“Haah! Haah!”

Kotaro could feel his body becoming cold. He was taking heavy breaths and using hamon to warm it a bit. But it wasn’t as effective as he thought.

‘Here it is, one of the hamon’s disadvantages.’

Unlike normal breathing method, hamon is unique because it uses the ripples created in the body due to blood. The blood is a very important to produce hamon. And Kotaro was having heavy blood loss due to that big bone spear pierced in his abdomen. And the amount of hamon he could create decreased proportional to his blood loss.

It was just a bit on side, or else it wouldn’t be surprise if he died suddenly. The hamon he tried create was in minuscule amount compared to earlier, but still it was successful making his life hanging by a thin thread.

‘My vision is getting a bit fuzzy…’

The blood loss slowly started to affect his sight. His consciousness was wavering, and the pain which didn’t seem to be that much at the start also begin to show itself. 

He turned his head towards Mitsuri, who still was fighting with the demon. It was quite an unbelievable sight to see, that Mitsuri going on par with that demon.

“Beautiful…”

Her movements were not like any standard person. She was fighting with full freedom, with flexibility present in none except her and moreover that strength… Till now, she kept on trying to control it, but because of her desire to protect him, she seemed to release it.

Though, Mitsuri was giving a match, still it was a matter of time that she loses. She didn’t eat much earlier, and demon didn’t get any heavy damage. All the punches that landed on him weren’t that fatal.

‘I have to do something…’

In this time, the only way to defeat demon lies solely in Kotaro. His hamon is the key. But with his injury…

He didn’t have much hamon to manipulate tree like before, nor do he could completely heal himself. It made him feel the importance of practicing hamon and to master it as fast as possible.

But that is the work for future. For now, he has to think of a way to support Mitsuri. He can’t move, and he doesn’t have anything around him that can be used as a weapon…

Suddenly, Kotaro looked at his own puddle of blood. Since hamon is made because of blood, then wouldn’t blood would be a great conductor for hamon!

It was good that all the blood was yet to seep into the ground. He just channeled hamon on it, making the hamon sparks run amok on it, and then he just lifted it.

A kind of disc made of blood that was gathered into a solid because of hamon. Maybe because it was blood, the hamon was that contained in the blood disc was much stronger even when it was in tree. 

‘This can do…’

He looked at them, the demon using his bone arts making it a kind of difficult for Mitsuri to defend herself. He took a good amount of air, and then shouted a bit loud enough even though his inside vibrated making him to endure a great amount of pain.

“Mitsuri! Step back!”

Even though Mitsuri was a bit shocked, she followed his order and quickly retreated backwards giving off her interference, and that’s when he just threw it aimed at the demon’s head.

<Hamon Breathing – Blood Hamon Cutter>

“Huh? This…!”

The demon who was too obsessed with Mitsuri was a bit taken aback, seeing some kind of disc flying towards him in great speed having some kind of sparks with him.

He couldn’t dodge it, and both of his arms were just cut off by that disc with that familiar pain which he felt from Kotaro’s punch.

“Aaaaaa! It hurts!”

‘Did I miss?’

Kotaro who didn’t seem to be in great condition because of that last ditch effort, was panting very quickly as his sight became blurred. But he was able to confirm that his aim went a bit wrong. After all, he used it for the first time.

It was far better than he expected it. The demon just looked at his disabled arms which weren’t regenerating and were giving off his great pain making him kneel on the ground. 

Mitsuri looked at the opportunity and then quickly punched the demon making him smashed into the tree.

“Gah!”

The demon coughed out blood and fell down and just then Mitsuri who was carrying a big stone buddha statue smashed it on his face, crushing it. 

The demon couldn’t even cry his pain, but still like a cockroach he kept struggling for his life. It was still hours for sun to rise, and it was evident that without any proper killing methods, it would be pretty impossible to kill that demon.

But Mitsuri went back and forth and bought more heavy stones and dropped them at the demon’s legs and hands making him immobilized.

The demon was alive but was defeated. Mitsuri looked at the demon she defeated, and then all her strength that came out seeped out of her body. But then she quickly stood up and ran back to Kotaro.

“Kotaro-san! Kotaro-san!”

Her eyes started to tear up, looking Kotaro was unconscious, but still was taking shallow breaths giving her that he was still in the fight against death.

“I have to save Kotaro-san!”

She was about to pick him up but the sudden sound of cracking caught her attention. She turned back and saw several bone spikes on the statue, breaking it into pieces.

Crack!

“Cough! Damn, you woman! How dare you…!”

The demon looked furious. His hands were amputated with hamon making it hard to regenerate and feel the burning pain. And moreover, the woman who he underestimated almost killed him.

If not for his demon arts, he would be trapped to die when sun comes out in dawn. His arms were missing nonetheless bones were coming out of his body as he looked at Mitsuri with bloodshot eyes.

“Die, woman!”

Mitsuri having the bravery still stood up, though she didn’t have much strength left within her but the will to protect her husband went more ahead than her body fatigue.

The demon rushed towards her will full of his remaining strength, ready to kill her like her husband but then…

“Huh? Fire…”

<Flame Breathing – First Form: Unknowing Fire>

With a stroke of fire, his head was split from his body, and all that demon could see was the fire in the night at the last moment of his death.