Sadako Yamamura was extremely furious. The first thing she did upon breaking free was completely reduce her corpse to ashes.
For all these years, it was precisely because of her corpse's existence that she'd been trapped at the well's bottom. With the corpse gone, she became a wandering ghost. Ten years, twenty years—perhaps not even that long—and she'd be ground down to dust by this magic-depleted physical world. But she still destroyed her corpse without hesitation, becoming a pure spirit form.
Through the long hair covering her face, her first glance fell on Ogun.
This guy's condensed psychic form appeared in Sadako's eyes as an incredibly delicious cake. Of course, Bella over there was also very appetizing, but the distance was a bit far.
One near, one far—naturally she'd choose the closer one.
Hungry. Sadako Yamamura was so hungry! Over all these years, she'd spread countless videotapes, and the energy gathered through resentment decreased with every use.
If Ogun had only recovered to seventy percent of his full strength, then Sadako, after years of constant consumption, also stood at only seventy to eighty percent of her peak level.
A psychic mutant would absolutely be a major supplement for her.
Sadako's movements seemed slow but were actually fast. Her waist didn't move, her legs dragged behind her, her white robe stained with dirt and fallen leaves. She crawled forward using only her hands.
The distance between them was far too close. In an instant, she'd crawled right in front of Ogun.
"Get back!" Ogun could also be considered someone trained in both magic and martial arts.
His swordsmanship came from Miyamoto Musashi—he was a genuine sword master.
Drawing his blade rapidly, the edge flashed like lightning. The sharp metal cutting through the air produced a piercing, ear-splitting sound. Ogun's blade was extremely fast. After one horizontal slash, the blade cleverly traced two arcs and struck left and right. All this was completed in a single instant.
Sadako had absolutely no defensive awareness. She took three consecutive strikes to the shoulder, neck, and lower abdomen. The spirit form was knocked back over ten meters. The blade filled with psychic power caused her some damage. Now, through the black hair covering her face, she stared at Ogun with crimson eyes. She grew increasingly enraged.
The next instant, she suddenly appeared on Ogun's shoulder, a pair of deathly pale hands gripping his neck.
Bone-chilling cold continuously assaulted Ogun's brain and heart. Those hands were colder than ice—his blood was nearly freezing.
A normal person taking such a hit would die on the spot at worst. But Sadako had still miscalculated.
Ogun's body was transferred through soul possession. The compatibility between soul and body ultimately had that slight gap.
This delay would be extremely problematic in life-or-death moments, but now it became an advantage.
Ogun still retained most of his mobility. His left hand produced a talisman and swiftly pressed it to Sadako's forehead.
"BOOM!" A thunderous explosion, like detonating a bomb.
Flames transformed into a pillar of fire, burning fiercely over ten feet high.
He formed hand seals, preparing to use the talisman's energy to severely injure Sadako again. Four hundred years wasn't spent idly—he had a complete combo sequence, fast and high-damage, attacks linking seamlessly. Dealing with a female ghost with little intelligence wasn't difficult.
But suddenly, an invisible force struck his head like someone had hit him with a hammer—an iron one! Intense dizziness made him freeze for two seconds, interrupting the seal-forming process.
When he tried to form seals again, Sadako had already crawled out of the fire pillar.
It was Bella's Mind Blast! Ogun whipped his head around to glare at her viciously.
"There's someone in the trees! Go kill that person! Quickly!" Ogun had the same problem as Madame Gao—he also didn't want to fight desperately. But Sadako clung to him tenaciously, wanting to devour his psychic power, leaving him unable to free himself for the moment.
He didn't expect Old Man Yashida's hired soldiers to cause much damage. As long as they could hold Bella off, that was enough.
The six soldiers hesitated. Bella didn't.
She quickly jumped behind a soldier. The man lived up to his elite reputation—his left leg stepped forward, his body instinctively turning. But before he could complete the turn, Bella's left hand gripped his head while her right hand supported his chin. With a twist of both hands, "CRACK!" One elite soldier was finished.
"Rat-tat-tat-tat!" A continuous stream of gunfire erupted.
A hail of metal bullets covered every direction around Bella—front, back, left, and right.
She remained quite composed, using the elite soldier's corpse as a shield while grabbing his weapon—an MP5 submachine gun. She squeezed the trigger and fired a burst at the five soldiers charging toward her.
"Bang-bang-bang!" The muzzle flashed with deadly sparks. One soldier who'd gotten too close died on the spot. The remaining four each found cover.
Bella's marksmanship had always been good, but these were also elite troops. Now she exchanged fire with these soldiers in a guerrilla battle across this area at the center of Izu Oshima.
From time to time, at maximum range, she'd coldly fire off a Mind Blast at Ogun.
She wasn't in a hurry. Let Sadako and Ogun wear each other down first. After all, both were enemies to her.
Ogun was getting anxious! He alternated between swordsmanship and magic. The ground was plowed into deep furrows by the cold light from his blade. The surrounding buildings were blasted to powder by his spells. The already dilapidated houses collapsed thunderously. Old Man Yashida didn't even make a sound before dying. Yet Ogun still hadn't taken down Sadako Yamamura.
"Get away! You stinking woman! That person sealed you—you should go after her!" Bella wore a tengu mask and carried Fushigiri "Open Gate" on her back. Ogun didn't know who she was, but judging by her figure, she should be a woman.
He wanted to shift the trouble onto her and then come out ahead as a third party.
Sadako truly hesitated twice midway. But just as she changed direction and before her psychic power could complete its lock-on, Bella over there had already vanished without a trace.
In her view, Ogun and Bella were nearly identical—one had sealed her, the other had slashed her countless times and burned her with flames. Now both were mortal enemies in her heart. There was no question of who came first. She'd just locked onto one and kept going.
Dealing with Ogun wasn't easy for her either.
At this moment, her wrinkled white robe was mixed with dirt and bloodstains. Sadako's hands were beautiful with a lovely shape, but now they were covered in burn marks—all inflicted by Ogun.
She crawled forward silently. "Back off!" Ogun crossed his hands and drew another blade from within his original scabbard.
His right hand held the blade angled toward the sky; his left held the blade horizontally across his chest.
This was the opening stance of Miyamoto Musashi's Niten Ichi-ryū style.
The next instant, blade light connected into an impenetrable fine net. Sadako tried to use her innate ability to phase away, but unexpectedly, this technique had some space-locking properties.
Ogun rapidly slashed sixteen times, each strike lethal. Sharp blade energy all struck toward Sadako. He insidiously mixed a type of flame into the blade energy—a flame capable of burning spirit forms.