It was a bizarre scene. Wasuren did not know what to make of it, he had faced packs of beasts before but the scale of the horde before him was unheard of. The samurai next to him was frozen in shock as he watched his fellow samurai fall to the attack of the Sarugami. They did their best to push them back but slowly they had become overwhelmed and they were about to break through the outskirts and head into the main village. As the scene unfolded, Wasuren's mind drifted to the Okami no Banshi. "If this horde managed to get this far, then what is the fate of my brothers?"
Suddenly the samurai beside him felt hotness that he did not perceive possible for a human.
The air around Wasuren shimmered.
The samurai staggered back, unable to withstand the heat pouring from his body.
Wasuren looked ahead with a conflicted gaze as he watched the Sarugami overwhelm the Aoshima samurai. "I should be with the wolf wardens."
As he drew his katana, he watched the first few Sarugami break through the Aoshima samurai and run towards him. His blade turned red hot as an aura of flames enveloped it. Wasuren took in a deep breath, he put a foot forward and in a blink he was right in front of the Sarugami.
The beast barely had a chance to register what transpired before its head dropped from its shoulders. Wasuren did not stop moving.
The blade in his hand carved a blazing arc through the air.
Another Sarugami fell.
Then another.
As they fell one by one, Tadayori and the other Aoshima samurai were baffled. "What is that?" One of them asked.
Tadayori squinted his eyes as he struck down a beast in front of while trying to get a better view. "Is that a... Hoshigami?"
"It's him!" Another yelled as he recognized him. "The one that beat up Kiwamu. The youngest Hoshigami brother that is a part of the Okami no Banshi."
Wasuren was surgical with his blade, and the Sarugami noticed this. They noticed this anomally, they saw how this new factor cut down their their brothers and now they have identified Wasuren as the bigger threat.
The Sarugami screeched and howled. "Brethren, brethren. The white haired one kills us, GET THE WHITE HAIRED ONE!"
Almost immediately the majority of the Sarugami turned their attention to Wasuren. They moved in waves with the intent to overwhelm him. But he did not falter, the second he perceived a beast in front of him, he cut it down. The Sarugami tried to overwhelm him with their numbers, but he was fast. Too fast for them, they tried climbing over each other, leaping high into the air with their clubs. But with a single horizontal slash, their torso was split in two.
The number of Sarugami attacking the Aoshima samurai dwindled within minutes of Wasuren's arrival.
"Is this the strength of the Okami no Banshi?" A member of the Aoshima samurai asked in a daze.
"Is this the Hoshigami boy that was called weakest within the family?"
Even Tadayori did not know what to make of the scene unfolding in front of him, but he shook his head and came back to reality. "What are you doing standing around? JOIN HIM!"
With a battle cry from their captain, the Aoshima samurai moved with new found conviction as they struck down the remaining Sarugami in front of them with great swiftness. Soon they were all beside Wasuren and they had killed majority of the Sarugami but there was more coming.
"Are these things endless?" Wasuren yelled through the overwhelming horde.
"Last time they broke through and entered the city." Tadayori replied.
"I need you all to stay behind me and protect my flank, I'm going to do something and I don't want to you to get hurt."
Tadayori frowned, "what do you plan to do?"
Wasuren almost exploded in anger. "JUST...do as I ask."
Tadayori nodded in understanding. "You heard the man. With me men." And together they ralied behind Wasuren.
He started slowly. A Sarugami launched itself at him, but his heated blade split apart the beast in a second. Wasuren took a single step and swung his katana upward in a vertical slash and an arc of flames slammed into the body of a Sarugami sending it crashing into it's fellow beasts.
Wasuren brows furrowed, "it's still not dense enough." He took another swing and a brighter arc cut down two Sarugami ahead of him. A beast came at him with a club, but he parried with his blade and in a swift motion, he grabbed its arm and the beast was engulfed in flames. Wasuren lifted the beast and threw it into the incoming horde. But he did not stop, he kept moving, and with every swing he made the flames around his blades intensified and the arcs of flames grew stronger and denser. Not only was he cutting down those close to him, his flames found those a great distance away from him. He was a defender no longer. He was the attacker.
Wasuren moved so fast and fluid that it resembled a dance of flames. Soon, the field around him was unapproachable, the ground itself was scorched earth, any sign of green there once before was burned to a crisp.
"This was why he asked us to step back." One of the Aoshima samurai mumbled. "We couldn't even get close to him if we wanted to."
Even the Sarugami noticed this. They had stopped coming at him, for their very feet were burned before they could get close to him.
The Sarugami screamed when they saw their brethren fall to the flames of the white haired warrior. "The white haired on burns us. IT BURNS US! RUN BRETHREN RUN FROM HIM!"
"Th-they're running. They're actually running." Tadayori exclaimed as he looked ahead with wide eyes.
Wasuren looked at the beasts steer clear of him in rage. "You wish to run from me you foul beasts! I swear before the wolf God not one of you will make it out alive!"
Immediately he ran after them and when he was close enough he leaped high up into the air as flames exploded from beneath his feet. He screamed as he spun in the air causing a circle of flames to engulf his body and instantly he slashed and the tower of flames around him spread out like a sea of flames against the Sarugami. Those who were not fortunate enough to be cut down by the initial slash, were set on fire as the flames spread through the battlefield.
Screams filled the outskirts of Aoshima as Wasuren landed between the beasts. He was not finished, with his sunlit blade he walked to every beast still alive and thrust his sword through their hearts. Every single one of them, until the battlefield went completely silent.
The Aoshima samurai bore witness to this brutality with their jaws to the ground. Some were shaking, a primal instinct when a man is face to face with a predator.
Tadayori was in awe of what he just witnessed. "The flames of the sun god Amaterasu. The Hoshigami's blessing. This is why the Hoshigami are feared."