But Kanbe Hikaru didn't dodge.
He smiled.
"Do you hear that?"
He asked.
The toad froze for a moment.
The stream of venom had only just begun to spray when it suddenly went limp, like a hose being strangled at the neck.
In an instant, the surging Demonic Qi seemed to have its backbone removed, plummeting off a cliff.
Why?
The compound eyes all over the toad's head darted around.
Then it heard it.
"Kill!"
"Kill this beast!"
Those were the voices of humans.
Not cries, not pleas for mercy.
They were battle cries.
Reflected in the firelight, a dense crowd of people surged up the steps below the shrine.
A woman who had lost her son and husband walked at the very front, wielding a rusty wood-cutting knife. There wasn't a hint of her usual submissiveness on her face, only ferocious hatred.
"Give me back Goro!"
A stone was thrown.
It was accurate and steady, hitting the toad's largest compound eye dead center.
Splat.
Fluid splattered.
It didn't hurt.
For a demon of this size, that hit didn't even count as an itch.
But the toad panicked.
It felt it.
The 'Dread' that had been nourishing it and allowing it to act like a tyrant in this wretched village was gone.
Those people were no longer afraid of it.
They wanted to eat its flesh and drink its blood.
"You... you swine!"
The toad shrieked, its voice trembling slightly: "Do you want to die! I am a god! I am your god!"
It tried to manipulate the surrounding poisonous swamp to swallow those villagers.
But the black mud that had once been as easy to move as its own limbs was now as stiff as dried cement, refusing to obey its commands.
Without the empowerment of 'Dread', it was just a fifth transformation giant toad.
That was all.
"It seems your divine reign has come to an end."
Kanbe Hikaru pushed off with his toes, leaping into the air like a gray hawk.
[demon blade muramasa: Excitement! It says that although this toad is ugly, without that turtle shell, its meat should be quite tender!]
"Then let's cut some off and have a taste!"
He was mid-air.
The blade light was like a ribbon of silk.
The toad tried to dodge, its thick back leg just about to exert force.
Twang.
A white light arrived first.
Kikyo's arrow was faster and more accurate than Kanbe Hikaru's blade.
That arrow didn't hit a vital spot; it nailed into the tendon at the back of its right knee.
Purifying Power exploded.
The toad let out a miserable howl as its entire right leg disappeared. Its massive body lost balance and tilted to the right.
This was even with Kikyo holding back her strength.
This movement also exposed its neck.
Although that neck was as thick as a water vat and covered in folds and pustules—a nauseating sight—
In Kanbe Hikaru's eyes,
It was the perfect point of entry.
"Slash."
Forward and Reverse Kesa!
There were no fancy move names; he simply poured all his strength, Demonic Qi, and ghostly qi into this one strike.
The upward swing and the downward cleave!
The forward and the reverse.
Pshhh—
First came the sound of a sharp blade cutting into worn leather, followed immediately by the crisp snap of breaking bone.
At this moment, the demon blade muramasa demonstrated its quality as a famous sword—even if it was a mass-produced model—far exceeding ordinary blades.
Coupled with the 'nourishment' Kanbe Hikaru had been providing, when the blade fell even on such a thick-skinned creature, it was as smooth as cutting through tofu.
Black blood sprayed thirty feet high.
It was like a black rain falling amidst the sea of fire.
That massive toad head, covered in compound eyes and wearing an expression of disbelief, rolled into the bonfire.
The headless corpse twitched twice and then collapsed with a thunderous thud.
It smashed the dried-up poisonous swamp, shaking the earth.
Silence.
Deathly silence.
Only the crackling of flames remained.
The villagers who had rushed forward stopped, their hands holding hoes frozen in mid-air.
They watched the man standing on the corpse.
Kanbe Hikaru flicked the blood off his blade.
The firelight danced behind him, casting a long shadow that stretched all the way across the torii gate.
He wasn't wearing that demon mask.
His pale face was splattered with a few drops of black blood, and those crimson eyes glowed terrifyingly in the night.
That was a demon.
A demon even more ferocious than that toad.
Yet at this very moment, in the eyes of these villagers.
That gray figure looked more like a god than the 'God' they had been worshipping for three months.
Those who slay demons,
are naturally 'Gods'.
[ shikon no tama: naohi: Favorability + 3 ]
[ Current Favorability: 44 (Trust) ]
[ It says: Well done. ]
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