"Kyaaaa!!"
The bratty little priestess Chiho was about to be struck down!
"Chiho!"
CLANG!
Shinnosuke blocked the attack from Kare-Momo Gaki's withered branch-like hand!
"Come out! Come out, dammit..."
Swish... swish...
Chiho swung her shakujō staff for all she was worth, but it seemed her sorcery had been sealed. No spell would come!
Yasutaka and Mōha rushed to back her up.
"Fire Escape Technique!"
FWOOOOSH!!
A blazing orb of flame burst from Mōha and struck Kare-Momo Gaki!
"Gyaaghk-bulgh..."
Kare-Momo Gaki, a shriveled peach with limbs of dead branches, was burned to a crisp in an instant.
But the things were numerous, nearly ten of them in all.
And what's more...
"Stay back!! Glurk..."
Jaō-kuzu, too, was rampaging.
The swordsmen skilled in physical combat were fighting to bring down Kare-Momo Gaki, but Jaō-kuzu turned on them instead, swallowing them whole!
Watching this, Yasutaka narrowed his eyes.
"Something's off! These monsters are working together!"
"What?! What's going on here!"
Ordinarily, monsters are little more than beasts. Unless a monster happens to possess real intelligence, it moves on instinct alone, same as any animal.
Even the ones that wield sorcery are mostly just acting on instinct, more often than not without a lick of sense behind it.
But Jaō-kuzu was plainly avoiding the priests and going straight for the swordsmen.
Mōha spat out a curse.
"Damn it, what do we do?!"
Standing a bit further back, Yasutaka's group had the easier time reacting, but if they didn't do something, things would turn dangerous fast!
(If only I could stop that thing from moving!)
As Yasutaka turned this over in his mind... he suddenly spotted just the thing.
(Hm? Is that a storehouse?)
He noticed a modest earthen storehouse standing within the estate grounds.
Its window was smashed, useless as a storehouse anymore, but the sight of it lit something in his head.
(This could work!)
The moment the thought struck him, Yasutaka moved.
He snatched up a fallen branch, a good big one, and hurled it at Jaō-kuzu.
"Hey, hey! Come this way, hurry up!"
Splurch... splurch...
The branch was swallowed whole and dissolved almost instantly, but it did the job of getting the creature's attention.
Mōha called out at Yasutaka's baffling behavior.
"What are you doing, Taka?!"
"I'm luring it into that storehouse! Mōha, get the mobile priests near it!"
"Got it!"
Mōha hurried off, rounding up the other priests.
All that was left was for Yasutaka to lure the thing in, but...
(Huh? It's not rising to the bait?)
Sure enough, its movement stalled a hair whenever the branch struck it, but the creature wasn't reacting to the provocation at all. It kept right on hunting for openings among the swordsmen.
(Just as I thought! Somebody's controlling this thing!)
Yasutaka kept baiting Jaō-kuzu while keeping a wary eye on his surroundings...
Grooomph...
Jaō-kuzu spun halfway around... aiming, it seemed, straight at Yasutaka.
(There we go! It's moving!)
Noticing this, Yasutaka snatched up more scrap timber lying around and flung it to provoke the beast further.
Splurch... splurch... shhhk...
Jaō-kuzu began advancing, its sights set on Yasutaka!
"Come this way! Hurry up!"
Yasutaka drew the creature on carefully.
Being so massive, Jaō-kuzu's movements tended to run in straight lines.
In other words, it could close distance fast, but it couldn't turn on a dime, meaning a nimble opponent could dodge it easily enough.
Or so he thought...
A shiver...
Yasutaka felt the touch of some sorcery land on him!
A glance told him why: Kare-Momo Gaki had cast a sorcery-seal his way.
(Not that it'll do you any good...)
Yasutaka couldn't use sorcery to begin with, so the spell had no effect on him whatsoever.
But the fact that they'd resorted to such a thing at all told him something.
(??? Did whoever was controlling them suddenly vanish?)
It seemed both Jaō-kuzu and Kare-Momo Gaki had stopped coordinating.
They were rampaging wild and undirected now, and Kare-Momo Gaki was flinging sorcery-seals every which way without rhyme or reason.
(So that's why it suddenly took my bait...)
Kare-Momo Gaki itself wasn't much of a threat, so Yasutaka turned his full attention back to Jaō-kuzu.
A low, warping groan...
Jaō-kuzu hunched low and twisted, as if gathering its strength.
(Here it comes...)
Yasutaka checked behind him again and took a few steps back.
Behind him stood the storehouse, sturdy but for its broken door, and he adjusted his position, lining up the angle between the doorway and the beast.
The moment Jaō-kuzu finished gathering its strength and went dead still—
(This is it!)
Yasutaka flung himself in a wild dive to the side!
CRASH!
The storehouse door shattered, and Jaō-kuzu's bulk vanished inside for the moment.
As dust billowed up, Yasutaka checked the inside of the storehouse at once!
A wet, wobbling squelch...
Something was writhing within the cloud of dust!
"Mōha!"
"Right on! Everyone, let's go!"
"Great Flame Invocation!"
FWOOOM!!
The inside of the storehouse blazed crimson, fire erupting in a violent burst!
The remaining priests threw every bit of their flame sorcery into it at once, and the fire raged wild within the storehouse walls.
"Die already!!"
"Burn it all to ash!!"
The priests poured on spell after spell of fire without pause.
Meanwhile, as for Kare-Momo Gaki...
SLASH!
"Jaō-kuzu's stopped moving! Now make sure none of these things get anywhere near that storehouse!"
"Cut down every last one of them!"
Kare-Momo Gaki had never been much of a threat to begin with, and one by one, they fell without much fight...
The battle's outcome was all but settled now.
Yasutaka dropped down onto the ground, plopping right on his backside.
Mōha wandered over and offered a single remark.
"Don't slack off now."
"Just... let me rest already..."
Worn clean out, Yasutaka had no strength left to do anything but slump where he sat.