NOVEL NEXT Chapter 41: Chapter 41
A large, bus-sized transfigured human rushed towards Isamu on four legs like a charging rhinoceros. He dodged to the side, cutting along its length as they ran in opposite directions.
Isamu splashed the blood running across his blade towards the origin of the transfigured human as he approached, blinding it temporarily. He threw his blade into the curses left foot before punching him square in the face, breaking its nose and fracturing its skull but came short of caving it in completely like he had before.
Speed and strength weren't the only things it was improving it seemed, not that the curse was the only one doing so. The curse was unable to transfigure its body. No, it was still possible, just way, way harder. Like trying to do a push-up with two people sitting on your back. You could do it with enough strength but it was far from easy.
The curse transfigured its own face into mini spikes which stabbed into Isamu's hand. At the same time his arms transformed into blades, duller and less refined than usual but still deadly. As both arms swung inward toward Isamu, he kicked his sword up from its position in the curse's left foot. Once the sword was right between the curse and Isamu, he activated the technique within and froze the air surrounding the curse.
He pulled back his right hand, healing the small, inch-deep stab wounds, and with a simple punch from his other hand, he shattered the curse's head like a pane of glass, Domain Amplification doing its best to prevent the curse from reshaping itself. As the curse's body fell, its leg shot up, seemingly protected from the technique more than the rest of the curse's body, and transformed into a spear, stabbing into Isamu's unsuspecting leg.
Isamu hissed in pain as he was forced back a bit, giving the curse time to heal. If Domain Amplification had been more refined, the fight would've ended there. But no, he'd have to try again.
As Isamu healed his injured leg with ease, slowly putting more weight on it as he did, he thought of how to refine Domain Amplification. The best solution would be to land a black flash. Isamu wasn't even gonna consider it. If it happened, great. If it didn't, oh well.
From what Isamu could feel, it was like being surrounded by flowing water. It flowed freely yet perfectly. The surface had to be absolutely tranquil. It had to flow at just the right speed. The depth of the water needed to be very precise, as did its temperature. Using this analogy, it should be clear how tough it was to get the technique down.
If even the smallest rock fell into the pond and disrupted the water, the technique would fall apart and he'd have to try again. If he messed up the amount of cursed energy he needed and raised the water's temperature too much, the technique wouldn't form right and would be better in some places and worse in others.
That was another thing. Some mess-ups were worse than others. Some resulted in complete failure while others just made the technique a bit worse or harder to use effectively. So Isamu figured he could find which mistakes weren't so bad and focus less on those, settling for a worse technique for the time being.
There were two pitfalls to this. One, Isamu didn't really have time to test it all out. If he took his time, he'd end up dead before anything of substance came about. Two, a subpar technique likely wouldn't work as even if its technique was severely weakened, it was still able to keep itself alive after its head was crushed.
Oh, and there was one more pitfall. Not a real one as it wouldn't be a problem for anyone else. Isamu refused to settle for less. If it wasn't the best it could be, he didn't want it. He wouldn't settle for a suboptimal performance under any circumstances.
Isamu straightened, flexing his hands as he got into his homemade fighting stance, his shoulders relaxed yet ready to spring into action at any moment. A faint white glow surrounded his body as his purple eyes intensified significantly.
"Focus," Isamu said. Not to the curse, but to himself. Extending his technique from outward commands to inward commands. His mind steeled itself as Isamu entered a calm and tranquil state of mind. Not nearly on the same level as the flow state brought about by black flash, however. Even still, it would be useful, useful enough to make the constant energy drain of the technique worth it, hopefully.
A humming could be felt in the ambient cursed energy of the subway station hallway. Everything seemed to intensify as Isamu readied himself. Something deep within his gut stirred as well. He didn't know what it was exactly but he knew it wanted what he did. The destruction of the curse and the mastery of another aspect of jujutsu sorcery.
——
Beads of sweat rolled down Mahito's face as he transfigured his right hand into many serrated whips, lashing out at the sorcerer as he approached him. They were all ducked, weaved, or even jumped over before Mahito was hit square in the face and blasted back.
He slammed into a pillar not even ten feet away, pulling two transfigured humans from his pocket, combing them before they both blasted out towards his left flank, the entire sequence happening in a split second.
Mahito had guessed wrong however, the sorcerer appeared to his right, punching Mahito on the very edge of his chin, sending vibrations through his head and, surprisingly, his soul.
The throne of the soul was the head, the brain more importantly. This was why curses only died if you crushed their head. So for his brain to be shaken and battered against the walls of his own cursed skull gave him a headache beyond headaches.
To a normal person, such a thing wouldn't happen. But Mahito was very in tune with his own soul, making the throne of his soul much more important to his existence. Naturally, this made it quite the weakness if someone knew how the exploit it. Unfortunately for Mahito, it seemed this sorcerer knew how.
As it was, it was painful, annoying, and disruptive but nothing overly deadly. But that was simply because the sorcerer's fists couldn't negate Mahito's technique quite yet, but as soon as they could and the opening created by the shaking of his throne could be capitalized on?
Mahito transfigured the entire right side of his body into a wall of spikes, forcing the sorcerer as Mahito puked up a large number of transfigured humans.
Said humans had begun to lose their effect as individual combatants. Mahito's technique was the only thing keeping them alive so if that connection was lost for even a second, they were dead. Meaning a single tap from the sorcerer negated them instantly.
As such, Mahito was relegated to quick bursts of damage. Transforming them into massive trains of flesh to smash into the sorcerer or balls of spikes to pierce his body.
Mahito balled up his fists as he combined more than twenty transfigured humans into one before they all exploded outwards in five massive pillars of blunt force incarnate.
——
The area of effect was wide to the point of being undodgeable in a small space like the subway station halls. Isamu could only brace himself as he put even more cursed energy into his body's durability.
As he was smashed through the bedrock of Shibuya, the metal rebar, and the concrete of the street above until he finally reached the surface for a much-deserved breath of fresh air, he smiled to himself. What an idiot, didn't he realize a wider arena only helped Isamu?
Isamu jumped from the transfigured humans, crashing through a window on the third floor of a building before doing the same at the others end of the glass tower. He landed with a roll before running off, making sure to keep some distance from the curse.
He smiled to himself, glad for the stage change. In a small train station like that, he'd been too restricting for this kind of strategy but now that they were in a huge city?
Inumaki's were sneaky, many had to be. Isamu needed to land hits before backing off so he could alter whatever mistakes he'd made in domain amplification. Plus, it made it easier for allies to find him.
——
Two large revelations overcame Nanami within a matter of seconds. First, Megumi yelled for help, Yuji, Nanami, and Naobito all hearing his cry from a few blocks away. After the wall of steam burned Naobito quite badly, they'd all decided to get treatment before returning to the battlefield. But they couldn't just leave Megumi alone, especially if he was in enough trouble to warrant the crying out considering how prideful he tended to be.
But at the same time, the patch-faced cursed spirit crashed out of the ground right in the middle of Shibuya, Isamu squarely in its crosshairs. Both needed help but only Nanami was in good enough condition to do anything. With those thoughts in mind, he made a split-second decision.
"I'll help Megumi and send him your way before going to Isamu's location. You two, go to Shoko for treatment before meeting back with me. Yuji, you're our best chance at saving Isamu so hurry back." Nanami said, no, commanded in a no-nonsense tone. Without waiting for a response he rushed off, leaving Naobito and Yuji to make their way a few blocks to Shoko.
After only a minute or two of running towards the direction of Megumi's call, Nanami heard the clashing of blades. Only slowing a bit to take in the scene, Nanami jumped towards Megumi's would-be attacker and struck without hesitation or mercy, knowing full well how valuable every second was.
He was facing a skinny blond with a ponytail. Megumi was clearly tired and drained while Toge lay passed out nearby. Nanami sprinted in from the side, his cleaver wrapped in his tight grip as he swung towards the blond's midsection, crushing rips and rupturing organs.
The blow felt odd, however. Nanami's cleaver was pushed back as the bones seemed to un-break themselves. The man had six purple marks under his eyes, one of which quickly disappeared as it happened. 'A survival-based cursed technique?' Nanami questioned as he continued his assault.
Nanami's left hand lashed out, punching the boy in the side of his right knee, breaking it completely and sending him to the ground as another mark disappeared and the leg healed. Still, Nanami wouldn't let up.
Rising his cleaver above his head, he smashed it into the man's face as Nanami towered over him, the barely muscular boy still too disoriented and confused by the quick change in momentum to even think of mounting an offensive.
Another mark disappeared as Nanami gripped his weapon in a second hand and cleaved through the air once more, removing another mark before repeating the process. After three more heavy blows, all six marks were gone and the man tried to speak.
"W-wai-" Without delay, Nanami split his head clean open down the middle of his skull, revealing his grey matter to the night sky above as Nanami's dress shirt was covered in blood. Nanami began to speak, barely giving Megumi enough time to digest what just happened.
"Megumi, Isamu is in trouble and I need to head his way, bring Toge to Shoko, and stay there." Again, without a moment of hesitation, Nanami rushed off towards the large dust cloud formed by the large-scale destruction of the fight. The fight between a special grade cursed spirit, one Nanami held no confidence in beating even with a massive amount of help from other grade ones, and the sorcerer who was in no way inferior. He just hoped he wouldn't get in Isamu's way.