[h2]Samurai[/h2]

The samurai paused for a second, as if dumbfounded by his blade being caught--and then opted to retreat, abandoning the weapon entirely with a jump back [i]and[/i] smoothly pulling up a replacement at the same time. Of course, that briefly raised the question of how exactly the ghost was planning to shoot a bow with no [i]arrows[/i]--

Ah, some form of magical lightning [i]condensed[/i] into an arrow. And that would do it. If anything, this was worse than sword fighting, because it would quickly become apparent that these hit much harder than the musket balls had. On the plus side, at least it was slightly easier to dodge them--advantageous, unless Zhao wanted to be both pincushioned [i]and[/i] electrocuted.

Both the komainu were showing the expected resilience of stone guardians--Arisa's swing sent hers flying, but it scrambled to its feet easy enough, and rather than going back for the sword-wielder seemed to show the awareness to get her attention another way: lunging for Zhao's back, where he'd be hard pressed to deal with both it [i]and[/i] dodging the arrows. Masaru... well, after briefly pausing, that beast began to charge forwards again, the arrow sticking out of its head having been insufficient to entirely bring it down.

Fortunately, the tide seemed to be turning with the common enemies--the ashigaru were no longer reforming, the goop instead streaming back [i]towards[/i] their primary enemy, being absorbed beneath the armour. Even the cannons had accepted being destroyed by a rampaging monster, failing to get another shot off. Not that Tera was entirely left alone, their final previous foes revealing themselves: a handful of practically-dressed types, carrying some rather obvious metal spheres. With lit fuses. Right next to her, in grabbing range.