Kagutsuchi wobbled back and forth on his feet. Slowly becoming accustomed to the situation. Spreading his arms and moving his tail to maintain balance. He felt nausea washing over him, forcing him to grimace.
It was difficult to form complete thoughts in his current state. Attempting to figure out how he had ended up like this.
"Huaa~... Hehe. Now dat I cut ya, you gonna hafta suffer wit me."
He heard the voice of another and was reminded that he was not alone. Hearing the words "cut" and "suffer", he remembered that he was in the middle of a fight. He grew angry at the man who had cut him, hated him.
In half a breath, he swung his heavy glaive at the man but missed his mark completely, stumbled forward and had to pool his strength to regain footing. And in that short time he received a shallow cut on his back. It was nowhere at all effective in hurting him, but Kagutsuchi was enraged all the same.
He swatted the space behind him with his tail and followed up with a new slash of the glaive. Yuu narrowly dodged both the attacks and countered again with a new cut. The bombardment of attacks continued relentlessly and for each encounter with the glaive, Yuu's attacks found its mark less and less.
Yuu was being pushed back as their surroundings were losing their shape repeatedly due to Kagutsuchi's rage. Each swing of the glaive brought with it a strong wind pushing Yuu further back and the missed slashes obliterated the castle structure. Pieces of rubble were constantly falling down and the very foundation was creaking. Begging for them to halt their violent behavior.
"Graah!"
"-Tch."
Kagutsuchi roared and unleashed a new attack at Yuu. This time he managed to barely graze him during his dodge. The glaive collided with the floor and the section around the impact zone collapsed.
Yuu was gasping for air as sweat droplets formed on his face. It felt like he was being cooked alive. He held his left hand to his forehead and clenched his eyes at the hangover that had started to assault his mind with a massive headache. He was beginning to sober up.
He never would have thought that he would be pushed back in the matter of minutes. The effect of his sword, the National Treasure aptly nicknamed the "Drunken Blade" was diminishing. He knew such shallow cuts wouldn't affect the target for long, but he thought that he would be able to pile up more cuts to keep the duration going.
However, Kagutsuchi was remarkably fast to adapt to the drunken state and was soon enough fending Yuu off and denying him any opportunity to effectively attack. Forcing him on the defensive. Slowly but surely, Yuu would die if the situation remained unchanged.
"Shit."
Yuu looked to Jin who was still together with Siegfried. While Jin was healing Siegfried with his own National Treasure, his war fan, able to command others with words, Yuu silently cursed for them to finish up and help him.
He continued his dance with the dragon, dodging the incoming attacks and attempting to counter. The exhaustion growing with each movement. How much longer could he keep it up before either his body gave out or he was skewered to pieces?
...
Over by Siegfried and Jin, the situation was still dire, though in a different way than how it was for Yuu.
"That glaive is most definitely the "Dragon Slayer". One of the two national treasures Kagutsuchi has stolen from the Five Great Clans. From what I know, it's power depends on the users physical prowess. The stronger they are physically, the more damage they can unleash. Personally, I think Kagutsuchi might be the strongest out of those who have wielded it. If he puts all his strength into an attack, he could completely annihilate us."
"Tch. That's a troublesome combination. Any idea how to overcome it?"
"Best I can think of is betting it all on one attack."
"~Sigh~ Okay... Let's continue to chip away at him with you guys' national treasures until we can pin him down and have Daiji deliver the final blow. Though we already planned to do just that."
They were discussing their current situation and how to proceed while observing Yuu's valiant struggle. Both of them eerily level-headed. Perhaps due to Jin's national treasure.
The plan would proceed as they had planned. It would be hard to accomplish, but if everyone fulfilled their role it might just be possible.
"I'll do my best to support all of you."
"Good. I'll have to use some Magical Artifacts myself."
While speaking those words, Siegfried was plagued by the question gnawing at the back of his mind. "How did he know my name?" and "Who is this mysterious man who brought them here?". The answers to these questions would have to be revealed after defeating Kagutsuchi.
His pressure had grown in the short course of his bout with Yuu. He had still not reached his peak. Linger too long and they would lose their lives. Siegfried would not allow that. He had a family waiting for him and his wish was still burning just as brightly as ever.
He would not allow any of them to die here. They could still be of great help in the future. Jin and Yuu were still young and could grow much more, and Daiji who may have passed his prime was still strong enough to contend with the others.
All of them had eyes filled with determination. They would not give up in the face of even an entity stronger than any they had faced.
Siegfried's lifted his pale blue eyes at Yuu and Kagutsuchi. Yuu was covered in small cuts and tiny rivers of blood seeped out of them. But he had still not given up. Though he was clearly frustrated at his allies, Yuu's eyes were still unwavering.
The fighting would continue.
"Let's go."
...
In the darkness, Daiji heard the clamor of metal colliding and the feeling of winds assaulting his body. Slowly, he opened his eyes. He saw Yuu covered in blood. Facing Kagutsuchi all alone. Sweat and blood flew in all directions as he moved with speed to avert Kagutsuchi's strikes.
"Hah!"
Another swing of the glaive, narrowly dodged by Yuu. The rubble behind him was blown away by a powerful gale and the line the glaive had cut out destroyed everything in its path. The castle screamed in pain as it was being driven towards ruination.
Rubble of wood flew towards Daiji who quickly raised his arms to defend his face. It wasn't before the flying pieces of wood had hit him that he noticed he felt no pain from the punch he had taken from Kagutsuchi. A hit that had knocked him out.
One punch was all it took to defeat him.
"Ugh."
That very thought made Daiji shiver with fear. His old bones creaked uncontrollably as he tried to calm himself. But his body wouldn't listen. All the pent up stress and emotions that had built up since the start of the campaign had now exploded into this overpowering fear.
When he gazed at Kagutsuchi, he saw death. An indiscriminate death that would kill him if he so much as even brushed against it. One wrong decision and you're dead. Their opponents was so much stronger than himself.
The dragon-kin commander that needed both him and Siegfried to defeat, the Angel which would've killed him if Siegfried hadn't done what he did. And lastly, Kagutsuchi who could have easily exterminated them but chose not to due to some random whim.
Daiji felt, was, inferior to every thing they had fought against. Even if he had regained a little of his prime, a moment's hesitation would still lead to death. Could his National Treasure be powerful enough to defeat Kagutsuchi? He was afraid to leave it to fate. His luck would most definitely fall short.
That felt almost too cruel. That no matter what he did, Daiji would still lose. There was no way for him to win. Such a reality pushed the old man towards the edge of depression. He wanted to curse his own body, even the entire world.
Am I not just in the way?
Maybe the others could win without him, he thought. They're younger, and stronger. Surely they could overcome this wall without needing help from the elderly.
They can do it... They can do it without me... ? Huh? What am I thinking?
Since when had he become this weak. The others may be younger but he had more experience. Experience that was worth its weight in gold or perhaps probably even more. During the previous engagements he had been a valuable asset. Without him, Siegfried would have lost against the angel. That was an objective fact that Siegfried himself acknowledged.
There had never been any instance where Siegfried had thought of Daiji as a burden. Never for a moment had he wished that Daiji wasn't present. The very notion was absurd. And it was just now that Daiji himself realized it.
Then suddenly, something snapped inside of him, and he had finally awoken from his slumber. He remembered his wish that he had held in these past weeks.
"...Haruto..."
A home for his nephew. A country not on the verge of collapse, but ripe with prosperity. He wanted Azuma and clan Iiyama to remain standing stronger than ever when he passed away. That most dearest wish granted him the strength to stand in the face of this terrifying foe. Even if he was wounded beyond recognition, he would keep fighting.
He closed his eyes and focused all his concentration inwards. As a result, Ki began to rapidly circulate in his body like powerful waves. The power condensed and reinforced his muscle fibers to the fullest.
Yuu was still fighting as hard as he could. But his movements were getting sloppier. The hangover headache was beating so hard that the only thing he could hear was his own pulse. His vision was gradually getting more blurry.
He will die if no backup comes very soon.
What kept him going through the exhaustion was his sheer willpower. If there had been any less of it, he would've collapsed long ago. It was what allowed him to keep up his swordplay and elusiveness.
The winds that followed each strike of the glaive pushed him further into a corner. Both literally and figuratively. The attacks he averted with his own blade made his bones creak and muscles scream. The rope of life was thinning out, nearing the end.
In the corner of his vision, he registered movement. Looking at the location, he noticed Jin in a fighting stance, brandishing his red war fan. "Finally", Yuu thought. Help had arrived.
In that brief moment, he relaxed for a mere second. But that was enough time for Kagutsuchi to swing his mighty glaive with more power than he had used to far. Slashing from downwards and up, he cut deep into Yuu's right shoulder.
Blood sprayed and was blown away by a wind strong enough to crush a person. All of his allies' eyes widened in shock as they had waited too long to step in. Yuu was falling backwards, falling to his death. There was no way they could save him in time.
"Nice."
At the speed of a blink, Yuu gripped his left hand so hard around the hilt of his katana that it cracked. Swinging with all of his might, he got under Kagutsuchi's arms and penetrated the dragon-kin's stomach. Cutting a third of the way through. An instant death for most people.
Having been driven into a corner, Yuu chose to gamble it all on a single exchange. A risky move that would have resulted in his death if his defensive Ki had been any weaker. A desperate time that called for an even more desperate measure.
Having successfully achieved what he had set out to do, Yuu crumbled to his knees and lost all the strength needed to even grip a sword. Now the others could continue on with the rest.
The dragon's blood spilled all over the floor. And accompanying the laceration was the feeling of fatal exhaustion. Kagutsuchi fell forward. Pressing three of his four arms to the wound, he tried to halt the bleeding. But in opposition to his wishes, the river of blood continued to flow. Streaming down to the floorboards.
Close by, Daiji filled his katana to the brim with Ki. Pointing the tip forward at Kagutsuchi's back. The energy was oozing off of it. As if it was enflamed, a pure white fire was enveloping the blade. His eyes were filled with determination and rage at what he had witnessed. Forgetting all about honor and facing the enemy head on, Daiji launched himself forwards as if on a springboard. He pierced the air around him, rapidly closing in on Kagutsuchi.
In the middle of the powerful exhaustion, Kagutsuchi just barely managed to notice the incoming Daiji. Quickly, he turned, building momentum in his glaive. Aiming to bisect Daiji before he could reach him.
"[Halt]!"
But at the command of Jin and his National Treasure, Kagutsuchi was momentarily stopped in his tracks. Unable to move for half a second. Powering through the command, he desperately tried to slash at Daiji, but was too slow.
Daiji's fiery blade reached Kagutsuchi's back and pierced clean through to his front.
"UAAAAA!!!!"
It burned.
Kagutsuchi's organs was set ablaze by the immense Ki held within the katana. He screamed so loud that everything trembled. So loud that every living thing was stopped in place. Echoing through the castle and across the battlefield outside. Rupturing many of the warriors' eardrums.
"IT BURNS!!!!"
Daiji and the others pressed their hands to their ears as hard as they could. Desperately trying to protect them. The next moment, all of them including Kagutsuchi lost their footing. Falling down through the floor from a height of twenty five meters.
Kagutsuchi's scream was the final drop for the castle. It had held on for as long as it could but now it had given up completely. Letting anyone inside fall to their supposed death.
...
From the debris and rubble, Siegfried, Jin and Daiji crawled out to the warmth of the sun now fully enveloping them. Covered in dirt and scraped they scanned the area.
They had managed to score not one, but two lethal hits on the dragon-kin Kagutsuchi. If they were lucky, that would be enough to end him. But that line of thinking was all too optimistic. The fourth to rise out of the castle remains was not Yuu as they had hoped, but Kagutsuchi, the katana still stuck inside of him.
What a monster...
His eyes' were filled with a rage eclipsing anything before and was frothing at the mouth. His aura exerted a new wave of oppressive pressure. Everything around him quaked as he gripped his glaive with his upper arms. He raised it skyward, standing so for several moments.
With a deep breath, Kagutsuchi brought down his glaive, "Dragon Slayer" as if it was a hammer. Gripping it with all four of his hands as it got within reach of his lower arms. With the absolute full force of the "Dragon God" Kagutsuchi, the glaive annihilated, obliterated, disintegrated everything in a vertical line.
Splitting the ground and dividing the skies, the strike continued all the way to the shore and continued to cut through the massive body of water. Travelling forever forward. The ravine that had been created extended further down for many tens, maybe even a hundred meters. The ocean slowly refilled the cut space and seeped down into the ravine.
Luckily for Siegfried and the others, the larger battlefield was in the opposite direction.
But were all four of them safe? Was anyone hit?
Yuu? No. He's lying face down farther away.
Jin? No. He's alive. Just completely still and terrified. A cold sweat running down his body. But still alive.
Daiji? He couldn't see. A dust cloud was blocking his sight of the only place he hadn't checked.
His breath caught in his throat.
As the dust cloud slowly faded away, he could the the silhouette of Daiji. He was safe. That fact was a huge relief to Siegfried. If Daiji had died or been incapacitated, their chances of winning would greatly drop.
As he reached out to call to his friend, his hand stopped still. His eyes widened when he saw the full image of Daiji. Blood was trickling down his clothes, soaking them dark and sticky. With bated breath, Siegfried raised his line of sight and reached where all the blood originated from.
Daiji's left arm had been lopped off right above his elbow. In other words, halving his sword skills. But despite his grizzly look, his mental state was perfectly fine. To combat the pain, Daiji wore an excited smile, not even twitching at the sensation of having lost half a limb.
"Only this much, huh."
Instead of kneeling down or gripping the wounded area, he pooled Ki into it with the flex of what remained of his left arm. Instantly stopping the bleeding. Afterwards, he placed his remaining right arm on his second katana.
His own National Treasure.
At a first glance it was no different from any other katana there was. Most being unable to tell it apart from others. But once Daiji placed his right hand on the hilt, a mysterious air permeated from the blade.
Unable to distinguish the emotion it evoked, all present looked from the weapon to Daiji himself.
Instead of seeing a wounded old man, they saw the fighting spirit of one completely in one's element. His mind cut off from everything other but the fighting, the bloodshed.
Slowly, Daiji unsheathed his blade. Brandishing its razor-sharp edge and pointing it at Kagutsuchi. Releasing his own type of pressure, he spoke only two words:
"Let's dance."