What followed was a truly one-sided battle.
Anyone who approached Inari was effortlessly tossed aside. Even ranged attackers failed to land a single hit.
That said, Black Fang did pride itself on its strength. Some among them were certainly talented.
“U-oraaaaaa!!”
“Oh?”
A nearly instantaneous cast of a magic skill—without even chanting its name. The fireball surged toward Inari and exploded in a small blast.
“Haha! Serves you right! She's been blown to bits!”
“The floor, thou meanest?”
“Huh!?”
The man, still gloating, turned to see Inari standing casually beside the gaping hole in the floor. He swung his staff in a panic, but Inari simply dodged it with ease.
“Truly, I was a tad surprised. I had thought such skills required chanting to activate.”
“Hah! I’ve got a no-chanting skill! So that means… Take this!”
“What meanest thou by ‘this,’ fool.”
Before he could do anything else, Inari flung him across the room. His face slammed into the floor, and he lost consciousness.
“Honestly, this be thy own building, is it not? Here I be, showing restraint, and yet thou treat it like a battlefield.”
Everyone she’d fought so far had made the same mistake—so fixated on defeating her, they paid no attention to their surroundings. Most of the injuries so far were from friendly fire, and not just because of the narrow hallways. The real problem was how sloppy Black Fang’s members were.
“Hey! I found her!”
“She’s toast! We’re gonna kill you!”
“Oh dear, how frightful. I do believe it hastened my stride a touch.”
“Gwaah!?”
As she casually made her way up the stairs, tossing aside each new attacker without even glancing back, she eventually reached what appeared to be the top floor.
There was just one large, imposing door. When Inari opened it—
A barrage of spells flew straight at her, as if they’d been lying in wait.
The explosion blasted the door and part of the wall to pieces, and the swirling smoke left the clan leader convinced of his victory.
“Did we get her!?”
“Nay, thou didst not.”
As the smoke cleared, Inari stood unscathed, a shimmering wall of light before her. She’d blocked all of their spells.
While it wasn’t impossible for a rookie to have such defensive skills, it was highly unlikely. And considering she’d made it this far, she was clearly a dealer—an attacker. For an attacker to also use powerful defense spells? That didn’t make sense.
Could she be a healer? But no healer fought like this.
A tank, then? Maybe. But no tank packed this much offense.
Then just… what was this Inari?
“You… what the hell are you?”
“What, thou asketh? I suppose I be what they calleth a ‘Fox Shrine Maiden,’ mayhap?”
“Don’t screw with me! There’s no job with a stupid name like that that could destroy my clan like this—!”
“Oh! That be it!”
“Hah!?”
Inari lit up as if she’d just remembered something, pointing at the clan master.
“Thy clan, from this day forth, shall be known as the band of dullards who were utterly crushed by a lone lass—namely, me.”
“Y-you…”
“Even for villains such as ye, I hath been asked to spare thy lives. And so I shall. However… I intend to heap plenty of shame upon thee in return.”
Inari grinned wide, mischievously.
That was the last straw. Whether he had any self-control to begin with was unclear, but the clan leader's patience snapped completely. In this business, being underestimated was fatal. He had never intended to let her leave in one piece.
“Kill herrrrr!”
“Fireball!”
“Ice Needle!”
“Thunderball!”
Mages fired their spells all at once. Inari dodged, and in the next instant, appeared in front of one of them. She grabbed his collar, yanked his head down, and slapped him across the face.
“!?”
“That goeth for thee as well… Tossing such nonsense around inside a building!”
“Ow—!?”
“Gyaaah!”
One after another, the mages were kicked or slapped and dropped to the floor, moaning in pain.
Inari turned and spotted the clan leader charging at her with a massive warhammer.
“I’ve figured you out! A ranged dealer, huh!? Then if I bring it to melee, I’ll—”
“Is that so.”
“Uwahhhh!?”
Inari grabbed and flung the clan master like it was nothing. His warhammer crashed to the ground with a thunderous clang.
He groaned and tried to rise—only to find Inari straddling his chest.
“Y-you little…!”
“Oho, thou art strong indeed. I nearly flew right off.”
With a sly smile, Inari patted his cheek.
“Now then—”
She slapped him.
“Once more, and again!”
Slap, slap—an endless stream of back-and-forth slaps echoed throughout the room.
The clan master lay stunned, seeing stars, unable to even stand.
The other mages could do nothing but tremble as the sharp smacks rang out.
“Such a naughty child, truly… I shall re-educate thee properly.”
“S-screw you—!”
“My, such foul language. Time to become a good boy, aye?”
By the time the sound of slaps ceased, Inari looked very pleased.
“I-I’m sorry… I’ll never mess with you again…”
“Mm. That is well.”
From this day forward, the Black Fang clan would become known as the one that was annihilated by a single white-card rookie. And naturally, its influence would begin to fade.
Regrettably, this incident also served to boost Inari’s fame even further.