The forest was too still.
Even the wind that had howled all night now trembled as if it feared to draw breath.
Haruto stood in the half-light of the dying campfire, the smoke curling up like spirits returning to the sky. The others had stopped moving; the silence pressed against their ears until it rang. Then, from somewhere far beyond the veil of mist, a sound began to grow—wet, heavy, and wrong.
Thud.
Thud.
Each step sank into the ground like a hammer striking the ribs of the earth.
Raiden's hand went to his katana in a blur of lightning. "That's not footsteps," he murmured. "That's an earthquake walking."
The soil shuddered. Branches cracked. Birds exploded from the trees in a panicked storm of feathers.
And then they saw it.
The creature lumbered from the darkness like a living mountain. Its skin was pale grey, slick with the sheen of rot. Its bloated body rippled with coils of muscle and fat, dozens of arms writhing across its torso like serpents. Each hand flexed independently, fingers tipped with jagged nails that shimmered like blackened steel. The face — if it could be called that — was a nightmare carved into flesh: bulging eyes, a mouth that stretched across half its head, and fangs that gleamed wetly under the moonlight.
Steam hissed from its mouth as it spoke in a voice that crawled like insects under the skin.
"Hu—maans…"
The word rolled out, broken and wet, as though its tongue had forgotten language.
"Hungry. So many… warm… bodies."
Several of the minor candidates stumbled back, the color draining from their faces. One dropped his katana, the clang cutting through the quiet other stumbled backward, eyes wide, sword trembling in his grip. "W–What is that thing?!"
Raiden cracked his neck, his usual grin dimming into something sharper. "That's not a High-Rank, right?"
Kaede's eyes narrowed. "No… but its spiritual pressure rivals one.
Haruto's hand tightened on his hilt. It can talk… he realized. That means it's fed too much. It's strong—stronger than anything we've faced so far in this forest.
The demon lowered its head, breath fogging the air. "Do you know… how long I've waited for this feast?"
Its laughter rose like thunder, shaking leaves from the canopy.
"Scatter!" Kaede's command ripped through the paralysis. The fifteen candidates burst into motion, boots thudding on damp soil.
Too late.
The demon's arms flexed outward, hands stretching — literally stretching — doubling in length, then tripling, extending like tendrils of living muscle. The ground shook as those dozens of limbs slammed into the earth. The ground convulsed beneath their boots.
"Move!" Raiden's voice cracked like lightning as he grabbed Airi by the arm and yanked her aside. One massive fists crashed where she had stood a heartbeat ago, gouging holes into the ground.
Haruto drew his sword in a single, fluid motion. "Everyone, fall back behind us! Ten meters!"
He leapt forward before the others could argue.
The nearest arm slammed down. Haruto twisted sideways, heat bursting from his lungs.
"Flame Arts: First Technique—Scarlet Slash!"
A ribbon of fire carved through the darkness. The blade met the demon's flesh and sizzled; the smell of burnt tar filled the air. The severed hand dropped, blackened before turning into black dust—but the demon didn't stop. It laughed, a deep belly sound that rattled teeth.
"Warm! So warm!"
Raiden flashed beside him, his blade wreathed in pale sparks.
"Don't hog all the fun, Haruto!"
He swung.
"Thunder Arts: Second Technique—Lightning Strike Tempest!"
The air split open. Bolts tore across the demon's midsection, carving glowing scars. The forest itself seemed to recoil from the blast; trees snapped, embers scattered.
But the monster's reach was endless. Arms came from every direction—out of the mist, the ground, the very trees.
"Stay close to me!" Kaede barked. His blade shimmered like liquid silver.
"Water Arts: First Technique—Whirlpool Defence!"
He met one arm head-on, redirecting its momentum with graceful precision. The impact sent shockwaves through his body, but he stood his ground.
Yuki's breath fogged the air beside him, her expression glacial calm.
"Ice Arts: First Technique—Piercing Frost Edge!"
Frost burst outward, coating the nearest arm in a sheath of blue. She pivoted, slicing cleanly through it. Crystals scattered like shattered glass.
"Nice," Airi called, spinning with her blade. "Let's add a bit of color!"
"Flower Arts: Second Technique—Blooming Whirl!"
Her sword traced petals of glowing pink light that sliced two smaller arms at once.
For a heartbeat, it seemed to work—the monster reeled, bellowing in pain, its many arms flailing blindly.
Then it roared.
The sound wasn't just loud—it pressed against their skulls, a physical weight. The trees trembled; birds fell dead from branches. The weaker candidates collapsed to their knees, clutching their ears.
Haruto's vision blurred for a second. He tasted blood on his tongue.
"Protect the others!" he shouted, pushing himself up. "Get them behind the ridge!"
The command snapped through the clearing like a spark. The candidates moved instinctively — The main five stayed together, forming a wedge formation.
Haruto dashed toward a pair of terrified candidates frozen in place. One of the demon's arms shot toward them like a spear. Haruto threw himself forward, flames igniting around his feet.
"Flame Arts: Fourth Technique—Blaze Step!"
He vanished in a burst of fire, reappearing between the demon and the boys. His blade flashed once—Scarlet Slash!—severing the arm mid-flight. The blow's shockwave rolled over them, scattering leaves like sparks.
"Go!" he barked, shoving them toward the ridge.
Form!" Raiden shouted. His voice was steel wrapped in static. He had moved before he could think—because lightning loved movement, because speed was where his truth lay. He vanished in a blur and reappeared between two snarling hands, a golden streak cracking the air. His presence was a shock upon the demon's skin; it lashed at him, missing by a breath, but the swipe loosened a spray of dirt and gore.
That moment—Raiden's flash—bought the others time.
Raiden blurred past, lightning trailing from his steps, catching two candidates and dragging them clear as two arms hammered down in succession. The ground erupted behind him in geysers of dirt.
The sky flashed white with every movement; the scent of ozone mixed with burnt sap.
Yuki's eyes flicked toward a shadow above—an arm whipping down toward Airi. She moved without thinking.
"Ice Arts: Third Technique—Frozen Veil!"
A wall of crystalline frost erupted between them. The impact shattered it, shards slicing across Yuki's shoulder. Blood darkened the fabric of her sleeve, but she didn't falter.
Airi spun in the opening her friend bought her. "Thanks!"
"Flower Arts: First Technique—Lotus Petal Arc!"
Her blade danced, tracing arcs of pink light that severed the arm at its root. The monster howled again, stumbling back as steam hissed from the wound.
The demon's response wasn't immediate. It was deliberative, malevolent. It reached to one flank and plucked an entire sapling by its roots, flinging it like a spear through the air. The trunk bore down on a cluster of three candidates huddled behind a fallen log. The oldest of the three—a lanky youth with trembling hands—rolled instinctively; the trunk cleaved the log where he'd been seconds before. The log burst into splinters that shredded clothing, tore skin, and slashed arms. A girl crouched forward, spitting bright, bitter blood.
Ari, Yuki, Kaede, Raiden, and Haruto snapped into roles to save everyone.
Haruto: center, the anchor. His right hand found the katana, his shoulders braced like coiled springs. Each inhalation tasted of iron and ash. He didn't need to shout orders. His eyes, those dark embers, were commands enough. He moved with the quiet economy of a flame that doesn't waste itself: tactical, sharp, decisive.
Raiden: struck like lightning, fluid and cruelly efficient. His strikes were brief flares that cut, disarmed, and created windows of breathing.
Yuki: the cold calm. She didn't glitter with showy power—she observed, and then the world cooled. Her sword's edge seemed to bite the air itself, and wherever frost kissed the floor, the demon's motions were slowed, hampered.
Airi: graceful, defiant. Petals were not pretty when they cut; they were precise. Her art moved like a dancer's limbs—deceptively delicate until the moment of impact.
Kaede: river-born force, a presence that steadied more than it struck. Where the rest struck to break, he sought to redirect, to use the demon's terrible momentum against itself.
They moved like five points on a compass, covering each other's blind spots, filling gaps with practiced economy.
"Stay low! Keep together!" Kaede commanded, voice steady even as an enormous hand crashed beside him, sending dirt flying. He pivoted on instinct, water swirling around his blade.
"Water Arts: Third Technique — Flowing Surge!"
A spiraling wave burst from his sword, colliding with the demon's descending arm. The water didn't just block — it redirected, bending the impact and hurling the limb sideways into a tree, splintering it in two.
Yuki followed, her sword flashing in the moonlight.
"Ice Arts: Second Technique — Frost Shatter."
A crescent of ice shot from her blade, slamming into the exposed muscle of another arm, freezing it solid mid-swing. She exhaled sharply, steam rising from her lips in the cold burst of her art.
But before she could steady herself, a hand came from the blind spot behind her.
"Yuki!" Airi shouted, moving without hesitation.
She dove forward, intercepting the strike. Her blade sang through the air, coated in shimmering floral energy.
"Flower Arts: Third Technique — Petal Bloom Waltz!"
The attack met hers head-on.
Petals exploded outward, cutting deep into the demon's hand. Flesh tore, black ichor spilling onto the ground, sizzling against the soil.
But the impact sent Airi flying back, crashing into Yuki.
The two girls tumbled across the ground, stopping just short of a jagged root.
Yuki winced, blood trickling from her temple. "You idiot," she hissed. "That could've killed you."
Airi smiled faintly, coughing. "Maybe… but it didn't, right?"
Yuki's glare softened. "Tch. Don't move. I'll cover you."
She rose again, sword trembling but steady, cold mist forming around her legs.
The demon howled again. Its face twisted grotesquely as it pulled back all its remaining arms. The air pressure shifted — a hurricane building in its lungs.
"Down!" Haruto shouted.
The demon exhaled.
A shockwave of sound and wind exploded from its mouth, flattening everything in front of it. Trees bent backward, grass burned away, stones shattered like glass.
The ten background candidates were caught in the blast — their screams drowned by the roar. Two were thrown into the air like rag dolls; another barely clung to life as he rolled across the ground.
Haruto's pupils constricted. He didn't think — he moved.
"Flame Arts: Fifth Technique — Ember Dance!"
He leapt into the air, his body blurring in a series of rapid, burning slashes. Each strike cut apart the incoming debris, carving a path through the roaring wind. He reached the fallen candidates midair, grabbing two by their collars as he landed in a crouch.
His knees buckled under the impact. Pain shot through his leg, but he didn't let go.
"You're fine. Breathe!"
One of the boys, face pale, managed to nod shakily.
Raiden appeared beside him, three other candidates clinging to his shoulders. His breathing was labored but steady. "Five saved," he said, grin faint. "Not bad, huh?"
Haruto exhaled. "Show-off."
"Guilty."
Behind them, the demon reared up again, fury boiling in its molten-red eyes.
Kaede had joined Yuki and Airi now, forming a triangle defense in front of the remaining candidates.
"Keep behind us!" Kaede ordered.
Yuki's blade flashed, deflecting a strike that nearly cleaved them in half. The impact sent a numbing pain up her arm, and blood trickled from her lip.
Airi's petals spun defensively around her, catching stray debris and fragments of wood. "It's getting faster!"
"I noticed!" Yuki snapped, twisting aside as another arm slammed beside her. She stumbled — pain shot through her ribs. Airi grabbed her shoulder, pulling her back to her feet.
The demon shifted its massive frame, dragging roots and branches with it.
Each step it took cracked the ground like thunder on stone.
Its dozens of hands flexed, slick with black ichor, twitching with a grotesque rhythm.
"You cut. You burn. You freeze."
"But you—" it pointed one gnarled finger toward the five—"you bleed the same as the rest."
Its grin split wide, teeth like polished stones, eyes glowing a molten red.
The creature bent low, the forest trembling beneath its weight.
Six arms came down in unison—each the size of a tree trunk, moving faster than arrows.
Raiden moved first.
"Thunder Arts: Second Technique — Lightning Strike Tempest!"
Lightning burst from his body in a golden halo.
He became motion itself—untouchable, invisible.
Each swing of his blade cracked the air open with sound.
Six arms turned to ash mid-motion, their severed edges still twitching as they fell.
The remaining limbs retaliated instantly, two lashing sideways. Raiden ducked the first but the second clipped him, sending him skidding backward, sparks spraying from his boots.
He spat blood, laughing under his breath. "Missed your heart, big guy."
Yuki darted across the battlefield, her white hair trailing like frost.
The cold radiating from her was no longer gentle; it was sharp enough to cut the air.
"Ice Arts: Fourth Technique — Frozen Bloom."
A spiral of crystalline ice erupted from her blade, forming a ring of jagged shards around her.
She spun once—her sword cleaving the ring into dozens of shards that shot outward like glass arrows.
The demon howled as the frozen spikes buried deep into its chest and upper arms.
Its movement slowed, joints crackling under the sudden cold.
"Now!" Yuki shouted.
Airi was already in motion.
Her sword traced arcs of pink energy, every motion seamless—grace refined into violence.
"Flower Arts: Fourth Technique — Scarlet Lily Waltz!"
She dashed between the frozen limbs, her blade singing through the night.
Petals burst from her slashes, each one carrying cutting force that severed tendons and tore through the demon's skin.
Black blood sprayed like ink over flowers in bloom.
Yuki stumbled slightly from the recoil, a line of red blooming across her shoulder where an unseen claw had grazed her.
Airi turned instantly, sliding in front of her as a second claw lunged.
"Got you."
She blocked, sparks and petals scattering at once.
The claw bounced off, leaving Airi's hand trembling from the impact.
Yuki looked at her—eyes sharp, but grateful. "You're reckless idiot."
Airi smiled through the pain. "And you're welcome."
Suddenly, Another three—long, snake-like and jointed—hands whipped across the ground in a sudden arch. Towards Yuki and Airi they both caught off gaurd. But before it could strike them.
Lightning exploded across the battlefield.
Raiden's speed turned blinding. He zipped between the demon's swinging limbs, each motion leaving afterimages of light.
"Thunder Arts: Fourth Technique — Heaven's Drumming Flash!"
A barrage of slashes burst forth, each one striking with the sound of thunderclaps. Sparks danced across the demon's massive arms — the creature howled, several limbs severed in quick succession. Sparks exploded in every direction, the smell of ozone heavy in the air.
"Not today, bastard!" Raiden shouted.
He saved both of them. Yuki and Airi exchange glances. Gaurd up.
The demon roared, its dozens of arms writhing in chaos. Each movement shattered the earth, each swing scattering dust and sparks.
Kaede exhaled, steadying his breathing. "Keep pressure! Haruto save the others!"
Haruto nooded rushed towards other candidates saving them. Haruto crouched, chest burning, eyes dark as coal. He breathed in ragged pulls. Around him, weaker candidates wept with relief.
The demon laughed.
"Good. Good! Strong little humans! Break more — I want to see your bones!"
Its dozens of arms began to move — not in chaos now, but in rhythm.
A horrifying, synchronized rhythm.
Each movement struck with purpose.
Kaede rushed forward to strike that demon head on. Two arms stirkes towards him. He barely twisted out of the way. Suddenly, another arm came from the side — and another from behind.
"Kaede, back!" Yuki shouted.
Too late.
Raiden reacted before thought. Lightning burst from his feet as he darted forward, intercepting two more arms mid-swing.
"Thunder Arts: Third Technique — Flash Strike!"
His blade sang, slicing clean through both limbs before they reached Kaede.
Airi and Yuki leapt in right after — their blades moving in perfect synchrony.
"Flower Arts: Second Technique — Blooming Whirl!"
"Ice Arts: Second Technique — Frost Shatter!"
Petals and frost collided with two other incoming arms, deflecting them. For a heartbeat, the battlefield glowed — pink, blue, and gold lights mixing into a beautiful, fleeting spectrum.
The opening was brief — but it was enough. Kaede took the opening. His calm was gone—replaced by a quiet, focused rage.
Water flowed over his blade, spiraling like a serpent of blue light.
He ran low, eyes fixed on the demon's neck.
"Water Arts: Second Technique — Torrent Break!"
He slashed upward.
A geyser of compressed water shot from the blade, cutting through two of the demon's lower arms like a blade of glass.
He surged forward, water coiling around him like armor. He whispered to himself. "Now! Strike its core. You can do it!"
He lunged for the chest, blade gleaming blue under the moonlight.
"Water Arts: Fifth Technique — Surge Cleaver…"
The strike connected — a perfect diagonal slash that sent a spray of dark blood across the forest. The sound was a satisfying, wet crack.
The demon screamed in agony, pulling back its remaining arms. The ground trembled.
"Did we—?" Airi started.
But Kaede's eyes widened.
One of the creature's coiled hands — thicker than a tree trunk — had wrapped around its neck during the chaos. It shifted, like a serpent.
The hand shot forward with crushing speed. Kaede raised his sword — but the impact shattered it. Kaede's blade shattering under the force in two. The demon's hand smashed into his abdomen. Blood burst from his mouth as the impact drove him back. Sending him flying
"Kaede!!" Haruto screamed.
If not for his partial technique — the defensive water pressure that absorbed the worst of the hit — he would've died.
"Damn it!" Raiden cursed, parrying another blow to cover Kaede's fall.
Haruto moved before thought. Flames burst beneath his feet, the ground exploding in his wake.
"Blaze Step!"
He caught Kaede mid-air before the latter hit the ground, sliding several meters backward to absorb the momentum.
"Easy. I've got you," Haruto murmured, setting him down gently. Kaede's breathing was shallow but steady.
"Still alive…" Kaede managed, blood staining his lip.
"Stay that way," Haruto replied.
Behind them, the demon staggered—injured, but grinning wider than before.
Its body began to swell, muscles bulging grotesquely, veins pulsing like living roots.
"You cut deep," it growled, voice gurgling with black saliva. "Then let me return the favor."
Its dozen remaining arms drew inward, twisting together.
A sound like stretching metal filled the forest as its limbs fused into four colossal hands—each twice the width of a man's body.
The ground shook.
Even the moon seemed to pale.
Raiden reappeared beside Haruto, crackling with electricity, his grin wolfish despite the cuts on his arms.
He glanced at Kaede. "He's alive?"
"Yeah," Haruto replied, standing. "But he's done fighting."
Raiden rolled his shoulders, sparks flaring. "Then we take over."
Haruto nodded, eyes never leaving the demon.
Their weapons burned in unison—light and flame.
Airi and Yuki limped to their side, breath ragged but eyes fierce.
"We're not sitting this out," Yuki said coldly.
Airi smiled faintly, petals swirling around her. "We finish what we start."
Haruto glanced at them, then forward again.
The air thickened with the scent of ozone and scorched earth.
The demon roared, shaking the trees.
Its arms stretched wide, ready to crush them all in one devastating strike.
Raiden's lightning flickered to a steady glow, coiling like golden serpents around his blade.
Haruto's fire burned brighter, dancing along the katana like a living spirit.
They exchanged one glance—wordless, unbreakable. Two smiles — fierce, defiant, unbroken.
"Think we can take this bastard?" Raiden asked, cracking his neck.
Haruto exhaled, fire blazing brighter with his breath.
"Let's find out."
The two stepped forward — side by side. The ground beneath them cracked from the surge of power—fire and lightning swirling as one.
The real battle was about to begin.
To Be Continued...