20 Birth of the Bloodstrider, Part 3

The inferno roared furiously like a mighty lion. Flames licked up meters into the air as Lilith jumped back, stunned at everything that had transpired in what seemed like seconds.

Suzu had been their enemy; antagonized them at every point since they first met. But now, she was dead. Lilith's pupils shrunk at the revelation. She had killed a living person. It was out of self-defense, but this was much different than luskrats.

Fighting the urge to vomit, Lilith pushed the thoughts aside into the back of her brain for the time being. Right now, Mura was still poisoned and possibly on the verge of dying. She would have to venture through the blazing flames to get to Suzu's corpse, searching her for the antidote. Steeling herself, Lilith clenched her fists and raced to find a way to pass the fiery barricade.

❇ ❇ ❇

Tel Megiddo, Castle Town — Five minutes earlier. Mura watched paralyzed from the poison as Behemoth loomed over him. Cackling like a maniac, Behemoth began to transform into his Primal Release form. Suzu had fled with the antidote while Lilith gave chase.

—I can't lose! Not again!

Blood flew from Mura's mouth as he screamed in pain. Behemoth pinned Mura with his massive foot, which by itself must have weighed one-hundred kilograms.

"So long, you annoying little insect." Behemoth growled, his voice contorted from his demonic form.

—Come… on… I have to tap into that power from the tournament! Just like Naraka taught me… on the verge like this… I need to find a way!

Mura closed his eyes as the pain faded away, along with the sounds of Behemoth's taunts and the fire crackling.

When Mura opened his eyes, he was in a familiar setting he recognized. A white space, devoid of dimension or reality. In the center was the figure he had seen during his coma. It was now sitting on a crimson throne, carved from a translucent, sickly material.

"What do you ask of me…?" The figure spoke, as smog escaped from its beautiful black lips.

"I ask… For the power to win! I want to kill this man, who has tormented and ruined the lives of countless others!" Mura said, bowing before the figure on his hands and knees.

"Give me this power and I'll… I'll be in your debt."

The figure smirked, lifting its chin from its fist and standing up.

"Very well… I shall grant you this power you seek. But know this…"

The demon walked down from its throne and lifted Mura's chin up with its finger, forcing him to gaze into its eyeless face.

"One needn't ask for a favor from oneself…"

Mura's eyes snapped open as he awoke in reality once again. Behemoth raised foot to crush him, a wicked smile plastered to his face. Mura felt an unearthly power course through his veins. More power than he had ever felt when fused with Lilith.

Pebbles began to slowly levitate from the earth where Mura lay; all while a black aura enshrouded his body. As Behemoth's massive foot began its decent towards its target, Mura touched the dirt beneath him.

In an instant that stunned everyone watching, from Behemoth to the audience in Tel Megiddo, Mura disappeared from sight.

Behemoth's foot slammed into a gloppy puddle of mud and dirt, becoming submerged in the glue-like substance.

"What the hell?! Where'd the bastard go??" Behemoth bellowed in confusion.

The audience watching from the doorway murmured in confusion. Kishin leaned forward slightly, a look of shock plastered on his pale face.

"Holy shit! Mura's doin' that thing again, ain't he?!" Kishin screamed out in joy.

Nergal folded his arms as the corners of his thin lips curled upwards ever so slightly.

"The boy's Tamashiryoku has sky-rocketed. You can feel it, can't you?"

Kishin slapped the side of his own head, trying to tell if something was different. He could feel an immense pressure building in his ears, like when taking off in an airplane.

"Still doesn't explain how he disappeared like that! I thought the kid didn't even have a Tamashi Genkai?!" Grendel piped up, scratching the skin underneath his beige-brown headband.

"Mura could have acquired it recently for all we know? He has been training with Lord Naraka, after all," Lamia spoke, her hand resting over her bosom. "I would love to discover what it could possibly be~"

Behemoth had finally managed to release his foot from the muck, shaking loose wet mud from his massive toes and ankle.

"Damn you, Mura! Where the hell are you hiding, coward—" Behemoth yelled out, being cut off as he went flying unexpectedly across the battlefield into a cluster of trees and flowers.

The impact of Behemoth's towering frame deracinated anything in its path. Trees exploded into splinters and fractured bark, sending debris and leaves flying to add more wood for the burning pyre surrounding them. Behemoth struggled to his feet, standing up in the crater he had created.

In front of him was Mura. Despite being the same man Behemoth recognized, he also seemed different. Mura was surrounded in a black haze as pebbles and rocks levitated around his feet. His clothes were caked in dried dirt as Mura's eyes rolled back into his head, exposing sclera the color of a violet plum.

"What the hell are you doing just standing there for?! I ain't afraid of you, Mura! That ace of yours almost got me last time, but I'm prepared for it now! That most you can do is make folks puke, hahaha!" Behemoth shouted from across the blazing courtyard.

"...….."

Mura said nothing. His reaction didn't change, his face didn't shift. His mind was gone; this was someone or something else.

Behemoth swallowed and swiped the sweat from his spider-like head. He wasn't perspiring from the heat of the flames around them, but from the abstract fear of what his opponent had become.

"Fine, gonna say nothing?? I'll just let our attacks do the talking!"

Behemoth rushed forth in a stampeding charge towards his abandoned weapon, the claymore he had been brandishing earlier. Mura stood in place, unmoved as Behemoth swept his hand across the field; grabbing the sword by the handle and skidding to a stop.

With a bellowing laugh, Behemoth raised the colossal sword over his head and swung it down like a mad executioner. Mura, looking off at nothing, raised his arm up in the air at blinding speed. Despite not seeing the blade to his left, his bare hand was open; exposing it to the falling hunk of iron poised to kill him on the spot.

Everyone that could see, including Behemoth, gasped in shock. Mura had stopped the sword in his hand, gripping it tightly. The force from the swing had made a small crater underneath Mura's feet; left from the impact pushing him down into the earth.

Blood poured from his palm and onto the dirt below like a crimson waterfall.

"Is he freakin' insane?! If that blade had been sharpened, his hand would have been taken clean off!" Grendel yelled out.

Behemoth blinked rapidly in shock. This wasn't normal, nothing about this fight was anymore.

"F-Freak… W-What the hell are you?!" Behemoth screamed, not too far from Mura's position.

In that instance, the fight was interrupted by a figure bursting from the curtain of flames in the distance. The girl descended from her jump, somersaulting once she hit the ground and expertly recovering in a standing position. It was Lilith, clasping a small vial in her small fingers.

Her eyes were already widened to begin with, but they grew as big as saucers once she saw Mura standing up. She began shaking, realizing this was the same power that had put him in the hospital.

"Mura! I got the antidote!"

Behemoth looked past his foe and the wreckage out towards Lilith. They all heard her words, still audible over the roaring fires.

"You got the antidote? Well shit… Guess that means Suzu's dead," Behemoth said bluntly.

Lilith rushed towards Mura, sprinting over smoldering branches and upturned rubble. As she rushed forwards, Nergal teleported out of the crowd and battlefield entirely. Onlookers from the streets nearby had gathered from the loud noises and growing fire.

Some had already called the fire department and police to come. Nergal appeared before the bystanders, directing them to safety and explaining a duel was taking place.

Lilith meanwhile had reached Mura, who was still grasping the massive blade. She uncorked the top of the vial and presented it to him.

"Mura, come on! You gotta drink it!" Lilith cried out.

"...…"

"Wake up! P-Please! You aren't safe like this, please wake up!" She shouted as Mura ignored her, refusing to even look her way.

Lilith struggled, prying his lips open to force the liquid inside. She managed to get some of the orange-colored antidote inside his mouth, where his bodily instincts forced him to swallow.

Behemoth had enough of these games, recovering from the shock. He glared at the two before attempting to lift his sword from Mura's hand. That was an incredibly deadly mistake.

Mura tensed his muscles as the black aura around him grew in volume. The glass from the vial Lilith's held against Mura's lips transformed into a translucent liquid; falling from his lips and down his chin in small beads. Lilith recoiled, dropping the partially melted vial.

That's when she heard Behemoth scream and the crowd from far away gasp. Looking up, Lilith saw the iron sword still in Mura's grasp. Half of the sword, to be precise.

Half of the blade portion was held perfectly in place by Mura's bleeding hand. The other half, also containing the hilt of the claymore, was fused with Behemoth's entire hand. She blinked in astonishment.

The iron metal was cool, still the same color of dull grey it had always been. However now, Behemoth's hand up to his wrist was obscured by a misshapen lump of metal. It was as if his hand was dipped into molten steel, then allowed to cool and harden.

The remaining half of the blade jutted out awkwardly from the metal lump as well, now resembling a thick melted rod attached to a deformed orb.

"W-What the hell did you do to me?!" Behemoth yelled in confusion, trying desperately to free his immobilized hand using his free one.

Lilith took a step back as more pebbles began to levitate around her afflicted friend. Even from a meter away, Lilith could see the blade Mura was holding momentarily shift form. One moment it was a dull, cracked piece of iron once resembling the half of a sword. The next moment it was different, albeit subtly.

The blade's cracks had disappeared and the dulled edge of the blade from before was now narrow and sharp. What was once the point of the sword that Mura was clutching had transformed into an entirely metal handle.

Mura, grasping his newly rendered weapon in one hand, slashed through the air in front of Behemoth.

Behemoth's arachnid eyes widened before the steel plates protecting his stomach cracked and shattered. A spray of blood burst from where the cracked plates once were.

"H-How is this possible?! Y-You're just a runt, an insect! Mura!!"

Lilith instinctively dodged out of the way using a combat roll, anticipating Behemoth was going to lunge at them. Her intuition proved correct.

Behemoth propelled himself forward, ignoring the burning pain in his gut as he swung his iron-covered fist at Mura. Mura sank into the ground in front of Behemoth's eyes, only leaving behind another muddy sinkhole.

Lilith could see everything unfold in front of her as Behemoth was helpless to the events about to play out. She saw Mura sink into the ground as if he was a ghost simply phasing through the earth. Suddenly, she felt a tremor under her feet as followed by this, Mura rose from the ground behind Behemoth with his sword in hand.

His shape was drenched in mud with the consistency of glue. In a split second, the mud hardened into dried clay that broke off his form into shards the moment he moved.

Mura slashed his sword at Behemoth's hair-covered legs, causing them to buckle and spray bright-red blood across the ground.

Behemoth screamed in pain, sounding like a wounded animal more than a man. He collapsed to his knees, causing the earth the shake slightly from the weight.

Mura stabbed his sword into the back of his foe's right shoulder blade, shattering the spines protruding from it. As he continued to howl, Mura wordlessly hopped atop Behemoth's back; scaling the beast while Behemoth tried desperately to reach behind him to remove the blade and his opponent.

Mura quickly reached where his sword was embedded in Behemoth's flesh and reaching over, grabbed ahold of the demon's steel-covered hand that had been flailing around. Upon touching the metal handle of his sword and the metal from Behemoth's hand, the two alloys liquefied before everyone's eyes and instantly fused back together into a solid state.

Behemoth's arm was now stuck over his shoulder, fused to the weapon protruding from it. It was at this point Lilith finally understood the power that had been mystifying everyone. Mura had accessed his Tamashi Genkai, with this newfound ability having the power to control the various states of matter.

"Goddamnit! Let me… go, Mura!" Behemoth roared furiously as blood poured from his various wounds.

Mura simply hopped off Behemoth's back and sauntered over in front of his beaten rival. There was an unchanged expression as Mura stood in front of Behemoth, then slowly crouched in front of his stomach.

Mura trailed his finger along the blood that poured from Behemoth's abdomen, causing the sanguine liquid to levitate in the air in the form of shifting red orbs.

"L-Listen, Mura! Stop this, okay?? I… I surrender, okay?! I surrender! Just take me to jail, alright?!" Behemoth begged as Mura toyed with the spheres of floating fluid in front of him. Mura clapped his hands together, causing the several orbs to form one single large ball of blood.

"Looks like this fight is over," Nergal uttered, looking along with the crowd of civilians.

Mura touched the red globe with his fingers, causing to his shift shape and solidify into a long spear. Lilith covered her hands with her mouth, then looked away. Behemoth's humanoid jaw trembled as he saw the same mercy he showed his victims throughout countless centuries, finally being returned in full.

"Mura! P-Please I don't want to..... to.... "

Behemoth's mouth continued to move inaudibly; his brain trying to process speaking as the spear of his own blood punctured the Jikininki's skull.

"…D….Dieeeeeuuggghhh…" Behemoth slurred as he collapsed to the ground in a contorted mass. The earth bellowed from the mighty collapse of Behemoth's lifeless body.

Shortly after, the umbral aura surrounding Mura dissipated. Once it had vanished, Mura collapsed to the ground like a ragdoll. Lilith rushed over to her friend's side, pressing her fingers to his neck. He still had a pulse and was breathing.

"Fate has written this victory in blood, it would seem," Nergal said, a smile stretched across his mask of a face.

Kishin crouched down, then jumped into the air.

"Woohoooo!! Long live Bloodstrider Mura, Tenth of the Jikininki!"