Mob Sorcery 5 - Ch49

Note: Chapters 47-51 are being posted together. Be sure to read them in order. Commentary after Ch51.

Vince’s flame explosion spell erupted around him, consuming the inner barrier immediately. Mei vanished. As the barriers fell apart, his dragon coiled around him, protecting him from a possible counterattack.

A short distance away, Mei reappeared without her barrier. The tips of her hair smoked and her robes glittered with magic to protect her. She glared at him, fury filling her eyes as her tails flung about behind herself, readying either a powerful attack or a barrier.

Her chest exploded in gore and Mei froze. Blood gurgled from her mouth as she looked down at the outstretched arm protruding from her, which was clad in a skintight bodysuit.

“No,” Mei murmured between the blood, glaring behind her. “I refuse…”

Anzu oozed into existence, one arm still through Mei’s body and the other gripping the base of the elder fox’s eight silver tails. Her expression terrified Vince.

“I assumed this would take longer,” Anzu said. “That you’d drag this out and you’d be forced to the ground, burned and limbless by Vince’s overwhelming power, and then I’d pop your head like a melon with my boot. Oh, well. This works, too.”

The hand around Mei’s tails tightened.

Mei smiled, causing Anzu to freeze.

“Did you forget you’re not the only master of illusions?” Mei said, her voice unhindered by her lack of functioning lungs.

Anzu spun, and Mei’s “body” burst apart into light. A small log appeared in its place with a paper talisman attached to it.

Mei and her eight glowing tails towered over Anzu. Desperately, Anzu tried to teleport away. Her body was half-visible when the telekinetic blast embedded her into a crater.

Her barrier burst, and Anzu’s eyes bulged as a massive force slammed her into the ground from above, almost like some sort of crusher. Green light washed over her, mixing with her purple empowerment magic.

But she continued to move, trying to rise. Her tails flickered white.

Mei sneered and her tails flung telekinetic blades at Anzu.

Vince’s dragon crashed down atop Anzu, blocking the blades. The clan guardian stared up at the flaming behemoth in shock, smiled slightly, then teleported away.

A flame laser burned in the dragon’s maw, barely a few feet away from Mei. Outrage filled the fox’s face.

“You dare to bring this thing this close!” Mei snapped.

Foxfire surged from her tails and fingertips, and met the flame laser inches from her face. The azure flames overwhelmed Daji’s magic, and Vince began to pull his dragon back. But a flood of foxfire rose above Mei, preparing to wash over his beast.

A wall of golden light shimmered into existence, absorbing and slowing the flood.

Gaby dashed along the top of the dragon, her footsteps glittering with light magic as she ran atop the largely insubstantial summon. Two lances glowed in her hands. She leaped off the dragon’s head and hurled them at Mei, creating explosions as the fox met them with her own spells.

“Gaby!” Vince called out, half-relieved, half-thrilled. “Where’s Nina?”

“See for yourself,” Gaby shouted back.

The ground around Mei exploded, sending dust and dirt flying upward in a plume a hundred feet high, only for it to explode as well. Nina stood on the edge of the crater she’d made, her gauntlet thrust into the ground and fully healed.

That had been the plan all along should they go down. Let Gaby’s healing magic bring her back up and she could feed infusions to the other wounded. Mei would almost certainly ignore the wounded in favor of fighters, and Vince’s job was to make sure that happened. Anzu and Momo used illusions to stop her from realizing anyone was being healed. Cora had partly given things away, thanks to Goro using his own infusion on her.

Presumably, Ashley would show herself soon.

“Goro, get your biggest spell ready,” Vince yelled at the fox heir.

Midway through casting foxfire, Goro paused, then nodded at Vince. “I missed the chance to use it against you, so I will instead use it alongside you.”

When the dust settled from Nina’s meister-tier spell, Mei stood inside a golden box of light. She hovered in the air above the crater, unharmed and already preparing telekinetic blasts to pummel everyone with.

Vince had seen this barrier before. She’d cast it with a talisman. He began to keep internal track of the protective spells she used, including her teleports. All magic tools had limits to their usage, and Mei never used the same talisman in quick succession, even when she held duplicates.

Momo’s plan made sense, with some alteration. They needed to hit Mei hard enough over a short period of time, forcing Mei to use her defensive measures one after the other.

Then, and only then, could Vince deal the finishing blow with Daji’s magic-eating flames. Everything from now until then was a battle of endurance.

Rather than bombard them with telekinetic blasts, Mei teleported across the stadium, far farther than her teleportation bracelets let her. She appeared beside the illusion of Ashley, who remained immobile with her head and chest planted into the ground.

“Begone,” Mei spat.

Foxfire obliterated Ashley. Or the illusion of her, in any case. Mei cursed as she realized the trick.

“I’ll just have to do it all again, won’t I?” Her eyes locked onto Vince. “Surely by now you’ve realized how pointless this is?”

Vince pointed his cane at her and fired a flame laser. She batted it aside with foxfire.

Mei frowned. “What a waste.”

“I’d say the same thing,” Daji said in his mind. “She would have looked good bouncing on your cock. A shame.”

His attempt to flood her with more black flames were met with foxfire, and she resummoned the foxfire portal beneath her feet to stop anyone getting too close as well as his flame pillars.

Momo and Gaby circled her while running, the former hurling surprisingly weak force blasts while Gaby juggled her explosive lances. Mei fielded her foxfire to keep them at bay, and an actual fox took form in her spell. It danced around her, blocking attacks.

Another defensive spell down. Vince had seen this after the heist.

He blasted the summoned fox with a massive flame laser, forcing it to face his dragon head-on. Mei clicked her tongue and directed her attention at Momo.

Moving with startling speed and purple empowerment magic, Momo leaped over Mei’s force blades. Then an invisible blade of purification magic cut through her. Momo stumbled, her empowerment magic breaking. Her hair grew in length and her tits practically burst out of her bodysuit, which transformed into a suit.

“Damnable trickery,” Mei said, as she realized Cora had been illusioned.

Too late, she felt the torii gate beneath her feet breaking apart into prismatic light. Momo hung upside down above Mei. Her fingers held transparent strings connected to the collapsing portal of foxfire. A smirk played across her face.

“Master of illusions, was it?” Momo taunted before she vanished in midair.

Mei’s foxfire and force blasts tore through nothing as she raged.

Nina ducked in, her gauntlet shining with a mixture of green and amber light. Her other meister-tier spell, ready to punch through Mei’s barrier. Anzu emerged from the darkness opposite Nina.

Pincered between the two warriors, Mei blinked away. But not before unleashing a massive telekinetic blast that knocked both Anzu and Nina to the ground. Vince hissed as he saw Nina’s meister-tier spell wink out. That would hurt like hell as the magic fed back into her body.

Mei appeared thirty feet away near a puddle of blood somebody had created during the fight. She resummoned her foxfire around her as Gaby spun and closed in again. Vince’s constant tide of black flames forced the eight-tail fox to constantly use half her tails on foxfire to defend herself. He spotted her down a second magic-restoring infusion.

Maybe Momo was wrong. Perhaps Mei could be worn down.

Figures burst from the dirt around Mei. Or, more precisely, the necromantic darkness that had lingered since her virtuoso-tier spell.

The undead Yakuza charged Mei. Their decrepit forms looked completely unharmed from her spell, as Hamelin had healed them.

Mei spun and her tails whirled around her. Force blasts dotted the field and knocked the undead back or punched holes through them. Everyone else shrugged off the blows, but Nina did wince when one struck her. Fox telekinesis penetrated most barriers, as Vince had learned the hard way.

The undead simply kept coming, but Mei refused to incinerate them.

“No fun. I wanna see them pop,” Hamelin said over his earpiece. “I definitely see why all the elementals and clan guardians won’t touch her. They’re scared as shit.”

As Mei hurled foxfire and telekinesis at the others, keeping them at bay, the blood by her feet bubbled. She ignored it.

Ashley erupted from it like the demon she was. Her massive form was coated from head to tail in blood and she roared with inhuman fury. A crimson blade extended from her right arm nearly two feet, glimmering with water magic.

Fear flickered across Mei’s face for the first time tonight. Perhaps she recognized Ashley’s blood magic, despite the coat of other blood covering it up. Or maybe it was raw panic.

Mei threw her arms in front of her body, summoning the layered cross barriers. Vince noted another defensive spell, on top of the first teleportation bracelet used earlier.

Ashley’s blade scythed through Mei’s barriers without even slowing. Blood arced through the night sky. Mei’s, Ashley’s, and that of the unknown person who created the puddle—they all mixed together.

The swing cut through the barriers and one of Mei’s forearms. A shallow cut swept through the fox’s robes and chest, scattering paper talismans as her sash fell and revealing her naked chest.

Despite her panic and pain, Mei’s expression tightened in fury. Her tails lit up with foxfire and she rammed a palm into Ashley’s torso.

Ashley’s scream echoed across the stadium as foxfire engulfed her. She tried to leap away, but Mei gripped her tight. Two of Mei’s tails used telekinesis to catch her severed arm and slam it against her stump, while the other swept up the fallen talismans.

A dozen earth spikes slammed into Mei. Her contingency barrier activated, barely saving her. Vince added that to the list, although he didn’t know how often she could use it. It sprung into action fairly often for a contingency barrier.

“Bitch, she’s mine to kill,” Nina snapped as she crashed down next to Ashley.

The demon collapsed to the ground as Mei let her go, still screaming as the foxfire tried to consume her. Nina grimaced and cast a moving walkway with a stomp of her foot, pushing Ashley clear of the fight. Vince’s dragon landed atop the demon and black flames washed over the foxfire, putting it out while leaving the demon unharmed.

The damage to Ashley’s body was far from superficial, and he wasn’t sure how much a healing infusion might fix.

Up close with Nina, Mei sneered. “Here I thought you were experienced. But you’re nothing more than bravado with an impressive cock to back you up.”

“Talk shit after this,” Nina said.

Mei’s telekinetic blasts crashed down on Nina’s body, shattering her barrier, at the same time she planted her gauntlet into the fox. An amber and green backblast shot out from Nina. Blood blossomed in Mei’s still wounded body, and she gasped.

Nina grinned even as she sank to her knees, bones creaking. “Fuck you.”

She’d never lost her meister-tier spell. Vince wondered if Anzu or Momo had illusioned it, as he couldn’t see it active.

“Kigenai did have a good eye,” Mei said.

A shield of light blocked Mei’s counterattack, and Cora slammed into Mei from behind with a spin kick that cracked her barrier. The elder fox snarled and hurled foxfire everywhere, forcing both immortals into retreat. Green light emanated from her body and she flexed her previously severed arm.

Vince held back with his dragon for once, expecting something big. He got it.

Piles of dirt swarmed Mei as if carried by armies of ants. She swatted it away with telekinesis at first, then saw Goro in the distance.

His five tails glowed like a rainbow. One for the four main colors of elemental magic, and a fifth that oscillated between them. His meister-tier spell activated as she stared at him.

The dirt covered her like an egg, and lines of magma formed in it. Wind swirled around the egg. Icicles swiftly formed in the wind, before growing massive and jagged. In the space of a few seconds, Goro formed a prison of death.

Wind lances and icicles pierced the egg. Magma erupted from it like a volcano, overflowing and bubbling on the surrounding ground. The ground rumbled, and likely shot penetrating spikes into Mei.

But when the egg cracked, it didn’t reveal a carbonized Mei, but a mass of cracked magma that shattered upon being revealed.

Mei gasped nearby, having used her second teleportation bracelet. She recast her barrier, but only one final defensive measure remained. Her bubble.

Vince’s dragon roared, ready to start the beginning of the end.

Mei locked eyes with him, then smirked. No way she understood his plan.

Or rather, he’d forgotten one important spell she had.

Her eight tails glowed blue and she hurled a half-dozen talismans around her. Numerous shikigami appeared, including the ogre duo. A flood of that strange pink water pushed Cora back and distracted Goro as he recovered from his meister-tier spell.

Vince tried to blast Mei at the same time as the shikigami, but the shield ogre blocked his attacks by teleporting in the way.

His plan appeared to have failed. Mei threw her hands into the air, and those gargantuan silver beams from earlier appeared. A portal of foxfire appeared.

They’d been reset back to the damn start, right before she’d nearly killed everyone. Maybe if he focused his tornado and used more of Daji’s power—

“Nah, I got this,” Hamelin said.

Her undead rushed toward Mei with preternatural speed. Black sigils shined on their backs.

Mei looked down as the flood of foxfire gushed out from her summoned portal, triumph writ across her face. She thought she’d won.

Then she saw Hamelin’s undead charging her. Horror filled Mei’s face. Too late, as she couldn’t stop the foxfire.

The first undead ran into the azure wall of flames without hesitation. Upon touching it, the lines along his body lit up with golden light, as did the strange device embedded in his torso.

Then his entire body crystallized and exploded with a loud pop, like an old-fashioned hunting rifle. Hundreds of small shards flew forward into the foxfire. All unerringly aimed at Mei, hidden deep within the flames.

Pop after pop sounded off, as the undead bombs ruptured on contact with Mei’s spell. The portal vanished far faster than last time. Hamelin cackled over his earpiece.

Vince spewed black flames over the remaining foxfire to speed up its disappearance, and Mei slowly reemerged.

She kneeled in a pool of her own blood, her body and clothes stained red. Dozens of wounds dotted her arms, legs, and torso. She’d covered her head and chest to the best of her ability, but her ragged breathing was audible and pained. Her eight tails glowed bright green as she tried to rapidly heal the aftermath of what amounted to a magical IED.

Complete and utter fear stretched across Mei’s face. Not panic, but the true fear of death.

His black flame laser brought her out of her stupor. She snapped her arms to her sides and cast her bubble, pulling her tails off healing. A cry escaped her as she ripped open freshly healed wounds and tried to begin healing them again. Tears ran down her face, and they mingled with bloodstains.

Anzu emerged from nowhere and her empowered fist rattled the bubble. She bared her teeth at Mei.

“How does it feel to be the one bathing in your own blood for once?” Anzu asked.

Mei stared at the other fox. If she understood the anger and fury behind Anzu’s mockery, her eyes showed no sign of it. Only resentment.

Vince steeled himself and prepared another flame laser. Once that bubble popped, they’d end this.

Kiyoko’s voice boomed across the stadium in something that sounded vaguely Japanese, but stranger. Vince’s earpiece translated it for him into old-timey English, which told him it was a non-human language and an old one at that.

“O, great demons of the west, behold the image of thy demise,” Kiyoko bellowed. “Witness the power of the protector spirits of this land in your final moments.”

Vince looked up and saw a massive green glowing light above them. He struggled to understand the meaning of her words, as immortals didn’t use incantations, but the sight of Kiyoko was unmistakable.

She hovered in the sky, her black wings outstretched and glittering with green light that rippled with runes across her feathers. Her silver katana was held at her side in an upright stance he recognized from samurai in anime, and the entire blade looked more like a beam of light than a katana. She held a broad-shouldered stance with her feet apart, as if capable of standing on the air itself. Her red tengu mask was strapped to the side of her head.

Behind her glowed Japanese script, blown up to the size of a small house. Green wings shimmered alongside the characters.

Without question, this was Kiyoko’s virtuoso-tier spell. The power pouring off it was far too great to be anything else, and too little to be something more.

Kiyoko lowered her sword to point at Mei and spoke the final words to her incantation, “Contemplate your mistakes as my sword severs you from life.”