Mocha looked at her dragon with pity. "Don't worry, Ryuu-chan, I'll make you all better..." She began to pull the splinters from its jaw, but the dragon reered up when more of the spiders approached. Mocharatte steeled herself, and the two fought with cohesion against the approaching creatures.

The next time Hitomi looked up, three of the spindly creatures had increased in size significantly. "Fascinating..." She mumbled, going back to her scroll, but quickly did a double take. Ah, of course. The reason they appear to be larger is because they are approaching me. She mused. ...Oh.
Hitomi quickly retreated to the nearest tree and attempted to clamber up its lowest branch. She was becoming uncomfortably familiar with nature lately. Due to the implements she was still holding and her general lack of physical prowess, it took an altogether unreasonable amount of time and effort, but she eventually succeeded. By now, however, the insectoid beings were almost upon her. She peered down on them from her perch, now able to get a much closer look. She immediately continued writing, so absorbed in it that she neglected to call for help.

This was considerably less boring.

Yes that would be another one for the story she'd tell later, but for now she had to make sure there was a later. And that seemed like it would be to guard the young Hitomi, but also to warn Daiki. Fortunately both would be possible since Kiguya offered no instruction for the Chouko girl. She had said herself she was Yoikoro's number one messenger so it was time to use that skill.

"Chouko, use your skill, tell Dai- warn Oshiro-sama of this. Quickly." Losing no time she turned her attention to the other girl. "Stop futzing and focus on whatever it is you're doing. Right now I'm your ninja and a ninja won't let any harm come to their master, even if it means giving up their own life."

If Hitomi were to look up again she'd see the ninja now standing in front of her blade drawn and ready to intercept any threat. At least in that moment, for it wasn't long until she had to take action as the first of the creatures were nearly on them. Using her scarf to aid in her jump she sprung into the air, coming down hard enough on the creature to drive her blade through it's rocky head and into the ground. To her surprise this only stopped the creature by pinning it, not by causing its death as evident but it's still struggling form. But with it stopped for now she could focus on the second creature, so close behind the first it had now almost past them. It was all she could do to spin on her heels and catch the beast in either side with shards of ice formed on her scarf. This shattered the core causing near instant death in the beast. So that was the key. However she winced as she realized she had turned her back to to more of these things.

Hideki had no idea what the woman was doing writing while the insects continued racing towards her. It must be related to her relic, he supposed, but it was taking ages. After watching for another moment, he finally decided to take action before they killed her. He wasn't going to miss from this distance, so he put the Straight Arrow back into his quiver and pulled out a normal one instead.

The ninja woman, thankfully, took action, killing the two closest of the insects, so in one swift motion Hideki nocked the arrow, pulled back the bowstring, and let the arrow fly towards the third creature.

Kaguya didnt have time to register any more than the fact that his target was dead before he was dodging more attacks. Using reflexes and situational awareness given only by countless lifetimes of battle, he quickly dodged the attacks the creatures threw at him, countering and counter striking numerous times at every opportunity.
He was distantly aware in some part of his conscious mind that the others were being attacked as well, however his body was running on instinct and he was unable to be concerned with them for the moment.

With his spear lodged firmly in place, Oniwakamaru could only take the blows that came to him. He was confident however that the Forest Mother's Hide could absorb any manner of punishment these abominations against nature could inflict upon him. True to its nature, blows that would have inflicted grievous harm only felt like a light jab. His retaliation was swift as it was calculated. He lashed out with his foot, intending to only buy some space, before he planted it again.

"The earth it holds firms."

Twisting about he adjusted the grip on his spear.

"The tree's trunk is thick."

He had turned around, facing the spear's butt as he leveraged it.

"It's roots devour stone."

The creature stuck on his spear crashed in to the second one as he swung the spear.

"In its shade I stand."

Even if it were not the end of them, at the very least he managed to dislodge his spear from them. His guard was up now that the element of surprise was spent. Vaguely he was aware of more combatants joining the fray but until he could confirm that his current foes were defeated he dared not turn his attention away. A quick glance had him counting six more aberrations surrounded him but they had yet to make a move. That was fine with him. He had achieved the goal of grabbing the attention of these things. All he had to do now was guard his front and keep mobile.

A group of six of the spiders surrounded the panicking dragon. He tried stomping them, but they seemed to know to avoid his feet. Ryuu saw that Mocharatte herself was under attack by three of them and a fourth was approaching. He tried to incinerate the menacing spiders with gouts of flame. She slashed at one, trying to sever two of its legs, and whipped around to strike at another, an attempt at piercing it's core. But while she did so, the third skittered off to the side and stabbed her in the sword arm, piercing the leather armor. She dropped to her knees and her vision blurred as the spiders regrouped and crawled forward.

“Hai, Ryuu-sama!”

Chouko wasted no time racing back down the hill. This was it. The first chance for Harida’s number one messenger to show what she was made of. Quicker than the dragon lady could say “quickly” she was by Oshiro’s side, delivering her report.

“Captain! Captain! Come quickly!”, she cried as she skidded to a halt. “There are these monsters made of rock, and they are shaped kind of like bugs more or less, that they are, and they’re really gross, yes, and my friend Onna-sama is stuck in a tree, that she is, and the masked man is fighting them, and also the monsters fells from the sky, that they did, and the woman with the long hair is shooting them with her bow and arrow, and also the dragons are there but one of them is hurt, and and and ---huuuuaaaaahhh!”

Chouko gasped for air. It was quite rare – unheard of, even – for the girl to run out of breath while running, but she hadn’t spoken this quickly since the time her friend Kenshiro had promised her a chicken if she could recite all of the village elders’ full names in under half an hour. (That this was challenge at all spoke to the verbose ornamentation with which the people of Chouko’s village lavished the names of their elders.) But that had been years ago, and clearly, she was out of practice. Nevertheless, Chouko managed to gather herself up quickly, and bowing low, shouted once more: “The others need your help! Please come quickly, Captain-sama!”

Rock scraped against rock behind Umiko, a sure sign that the third third stone scarab had lunged at her. Before the ninja could turn around and intercept the attack, however, a whistling tone sailed behind the shinobi, followed by a large form barreling past her. Hideki’s arrow had hit its mark, cleanly piercing one of the creature’s compound eyes and sending its sanguinary dive off course; the arthropod entirely missed Umiko. Unrelenting, however, the insect’s momentum carried it past the ninja and into the base of Hitomi’s tree, shattering the stone armor that comprised its exoskeletal skull. Though its collision with the trunk left the creature alive, the impact led to Hitomi losing her balance, falling from her perch and crushing the remainder of the arthropod’s head with her descending rump. Its remains imploded on the spot.

A swarm had formed around Mocharatte, the insects inching ever closer to the princess’ trembling form. They hadn't yet reached the girl, however, before Kimura charged in, katana blazing in the moonlight. Though Mocharatte struggled and shrieked as though she was being eaten alive, the imperial guardsman’s defense was swift and effective. His form wasn’t as elegant as Umiko’s or as practiced as Kaguya’s, but it exuded all the rigid ferocity of a conquering Emperor’s legionary. Rock crumbled to rubble under the force of his slashes, two of the creatures quickly falling to his blade, the remaining four unable to reach Mocharatte. Not loosening his grip on his sword or breaking away from his defensive stance, Kimura addressed the princess directly.

“Are you hurt, Hime-sama?”

---

On the other side of the clearing, Kaguya dealt a flurry of blows to the insects closing in on Oniwakamaru. A leg was severed here, an antenna there. He didn’t succeed in significantly impairing any of the creatures, but his intervention provided Oniwakamaru with enough breathing room to dislodge his weapon from the earth. The stone beast that had spent the last few moments fruitlessly attempting to overcome the monk’s cloak soon found itself battered with the remains of its fallen kin: the impact caused the impaled insect to slip from the spear tip, sending both of the ascetic’s targets flying… ...on a collision course with Kaguya. Following the motion of the tumbling husks, the remaining five insects turned their attention away from the monk and all simultaneously leapt at the samurai, though one fell significantly short on account of an injured leg.

---

Oshiro sat quietly through Chouko’s cascade of words, not interrupting her despite the fact that he didn’t understand any of her linguistic efflux. The final few words seemed to catch his attention - something about the group needing help - but the samurai wasn’t particularly stressed about the matter. He knew that Umiko was with the group and that she would likely deliver any messages of significant danger personally, rather than rely on the untested relic holders for assistance.

Yoko for her part hadn’t understood much more than Oshiro, but she was significantly more worried given that she wasn’t as familiar with Umiko's expertise. Still, this Chouko-chan wasn’t helping any of them by babbling on like she was, and a scolding was definitely in order.

“Sit on your bum, child, and give it to the man one word at a time.”

“...And ask for permission to speak before you open that yap of yours again.”

Mocha sat and tried to catch her breath. "They stabbed me... There's a lot of blood coming out..." She clutched her arm. "Ryuu-chan, come to me." The dragon landed in a slightly open area near to them, crushing one of the insects. She pet it's head as the dragon breathed heavy painful breaths. Uneasily, she stood and clutched her sword.

"Right, yeah. Uh, keep up the good work." Hitomi responded to Umiko, barely registering the ninja's words over her own furious scrawling. The next time she looked up, however, she was greeted with a scene that demanded even her attention. A ways into the clearing, Kaguya and the newcomer were facing off against a half dozen of the creatures on their own. Mocharatte and her dragon appeared to be injured, and Kimura had come to defend her against several more. Perhaps most urgent, however, was the single insect that was now pouncing toward Umiko. "Look out!" The calligrapher called out to her bodyguard, though she quickly realized the gesture was unnecessary as the shaft of an arrow embedded itself in the creatures' eye, sending it plummeting off course. Hitomi breathed a sigh of relief, but the bug wasn't done. The creature flew directly into the base of her tree, as if it had willed itself to tumble in that specific direction out of spite. The trunk shook with the force of the impact, jarring the young woman from her perch.

Hitomi landed hard on her posterior, crushing the insect's head and causing it to rupture. She didn't even have time to mutter an exclamation of pain before its pseudo-crystalline guts splattered all over her. Her entire face puckered as she reached up to wipe the substance out of her eyes with her sleeve, only to realize that it was also saturated. She eventually managed to wipe enough of the gunk away to open her eyes safely, but she immediately wished she hadn't. Her expression twisted even further as she saw that her scroll was now soaked through with the dull, ruddy fluid, completely ruining the ink.

"Kuso!" Hitomi shouted as she frantically stood up. At least, she attempted to. Instead, her foot slipped on the rock creature's remains, once again sending her to the ground and causing her to slam the back of her head against the tree trunk. For a moment, she sat there, stunned. Then the pain caused tears to begin forming in her eyes. Suddenly, the events of the past 24 hours hit her all at once. She had been threatened with death and/or imprisonment, she had been blackmailed into a potentially fruitless journey that would probably take months, her hair had been a chew toy for the second most annoying horse she'd ever met, her attempts at psychological torment had been foiled by a profoundly dense girl, she had spilled ink all over her kimono, and followed that up by immediately face-planting in the dirt. Now her scroll had been ruined, and she couldn't even enjoy the sight of these amazing, mysterious creatures. Her head hurt. Her butt hurt. Her pride hurt, and now, here she was. Sitting in a pile of goo.

Hitomi sat with her back against the tree, pulling her knees in to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. I can't let this get to me. She thought, her eyes dull. I'm better than this. I'm better than this. I'm better than- The calligrapher buried her face in her knees. The faint sound of muffled, rage-filled screams could be heard throughout the clearing.

With the help of Hideki and Hitomi the insect Umiko had turned her back to had met it's demise, luckily. The other relic holders that had descended the hill did not appear to share the same luck. Some had found themselves injured and were greatly out numbered, and although they appeared to be defending themselves fairly well, who knows how long that would last. They'd need help soon. Where was Chouko with Daiki?

But that wasn't the only problem Umiko had. After Hitomi's swift, and accidental, victory she seemed to break down, curling up and screaming. Umiko couldn't blame her, she'd seen it countless times. The stress of battle was a terror on people that had never suffered such shock before, but that didn't matter. The skirmish was still going on around them and a sitting duck endangered them all. With a small nod to Hideki, she turned back to the first insect, still impaled with her blade, and yanked the short sword out. The initial blow hadn't killed it she remembered, but it seemed to have died during the struggle. She took no chances and sliced at the insides before dropping the sword at Hitomi's feet.

"Get up and off the battlefield, there is nothing for you here girl. Take my sword and retreat to safety and use it if you are attacked again." She sighed as the girl continued screaming through her own speech. Grabbing her to make sure she had her attention she reiterated, "Cut the s***, you've got plenty of time to grieve once you're safe or dead, so get back to camp were it's safe."

Or don't, she thought as she turned to Hideki. She gave him a stare that told him to keep making his own calls then she ran into battle. After trying to get Hitomi out of here, Mocha needed to be next, so the ninja ran straight for her passing the insects and the soldier.

"Cover our retreat!" She called to him as she passed.

"Don't worry about fighting right now, just run when I lay down smoke." She told Mocha when she arrived at her side. Not moments later she threw down a few dark objects that flared into smoke.

Mocha was pretty ticked off at the idea of leaving this fight. "I'm not leaving! I hate these things! I'll crush their cores!" The girl angrily swung at one of the creatures while the dragon watched, amused.

Hideki watched with distaste as the woman who had just been writing curled up into a ball and started shrieking instead. It was no more productive than what she'd been doing before, and it was a great deal more annoying. True, she'd made a great fool of herself, and he couldn't help but feel some pleasure at her misfortune. But he wished she could've chosen a more convenient time for a breakdown than in the middle of a battle. It was a good thing the ninja woman was there to try and snap her out of it. (Hideki's opinion of her continued to raise far higher than his opinion of any of their other allies.) Hideki had never been particularly good at dealing with emotional people.

As Umiko dashed off to help Mocharatte, Hideki uneasily eyed Hitomi. "You heard her," he said bluntly, disposing of his usual forced politeness. "If you're not going to make yourself useful, just get out of our way."

He figured he'd done all he could do, so he turned his attention back to the remaining insects. The ninja woman had set down smoke bombs, but the dragon girl stubbornly continued to attempt to fight. Judging from her current state, it didn't seem that was the best idea. And of course, the creatures nearby were still around her.

He was surrounded by idiots. Briefly he looked over to the foot of the hill, but decided that the ninja woman had asked him to cover their retreat, and he ought to focus on what was closer to him anyway.

Although it was with a great deal of resentment, Hideki did raise his bow once again. This time, he picked out the Straight Arrow from his quiver, not wanting to miss due to the smoke. Setting his sights on the creature Mocharatte was swinging at, he let the arrow fly. He called out, raising his voice slightly to make sure he was heard. "If you want to be killed, then feel free to continue doing what you're doing. If I were you, I'd listen to her and get out."

There was a base cunning or malvolent intellect that guided the demons. Instead of facing him they decided to flee and attack someone else instead. The assistance was not needed but still appreciated. Oniwakamaru was not going to let the tables be turned so easily. There was little time to act, and so much one could say in that time. He rushed forward, spear flicking out to lay low the lamed abomination almost negligently as he did. It was strictly so he could bring the yari around after his lunge. Oniwakamaru's left foot landed solidly and he planted himself, exhaling loudly as he swung. His intent was to swat all the insects in the air before they could land. The yari's swing was slightly angled down so if he missed he could at least tag one as it landed. Hopefully he'd get them all.