Chapter six: On, To The Battlefield!

"Aha! I knew it!" Shien exclaimed as he gazed at Gekai.

The whole Heavenly Army was watching, including Kanzeon Bosatsu and Tenpo. The lotus pond had turned into a movie theater, and almost everyone was watching Nataku and Lei below.

"Lucky Nataku! I wish I were there," said Kenren.

Homura straightened, yelled, "Quiet! I'm watching," and looked down again.

Shocked, Nataku blinked several times before pulling himself away from Lei.

"Stupid! We should be fighting!"

"Oh, right! Sorry!" Lei squeaked, getting back to her senses.

She pulled out her swords and faced her back against Nataku's. Nataku removed his power-control device, and his hair flowed around him like black silk. Lei did the same and removed her gauntlets.

The battle started, and the demons bravely attacked the fighting gods. Lei killed three with one slash. Another one attacked from her right and swung a sword at her. She met his sword with hers, and thrust her other sword into the demons stomach. As the demon fell to the ground, another one attacked her from behind. Lei pulled out her sword from the dead demons middle and slashed the bloody blade behind her. The demon ducked and slashed a dagger, making a long, horizontal cut across Lie's belly. She covered the wound with her arm and thrust her sword into the demons chest.

Then, gathering her energy, she created an energy ball twice as large as  a basketball and released it toward the demons.

Boom!

About fifty demons were wiped out.

In the few minutes that no demons attacked her, Lei tore off her sleeves and tied it around her waist to cover her wound, then continued fighting.

Ntaku, on the other hand, was using more fiery energy balls and was wiping out a number of demons. The fighting god tumbled out of a giant demon's reach and blasted another thirty demons. Then, the large demon was able to grab him around the middle and raise him high in the air. The child-like fighting god was like a mere doll to the demon.

"Hanase!" yelled Nataku as he wriggled inside the demon's large hands.

His captor squeezed him, and Nataku screamed in pain. But Nataku wasn't going to lose in such a way. He clamped his jaw shut and narrowed his eyes. Then, the demon's hands began to glow. Something inside them was producing a bright light. All of a sudden, the demon's hands exploded. The handless demon screamed in pain and backed away, while Nataku leaped away and landed on the ground.

As the large demon howled over his lost hands, Nataku formed a large energy ball and blew him to smithereens.

The fighting god wiped his forehead with his sleeve. Injured by his own attack, Nataku smeared his sleeve with his blood. He began to walk away when he felt something soft loosely wrapped around his ankles. He immediately looked down and gasped.

The Heavenly Army had been watching quietly. They stared at Nataku for ten second before bursting into a chorus of hearty guffaws. Toushin Nataku Taishi was wearing white boxer shorts with a picture of a roaring lion at the very center.

Nataku stared at his pants. The garter had snapped and it fell into a heap around his feet. The fighting god pulled it up quickly, reddening in shame, and tied the garter. Then he looked up to the sky, raised an eyebrow, and addressing it to the Heavenly Army, made "the finger".

Up in Tenkai, Homura laughed even louder.

Meanwhile, Jiro was reporting to his master.

"A couple of gods attacked, master. But don't worry, we'll kill them soon." Jiro assured.

Zerev smiled mysteriously.

"Gods? Interesting. I want to face them myself," he said in a low voice.

"But master, you're too weak- "

"I am not weak," Zerev said sternly.

Jiro looked up to his master with concern. But how could he go against his master?

"I'll… I'll get you something first. You need blood," Jiro muttered and began to walk away, but Zerev called him back.

Jiro turned around to see his master giving a sinister grin.

"No."said Zerev. "Yours will be fine."

With that, Zerev jumped at Jiro and bore his claws deep into his servant's chest. Jiro stared with shock at his master and retained that expression as he fell to the ground.

"Yaah!" Lei yelled as she swung her sword into a long, vertical slash. The demon in front of her was cut in half. Breathing heavily and very tired, she rested for a while by kneeling and using her sword to help hold her up.

The goddess was now a terrible sight. Her clothes were ripped at the sleeve and pants, and her minor wounds now bled a lot because of her constant movement. Her black hair fell lank around her head, some covering her face. She hadn't expected to fight so many opponents, and she was exhausted.

Having rested for a while, she stood up and readied to fight again. The demons were quite afraid to go near her and attacked with hesitation. Three brave ones attacked first, and Lei simply cut them into pieces.

Some demons became terrified and ran away.

All of a sudden, a voice said in aloud voice, "Cowards."

Lei turned to her right and saw a demon come nearer.

He was quite handsome for a demon, for he looked almost human, if you don't notice the long ears and the long, silvery hair that cascaded down his back. He looked like an ordinary 30-year-old, and his physique was what you would expect for a powerful and feared demon. He was stripped to the waist and had a confident and evil air, and Lei could tell that he was very powerful. 

Lei readied herself and assumed a stance. The demon stretched his arm out to another and ordered, "Give me a sword."

The addressed quickly picked up a scimitar from the ground and handed it with trembling hands to the white-haired demon.

Lei's opponent (all the other demons ran away) assumed a stance that was quite familiar to her. He stood with his left foot in front of the right and stretched his left arm forward, his body slightly facing to the right. He held his weapon with his right hand and pointed the tip of the blade forward, bringing the scimitar in level with his shoulder.

All too quickly, the demon attacked. Lei positioned her swords in an "X" to shield herself. The demon's weapon was just about to clash with hers when he suddenly disappeared. For several agonizing moments, Lei stared at the empty space in front of her. Then, she sensed someone behind her and tried to turn around, but it was too late. The demon appeared behind her and slashed his sword diagonally, cutting a wound across Lei' back.

She stumbled forward and fell on her hands and knees, while her swords fell beside her.

The demon stood over her, his weapon still in hand. Lei grabbed her sword and swung it low to cut across her opponent's ankles, but he jumped away too soon.

"You call yourself a kami? You're weak," he mocked.

Lei felt an agonizing pain on her back, but she managed to stand with the help of one of her swords. Still determined, she gripped her sword's handle with two hands and resumed her stance.

"Remember what Nataku-sama taught…" Lei muttered to herself.

Then, she attacked. She flew at him with great speed and swung her sword with the same force and style that she did with the waterfall, but amazingly, her opponent met her sword with his. The loud clash of metal against metal was heard all throughout the battlefield. Lei jumped back and then attacked him again and again, every time using the same powerful force she used before. Her opponent protected himself with his scimitar, not noticing himself back up.

For several seconds, all that was heard was the clashing of their swords.

"Yaah!" Lei yelled as she swung a blow that sent the demon's sword flying out of his hands.

She slashed her sword to make the final blow, but the demon leaped out of her blade's reach.

The demon started emitting several energy balls in rapid succession. Lie ran around with great speed, easily avoiding the exploding spheres. Then, she leaped at him and swung her sword downward, but he was able to stop the blade by clamping it between his bare hands.

Lei was stunned by how powerful he was. He gripped the blade and wretched it from its owner's hands. With the same quick movement, his hands went to Lei' throat.

Lei clawed at his arm, choking, but he clutched her throat in an iron grip.

"You think you're good, brat? I don't think so," the demon sneered angrily as he raised Lei slightly from the ground.

Lei moved her feet, and they hit something on the ground. Lei ignored it for a while and tried to kick him, but she was too weak to hit him hard enough in the legs, nor raise them high enough to kick him higher. Not wanting to die and feeling her neck get crushed little by little, she concentrated on the object that she had kicked earlier. She felt it with her foot and realized that it was her sword.

She positioned it vertically toward her captor, and then, concentrating al her energy on her leg, she swung her leg sideways and kicked her sword's handle as hard as she could. The blade spun around on the ground and cut across the demon's ankles.

"Aaargh!" he yelled as he let Lei go and collapsed to the ground.

Lei fell on her back and backed away, feeling her throat.

"Stupid bitch," the demon muttered and formed an energy ball.

He was just about to release it when another one came from his right.

Lei watched as the demon looked to his right, and then an energy ball came from out nowhere and exploded right where he stood. The blast was so powerful that Lei was thrown away by the shockwave.

Slowly, the fog of dust cleared, and Lei saw very vividly, Nataku, who was satnding right where the energy ball came from.

"Nataku-sama!" Lei exclaimed with surprise and relief.

"Get up, Lei. The fight isn't over yet." Nataku told her.

Indeed, it wasn't. Who Lei thought was already blown to smithereens stood ten feet away from the blast.