Chapter 95: The Blue Oni Samurai, Hikari

Elizabeth smiled softly as she watched Hikari. Unlike Reinhardt, Hikari was full of energy and naturally outgoing, her spirit bright even in this dark place.

Yet what worried Elizabeth far more were her maid and butler.

“Will Gigantia and Vlad be all right?” she sighed, her voice tight with concern. “I can sense them… I think their presences are growing stronger. They are still alive then. But where? They seem to be struggling hard. Damn it, is it that place over there?”

She looked into the distance. Most of the floating islands held no lifeforce beyond more Nightmares, but one island far ahead stood out. It was covered by a dense jungle of black trees and crowned by a raging volcano. From that island she could sense many people still alive and fighting desperately.

“There!” Her eyes gleamed with sudden determination. “Let’s hurry!”

Hikari nodded firmly. Elizabeth spread her powerful wings and flapped them rapidly, piercing through the sky at lightning speed and racing farther and farther toward her destination.

As she flew at such high speed, she noticed a large swarm of Nightmares emerging from the nearby smaller floating islands. The creatures had clearly noticed that she was ignoring those islands completely, and this seemed to make them angrier.

Were they waiting in ambush?

Whatever the case, they were here now.

“GRYYAARRRR!”

The swarm hissed at her, revealing their aberrant forms. They resembled massive, bus-sized bats with beautiful, blue-skinned elven faces that looked disturbingly similar to Alfrion.

“Ugh, everything looks like that man here!” Hikari groaned as she stood ready. “And there are so many of them! Does this wicked hell create demons without end?”

“You would not be wrong for saying that,” Elizabeth nodded, gripping the Daylight Blade as a pillar of blinding sunlight and harmonious light rose from her hand.

“Nightmare Realms are worse than Nightmare Nests,” Mongrel explained while floating above Elizabeth’s head. “They produce Nightmares at a staggering pace, while Nests can only infect and create beings based on what they absorb from the surrounding environment. This is a huge flock. They are here simply to waste our time! It would not be wrong to say the Nightmare Embryo might already know what we are doing and is purposely controlling the Nightmares to stop us!”

“So it has realized we are trying to stop people from dying,” Elizabeth said, narrowing her eyes. “Well, there is no point in dwelling on that. Let’s take care of them! Hikari, can you fight?”

“Of course!” Hikari answered proudly, holding both her naginata and the new one Anna had made for her. “With this new equipment you have gifted me, I shall slay these foes in the name of my family!”

“Well said,” Elizabeth nodded.

“GROOOAAARRR!”

The huge flock of Nightmare Bats drew closer. Their forms looked more and more like bat-like blue-skinned demons, and their pretty faces only made the sight more disturbing.

As they closed in, they attacked with sharp talons and powerful ultrasonic waves from jaws that opened unnaturally wide, four times larger than before.

TRUUUM!

TRUUUM!

TRUUUM!

“Ugh?!”

Elizabeth groaned in pain as dozens upon dozens of powerful sound waves struck her body from every angle. A normal person would likely have exploded into pieces from even one such attack, but as a dragon she could endure multiple strikes at once.

Even though her organs shook violently inside her, she kept her composure and tried to reverse the sound waves with Harmonious Chaos Reversal. Yet the attacks moved too fast and faded too quickly for her to transform them into silence.

Thus the only way to deal with this threat was to kill them all!

“RAAAAHHHHH!”

With a fierce roar she unleashed her first attack, a devastating breath of light and darkness. The nearest bat Nightmares were instantly caught in the white and black flames and burned to cinders within seconds, exploding into ashes.

BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM!

As they died, Elizabeth rushed closer. Hikari intercepted all those that flocked around them. She swung her two naginatas with dexterous mastery, thrusting them forward at rapid speed while her aura fluctuated and formed a black lotus behind her.

“Black Lotus Naginata Art – Umbral Garden.”

SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!

Black petals spread everywhere as the bats were cut sharply and bisected one after another. Blinding dream light poured from her second naginata, allowing her to deal massive damage to the Nightmares thanks to Elizabeth’s earlier gifts, while her armor shielded her well enough from their counterattacks.

“Elizabeth! We are drawing closer to the island, but they will not give up!” Hikari called out.

“I know!” Elizabeth roared after closing her jaws once she had devastated a large part of the colony, though many more remained. “We are going all out!”

Holding her Daylight Blade, she moved forward and unleashed several consecutive Grass Cutting Attacks combined with Sword Light. Giant shockwaves of golden, blinding light sharp as blades tore through the air.

Their supersonic sound wave attacks could not stop light itself. The radiant blades pierced through their defenses and formations, cutting them apart by the dozens. Blood and guts splattered across the sky.

She rose higher and higher, catching another group by unleashing her freezing breath and firing dozens of icicles that pierced their chests, shattered their cores, or froze them solid so she could finish them with Sword Light.

As she descended she was greeted by over thirty more bat monsters screaming together so loudly that she was pushed backward.

“Aaaaaggghh!”

The agonizingly loud sound made her ears bleed. For a moment Elizabeth felt dazed and confused. She clenched her teeth as the bats swarmed her.

“E-Elizabeth!!!”

Hikari groaned in pain as well, also suffering under the effects of the powerful sound waves. If this continued, the attacks would kill them both.

“E… ENOUGH!!!”

Elizabeth charged energy into her throat and roared louder than the bats’ combined assault. The creatures gasped and screamed in fear at the force of her Dragon Roar.

Dragon Roars were a skill that Adult Dragons developed, capable of instantly causing Fear and Stun in weaker foes.

And this was the power Elizabeth had just awakened.

“Gryyyyyhhh?!”

The bats let out painful little cries as they passed out on the spot, falling from the sky one by one.

Hikari leaped forward at once, using her technique to cut them apart and finish them off, while Elizabeth caught her safely in midair.

-----