RUMBLE!
"Are you sure it's safe to be hunting cursed spirits with those two monsters fighting above us?" Maki questioned as she, Megumi, and Naobito entered the subway.
"I'm sure it'll be fine; they're a few hundred meters in the opposite direction anyway," Naobito said as the lights flickered with another violent rumble.
"We're only scoping out the area for any civilians that may have been left behind. It's hard to sense such small signatures with those two drowning all of Shibuya in cursed energy," Megumi said, looking around.
"Huh! Megumi," Maki said as Megumi looked, seeing a small squid curse peeking around the corner.
"I'll handle this." Megumi prepared to move towards the shivering Dagon.
"You brats are... a bit too slow." Naobito appeared instantly behind Dagon, trapping it in a frame.
He tossed the frame lightly in front of him before his body instantly changed positions, his fist already driving through the frame.
KRRSHK! WHAM!
The frame shattered as his fist slammed into Dagon's stomach, launching it through a concrete pillar.
"Did you even see what happened?" Maki asked.
"Barely a blur..." Megumi muttered, his eyes narrowed.
"Bwooo, hwoo," Dagon wailed in pain, groaning on the ground.
Then his stomach bulged as he vomited dozens of skeletons, likely his recent victims who were left in the subway.
"Heh. You little... Just how many did ya eat?" Naobito wondered aloud.
"Bwooo... hwoo... Hanami? Jogo? Mahito?"
Suddenly, Dagon's pupils became bloodshot, and his cursed energy spiked violently.
"Mahi... to! How dare you... How dare you... Kill... MAHITO?!"
Dagon split open, a blur bursting into the air as the previous body fell like loose skin to the floor.
"No wonder you seemed so weak... You were just a cursed womb."
Floating in the air above them stood Dagon, now a fully realized cursed spirit.
Dagon silently raised a finger, a super-dense orb of water violently rotating above it. Then, without hesitation, Dagon dropped the sphere, letting a torrent of water burst forth, crashing into Maki and pushing her back before she stabbed her naginata into the wall, standing on it.
'That would have killed all of us in a more confined area; this thing is strong.'
She thought as Naobito was already standing in a different location, avoiding the water altogether.
"Hey, cursed spirit."
"Do you know how many frames are in a second of an animated sequence?"
"My name is not 'Cursed Spirit,'" Dagon said, annoyed.
"These days it's all about resolution and wanting to increase frame rate."
"My name is Dagon. Hanami, Jogo, and Mahito. We all bear names!"
"Don't you find it all... so vulgar?!"
WHAM!
Suddenly, Megumi, in his Max Elephant fused state, slammed a hammer-fist down at Dagon, who blocked the heavy attack with a little trouble.
CRASH!
Dagon was sent into the ground, yet he still stood, the faint bruising on his arm healing quickly.
Maki appeared to his left, swinging her naginata as Dagon easily caught it, just for Naobito to place a palm on Dagon's hip, turning him into a frame once more and throwing the frame at Megumi, who flipped, slamming the bottom of his feet into the back of the frame, shattering it.
KRAKOOM!
Dagon caught himself after the blow, healing the damage as a ring of water formed around him.
'This thing's barely taking any damage, and it heals absurdly fast too.'
"Even two Grade 1 sorcerers aren't enough to exorcise you, huh? What a turbulent time we live in," Naobito smirked.
Naobito slapped the water ring, observing as it automatically blocked the hand.
"Interesting, a shield of water, huh? Can you pull off multiple strong attacks simultaneously?"
"You have a massive amount of cursed energy, and I bet you still have other cursed techniques up your sleeve. Then what do we do?"
Naobito grinned.
"It's easy; we'll simply overwhelm you with our speed before you can attack!" In an instant, hundreds of punches from Naobito rained on the water ring, with Megumi and Maki assaulting from other sides.
'Impossible!' Dagon clasped his hands, making the water ring explode as he flew into the air.
"Oh, that's right, you levitate. Well, I'll try to flee up high too." Naobito appeared above Dagon, landing a brutal kick that launched the Special Grade into the ground.
BANG!
As Dagon bounced off the ground, Naobito was already waiting for him. Using Projection Sorcery, he barraged Dagon once more, leaving zero breathing room.
'This guy is fast, probably faster than Jogo!'
Dagon tried to clasp his hands to attack, but Naobito didn't let that happen.
"Not so fast! Don't even think about it!" Two heavy blows seemed to connect simultaneously, slamming Dagon right through his hand sign with a crash.
Dagon lay still, and for a moment, it seemed it was over. However...
"Domain Expansion."
They hadn't even blinked, and they were suddenly on a sunny beach, standing on the shoreline.
"Horizon of the Captivating Skandha!"
Instantly, Naobito reacted.
"Falling Blossom Emotion." One of the sure-hit effect fish was bisected on impact with Naobito's cursed energy as he stood ready to counterattack.
Maki suddenly felt something rip through her hip, leaving a gash before she could react.
As for Megumi, he also retaliated before he was affected as well.
"Domain Expansion: Chimera Shadow Garden!" Endless darkness burst from Megumi's shadow, blanketing the arena and absorbing half the domain, causing an immediate clash that nullified both sure-hit effects.
"That makes things easier." Naobito smiled and rushed Dagon, pressuring him again.
Thanks to Megumi, he wasn't injured and could fight at full force now that the sure hit was dealt with.
'Hm? My death swarm is gone? When that boy used his domain, it forced our domains into a sort of tug-of-war,' Dagon observed.
"I'll have to crush his domain first, then I win!" Dagon summoned two serpents from his stomach that rapidly approached Megumi. But Megumi, having expected this, shifted into his Nue form, firing a thick beam of lightning at the two shikigami Dagon made, blowing them to pieces as he made Playful Cloud appear near Maki.
"Ha, thanks, Fushiguro!" She grabbed the weapon, slamming it into Dagon just as Naobito punched the curse away, causing it to skip across the water like a stone.
Dagon tried his best to defend himself, summoning a mini tornado of water around itself that burst into water saws, forcing some space between him and the sorcerers.
Dagon then attempted to take Maki out in a single go to relieve some of the pressure he was under, but the moment his back turned, a palm landed on his back, freezing him in a frame.
Taking the opportunity, Maki swung as water exploded from the impact, making Dagon cough up blood. The damage was too great; the beach domain around them shattered as Megumi's shadows swallowed everything for a brief moment before he released his domain shortly after so as not to harm his allies with the domain.
Dagon was breathing hard; everything had been going wrong for him in this fight, and worse, Mahito had died not long ago. It was a terrible day.
Tap, tap, tap.
The sound of footsteps was suddenly heard as everyone turned to the source, seeing a muscular man with short black hair and black eyes walking in their direction.
Yet when they all blinked in confusion, he was gone, now standing behind Dagon.
Splat!
Dagon's head burst as Maki's naginata, which had been dropped in the domain, pierced its head faster than anyone present could see. The Special Grade had died so swiftly.
Then, just as fast, the man and Megumi vanished.
Stumbling a bit backwards, Megumi stood his ground, letting some lightning course around him, his Nue state ready as he looked at the man who was cracking his neck.
"Megumi!" Maki finally reacted when a voice was heard behind her and Naobito.
"So, Dagon... you've passed..."
'C'mon, are you kidding me?'
'Compared to that Dagon, this one's on a different level entirely!' Naobito and Maki thought as Jogo stood solemnly.
"Just leave the rest to me. We'll meet again in the wastelands, one hundred years from now." Jogo tossed Dagon's fading ashes to the wind.
"Now then..."
Silently, he arrived with a palm to Maki's back.
"That's one..." Maki burst into flames, falling over with a scream of pain.
"And this should be two..." he muttered, appearing near Naobito, who quickly used Projection Sorcery to vanish before contact.
"Humph."
BLOP! FSSSHHH!
Naobito tried to move again, but two volcanoes had manifested on the walls, instantly incinerating him and killing him instantly.
Just as Jogo had finished up here, the area rumbled violently once again, harder than last time.
"Things aren't looking good; we already lost Mahito and Dagon. I should collect Hanami and make an escape..."
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