Chapter 15 : 15th Stance

TAP! TAP! TAP! TAP!

The sound of Takeo's sandals reverberated around his surroundings. However, his cold nature still remained....his loud sounds were actually welcoming Demon's to come and try him.

Noticing something was quickly approaching, Takeo stopped moving and waited..

Closing his eyes, he just stood there before he heard....

RUSTLING! RUSTLING!

Someone or something was running laps around him through the grass, and using the tree-line as cover.

Knowing it was a demon, Takeo waited some more, so the demon could attack first.

However, after another minute, it still hadn't attacked Takeo yet. The demon was taking too long to come out, so Takeo decided to go to him instead.....

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TAP! TAP! TAP!

After hearing some loud footsteps, a demon ran over to the sound. There he saw a young boy walking around the mountain with no fear at all.

"Fresh Meat~", it said, before he ran laps around Takeo to scare him. The demon kept running and running, 'Keep struggling to find me....then I'll eat you whole', the hideous demon thought, as he usually did this to make the prey lose hope of survival.

But that second of thought, had made him lose sight of his 'prey' instead. "Huh? Where is he?", he said lowly, asking himself a question, before he stopped running to stare at the position Takeo used to be in....but instead someone actually answered.....

"I'm here~", a voice stated behind him, alerting the demon and causing to quickly turn around....

But by the time he had turned around, Takeo had already drew his blade, and slashed horizontally, completely decapitating the demons head off, in one quick motion....

VOOSHH!!!

<Ghost Slash>

The speed of the attack was shocking, but what was more shocking was what the boy said after, "You're not even worth using a breathing style....", before he leisurely walked off....

(Ghost Slash is just one of the techniques Takeo made without needing to use Breathing Style techniques, he did this to improve his swordsmanship to the next level)

Hearing that comment, before the demon turned to dust, he screamed into the air, to alert even more demons to come and kill Takeo..., "With this, you'll definitely die, you cocky bas-", before he could finish, he turned to dust and vanished.....

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Hearing that scream, the demons in the area knew it was another demon, but from what it seems like.... it just died, and that would mean there's a chance a human would be there. Having not eating any humans in forever since they were stuck on Fujikasane Mountain, the demons wouldn't mind even if there was a chance a human was there.....and so more than 20 demons all charged towards Takeo's direction.....

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Not putting his blade away, Takeo kept it in his hand and walked forwards slowly as he felt more were coming, based on his instincts and the demon's scream to attract demons.

Meanwhile, in his pocket, Yuko woke up after sleeping for a bit, and looked around his surroundings, "Are we in the Final Selection yet?". Instead of getting a response, Takeo stopped moving and stood still, as he could feel more than one demon quickly approaching.

"....get back inside", Takeo said lowly, but it was enough for Yuko to hear....not hesitating, he quickly went back inside Takeo's pocket.

The more Takeo felt approaching, the more he began to slowly smile....

VOOSHH!!!

"There really was a human here....", one demon appeared out of a tree, and landed directly in-front of Takeo.

"Hey...he's mine", another one appeared and stated, before he licked his lips with his snake-like tongue.

"GRRR!!", some others like this one, weren't talking and just wanted to kill Takeo already.

It didn't stop there....more and more demons appeared till they reached 20.

They all surrounded Takeo from different directions...as they all stared at Takeo with menacing smiles, one demon opened his mouth and said, "How about we share me....I'm sure there's more humans here so we wont go hungry, but lets feast on this one first?", and waited for their answers.

After a bit of deliberation, they decided that was a good idea, and agreed, "Look's like we wont go hungry", one them said, before they stared at Takeo.

Right before they all charged at him, Takeo looked at all of them before he stated, "How long are you going to take? Hurry up?".

Misunderstanding him they all laughed, "HAHAHA!", before rushed at Takeo.

'Finally', he thought, with a sinister smile on his face under his mask, before he put his blade in-front of him....

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The Honō-Kaminari no kokyū (Flame-Thunder Breathing Style) has 5 Forms :

Ichi no kata (1st Form) : Unknowing Thunder = The swordsman unsheathes their blade, dashes forward at blinding speeds that mimic lightning ripping through the air, before he decapitates the opponent or multiple opponents with the destructive force of Flames, burning the corpse and it's surroundings.

Ni no kata (2nd Form) : Rising Sun Spirit = The user unleashes five electrified arching slashes in a single moment, before unleashing an arching slash attack upwards packed with Flames.

San no kata (3rd Form) : Distant Blooming Flame = The swordsman swings their blade in a circular motion that can defend them from all incoming attacks or decapitate multiple enemies at once, before they generate powerful lightning strikes in several directions with their blade.

Shi no kata (4th Form) : Flame Thunder Swarm = The swordsman unleashes a powerful series of sword slashes, scorching the opponent, before they generate powerful electricity and unleash blinding sword attacks that surround the opponent, which take the form of Thunder-Flame tigers that charges towards the enemy at blinding speeds.

Go no kata (5th Form) : Lightning Rengoku : The user unleashes a powerful ranged electrified sword slash upwards that burns the flesh of his opponent, before they charge at the opponent, delivering a devastating dashing slash that the swordsman initiates from a high stance.

This was everything that Takeo learnt off of Master Kenzō, ( In the future, he'll continue and make even more forms)

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Taking a downwards stance and shifting all his weight and energy to his legs, Takeo waited for the perfect opportunity, to take most of them down in one attack. Lightning was generated all around, as he stood there with his sword by his waist...

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

The lightning spread all around and fuelled him with energy....right before one of the demons could come into contact with him, he vanished.....

ZOOOOMM!!!

Before he appeared behind 5 of them at once...

BOOOOSHHH!!!!

Flames quickly surrounded his sword, as he vertically slashed his blade towards all 5 of their heads....cleanly cutting them, but sadly damaging the numerous trees and wildlife in-front of them....

SLASSSHH!!!!! BOOSHH!!!

<Honō-Kaminari no kokyū Ichi no kata : Unknowing Thunder>

BANGG!!!!

Thick Smoke covered the forest for a few minutes and multiple trees dropped to the ground.....

With 5 Demon's dead instantly, the other 15 were simply shocked, ".....I", they didn't know what to say....

When the smoke dispersed, Takeo looked more like a demon than they did, even with the mask on, steam came out of his mouth and went through the mask, making him seem like a beast....whilst his menacingly cold purple eyes looked deep into their souls.

"Who's next?", Takeo asked with a little chuckle, "hehehe~".

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In a completely different part of the forest, a young boy with a fox mask on the left side of his head, wearing a blue clouded-patterned kimono was fighting a disgusting large demon, The Hand Demon.

They'd been fighting for several minutes, but finally the boy, using Water Breathing, generated enough momentum to create a powerful single concentrated slash whilst in the air....ending the demon...

" Ichi no kata: Minamo Giri!! (First Form: Water Surface Slash)"

Due to the boy's kind-hearted nature, he prayed for the demon as he could his smell his pain right before he disappeared....

"What a sad scent...", he said.

"God...Please....The next time this man is reborn, please make sure he doesn't turn into a demon...."

After defeating the demon, he thought about all the fellow disciples before him that died, wishing them peace, before he ran away.

Suddenly, he heard something scream, "AGGGHHH!!!!".

"What was that?", he thought, before he ran towards the location.

5 minutes Later,

When the boy in blue finally reached where he heard the scream.....In-front of him stood the boy who came 'late', standing in a pool of blood, before he cleaned his blade, and vanished from his view.

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7 Minutes Earlier,

Faced with 15 to go, Takeo had a dark smile on his face...."Guess you're not coming?", he said, before he dashed towards them himself.

'Can you even call these guys demons?', he thought, 'Might as-well have fun with them. Let's see how they'll fare against my own techniques', Takeo thought.

Before he approached them even quicker....

Materialising right in-front of 2 of them, he raised his sword...before he delivered quick slashes cut through both of them, decapitating them in less than a second...

VOOOSH!!!! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!

<Snake Bite>

Vanishing once again using his speed....

He appeared before 5 others. Not wanting to die, they tried to run away, but in the presence of a 'true demon', they couldn't anything....

Delivering a rapid strike to their heads, abdomen and back of their knees. Takeo continued toying them, making them feel agony, before they regenerated and felt even more pain after....

<Falling Rain>

SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!

Looking at their faces of agony, Takeo wanted to continue delivering pain, but was getting bored....so he quickly finished off the 5 in-front him by rapidly striking at them in high speeds and inflicting heavy damage at different angles, breaking their bones in the process, before he simply cut of their heads in 1 strike.

CRACK!!! CRACK!!!! SLASH!!!

<Full Rampage>

With 7 now gone, Takeo stared at the other 8, before vanishing.....

When he then appeared, he was directly in-front of all 8, "Time to test it~", he said lowly, before he focused his breathing, generating electricity around his sword and arm.....before he unleashed a powerful ranged electrified sword slash, upwards, that burned their flesh, "ARGHHHH!!!", they screamed, before Takeo charged at them, delivering a devastating dashing slash, slashing all of their heads, and raining down blood upon on him and his surroundings.

<Honō-Kaminari no kokyū Go no kata (Flame-Thunder Breathing 5th Form) : Lightning Rengoku>

DRIP! DRIP! DRIP! DRIP!

His sword dripped their blood onto the floor, grabbing a cloth to wipe it, he stood there for a bit, before he walked off, already noticing someone was watching him beforehand.

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After an uneventful 6 more days, because Takeo scared other demons from coming round his territory, it was finally the end of the Final Selection...

Waking up from his sleep, he got up and walked down the mountain, once he was surrounded by wisteria, he continued walking, before he was in a wide plain of land.

In-front of him were 4 people, however there was actually 6 who passed, including him, one had already left.

When he appeared, everyone looked at his blood-stained clothes, and his cold expression, they knew that wasn't his blood....