"Didn't feel a thing. Can you hit a little harder? Maybe just a little more?"
Duko looked down at Kawanishi, sneering with disdain before swinging a tree-trunk-like leg in a vicious kick.
Kawanishi twisted his body mid-roll, barely avoiding the giant limb.
You wanna kick me? Kawanishi figured he'd return the favor.
He tensed his waist, spine snapping taut as he flipped into a handstand. His lower body arched upward, legs tightening together in a whip-like motion that snapped straight toward Duko's face.
The kick landed square on Duko's nose with a sharp crack—breaking the bridge cleanly and sending his head jerking to the side.
Duko howled in pain, tears welling in his eyes. Clutching his broken nose with one hand, he lunged with the other toward Kawanishi.
Though it would heal quickly, the pain reflex was immediate—tears fell involuntarily. That humiliation only made him angrier.
But in the moment of pain, an idea struck him.
Cutting attacks don't work—but blunt force might… Still, I don't have a solid method yet…
Meanwhile, Kawanishi noticed that Duko's movements had slowed after the blow, confirming his guess that speed wasn't the demon's strong suit.
He darted around Duko's arm and slipped behind him, launching a sharp kick at the back of his knee.
But it felt like kicking a steel beam—his foot throbbed in pain, while Duko remained unmoved.
"Even the back of the knee is that tough?"
Even a trained bodybuilder should buckle from a surprise strike there, but Duko didn't even flinch.
Kawanishi was starting to feel the sting of frustration. He couldn't find a single weak spot to exploit—it was like a mouse trying to bite a turtle.
Duko slowly turned, reaching for Kawanishi again. But Kawanishi leapt up, using Duko's massive hand as a springboard, soaring high above him.
"This guy's full of openings… way too slow…"
With a thought, Kawanishi swung the Heavenward Blade from the right, aiming squarely at Duko's neck.
But all it produced was a harsh clang of metal on metal, sparks flying everywhere. The blade hadn't penetrated in the slightest.
Duko grinned viciously. "Kid, you lack combat experience."
Kawanishi's heart skipped a beat. That same smug grin—it was just like Black Fang's expression before he'd been tricked.
He realized too late: Duko had faked being slower than he really was.
Yes, he was sluggish—but not that sluggish. Kawanishi had let himself get impatient when his attacks failed, and now he was paying the price.
Duko's speed suddenly surged. His enormous jaws opened wide, lunging for Kawanishi's glowing white wing. At the same time, his slower arms sped up just enough to clamp around Kawanishi's lower leg.
With a crunch, he squeezed.
Kawanishi felt no pain in the wing—Scorching Feather wasn't a physical organ—but his leg? His real leg? That pain was searing, every bone grinding to dust in Duko's grip.
Duko bit down on the wing—but quickly pulled back with a wince.
That wing burned.
Enraged, he yanked Kawanishi's leg forward in a brutal arc, preparing to slam him into the ground and stomp him to bits.
But he staggered.
In his hand, only a severed piece of leg remained—dissolving into black-red ash.
He turned—and there stood Kawanishi, just a few meters away, his leg already mostly regenerated.
Kawanishi smirked. "You really are a dumb hunk of metal. Finally caught me, and that's the best you've got? Honestly, you scared me for a second."
"Did your brain rust along with your bones? You're that slow even in the head?"
The taunt wasn't just to provoke—it was to make sure Duko stayed enraged, off-balance.
But truthfully, Kawanishi had been rattled.
If Duko hadn't bitten his wing and gotten distracted, Kawanishi wouldn't have had the moment he needed to cut off his own leg using his left-wing Heavenward Blade.
In fights between demons, things could drag on endlessly—but sometimes, a single slip was enough to decide the outcome.
Kawanishi knew he'd just dodged disaster by pure luck.
Calling Duko a big dumb brute was also a warning to himself. That had been dangerously close.
The fight was open again—but Kawanishi was stuck.
Even with his strongest technique, Heavenward Blade, he couldn't cut through Duko's neck.
What was he supposed to do?
Well, the other demon was out of commission, and all Kawanishi had to do was hold Duko back until sunrise. Once dawn came, Duko would have no choice but to flee. That would give the remaining townspeople a chance to escape.
Maybe… maybe that was good enough.
The thought of retreat crept into his mind.
Duko's body was simply too resilient. Maybe he was slightly weaker to blunt force, but Kawanishi specialized in cutting.
If he had the Black Cleaver in hand, it might be different—but he'd needed it to pin down Royuna.
"If that's how it is, I'll kill the other one first."
"There's just no dealing with this guy right now…"
Duko, meanwhile, had already snapped. Being called a dumb metal brute had pushed him over the edge. He was proud of his build, his steel-hard body—so being mocked as some mindless chunk of metal stung worse than any blade.
"Bastard! I'll rip you to pieces!"
Kawanishi waved lazily. "Come on, come on. Tear me up. Hurry up, will you?"
"Can't you at least come up with a new line?"
Duko exploded with rage, eyes bulging and blood rushing to his head. "You… BASTARD!!"
He stomped down, shattering the ground and sending chunks of stone flying.
Despite his massive size, he surged forward with surprising speed, iron fists crashing down toward Kawanishi again.
But this time, Kawanishi didn't try to dodge in close and counter.
Instead, he made a sharp turn and sprinted toward the burning wall—toward Royuna.
"…What's he doing?"
Duko blinked. He didn't get it.
Royuna wasn't a threat anymore. One demon couldn't kill another—at least not permanently. Only sunlight could finish the job.
To Duko, this was meaningless.
So he stopped. He wanted to see what Kawanishi was up to.
Kawanishi, for his part, was surprised. He thought Duko would try to block him, that finishing off Royuna might take effort.
But instead, Duko just stood there and watched.
If he'd known it would be this easy, he would've just killed the other demon first.
"What a pig of a teammate…"
(End of Chapter)