Just as said before.
From the very start, Kōbe Hikaru had never intended to face the Thunder Beast one-on-one, in a fair, head-on contest of strength.
Before he ever entered the Imagawa clan's main castle, he had already begun laying out his arrangement.
[Blood Mutation] and [Bone Soul Transformation] ran at the same time.
Blood mist seeped out from his pores, spreading bit by bit with each step, while bone spikes bored down from the soles of his feet into the ground, creeping along the seams of soil, brick, stone, and wall.
It was a slow process.
It was also a process demanding immense patience.
It took him a full hour to cover the entire castle.
The blood mist was his eyes — as long as an area was tainted with it, he could clearly perceive every movement within.
The bone spikes were his weapons — whenever he willed it, those spikes buried beneath the ground could burst up through the earth at any moment, forming a forest of death.
This was what gave him the confidence to overcome the strong as the weaker party.
Not a head-on collision, but an arrangement laid in advance.
Not enduring damage by force, but commanding the battlefield.
A six-mutation ghost warrior, even having already fused one mutation, was in theory stronger than an ordinary six-mutation yōkai — but he knew that against a Thunder Beast of the corporeal-quality tier, his odds in a direct clash were still slim.
But — what if it were like this?
What if the entire castle were his battlefield?
What if the entire castle were his trap?
Then the outcome, too, would be vastly different.
Imagawa Yoshimoto stood at the breach blasted open in the castle keep, gazing at that figure in the center of the castle.
Her legs were going weak.
Not from fear.
But from — awe.
The Thunder Beast.
That colossal beast that had burrowed up from underground — she finally saw it in its entirety.
Its white fur was like congealed lightning, casting a dazzling glare under the moonlight; its four limbs were thick as the pillars and beams of the hall, and every claw-tip crackled and sizzled, purple arcs of electricity leaping between them.
Its frame was so enormous it was suffocating — its shoulder height alone was more than three zhang.
That bestial face was ferocious and dreadful, fangs bared, both eyes glowing with a ghostly blue light, like two burning ghost-fires.
This was the yōkai that had crouched beneath her castle for three days.
This was the chief culprit that had given her nightmare after nightmare.
"It's too big..."
Imagawa Yoshimoto murmured.
Her most elite samurai, before this thing, probably couldn't hold out even for an instant.
Those mages she had hired at great expense, before this thing, likely wouldn't even get the chance to flee.
But —
Her gaze turned toward the top of the castle keep.
That gray figure was standing there, looking down upon the giant beast below.
Blood mist surged around him, a forest of bone growing beneath his feet.
The entire castle was being put to his use.
So this was that yōkai's method?
His so-called "borrowing of the castle" — so this was what it meant.
He wasn't borrowing the castle.
He had turned the entire castle into a vast prison cage.
Thank goodness she had agreed.
Thank goodness she had cooperated, evacuating all the soldiers and residents from the castle in advance, at the fastest possible speed.
This truly was —
"Wonderful."
A yōkai who came specifically to slay yōkai.
Imagawa Yoshimoto, too, had truly and inevitably developed an interest.
At the same time, on the other side.
"Kōbe Hikaru..."
The Thunder Beast's voice was like a thunderclap, echoing through the night sky.
"You're courting death!"
Lightning surged wildly around its body, the purple radiance lighting the night sky bright as day.
Then it moved.
With a kick of its four limbs, its enormous body shot toward the top of the castle keep like a bolt of purple lightning.
Its speed was astonishing.
So fast that Imagawa Yoshimoto saw only a purple afterimage.
So fast that those bone spikes had no time at all to block it.
But —
Kōbe Hikaru moved as well.
He did not dodge.
He even charged straight toward the Thunder Beast.
Muramasa in his right hand, Sōza Samonji in his left.
Both blades left their sheaths at once.
One black, one silver, their blade-light interweaving.
[Razor-Body Mutation] at full power, every muscle in his body burning.
[Spear-Waist Mutation] activated, his waist twisting, drawing the strength of his whole body into the motion.
[Bone Soul Transformation] operating, bone armor surging out from beneath his skin to cover his entire body.
[Blood Mutation] sustained, the blood mist condensing around him into a thin shield.
A crimson oni mask took shape over his face, that ferocious mask forming an eerie contrast with his pale, long hair.
Two-blade style.
This was the first time Kōbe Hikaru had attempted fighting with twin blades.
Muramasa was his old partner; after several months of use, they had long since worked together with ease.
Sōza Samonji had only just come into his hands, and was still somewhat unfamiliar.
But it didn't matter.
He didn't need them to work in perfect harmony.
He only needed — fast enough attacks, fast enough slashes.
Boom—!
The two figures collided in midair.
In that instant, the air seemed to be torn apart.
The shockwave spread outward in all directions, blasting the nearby rooftops away and shaking the bricks and stones loose from the castle walls.
Imagawa Yoshimoto was driven back step after step by this gale of force, gripping the doorframe with both hands for dear life to keep from being blown away.
She saw it.
The Thunder Beast's giant claws clashed against Kōbe Hikaru's twin blades.
Purple lightning and blade-light tangled together, sparks flying everywhere.
That gray-robed figure was overpowered by the Thunder Beast's force, his body sent flying backward through the air.
But his twin blades did not stop.
Muramasa slashed toward the Thunder Beast's left eye, only for it to tilt its head and dodge.
Sōza Samonji stabbed toward its throat, only to be knocked aside by its claw.
Kōbe Hikaru's body was still flying backward, but bone spikes had already bored out from his back, piercing into the castle wall behind him and steadying his form.
"That's it?"
The Thunder Beast bared its teeth.
The expression on that bestial face looked as if it were mocking him.
"And here I thought you were so strong—"
Before the words were finished.
Its body suddenly stiffened.
It lowered its head.
A white bone spike had bored up from the ground, running through its hind leg.
"What—"
It tried to dodge.
But more bone spikes surged up.
From the ground, from the walls, from the rooftops.
That forest of bone it had taken for mere decoration had all come alive.
Like countless white hands, clawing toward it.
Just as said before.
This was his arrangement.
Though he had no way to control these bone spikes' movements directly, away from his body, Kōbe Hikaru could still make them grow.
"I told you."
Kōbe Hikaru's voice came from within the blood mist: "This castle is my battlefield."
He had already charged in once more.
His twin blades crossed, the blade-light like flowing silk.
Muramasa slashed toward the Thunder Beast's belly, Sōza Samonji stabbed toward its flank.
The Thunder Beast swung its claws to parry, only to find its movements had grown considerably slower — those bone spikes that had pierced its hind leg were ceaselessly growing, coiling, restricting its movement.
Clang!
Muramasa was blocked by the giant claw.
But Sōza Samonji was not.
The silver blade-edge scraped across the Thunder Beast's ribs, drawing a streak of blood.
"Damn you—"
The Thunder Beast roared, lightning surging violently across its body.
Those bone spikes coiled around it were shattered by the lightning, reduced to flying ash.
But Kōbe Hikaru had already retreated.
He stood within the blood mist, twin blades hanging low.
There were several scorched black marks on his bone armor, left by the lightning that had grazed him just now.
But his eyes remained calm.
"Your speed is fast indeed."
He said: "And your strength is indeed great."
"But do you know?"
He raised his head, looking toward those bestial eyes glowing with ghostly blue light.
"In this castle, you cannot escape."
The blood mist surged once more.
The forest of bone grew once more.
This struggle of a cornered beast.
The battle had only just begun.
[Sōza Samonji: favourability +5]
[Current favourability: 5 (Sprouting)]
[It is very excited. It has not had a battle like this in a long time.]
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