The Yuki-Oni was enormous, dreadful, and utterly outclassed.
The ice demon lunged through the shattered balcony, its hollow white eyes fixed on my chest. Its jagged frozen claws stretched toward the remnant of holy energy lodged in my core.
It did not even cross the threshold.
Akira did not merely swing his katana. He ignited.
A blinding surge of concentrated blue yokai fire burst from his blade, so fiercely hot that it did not simply melt the demon. It erased it at once.
The Yuki-Oni gave a choking shriek as the blue flames engulfed its entire body. In less than three breaths, the huge and terrifying thing had become nothing more than a puddle of dirty, lukewarm slush spread across the tatami.
