Fortunately, his one lucky hit took a whole appendage away from the demon. It would have been extra lucky if the demon was right-handed, but more importantly, his gaping wound was currently in the process of spewing out a steady stream of blood. Blood loss led directly to fatigue and a loss of concentration.
“D-Damn… you…” panted the demon in a pained voice. What followed, surprisingly, was not the routine cursing of a stereotypical villain. “S-Sure are holding… something interesting… Where did you find that?”
The question almost went straight over his head before he realized it was referring to his magic-dispelling katana.
“Seriously? That’s your concern? You don’t think there’s something else to worry about?” said Renya with mild amazement.
The demon weakly uttered a low, growling laugh. The “weakly” part was reassuring for Renya, because it implied the wound was definitely draining the demon of his stamina.
“You mean the arm? Forget about the arm. What matters right now is that weapon you’re holding. Did it just destroy a spell? That should have been impossible.”
“Don’t ask me. I got this from a trade with a traveling merchant. Go find the merchant if you want to know where it came from,” he said, though he doubted it was possible for a demon to wander through human lands looking for a traveling merchant.
Renya produced a piece of paper from his pants pocket and wiped off his katana. The bit of fat left on the blade by the humanoid forms had been bothering him. A good, fast swing often left the blade quite clean, but it was not guaranteed to prevent every drop blood and fat from sticking. Keeping his eyes on the demon, he cautiously cleaned his katana and casually threw the soiled paper onto the ground.
“So, you still want to go despite being wounded pretty badly?” he asked, hoping for the opposite answer, but the demon did not comply with his wishes.
“Of course. A cut like this doesn’t count as a wound.”
Renya frowned, considering whether the demon was bluffing. He soon stopped himself. Though he possessed almost no knowledge on demons, they were likely superior to humans in both intelligence and power. Even now, after suffering extensive blood loss, the demon did not look to be on the verge of collapse. His face was contorted with pain, but there was still a fire in his eyes, which were trained on Renya’s katana.
“What a pain…” muttered Renya.
Meanwhile, the demon tried to pick up his severed arm. Before he could reach it, Renya sent another round of twenty quickcast firebolts at the limb. Despite the low-level spell, it was enough for the arm to burst into flames and turn into a charred black mess.
“How rude. That was my arm, you know?” complained the demon. He did not look particularly miffed.
“I’d rather not have you stick it back onto yourself.”
He had meant it as a joke, but the demon seemed to take it at face value.
“Oh? Perceptive, aren’t you? Now that it’s been burned, though, I suppose I’ll have to grow another one.”
Before the thought, What the hell is this guy talking about? even flashed in his mind, the demon flexed the stump at his shoulder. It stopped bleeding. Then, a bump formed on the severed plane that quickly lengthened and grew before his very eyes. Soon, the demon’s arm was good as new. After testing the regenerated limb by swinging it around, the demon smiled.
“Looks good.”
The regrown arm, though a little fainter in hue, was a carbon copy of the scorched original in appearance. Function-wise, it was probably the same as well.
“Geez, what are you? A flatworm? Or some sort of lizard?” groaned Renya, unwilling to believe what he just witnessed. Was this some sort of cruel joke? An opponent who could regenerate lost limbs at a moment’s notice was undoubtedly a swordsman’s worst nightmare. The demon’s stamina probably took a hit from the blood loss, but the fight definitely would have been easier if he only had one arm. This meant that dismemberment was meaningless; only a lethal strike would finish the job.
Renya considered his next move as he sheathed his katana. A halfhearted strike was not going to do.
“Actually, no. That’d be an insult to lizards,” he said, hoping the taunt stung the demon. The less composed his opponent was, the more likely his next attack would work. Conversely, if too much blood got to the man’s head and he turned into a raging monster, that would lower the chance of success. He needed the demon just angry enough to tunnel-vision.
A flick of his hand undid the clutch on his belt and released the sheath. Turning so that his right side faced the demon, Renya lowered his stance a little. With the sheath in his left hand and the hilt in his right, he turned his body leftward as if winding up for a swing.
“This time, I’ll cut you down permanently… so stay where you are.”
At his last word, he kicked the ground with his left leg. Charging forward with his posture fixed, he was ready to draw at any second. The demon made no attempt to run. Presumably, he judged Renya’s attacks to be dodgeable based on their previous exchange.
Renya agreed. With his current speed, a normal slash was guaranteed to miss. What he needed, then, was a slash that wasn’t normal. He look a large step forward with his right foot and drew in his left. Usually, his left foot would then kick the ground again to close the gap.
This time, however, he took the momentum of drawing in his left foot and put it directly into a kick. Of course, he was not yet within range. The demon watched, perplexed, as he threw out an empty kick. Then, from the demon’s perspective, Renya’s form disappeared behind the piece of paper he’d used to wipe his blade which had been sitting on the ground moments before.
“A feint? You impertinent whelp!” roared the demon as he flicked the twirling paper aside with his right arm.
Even if he lost sight of Renya for a split second, he should still have been perfectly able to dodge an attack like the one before. What came from beyond the paper, however, was not an attack like the one before. As the paper cleared from his vision, he discovered Renya standing with his back to him. Baffled by Renya’s defenseless state, the demon was again a beat too late in his reaction.
After kicking up the paper with his left leg, Reyna had rotated 180 degrees around his right leg to put his back to the demon. The move simultaneously surprised his opponent and led into his next attack. Leaping off his right leg, he backed into the demon and jammed the sheath in his left hand into the demon’s gut. No matter the species, so long as the demon was a living creature who drew breath, he would be winded by a sudden blow to the gut. A winded target was an unmoving target. Renya had his opening.
The dull impact he felt with his left hand told him the sheath had hit home. He spun around and drew his blade. It ripped into the demon from his right shoulder and exited through his left hip. The momentum built up from the sheath strike and the spin was concentrated into a single slash that parted the demon in two, cutting through clothes, meat, muscle, and bone. Half a body — head and left arm still attached — plopped onto the ground. Ignoring the remainder of the demon’s body, which was violently discharging blood, he approached the half that had the head attached, and immediately made it headless. Finally, he drove his katana into the decapitated head between its raised brows. It still wore a bewildered expression. Only after confirming that every last body part had ceased moving did Renya allow the air in his lungs to escape through his lips.