Push

'Breath of the Insect, Dance of the Centipede: Hundred-Legged Zigzag'

*BOOM*

The wooden platform Shinobu stood on broke in different places, as she uses her full speed to run in a zigzag pattern, confusing Douma as he tries to predict her movements.

'She's fast!! I can't predict her attacks!' Douma thought, swiping his fan down towards Shinobu who appeared in front of him.

*vwish vwish*

Both of his attacks missed, only being able to slice off a Shinobu's haori as she ducked below the attack. Gritting her teeth, she pushed the force into her legs and stabbed into Douma's neck, carrying him along as the momentum increased the stab's force and power.

*THUD*

The poison from her sword was injected again into Douma, causing his eyes to turn white as his neck turned purple and black. As Shinobu started falling towards the ground, her sword came free from Douma's neck, who twitched and smiled towards Shinobu.

Shinobu fell back to the ground, losing all her strength.

'Blood Demon Art, Lotus Vines'

Douma shot out numerous vines towards Shinobu and wrapped them around her. He started to pull her up and opened his arms to embrace her.

*splash*

'Dance of the Fire God, Flash Dance'

*shik shik shik*

In a blur, all of the vines that were entangled around Shinobu were cut apart, as she was carried away by Hiroto to the side.

"What are you doing?! Didn't you see I was trying to reward her for trying so hard!" Douma cried out, using the vines growing out of his back to scale along the ceiling.

"For such a weak, small girl she tried her best as a Demon Slayer! It's a miracle she isn't dead yet!" Douma kept on shouting, with tears running down his face.

Hiroto put Shinobu down, seeing her condition getting worse by the minute as her face was stained with sweat and blood pooling out of her body.

"Shinobu, stay with me. You need to stay awake, just focus on closing your wounds as best you can." Hiroto said anxiously. He stood up and was about to turn around when Shinobu grabbed onto Hiroto's arm.

"W-Why… I… I can kill him… If he… absorbs me…" Shinobu muttered as blood poured out of her mouth.

Hiroto looked at her and said, "I know. That's why I stopped you."

"Master!!" Kanao's voice came from the side, as she pushed open the door to the room and saw Hiroto next to a heavily injured Shinobu.

"Oh my, another one. This just keeps getting better and better." Douma giggled, watching the three from above.

Kanao ran over towards Shinobu, checking over her condition as she tried to force back her tears. "Master! You have to hold on! The others will arrive soon!" Kanao said, quickly trying her best to tend to Shinobu's wounds.

"Oh no, we can't have you doing that," Douma said, waving his arm.

'Blood Demon Art, Wintry Icicle'

Countless Icicles appeared above the three, as Douma sent them crashing down.

'Breath of Silence, Final Form: Silent Night'

Just as the icicles rained down on the group, Hiroto disappeared from his position.

*BOOM* *shik shik* *clack*

Each icicle was destroyed before getting the chance to reach them, as Hiroto made short work of it. Using the icicles as a foothold, he kicked off of them to launch himself towards the roof to where Douma was.

'Dance of the Fire God, Sunflower Thrust'

Thrusting his sword forward, Hiroto tried to impale Douma who simply jumped out of the way, falling towards the platforms below.

*THUD*

His sword missing, Hiroto turned around in the air and kicked off of the roof towards Douma's position.

'Dance of the Fire God, Solar Heat Haze'

Hiroto charged towards Douma with a flame-cladded blad, slashing towards him. Raising his fans, Douma blocked the attack but realized that the attack seemed to have missed.

*clang*

Reacting at the last second, he raised his second fan urgently as a hazy slash appeared from above and cut off his right ear.

'Breath of Flower, Fourth Form: Crimson Hanagoromo'

Kanao rushed forward to assist Hiroto, sending a single sword slash to Douma's flank as it which curved and twisted through the air.

*clang*

Douma blocked her attack, kicking Kanao away in the process as he spun and pushed Hiroto away as well.

"I see. The two of you fight quite well together. You both have similar eyes, don't you?" Douma said, backing off. "I didn't notice it from the boy, but the girl made it so obvious that I picked up on it. So, the best way to counter it? To crush your eyes!"

'Blood Demon Art, Freezing Clouds'

Douma raised his fans and swung them around him as Hiroto and Kanao got close, causing them to back off as a cold and chilling mist attacked them.

"Don't breathe it in! Back away!" Hiroto shouted, covering his mouth. Kanao followed Hiroto's instructions and covered her eyes and mouth, backing away from the attack.

"You forgot someone!" Douma laughed, running towards Shinobu.

"Don't you dare!!" Hiroto yelled out, kicking off the wooden platform below him and crushing it under his pressure.

'Breath of Silence, Seventh Form: Midnight Slaughter'

Hiroto took out his wakizashi, intercepting Douma and swinging towards him with his sword. Douma blocked the attack with one fan and swung back with his spare towards Hiroto's neck.

Hiroto ducked under the attack, dropping his wakizashi and kicking the bottom of its hilt, sending it flying into Douma's stomach.

*shik*

"Aghh!!" Douma cried out, pulling the wakizashi out from his stomach and throwing it towards Hiroto, who caught it by its hilt.

'Blood Demon Art, Cold White Princesses'

Douma backed away as he created two female humanoid figures with ice. They opened their mouths and blew out cold wind, similar to Freezing Clouds towards Hiroto and Kanao.

The wind had a much larger and wider range, as it started to permeate throughout the room.

"Kanao! Grab Shinobu!" Hiroto shouted as he backed away from the cold wind.

*BOOM*

The ceiling above them broke apart, as a figure wearing a boar mask fell through the opening.

"GRAAAAAAHH!! Out of the way, Lord Inosuke's comin' in!!" Inosuke shouted as he fell towards the two ice humanoids.

'Breath of the Beast, Sixth Fang: Palisade Bite'

Inosuke performed a simultaneous decapitation with his two swords towards the ice figures, shattering them and dispelling the wind.

"Inosuke! Move from there!" Hiroto shouted.

*BOOM BOOM*

Multiple icicles fell towards Inosuke's position, who dodged out of the way and landed next to Hiroto.

"Hahaha, the crow's guidance was correct!" Inosuke shouted.

"Inosuke, listen. I need you to watch over Shinobu. I can't fight properly if I have to keep worrying about her." Hiroto said, sheathing his wakizashi once more.

"Huh?! What happened to Shinobu?" Inosuke said, looking at Shinobu's dire state.

"What do you think happened?" Hiroto said, gritting his teeth.

"Come on now, no need to glare that much at me," Douma said. "Hmm, if I recall, she called you Hiroto. Is that right? Well, since I shouldn't keep playing around with you, or else 'he', might get mad at me."

'Blood Demon Art, Crystalline Diving Child'

Douma closed both of his fans towards each other, slowly revealing them to expose 2 ice miniature of himself.

The two miniatures jumped off his fans, launched icicles towards Hiroto. "Just so you know, they possess the same combat prowess as me!" Douma yelled out.

*BOOM BOOM*

Hiroto dodged out of the way of the icicles, as the ice lotus vines from the second clone flew forward to entangle Hiroto.

'Breath of Water, Fourth Form: Striking Tide'

Hiroto slid along the watery surface of the wooden platforms, making consecutive slashes around him as he twisted his body along the bridge.

'Dance of the Fire God, Fake Rainbow'

Hiroto then switched breath forms midway, using this technique to evade with high-speed twists and rotations as more icicles and vines tried to impale and snare him.

"Now that he's busy, why don't we continue our fun." Douma smiled, disappearing from his position towards Kanao.

'Breath of Flower, Second Form: Honorable Shadow Plum'

Kanao switched to a defensive stance and deflected Douma's attacks using rotating sword slashes.

"As I said, I'll just have to crush your eyes." Douma smiled, swiping his fans towards Kanao's eyes.

Kanao bent her body back as the attack grazed past her face, cutting the side of her cheek at the same time.

'Breath of Flower: Sixth Form: Whirling Peach'

Using the momentum as she bent backward, Kanao spun her body around with her body weight to deliver an attack towards Douma's neck.

Douma smiled and said, "what a well-trained body you have! It's like a spring!"

He then ducked her Kanaos attack, sending a high kick towards her stomach.

*THUD*

"Gack!" Kanao spat out blood, as she was launched into the air from the kick.

"Oraaaaa!!!" Inosuke shouted, running forward to intercept Kanao.

'Breath of the Beast, Eighth Fang: Explosive Rush'

Inosuke made a mad dash towards Douma, causing him to turn and block Inosuke's attack.

"Hm? Shouldn't you be protecting the gi-" Douma looked to where Shinobu was but saw that she was no longer there. "Hm? Where did you take her?"

"Hahaha, like I would tell you!" Inosuke laughed, swinging his swords wildly at Douma. Kanao recovered from her attack and supported Inosuke's onslaught.

"Inosuke! Kanao! Switch!!" Hiroto shouted towards the two, causing them to react instantly and turning their focus onto the 2 miniatures as Hiroto faced Douma again.

"Well, I suppose it's time for the big boys to have a proper fight." Douma smiled, rushing towards Hiroto as the two faced each other once more.

*BOOM*

A loud crash caught Hiroto's attention, as he saw Kanao and Inosuke being tossed around by the miniatures.

"Kanao!!!" Hiroto shouted, as the vines from the miniatures grabbed onto her leg and swung her into the ground.

*CRASH*

At that moment, Hiroto felt the itch on his hand grew, flowing up his arm and covering his neck and the right side of his face.

*CLANG*

Douma tried to kill Hiroto off while he wasn't paying attention, but was instantly blocked.

*THUD* Hiroto's eyes shined bright red and purple, as he kicked towards Douma's neck, sending him sprawling into the ground and water.

*SPLASH*

Hiroto turned and ran towards the miniature that was about to close in on Kanao.

'Dance of the Fire God, Dragon Sun Halo Dance'

*crack*

The miniature exploded into pieces as Hiroto's blade shattered it. He quickly checked Kanao's condition and saw that she was still able to fight.

"Hiroto. Your face." Kanao muttered, seeing the red mark covering the right side of his face, reaching down his neck and arm.

"It's fine. Don't lose focus." Hiroto replied quickly, moving onto the next miniature Inosuke was fighting and shattering it in an instant.

"S-Shintaro. Why do you look more fierce than before." Inosuke said, holding his bleeding arm.

"Go cover Kanao's back. I'll finish this fight." Hiroto responded, turning to the side and rushing off.

'Dance of the Fire God, Raging Sun'

Hiroto moved at a pace faster than ever before, as Douma jumped out of the water using his lotus vines and launched more icicles towards Hiroto.

'What the hell happened to him. What's that mark on his face? For some reason, it's making me angrier by the second.' Douma thought to himself, as a figure of different swordsmen covered Hiroto's figure.

Hiroto unleashed two horizontal slashes towards Douma who blocked the attacks but was staggered from the force behind of it.

'Wh-What?! His strength increased!' Douma thought, increasing his speed to counter Hiroto.

'Dance of the Fire God, Flame Dance'

Hiroto unleashed a two-combo strike starting from a vertical slash, along with a horizontal as he unleashed his wakizashi.

*SPURT* *THUD*

"GAHHH!!" Douma cried out, as his right arm fell to the ground from Hiroto's cut.

Not giving him time to recover, Hiroto pushed on.

'Breath of Silence, Final Form: Silent Night'

Hiroto disappeared from Douma's view. But, just as he was about to finish his move, Douma raised his left arm up.

'Blood Demon Art, Rime - Water Lily Bodhisattva'

Douma unleashed his strongest Blood Art, creating a giant Bodhisattva ice statue to attack and block Hiroto's move.

*CLANG* Hiroto's sword cut into the large body of the statue, as he looms over the rest of the room. With his sword stuck, Hiroto quickly pulled it out and was about to recover when the statue swung it's palm down.

*BOOM*