Chapter 24: The Hunt and the Head
In the air above the frantic chase, two figures flew side-by-side. Onigarasu, the ghost crow, cast a sideways glance at the winged Tenmu keeping pace beside him. A petty annoyance gnawed at it. Before, I was the only one who could fly. Now this one has wings bigger than mine… and more of them. A flicker of jealousy was quickly buried under competitive spirit.
"Hey. You're here for the Ghost King's reward too?" The crow's voice was probing. Tenmu seemed so… placid. It was irritating. A demon should have drive, ambition!
"The Ghost King commanded my participation. Thus, I am here." Tenmu's reply was characteristically brief, his gaze fixed forward, not deigning to look at the crow.
Huh. Is that it? The ghost crow felt a strange twinge. This guy's obedience seemed almost… purer. But he had no Blood Demon Art. He wasn't a major threat. With Momiji out, the real competition was that woman, Kagemi.
It glanced down at the Mirror Shadow, a crimson blur leaping with impossible grace through the forest canopy below. If she traps you in that dark little pocket of hers, it's over. This game favored her. It possessed no spatial abilities. Its strength was roughly equal to hers. It couldn't break out of her layered space quickly. That would give her ample time to secure Dry Arrow's head and deliver it.
Of course, Kagemi's spatial transfer had a limited radius. The exact range was unknown—they hadn't clashed yet. Its advantage lay in numbers and harassment. It could use its clones to probe, to test her limits.
Formulating its strategy, the ghost crow suddenly folded its wings and dove, its speed quadrupling. It left Tenmu behind in an instant, closing the gap with the desperately fleeing Dry Arrow.
Tenmu blinked, surprised. So that was its true speed. In a direct race, he'd be left in the dust. His weight and bulk, even with four wings, limited his aerial agility.
Two more competitors followed on the ground. Winning seemed… difficult. But perhaps simply participating was enough to fulfill the Ghost King's command? He wasn't particularly driven by the reward. In fact, he envied Momiji's apparent ability to simply… opt out. And the Ghost King had allowed it. Was the master truly so lenient? Or was there another dynamic at play?
While waiting for Dry Arrow earlier, he, Kagemi, and Mushiji had each exchanged a few probing blows with Momiji. Except for Kagemi's evasive tactics, he and Mushiji had been thoroughly overwhelmed. Momiji attacked without preamble, and the Ghost King had merely observed. Could one simply… not fight back? Momiji's thorn-based Blood Demon Art was brutally effective against those without arts of their own. And he seemed to have near-limitless stamina. A true battle maniac. Yet he'd abstained from this hunt. Tenmu realized he didn't understand Momiji at all.
While Tenmu pondered the art of minimal participation, the two earthbound demons were having a terser conversation.
"What say we cooperate?" Kagemi proposed, her voice cutting through the rush of wind as she bounded alongside the insectoid form of Mushiji. "Take out that chatty crow first. Then we settle things fairly."
She'd already assessed the crow as her primary obstacle. Its true nature was always hidden behind its clones.
"Unlikely." Mushiji's chitinous face was unreadable. Though he could fly low, he kept to the ground. "Without the crow, I doubt Tenmu and I could contain you." Approaching her meant risking immediate banishment to her layered space.
"Tch. As if you could keep up with it anyway." Kagemi scoffed. "Between you and Tenmu's flying speed, you'd be eating its wake."
Mushiji fell silent. Both options were poor for him and Tenmu. The key was Tenmu's unknown stance. If possible, he'd prefer an alliance between the two artless demons. At least then they'd have a sliver of hope.
CAAW!
A sharp, triumphant cry from ahead snapped their focus forward. Both demons poured on speed.
From his aerial vantage, Tenmu saw it clearly. A swarm of crow clones had finally caught and surrounded Dry Arrow. Despite his head start, his lumbering pace had doomed him. The clones harried him, pecking and slashing. While torturous, actually removing his heavily fortified head would take time.
Dry Arrow, in a panic, spat acid and flailed, but his attacks were too slow for the agile clones. Resigned, he simply covered his head with his four arms and tried to bull onward. The absorbing maw on his stomach was useless against physical attacks. A bitter realization struck him: of all the demons chasing him, not one relied on elemental assaults! His newly comprehended Blood Demon Art, which required absorbing such energy to activate, was completely worthless here. He was cornered.
"My, you're struggling. Let me help."
Kagemi's voice was suddenly beside him. A flash of silver—the ninja blade she'd appropriated—cut through the air. In one fluid motion, Dry Arrow's head, along with several of the closest crow clones, was cleanly severed.
She flicked the blood from her blade, sheathed it, and made no move to grab the tumbling head. It was a move of pure chaos, not conquest.
The ghost crow reacted instantly. One surviving clone swooped, its talons closing around the falling head. It beat its wings, straining to gain altitude with the heavy prize.
It flew straight into Tenmu, who had positioned himself strategically in the air.
Their eyes met. Without a word, Tenmu struck, his pale hand a blur. He wrested the head from the clone's grasp.
Though the ghost crow and its clones were fast, the sheer weight of Dry Arrow's head hampered the duplicate's agility. Tenmu's first, simple grab was nearly successful.
Now, he held the grisly trophy. The immediate problem was solved.
A new, more complex problem immediately presented itself: getting it back to the Ghost King through a sky now dominated by a furious crow and a forest holding two other ambitious hunters.
The game had entered its final, most volatile phase.
(End of Chapter)
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