the old one fights the new

lower rank 1 laughs at Takano "oh my, you were the one before me? you seem very... flashy." she says as she firms her grip on her staff "and you look dull, now shut the hell up." Takano readies a fighting stance against the lower rank "hm? no weapon to fight with I see, strange." Takano then starts to drool as he focuses "ugh such an idiot!" she swings her staff around and as it reaches Takano, her staff is sliced in half "now." he seemingly doesn't move but the lower ranks arm is dismembered "huh?" Takano then swings his leg towards lower ranks chin, taking it off in one swing but the lower rank regenerates her chin "very strong aren't you?" she spins her staff around and whacks Takano in the side and so Takano grabs the staff and shoves it through the lower rank, blood covering it "bastard!" she tries to grab Takano by the head but then Takano sends his blood flying everywhere "blood demon art: tracking strike!" as the blood lands on the lower rank his fist is suddenly pulled towards the blood stain, blowing the lower rank away which caused her to cough up blood "see you in hell." he then sends more of his blood flying onto the lower rank "blood demon art: pummeling drive." the lower rank then became scared as she heard those words and then Takano had his fists attracted to his own blood, pummeling the demon into the ground *BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM* then the demons body is pinned against a tree "please.... stop!" then Takano sends one final strike through the demons head.

Takano then walks back over to Dai, "finish her off." Dai waits for her to regenerate her head but then she just jumped forward at Dai (dawn breathing, 1st form: genesis) Dai slices his blades through the demon's shoulders, watching them disintegrate slowly. "wow, my friends would love you." Takano walks back to the shrine "ain't you guys already got a demon teammate?" "yeah but I'm sure you two would get along." Dai said trying to convince Takano to join them "for the last time kid, I'm not joining." Takano then hides in the shrine "fine, but the offer still stands." Dai said as he walked away, sheathing his blades.

Dai walks home back to the manner with his cape haori flowing in the wind softly "well that was, surprisingly easy, in fact, it was too easy..." he told himself but then he jumped around to look behind, hoping there would be a demon that needed to be slaughtered but nothing was there "well, I guess that's that." as he turned around he's met with the hand of Sora, "heard you killed lower rank one, congratulations kid I'm proud of you." Sora pets him on the head like a dog "th- thank you..." Dai felt strange after Sora said that, as he had never had any praise in his life "well come on kid, oh also we need to get going because there's a demon hiding out in a run down house." Dai looks around "is Kei not coming?" he asked but Sora sighs "you saying I'm not strong enough?" Sora asked, "if I am, what are you going to do?" Dai said with a smug face, and then Kichi starts to grow frustrated with Dai "forget it, let's just get walking." Dai and Sora start walking in the dead of night, not even being wary of any demons that may be nearby "oh Sora I found another demon, but he was helping us and working with humans." Dai grabbed Sora's attention "hm? working with us you say, sounds like a nice guy." Sora stated, "he was, helped me kill lower rank one." Dai remembered the demon's face "well I sure would love to meet him." Sora and Dai continued to walk in awkward silence "so Dai, excited to fight this demon?" Sora asked and he saw Dai have a look of concern "y-yeah! I'll kill him so fast that it'll look like I just took my swords out from their sheaths!" Dai boasted "that's the spirit kid and remember if you can't kill it I'll kill it!" Sora said with a smirk.

the two arrive at the house where the demon was resting "well this is where my crow told me to go." Sora looked at the house, it seemed to be run down, doors tattered, floorboards creaky and falling apart, roof tiles broken and blood was smeared on the soil "well this isn't the greatest sight to see but hey let's find the demon and kill them." the two walk into the house, pushing past the broken door "S-sora..." Dai looked at a man's body.... half of a man's body, the upper torso of a man with their intestines tied around a plank of wood, half of their face gone, arm torn off and their bones showing "oh God, this demon is a brutal bastard I can say that." Sora and Dai continued to walk through the house, passing by more and more torn up bodies "hello, *sluuuurrrrrp!* seems you've come across my past friends." a demon muttered from the shadows, Dai and Sora both quickly draw their blades, the demon walked slowly out of the shadows to reveal a disgusting body, six arms sprouting from their back, three faces on its head, eyes on the palms of the hands, ears on their chest, their legs looked like the legs of an insect, like a grasshopper "well you look very... lovely." Sora said as he slowly shifted to the left "why yes, thank you for noticing." the demon had an arm in their hand, "so tell me you two, what brings you to my home?" Dai looked around but he just saw more blood painting the walls "you're disgusting!" Dai yells as he charged the demon "you dare choose to face me? the monstrous demon!" as the monstrous demon yelled, Dai swung his blades swiftly at their neck, trying to take it off in one go "I'm afraid that won't work you idiot!" two of their arms stretch out and pins Dai against the broken wall "hey back off him! if he dies on this mission that's my responsibility." Sora stated as he runs over to the demon (flame breathing 1st form: unknowing fire!) he swings his blade in a circular motion, slicing the arm off and watching it disintegrate but the demon grows it back swiftly and then wraps their arms around Sora like a snake trying to choke constrict their prey.

Dai looks distraught at Sora being immobilized by the arms "Sora!" as Dai picks himself up from the rubble and picks his swords up, Sora yells "Dai stay put!" Sora had a serious look on his face "but Sora your face is turning blue!" Dai stated as Sora's breath became shorter and shorter "Dai *gasp!* just stay put, I've got this!" Sora held his sword tightly and then jammed it into the thick skin of the demon's arm "you think you can escape? I've got you caught in my trap like a fly in a spider web." Sora dug his blade further into the demon's arm but the demon just threw him to the ground, *CRRRRAACK!* three of Sora's ribs broke which gave him an overwhelming amount of pain, he coughs up blood into his hand worrying him "Dai I need help!" Sora yells as Dai rushes in, swinging his blades diagonally to slice the arm in two (dawn breathing, 8th form: debut of the sun!) Dai spins his swords and then runs forward, piercing his swords through the demon's chest "you little brat!" as Dai kept the swords in the demon's chest, he directed them upwards and the drags them up, slicing 4 arms off, the demon looked at Dai just to see a strange thing on his cheeks, it looked like two purple sunrises (dawn breathing, 4th form: red horizon) Dai slices off the demon's legs and then raises his swords and slicing the rest of the arms off and once he finished that attack it looked as if he was a God pushing the sun above the horizon "you fucking bitch!" the demon quickly regenerates his arms to hold himself up "shit, he regenerates too quickly Sora!" Dai stated as the demon grew his legs back, his regrown arms and legs seemed to be covered in a weird clear substance which Dai gagged at, Sora tries to catch his breath, his hand on his chest "*gasp* really, how quick is it?" Sora asked as he picks himself up "hmm, definitely like an upper-rank regeneration." the demon disappeared all of a sudden and then reappeared right in front of Sora "hmm, you have nice eyes you know, I'm almost jealous." one of the demon's arms approached Sora's eyes; as if he was going to pluck them out "but I guess you can keep them." he sadly says as his hands move away from Sora's face, he turns his back on Sora and walks back over to Dai "oh I see you awakened your slayer mark, this should be fun." the demon smirked as they clasp their hands and get ready to turn Dai into just a bloodstain but then Dai slices his sword vertically through the arm, blood spurting on to his face "Kichi, can I use you real quick?" Sora asks as he still tries to catch his breath "yeah go ahead." Kichi said calmly and then Sora aims at the demon's chest "blood demon art: veins of puppetry!" he fires the veins at the demon's chest, digging into the chest like maggots on rotting skin "oh seems someone is thinking like a demon aren't they?" the demon mocks Sora as the veins push through the skin and spread out through their body, "nice one Sora!" Dai then slashes down on the arms, slicing them off cleanly "you think your little veins can control me!" the demon slowly grows arms on their back and grab the veins "oh come closer, I don't bite." the arms pull Sora forward but Kichi then pumps his strange blood into the demon "Dai now!!" the demon looks back to see Dai slicing through the neck like it was butter, the head falls to the floor with a loud thud.

Dai and Sora celebrate their win but then Sora has another look at the head to see its growing limbs at the wound where it was cut "you really think It would be that easy...." the demon then has the arms reattach the head back onto the neck, healing it "to kill a God in human form?" the demon heals its body fully, looking like a monster, its many hands then cover the neck, arms grow from the front and head of the demon "now... where were we?"