CHAPTER 20: CHAPTER 20: HAMMERSTRING!

’Does it hurt my body you ask?’

’Of course it hurts!’

He’d been slashed by a Demon, after all!

Yet the agony in his heart far outweighed the pain in his body.

A body forged through relentless training wouldn’t crumble from mere physical torment.

So, the instant Doma turned, the Heavenly Artisan’s Forging Hammer was already in his grip.

He knew the power gap all too well.

He understood the strength of Upper Moon Two better than anyone.

But what did that matter?

Waiting to die or helplessly awaiting rescue were not options Sosuke would ever accept.

’So... fuck you, Doma! Fuck you, Twelve Kizuki!’

"You’ve injured me like this, and you even killed the woman I love in the original story! No matter who you are—even if you’re just a piece of iron—I’ll hammer you to death!"

Sun Breathing—First Form: Gale Sun!

Blood burned like fire, his heart pounded like a war drum, and fury erupted within him.

Doma whirled around, only to be met with a sky full of hammer shadows!

"What the hell is this?"

He had seen countless sword techniques, but what was this? Hammer technique?

In his moment of shock, a hammer had already fallen, striking his iron fan with a clang.

"Is that all you’ve got?"

Doma regained his composure. In his eyes, neither Shinobu nor Sosuke were worth his attention.

The only one who truly deserved his respect was that Pillar.

The Pillar’s seemingly frail body belied a power and speed that far exceeded Doma’s expectations.

Moreover, Sosuke had exposed his Blood Demon Art, which was fused with freezing air, preventing it from functioning as intended. As a result, Doma had been completely overwhelmed throughout the entire battle.

The crucial factor was that the blade in her hand seemed to have been tampered with. The wounds it inflicted on him healed at an unprecedentedly slow rate.

These circumstances led him to a sudden inspiration: using the Crystalline Divine Child of his Blood Demon Art, he created five Ice Puppets to restrain her, then charged out to kill Sosuke and Shinobu.

His primary target was Shinobu, but he hadn’t anticipated the Swordsmith’s sudden intervention. The man had unexpectedly lunged forward and, with clumsy movements, evaded his Blood Demon Art.

And now... he was launching a completely nonsensical, patternless attack against him.

"This is utterly absurd! Can’t you even die properly?"

After enduring the barrage, Doma’s thoughts turned to: "You could have merged with me, gained eternal life. Why this foolish resistance?"

"Too weak..."

He managed to utter just two words, yet Sosuke’s relentless assault felt like rain battering a banana leaf. Countless hammer shadows rained down, each strike following the last in an endless barrage.

This relentless assault left him no chance to mount an effective counterattack in the short term. Yet his feet remained rooted to the spot; retreating even a single step would mean defeat. "Even if this hammering continues forever, what harm could it possibly do to me?"

Sosuke paid no heed to Doma’s words.

In truth, the moment the first hammer struck Doma’s iron fan, what rang in his ears was...

[Hardness -1]

[Resilience -1]

This notification instantly snapped his mind out of its white-hot focus, granting him a sliver of clarity.

The collision between his forging hammer and Doma’s weapon was actually depleting the weapon’s attributes!

This unexpected outcome led him to make a split-second decision:

Shatter his weapon!

He focused on controlling the precise impact point of each hammer strike, aiming to deplete the attributes of Doma’s weapon as much as possible.

In reality, he barely needed to aim. Unwilling to be struck by the forging hammer, Doma actively maneuvered his iron fan beneath Sosuke’s Heavenly Artisan’s Forging Hammer.

To Doma, the hammer strikes sounded like rain drumming on banana leaves.

But to Sosuke, they were accompanied by a series of notifications, like the same rain drumming on banana leaves...

[Hardness -2]

[Hardness -5]

[Resilience -5]

[Hardness -10]

The sounds were like heavenly music. He didn’t know exactly how much of Doma’s combat power came from his weapon, but he knew that shattering it would inevitably weaken his opponent’s attacks.

Combat... was fundamentally a game of give and take!

In that moment, the burning flame in his chest seemed to finally find an outlet.

’Hammering the iron is my specialty!’

The onslaught of Gale Sun had ended, yet Doma’s weapon remained intact, his face still bearing that seemingly genuine smile—one that could be seen through instantly as utterly fake.

"I can’t stop!!!"

Any pause would be fatal. He couldn’t give his opponent even a moment’s respite!

The Heavenly Artisan’s Forging Hammer, which had momentarily faltered, surged forward again with renewed force. Clang, clang, clang! Clang, clang, clang!

Shinobu, standing nearby, watched in stunned disbelief. A hammer against a Demon? What kind of tactic was this? And what should she do? Intervene? Would she only get in the way?

A sudden wave of despondency washed over her. Why, at this critical moment, did she feel like the only one who was useless?

Meanwhile, high above the battlefield, Kanae, her mind in turmoil, had been held back by the last remaining Ice Puppet. But when she sensed the shift in the battle, a single glance lit up her heart.

’He’s alive!’

For her, that was the greatest comfort of all.

With a swift turn of the blade, a steady mind, and a steady hand, a rain of blossoms filled the air in an instant!

Breath of the Flower—Fifth Form: Peonies of futility!

The sword’s shadow resembled a peony, its strikes converging from all directions onto a single point. Petals seemed to scatter between the sword’s trails, yet flames danced around them.

In a mere moment, a shattering sound rang out as the Ice Puppet before them completely shattered into fragments.

Turning back, another ding of shattering echoed in their ears. Slightly stunned, they focused their gaze and saw that only half of Doma’s iron fan remained.

Meanwhile, Sosuke, the mad blacksmith, was inhumanly wielding the Heavenly Artisan’s Forging Hammer, relentlessly smashing the Demon’s head!

Doma was utterly bewildered!

’This swordsmith! He actually shattered my iron fan?’

’And now he’s still hitting my head with that broken hammer? What is this? Blacksmithing?’

Incapable of feeling any emotion by nature, Doma felt no anger, only surprise at this unexpected turn of events.

No matter how he pondered it, there seemed to be no logical reason for this to have happened.

’This guy... he’s so weak!’

Having lost his weapons and with nothing left to compete with Sosuke,

Doma seemed to have broken free from some kind of restraint.

Amidst the storm of hammer shadows, he seized Sosuke’s neck. His neck was burning hot, like a branding iron!

Slowly pulling him closer, Doma gazed at the face marred by injuries, its mask shattered and stained with blood. "How utterly filthy."

With those words, he tightened his grip, ready to strangle Sosuke to death.

A frigid blade descended from the sky, blood splattering as an arm was severed in a single strike.

____

P.S. If you are loving it so far, give me Power Stones and add this fanfic to your collection.