Rain fell in sheets, sizzling against the Scarlet Sovereign's thorns.
Tatsuya's remaining hand held Bone Drinker's hilt. Blood dripped from his severed left arm, the cauterized stump still smoking.
This is… problematic.
His mask hid the sweat beading on his brow, but his mind raced.
Every mission before this had been a calculated success—ambush, execute, vanish. But this… this monstrosity didn't follow the rules. Its armor regenerated. Its rot ate through him.
And that smell—like roses left to drown in a septic tank—made his eyes water.
The Sovereign lunged again, her remaining arm a blur of thorns.
Tatsuya's muscles coiled.
The Sovereign will use a Horizontal slash to decapitate him. So he'll Sidestep right, strike the helm's center—
He moved.
Bone Drinker met her gauntlet in a shower of sparks.
The impact rattled his bones, but he held firm, shoving the blade's serrated teeth deeper into the thorns. Rot crawled up the steel.
He yanked the blade free, backflipping as her fist cratered the ground where he'd stood.
Mud geysered.
His eyes narrowed on her helm. The lilies there pulsed faster with each attack.
Weak point confirmed.
But getting close meant braving her decay aura. Even now, the rot gnawed at his lungs.
A flicker of movement—Aiko scrambled behind a shattered log, her dagger raised.
Pathetic. But her barrier… two hits left. Irrelevant.
The Sovereign's armored foot slammed down, ripping a fissure toward him. Tatsuya leapt, twisting midair to avoid a spray of acidic mud.
It's getting easier...
He landed light, boots barely denting the muck. Bone Drinker's edge gleamed—still sharp.
Tatsuya is going to bait her ult.
She'd used that petal storm once. If he could trigger it again, dodge it, and strike her when she's vulnerable, then he'd still have a chance.
But surviving it…
His remaining arm tensed.
Sacrifices.
"Come," he hissed, sliding into a low stance. "Show me your wrath."
The Sovereign obliged.
Her thorned gauntlet swung in a brutal arc.
Tatsuya ducked, the attack shredding the air above his mask. Before she could recover, he slashed upward—a precise strike to her helm's left hinge.
Clang!
A lily petal cracked. Crimson sap oozed from the fracture.
The Sovereign shrieked, a sound like rusted nails on slate. Her decay aura erupted, rot spreading in a visible wave. Tatsuya's boots sank into liquifying earth as he triggered Shadow Step—
Too slow.
The teleport sputtered, stranding him mid-retreat. Thorns speared toward his chest.
Last resort.
He slapped a Kyōfu seal to his sternum.
"Kai!"
Black flames erupted, consuming the thorns.
The Sovereign recoiled, her arm a smoldering wreck. Tatsuya hit the ground coughing blood—the seal's backlash searing his ribs.
But the trade was worth it. Her left arm hung limp, oozing sap.
Now.
He charged, Bone Drinker aimed for the helm's crack.
Three meters. Two.
The Sovereign's remaining fist swung—not at him, but the earth.
Fool.
He vaulted over the shockwave, blade descending—
Her helm split open.
A maw of writhing lilies yawned wide, petals lined with jagged teeth. Tatsuya's blade plunged into the void—
And stuck.
What—?
Sap surged, hardening around Bone Drinker. The Sovereign's head snapped forward, jaws closing on his right arm.
Crunch.
Agony.
Tatsuya's scream tore through the clearing as the Sovereign ripped his arm free, kodachi and all.
He staggered back, armless, mask cracked to reveal a sliver of gritted teeth.
Mistake.
Blood pooled at his boots. The Sovereign spat out his arm, the limb dissolving into sludge. Her helm's lilies regrew, pristine.
Aiko's gasp echoed.
"N-no way…"
Tatsuya didn't hear her. His world narrowed to the fight.
No weapons. No arms. But…
His lips curled behind the mask.
He dropped to one knee, back bowed like a defeated man. The Sovereign loomed, raising her gauntlet for the kill.
Closer…
Her shadow draped over him.
Now.
With a roar, Tatsuya slammed his forehead into the mud.
"Kekkai Kaihou!"
The three Kekkai Stones embedded earlier flared. The Sovereign froze mid-strike as the containment field activated, blue light pinning her in place.
Duration: 9 seconds.
Tatsuya surged upward, teeth clamping onto a kunai hidden in his collar. He leapt, driving the blade toward her helm's crack—
Too shallow!
The kunai snapped. The Sovereign's lilies pulsed, straining against the Kekkai.
4 seconds.
Tatsuya landed, spat the broken blade, and spun. His foot hooked a root—
Shadow Step: Rebound.
He vanished, reappearing upside-down above the Sovereign.
Mouth wide, he caught a falling droplet of her sap.
Bitter. Corrosive.
He swallowed.
Fire erupted in his gut. His veins lit up with necrotic light. The rot spreading, burning—
Yes.
His remaining flared, hijacking the decay.
Forbidden Art: Shouki no Jutsu
Muscles swelled, black veins bulging. His shattered ribs fused with crackling energy. Twin stumps sprouted jagged bone spikes.
The Kekkai shattered.
The Sovereign's fist descended—
And stopped.
Tatsuya stood, armless, gripping her wrist with his teeth. Bone spikes anchored him to the earth as her force rattled the clearing.
He spat her arm away, eyes glowing toxic green.
"My turn."
Aiko clutched her dagger, nausea rising as Tatsuya… changed.
His torso, once lean, now rippled with knotted muscle.
Bone spikes jutted from his shoulders like grotesque wings. His eyes—visible through the cracked mask—burned with feral light.
The Sovereign swung her gauntlet. Tatsuya ducked, moving faster than sight. His teeth sank into her armored thigh, ripping out a chunk of thorns.
He's… eating her?!
Sap gushed. Tatsuya's bone spikes lengthened, stabbing into the Sovereign's plates. She stumbled, decay aura flaring—
But Tatsuya didn't rot.
No, he's using it.
Black veins pulsed across his skin as he leeched her power, each strike amplifying his frenzy.
Aiko's legs trembled. This wasn't a fight anymore—it was a feeding.
Kami-sama… is this still your plan?
The Eagle-Eye Totem lay buried in debris, silent.
Every cell screamed, but Tatsuya embraced it. The Sovereign's essence was a wildfire in his veins—crude, chaotic, but potent.
He headbutted her chest, bone spikes cracking armor.
Target: Helm.
She reeled. He pounced, jaws clamping onto her fractured lily crown.
CRUNCH.
Petals shredded. The Sovereign wailed, thrashing. Tatsuya held fast, drinking the sap gushing from her wound.
Her fists pummeled his ribs—
Crack.
Crack.
Crack.
He ignored them.
Almost…
With a final wrench, he tore the helm free.
The Sovereign's body stiffened. Rot erupted from her neck stump, consuming armor, thorns, flesh—
Tatsuya leapt back as she dissolved into a putrid geyser.
Silence.
Rain washed the sludge from his spikes.
VICTORY.
He turned toward Aiko, eyes blazing.
Now… the girl.