If his physical condition were still at its peak, Dojima naturally would not have been afraid.
But at this moment, he was severely wounded and pinned down by numerous demon clones. He was completely unable to remove the parasitic flesh buds from the napes of those civilians. Furthermore, the main body of the demon was watching him like a predator from ahead.
Dojima didn't even need to try to know that if he did manage to pull those buds out, the demon would immediately take control of them again.
"Stop! Wake up!" Dojima shouted harshly, but it was useless. Instead, someone hit his shoulder with a stone.
"Run... whoever just arrived... don't worry about us..."
"This demon is simply not something we can handle at our level..."
The swordsman lying on the ground urged Dojima. Rather than dying in battle here, it would be better to escape alive.
"Shut up!" Dojima roared, silencing the swordsman on the ground.
"I have no intention of being a coward who abandons his comrades! Isn't it just an ordinary demon?!"
"Even if it were one of the Twelve Demon Moons!"
"I, Kazuma Dojima, will definitely slay it here today!"
[Total Concentration!]
[Flame Breathing!]
Scorching air mixed with the scent of blood spread out. Dojima exploded with unprecedented power.
If Kuguruma were here, he would see that Dojima's energy level, which was only at 83, was rapidly climbing along with his breathing. It was the values of [Body] and [Heart] jumping upward, fueled by the burning of his will.
89... 94... 112...
A blazing fighting spirit swept forward. Bolstered by this newfound strength, his blade-light temporarily forced back all the Tumor Demon's clones. Dojima's eyes gleamed with a look of absolute resolve.
The heat on his blade was more intense than ever before. He bypassed all the controlled civilians. He was about to bypass all the Tumor Demons.
He was about to strike!
The target would be that demon's neck. Finally, at the flash where his sword form reached its peak, Dojima's energy level reached an unprecedented 116.
[Fourth Form: Blooming Flame Undulation!]
However, at that moment, the mockery on the demon's face vanished, replaced by a cold, almost cruel malice. It remained lazily leaning against the weaving machine, but its voice was like a poisonous snake.
"Are you sure you want to ignore the lives of the others?"
The surging flames faltered.
"If you get any closer..."
"In the warehouse on the east side of the factory, in the pipes on the west side..."
"My other bodies will immediately tear open the throats of those remaining people. Hahahaha."
"Guess which is faster: you rushing over to hit me, or me moving a single thought?"
Dojima's momentum came to a dead stop. The flames on his Nichirin Sword flickered unsteadily, mirroring his struggling heart. In other places, there were comrades still fighting. There were civilians lying on the ground, not yet dead...
The demon admired the expression of despair on his face and slowly presented the final, and most cruel, choice.
"Twelve Demon Moons, you say?"
"Sir Swordsman, you really know how to ruin this one's good mood."
"Tell you what, you're a loyal man who doesn't want to abandon his comrades, right? I am not completely unreasonable...."
"So, I have a great idea."
"Right here, use that beloved sword of yours... to end your own life."
The "kindness" on the demon's face gradually turned into pure pleasure. This was the part it enjoyed most—watching sweat pour down the opponent's face, watching their persistence slowly crumble into despair. It was more delightful than any other pastime.
"Maybe, if I'm in a good mood, I'll truly just parasitize them instead of killing them all?"
"Exchanging your one life for several of theirs—isn't that a great bargain?"
The words were like icicles, bringing Dojima's Nichirin Sword to a complete standstill. The swordsman had clearly fallen into a dilemma. His breathing became difficult. His sword became as heavy as a thousand tons.
The demon did nothing but cross its arms and lean there, watching the swordsman gradually descend to the brink of collapse. Whether it was a foolish suicide or a desperate, all-or-nothing gamble, it made no difference to the demon. It was merely a different way to toy with the opponent.
Of course, if the opponent truly abandoned their dignity and code, ignoring the lives of others, it would be slightly boring.
"Damn it... you bastard, you're too despicable..." Dojima felt like he was going to crush his own teeth.
At this moment of his despair—
BOOM!!!
The brick wall to the side suddenly exploded.
"What are you babbling about?"
Amidst the smoke and dust, Kuguruma stepped through the hole in the workshop wall, covering his nose and mouth.
"Oi, you're still not finished? If you don't hurry up, I'm going to steal the kill."
It's the Tsuguko-sama!
The heart that Dojima had just held in suspense suddenly relaxed. Since he had arrived... they were saved.
"Tsuguko-sama, this demon can split its body and is immune to ordinary slashes—"
Dojima was interrupted by the demon.
"Another swordsman looking for death. It seems there's more fun to be had."
With a wave of its hand, two or three small clones immediately broke away from the circle surrounding Dojima and rushed toward Kuguruma with strange shrieks.
Slap!
There were three crisp sounds, but because the interval was so short, they overlapped into one. The palm-sized demons were sent flying by a casual slap, crashing into nearby machinery and exploding into large patches of blood.
Although they didn't die because they weren't decapitated by a Nichirin Sword, they clearly lost the ability to move for the time being.
But Kuguruma naturally wouldn't miss the chance to finish them off. The Nichirin Sword at his waist unsheathed, and in the blink of an eye, it pierced the bloody necks of the three small demons.
"Tsk, as expected, no experience points again."
Seeing the few grunts with energy levels below [5] slowly vanish, Kuguruma turned his gaze toward the Tumor Demon ahead.
[Itcho???]
[Energy Level: 139 (Body 99, Skill 15, Heart 25)]
[Blood Demon Art: Multiple Consciousnesses] [Blood Demon Art: Flesh Fission]
The stats are this high? So the one in front of him was the main body.
"Hahahaha, Sir Swordsman, don't think for a second that I and my little dar—"
The main body of the demon, Itcho, had just begun to speak ominously when Kuguruma vanished from its sight.
[Thunder Breathing]
[First Form: Thunderclap and Flash]
His figure turned into a straight bolt of lightning in the dim light, moving so fast it left afterimages, piercing straight through the demon.
The sensation is wrong. Is it a Blood Demon Art? Kuguruma didn't manage to kill it with one hit, but he didn't linger in the fight either. He used the momentum to flip backward, landing gracefully in front of Dojima.
Another strange Blood Demon Art?
With his back to the swordsman, Kuguruma tilted his head slightly. "Can you still move, Dojima?"
"So fast... Is this the true strength of a Tsuguko who has mastered Thunder Breathing? Wait, but isn't Igarashi-sama the Storm Hashira? Besides, there hasn't even been a Thunder Hashira or a Sound Hashira in the corps lately... so where did this come from?"
Dojima suddenly snapped back to reality. Looking at the back in front of him, his throat felt dry. "Tsuguko-sama, this demon can actively split its body the moment a sword hits it to avoid being cut. Please... be extremely careful."
Aside from providing a bit of intelligence, he seemed quite useless. Dojima couldn't help but feel a sense of dejection.
Kuguruma's gaze swept sharply over the scene: the main body of the demon, the remaining split-off monsters, and the several hollow-eyed, swaying civilians who had stood up once more under control. His eyes were calm to the point of being indifferent.
Oh? Civilians? Controlled?
Countless similar game scenarios flashed through Kuguruma's mind instantly. In other games, how do you handle controlled, abnormal friendly units?
In the next second, Kuguruma moved.
He didn't rush toward the demon; instead, his figure flickered as he used Wind Breathing, gliding toward those stiff-moving civilians with incredibly agile footwork.
Crack! Crack!
He didn't use his blade, but there was a series of crisp bone-snapping sounds. A second later, the two nearest civilians were no longer under Itcho's control and collapsed onto the ground. The flesh buds on the napes of their necks still existed, but they no longer had the ability to move.
"What did you do?!" The demon and Dojima were stunned at the same time.
"Non-lethal takedowns, that's all," Kuguruma's voice came flatly, as if stating a simple fact. It wasn't like he hadn't played these "Do not harm NPCs" restricted levels before. "Dislocate the joints, or use a hand-chop to precisely hit the spinal nerve clusters. Doesn't that temporarily disable their ability to move?"
The Demon, Dojima: "..."
Doing that... are you sure you won't kill them or leave them permanently disabled?!