Hinami's body laid still, lifeles. The bloodied sight of someone he was beginning to be amiable towards was depressing, but the battle was not over yet. The gargoyle curse stood tall before him, its body riddled with fractures from the Kodoku sorcerer's sure-hit technique, but its core still pulsed with an undying fury.
Furō took in a deep breath, tightening his grip on Onamazu. The weapon vibrated in his grasp, as if ready to be unleashed in full force. His wings—two giant blades of gleaming black steel—fanned out behind him.
The gargoyle's maw curled into something almost resembling a grin before it launched forward.
Furō had immediately reacted before the tail cannon fired. A concentrated beam of cursed energy, dense enough to shred through solid steel, came screaming toward him.
Furō spun Onamazu in its oar form, channeling his cursed energy into the weapon.
The moment the beam struck Onamazu, a rippling vortex of cursed energy surged outward, diverting the blast just enough for Furō to weave through the onslaught. But the gargoyle was relentless. It fired again, and again, each shot faster than the last, forcing Furō into an aerial dance of near-impossible dodges.
With a single powerful flap of its wings, the gargoyle closed the distance, swinging a razor-sharp claw toward Furō's throat. He barely managed to twist mid-air, feeling the rush of wind as the strike narrowly missed.
"Enough," Furō growled, gripping Onamazu tighter.
With a surge of cursed energy, he swung the oar like a battering ram. The blunt force of the strike connected with the gargoyle's ribs, sending it sliding backward. The impact sent shockwaves through the air, stone and debris flying from the sheer force.
But before the curse could crash into the ground, it stopped midair, its body jerking unnaturally as its cursed energy jets flared to life. Its glowing eyes burned brighter, and with a guttural screech, it rocketed toward Furō, claws determined to tear him apart.
Furōkawa switched Onamazu's form in an instant. The oar shifted, warping and reshaping itself into a colossal battle axe—Oryx.
He brought it down in a diagonal arc. The sheer force of the swing sent out a shockwave that split the very air between them, colliding with the gargoyle just before it reached him. The curse spiraled downward, smashing into the earth below, carving a deep crater in its wake.
But Furō knew better than to assume it was over.
The dust barely settled before the gargoyle burst from the crater, its cracks rapidly sealing themselves.
Furō's eyes narrowed. "Ridiculous durability… but not invincible," he muttered, adjusting his stance.
The gargoyle twisted its body mid-air, its tail cannon crackling with an unprecedented charge. Cursed energy swelled around the appendage, and then—
BOOM.
The cannon fired a full-powered blast, the sheer heat of it warping the air as it blasted toward Furō.
He unfurled his metal wings, their bladed edges slicing through the wind. With a single mighty flap, he launched himself downward, corkscrewing out of the way of the destructive beam. Stone melted in the blast's wake, the attack carving a smoldering trench through the battlefield.
Furō twisted mid-fall, his bladed feathers detaching from his back in a flurry of whirling blades. They spun through the air, slashing toward the gargoyle in a deadly formation.
The curse blocked the first two with its claws but failed to stop the third, which dug deep into its shoulder, bursting fragments of cursed rock into the air.
Furō used the distraction.
With a bit more effort, he vanished in a blur of speed, appearing right behind the gargoyle. Oryx was already descending.
The impact was cataclysmic. The gargoyle's body was smashed into the ground, its entire left arm severed from the sheer force. The earth quaked beneath them, cracks spiderwebbing outward from the impact.
But it still wasn't enough.
The gargoyle's tail cannon fired point-blank.
Furō's reaction came a fraction too late.
The blast tore through his side.
Pain through his torso as blood sprayed everywhere. The force sent him tumbling across the battlefield, Furōkawa wincing in shock.
And for a split second, he saw Hinami's lifeless body.
He gritted his teeth.
Rage flared in his chest, but he forced himself to focus. He couldn't afford to let a lucky shot cloud his battle judgement—not now.
His reverse cursed technique activated, sealing the wound but not without a small price.
The gargoyle, now fully regenerated, loomed over him once more.
Furō inhaled sharply. He knew he had one way to finish this.
A BlackFlash.
His body moved instinctively. He felt the energy build inside of him, his cursed energy aligning perfectly—
But his mind wavered.
The strike lacked the sparks of black.
The gargoyle capitalized on the failure, raking its claws across Furō's chest. Blood sprayed once more as he skidded backward, panting heavily.
His determination skyrocketed higher than ever.
He gripped Oryx, his cursed energy surging to its peak. He shut everything out.
His mind and body aligned and his feet dug into the ground. His grip on Oryx tightened as if the weapon was one with Furōkawa.
The gargoyle lunged.
And then—
BOOM.
The BlackFlash to determine the outcome of their quarrel.
Oryx was swung with an impossible speed, trailing a streak of black-colored lightning.
The gargoyle's body imploded on impact.
Cracks spread across its entire form, the corrosive properties of Furō's cursed energy and the impact of the black flash using the Oryx form of Onamazu. The explosion of force sent shockwaves throughout the battlefield, tearing through the earth.
The gargoyle let out one final, tortured screech before its body disintegrated into nothingness.
Furō stood amidst the destruction, Oryx still in his grasp, his breathing ragged.
And then his Kogane appeared.
"A player has been eliminated. 5 points have been added."
Furō didn't pay any mind to his Kogane as per usual.
He turned, eyes scanning the battlefield. His gaze landed on Hinami's body.
Solemnly, Furōkawa absorbed Onamazu back into his ring and sighed deeply. He walked over to his diseased short-term comrade and knelt over him to shut his eyes.
"I wish I could give you a proper burial, but I have to get moving..."
The battle was won and Furō now had 22 points.
10 from the Kodoku sorcerer and the mind-controlled sorcerer he killed earlier, seven from the non-sorcerers, and five more from the gargoyle curse.