Page 12 of Night of the Dragon

The corpse mounds bellowed, reaching for them with dozens of hands, clawed fingers grasping. Daisuke spun and whirled around them, his sword a blur, and severed limbs fell twitching to the ground. Tatsumi snarled as he leaped into the air, bringing Kamigoroshi slicing through the middle of a corpse mound, cutting it in two. The bodies made disgusting squelching noises as they slid apart, and an eye-burning stench rose from the pile, making my stomach heave.

Flinging blood from his sword, Tatsumi spun toward another mound, but the limbs of the severed corpse pile twitched, then rose again as two smaller, separate entities that reached for him once more. A few feet away, Daisuke was struggling to keep distance between himself and a pair of corpse mounds; no matter how many limbs he cut off, how many heads he dismembered, the piles kept coming.

“Yumeko!”

Reika’s voice rang out, sharp and frightened. I turned just as a shadow fell over me from behind, a dozen hands clawing at me from every angle. I let out a yelp and sent a wave of foxfire into the monster’s many faces, causing it to flinch, but not stop. A cold, clammy hand grabbed my wrist, dragging me forward, and I cried out in disgust and horror.

“Purify!”

An ofuda sped past my head, sticking to the putrid mass of the monster who’d grabbed me, and with a burst of spiritual light, part of the mound was flung apart. I stumbled back, the fingers of the severed arm still clinging to my wrist, as the corpse pile howled and reformed into a smaller mound of dead. It lurched forward again, but the enormous crimson bulk of Chu slammed into it with a roar, shoving it back.

“Ew, ew, ew.” I shook my arm rapidly, dislodging the fingers still curled around my wrist. “This isn’t working, Reika-san,” I gasped. Behind me, I heard Tatsumi’s furious snarl and the squelch of his blade tearing through the mounds of corpses, and I saw the flash of Daisuke’s sword as it carved through limbs and bodies, but there were always more. “How do we kill things that are already dead?”

“The corpses are only puppets,” Reika snapped, ducking as a pale hand clawed at her. “Kill the puppet masters, and you cut the strings.”

“Oh!” Understanding dawned. I looked up at the witches, standing at the edge of the loft and smiling down at us, then to Okame, who met my gaze through the lurching dead things. “Okame-san!”

“On it!” Without hesitation, the ronin raised his bow and fired three rapid shots at the trio of blood mages overhead. The arrows flew unerringly for their targets, but right before reaching them, they struck an invisible wall of force that sent them spinning away. For a moment, a barrier flickered into sight, surrounding the blood mages in a black-red dome, and the head witch let out a cackle.

“Fight and struggle all you want, pathetic mortals,” she hissed. “No one will stop Lord Genno’s glorious return.”

“Reika-san!” I called, leaping back and blasting a corpse in the face with foxfire to little effect. “There’s a barrier—”

“I saw.” The miko cast a glare of pure annoyance at the witch trio before pulling an ofuda from her haori. “I just need a minute,” she said, holding the slip in two fingers and bringing it to her face. “Keep them off me until then.”

“Minna!” I called, as Chu lunged between his mistress and a pair of corpse mounds shuffling toward her. “Everyone! Protect Reika-san!”

Immediately, Tatsumi and Daisuke fell back to flank the shrine maiden, while Okame, Chu and I covered the front. Really, it was mostly Chu, who had become a roaring, raging whirlwind of teeth and claws, striking out at any dead thing that got too close. Snatching a pebble from the floor, I tossed it toward the corpse mounds, and a second komainu appeared, snarling and lashing out with enormous paws, adding to the confusion and chaos. Reika closed her eyes, murmuring words under her breath, and the paper in her hand started to glow.

“Enough of this foolishness.” Above us, the head witch raised a bloody claw. “It is time for all of you to die. Destroy them,” she called, and the corpse mounds seemed to swell and become even more grotesque, new arms and faces emerging through the putrid bodies. They lurched forward and one of them fell on Chu, the komainu snarling as he was buried under a mountain of rotting flesh and grasping hands.

Okame swore, releasing an arrow that hit the corpse mound lying on Chu and sank halfway into the putrid flesh, but did nothing else. “Kuso!” he spat again, and pulled another arrow from his quiver, but Reika suddenly reached out and snatched the arrow from his hands.

“What—?”

“Not the corpses,” she snapped. Raising the faintly glowing ofuda, she shoved the talisman halfway down the arrow shaft and tossed it back at him. “The witch, ronin. Shoot the witch!”

The corpse mounds closed in, hands flailing, stench overpowering. Okame leaped back, raised his bow and sent the arrow streaking toward the head witch gloating down at us. As before, the dart struck the barrier, but this time the arrowhead seemed to punch through the crimson dome, the ofuda glowing blindingly bright. With the sound of breaking porcelain, the barrier shattered, eliciting cries of alarm and fury from the witches as they flinched back, raising their arms.

“Curse you!” the head witch hissed and glared down at us, but Tatsumi sprang to the top of the ledge with a snarl, and the witch had just enough time to shriek in terror before she was split apart by Kamigoroshi. The other two gave cries of alarm and tried to flee, but the raging demonslayer struck them down before they took three steps, and their severed bodies thumped wetly to the wooden planks.

A shudder went through the air. Slowly, the corpse mounds stopped moving and began falling apart as the bodies went limp and slumped to the floor. Chu wriggled his way free from the motionless pile of corpses, shook himself violently and padded back to Reika, who was observing the now truly dead bodies with a look of disgusted triumph.

Okame took a deep breath. “You know, ever since I met you people, I’ve seen a lot of weird things,” he announced, curling a lip as he gazed around. “Hungry ghosts, demons, giant centipedes that want to eat you. I thought it couldn’t get any worse, that I had seen it all.” He shook his head. “Apparently I was very, very wrong.”

“Is everyone all right?” I asked as Tatsumi dropped from the platform, his eyes still shining a bloodthirsty red, his claws, horns and fangs fully visible. His gaze met mine, and I shivered at the cold fury glimmering within, but forced myself to face the demon staring back at me. “That should be the end of it, right? The curse should be lifted now that the coven is dead.”

For a moment, the demonslayer watched me, an eerie, contemplative look on his face, as if he was considering springing forward and plunging his sword through my middle. But then he shook himself, and the demonic features faded as he turned away, gazing out the warehouse doors. I followed his gaze and saw that the street was strewn with bodies, lying motionless where they had fallen. A heavy silence hung in the air, and I felt my stomach churn as I stared at the piles of corpses. So much death and destruction, all because the Master of Demons didn’t want us following him to reclaim the scroll.

“By the Harbinger’s fickle whiskers, you did it!”

We turned. A man stood in a door on the opposite side of the warehouse, gazing at us and then the mounds of dead with wide eyes. He wasn’t samurai, wearing rough but sturdy clothes, and his skin was leathery from the sun.

“My men and I were watching you,” the stranger went on as another pair of rough, sun-blasted humans poked their heads inside and stared at us. “Saw you magic your way through the doors, then heard an awful commotion from inside. We’ve been stuck here for days, trying to figure out a way to get past the hordes of dead. I don’t know who you are, strangers, or what sorcery you used to break the curse on this town, but I’m truly grateful.”

“Who are you?” Tatsumi asked.

“Oh, my apologies.” The man offered a quick bow, and the rest of his men did the same. “I am Tsuki Jotaro, first mate of theSeadragon’s Fortune.” He paused, his brow creasing with a painful memory. “Well, actually, now that Captain Fumio is dead, I suppose I am the new captain. We had stopped here to trade with Umi Sabishi when the town began swarming with the dead and we were unable to get to our ship. Now that you’ve dealt with the problem, we can finally return home.”

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