Reincarnated Into A Dead Woman's Body In Another World-Chapter 278: Arc 4, Act II, - 123: Cindering March Part II
"This the best plan we have," Jotou stated to the small audience, minus Asobi. "Rushing in invisibly so that I can land a powerful thundering strike out the gate sounds like a good idea, but to not gauge our enemy is plain dumb.
Besides, the way he’s described makes it seem like he’s wearing plated armour, which means a lot of our attacks are gonna barely make a dent on him; I doubt it’s not enchanted.
But, that’s not our objective. We’ll stand further left towards the edge, as much as we can without making it obvious what our goal is.
The marching order reports so far have all said Cinder’s always up front. Daiyu’ll keep the wall up, keeping him separated from his forces.
There’s no doubt they’re going to use explosives and tank shells to break through; or Cinder himself is gonna crash that wall down.
Till that point, our main goal is to keep knocking and pushing Cinder to the left. Keep taking turns to push him back and stagger him from doing any attacks because he’ll have to defend; even if he counters, I think we can stomach it.
Once the wall is broken enough, Daiyu lose the spell. Or if you think we’ve made enough progress knocking Cinder back, regardless of the damage on the stone pillars, lose the spell and rush to us.
Then, we give it our all. Keeping him at bay and close to the edge, and Daiyu can rockslide him off that edge and into the chasm," Jotou plotted out.
"We’ve seen Daiyu’s rockslide in action, it doesn’t go that far and it’s a thin layer of rocks; are you sure all of you can make it work?" Hotaru remarked.
"We’ll all need to make sure he’s as close to the edge as possible," Fumeko replied.
"Right, and if Fumeko can target the back of his ankles, he’s not gonna be standing much anyway," Jotou uttered.
The king nodded, "I think we can manage this task of pushing him towards the edge. With enough distractions of attacks, the Cindering Brimstone reaching the edge is an eventuality."
Arabella shifted her hands. "What if he manages, to evade that attack and plant, his feet back onto the surface before, he falls," Feyan translated.
"Well, then it doesn’t matter," Jotou shrugged. "We’re all going to be there, we just do everything in our power to push him off if he recovers. The rockslide is just the easiest method.
Even if he somehow miraculously survives that fall, it takes Cinder out of the fight. He’s not gonna be able to get back in time to join his troops and even if he does, he’s gonna be severely damaged.
Even if the wall falls before and Cinder is too far from the edge, that plan isn’t lost; it’s just harder and without the element of surprise."
"If I have to, I’ll upheaval and rockslide, and stone surge. At that point, if we just throw everything at him, he’s not gonna be able to be able to attack properly."
"Just make sure nobody attacks him while one of us is right on him, okay?" Fumeko glared.
"And if he decides to use any fiery offensive magic, it’ll probably meet my or the king’s lightning magic and boom; he’ll be blasted back off a cliff and we’ll be blasted back to the right..."
_
The rocks like small marbles rushed off the cliff, carrying along two heavy feet that were catching on fire. Everyone watched as Cinder’s recoiled back; was it gonna work? Was their fight now merely with the soldiers and tanks firing off in the background?
Those small rocks turned to a brighter shade of red; or were they simply glowing brighter...? The blue flames overtook and licked up the sides of the metal around his legs as he "HUH!" pressed his feet down.
Like crushing fresh grapes, embers crackled and fluttered into the air as the ground below melted to sink his feet in. The molten rock compressed down by his weight as he stood his ground.
"Tnk, Ting, Ping, Pang..." Down went the helmet off of his head, echoing its way down off the side of the cliff further and further.
Wolf ears of mousy browns poking up high and short-kept hair; Dark tan skin, sunken eyes of hazel with a large scar going over the left one.
Gritting his teeth, his fangs poked out. He stepped each foot out of the magma and onto solid ground, raising the longsword in his left hand.
Looks like they had to go ahead with plan B. "You, won’t, win," the Thundering Blade’s eyes sparked as she raised her sparked blade and dashed forward.
Fumeko blinked ahead, the king rushed towards, Daiyu raised her foot while Arabella swirled up the sand- "FWOOSH! THUD!" "ENOUGH!" as he yelled layers of flames bricked up around him and expanded outwards.
Fumeko blinked away immediately, the rest were buffeted by the wall-like structure backwards. Blue flames burned brightly, illuminating the area in sapphiric hues.
Across half the area and towering a few metres high was a wall of fiery blue blocks and slabs, moving all of his opponents away in a single push.
The soldiers paused and peered before having to focus on the fight once more. Those who were pushed back got back up on their feet.
"Shit," Daiyu cursed and glanced to her right, the bullets were seconds away from firing in their direction. The rest peered up the wall whilst the king glared through the transparency to Cinder who stood still by the edge.
Jotou stared... "I’ve seen this spell before..." Her memories recalled the snowstorm that happened upon Kria... "He has a defensive affinity too!" Jotou informed to everyone.
"It’s not our only issue," Fumeko muttered appearing next to Jotou. She pointed to the area around Cinder; only a few metres away was the narrow bridge of land...
And along it, they could see incoming Trailonian soldiers on carriages as clear as day; it seemed like they were waiting to cross it after a signal...
Cinder growled, taking steps forward within the firewall, "My power surges... forever... I, WILL BE FEARED! YOU WILL NOT END ME! Weaklings; inadequate scum..." he spouted as in his eyes swirled bluish flames.
"Bit full of himself," Daiyu uttered.
"Detective, can you break the wall?"
"I can blink through it, but I’m useless if he’s just gonna burn me the second I get close."
"Blast!" Gunfire began to inch closer to them. "Ugh, get through the wall, I’ll deal with this. Stone Surge!" Daiyu stomped and jetted out stone pillars towards the Trailonian forces, curving it and twisting it through their ranks.
The pillars went through tanks, flipping them over in an instant and—"THUD!"— hit the firewall but was just stuck slammed against it, unable to go further through.
Bullets of course fired, but were useless against the Undying Princess. Arabella aided her from behind, shielding her own head with sand and dust.
"This barrier is still a spell. With enough magical force, it will break," the king said as he eyed it up. Cinder, with the wall now up, looked to his right, where a line of tents were not too far off.
He deconstructed the part of the wall and swivelled his longsword with a grunt. Blue flames stormed out and Cinder sent the spell flying towards it all.
Like a phoenix of blue flames, the fires scorched the tents, equipment and earth in one straight line, spanning for nearly a kilometre before dissipating.
The onlookers eyes widened, as the earth blew embers into the air, glowing a dark ruby-like red as it slowly shifted hues, darker and darker till the small flames across burned a bright dark blue.
Who knows how many lives were just, charred...? "Hotaru..." Fumeko’s heart stopped for a second.
Jotou huffed, "They’re further in, don’t worry, he just got the edge of the base." She gripped her sword tighter and her eyes sparked, "Meko, try to go in and break his concentration on this spell, while we try and break the wall to get through."
"Did you see what just happened!?" she turned and panted.
"Fine, break the wall with us then," in sparks Jotou bashed her sword against the wall, only for it to fizzle and smoke up from the mixing of lightning and flames.
Fumeko started from... Her hand quivered to even go close to the wall of fire... It was so, warm... Jotou stepped back as the king used light magics to start chipping away at the wall as well.
The blonde looked to Fumeko... She didn’t want to force her to get any closer to the one thing she feared so much... Instead, she assessed the situation around her.
’Take the dagger and use it to cut a door through? What’s the point, I’ve seen Kor cast this spell. You can deconstruct the wall and build it up wherever. Even if we break through, we have less than a second to get in.’
Her blonde locks highlighted in blues looked to her right, where Daiyu and Arabella handled much of the incoming advance from them; a small white butterfly fluttering through she could even notice.
The Trailonian soldiers coming across the narrow path would have to at least take ten minutes or so to get here. However, that wasn’t the only thing Cinder was up to.
Cinder broke apart the wall from the left as Trailonian soldiers from the main fight fled into the walled off area and brought along artificial covers to set up a quick barricade.
While they took their injured comrades onto the narrow path speedily on small horsaroach carriages. ’Son of a bitch... If we don’t get to him fast enough, we’re gonna be surrounded like hell and then we can’t get to him.’
"Fumeko, them," Jotou pointed.
Fumeko broke out of her fear and glanced over, "Got it," she blinked through the firewall and blinked a few times towards the narrow path where she stabbed into the neck of a horse to halt the carriage.
She blinked out of the way before anyone else could react. Cinder looked in the same direction with a glare... ’Fumeko’s causing chaos for that path at least.
Think Jotou, think. Asobi’s casting from a bit further away and while her illusions can get through, there’s no guarantee Cinder’s fires won’t snuff the manifestations out.’
"Daiyu!"
"Bit busy!" as she replied, she flew a few Trailonian soldiers into the air with an upheaval.
"Can you cast something ranged at him!?"
Daiyu groaned off a bullet and turned her head, "Do you realize how FAR HE IS!?"
"Fine!" Jotou looked back around as Cinder raised a flaming sword, directing it towards more of the division. "No, no, no!"
"Woosh!" Fumeko appeared atop of Cinder and attempted to stab into his head. "OW!" Fumeko blinked right off as Cinder protected himself in a layer of blue flames. Though it did distract him just enough.
Jotou gritted her teeth to the wall, "How, annoying!!! Cinder you fucking coward! Hide behind your little wall like a scaredy-cat and expect anyone to fear you!? This is all you got!? Weak! Scared! Nothing but a sham of strength!"
Jotou bashed her sparking sword against the wall, creating smoke and sparks to fly off, taking Cinder’s attention. The wall she was striking against jetted itself out of place.
Jotou stepped back and swung it again and again, but Cinder brought the block back to make sure a gap wasn’t made.
’That’s right, keep your eyes on me. But Fumeko can’t get on him either, hell. He needs to break his concentration, that bridge needs to be blocked off, it’s a quick escape and a quick entry for backup.’
"DUFF! BLASTT!" King Akimitsu created a ring of lightning and blasted a hole into the wall before rushing in. Not a second later, Cinder blocked the king off and shut him outside once more.
The king took a breath, "At this rate, he is hoping we will expend our energy first."
"It’s not a bad strategy," Jotou hushed. ’But I need to think of one better right now!’ Jotou looked up the wall, till the bright blue sky above...
She glanced back down, to the line of Trailonian soldiers retreating and approaching through the narrow path; they had met each other halfway...
Fumeko kept some of them at bay, creating a congestion at the mouth of the path, before she blinked back to grab the approaching Cinder’s attention for a split second...
’Till every last breath, right? Till it all crash and burns...’ "Fumeko! You’re done, get back here!" Jotou screamed at the top of her lungs. "Fragmenting Lightning, stand back; once this wall’s down, you’re our best bet to kill him."
Fumeko blinked all the way back as the king turned, "You seem to have an idea of what to do."
"You’ll see."
"See what?" Fumeko squinted.
"No time. Daiyu!"
"Yeah!?" the princess glanced over.
Jolts of electricity began to arc from Jotou’s knuckles, jumping down the back of her palms and to her fingertips. The lightning began to fizzle and spread down her arm within a second. "Can you give me a lift!? High as you can psychopath!" she peered up the wall.
Daiyu furrowed her brows, looking up, "I’ll fucking try!" she shrugged.
The sound of the lightning twisting around her arm got louder and louder, like it was charging up, "Ready when you are!"
The detective connected the dots, "No, wait! There must be something else we can think-"
The ground shook as Daiyu stomped the earth, quaking the furthest she could; in rhythmic pulses each quake shook everyone up. "Stone Surge!"
Jotou was already facing up, her eyes sparking as bright as gold as lightning now coiled and coiled around her entire form. ’I’ll make it. I’ll live. All of you; I’ll be back...’
Expecting an upheaval from beneath, Jotou was instead jetted into the air by stone pillars, several metres high. The blonde managed to let out a giggle, muffled in the sound of pulsating lightning, "That’ll do too..."
Her body was thrown into the sky and she raised her sword high, "Webbing Lightning!" the next thing she saw was a bright yellow flash of light, as—"CLATTER! BLAST!"—a bolt of yellow lightning shot into the sky...
"JOTOU!"
