"This is all you've got?"
Tsuchigumo's voice came from beneath his mask, deep as a beating war drum.
Of course he knew Madara was only this vulnerable because he had already been injured, but that did not stop him from mocking the fellow.
After all, the two had disliked each other for centuries.
Madara climbed back to his feet. There was no fear in his eyes. Instead, the other party's mockery only made him angrier.
"Go to hell, you bastard!"
Madara opened his mouth and spat out a blazing projectile of yokai energy. Wherever it passed, it plowed a charred trench through the ground.
Tsuchigumo neither dodged nor retreated. He crossed two arms before himself and took the attack head-on.
Boom!
When the smoke from the explosion dispersed, only a few scorch marks remained on his arms. He had not been injured in the slightest.
"You're still as tough as ever…"
Madara clenched his sharp teeth. His four legs suddenly exerted force, and he relied on his advantage in speed to race around Tsuchigumo's enormous body, searching for an opening.
Seizing the right moment, he leapt from behind and to the side, opening his bloody jaws and attempting to bite down on one of the joints connecting Tsuchigumo's limbs to his body.
However, Tsuchigumo was far more agile than Madara had imagined. His other two arms shot out at a terrifying speed completely inconsistent with his massive build.
One arm clamped onto Madara's right foreleg, while the other grabbed the fur on the back of his neck.
Madara's heart jolted. He tried to struggle free, but the strength in those two arms was terrifying, their fingers sinking deeply into his flesh.
"Caught you, Madara."
Tsuchigumo laughed triumphantly.
The next second, he swung Madara's enormous body, which was several times larger than his own, as if waving around a light cloth sack, and smashed him viciously into the ground.
Bang!
The earth cracked, and Madara's muffled groan was forcibly driven back down his throat.
But it was not over.
Tsuchigumo swung Madara up again and smashed him down heavily.
Another tremendous crash rang out.
The asphalt shattered. Madara spat out a mouthful of blood, staining the broken stones beneath him red.
Boom! Boom!
Tsuchigumo used two arms to repeatedly slam him into the ground. Every impact made the earth tremble violently. Madara's vision blurred, and he felt as if every bone in his body were breaking inch by inch.
After smashing him down more than ten times in succession, Tsuchigumo finally released his grip.
Madara fell heavily into a pile of rubble. His once-glossy white fur was now in complete disarray, clumped together by blood and mud.
He struggled to stand, but the intense pain made his four limbs tremble uncontrollably.
This time, he truly could not get back up.
However, Tsuchigumo had no intention of giving Madara time to breathe.
He himself was a great yokai and understood the recovery abilities of great yokai far too well.
If Madara were given even a little time, he would be able to counterattack.
So the best choice was to strike while he was weak and take his life.
Tsuchigumo strode forward. His third and fourth arms rose high and clenched into enormous fists before smashing down toward Madara's body.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Every punch carried destructive force. Wherever his fists landed, flesh split and blood flew.
Madara could only curl up and barely use yokai energy to protect his vital areas. Even so, hideous wounds rapidly opened along his back and ribs. Blood poured out, dyeing his originally snow-white fur a deep crimson.
"Bastard…"
Under Tsuchigumo's relentless assault, Madara let out a suppressed roar and desperately whipped his head around to bite one of Tsuchigumo's arms.
His sharp teeth finally pierced Tsuchigumo's flesh, and black blood dripped down.
Unfortunately, this injury was insignificant to Tsuchigumo.
He swung the arm back and viciously slapped the side of Madara's head.
Smack!
Madara's head snapped to the side. Half his face went numb, and crimson blood seeped into the vision of his left eye. His body rolled uncontrollably across the ground for dozens of meters, plowing out a long trail of blood.
Tsuchigumo gave him no further opportunity.
All four of his arms moved at once.
Two pinned Madara's hind legs firmly to the ground, while the other two clamped down on his forelimbs. One foot pressed through his chest and ribs like a nail.
Madara's enormous true body was completely pinned to the earth, unable to move.
"Nyanko-sensei…"
Natsume's cry rang out.
He could see clearly that there was no longer a single uninjured place on Nyanko-sensei's body.
His silver-white fur had nearly been completely soaked in blood, clumping together against his flesh. Three wounds beneath his ribs were so deep that bone could be seen, and bloody foam leaked from them with every labored breath.
Natsume understood very well that if not for him, Nyanko-sensei would never have lost this miserably.
In the end, he had dragged Nyanko-sensei into this.
Tsuchigumo lowered his terrifying mask. His red-glowing eyes closely examined the opponent he had nearly torn apart.
"This time, you lost, Madara."
"What a pity."
"Without that brat, you might have become a worthy opponent for me."
Madara did not answer. Only breaths mixed with bloody foam escaped his throat.
Tsuchigumo raised his head and looked at Natsume.
"Brat, if you want Madara to live, hand over the Book of Friends. Give it to me now, or don't blame me for killing him."
Without the slightest hesitation, Natsume pulled the Book of Friends from inside his clothes.
It was important, but to Natsume, it was nowhere near as important as Nyanko-sensei.
"I can give it to you, but you have to release Nyanko-sensei."
"No problem."
Tsuchigumo agreed, his gaze locking onto the Book of Friends in Natsume's hands.
Natsume took a deep breath and threw the Book of Friends over with all his strength.
A smile split across Tsuchigumo's face. He extended one hand and caught the Book of Friends Natsume had thrown.
"I gave you the Book of Friends. Please let Nyanko-sensei go," Natsume said.
Tsuchigumo chuckled.
"What a naive brat. You actually trusted a yokai?"
"What do you mean?"
Natsume's pupils trembled violently. This guy could not be planning to go back on his word, could he?
At the thought, Natsume's heart twisted painfully.
"My meaning is very simple."
Tsuchigumo's smile grew increasingly savage as he looked down at the powerless Madara.
"Die here, Madara!"
He raised his fist high and smashed it heavily toward Madara's head.
"No!!!"
Natsume screamed and ran desperately toward Madara.
Boom!
At that moment, something unexpected happened.
A pillar of pitch-black flame violently struck Tsuchigumo's ribs from the side.
The instant the fire pillar hit him, it exploded. Black tongues of flame spread madly across his enormous body, burning his steel-hard skin with a sizzling sound.
Tsuchigumo grunted. The force of the impact made his massive body stagger several steps sideways, releasing Madara.
A completely black shikigami shaped like a giant hound appeared.
Black flames still lingered in its mouth, and ominous fire coiled around its body. Every step it took branded a charred paw print into the ground.
Tsuchigumo turned his head to look at the burn on his side. For the first time, a trace of emotion entered his deep voice.
"What are you?"
"It's my shikigami."
A voice sounded, startling Tsuchigumo.
Only now did he realize that aside from Natsume, Madara, and the giant black dog that had suddenly appeared, there was another person on the street.
No, there were two.
A man and a woman.
Naturally, they were Rowan and Nero.
Rowan had not expected that, under Kato and the Okuchi-no-Makami's guidance, he would encounter Tsuchigumo from Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan.
Along with Natsume and his guardian, Nyanko-sensei.
However, Nyanko-sensei seemed to have been beaten very badly. He had even lost all ability to fight back.
After seeing this, Rowan naturally would not stand by and do nothing. When he had watched Natsume's Book of Friends, he had liked Natsume and Nyanko-sensei quite a lot.
Especially Natsume.
He was kind and gentle toward others. Even though he had been bullied since childhood and still occasionally suffered nightmares after growing up, he had never resented the yokai or humans who had mistreated him.
Because he did not want others to worry, he never told anyone whenever he encountered trouble or was hurt.
Yet he regarded his own kindness as a kind of self-righteous arrogance.
Who would not like a boy like that?
Even though Rowan was also a man, he greatly admired Natsume.
So when Tsuchigumo was about to kill Nyanko-sensei, Rowan decisively ordered Kato to act.
It successfully rescued Nyanko-sensei from Tsuchigumo.
"And who are you?"
Tsuchigumo steadied himself and looked at Rowan with hostility.
Rowan smiled faintly and calmly said, "I suppose I'm a kindhearted passerby."
Natsume raised his head and stared at Rowan blankly.
Tsuchigumo narrowed his eyes, his gaze flickering.
"You plan to interfere in this matter?"
"Of course. Since I saw it, I can't simply remain indifferent."
Rowan calmly said, "Return the Book of Friends to that boy and surrender. Then I can spare your life and allow you to become an experimental specimen. What do you think of that proposal?"
Tsuchigumo was almost angered into laughter.
He had encountered arrogant people before, but never anyone this arrogant.
"Come and die!"
He roared and raised his arm high, releasing powerful yokai energy as he prepared to launch a major attack at Rowan.
However, at that moment, the sunlight overhead was torn apart by a sudden flash of icy light.
It was an enormous white dog with silver-white fur.
No, more accurately, it was a giant white wolf, its entire body wrapped in bitter wind and snow. It opened its enormous mouth, and its sinister fangs bit directly into the arm Tsuchigumo had just raised.
Crack!
The crisp sound of breaking bone exploded across the street. Tsuchigumo's black blood sprayed out, staining the snow-white wolf's muzzle with a shocking darkness.
The Okuchi-no-Makami.
Rowan's other shikigami.
It had also arrived long ago but had remained hidden without appearing. Only now did it suddenly attack, giving Tsuchigumo a profound lesson.
Tsuchigumo grunted, blood spraying out.
"Come back," Rowan said.
The Okuchi-no-Makami released its jaws and leapt backward. Upon landing, it casually flung Tsuchigumo's severed arm onto a nearby pile of rubbish.
Tsuchigumo flew into a rage and glared furiously at Rowan.
"Good. Very good."
Not long ago, he had ambushed Madara.
And now, only a short time later, he had received the same treatment in return.
This drove Tsuchigumo's fury to the absolute limit.
"All of you, die! Die!!!"
At that moment, Tsuchigumo completely went berserk, and violent yokai energy erupted with a roar.