Chapter 6

It did not take long for us to get washed up and dressed. Yet when we finished it seemed that the large black van had been waiting for some time.

"What kept you, didn't you hear this was an emergency?" asked Amakusa visibly agitated as we climbed into the van.

"Ah I am sorry I needed to clean up. You kind of caught us at an awkward time." I apologized as best as I could.

His eye twitched at that and he took a deep breath.

"Is Mitsuko coming with us?"

"Umm well we sort of needed her to babysit."

"I'll babysit; we need everyone we can get." He said sharply.

I was a little disturbed. Usually Amakusa is way too polite to me to be harsh.

"Ok… I'll bring Mitsuko… Just how bad is it?"

He sighed and rubbed his temples trying to control himself. "It's bad. It's very bad."

We called Mitsuko. Within seconds she was leading out Yuki and her little fox friend.

In lighter times it might have been amusing to see the shock on Amakusa's face seeing the ghost of the little girl.

He just sighed and motioned for the van to go as soon as everyone was loaded up.

"Have you ever heard of the Orochi." He asked.

"Well yeah the 8 headed dragon that was killed by Susanoo."

At the word Susanoo Inari gave a slight growl and I sensed a strong irritation.

"The Orochi has appeared in the heart of downtown Tokyo. Kusanagi the other Campione is currently out of the country and you're the only one who has any hope of stopping it. The creature seems enraged we have already lost agents trying to draw it away from the city. "Amakusa said I could hear the desperation in his voice.

I looked over at Inari who did not look happy. I felt there was more to it than the being interrupted earlier or the mention of Susanoo. I was getting a bad feeling about this.

"Is there anything else that you can tell me or that I need to know?"

He sighed and shook his head "nothing more than would imagine would happen in a situation like this. It just appeared suddenly." He said

"The thing is too big to move around much with all the buildings, thankfully it hasn't knocked any down… yet. It seems Agitated and has been attacking anything that bothers it or draws its attention."

Hearing that shook me a bit "Umm how big is it?" I asked.

"It's huge, in the legend it was said to be as long as six hills and six valleys. It's been plucking cars up and eating them with ease. Thankfully most of the people have evacuated now."

I looked out the window noting we weren't going very fast. As expected in a crisis traffic was hell.

"Umm where exactly is the creature. It doesn't look like we are going to get there anytime soon this way." I interjected.

"Yes your right." He said giving me directions then saying "You probably won't need them though. It's big enough you should see it soon."

"Inari would you mind?" I asked.

"Of course not" She said.

Soon we slipped out of the black van cutting across traffic to many angry calls and honks to get to the sidewalk. Inari, Mitsuko and I stood there a moment as I took a deep breath. Yuki had wanted to come along too but I was forced to leave her because of the danger. Even though she was a ghost I didn't want to risk anything happening to her or her getting in the way.

Inari cleared her throat "Listen to me." She said looking me in the eyes very seriously. "As much as I hate that bastard Susanoo, He was a powerful god and even he chose not to fight this thing directly. If things go bad we are getting out of there. I want to help innocent people as much as you do but I don't want you doing anything stupid." She told me to send a shudder through me.

Something in me wanted this fight, wanted to test me limits. It was probably the drawback I took. However another part of me wondered if I could do this at all. Inari seemed… afraid for me.

"Alright" Was all I could answer.

Mitsuko stood obediently beside me, hand on her sword. I could see from her face she was ready to face this battle.

Inari nodded, having gotten her message out, turned around and began to shift. Soon standing before us was a fox the size of a large horse with 9 tails that swished anxiously.

Without another word Mitsuko and I both climbed up and held on tight.

There was a feeling of tension as we rode; the streets and cars passed like a blur, thankfully there were no pedestrians around.

It was not long before we saw the great dragon amidst the skyscrapers. Some of its heads and tails were wrapped around them.

My heart sank as I saw how massive it was. If the serpent I fought previously was a garter snake, this was one of those ridiculously Pythons.

The monster; as I could not think of it as anything else. Was a deep green color and on its back grew moss and trees. Its huge eyes were deep red and from its mouth dripped white foam. Its stomach was bleeding from apparently scraping on the ground. Absently I thought that may be a weak point if it turns out that it's scales were too tough to cut.

What was disturbing though was even though I had superhuman eyesight I didn't really need it to tell all of this from quite a ways away.

As we watched the heads of the beast scanned out for something to strike at. It paused only for a moment and then with speed I could scarcely believe one of the heads struck.

Within one of its maws as it pulled its head back was an entire car. All we could do was hope that at that point it was empty as soon the car disappeared into the creature's mouth.

My heart was pounding as I clung tightly to Inari; the only comfort was the soft fur under my fingers as we rode closer.

My mind whirled as I tried to think up some tactic, some strategy to help me defeat this thing. There was a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach at the thought that maybe this wasn't something that I could take head on. If a god had to trick it I may need to find some other way to kill it too.

Finally a rough Idea came to me. I wasn't intensely confident in it but it seemed like my best chance.

"Hey guys I think I have a rough Idea how to fight this thing." I told them.

"Only a rough idea?" asked Inari. I could tell she was afraid for me.

"Yeah" I said honestly. "Look why don't you wait in case I get in trouble and swoop in to get me out of there if I need it. You're pretty quick, hopefully you're fast enough.

"I don't like it but I'll do it." She replied.

"Mitsuko. I need you to stay back and wait. I am going to try and work an opening. I may need you to use your kusanagi to distract it for a minute.

"I shall do as you ask Raven-san." She said obediently..

The distance between us vanished all too fast. Soon we were getting close to what I estimated was its striking range.

It looked like a disaster movie. Cars crashed and mangled littered the ground between us. There was fire and smoke around us, I could see the buildings around us were damaged from the creature's powerful tails squeezing them. I tried not to wonder if there were people still inside there.

My heart was pounding in my chest as I stepped forward. I held out one hand and a metallic sphere materialized above it before taking the shape of a sword that made the buster sword from Final fantasy look puny. It easily was larger than me. With my authority Hunter of Immortals taking form I took it in both hands and walked forward.

The creature coiled back for just a second with 3 or 4 heads.

For a moment I considered if it wouldn't have been better to use hunter of immortals at range but figured if I was lucky it would wind up in me being chased halfway thru the city causing massive destruction all the way.

With grim determination I approached. Immediately all 16 eyes of the beast were on me. Thankfully there was nothing else moving or alive anywhere near us.

The thing was quicker, quicker than I expected, I was able to dodge the first head as it slammed into the pavement, rolling forward but before I could counter attack I was met with a second head which I barely dodged. Then a third head almost blindsided me.

Thankfully I was a tiny target to it so It couldn't bring all of its heads to bear against me. Still I could see this wasn't going to work out as I hoped.

Well the feeling out part of my plan wasn't going as well as I had hoped. I started to move my way back. It became a deadly stalemate between Orochi and me. Its heads would shoot out to attack, I would dodge and hack at it and it would either pull back its head or use its other heads to force me back.

I needed three things, first I needed a bit of time, second I needed its heads grouped together and third I needed to be just a bit closer.

Finally I was close enough to a car that I made a run for it. As I did I yelled "Mitsuko, Now!" There was a huge gust of Air that slammed into the beast. I looked up as I saw it did little more than annoy it. Before it decided to move to attack Mitsuko I slipped my absurdly large sword under the car.

I was strong. I hoped I was strong enough to do what I needed to here. Using the sword like a spatula and apply every bit of strength I could muster I flung the damn car at the serpent.

The car sailed through the air flipping end over end but long before it reached the Orochi a couple of it's heads lanced out and tore it to shreds…

Its attention was on tearing up the car. I started to run forward as I ran I began to use my chant. The heads were grouped closely together. This was the first time using this authority in actual combat. I didn't know if it could encompass the whole Orochi.

I began to chant and focus culling upon my newest Authority.

huge wave of water erupted from in front of me.

The wave expanded as it surged forward.

I don't know if the heads sensed any danger as the wave grew large enough to envelop the buildings it was hanging on.

This was the Authority I had gained net of the waves. The massive wave enveloped the creature and soon the water tightened around it taking the shape of a net.

For a moment I couldn't even breathe. I prayed silently as the net took shape and the creature struggled with all of its might.

It struggled as it began to drown and be crushed by the pressure of the bottom of the ocean.

As it struggled and squirmed I actually let out a breath that I didn't even realize I was holding.

I'll admit I thought I had done it. I even began to smile… then the unexpected happened.

The net exploded and countless tons of pissed off serpents were freed.

The ground shook as it hit the pavement. It lay there for a moment its heads visibly gasping for air, its eyes looking unfocused. I was a little stunned as its heads started to raise and shake.

"Now… Hit it now!" yelled Inari snapping me out of my shock.

A realization dawned on me that while it was weak I should be attacking in.

I surged forth, my ill-gotten speed and strength carrying me forward.

Unfortunately it seems the beast was quick to recover as after shaking its heads a few of them surged forth at me, I had to roll quickly to avoid them but noticed they weren't quite as fast as they had been. I was able to land a slash upon the neck of one of the heads before it was able to pull back.

I felt the creature's strength flowing into me but was quickly pushed back as it continued its attack.

I realized I needed to kill it quickly while it was still injured.

My mind raced as I looked at what I had available. Hunter of Immortals meant I would be here all day at this rate. World's maker wasn't for combat use at all. Sadly will of magic likely wouldn't be of much use either as this thing was probably as resistant to mortal magic as I was… wait Will of magic let me duplicate Authorities as well… It just cost a lot.

I had a crazy Idea. I focused on will of magic and chanted as I dodged. At first I was going to use Inari's shapeshifting to turn it into a copy of the thing. I didn't know if she could do it but I figured it was worth a try… then a better Idea hit.

I began to grow… Unfortunately the authority didn't cover my clothes which I felt shred around me as the world grew smaller and smaller. Thankfully Hunter of Immortals seemed to grow with me at least.

Since I didn't know the ability that well I decided to stay with what I know and use the shape shifting to become as big as I could.

The heads reeled back as suddenly I grew before it… The world continued to shrink until it felt like I was in some child's playset as I was eye to eye with the tops of the Skyscrapers.

It was at that point I realized that was really hurting me as I could feel my magical energy being burned through at an absurd rate. I also couldn't believe how much Inari had been holding back all this time. We would have to have a talk about that.

While I still had energy enough I took Hunter of Immortals and surged forward.

The surprised serpent lashed out with all of its heads. I was a bit slower than I was used to but I swung Hard and cleaved off 3 of them as well as the top of one of the buildings… I prayed silently that the buildings were unoccupied.

It screamed in pain I felt my strength start to drain as I felt my magical energies reaching critically low levels. I brought down Hunter of Immortals on the distracted serpent and bisected it cutting the creature in half…

I had no time to celebrate though as suddenly the world began to spin… and grow. Hunter of Immortals vanished from my hand as I quickly began to fall backwards.

The world passed before me and I wondered if I would survive the fall.

I am not sure how long I felt but I felt myself caught by strong arms which held me.

"Well it seems that I missed the party entirely." said a deep but good natured voice. My vision was fading as I looked up into the face of a bearded man. He had brown eyes, black curly hair and bronze skin. He had ruggedly handsome features and a kind smile as he looked down at me "Good job kid, not bad for a young Campione." he said before I lost consciousness.