Chapter 41

Heroic Bloodshed 10

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Oni is what the country of Zifang called their Ogres.

Their size, shape and appearance varied widely from Oni to Oni, but they had 2 definable traits, namely the two horns on their head and their immense physical strength

Based on Juno’s explanation, an Oni’s power can also be measured by their appearance.

The closer they are to a human appearance, the more powerful they are.

Or at least, they have a better control of their monstrous power and can pull of some unexpected feats beyond just hitting stuff till it stops twitching.

Oni’s normally don’t appear out in the open because, despite their strength, humanity has developed quite a lot of means to destroy them.

Those who do show themselves were familiars of an Onmyoji, Zifang’s version of a mage and a priest rolled in one.

As such, the weakness of this particular Oni was the Onmyoji.

This made things much easier

Prior to their approach, Theo had his flying armory drop off 2 kilograms of C4 and strapped it near the engine block.

The duo then cut off the doors with their HF blades for an easy exit.

With the preparations completed, Juno floored the GT-R and followed the elevated highway towards the Oni.

Juno then used the nitro and turned the GT-R into an overpriced battering ram.

The duo jumped off the car before it hit the Oni.

With great regret, Theo ignited the C4 the moment the GT-R slammed into the Oni’s stomach, causing the engine block to become a makeshift shotgun as it shoved hundreds of hot shrapnel into the Oni.

While Theo could easily transmute a GT-R of his own, he believed that the original has that special ‘something’ that his transmutation cant copy.

Never the less, the detonation was strong enough to blow the Oni 10 meters back and face first into the pavement.

Unfortunately, as long as the Onmyoji was still alive, the Oni was extremely difficult to kill.

Despite barely twitching, the Oni’s wounds were already healing in front of their eyes.

On the plus side, Theo didn’t need to search hard for the Onmyoji.

On the side of the street were 21 surprised individuals.

1 of them was the Onmyoji while the other 20 were a bunch of yakuzas with samurai swords.

Their surprise turned into sadistic joy when they saw Theo.

One of the larger Yakuza’s drew his katana, took of his coat and walked towards the duo with full swag.

“Well well well! Look what we have here! And here we were, searching randomly for our little black rabbit. Who would have thought that the prey would willingly jump into the lion’s jaws! The Boss is as brave as he is foolish! Never the less, praying to the great god Bishamonten has proven time and time again to be effective. Thank you great god! Thank you for your followers the chance to avenge our fallen brothers! LISTEN FOE AND LISTEN WELL! MY NAME IS-” said the Yakuza but was interrupted when a bullet went through his skull

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*AWKWARD SILENCE*

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“S-sorry about that. His monologue was so long that I accidentally pulled the trigger” said Theo as he bowed in apology.

Just to be clear, Theo really did kill the yakuza by accident.

Naturally, the other yakuzas didn’t take this too well.

“YOU BASTARD!”

The 19 yakuzas unsheathed their swords and charged at the duo

FYI: all of their katanas were magic weapons.

The Onmyoji urge the still healing Oni to attack.

“Victoria, you deal with the Oni. I’ll handle the rest” said Theo

Juno nodded and charged towards the Oni.

One of the samurai’s tried to intercept Juno, but failed miserable when Theo shot him in the hands which caused him to drop his sword.

Juno cut the poor bloke in two before stealing his sword and continued on towards the Oni while dual wielding.

Another 2 yakuza’s attempted to cut Juno off but the result remained the same.

One yakuza was shot in the leg before Juno beheaded him

The other was overkilled with a headshot followed by being dissected into 4 pieces.

“Forget the maid! The Oni will deal with her! Kill the Boss!” commanded the Onmyoji

The yakuza abandoned chasing Juno and swarmed at Theo

Here’s where Anime mislead the general populace.

If the wielder was skillful enough, a Katana with magical enhancements CAN block or slice a bullet in mid flight.

It CANNOT block or slice a steady stream of bullets from a gun that fires 700 rounds per minute.

Just to be sure, Theo erratically shot at different areas of the body. All of which would severely cripple or outright kill the target.

No one without super awesome powers can cut all of the bullets in time.

4 wannabe samurais learned this lesson at the cost gaining weight due to lead consumption.

Then another misunderstanding was cleared at the cost of yakuza lives.

Myth: A gunman is defenseless once the samurai gets into close quarters combat

Truth: Nope

A yakuza eventually got close enough and launched a horizontal slash.

Theo ducked, set his rifle on full auto and fired into the man’s gut then quickly forced the gun up towards the head.

A crooked line of bullet holes went from the yakuza’s stomach to his now shattered skull.

Theo quickly dodged a downward slash before countering by holding the trigger when he shot from the legs to the head.

This wasn’t a Wick Stance gun fighting tactic.

It was the basics of the 3rd and most fancy stance of gun fighting, the Bullet Dance Stance.

The Wick Stance was aggressive but very mindful of ammo consumption because it assumes that the gunner would face a lot of opponents in rapid succession.

Fire only when needed and when the shot is either crippling or lethal.

As such, the Wick Stance had an aggressive but very tactical

The Bullet Dance Stance was the exact opposite.

While it can make do against large numbers of opponents to a certain extent, it was most effective in one on one close quarter duels.

Its philosophy was to pump as much lead into the enemy as fast as possible by any means necessary.

If you have to gun fu your way to do it, then do it.

It was a very frantic style that relied heavily on unpredictability.

The advanced techniques of the Bullet Dance required dual wielding pistols to increase the unpredictability of the gunman.

Theo couldn’t advance above the beginner levels of Bullet Dance Stance because his adamantium left hand cant feel anything, thus cant properly measure how much force was being applied in his grip.

He’ll crush any pistol he holds on his left hand in combat situations

Hence, he never used his left arm beyond a stable surface to place his gun on.

Never the less, by combining the precise dodging of the Wick Stance and the ultra-violent attack of the Bullet Dance Stance, the result was a well-choreographed dance of death.

4 of the 12 surviving yakuzas died in a matter of seconds.

On the Oni front, Juno was dominating the fight by a very large margin.

She would deliver crippling wounds to the Oni’s hamstrings, tendons and other potentially crippling before moving out of range of the inevitable counter attack.

Rinse and repeat.

This would be a very different story the Oni wasn’t so heavily injured from the car bomb.

However, this advantage wont last.

Once the Oni heals from the car bomb damage, it will be able regenerate faster than the damage Juno could inflict.

Well, at least she was having fun carving out the Oni piece by piece.

Theo needed to kill the Onmyoji before the tables turned.

Before he could kick it into high gear, an unexpected but welcome back up entered the fray.

Several shurikens disabled 2 of the yakuzas while a powerful strike blew the Oni off its feet and painfully slammed it into the ground.

It was Dorothy and Argus.

They were probably assigned to stop the Oni by their team leader before Theo and Juno

“We meet again Vulture. I’m surprised how fast you’ve recovered from that leg injury I gave you. I’m pleased to see that.” Said Theo with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

“What are YOU doing here Boss. Fighting your fellow criminals doesn’t do you any good.” replied Dorothy with clear animosity

“Doing my duty as a concerned citizen of course. Just trying to stop these lunatics to maul more innocent civilians.”

“Yeah right. For now, we need to stop these guys. My ally Leonis will help your maid with the Oni, so let’s end this quickly.”

“A temporary team up with a third rate hero. Sure, I don’t mind”

“Tch… and no killing!”

As Dorothy said this, Theo blew a yakuza’s head off.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I couldn’t hear you over the sound of the gunfire.”

“DAMN IT!”

Vulture rushed in and violently floored the nearest yakuza.

She was probably trying her very best to keep the casualties to a minimum.

And since Theo was a kind hearted soul who wanted to lighten Dorothy’s load, he allowed her to disable 3 yakuzas.

The rest had been pumped full of lead.

He was a gentleman after all.

The battle against the Onmyoji was extremely anti-climactic.

While the guy was a bit skilled in controlling his Oni, he was a complete pushover on his own.

Dorothy simply needed to punch him in the solar plexus to disable him.

And since Argus alias Leonis was an individual blessed with divine strength, the heavily injured low level Oni was damaged faster than it could regenerate.

It was still alive but the only thing it could do was twitch in agony.

While Vulture and Leonis were tying up the yakuzas, Theo received a text from Juno

“The Onmyoji is preparing to Allah Hu Akbar his Oni.”

Using the many secret cameras on his power armor, Theo could spot that the Onmyoji was silently murmuring something.

His body temperature was also increasing, a clear sign of mana being used.

“Is the explosion strong?” Theo asked Juno via a private channel

“Yes.”

“Prepare to retreat.”

With that, Juno began stealthily retreating.

Theo quickly devised a plan to save the superhero duo while ensuring that he could escape.

He wasn’t sure if his script would work, but he had no time to proof read it.

Theo pretended to stealthily retreat while making sure that Argus saw him do it.

As expected of a person with a pole stuck up his ass, Argus dashed towards Theo with his sword drawn.

“Stop right there Boss! We’re taking you in as well!” said Argus in a threatening manner.

“Wait Leonis. Let’s just let them go this time. They did do our job for us” said Vulture who quickly chased after Argus.

She was clearly trying to protect Theo out of fear for her own father’s safety.

“What are you saying?! He is a crimi-” said Argus but was cut short with an explosion that blew everyone off their feet.

The explosion was so strong that it engulfed the yakuzas, causing them to slowly burn to death.

Theo was ready for this, thus was able to keep his bearing.

He used his adamantium left arm to knock out Argus with a hook to the chin while they were in mid-flight.

Theo landed on his feet while the superhero duo hit the floor like sacks of potatoes.

With Argus unconscious, Theo approached the downed Dorothy.

“No severe injuries. Dorothy, my lovely slave. You did well” Said Theo as he gently pat her in the head.

“I bet if I didn’t help you, my father would have suffered.” Replied Dorothy with rage in her eyes.

“Correct. However, those who serve me well will be rewarded. As such, your father will be promoted at his job. I’ll make sure of it.” Said Theo as he resigned himself to grovel at Lord’s feet to get Dorothy’s father promoted.

Naturally, Dorothy was surprised at this.

“Good things will come to you if you surrender to me Dorothy. Remember that.”

With that parting words and gunning down the ‘on fire’ yakuzas, Theo and Juno disappeared into the chaos.