Blood ran down Kashimo's face, dripping from his jaw and staining the shadows at his feet. He was still smiling, a sharp, white expression that cut through the gore.
"You're nearly empty, Zenin."
Zenin Sawara stood a few paces away, his chest heaving. Maintaining a domain for that long while simultaneously micro-managing multiple high-level shikigami was a feat of endurance, even for a man with his vast reserves. Every breath he took sounded like it was being wrenched from his lungs by force. He looked up at Kashimo and managed a weak, trembling grin of his own.
"Your Hollow Wicker Basket isn't looking much better," Sawara rasped.
Kashimo didn't answer. He took a step forward. Sawara gritted his teeth and raised his mangled hands, preparing a final, desperate guard.
One step. Two steps. Three.
Kashimo stopped directly in front of him.
"Let's end this with one shot," he said calmly.
Sawara blinked. Before he could process the words, a fist slamd into his face.
The world turned black and red. This wasn't a normal strike but a blast of cursed energy, compressed to its absolute limit before detonating. It was the sickening, rhythmic pulse of a Black Flash. At the exact mont of impact, the built-up electrical charge in Kashimo's fist ignited.
The space around them began to shiver. The domain that Sawara had been struggling to maintain finally gave way. Cracks spread out from the point of the punch like a spiderweb across a frozen lake.
The sound followed. A deafening, reality tearing roar.
The domain shattered.
Kashimo stood in the clearing, rubbing his neck as he looked down at Sawara. Zenin was doubled over, coughing up a mixture of blood and bile. He looked like a crushed insect, pathetic and broken.
"You should have just conceded," Kashimo said. His tone was calm, carrying a hint of pity that felt more insulting than a taunt. "It would have been easier to just die."
Sawara stayed hunched over, his hands on his knees. Every ti he gasped for air, blood bubbled from his throat and hit the dirt. He forced his head up, his eyes bloodshot and burning with a frantic, unyielding rage.
He was furious, but he was powerless. His technique was burnt out. The presence of his shikigami had vanished from the shadows, and he could no longer feel the connection to his shadows. He was just an exhausted man who had been physically outclassed.
But technique burnout wasn't an absolute sentence.
Sawara rembered a fight from years ago, a mont on the edge of death where he had discovered a workaround. It was a madman's gamble. He could use his cursed energy to destroy the part of his brain responsible for the technique and then imdiately use his reverse cursed technique to rebuild it. It was a gamble with a microscopic chance of success, especially for soone without the precision of the Six Eyes.
But he had no other choice. He looked at the man in front of him. He had to win.
"I'm going to end this with a bolt of lightning," Kashimo said. His voice was light. "I'll blow you into so many pieces there won't be enough left to bury."
Cursed energy began to pool in Kashimo's palm. The blue-white light grew brighter and more intense, making the air vibrate.
"In the end, you're just a nobody," Kashimo said. He looked down at Sawara with a terrifying, hollow indifference. "I'll likely forget you by tomorrow."
The light in his palm reached its peak. Sawara stared at it, his pupils narrowing to pinpricks. His mind moved at a frantic speed.
Suddenly, Kashimo's charge stalled. He was forced to move.
He blurred backward just as a massive shadow descended from the sky.
The ground exploded. Rocks flew and dust choked the air as a crater ford in the middle of the path. At the center of the impact was a fist: a massive, fur-covered hand belonging to a humanoid shikigami.
Kashimo landed ten paces away and looked up. Through the settling dust, a new silhouette stood tall. It was a twisted, chiric form covered in thick fur, its muscles coiled and its face a snarling mask of demon-like features. It radiated a volu of cursed energy that was entirely different from the previous beasts.
rged Beast Agito.
Kashimo recognized it imdiately. It was one of the few Ten Shadows fusions capable of independent, high-level combat. In terms of power and speed, it was in a league of its own. Sawara stood behind the beast, slowly straightening his back.
"My apologies," Sawara said. His blood-stained face was twisted into a mocking smile. "It seems it's two against one now."
Kashimo didn't react. He knew what Sawara had done. He'd seen enough sorcerers to know when soone had gambled their life on a desperate move.
Agito moved.
The beast snatched Sawara up and hurled him at Kashimo like a projectile. At the sa ti, the beast lunged from the side, its massive fra carving a trench into the dirt as it moved. Sawara adjusted his position mid-air, his fists clenched.
"Round two!" Sawara shouted.
Kashimo set his stance, but the wind of the beast's strike was already hitting him. Agito's fist arrived with terrifying speed. Kashimo was forced into a desperate guard.
The blow landed on his forearms with a bone-jarring jolt. The force sent him stumbling to the side, and before he could recover, Sawara's fist was already closing in on his face.
Kashimo parried the strike and stood his ground. He looked at the pair and let out a small, dry chuckle.
Then, he lunged at Agito.
"Then I'll start with you"
He was in the beast's face before the sentence ended, leaving a trail of snapping electricity in his wake. He threw the punch. As his fist touched the beast's abdon, he released his entire electrical charge in a single, concentrated burst. He didn't wait for three hits. He dumped everything.
Agito's stomach exploded.
Blood, bone, and organs sprayed out in a violent fountain, tearing a massive hole through the beast's torso. Agito stumbled back, letting out a roar of absolute agony.
But Kashimo didn't have ti to follow up.
Behind him, Sawara had completed his sign. He brought his palms together, and high-pressure water condensed in the center of his grip. The density was high enough that the liquid looked solid, shimring with a strange, lethal light.
Piercing Water.
The jet of water whistled past Kashimo's hip, the sound of the air tearing screaming in his ear. The distance was so close he could feel the stinging heat of the friction against his skin. Kashimo was forced to retreat.
He landed several yards away and glanced at his side. His clothes were torn, and a thin line of blood was beginning to seep through the fabric. An inch closer, and he would have been cut in half.
He looked up. Agito was still standing, the hole in its stomach already beginning to knit itself back together. Sawara was gasping for air, but his eyes were bright with a manic, focused intent.
The two n and the beast faced each other again.
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A/n: Thanks for the power stones, guys. New goal: 600 power stones = 1 bonus chapter. Don't forget to vote with your power stones!!
For early access to 15 chapters ahead: p@tre~~/Demonic_Fiction (Link is in the synopsis and my profile).
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