"Blip Blip"

Droplets of blood were dripping and jumping down to get flattened on the ground.

"Ugh, shit." Kiyomasa grunts as he barely manages to prevent the claws of the beast from getting further deep into his body.

"Aaaarghhh."
Seijūrō and Takeshi yell in a fit of rage as they see the beast's claws in Kiyomasa's body. Takeshi goes for the beast's arm, and Seijūrō goes for the head.

But another surprise was waiting for the trio.

*****

The moon shone brightly in the night sky, a round jewel flaunting its ethereal glow upon the forest. And, in stark contrast, an ominous ball of red and black materialized at the beast's mouth, aiming right at Takeshi.

Seijūrō wasn't able to process what had just happened. He got furious, moved forward, and swung his sword in the direction to cut the beast's head, and it was as if time had slowed down. Seijūrō was able to see the ball form very quickly, but he realised he was still doing the action of swinging.

'A case of the mind being able to view things faster than the body? Or was it something the beast did?' Kiyomasa and Seijūro both thought the same thing at the same time. But they suddenly realised that it posed more danger to Takeshi, who was right in range for the attack, and to themselves.

Kiyomasa suddenly pushed Takeshi onto the right side. The ball of fire was suddenly released, narrowly missing Takeshi for a major hit, but it grazed his left shoulder, resulting in his haori catching fire.

The fire hit the ground, causing a major shockwave on impact and causing everyone to fall to the ground. The attack formed a small crater on the ground.

"What the hell? Didn't this thing used to take some time to charge up its attack? Now, is it doing it without any build-up? No fair!" Seijūrō exclaimed as he sat up straight after the impact.

"Aaargh. Just be grateful, you didn't get hit by that fire, Seijūrō.

Thanks, Kiyomasa, for saving my ass-" Takeshi stopped mid-way as he turned to see Kiyomasa lying on the ground, with his sword on the ground. The end of his haori was on fire, but more importantly...

"DAMN IT...
KIYOMASAA!!!" Takeshi yelled out as he suddenly jumped out to stand and ran towards Kiyomasa.

He then swatted the fire fiercely to put it out, and he saw the consequence of what it means to put your life on the line.

Kiyomasa's hand was burned to the point where it turned black in color. Takeshi bent down to wake him up. Kiyomasa had passed out for a brief moment from the sudden pain that was inflicted on him.

Compared to the slight shoulder burn he got, this must've been way too painful for him to bear.

"OI KIYOMASA!" Seijūrō too rushed in to see how Kiyomasa was. Takeshi then patted on his cheeks, trying to wake him up.

After some time, Kiyomasa came to, and woke up making a distorted face because of all the pain he felt rushing in.

"Ahh crap." Kiyomasa looked at his right hand to see it in terrible condition.

"Kiyomasa, I'm really sorry... You tried to save me, and this happened to you." Takeshi's face was filled with regret and sadness as he said this.

"It's fine, Takeshi, this kind of stuff happens, nothing we can do about it. Never mind this, where's the beast?" Kiyomasa asked in concern.

"Damn it, that bastard shot that right out of the blue. Didn't it need to take some time to charge up his attack?" Seijūrō asked.

"I'm guessing that the condition for charging up went away after it transformed." Takeshi responded, looking at the beast and trying to get up.

"Yes, it would appear so, come on, we have to regroup quickly and take it down." Kiyomasa spoke as he got up with the help of Seijūrō and Takeshi.

He dusted himself off using his left and took his sword from the ground. He then tried to clench his hands slowly before trying to wield the sword in his hand.

"AARGHH, that hurts like hell." Kiyomasa yelled out.

"Are you sure you want to continue fighting? The both of us can try stalling it while you retreat to the village." Takeshi asked him, looking at his hands.

"No, I'm good to go, and we don't have time to retreat, this is bad enough as it is. We have to see this through." Kiyomasa responded.

"Umm, also, not to mention, we were getting our asses kicked with all three of us, and if 
we're cut short, we'll be its late-night snack if anything." Seijūrō commented.

"Ugh, hahh, yeah, that too... If we come out of this alive... we're never gonna hear the end of it from Aiko-san haha." Kiyomasa smiled as he forced his way through the pain he was feeling.

"Hahh, haha.. That is true." Both of them replied in unison.

The beast got back up on its feet. It was analyzing its enemies and trying to find the easiest way to eliminate its prey.

"Alright, it's back, get ready.

Also,. try to keep moving around as much as possible. If we stand still, we're basically giving it an opportunity to attack us. So don't stay at the same spot for more time than we need to.

Also, don't try to block it with the sword, we don't know if our sword's can block an attack of this level without breaking,, and we don't have the time or opportunity to try testing it out." Kiyomasa spoke as he signalledd Takeshi and Seijūrō to move across the clearing and give themselves room.

The trio charged at the beast, a flurry of attacks followed, a fierce exchange of blades and attacks, sparks flying.

The beast would often go for a mid-section attack on them. Takeshi, who was using his new footwork and using his disability to its maximum, bended his legs, ducking it really well.

The beast threw one of the spikes from its back at the other two and went for Takeshi, who was now in that weird position. It went for a sweep attack with its legs, but Takeshi was able to predict it in a matter of seconds and put his hands on the sides of his head, to push his legs and body up, thereby dodging the attack.

In the air now, Takeshi aimed for the beast, which was retreating from its sweeping position, and tried to thrust his sword into his head. The beast quickly put his hands up to block the attack, and the sword pierced through the hand.

The beast let out a scream of pain before holding the pierced sword and tried to throw Takeshi to the ground. Takeshi landed on his hands and bounced back to land on his legs, and the other two followed up, running from either side to attack the beast.

Kiyomasa and Seijūrō attacked it, which was blocked by the beast using both of its hands. The beast tried to throw Seijūrō off, like it did with Takeshi. But as soon as the beast got hold of it, Seijūrō jumped and kicked the beast's abdomen to rattle it and break its form.

Kiyomasa pulled out Takeshi's sword in the meantime and threw it to Takeshi, who was charging in to follow up with Seijūrō's attack. His plan was to continue forward and give the beast one more kick to the abdomen, but now that he got his sword back, he decided to go for the stab.

Takeshi used his footwork to charge in and go for the strike. He slashed his sword from the left bottom side of the beast and followed through with it diagonally. It wasn't deep enough, so it just merely grazed its skin.

Not giving it time to react quick enough, Seijūrō and Kiyomasa rushed in and attacked. But still, it wasn't anything the beast couldn't handle.

The beast blocked the sword with its claws, and just in the nick of time, it fired off another one of its blast attacks which they ducked perfectly, and the attack went straight up to the sky, burning up the few branches that stood in its way.

Seeing this as an opportunity, Takeshi ran and jumped in to go for the finishing blow, aiming for its heart. The beast pushed off the other two and tried to block Takeshi's attack, but he changed the direction slightly, making the sword pierce through its hand and straight into its chest.

Blood started to spurt out, dying Takeshi's haori in a dark blue hue.

"Yes, one critical hit, finally..." Seijūrō exclaimed.
"Did we really get him? Takeshi?" Kiyomasa asked him, preparing himself to rush in, just in case.

"Huff, Huff, nope...

I had to change the direction of the attack slightly, so there's a chance I might have missed..." Takeshi responded, with him still being on top of the beast and his sword still in the beast's chest.

"GRAWRRR!!!" The beast let out another growl, writhing in pain.

"Ugh.. Just shut up, will you?" Seijūrō screamed back at the beast.

Kiyomasa rushed in and tried to kick the beast down by aiming for its legs, which he succeeded in doing. The beast fell to the ground, along with Takeshi. Takeshi quickly got up and tried to pull his sword out.

The beast suddenly started to fire off its blasts continuously. Only this time, it was smaller but contained enough power to scorch anything in its path. Takeshi dodged most of the blast attacks, but a couple of attacks managed to graze him, causing burns on his shoulder. He managed to do so with great difficulty, as he was focused on pulling his sword out.
He finally pulled it out, falling to the ground as a result of the recoil.

"You good, Takeshi? Did you get hit?" Kiyomasa asked him, concerned.

"No, I'm good.

But we can't afford to relax yet. I may have landed a good hit, but it's far from over." Takeshi replied.

"Why do you think so?" Seijūrō asked.

"Well, I'm not sure, but I sensed a strange ki when I was in contact with it. I don't think it has used its full power yet."

"You are kidding, right?
We have been fighting it non-stop for quite some time, we have sustained some serious injuries, and you are telling me it still hasn't shown its true power?" Seijūrō was frustrated upon hearing Takeshi and kept on looking at the beast as it got up.

"Every time we manage to land an attack and push it down, it keeps coming back up." Kiyomasa spoke.

"Maybe, we need to make one last push to finish it." Takeshi said, patting Seijūrō.

'Although, I don't think it's gonna be easy.' Takeshi thought to himself.
The trio charged at the beast again, fighting toe-to-toe against it. Takeshi and Kiyomasa both used their trump cards to try to give them an opening and seal the kill, but it was unsuccessful.
The beast started to focus its attacks on Seijūrō now. It had reached the conclusion based on its fight so far that, out of the three, he was the easiest target to finish off. While parrying and blocking off Takeshi and Kiyomasa, the beast focused its blasts and spike attacks at Seijūrō.
Barely blocking and dodging it, Seijūrō jumped back in response before rushing forward to attack the beast, but was thwarted in his attempt. It continued to focus its attack on Seijūrō.

"Hahh, you bastard… You tryna pick a fight me with specifically, eh? Do you think I'm the weakest amongst us?" Seijūrō screamed before going for a sudden rush, which resulted in a continuous exchange of blows pushing the beast backwards.

"Hehh…" Seijūrō continued his barrage of attacks before the beast caught his sword and parried it away. As his stance broke, he gave away an opening in which the beast punched him right in the abdomen.

The force was enough to damage him greatly, and it even tore off his clothes at the point of contact, and even his back. The residual force was strong enough to be felt by the two who were right behind him.

"Koff…" Seijūrō coughed a mixture of blood and saliva, and his face was contorted from the pain.

"Seijūrō!!!" Kiyomasa and Takeshi rushed in to see how much damage he had taken. Seijūrō had lost consciousness due to the sudden, powerful strike. While he hadn't taken serious physical injuries like Kiyomasa and Takeshi, he had expended quite a lot of mana and had taken the impacts of several blasts, which caused his body to ache.

But he never showed it, as a Minamoto, he was too proud to show that he was feeling pain in the face of battle, as it was considered a weakness in his clan.

"Damn it, he's knocked out...
What do we do now?"

With Seijūrō completely knocked out, all that remained were two injured samurai. Kiyomasa, with a cut in his abdomen and a burned right hand, and Takeshi, with multiple burn wounds on his face, shoulders,, and forearm. With the way things are and with no sign of the beast backing down, what do they do next? What is their plan of action? Will they survive?


Be-beng...


To be continued...