herself to smile at the foreigner. Both he and the hellcat watched them warily, both equally baffled.

"Apologies, sirs. Could I... interest you in a drop of tea?"