"BROTHER!!" Kosei yelled once more.
His pleas fell on deaf ears as he saw Mangūsu on the stands silently observing the ongoing battle below. Well, it was actually more of a massacre than a battle.
The great ape was far faster, stronger, and more durable than they expected. Definitely not something containable by low-tier Martial Seniors like themselves. They had tried everything at their disposal.
He gulped as the ape's boiling red eyes moved toward him, probably because of all his yelling.
The great ape was coming. It was too fast to react to, but due to its massive size, every slight twitch in muscle and stance allowed it, just barely, to be predicted.
It was due to his Martial Arts that he could barely read every movement the great ape was about to make. Thankfully, the beast didn't seem to care to hide it.
It's coming! Kosei thought.
He contracted all of his non-essential veins, tightening the blood vessels and pumping blood into the vessels in his legs, granting them immense pressure and power.
Like a bionic hydraulic system.
BOOOOOM
The earth exploded as the fist struck where the Martial Senior had just been. Luckily he dodged to the right—even with predictions, half a second later and he would have been finished.
He prepared himself for another attack, but thankfully the other Martial Seniors had already understood the strategy they had to do to survive. When the ape attacks one side, the opposite side strikes back.
The ape roared as its back was riddled with tiny holes. The Martial Senior behind it was pelting it with razor-sharp bones launching from his fingertips.
It didn't deal much damage but it was enough to annoy the beast and pull its attention.
He needed to stay within effective range so when it turned to face him, he could retreat in time.
But the beast didn't bother turning around.
"ACK" The Martial Senior with the bone projectiles was hit by a massive tail sweep, completely unguarded.
THUD
He hit the side of the arena and was left embedded in the black stone, his glowing veins slowly losing their shine.
"SHIT! AKAI, I THOUGHT YOU HAD THE TAIL COVERED?" one Martial Senior yelled.
"IT HAS A MIND OF ITS OWN! YOU TRY HOLDING IT DOWN!" Akai, the Martial Senior covered in boiling fire and wearing a fox mask, replied.
"You're fucking useless," a Martial Senior wearing a purple frog mask said.
"SAYS YOU, YOU FUCKING TOAD! YOUR POISON ISN'T DOING ANYTHING!" Akai shot back.
"Fuck you. Do your job," the frog mask Senior said.
That being said, she felt as useless as he was.
Usually her poison was extremely lethal on martial artists on the same realm, but even with extra doses, it was completely ineffective.
She closed in and landed a few hits on the beast's legs, but its hide was thick as stone and it felt like striking a mountain. Her poison-imbued blows were doing nothing. Not to mention the danger of being that close.
She couldn't accept it. Her poison... a brew meticulously cultivated and refined in her body through years of painful endurance—was nothing?
Lost in that thought, she attacked a second too long.
BAM.
A blindingly quick side sweep caught her and she struck the arena wall. Not fatal, but she hit the ground with real injuries and was left unconscious.
That leaves seven. We can't hold on!!! Kosei thought.
His Martial Heart had only been active for a few minutes, but each minute felt like an hour, filled with dozens of near-death experiences.
If they were already struggling this much, they had no chance once their Martial Hearts ran out.
Another one incoming! Kosei thought.
He made another near-inhuman dodge—a standing backflip with no prior movement, driven entirely by precise control of his blood vessels.
It was hopeless. Even at full power from the start, this beast was near the peak of their realm. They couldn't win.
He needed his brother Mangūsu to intervene. Surely he wouldn't let him die?
———
"BROTHER! WE'RE ABOUT TO GET KILLED!" he yelled.
He yelled and dodged and yelled again. Mangūsu sat still in the stands.
Frozen.
Deep in thought.
I don't get it, Mangūsu thought.
The transformation...
Beautiful.
When the rat began transforming, he had caught the sudden spike in the 'Shadow Dragon energy' and watched the changes closely. What he saw was nothing short of a miracle.
He had assumed it would be another body-strengthening technique. Maybe even a suicidal explosive attack—which would have made sense if the goal was chaos for Bankei's escape.
But watching it up close, he saw it clearly. The transformation didn't just strengthen the body. It refined the Shadow Dragon energy into something more chaotic, more volatile, more powerful. A whole other framework entirely. It surpassed everything he understood about that energy—and he was currently one of the foremost users of Shadow Dragon Arts.
First Bankei's beam attack. Now this?
CRACK
The railing Mangūsu had been gripping crumbled to fine dust under his transformed claws.
He was a transformation-style martial artist himself. If he could somehow harness this—his transformation would improve beyond measure.
Maybe it would even allow him to take a step closer to the Sage realm?
But something just wasn't adding up.
....I didn't interfere with his plans, did I? he thought nervously.
He recognized this beast.
Years ago, when he was a newbie Martial Master, under orders, he and several other Masters had been sent to assassinate a prominent figure from the Kinzoku Clan to weaken their political standing. The target was Master Akechi. Infamous. Accused of killing their clan head Oda Nobunaga in a political struggle.
In Sekigahara, such things weren't criminal offenses. They simply meant it was time for new leadership. And for other clans, it was the perfect opportunity to remove a potentially dangerous successor.
The mission failed. The lone master was far more slippery and cunning than they'd been briefed on. But one detail stayed with him.
There had been a beast that night. One that looked exactly like the one in the arena now.
He had even been the one to wonder if it was theirs—he had sensed a faint trace of Shadow Dragon energy on it. But they never got a chance to investigate before it disappeared.
Was it truly a coincidence?
The rat had appeared to be a normal civilian. No martial path. And yet he had transformed into something near the peak of the Senior realm using the Shadow Dragon energy.
Could the rat actually be one of theirs?
Fear crept into his chest slowly.
There was only one person in the Oni Clan more versed in transformation arts than he was. One who actively pursued human experimentation. Who had embraced every martial art deemed ugly and forbidden, garnering enough support to elevate the Oni Clan into one of the three great clans of Sekigahara.
The only person Mangūsu respected more than Bankei.
Someone far more powerful.
Someone even he answered to.
Beneath his mask, he was sweating.
...Sage Kai.
The patriarch of the Oni Clan.
Is this beast made by Sage Kai?
Has he successfully created Quasi-Master level beasts from ordinary civilians using Shadow Dragon Energy?
Did he send him here deliberately?
For what purpose? To test the strength of his creation?
Mangūsu scanned the arena, the stands, the sky.
No signs of Sage Kai anywhere.
He exhaled.
Calm down, Mangūsu. Think.
Why would the great Sage send his experiment here?
...!
Did he want to free Bankei?
Is he in control of all of this?
Remembering his last interaction with the patriarch gave him the shivers. The pressure the Sage emitted was overwhelming. He felt like he was about to get killed at any second.
...Should I leave?
Mangūsu calls 'Ki' as 'Shadow Dragon Energy' as that's what the main family calls it (Since they discovered it on their own). Bankei learned the term 'Ki' from Merun in the previous chapters, and prefers to use it.
Late chapter, I've been sick.
I'm pretty sure there's a new variant of Covid and the govt. is just being quiet about it. :/