Editing The Unexplored Summon Blood Sign:Volume3 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 7===

The bell of the intercom rang through the luxury apartment’s living room.

Before Aika could pick up the cordless receiver, she heard the front door click unlocked.

Only two people had a spare key and one of them, Shiroyama Kyousuke, was already in the living room.

“Is that Lu-san?”

Kyousuke’s comment was right on the money.

It was the modified China dress beauty who stepped into the living room from the long hallway.

“Now there’s two girls’ scents invading this shut in girl’s final stronghold… Auhhh, I’m feeling faint at this loss of territory. How can the world be so cramped and oppressive? Why does it have to crush even the slightest freedom!?”

“…”

Lu Niang Lan did not respond to the swimsuit girl’s confused exclamations.

The modified China dress beauty’s head was somewhat lowered as she silently entered the room.

However…

“Ah.”

Isabelle, who was closest to her, must have tried to say something, but not even Shiroyama Kyousuke could tell what.

With a surprisingly gentle sound, the Perfect Dragon’s fist sank halfway into the center of the military girl’s flat chest.

Time seemed to stop.

The fist slowly twisted about ninety degrees while embedded in the girl’s chest.

Only after a short delay did a great roar of impact burst from the girl. Even if she was small, she was still a 150cm and 40kg mass, and yet she flew straight across the living room and over the open kitchen’s counter. Loud destructive sounds came from the back of the kitchen.

“Isabelle!!”

“You old hag, what do you think you’re-…!?”

Aika started to yell at Lu Niang Lan, but her voice was drowned out by the white liger’s growl of warning. At some point, the sofa beast had gotten up and moved to protect the swimsuit girl.

Kyousuke belatedly caught on.

He did not think this was a detailed fake of Lu Niang Lan, but something was not right. Her expression and movements were smooth, but the dilation of her eyes was unnatural. It was completely ignoring her surroundings and the light sources.

He could only think of one possibility at the moment.

“Tch!! Girl’s Backdoor!?”

“Oh, please!! You’re telling me this old hag counts as a girl!?”

As she loudly complained, Aika flipped over the snack box on one corner of the glass table. An egg-shaped Incense Grenade rolled out.

Kyousuke was shocked, but…

“This is no time to wait around! Which gives us a better shot: the liger as-is or the gooey Original series!? Whisper (Then again, she might die either way…)”

Aika pulled the pin and rolled the Incense Grenade at her feet.

Lu Niang Lan did not speak a word.

Nor did she make a mad dash to grab the Incense Grenade and throw it out the window before it detonated.

The Perfect Dragon’s outline simply vanished into thin air.

“Wha-…!?”

Aika’s target should have been standing right in front of her.

In fact, she most likely was still standing there.

Nevertheless, Aika had lost sight of Lu Niang Lan. The woman had utterly hidden her presence. And the Artificial Sacred Ground ''could not be set up if the target could not be seen with the naked eye when the Incense Grenade detonated.

It did not matter if the target was standing right in front of the summoner.

Aika had not even considered the possibility of that failing, so her thoughts ground to a halt. Lu Niang Lan took advantage of that by reappearing in front of her. Her fists and legs were now well within range of the swimsuit girl.

At the same time, the five meter white liger and Shiroyama Kyousuke, who pulled his Blood-Sign from his back, dashed toward Lu Niang Lan from the left and right.

One of them was a ferocious beast with 300kg of weight behind her claws and fangs. The other was a veteran summoner who could run circles around a summoner in the 600s or 700s without even using a Material.

But…

Even so…

“————”

Lu Niang Lan started by sending a fist toward the leaping white liger’s nose as a cross-counter. With a great roar of impact, the five meter beast fell straight down. This exposed her back to Kyousuke, but the Perfect Dragon did not even look back as his Blood-Sign thrust in like a spear. She twisted around and lowered her upper body, but not to dodge it. She allowed it to rest on her hips and then she used her back to knock it upwards.

“!?”

It pulled Kyousuke’s arms up along with it, leaving his upper body entirely defenseless.

She made a heavy counterattack much like a roundhouse kick and it mercilessly stabbed into his exposed torso.

The impact sounded like a giant drumbeat and Kyousuke flew across the large living room.

Yes.

He took the exact same course as his vessel Isabelle had earlier.

Loud sounds of destruction sounded once he landed.

“Bh!? Cough!!”

(Dammit, I knew it was coming and even lured her into it, but I still couldn’t counteract the full impact!?)

Isabelle had done the same thing. If she had not jumped backwards herself, the impact would likely have wreaked havoc inside her body and caused all of her organs to rupture.

Kyousuke looked around while half buried in the mess that had been a kitchen.

Isabelle had broken through a table and the cabinet door below the sink. He crawled over and slapped her cheek, but she did not respond. She seemed to have a concussion. Even if he used an Incense Grenade, he would not be able to use a Material.

Isabelle and the white liger had both been knocked out of the fight.

Kyousuke and Aika could not use the Summoning Ceremony on their own.

They would have to stop Lu Niang Lan without that.

“…”

Kyousuke awkwardly crawled around the broken kitchen. He knew he had no chance against the Perfect Dragon in hand-to-hand combat. At this range, he was not sure he could win even if he could use an Incense Grenade.

So he did not even think about doing that.

Shiroyama Kyousuke grabbed at the gas range, climbed on top of it, and reached for the gas main behind it. He pulled out the hose and let the gas escape out past the open kitchen’s counter and into the living room. He released the city gas that contained a unique odor.

No normal attack could hit Lu Niang Lan. No matter what he tried, he would only end up receiving a cross-counter with twice the force behind it.

''But that just meant he needed an attack that could not be dodged.

''And that meant an attack that would fill the entire room.

“—————”

Lu Niang Lan was quick to respond.

She did not try to stop Kyousuke or take control of the gas main.

As soon as she detected the odor, she kicked over the pen holder on the glass table, kicked up the stainless steel scissors from the office supplies scattered on the floor, and used a double kick to send the scissors flying forward. The scissors stabbed into the distant floor like a knife-throwing trick.

The slight spark blew everything away.

The Perfect Dragon’s plan was as follows: reduce the damage by triggering a smaller explosion before the room fills with gas.

After a bright flash, an explosive noise and shockwave swept across the room.

Only the modified China dress beauty remained standing.

But…

[[Image:BloodSign_v03_158.jpg|thumb]]

“—————”

After a short delay, water poured down like a sudden burst of rain. It came from the sprinklers on the ceiling.

Lu Niang Lan glanced up but soon looked in a different direction: the kitchen.

Shiroyama Kyousuke slowly got up beyond the open kitchen’s counter.

She was most focused on the power cord to an overloaded power strip he held in his hand. The thick power cords for the refrigerator, microwave, rice cooker, and other appliances were plugged into it. And the boy’s other hand held a knife to the main cord like it was a hostage’s throat.

Kyousuke smiled while soaking wet.

And he did not hesitate.

“Sorry, everyone. Looks like we’re all in this together.”

He cut through the power cable and threw it to the floor.

A bluish-white flash filled a space large enough to hold a tennis match.

Kyousuke, Aika, Isabelle, the white liger, and Lu Niang Lan.

The electrical current struck all of their hearts equally.