Anhamaru's raven wings snapped open, and the inscriptions on the Azure Wings of Wind suddenly lit up.
The thunderclouds above the gorge churned as though stirred by an invisible hand, blue-violet arcs weaving a net across his wingtips.
He beat his wings, sending a gale screaming toward the Panther Cat Third Elder like countless razor-sharp wind blades.
"Cheap tricks!"
The Third Elder sneered. Lightning surged around his body, instantly burning the Karasu Tengu on his tail to a crisp!
Then he crossed his arms and condensed a long lightning halberd between them. Pointing its tip skyward, he summoned a bolt as thick as a barrel that struck straight down!
"The terrain and weather of Wind-Thunder Gorge aren't yours alone to command, Karasu Tengu!"
The wind blades collided with the lightning column in midair, erupting in a blinding flash.
The gale tore through the lightning, while the lightning shredded the whirlwind in turn. The two forces remained locked in a stalemate, shaking loose showers of rubble from the cliffs on either side of the gorge.
The Karasu Tengu seized the chance to form ranks. The eight remaining commanders led hundreds of lesser tribe members in beating their raven wings in unison.
The gale gathered into an enormous tornado, trapping the Third Elder within its eye.
Wind blades spun and sliced like a meat grinder, but the Third Elder merely grinned savagely. His body suddenly swelled into a lightning-wreathed panther cat more than ten meters long, and he smashed through the wind formation with his flesh alone!
The wild air blades scattered by the impact cut many Karasu Tengu to pieces on the spot, while entire rows of buildings around Thunderclap Hall collapsed!
"Unleash the Wind-Thunder Grand Formation!"
Anhamaru's eyes widened with fury. Runes floated off his wings as the Azure Wings of Wind rapidly extended to either side.
They swept up the wind blades still raging around them, determined to keep the Third Elder bound.
The Karasu Tengu cried out together, pouring their yokai power into the Azure Wings of Wind.
The thunderclouds above the gorge were forcibly drawn down and merged with the gale, becoming a thunderstorm tornado that spanned heaven and earth and bore down on the Third Elder!
"Consider yourself honored, Panther Cat! This is the strongest formation of our Karasu Tengu Tribe!"
"Then watch me tear your strongest apart!"
The Third Elder roared, liquid lightning streaming from his mouth as he blasted the ultimate safeguard that had sustained the Karasu Tengu Tribe for centuries!
Fierce lightning lit up the sky, but the Panther Cat Sixth Elder turned into flowing water and slipped along the cliff face into the depths of Thunderclap Hall.
Following Anhamaru's scent, he kept assessing where the Karasu Tengu treasury was most likely to be.
At last, at the end of a dark passage, he discovered several Karasu Tengu and a large number of chicks.
"The Karasu Tengu's other son. Now that's good news."
The Sixth Elder silently reached his sharp claws toward the neck of Anhamaru's son.
The guards beside the young man failed to notice anything amiss before water filled their eyes, ears, mouths, and noses, drowning them alive.
After a brutal interrogation, the Sixth Elder looked at Anhamaru's son, who had no more information left to reveal.
He casually crushed him to death. None of the little Karasu Tengu nearby were spared either.
The Karasu Tengu had not treated the Leopard Cat as mortal enemies, and the Panther Cats had never thought much of the Karasu Tengu at all.
"So there's a so-called Thunder Spear to complement the Azure Wings of Wind, still unfinished at the foot of the cliff and impossible to move?"
"Wind-Thunder Gorge, and the Karasu Tengu's reluctance to leave... That does lend the story some credibility."
The Panther Cat Sixth Elder continued deeper inside. This time, he did not bother concealing himself, heading straight toward the foot of the cliff as the stench of blood on him grew stronger!
His smile only grew wider. The static electricity filling the surroundings told him that the Thunder Spear was real.
"Heh, I'd been worrying about how the Third Elder and I would split the Azure Wings of Wind. This solves that nicely."
Undisguised malice and killing intent swept in from beyond the door. Standing on the altar, Nuregarasu silently watched the entrance being blasted open.
A bloodstained figure stepped slowly inside, burning with greed.
The girl held her wrist above the Thunder Spear. The moment her blood dripped onto its gemstone, the shaft shuddered violently, and crimson markings spread across it like living things.
"Ha ha! Heaven is truly on my side!"
"Little girl, hand over the spear, and I'll leave your corpse intact!"
Yokai aura surged around the Sixth Elder, becoming countless chains of water that coiled toward the Thunder Spear, also striking at the insignificant creature before him.
"Saved by a passing thought of my father's. I don't know whether that was fortune or sorrow."
The enemy had already reached this place. What had happened outside needed no explanation.
Nuregarasu watched the incoming water yokai power and lightly touched the Thunder Spear she had fed with her blood every day. Endless lightning suddenly burst from its tip.
The Thunder Spear hummed. Savage thunderbolts erupted from its tip, illuminating the entire chamber like daylight. The terrifying energy accumulated over decades exploded at the foot of the cliff!
The battlefield above suddenly shook, and an earth-shattering explosion rang out from Thunderclap Hall.
Fighting high in the sky, Anhamaru's heart lurched. He abruptly turned toward the foot of the cliff, and in that moment of distraction, the Wind-Thunder Grand Formation fell into disarray.
"Die!"
His body mangled after nearly being ground to death by hundreds of Karasu Tengu harnessing the weather, the Third Elder seized the opening. His enormous lightning claw tore through the wind wall and pierced Anhamaru's right wing!
"Tribe chief!" the Karasu Tengu howled in anguish.
Anhamaru fell from the clouds, coughing blood. Before he hit the ground, however, he forcibly twisted around and poured every last bit of his yokai power into the Azure Wings of Wind.
The gale swept up the final thunderstorm and shot through the Third Elder's chest like a meteor.
Deep within Thunderclap Hall, the roar of the Thunder Spear rose alongside the Sixth Elder's screams.
Drenched in blood, Nuregarasu raised the Thunder Spear above her head, its tip pointing straight at the heavens-
A lightning column spanning heaven and earth crashed down. At that moment, the heart of Wind-Thunder Gorge became a prison of thunder!
The Thunder Spear's rampage triggered a disturbance in the heavens and earth, alerting the Western Country's only two remaining great yokai.
Both the Dog King's and Oyakata's auras soared into the sky. Once they sensed that neither was in the direction of Wind-Thunder Gorge, their auras subsided again.
Oyakata immediately dispatched people to investigate the place where the spiritual energy was running wild, while also sending word to the Panther Cat Great Elder.
Even a High-Level Yokai could not sense a disturbance more than a hundred kilometers away.
"Wind-Thunder Gorge... Please let nothing go wrong!"
Deep in thought, Oyakata glanced toward the Dog Tribe's territory, his eyes filled with loathing.
It was that disgusting old dog who had turned the Western Country, the Panther Cats' pasture, into such a mess!
Everything he wanted to do was thwarted at every turn!
Meanwhile, inside the Dog Tribe Tenshu Pavilion.
"For an ordinary High-Level Yokai to cause a disturbance like that, they'd have to blow themselves up. The Panther Cats have most likely driven that old raven Anhamaru into a corner."
The Dog King considered the current situation, gradually gaining confidence.
At the Dog Tribe Fortress, his three elders were already in position.
The Leopard Cat's Great Elder stood a short distance away with the Second Elder, the Fourth Elder, and numerous Panther Cat commander-captains under his command, confronting them.
This kept the Dog Tribe in check, but it also kept the Leopard Cat in check.
With three elders facing three, the Panther Cats did not dare divide their forces and gamble on whether the Dog Tribe would venture out of the fortress to fight them in a Field Battle or launch an ambush!
Before you continue