Chapter 13 –Music of Conflict

Tsunade's men rush towards the gate to take their positions and form a row of spears. Archers climb their watchtower and prepare a volley of arrows to the yokai. Snail shamans are casting their magic to weave sticky silk traps across the village. "Make those traps invisible and place it choke points. Make sure that their progress within the city is slowed and our men have the advantage!" Tsunade yells as she goes around the village on her horse instructing her men.

The guardians are about to rush in but Jasmine tells them to wait. "Alright listen up. There is a lot of yokais rushing now and we need to stay in contact during the fight. Juan, remember the stunt you pulled at the Inn? You manage to talk to me thru the frog, do that again but this time to all of the guardians." Juan whistles and frogs leap out of the shadows and brushes near them. Each one leaps on the other guardian's shoulder. "I used basic telepathic magic on the Chronicler. I will use the same this time and use the frogs as a conduit of my magic. Keep them at your side at all times" Juan instructs the guardians.

Jasmine opens the White Chronicle and started to show the guardians the pages regarding the yokai. The pages go on and go on as there are a lot of variants of yokai they will face tonight. "This is why I need communication. You go out there and tell me who you see; I will help you find the weakness of the yokai you will be facing."

The yokai and the men started to clash outside and the men are outnumbered but not outmatched. Each of Tsunade's men is a capable warrior but they will not last long once the bigger yokais came near them. Then a moment of clarity came to Jasmine.

"Trust on me. I might be a kid but I played a lot of PC games that taught me how to handle these. First up, Gil, you take the rightmost side of the village. I see yellow fires from that side. Use the canals around the village to your advantage. Keep them at bay and don't let anyone up those walls." Gil nods and didn't ask any question. He rushes off and shouts "I will trust you, Chronicler, give me the best fight".

"Next up, Atlas. I will be sending you to the left side of the village, near the river. I will be taking you and Gil out of your element. The yokais you will be facing there will be water-related, crush them with your strength. Don't let anyone escape you. Got that?" Atlas gave Jasmine a big grin and replied "Ah! A challenge. I love how you lead us already." Atlas rushes off towards the left side of the village and leaps over the wall.

"Amihan and Tala, your combination of fire and wind are good. I will leave you guys dealing with them." Jasmine points her finger to the sky and sees umbrellas and fireballs start to rain from above. "Your job is to negate any flying type yokai and if you see any of them flying back to the castle, send them back to us." Tala and Amihan start to fly and Amihan then cast her winds to boost them even faster.

"Kislap, you are fast and your lighting will give the enemies a hard time keeping up with you. Prioritize the small ones you can kill and call me when there are troubles. Do not let up but do not strain yourself, got that?" Kislap gives Jasmine a wink and in a flash, he disappears right before her eyes.

"Kulog, your job is to kill the big and slow ones. Use your sounds to disorient the bigger one and go for the kill. Do not go alone and join the men of Tsunade. Defend them as you defend me." Kulog nods and snaps her finger. A rumbling of thunder can be heard then her metallic rod falls from the sky.

"Juan, remember how you dealt with the Onis? Do that again. You know them already and you know their weakness. Go for their eyes." Juan gives Jasmine a big hug and lifts her in the air. "My! How fast you grow! What happened to you in the past few hours?" Jasmine laughs as Juan puts her down and he began to channel his magic. "I am not a little girl anymore Juan. I need to act like the Chronicler of this world. Oh! And give Leshin a frog too. He will need it."

"Yeah, that will take a while. There is one frog that I summoned and now is making its way to Leshin and the crew. They repair Amihan's ship so they can take flight and join us." Juan grabs Jasmine and advises her to stay close. He starts to channel his magic across the village; green magic starts to flow from his body.

Gil arrives on the plains and sees yellow fireballs rushing toward his direction. "This will be an easy game for me. My water magic will make quick work of them." He raises his hands toward the direction of the fireballs. Water from the village canal starts to draw towards him and flies towards Gil. The water formed into a huge water bubble and as he gathers enough water, Gil clenches his fist, and the water bubble burst and flies toward the direction of the fireballs. The water manages to hit some of the fire and was quickly extinguished. Gil celebrates and starts to prepare another water bubble.

As he was gathering water, he noticed something strange. The fire that was put out manages to ignite itself and even grow brighter. The fireballs rush faster and they all start to converge towards his direction. As the fireballs got nearer, he got to see what the yellow fireballs are: huge cats with their tails on fire. He throws another batch of water but the cats didn't flinch; they got back up and their tails ignite again. Gil is unsure what to do next, how can he defeat a firebase creature that keeps getting back up?

"Chronicler, I got cats whose tails are on fire. I manage to douse off the fire but they manage to get back up and lit themselves on fire again. Mind you the pressure I put on my water magic is enough to crack a boulder. What are these things?" Gil yells as he starts to cast water again towards him. The frog on Jasmine's shoulder relies on the information and she starts to flip the White Chronicle's page to search for a yokai of fire that won't die with water. She scans and flips the pages until she came across two entries. ��Does the cat have two tails? Or one?" Jasmine asked and Gil replies that he sees one tail only. Jasmine informs that Gil that he is against the Kasha, demon cats the steals and eats corpse. Jasmine bets that they are here because Orochimaru promises them a lot of food… dead bodies are everywhere during a time of war.

"So they want is a buffet? Well, I won't let them make us part of their dinner." Gil smirks as he is well hungry right now. The food served by Tsuande's cook is good but he got a large appetite. He cast his water around his arms and turned it into a long tentacle. He swats the cats away from the walls of the village and tries to keep them at bay and no matter hard the slams he did, they keep getting back up. The cats began to realize they can't climb up the village walls if Gil is preventing them. The Kasha began hissing and circles around Gil. The tail began to burn brighter and they bare fangs as they approach slowly to Gil. "Gil, the Chronicle says their tails are their source of power. The fires are what fuels them back to life. The book didn't say how to kill them but from that entry, we can assume cutting their tails off will prevent them from getting back to life."

Gil thanks Jasmine for the information. He takes a deep breath to clear his mind, he summons more water around him then he smiles. He smiles and shows his teeth to the Kasha around him and he called them out "Cats, you see these writing on my teeth? This weapon of my choosing is the same teeth we mermen and mermaids gnaw and crush our enemies. In the deep, we can kill you easily…" Gil pauses and his arms began to bulge, his teeth start to drip wet for his saliva, and his eyes turn sinister. The Kasha attacks from all directions; biting into the flesh of Gil, wriggling their tail and throwing fireballs from their cats, and clawing Gil all over his back and shoulder. Gil doesn't seem to care. He stays in his position to summon more water above him and endures the attacks of the Kasha.

Gil summons water from the village; from the canals, their wells, the reservoir from jars, and other containers. Even wine and other liquid he manages sense are drawn to his location. The water bubble became so big that even Jasmine and the other guardians see this huge water formation from a distance. Gil clenched his fists and slams his hands on the ground. The water immediately follows Gil's hands; it crushes itself and washed the Kasha away from Gil. The waves were powerful enough to drag the Kasha and drown them; Gil created a huge flood. As the water starts to flow away from him, he tightens his grip and the water flow reversed and is gathering back at his position. The Kasha caught in the water is also being dragged back by the waves. The water rises and formed into a huge square – Gil made an aquarium for his enemies to drown. Gil sees the fire on the Kashas' tail starts to reignite and he swiftly swims toward them and with his sharp teeth, bites their tail off. Once their tail was bitten off, the remains of the Kasha are burned in a bright yellow fire and they turned to ash.

Gil swims with grace and speed within his aquarium. He moves so fast that once you blink, 10 Kasha tail are already bitten off. He acts like a shark, hunting for his food; but for Gil, this is not a hunt. This is a massacre he revels in. "You are in my territory now. You cannot escape me..." Gil thinks to himself as his predatory sense takes over him. The Kasha who are outside of his make shift water aquarium starts to run past him and they start to climb over the walls. Gil sees their attempt to escape him. He stretches his arms to command his waters to form a tentacle and reach every Kasha on the walls and dragged it to his aquarium. The water did as it was instructed and Gil manages to get most of them. Once the Kasha is dragged back, he starts to drown them in the water and bite their tail off.

"Chronicler, I manage to get most of them but they are some who manage to get in. You are right cutting off the tail works."

���Keep it up, Gil. I will inform Tsunade's men."

Gil then decides to widen the span of his aquarium to prevent the horde of Kasha from climbing the walls. He was confident that this will deter the Kasha from entering his water territory; his confidence will be tested as a volley of fireballs were cast by the Kasha from afar. "Come and get me you demonic cats!" he shouts as he prepares for another attack.

Tala and Amihan fly above and saw umbrellas and fireball starts to fall from the sky. Tala suggests she handles the Umbrella as she can burn them with her fire magic. Amihan agrees and decides to take care of the fireballs; with her wind magic, she can spin them in a tornado and blow them away from the castle.

Tala flies further and sees thousands of red umbrellas falling from the sky. Graceful and beautiful, she wonders how these can be a threat and a weapon against them. Starts cast a fireball toward the nearest umbrella. Her pink fireball flies toward the umbrella but as it approaches the umbrella, the fireball was blown away by a gust of cold wind. Tala tries again and just like the last time, the fireball was killed by the cold wind. Tala gets frustrated and conjures a stream of fire from her wand to burn the umbrella. As the fire approaches the umbrella, the gust of wind blows and starts to fight her fire. She felt a strong cold wind passed her and felt her arm hot. She looks over it and sees her arm is now bleeding. Tala is now furious; she knows it got something to do with the wind. She thinks if this is another Tengu attack, a gust of wind with their knives on it was their signature attack but this seems to be different.

She felt another cold gust coming her way; she tries to dodge this gust but it manages to get her legs. Tala concentrates her magic on her wand. It glows with bright pink then shifts into a bright blue hue. Another wind comes and this time Tala is prepared. She points her wand to the gust of wind and cast her magic; the bright blue light hits the gust of wind and it swivels below her. The wind dissipates and from it appears a group of small white creatures falls as they began to form ice around their body from Tala's magic. They look like weasels with sharp like claws as their limbs. Tala informs Jasmine about this and asked what she just fought. "Wind and weasels with sharp claws? Yeah, the Chronicle says they are Kama Itachi – weasels that become strong gust of wind that cuts their foes.

And as for the umbrella, I don't know yet. They have no weakness written here but since you froze them, that is a good way how to prevent them from moving. Keep it up Tala!"

Kama Itachi struggles from the ice but Tala shots another beam of magic. As it freezes, Tala sees that the weasel becomes heavy and falls to the ground and shatters into pieces. She knows how to defeat these beasts. Tala becomes distracted from her fight with the Kama Itachi that she failed to notice that the floating umbrellas have surrounded her. Tala hears hissing around her; as she looks around she sees Kama Itachi are riding the umbrella as they descended from the sky.

More hissing is heard as more Kama Itachi shows their selves from the umbrella. They leap out from it and they formed into winds and began to swirl around their respective umbrellas. The nearest Kama Itachi from Tala controlled the wind and made the umbrella flies toward Tala. The Tala sees the umbrella transformed: its shaft bare scales, its handle began to form into a tail, its arcing canopy began to tear into two and formed wings, and its most top of the umbrella formed into a fish-like face and bare its fangs.

Tala shot her ice magic to the umbrella and it too becomes frozen solid and shatters to the ground. The Kama Itachi began to throw their and umbrella at Tala. Tala flies to escape the swarm of the umbrella flying her way. Every time she dodges one bite from the umbrellas, the wind from the Kama Itachi slices her. If she shots her magic to the Kama Itachi, the umbrellas manage to catch up with her and bite her furiously. Tala calls on to Jasmine "Chronicler, the Kama Itachi and these umbrellas turned on me. The umbrellas are looking like fish that flies in the wind began to bite me. I can't hold them, I need Amihan's to distribute my magic into the air."

Jasmine flips her books and replies "The umbrellas are Hone karakasa, just like the Kama Itachi they are easy to deal with. Amihan can't help you now Tala, she is up against " Tala insists that Amihan helps her but then Amihan replies "I am busy at the moment!" Tala looks up and sees that the fireballs also swarm Amihan.

Jasmine then replies to Tala "These floating heads are on her the second Amihan enter their range. Those are Ubagabi and Sōgenbi, yokai that spits fire. Amihan summoned her Ginunting on her side but her weapon's wind magic was drained from our fight with the Tengu."

Amihan adds "I am sorry Tala, I can kill each head with ease but they just keep coming. I am using the winds to my advantage but the numbers are on their side. I will join you once . . ." she was cutoff and Tala and Jasmine sees a bright light from Amihan's direction.

"Amihan! What happened?!" Jasmine yells. Tala sees Amihan flies away from the smoke. Amihan's armor is on flame and Amihan seems to be injured.

"Later! I will deal with these beasts as fast as I can." Amihan replies to Jasmine and Tala then flies back to the floating heads and began slicing every time she got close to one.

Tala was distracted from Amihan and was hit by another wind behind her. She begins to bleed from her wings and shoulder. She tries to keep it together but the yokais sees this as a sign of weakness and want to end Tala. They see blood and they go in for the kill.

Tala closes her eyes and channels her magic around her. She glows in pink and starts to sparkle. Before her enemies reach her, she disappears. The yokais are confused about where she went and what happened; they looked around and see nothing of her. The winds began to scour for her and the umbrellas follow behind them. Then one of the weasels began to freeze and falls. The yokais are in disarray and are confused about where Tala is.

A wind stopped and another weasel falls as the umbrella beside it was frozen too. As the yokai are still looking for Tala, they began to notice several butterflies began to fly with them. The yokai are puzzled with would a butterfly with fly this high with them. No word from Lord Orochimaru that a yokai that is based on a butterfly will join them. One of the umbrellas thinks that these are Chōkeshin, butterfly yokai that are known to visit humans when they will die from an illness, and they also want to join their fight.

A Kama Itachi tries to approach the butterfly but as it flies near it the Kama Itachi frozen and falls. More and more butterflies of different colors and sizes began to show up. The yokais figure it out, its Tala. The magic that Tala cast allowed herself to divide into multiple butterflies while her elemental magic stays with her butterflies. "How do you like being surrounded for once? Do you feel fear? You pissed me off you know? Juan pissed me off, Leshin tries to calm me down but I am still a bit angry and now you yokais made me bleed. . . Let me show you what happened if you get on my nerves" her words emanate from every butterfly in the sky. If a yokai manages to dodge one butterfly, another will land behind it freezing them instantly. No one can escape the wrath of Tala and she made sure that all of these yokai will pay.

Amihan on the other hand is having difficulty against the floating heads. Insults are being thrown at her as they continue to fight: "A guardian this weak?" "Are you trying to bore us?" "Are you even trying to defeat us or are you playing with us?"

Amihan tries not to let the words get to her but she is feeling more and more irritated the more the battles goes on. For every head she cuts, a barrage of fire will be shot in her direction. Then she hears Jasmine thru her frog on her shoulder "I remember something, my science teacher told me that no fire will burn if there are no fuel and oxygen is present. The higher you are, the less air they breathe!"

Amihan doesn't know what science is but she is great full for the advice. She began to cast her magic and the heads are sucked into the tornado she created but the wind began to form a fire tornado. The heads laugh as Amihan magic made them stronger.

"Throw them to towards the sky. Make sure you throw high and far away from where you are." Jasmine continues her advice and Amihan follows her: uses more wind magic to build up the tornado. More and more of the heads are sucked into, the brighter the tornado got; it got so bright that it lit the whole sky. That the people and yokai below thought that the sun is already up.

After Amihan's tornado sucked every Ubagabi and Sōgenbi, she threw the tornado up into the sky and until it was no more insight. Sure enough, no more of floating heads returned and no fireballs falling from the sky. "Wow, that was rather quick to deal with them. Thanks, Chronicler!"

Jasmine replied that it is her job to assist them and asked Amihan to assist Tala in keeping the other yokai within her area. Then Juan taps Jasmine and points into the distance: they see large skeletons crackling and walking towards the village. These large skeletons will be a difficult enemy to deal with.

"Kislap, you see them? Can you handle those?" Jasmine asked the guardian and he replies that he can. Jasmine sees a blue flash of lighting manifest itself on the battlefield for every strike that Kislap made with his rod against his enemies. Kislap runs from the frontline and dashes towards the huge skeleton. He is fast enough for large skeletons not to notice him. Kislap began slamming and bashing his metallic rod on the huge skeletons and it manages to dent and destroy their bones but it didn't stop them from walking towards the village.

"Uh, hey Chronicler, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but these skeletons don't seem care if they are damaged and they are not slowing down despite I hit them on their knees and foot." Kislap asked as he keeps attacking the skeletons.

Jasmine flips her pages and sees one entry about them, Gashadokuro is a skeletal manifestation of dead people who are filled with pain and hatred. Formed once enough dead bodies are in an area. Jasmine sees two ways of defeating it: either with shrine charms or crushing the Gashadokuro into tiny pieces. Juan overheard Jasmine as she reads the Chronicle and comments that those might be the dead who are killed during the siege on the royal palace and the dead might being fueled by their envy for the living.

Jasmine informs Kislap about this info. "Gashadokuro is to be killed either shrine charms or smash them into dust. Got it, I'll go crush" Kislap runs toward the nearest Gashadokuro and he starts to smash his metallic rod all over its body. Each slam Kislap made generates lighting and made the bones easier to crush. He slams so fast around its body till the Gashadokuro falls from the damage.

"Yeah, see that? I am the lighting that made you fall." He celebrates from his attacks but he didn't take into account that the skeleton can still move after. Kislap is way over his head and didn't realize that the Gashadokuro's attack. The giant skeleton manages to grab a log and slammed Kislap with it. The strength of that attack manages to send Kislap flying back to the village.

He lands before Jasmine and Juan. He groans in pain and complains from the broken bones he got and his pride along with it. He complains about his recent fall, he looked at Jasmine and asked "Yeah where do we find shrine charms? Crushing them is good but it will take a while to grind them to dust."

Juan points at a red roof building at a distance and tells Kislap that is the shrine. Juan instructs him to look for red leather as this is where the shrine priest kept the charms. Kislap gets up runs towards the building. He sees the building empty but manages to sees the charms over a table. He runs back to Juan and Jasmine, he shows the charm and asked how these works do.

"You place them in their skull and make sure it stays there until they regress into nothingness." Juan replies and Jasmine was shocked to hear Juan knows about so much about Gashadokuro. Juan replies that Orochimaru and Tsunade use to defeat them before back when they are defending this island from the yokai.

Kislap thanks the two of them and runs back. He placed each charm on the forehead of every Gashadokuro he finds. First, the Gashadokuro didn't pay mind but then they started to rattle uncontrollably. All of the Gashadokuro began slams everything and everyone in sight. They seem to be hurting from the charm on their forehead. They rampage across the field and the other yokai began to run away from them.

Before this, Kislap's sister, Kulog was with Tsunade's' best men in the frontline. The frontline was in a stalemate as the soldiers push back the yokai. Then when Kulog enters the field, she slams her metallic rod, and a huge sound quakes the area. The yokai in the vicinity lost their footing and this manages to give the soldiers an opening and dealt the finishing blow on the yokai. Everything was good with Kulog as they manage to turn the tide to their favor but then a huge crowd of oni appears before them. The oni crushed their defenses and manage to launch an unrelenting assault on them and leading them is a tall and huge oni. This one is surrounded by fire, he got no horns or eye on his forehead but he wields a katana instead of a kanabō. This one gave the onis some morale and boost them into the fray. They manage to withstand Kulog's sound and they continue marching forward.

The soldiers are getting tired as the onis push the men back. The men made a defensive formation as they try to hold out the incoming attack. Kulog instructs them to defend her as she will channel her magic into one powerful blast. Kulog knelt and began channeling her magic. Out of nowhere, Juan jumps into the frontline. He then unsheathes his knife and stands beside Kulog. "Do not be fear, I am here!" then a group of Juan rushes from behind the men. They all started to leap high in the air and manage to stab most of the oni on their third eye. The real Juan is still beside Jasmine. He uses the same illusion he used to kill the group of oni way back at their way to the underworld. This manages to give Kulog enough time to gather more magic and the men shouts and cheers. The morale of the men is back and this gave them enough strength to fight back the onis.

Juan then yells at the men and Kulog "Oni is sturdy and strong but their third eye is their weakness. Shot it with arrows and stab it with a sword. Always hit the. . . "Before this Juan can finish his sentence an oni manages to slam its kanabō on his chest. The Juan was hit emits a green smoke pops back into a frog and disappears. Kulog was thankful that this is just an illusion and not the real Juan.

More Juan leaps into action and starts to turn the tide back to their favor. Another batch Juan rushes towards the field but then a huge katana manages to swipe the Juans in half. The commander of the oni, the hornless one, enters the front line.

Kulog stands up as she also enters the field. The men and oni felt a strange aura emanating from the two of them: Commanders of the oni vs a guardian and standing commander of Tsunade's men. The commander of the onis bows and spoke "I am Yasha, a commander of Orochimaru's oni. I am pleased that this village manages to put up a fight. This is already a better fight compare to the royal palace." Yasha readies his katana.

Kulog bows her head in return and replied "A respectful one? This is surprising and surely a welcome one. My name is Kulog, a guardian." She ready's her metallic rod in response.

The two of them stared for a long time and none of them made a sudden movement. The soldiers and the onis around them duke it out but the two of them just starred. Yasha is gathering his energy on his sword and prepares a strike that kills cut the head of Kulog along with the other soldiers behind in one fell swoop. Kulog also gathers her magic on her rod but she doesn't know what to do. In her head, she was to shout so loud but it will destroy most of the soldiers around from the impact of her magic. She instead just readies herself from whatever attack her opponent will do.

Yasha then laughs and demands the oni to stop fighting. The soldiers and Juans are confused and also back down. Yasha raises his hand and speaks "Let this be known that I, Yasha, the commander of the onis will take the head of a guardian and her men!"

He brandishes his katana and slams his fist on the hilt. The katana grew large and the fire that surrounds this hornless oni began to culminate into the blade, giving it a blue fire. The onis cheered and they all shouted "DEATH TO THEM! KILL THEIR COMMANDER!"

Kulog didn't move and still concentrates her magic on her rod. She asked one of the Juans in the crowd: what weakness of an oni without a third eye is. The Juan just shrugged and shouts "You're a guardian too, figure it out!" The onis heard this and they all laugh at her.

The Yasha holds the katana with two hands and put on his shoulder to support the weight. He prepares his attack like a baseball batter prepares to hit the ball, but instead of a ball, he wants to hit all the heads he sees. He shouts and starts to swing the blade. His roar spread terror into the hearts of the men but not Kulog. She acts quickly throws her metallic rod into the screaming mouth of Yasha and bullseye, the metallic rod is lodge perfectly.

She shouts and her magic sends the vibration to the rod. The rod vibrates as to the intensity of the sound that Kulog made. Then Kulog shouts even louder and in return vibration of the rod shake violently and it sends its vibration all over the head of Yasha. Then Yasha's head exploded and his body collapses from the weight of the katana. His remaining body burned in a bright blue flame. She then reaches out her hand and the metallic rod comes back to her. The soldiers then cheer as they roar with Kulog's victory. Kulog continues her shouting and she redirects her it to the onis who are still disbelieved that their commander dies in one attack. Her scream becomes so loud that it made the onis to cover their ears and leave them open for attack. This made Tsunade's archers quick picking on the onis.

Kulog stops shout and she rallies the men to push them back. The onis started to fall back then they saw the Gashadokuro behind them rampaging in a blind rage. They are stuck between the huge rampaging skeletons and the charging men. And sure enough, they are obliterated.

Kislap sees this opportunity to defeat every yokai that is trying to escape. "Oh yeah, I made those skeletons attack their own. Points for me!" he yells as he celebrates his early victory. He started to pick off every yokai in the area.

As they thought they are winning, they heard a large crashing sound. They saw more explosions by the riverside. They saw Atlas being launched to the air and a huge serpent yokai following him in the air with its long and huge slender body. The yokai's head is huge as a house and its body is big as a human adult. It is long as the river and it is sparkling in a blue with its scales shining at a distance.

Then another huge yokai rises, this yokai's body is made up of water and tries to catch Atlas as he falls back to the ground. Dark and water-based yokai with its eyes and face can be seen on the water.

Jasmine sees this and contacts Atlas. "Atlas! What is happening there?" Jasmine then rushes over a watchtower to see what is happening. Across the town, they can see the eastern wall suddenly collapse as Atlas is thrown again towards the town.

Atlas gets up on his feet and sees the frog leaping towards him. He rushes to the frog and placed it on his shoulders. "Argh! Sorry, Chronicler. I lost the frog earlier; we were separated as soon as this water entity and this water serpent attack us. I tried to fight them off but raw strength can seem to defeat these guys."

"We all see it from here Atlas. The eastern wall has collapse and two huge yokai are there. Do you want me to send Juan there?"

"No, I can take this. Just give me information about this yokai and I will handle the rest." Atlas doesn't want to admit it. His pride is on the line. The other guardians didn't ask for help no matter the odds. He must prove that he is worthy of the title of a guardian. He must be the strongest guardian there is and he must outlast Gil; if he gives up and asked for help for Gil, this will look bad on his record.

Jasmine flips the pages and sees two yokai that match what she saw "Atlas, listen well. You are up against, Ikuchi and Umibōzu. Ikuchi is a slippery serpent that secretes oil from its scale and escapes from enemy grasp. They have sharp teeth and normally live in the ocean. The Umibōzu is a huge yokai with a water body as its body. Sadly, no weakness is given by the Chronicle; hang tight as I try to think of a way to defeat them."

Too late for Atlas, as he gets back outside a fist of water hits him, and was push back to the town. The serpent swims out of the fist of water and tries to munch Atlas. Atlas manages to stop the serpent's jaw from closing from his immense strength. The serpent tries its best to crush Atlas but it can't.

Atlas then holds the jaw; he uses his right arm to grab the nearest tooth. He grabs it, breaks it, and slams the sharp tooth back to its forked tongue. The serpent wriggles and spat him out. The serpent slams its' tail to Atlas. Atlas tries to grab the tail but it was too slippery due to the oil and it manages to launch him again to the air.

The Umibōzu sees this as an opportunity to grab Atlas, it manages to catch him and puts Atlas in its' body to drown him. Atlas uses his earth magic to open the earth and it sends him and Umibōzu down to the underground. Atlas hopes that this will drain the Umibōzu to the depths of the earth and allowed him to manage the serpent creature without the interference of the Umibōzu.

As the Umibōzu is being drained, Atlas latches to the ground and manages to escape the water body of the yokai. He climbs back up and closes the ground.

"HA! There we go, Chronicler. I manage to send the Umibōzu back to the earth." Atlas yells to the frog to inform Jasmine. Jasmine overhears this and panics "WAIT! To the depths of the earth? Isn't there a ground here connected to the river? It will come back!"

And as Jasmine says it the Umibōzu burst out of the ground. Atlas is now getting angry as these two yokais are still on his side. "Wait! I got it" Atlas yells in excitement as he runs towards the serpent. The Umibōzu bursting from the ground gave him an idea.

The serpent saw Atlas and tries to swallow him whole. This time Atlas jumps into the mouth of the Ikuchi and grabs another tooth of the serpent before he jumps inwards. The serpent gulps down at Atlas. Jasmine calls for Atlas and asked, "Atlas, what do you mean you got it?"

"If this serpent is oily for me to harm the outside then I should able to…" he stops and slams the sharp tooth inside of the serpent "… damage his innards. The place where his oil won't appear".

The serpent can be seen from afar. It vigorously wriggles in pain and slams its body on the ground and it rolls around the river. It is trying to catch Atlas off-balance inside of it but Atlas remains in the body of the serpent. Atlas is enjoying himself; Atlas answers the wriggling and movement of the serpent with a sharp tooth lodge into innards. Atlas slowly manages to scrape and digs his way out of the esophagus into the muscles, and manage to hit other organs that Atlas can't identify.

Then from within, he hears a beat. "Hoho! Its heart!" Atlas rip and tear his way into the serpent's heart and finally slams the tooth deep into the heart of the serpent until it stops. The serpent outside is still wriggling in pain causing the river to the floor with its disturbance and when its heart stopped the serpent collapsed into the river and its head landing near the village.

Atlas exits the serpent's mouth and he is covered in blood. "Atlas, that was a stupid thing to do! You almost get killed!" Jasmine stops being angry for a second and she smiled for a bit. "But you manage to beat that yokai. Good job!"

Atlas replies "Thank you Chronicler. Now onto the . . ." he was cut off as fist of the Umibōzu hits him again. Atlas was sent flying back to the river. The water began to surround him and Atlas gets back up. Atlas sees this yokai towering him and imposing its huge figure on Atlas. Its face can be seen with its glowing eyes gloating on Atlas.

"You dare mock me, yokai?" Atlas then stands staring at the yokai. "I will have you know I faced foes greater and bigger than you. And I never back down against any foe."

The Umibōzu began to laugh as it gathers more and more water into it. The water in the river began to revert its flow to the Umibōzu. This made the Umibōzu even bigger than before then it suddenly spoke with its huge gargling voice "And you are supposed to scare me, little man? I am the water that made sailors face their early grave. I am Lord Orochimaru's commander of the Ikuchi."

Atlas points to the dead Ikuchi "Good job commanding them"

Umibōzu laughs and replies "That's their leader and there is more by the ocean. They are swimming upstream as we speak. And they will obliterate more of you once they see their dead leader."

Atlas then sees something as the Umibōzu laughs. A shiny red gem, its core. Atlas then realized he will have to dive again to another monster but he is getting bored of it. He wants to fight Umibōzu on equal footing then he remembers something that Jasmine and Gil talked about before.

"Chronicler, I just remember something. What is this that you and Gil spoke of before about a huge person going into another big person?"

Jasmine replies "You mean the Gundam? Why?"

"What do they look like again and how did they defeat their enemies?"

"Uhh, they got limbs like humans but these are made of strong and sturdy materials. They got weapons like sword and shield."

"Thank you, Chronicler!"

"Why did you ask that? Is that something . . ." and before Jasmine can finish her sentence a huge earthquake shook them. Once the earthquake is done, smoke and dust blind the area where Atlas and the Umibōzu is. Once the smoke clears, a stone figure emerges towering the Umibōzu. Atlas used his magic to conjure a huge stone giant for him to ride control. Atlas then jumps inside the stone giant and then it molded itself after Atlas. The jawline, the legs, the arms, the pecs, and abs are all there.

"Wow, what a narcissist Atlas. Can you now defeat the yokai?" Juan comments thru the frogs and Atlas just laughs in return. Jasmine sees and slams her head over the Chronicle from the sheer fact that Atlas made a huge moving stone giant after him and moves just like him.

Atlas then smacks the Umibōzu square into its face and he yells "How you like being punched around this time?!" he punches more and more until the Umibōzu falls. The yokai then gets up and tries to push the stone giant with its heavy water but Atlas manages to conjure a huge slab of stone and form it into a shield. Atlas sees the shiny red gem again when the Umibōzu is attacking.

While shielding from the water attack, the stone giant rushes forward with the stone shielding them. Umibōzu tries it best to blow the stone giant but to no avail. The stone giant gets closer and closer without stopping and slams itself on the Umibōzu. The water body of Umibōzu splat everywhere and the shiny red gem glimmers as it flung itself away from the fight. Atlas then conjured the rocks near him to a sword and stabs the shiny gem before it can reform.

"HAHAHA! Atlas once again is victorious!" the stone giant's laughter can be heard.

"I can't believe that worked…" Juan says as he looks over with joy and bewilderment from Atlas' win against the Umibōzu. "Too bad my magic is limited…I wish I can do that too."

As the fights continue in the village, Leshin is busy fixing Amihan's ship. Most of the repair is going smoothly and then he sees a fireball ball in the sky, then a fire tornado, then a huge stone giant appears o the distance. As much as Leshin wants to assist in the fight, he must finish the repairs so they can help in full force.

Leshin then sees a frog leaping from side to side as it dodges the busy crewmen around. Leshin feels the magic from the frog and knows it is Juan's. He picks the frog up and then he hears Jasmine and the rest of the guardian from the frog as the frog made a telepathic link.

But among the sounds he hears, the singing of Orochimaru stands out the most. Not because of the way he sings or his voice but the tune. He knows this tune. It is somehow familiar to Leshin. He pauses and thinks for a second. "I knew this tune. . . I heard this before. Was this like an old song that the Annani tribe? No, this sounds older and much more solemn. It's like for the dead?" Then he finally realized what tune Orochimaru is singing. It is a song pass down from one tribe member to another and it is to be sung when somebody dies. It is a song that came from Bathala. He mutters the words "Tugtog ng Paglulukso". He was shocked to hear this tune from Orochimaru. If he is a native of this island, how did he know this and why? Why is he singing this? It is for them?

Leshin looks to the distant town and talks thru the frog and tells everyone "Please be careful. It seems Orochimaru is singing for our early deaths". He puts the frog down to his shoulder and returns repair the ship. Little did Leshin know, there is another presence nearing their position. It is digging its way from underneath the earth and towards the prison where Yokoshima is being held. Slithering and jittering…