Reincarnated Into A Dead Woman's Body In Another World-Chapter 332: Arc 5, - 26: Not Knowing When to Quit

"This one..." the stone-woman spoke with a rumble. "Who is this...?"

"As if I know. I’m more concerned about what occurred to the twenty guards concealed outside to keep watch," the spirit-mage replied while Jotou got up to her feet and glared—her skin dirtied and hair frizzled.

"Incompetent. Useless..." the stone hissed.

"My best assumption is that this is some group of adventurers. Enough of this farce, let us end their meaningless lives."

"Do you believe that was not the intent from the beginning!?"

"I’m not that easy to kill, believe it or not," Jotou’s eyes sparked. ’Grab the sword. The spirit-mage is out of reach. If I can take out an entire floor off a building, I can take down some stone, thing... But if it’s stone made from magic... That’s where it’s failing... Still...’

"Is that so?" the ghosts had halted their attack for the moment and the runes on her body returned to their pulsing state.

"I’m the Thundering Blade," she knitted her brows.

"...That Thundering Blade...?" the spirit-woman’s emotionless face grew the tiniest fraction of a frown, "How disappointing you are for all your tales..."

Jotou’s eyes moved away from her fallen sword and glared to the spirit-mage with a spark, "Why don’t you get off your coward’s throne and we’ll see if you’re still disappointed."

She was hardly fazed, "Fear is not the reason, the reason lies within power. You call me a coward yet you do the same with the magics you’ve been given, do you not? You have no grounds to call me a coward, coward."

"Really? Seems to me like I’m taking my battle head-on, while one conveniently floats away like a child’s balloon and the other hides behind rocks," Jotou’s brown eyes darted to the stone-woman and the armite blade near her.

"Provoking us won’t yield desirable results," the runes on her body shined a golden glow.

"Rumble..."

Out from the stone came the silver-haired woman of four arms. Her scarlet eyes glared to the blonde and she tilted her head...

A smirk crept up on the Thundering Blade’s lips, "Is that so?" a spark danced along her skin. ’You can do this. Keep fighting.’

The spirit-mage flexed a finger and sighed, "Do us a favour and die in haste." The paused ghosts reanimated and swarmed towards the blonde.

With a thin layer of greyish-silver stone coating her parts of her body like armour, she stomped forward on the mesh walkway with a snarl and unblinking eyes.

"Struck a nerve have I~?" Jotou spoke to the incoming charge and opted for a charge of her own. She waited, for just... the right, time! "Shoulder-Charge!" she took her stance and lightning arced across her entire form.

She slid away from the ghosts and the stone-woman just about to hit her. "Tung!" Jotou charged into the wall to the side and bounced off behind the stone-woman.

Her breath she drew quick and rolled with the momentum she got. With one swift move, she gripped the handle of her sword on the floor and spun it around to face her opponents.

The blade sparked her familiar yellow and she kept her back straight and unarmed hand close to her chest. Her legs took a wider stance. "Swish! Fwish! Shew!"

She curved and pivoted her blade in an infinity pattern and defended herself closely. The ghosts had to become tangible to get her after all; getting close was more harmful to them than her.

Her stance tightened and her feet danced close together. Ghosts flew from above and under towards her in the same instance. Lightning whizzed and swished across.

She jumped backwards and stabbed below, before gracefully landing on the tips of her toes and widened her stance with a huff. "Tuff! Bash!"

Stone rushed along the walls and floors to get her, "Kickbolt!" she dodged with a kick that blocked the stone. "Duff!" "Thundering Strike!" With a quick reaction, she spun and- "Blast!!!" let out enough thunder to crumble it.

A stone spike ejected from the ground where she stood and the silver-haired woman was already rushing towards Jotou with ghosts behind her.

The Thundering Blade kept her head in a swivel and she kept her feet close. She spun once with her blade out and heard the sizzle of ectoplasm from the ghosts she did not see coming behind her as well.

She spun back to see an incoming punch of four arms together. Jotou stumbled back and chose to fall. "CLOBBER!" The stone on the silver-haired woman’s arms crumbled as another layer took its place.

The blonde caught herself on one hand and landed both feet to the side—a failed cartwheel one would call it, but enough to land her back and allow her to get up onto her feet.

She pointed her blade up, "I promise, I’ll be the end of you," her eyes sparked.

As for the happenings on the lower floor...

"Hold still," Hotaru had wiped the blood off her face and traced her hands of glowing blue water across Asobi’s abdomen, "Meko, anything?" she hushed.

An invisible Fumeko whispered back, "We’re still safe, nobody’s found us." Asobi muttered under her breath as she was healed.

The elf was leaned up against the crate whilst Hotaru faced her and healed. In one of the warehouse’s storage spaces behind the shutter doors, the three of them hid.

Her crimson ears pricked, "Jotou’s above us, I hear her voice."

"Are we winning?" Asobi waved her wand and distracted herself from the sting of healing internal injuries.

"I wouldn’t quite say that... That spirit-mage and the man I fought," Hotaru shifted her hand under Asobi’s blazer.

"That super creepy statue creature that had four arms and the slimy lady," she made small illusions of them on the floor.

"Who even are they? Their magic seems..."

"I don’t exactly know, but I have a good guess," Fumeko answered. "Someone’s coming, a lot of them are coming," she ducked behind the crates and gripped her dagger.

"Why are we hiding? We can win," Asobi believed and managed to smile. No response came in reply... After being overwhelmed and thrown into a panic, they were happy to keep their heartrates in check for the short moment.

Asobi furrowed her brows, "Come on, Jotou’s fighting, we can’t just!"

"Yeah, yeah," Fumeko said and huffed out a breath.

Hotaru shook her head and formed claws once more, "I know," it was hard to hide the worry in her voice. "But Jotou can also handle herself," she believed; she had to believe. "Aegis-Aura," she re-casted.

Their heads poked out and Fumeko blinked into the scene. "Huck!" "AH!" She went ahead and slit their throats without a second thought.

Hotaru and Asobi ran out—"FWOOSH!"—and narrowly avoided the orange fireball that flew past in between them. "PFF!" It exploded against the back wall.

"Another one!?" Hotaru exclaimed.

"Shlick!" Fumeko threw her dagger and stuck into the throat of the man with his hands that summoned flames. She warped the dagger into her hand and blinked behind him, stabbing him in the back of the skull for good measure.

The caster dropped to the floor as a corpse, "Don’t think so," the brunette spun the dagger between her fingers. As the two ran out... the scene was surprisingly sparce.

"Blast!" "Ow!" A bullet hit Fumeko’s cloak and pinged off. She turned in the direction and blinked to the rifle set upon a couple of crates. With a slice, she finished off the cultist behind it and took the rifle.

She blinked back to them and tossed it to the floor. "They’re playing hide and seek now?" Asobi looked in every direction.

"It just means their numbers are really low right now," Fumeko glanced up to see ghosts of all hues and grotesque faces swarming the walkway, stone covering the walls and arcs of yellow lightning.

"Jotou!" Fumeko yelled up.

The blonde had gotten to the opposite side she was before. Her left hand cheek dripped blood down her chin from a large gash going from lip to ear. "Need some assistance detective!" she peered in a second and shouted down.

"On my way!" Fumeko blinked upwards in the air towards her. "SPLOOSH!" In the air, she was caught by a whirlpool of aquamarine water. She stopped her breath and opened up one eye.

With shadows, she blinked out of it barely and landed onto the mesh walkway. The slime-girl watched from below and dissipated the spell before aiming her sights elsewhere.

The brunette was stood beside Jotou and aimed her dagger to the floating spirit-mage. She threw it towards and blinked up into the air to get behind the spirit-mage.

Jotou knitted her brows and readied her sword to the stone-woman raising her arms. The spirit-mage moved out of the trajectory of the dagger and her ’throne’ caught Fumeko as she appeared.

"I can so easily see where you’re going," the spirit-mage exhaled and made the ghost toss Fumeko aside. The brunette had already blinked out and fell back on the walkway.

"BBRR!" "BASH!" Fumeko was caught and encased in stone immediately. A pillar emerged from the wall to push her over the railing and instead sent her flying across the warehouse. "BANG!"

Her back hit the wall first and she blinked to the floor with a whimpering groan. Jotou’s eyes widened and she kept her defensive-offensive assault and spun to avoid what was coming—though her feet were getting more tired by the second...

The redhead rushed over to the fallen Fumeko and picked her up. "I’m fine... Wait, where’re all the bodies?" she glanced right to the staircase devoid of corpses.

"Oh, they were quite delicious! Though I don’t have the sense of taste in that form I suppose. Anywho! It’s a shame you chose not to submit," the slime-girl’s eyes narrowed and water swirled around her.

Fumeko dragged Hotaru by the arm away and Asobi ran in the other direction. "Oh enough." "BWOOSH!" "CRSH!" Water jetted around from her and walled in from either side.

The next second, the three were submerged and pushed back together. The water splashed onto the floor and crates came crashing with it—the aegis-aura disappeared.

The three of them spat out water and shuddered from the cold against their neck and cheeks. Hotaru’s beret was lost, Asobi saw her top hat rolling away and all their earmuffs were gone for good. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

Fortunately, Fumeko’s headband was tangled into her hair as always. She blinked away and Asobi made her and Hotaru go invisible—all of them were out of sight.

"Ughhhh-AahhH!" the slime-girl clenched her fists. "What’s this tantalizing and teasing act? It’s getting me pent-up! How many times are they going to pull this same disappearing act!? How long do they intend to drag this out!?"

"Don’t flood the place," a dog of black fur and floppy ears spoke to her in a low monotonous tone of a man.

"I am not getting everything wet again!" she proclaimed as the dog appeared before her.

"I know your temptations... I shall find them; there’s a meal for you all over the floor.

The slime-girl looked down upon the dog, "May we at least spare the elf? I want to keep her for myself."

"If we can help it. But your fantasies are not a priority at the moment."

"I am aware..." she pouted.

The dog sniffed the floor and glanced around. With a loud bark, the dog led the slime-girl in a direction. The dog’s limbs morphed and transformed into muscle-bound flesh.

A thick brown hide and half the height of an average person—double the width. It had a boar-like face, head and tusks; its ears were akin to a bat’s.

Its limbs were all connected with a thin membrane of brown skin covered in fur as it ran on all fours like a gorilla almost. It gained speed and charged for what appeared to be nothing.

"AH!" Asobi’s voice yelled as her shoes clacked along the floor. "SLOOSH!" A wide wave crashed over where the slime-girl heard the footsteps and crashed Asobi into some crates—the invisibility wore off.

"GAH!" the creature chased the wolf-girl and got her. It crashed into her with its tusks, but did no harm to her leather skirt. As it crashed into her against some crates, Hotaru fell over.

The next moment Hotaru opened her eyes to see, towering above her was some large brown ape the height of two or three crates.

It grabbed her by the end of her crimson tail and hoisted her up. Hotaru gasped and felt a shock down her spine. Her claws instinctively attempted to slash at the creature, but to no avail.

"Blast!" "Woah!"

"Gh!" the ape creature recoiled as a bullet grazed across its eye. The source of it was a brunette who had fallen over the top of a crate and a rifle she couldn’t handle the recoil of.

"You are not supposed to have that!" the slime-girl’s feet turned into waves of water and she surfed across the floor towards Fumeko.

Wide were Hotaru’s eyes and her ears were spiked as she bared her fangs in a growl. "Snap!" "KHAAAAHHHH!!!!!!"" Her entire body squirmed and a bloodcurdling scream echoed throughout the building...

"HOTARU!"