Reincarnated Into A Dead Woman's Body In Another World-Chapter 112: Arc 3, - 22: Struck with Rage
Shadows coalesced part of her legs as a soldier caught her neck in a tight hold. The shadows went over her knees before she herself dropped, right next to the elf.
The soldiers threw two needles away, attempting to arm themselves with the muskets slung around their shoulders.
She saw two bodies fell and that was it. Tears barely left her eyes, the adrenaline took over quicker as- "Aegis-Aura," a weak voice threw up a spell on the blonde. Her blade unsheathed like there was no sheath at all.
Sparking with lightning, the armite blade to her side, Jotou sprinted forward to her fallen friends. "SHTCUK!" Before the gun could trigger, the blade was already on the other side of one neck, cauterizing the blood that splattered.
The other gun aimed- "SLICK!" The blade spun like it had no weight at all, slicing across the woman’s face in one swish of the blonde’s stride; the corpses fell to the ground.
"Blast! Blast! Blast! BlasT!" The horses neighed and whimpered, several thuds to the ground as Jotou peered to her left. Aviv fell to the ground, head bleeding out. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮
"Jotou!" the redhead held her heart, pacing forward behind the carriage as fast she could. Her ears and tail spiked as she saw her fallen friends.
"Blast! Blast!" The gunfire did not cease as she came around the corner.
Jotou sheathed her blade and crouched. "Come on Hotaru!" Jotou grabbed the fallen Asobi and Fumeko by their arms and dragged them to the right side of the carriage.
She set them against the carriage—Fumeko moaning and muttering; Asobi seemed unresponsive. The musket shots stopped for a second, no doubt to reload.
"Hotaru, heal them; I’m gonna go take care of the rest of these bastards!" a slight growl in the blonde’s tone, her sword unsheathing in sparks.
Hotaru knelt at the bodies and her hands went forward with glowing blue palms. She tilted the elf’s head as it fell to gravity’s pull. Drops of blood trailed down her neck at the point of injection.
The redhead’s ears bristled, the slight fur on it like thorns; veins of dark bluish-green had spread across from that point, webbing and corrupting over Asobi’s face as her jaw hung open.
"Hotaru..." she barely picked up the voice—usually loud. Fumeko shifted her head to face her, "I, I can’t feel my body..." her eyes were fading in and out of life.
"Blast! Blast! BLAST!"
"HYAH!" "ZAP!!!!"
"GAH-" "SHUCK!" "Ahh!!!!"
Hotaru shifted her concern back and forth, the sounds of battle she could not see at the front of the cart and the brunette. "I- I like you a lot too... and Asobi..." Fumeko’s gaze fell on the elf.
Her pointy ears had drooped, her body falling limper by the second—not a peep from the magician. Fumeko cried, mouth wriggling, "I’m sorry... Thank you, for... taking care of me..."
"...Meko? Meko!?" Hotaru patted the injection point on her neck—heal, heal, HEAL! The point of entry completely healed over, however, the poison travelling through her veins got to her; the brunette lost her last breath...
Water went down Fumeko’s neck, no different than the tears going down Hotaru’s eyes. Hotaru held her other hand to Asobi’s neck, "Asobi!? Sobi!? Wake up!" the wolf-girl cried, shaking Asobi’s head.
Jotou staggered back, a black mark on her shoulder she held, another against the coat near her knee—the armour there scraped to its inner layers.
"Hotaru!? Report!?" Jotou took cover behind the carriage with her, "There’s about four of these dickheads left!"
"Jotou!" Hotaru tugged on the blonde’s coat, desperately clinging, "They’re gone! They’re gone!!!!" she screamed her heart out, "I can’t heal poisons!" her ears fallen.
"BLAST!" The bullet grated across the side of the carriage as Jotou ducked.
"No... NOT AGAIN!!!" Jotou cried out, her spark dimming as she rushed out; as well as the blue aura around her.
"JOTOU!" Hotaru reached her hand out.
Jotou’s eyes targeted the last of them, gunfire be damned. "Blast!" Another bruise that would have pierced her heart, but instead marked the white of her armour.
"Blast! Blast!" And the last of their fire was drawn before they needed to reload the barrel. "SHLICK!" Jotou turned to the other, "ZAP!" her blade made contact with his gun as the lightning travelled across his arm.
Her eyes bled tears; still, her red gaze caught one more trying to run for it, trying frantically to reload his musket. "STAB!"—Right through his ribcage, a sparking sword went through from the back; her hair arced with lightning.
"I wish there was a hell for you to burn for eternity," Jotou took her blade out, the blood solid. She walked back—"STOMP!"—stepping onto the body that still spasmed to her zap. The underside of her boot with another’s blood and neck muscles.
’One, two, three... Wait a minute-’
"GUH!" the redhead’s whimper Jotou recognized. "Blast!"
"HOTARU!" Jotou ran across the bodies in the grass, leaping over Aviv as she saw the one that got away. The soldier aimed her gun to Hotaru who already staggered back.
"GET THE HELL AWAY FROM HER!" Jotou flipped the hilt of her blade to her arm and with a sparking sword, threw it like a spear straight forward.
"Shtick!" Right in her groin. "GAH!!!" she fell, the gun dropping from her hands to retrieve the sword as she fell and rolled to the back of the carriage.
Hotaru sat down next to Fumeko’s corpse, watching above as a golden blonde came into view. Jotou kneeled, "Hotaru, please, no, no, no," Jotou saw the needle still sticking out of her neck.
Hotaru reached into her torso, pulling another bullet out with a grunt and healed over the area. Jotou took the needle out and threw it aside with all her might. She held Hotaru’s neck, watching as the poison webbed over her.
"I’ll reset this. I’ll save all of you. I promise, I promise," only that idea was keeping the blonde sane, wide-eyed as fountains of tears left her eyes—looking to the side were two other bodies...
Hotaru’s left arm tried to move, but fell. The wolf-girl held Jotou’s cheek with her right hand, rubbing weakly under her chin, "Tell us everything again. You can do this... Make me believe again..." the corners of her lips rose.
"I will," the blonde gritted her teeth, holding Hotaru’s wrist with both hands, "I will. The Regime can’t win every time. I’ll figure it out, I will," feverishly she promised.
"I trust you..."
The blonde sobbed, eyeing her other friends, deceased as well. She stared into the brilliant blue pools as veins went over her cheeks.
"Stay strong..." one more chuckle left Hotaru, "You look much better with a smile Thundering Blade... I wanted to make you happy..."
Her final view could not be that. All there was, was a whimpering blonde, clinging onto her wrist. Still, Hotaru’s weakening grip, caressed Jotou’s tears. "I wanted to make you happy too..." Jotou uttered.
With a gulp of her dying breath, "REJUVENATE!" she shrieked out; water formed from the seemingly dry air, from her palms and from Jotou’s tears—all turned a glowing blue as Jotou could feel every ounce of adrenaline in her body...
Her eyes widened, like waking up a thousand times—two hundred shots of coffee, if not three hundred... Her heart accelerated, legs jittered and hands quivered, holding onto Hotaru’s wrist.
The redhead’s smile was webbed with toxins, her eyes with the final view of the blonde. Her arm, limp; her ears fallen and tail wilted behind her...
"I can do this... I can do this..." Jotou peered to her left, down the row of her deceased friends... "I will do this..." her eye twitched, straining the muscles in her arm. Only then did she hear the soft grunting behind the carriage.
Jotou stood up, letting Hotaru’s arm fall. Her gaze did not turn to the bodies around her; instead she strode towards the last breathing body. The soldier held Jotou’s sword and—"Swing!"
Missing completely as Jotou kicked her arm. Jotou wrestled the gun out of her grasp and threw it aside. She picked up the armite blade, for the first time dripping with crimson.
"Spark," nothing but a dead face, Jotou placed the tip of the sword to the soldier’s chest; a weak layer of padding lied under the camo, nothing that an enchanted blade and a spell couldn’t pierce.
The woman panted; the side of her hips and onto her thigh bled out the gash by the blade. She glared to Jotou, soft groans along with heavy breaths...
"If you value your life, then you’ll tell me why you were all here."
The woman looked left and right, "You’re going to kill me anyway, just do it!"
"It’s great that you have some grit in you," Jotou stuck the blade, nearly piercing the skin of her chest, but just poking, "Soldiers; so loyal like zombies to your leaders..."
"GHH!" the woman grunted.
"But I know people are more complicated than that... If you won’t tell me anything, then I’m going to make sure," Jotou put a boot onto her leg, leaning closer, "Your last moments are going to be slow, STinging and SPasming..."
Jotou’s glare nearly broke the teeth she clenched. The woman stared back; slowly Jotou could see in her eyes, the will leaving. ’There’s no other way she’s telling me anything.’ "So, do you really want to learn anatomy?"
"Our lieutenant, ugh... Eli Frye sent us here last night to set up base. He- ngh... didn’t give us everything, I swear! We were to keep this area secure, no one in or out.
Nobody’s come in and you were the first transport going out. The minister! Ow... The minister is in on it. We’re supposed to keep anyone in Hartamat, in Hartamat today, posing as the defence force.
Frye’s paying the minister for the ban. Shh-some sort of experiment rumor has it. That’s all I know!"
"One last question then," Jotou sunk the blade deeper, "Is this actually a ’rogue’ battalion."
She stammered, hovering her hands over the blade, "I-I’m not sure! Some think so, some think not! Please! Just end me already!"
Jotou sighed, steam practically erupting atop her head, "Gladly," she took the blade out and—"SHLICK!"—stabbed into her neck as the soldier began chocking and gagging.
Her blade stayed there for a second, before Jotou’s breathing got heavier, tears down her eyelashes, chest puffing in and out as she watched the soldier writhe for a bit before—"Slice!"—she finally cut her dead...
Jotou panted; around her were nineteen bodies sleeping in the grass with blood. Three of them on the side of the carriage with poison corrupting their corpses.
’Focus... Stay strong... I promised... I’ll reset this, I will save them...’ Jotou took a deep breath, having killed the soldier that poisoned Hotaru...
The blonde looked back down the road—horses were fallen in the front, bleeding out. Jotou realized why the redhead’s last spell had made her feel as such...
