"I will go first!"
Gabimaru roared, charging across the bone-strewn earth. His blade whistled through the air in a brutal upward strike.
"Oh? So you are the brave one," Harumichi mused, his body beginning to shift for a counter. "Why don't—"
The demon stopped mid-sentence. He looked down to find his feet locked in place. A small, inconspicuous puddle of blood surged upward like liquid iron, shackling his ankles to the soil of skulls.
"Hahaha! Not bad. I didn't even sense it until you had me pinned," Harumichi laughed, his eyes glinting.
SHINGGGGGG!
Sparks erupted as Harumichi's long, obsidian fingers met Gabimaru's blade. The impact sent a shockwave through the ground, cracking the nearby bone mounds.
"I knew you would block that!" Gabimaru grinned, his eyes a flame.
He tilted his blade to a forty-five-degree angle, his Reiryoku pulsing through the steel.
"Senku Somai: Flowing Blossom!"
From the tip of his katana, dozens of red petals solidified as his blade traced a downward arc; the petals followed the path of the steel like a trail of crimson fire. Gabimaru twisted his hips, forcing the blade into a violent vertical curve.
BOOM!
The petals struck Harumichi with the force of cannonballs. The master was hurled back, his feet carving deep furrows into the ground as the petals continued to hammer him, eventually scattering across the earth like a fallen autumn garden.
"Hahaha! So neat," Harumichi shouted, regaining his footing. "Your control over your blood art is impressive to form something as delicate as a petal and give it such weight..."
But Gabimaru wasn't listening to the praise. He snapped his fingers.
The red petals on the ground instantly changed shape, thinning and lengthening into jagged spears of blood-crystal. They rose as one, hovering for a heartbeat before raining down on Harumichi from every direction.
SPRRRRRRRR!
The spears whistled through the air, breaking the sound barrier. Harumichi's hand became a blur, his movements so swift they defied the eye as he parried the rain of projectiles with his bare claws.
WOOOOSSH!
Another blade strike narrowly missed Harumichi's throat. Gabimaru was already there, his skin steaming as his internal body temperature skyrocketed.
'The technique Bushido-sensei taught us is incredible,' Gabimaru thought, his lungs burning as he took deep breaths. 'I can regulate my blood flow with total precision now.'
He spun his blade in a frantic yet beautiful succession of strikes, each one faster than the last.
'Ha! His speed has increased again,' Harumichi noted, his smile never wavering as he blocked every blow with the grace of a man swatting flies.
"Wow... that's incredible," Yorimitsu whispered, his voice steady despite the sweat pouring down his face. The blue flame at his fingertips was now a roaring torch. "By controlling the blood in his veins, he's turned his body into a furnace; his speed and strength must have multiplied ten times over."
Yorimitsu glanced about in quick succession as if looking for something, and when he took a second glance at Gabimaru, he saw the steam rising from his pores. "Ahhh, so the downside is the heat. If he miscontrols his blood even for a heartbeat, he could cook his organs from the inside out. What a reckless technique!"
Watanabe moved with a ghostly, soundless stride, appearing behind Harumichi as the demon was distracted by Gabimaru's crimson, blurring speed. Watanabe raised his katana, and air turned into jagged shards of frost.
TANG!!!
Harumichi threw his free clawed hand backwards to catch the steel.
"Ha, you have me using two hands now," he chuckled, glancing over.
CRACCCKKKKKK!
…
"What!?" Harumichi's eyes widened.
The moment the blade met his palm, a flash freeze erupted from Watanabe's sword, encasing Harumichi's entire arm in a thin layer of jagged ice. The freezing process was so violent that the demon's grey skin threatened to shatter like glass.
Harumichi let out a guttural growl. His massive black wings snapped open, the feathers clapping together with the sound of a thunderbolt. The pressurised gust of wind hurled both Gabimaru and Watanabe backwards, sending them skidding across the sea of skulls.
"Shit..." Yorimitsu dug himself into position as the wind passed him.
…
"That brat... how the hell did he do that?" Harumichi hissed. He raised his frozen hand. The ice was so deep it had reached the bone. His Reiryoku flared, generating heat until steam hissed off his skin and the ice melted away in a messy slush.
"Any longer and my hand would have snapped off like a dry twig," Harumichi muttered, his playful tone finally vanishing.
His gaze shifted, ignoring the two boys for a moment to stare directly at Yorimitsu. The blue flames were dancing now, casting long, draconic shadows against the bone-mountain.
"Those flames... I know them. I've seen them before. Where the hell do I know them from? Out of everything here, they are giving me the most sickening feeling" Harumichi's voice dropped to a terrifying whisper. "Tch. I wanted to have some fun... but I cannot let those flames reach their peak. I'm ending this. Now."
"Alright then, let's end it."
Harumichi's black wings ceased their frantic flapping, folding against his back like a funeral shroud. His snake-like tail surged forward, presenting the Koto to his waiting hands. With a fluid, unsettling grace, the demon sat cross-legged atop the coils of his own tail, the instrument resting across his thighs. His obsidian fingers hovered over the strings, ready to weave a melody of extinction.
SLUUUUSHHHHHH!!
GLOP, GLOP!
A wet, sickening sound tore through the silence of the bone-domain.
"Okotsu?!" Gabimaru and Watanabe screamed in unison.
Okotsu had materialised like a ghost from the red mist, his dagger buried deep where Harumichi's heart should have been. His eyes were wide, veins bulging in his forehead from the effort of the strike.
He thought he had succeeded. But at the moment of impact, the tail had blocked the blade with its iron-hard scales, but also constricted and twisted Okotsu's arm with such violent force that the momentum was redirected. Instead of Harumichi's heart, Okotsu's own hand, still gripping the dagger, had been forced back across his own chest.
"Shit! I thought you weren't even inside the Kekkai!" Watanabe roared, his panic turning into a lethal cold.
He didn't hesitate. He lunged forward, his blade flashing in a horizontal arc designed to bisect the demon. Harumichi didn't even look up from his Koto; he simply leaned back, letting Okotsu slip from the tail's grasp as he dodged the strike with a millimetre to spare.
Watanabe caught Okotsu's falling body mid-air. Ice surged from his boots, creating a slick path that allowed him to slide backwards, putting a desperate distance between them and the seated master.