Brave Story - Miyuki Miyabe [346]
Wataru’s eyes swam with fear and anxiety, and he began to worry if perhaps he had already seen her and just not realized it. Calm down. I have to calm down. Wataru fended off a tangled cloud of demonkin with a few wellaimed magebullets while Meena gave the dragon directions.
Then, amid the rubble on the ground below, Wataru saw Kutz. She was brandishing her whip, standing guard over two Solebrians. One was lying on the ground, the other hunched over in a ball. They were children.
“Kutz! Up here!”
As they flew by, Wataru fired a few magebullets at the demonkin attacking them. Kutz was dancing on the fallen remains of houses, her whip slashing to all sides, knocking wings and grinning skulls off any demonkin foolish enough to come too close.
Wataru had the dragon fly low and hover next to Kutz’s position. He jumped down to the ground. Behind him, Meena deftly wrapped her tail around the dragon’s wing, swinging down to scoop one of the children up off the ground. Then she repeated the process with the next. “Got ’em!”
Wataru turned back to Kutz. “Hurry!”
“Just a few more of these to clean up!” Kutz shouted, sending her whip keening through the air to strike the demonkin directly in front of her. Her right eye was completely closed now, and her left arm seemed to be moving awkwardly. In fact, she could hardly move it at all. It must have been broken before when Mitsuru’s magic had thrown her across the mirror hall.
“Leave them to me! You have to get on the dragon!” Wataru shouted, grabbing the back of Kutz’s vest.
“What are you doing?!”
“Get on!”
The Brave’s Sword slashed through a demonkin that flew at them with bared fangs. The dragon spat fire, clearing a path.
Kutz held her whip clenched between her teeth. Her left hand was useless, but she managed to lift herself up onto the dragon’s back with only her right. Wataru slashed at demonkin after demonkin, his body drenched in cold sweat.
“Hang on, Kutz. Hang on!” Meena grabbed her arm, when one of the children began to scream. Two demonkin had snuck up from the rear and were climbing onto the dragon’s back, their faces leering above its dully reflective scales.
“Meena, behind you!” Kutz shouted, and the whip fell from her mouth. She stood on the dragon’s back, launching herself at the demonkin with her bare hands. A swift kick knocked one of them off. Immediately, she turned and began to grapple with the other. Though she managed to push it back, its fangs flashed, and the foul creature bit deep into her neck. There was a spray of startlingly bright blood.
“Get your teeth off me!” screamed Kutz in a rage. She reached for the demonkin’s throat with her right hand. Meena kicked at the demonkin’s torso and clawed at its face. Kutz was knocked off balance and fell, and the demonkin came down on top of her.
“In your dreams!” Kutz shouted, twisting the demonkin’s neck with her right hand. She successfully wrenched the head from the body. The decapitated corpse slid off the dragon’s back. Wataru fired a volley of magebullets into the swarm of approaching demonkin, then leaped on top of the dragon. “Fly!”
The dragon lifted into the air. Meena held tightly to the crying children. Wataru crawled over to Kutz, still lying on her back.
She was still grasping the demonkin’s head she had torn off. She took a second to examine it. “Handsome one, aren’t you,” she spat before tossing it aside. “No one kisses my neck on the first date and gets away with it.”
Despite her jests, the cut on Kutz’s neck was gushing blood. Wataru took off his shirt, bunching it up, and held it to the wound. The soiled cotton garment rapidly soaked up the blood. “I’m fine,” she muttered. “Don’t look at me like that.”
She was still smiling when she passed out.
The seven pillars were now reduced to five. Jozo lay on his side, sleeping quietly, save for the occasional pained snore.
Several of the refugees