The black-and-yellow cloud blotted out the sky in an instant.
Masa and Shin Natsume leapt from their positions in quick succession, while even Maya Natsume was only half a beat slower as they all assumed defensive stances.
By then, the ominous cloud had already reached them.
"What is this?!" Maya Natsume's face turned ashen when she saw the cloud's true form.
It wasn't a real cloud at all, but rather a swarm of fist-sized wasps clustered together.
"These venomous wasps are yokai!" Masa declared grimly, a greatsword somehow already in his hand. "There's no trace of Demon Power... what the hell are these things?"
"Watch out for their stingers."
Shin Natsume covered his right eye as if seeing something.
"Stingers?" Maya Natsume looked at the approaching swarm and froze. "With this many... there's no way we can dodge them all."
"No choice then."
Seeing the millions-strong swarm, Masa knew conventional methods would be useless:
"Cover your ears!!"
Hearing this, Shin and Maya Natsume immediately clamped their hands over their ears.
At that moment, Masa took a deep breath, opened his mouth wide, and let out a soundless roar with a terrifying expression.
Instantly, the air within a hundred-meter radius fell deathly silent.
An invisible shockwave erupted from Masa, rippling outward in all directions.
The cloud of wasps froze mid-air.
Then, the insects began raining down like a shower of droplets.
"Something's wrong!" Shin Natsume's expression changed as he watched the falling wasps through covered ears.
Though many fell, it was barely one per cent of the swarm - these wasps had withstood Masa's sonic attack?
Noticing this anomaly, Masa stopped his siren scream, his face darkening:
"How could such small yokai possibly..."
Suddenly realising something, he leapt straight into the airborne swarm.
"Are you insane?" Maya Natsume stared in disbelief.
But Masa had already landed after passing through the cloud. Looking up at the hole he'd torn in the swarm, watching as the bisected wasps dissolved into mist, his expression turned grave:
"An illusion within reality?"
Shin and Maya Natsume saw this too, their faces tightening.
Maya Natsume stopped dodging the approaching wasps and instead slashed through the air with her hand.
The air twisted, shredding the nearby wasps into fragments. Watching these fragments also turn to mist, she understood:
"The swarm is fake... no, the enemy mixed real wasps into the illusion."
"What kind of bastard would do that?!"
Shin Natsume, still covering his right eye, suddenly shouted:
"Maya, behind you!"
Maya Natsume yelled back:
"I know!"
She leapt straight up, spinning 360 degrees mid-air to lock onto the tiny venomous wasp lurking behind her, poised to strike:
"So you had this trick up your sleeve after all!"
"First, the giant wasp draws our attention, then these thumb-sized ones ambush from behind. What a sneaky bastard."
Upon landing, Maya Natsume executed a perfect split kick, obliterating the tiny wasp in mid-air.
Turning around, she shouted to Shin Natsume:
"Shin, use Air Domination!"
Hearing this, Shin suddenly closed his eyes as energy surged through his body. When they reopened, his vision seemed enveloped by an invisible sphere.
Air Domination!
An advanced energy technique that utilises internal energy to regulate one's aura, perceiving and influencing the surroundings to create a protective or defensive domain.
The transparent sphere surrounding Shin, perceptible only to him, marked his absolute first-strike range.
Any enemy entering this zone would be instantly detected and countered.
The swarm of wasps soon invaded Shin's Air Domination zone. In the next instant, a blur of sword strokes flashed through the air, annihilating every intruding wasp.
Meanwhile, the surging wasps couldn't breach the defences around Masa and Maya either.
Between the two, Masa surpassed even Shin in swordsmanship. His short-hilted greatsword wove an impenetrable spider's web of steel, blocking every incoming threat.
In contrast, the unarmed Maya was at a clear disadvantage, relying only on rapid finger strikes and sharp palm strikes to dispatch the wasps.
"Don't prolong this. Let's retreat northwest to the lake - use water to evade them."
Understanding this as their best option, Shin turned to assist Maya.
But then, an eerie sense of déjà vu struck him.
At that moment, his Dragon Eye involuntarily activated, causing him to be momentarily frozen.
Witnessing this, Maya was dumbfounded:
"Shin! Move! What the hell are you doing?!"
The weaker fighter hadn't faltered, yet the stronger one froze at the critical moment.
Seeing wasps closing in on Shin, Maya moved to assist.
Then suddenly, a hand breached her Air Domination zone. She whirled to counter, but the hand shifted instantly, seizing her wrist.
"Damn it!"
Maya's expression changed.
The hidden assailant yanked hard, pulling Maya into an embrace.
"Freeze!"
The surrounding wasps immediately halted.
Seeing his sister captured, Shin's expression turned complex as he released his greatsword.
"So the mastermind finally shows himself!"
Masa adjusted his ever-glinting glasses, his emotions unreadable.
Clad in silver-white baboon fur and wearing a mask, the figure holding Maya threatened:
"Human and merman... You wouldn't want anything to happen to your companion, would you?"