Goblin vs Oni(3)

My knee is planted in Ryoka’s solar plexus, and the sound of bones crumbling echoes clearly.

A strike that I can be certain landed properly just from the sensation felt.

“…You really are weak.”

And I uttered such a mocking word to Ryoka, who was exhaling intermittent breaths as if the broken bones in her body were convulsing.

There was sincerity in it, but such words would be the most unpleasant mockery for Ryoka, who had taken pride in her own strength, talking about the fight of the strong and whatnot.

However, I had no intention whatsoever of ending this with just one knee strike and a single mockery.

“Gu… ugh…”

“What are you doing? It’s not over yet.”

Slap—

After kicking Ryoka’s face once to wake her up as she exhaled rough breaths, I threw her body onto the ground.

And looking down at Ryoka sprawled out on the ground, I brought my fist down towards her face.

“Hup…!”

Crack–!!!

My fist digs into her face and a feeling of something being crushed is clearly transmitted through my fist.

At the same time, blood spurts from her face.

Glancing at that blood splashing up like a fountain and coldly staining my cheek, I brought my fist down again.

Thud–! Crack–! Crunch–!

The ground vibrates, bones break, and muscles are crushed in succession.

My fists, imbued with the emotions I had built up, rained down evenly on Ryoka’s face, torso, arms, and legs, without discriminating any part.

And after wielding such one-sided violence for several dozen seconds.

“Haa… the one hitting gets more tired, huh.”

Only then did I withdraw my striking fist and slowly stood up from atop the bloodied Ryoka.

Drip, drip, blood slowly flows down from my fist.

Feeling extremely unpleasant at the sticky blood clinging to it, I lightly shook it off and then approached Hwa-gon, which I had momentarily put down to throw punches.

Step– Step–

『Well, do you feel a bit better now?』

“Yeah, well… a little? I still feel bad since she laid hands on a human under my care.”

『Hmm, but the fact that you stood up means you’re going to spend more time on this?』

“Yeah. The rest of my emotions don’t seem like they’ll be resolved with just violence… I’m planning to take her like this for now. It looks like Yeon-ah is starting to move too.”

Saying that, I glanced briefly at those falling from the aircraft carrier in the sky.

Although the dokkaebi hat was a treasure that concealed everything about its wearer, it didn’t work on other dokkaebi hat wearers or on me, a dokkaebi myself.

So, watching Yeon-ah and the person beside her descending to the ground wearing dokkaebi hats, I picked up Hwa-gon.

“There should be time left, shouldn’t I go help with rescuing Neon?”

『That guy who’s the leader of the merfolk came quite quickly. But with the dokkaebi hats, it seems those two should be able to rescue her sufficiently on their own?』

“Still, if possible, I’d like to see it with my own eyes.”

There might be something I need to help with, and I won’t feel at ease unless I confirm her rescue directly.

So, after roughly wiping the blood still remaining on my hands onto my jumper, I prepared to approach the two who were descending and.

Hiss…

“…?!”

Whip–!

At the sudden sound and the ominous energy touching my skin, I widened my eyes and immediately turned my body.

“Kehe… I’m sorry for underestimating you a bit… I’ll use what I was saving till the end, so fight with me a little more…!”

“…You’re quite persistent.”

What entered my eyes then was none other than the figure of Ryoka surrounded by black mist.

Whether that black mist acted as some kind of healing agent, every time the mist swept over Ryoka’s wounded areas, her body was returning to its original state.

Her body, which until just now had been so crippled that even standing seemed impossible, was recovering in an instant.

Unlike just a moment ago when there was nothing, this time I feel something truly dangerous.

“I don’t know what it is, but…”

And the moment I felt that dangerous impression, I immediately opened my palm and showed it.

“Great Jade Flame.”

Along with my muttering, a small white spark floats up above my palm.

Then I lightly blew that spark, which was fluttering like a dandelion seed, with a breath from my mouth.

“Hoo…”

The breath I blew, truly lightly, touches the spark.

A faint wind, as if turning a pinwheel.

However, the result brought by that wind was by no means light.

WHOOSH—–!!!!!

With one breath from my mouth, the small and feeble spark begins to burn fiercely and violently, forming a hemisphere centered on Ryoka.

The Great Jade Flame burns ferociously, aiming to burn only Ryoka, as I controlled the heat of the flames to leak out to the surroundings as little as possible.

But even though I controlled the heat with all my might, the reddened and melted appearance of the ground around her showed how hot those white flames burning in a hemispherical shape were.

Probably even Arashi or Seo-hyun would not be able to guarantee their survival if they were hit by this Great Jade Flame.

The flames I created were that intense, but…

Hiss—

“Khik, such things are of no use.”

Unfortunately, even such flames seemed to be of no use to the current Ryoka.

The unidentified sound from earlier echoes once again from within the Great Jade Flame.

And when the fiercely burning Great Jade Flame disappears, the figure of Ryoka appears, speaking normally while covered entirely in black mist.

“How on earth…”

A questioning tone escapes my mouth at that sight that realistically makes no sense.

As if hearing my questioning tone, Ryoka grins and opens her mouth.

“This is my innate ability, Black Mist. This black mist I handle absorbs everything made of mana and also has physical force in itself. And it’s not just something I handle externally, but like this…”

Trailing off like that, Ryoka spreads her arms to show.

And at her revealed appearance, I finally realized.

Hiss…

Ryoka’s arms repeatedly scattering into black mist and then reconstituting.

It wasn’t that she had covered her body with black mist for protection, but that she herself had been substituted with black mist.

“…Like this, I can convert my physical body itself into black mist.”

The mist that supposedly absorbs everything made of mana becomes her physical body itself.

Faced with an ability even more absurd than Lavina, the succubus who had previously put her main body in a dream, I couldn’t help but let out a bitter laugh.

Not a sneer or a laugh of despair like before, but a laugh that comes from facing a truly unbelievable situation.

“You said you wanted a life-or-death fight… but you’ve pulled out quite a cowardly trick.”

“Ah… it’s embarrassing when you put it that way, like you’ve poked at a sore spot. But I thought it would be okay to bring out this black mist at full power against you.”

“Ha… Why? Because your strength and skills were all inferior to mine, so this was the only option left?”

“Well, yeah. Since all my full power before using this was overwhelmed by you… what could I do? But you can consider it an honor! I’ve only fought like this against the oni from the first village!”

Ending the conversation with such a resounding shout, as if to say now the real battle begins, Ryoka extends black mist towards me like a beam.

Whoosh—!!!

Perhaps because of her words about having physical force, I planted my hand on the ground to block my front against that attack which seemed quite dangerous if hit.

“Rock Wall.”

Rumble—!!

As soon as I place my hand on the ground, a solid wall rises up from the steel floor to block in front of me.

And in the meantime while buying time with the erected rock wall, I tried to widen the distance and prepare my stance.

Hiss—!

“What?!”

If only the rock wall hadn’t disappeared without any resistance at the same time as I kicked off.

The rock wall disappears naturally into the black mist as if sand being washed away by waves, along with the now familiar sound.

“Why are you surprised when you just heard? There’s no way you could block with a wall made of mana!”

“Kuhk…!”

Immediately after Ryoka’s shout, the black mist that had penetrated through the rock wall roughly struck my abdomen.

My body rolls on the ground with a pain that constricts my breath at that blow.

And as soon as I get up from the ground where I had rolled ungracefully, I had to quickly kick off the ground again to avoid the continuous attacks of black mist chasing me.

“Don’t just run away, attack too! You can do it!!”

“Easy for you to say…!”

Boom, crash–! Bang—!!!

Wherever I kick off, black mist strikes down with an eerie sound.

Of course, I tried counterattacking with water, wind, lightning, ice, etc. whenever there was an opening, but against Ryoka who changed her body into mist, they only got neutralized without inflicting any wounds.

In the end, the situation leads back to Ryoka’s one-sided attacks and my evasion.

At least the black mists weren’t that fast, so there was no problem with evading itself, but if attacks came from multiple directions, I would inevitably have to allow one or two hits.

As a result, damage slowly begins to accumulate on my body.

And because of that, the method I chose while only evading was one:

“Dokkaebi hat…!”

At my mutter, an old black hat appears on my left hand.

As I made a move other than attacking for the first time, Ryoka became wary and urgently moved the black mists to try to grab me, but fortunately, they didn’t reach me.

Thump—

And when I put on the dokkaebi hat after avoiding the black mist, my figure disappears from Ryoka’s sight.

Since not only my appearance but everything that existed about me was completely concealed, there was no way for Ryoka to find me.

“Damn it… I don’t know where you hid… but you’re somewhere around here, aren’t you?!”

Her mind seems to be working well, as Ryoka realizes she can’t pinpoint my location and sprays black mist in all directions.

However, there was no chance of the black mist reaching me as I had already risen into the air riding the wind in preparation for this.

And during that brief time gained like that, I knelt on the wind and let Hwa-gon, which I was holding in my right hand, hang down.

“…Hwa-gon, if I wear the mask, can I physically hit that like with Lavina last time?”

『I’m sorry… that seems to be an ability related to the real and unreal, so it’s probably impossible.』

I had hoped that using Hwa-gon might make physical strikes possible, but the answer that came back to my question was negative.

Unlike Lavina’s dream and reality, which were about the real and unreal, Ryoka had simply transformed her body into mist, so it seemed the same thing as before was impossible.

And with that answer, the method was completely blocked.

Since everything I had didn’t work, I had no way to inflict damage on Ryoka.

“If it were a different form, I might have…”

Of all things, she changed her body into this absurd mist that neither physical attacks nor attacks including mana work against, so there’s no way a method exists.

At this point, I was curious enough about that oni from the first village that Ryoka mentioned earlier who could deal with that form.

“…Wait a minute.”

But as I was biting my lip while complaining like that, it was only for a moment.

I suddenly recalled the words I had just muttered and recited them again.

“A different form… a different form?”

The trivial words I had muttered about how if Ryoka’s body were made of something other than black mist, it might have been possible.

However, saying it out loud again, I raised my head at a method that seemed like it might work.

And I shook Hwa-gon again and asked her:

“Wait a moment, Hwa-gon, can you touch that guy’s soul?”

『Soul… you say?』

“Yes, like the ghost spirits, just extracting that guy’s soul. Is it possible?”

『Ah… so that’s it! Hmm, if you ask whether it’s possible or not… it is possible!』

Hwa-gon raises her voice, saying it’s an ingenious idea at my words.

And while giving such praise, Hwa-gon also praised herself, saying that touching the soul was something only she could do among all yokai.

A truly consistent appearance since we first met.

As I let out a faint smile at that, Hwa-gon looked at Ryoka and vibrated a few times, then soon said to me.

『Touching the soul is something even I haven’t done in thousands of years, and this is only the second time, so it might not work properly.』

“Just the possibility is enough.”

『Hmm… And if you want to use that ability of mine… Shin-yeon, you already know what’s needed, right?』

“…Yes, still as disgusting as ever, but.”

At Hwa-gon’s words, I took out the stone mask hanging at my waist and held it in my hand.

Just looking at it makes me feel nauseous.

Feeling like I might vomit from my lower body, I frowned terribly, but soon bit my tongue slightly to gather my wits and covered my face with the stone mask.

Click–.

With a sound of perfect fitting, the stone mask covers my view.

And looking at Ryoka’s figure visible beyond it, I gripped Hwa-gon firmly.

“Phew… let’s go.”

『Yes, let’s go.』

From now on, it will be a little different from just now.

No, it will probably be quite different.