The figure exploded into action, leaping from their position with arms outstretched towards me.
I swiftly rolled to the right and avoided getting maimed by the sharp claws, only having to leap myself as the figure made its way towards me once again.
Some scattered nicknacks were crushed with her violent leap and some contained filled with stagnant water burst open from her clawed hands, staining the floor dirty puddles.
A symphony of classical music made its way into my ears as I was staring down the figure from the other side of the wide room. I couldn't help but visibly frown from the distracting melodies that seemingly came from nowhere but the origin of the sounds became clear once the figure underneath the cloak revealed smirk full of fangs-
"Urk?!!"
A sharp pain came from my side and from the edge of my vision, I saw a knife digging it's way further inside me.
It was less of a thought and more of an reflexive instinct that made my hand reach on to the knife to pull it out-
"Grk!!!"
-before another sharp pain exploded from my hand and side. I couldn't help but turn my eyes to look and saw another knife impaling my hand to my side before I saw more flashes in the darkness immediately moved further back.
The figure landed on the spot where that I vacated and contrary to my expectations, didn't get impaled. The knives that flew towards them stopped dead in their tracks and refused to budge a millimeter closer. The figure spoke of something but the music refused to leave my ears.
Instead, taking the opportunity, I yanked the knives out of my side and my hand and snapped their blades before letting the shards fall to the ground along with my blood.
Luscious crimson red stained the dirty floor.
The figure slicked their tongue over their fangs once at the sight. I couldn't heal myself without blowing my cover as the holy energies of the spell would be as obvious as a lighthouse in the dark of night.
More knives flew under the cover of the room's darkness, a human would have been made into a porcupine by now but my eyes caught the slight glint they made from the minimal lighting of candle fire. Unfortunately, as I made another dodge from the attempts of the figure, our leap created the gust of wind that dealt the final blow to the weak flames and was extinguished, completely bathing the room in complete and utter darkness.
The clangorous sounds driving out my hearing, the stab wounds by my side, and now I might as well be as blind as a bat trying to avoid this being doing their best leapfrog impression at me...
Clicking my tongue in annoyance, I unleashed a burst of Danmaku around me.
The brief light allowed me to the knives that were hit disintegrate into nothing but the figure disappeared as soon as they set foot on the ground by melding into it. Not taking the chance, I bombarded the area where they disappeared and I something other than wood chunks hit my cheek. It was soft and wet, smelled faintly of iron-
Blood.
Not letting down my guard, I unleashed another burst of Danmaku around me as I turned around, just in time to see another knife disintegrate before it stabbed me.
Getting tired of this state, I drew up another set of Danmaku that would be the lighting of the room.
There, the figure a few paces away, opened their mouth and spoke of something. The music in my ears prevented me from hearing their voice and the mouthful of fangs made the visual pronunciation different from a human's but the mockery was clear as day.
I consolidated another Danmaku but the figure vanished again.
Irked but rational, I released another burst around me while holding up the Danmaku.
Silence.
I looked up directly above me and found nothing. Around me it was peaceful save for the cracking pillars and pews- wait.
On a smaller shrine further inside the room were bloody organs. Hearts, livers, intestines and even a brain were placed as an offering.
I glanced back at the floor I bombarded earlier and stepped closer to check, paying no mind to the odds and ends scattered around.
But as I got closer with growing apprehension, nothing happened save for the fact that beneath the floorboards are also filled to bursting of similar organs.
I stepped back in disgust only to find myself slipping on a puddle and falling.
Arms- dozens of them, began to drag me down in the green water, intent to keep me here.
I didn't trash in panic.
What came was worse for them.
Another burst of Danmaku, then another and another and another and another and another and another and another and another and-
The green waters were disgusting, cold and earthy of algae as the stagnant liquid was disrupted by the arms unrelenting as they too, trashed and grabbed and squeezed and clawed, anything the came close to their grasp was either crushed or maimed. Even as the pale appendages were burst or torn from the force of my attack, they held unto me with unnatural strength.
My sight was robbed of me once more as the arms wrapped me in a cocoon of limbs and the melody in my ears have since turned into a cancanophy of horrible screeches from instruments long past their prime.
I forcefully and successfully suppressed the panick that threatened to overwhelm me. The shudders, meanwhile, were an involuntary trauma response to someone else holding my head but some hands thought it smart to dig their hands into my flesh from the earlier stab wounds-
They thought wrong.
With the pain as a wake-up from my fear, Danmaku appeared in the waters once more. This time, they were small and numerous like the bubbles in a fizzy drink.
Small. And numerous.
In an imitation of what I think would happen when one predator disturbs a number of pistol shrimps.
A loud resounding explosion rocked my entirety, briefly disrupting the horrendous racket in my ears. The cocoon I found myself trapped in was agreed and disintegrated as I flew out of whatever water I came from and back into the room with bloody foundations.
Learning my lesson, I unleashed another burst of Danmaku to buy me a few seconds as I prepared a batch that was specifically higher temperature and released it as a wave close to the floor, boiling and evaporating the puddles of water in a flash of a moment.
The music, now unrecognisable as such, never stopped.
The fight isn't over yet and my patience is running thin. Noise so loud and indiscernible from the screaming wails of forsaken souls strike my mind like a tungsten mallet. If the sounds I hear now were to be physical, no doubt would my head burst from the sheer volume.
Another cordial release of Danmaku revealed a strong thud of vibration on the floor behind me, slightly to the left.
As swiftly as I could, I focus-fired on the spot with great intensity using an experiment version of an original.
[Subsume Demise: Drain Bomb!]
An attack inspired from what happened during the sports festival. It drags anything in a small area towards itself and uses what it absorbs to fuel the explosion.
No matter how quick my attacker is, if they get dragged by one, I can use the small gap of seconds to fire off a second.
Unfortunately, it seemed that whatever the figure did to disappear took precedence and they escaped before my new spell could reach it's final phase.
This time however, the noise faltered significantly before it resumed, albeit it began showing struggle to reach the same potency as before.
When the mist of blood, flesh and wood dust cleared, the figure was nowhere to be found.
The game of wait-and-see resumes again.
But even when essentially deaf and injured, I'm confident I wouldn't lose.
Worse comes to worst, I'll just destroy the entire room.
.
..
...
Any time now...
.
..
...
Huh? Did they leave? No, I shouldn't let my guard down.
.
..
...
The music disappeared... Are they really gone?... Maybe I should fire a few more just in case.
Another burst or three of Danmaku later, there was still no sign of the figure even after I decimated the shrine and offerings. Although I do admit that it was therapeutic to release so much Danmaku again after a while but a small part of me was frustrated that it ended so quickly.
I left the ruined room shortly afterwards. And, in addition, no matter what anyone else said, I did not pout doing so.
~~~
"Grrh..."
A cloaked figure dropped from the ceiling with a hard thud. Blood drips almost rhythmically from the wounds, large chunks of flesh missing from the body of the figure.
"Wha-?!" An arm clutches one of the gaping holes in a futile attempt to stop the flood of lifeblood to no avail. "H-how?... Why does it hurt so much? Why isn't it healing like it used to?!"
Unbeknownst to the being, Kizuki's newly self-developed move didn't just hurt them, it also took away a fraction of their power.
"Kill... I'll kill him. Tear him to pieces and eat his innards raw, I'd-"
And, unknown to both parties, a sliver of sanity was regained by the figure as evidence by their complete and coherent sentences. Whether this was for good or for ill remains to be seen, although it does seem to lean towards the latter at the moment...
Meanwhile, Kizuki sneezed, fully knowing that the most likely caused was the figure metaphorically cursing him. The Rokurokubi blissfully unaware that his attack did more than just injured the figure.
The figure limped away with slow and steady steps, taking care not to spill too much blood. A believer who turned a corner saw the figure but didn't know who they were and offered to help, only to be met with a a mouth full of fangs and darkness as they were pulled beneath the cloak.
The figure chewed briefly, not minding the sicknening sounds coming from their mouth and swallowed.
"Not enough." They muttered, before continuing to limp away.
That night, fourteen more people disappeared.
~~~~~Omake~~~~~
DinoGirl(Admin): hws evry1 doin?
DinoGirl(Admin): m ok
AlienQueen: aight
AlienQueen: borin nthn 2 do
BigSis(Mod): Awful
BigSis(Mod): I interned under Uwabawi expecting valuable experience
BigSis(Mod): Instead I ended up as a model
BigSis(Mod): No patrols no hero tips no networking
BigSis(Mod): Just photoshoots and commercials
Yaomomo(Mod): Truly? I originally intended to intern under her as well.
Yaomomo(Mod): It was Kenta-kun who persuaded me otherwise.
RightAround: guess being so independent can bite you back eh?
RedDragon: Oh yeah
RedDragon: that did happen
RedDragon: forgot bout that
Kizuki who was reading the chatgroup also felt bad for forgetting.
EarphoneJack: you didnt ask anyone about who you were interning with?
EarphoneJack: even I asked my parents about it at least
BigSis(Mod): No
BigSis(Mod): I got distracted and forgot about it
DinoGirl(Admin): Distracted. You?
DinoGirl(Admin): Mgt as well say I shld buy a lottery ticket
Yaomomo(Mod): It does seem unlikely, doesn't it?
BigSis(Mod): it's true!
BigSis(Mod): I saw this really cool bike on a vid and there was a race then a set vlog
BigSis(Mod): next thing I knew it was already the deadline
DinoGirl(Admin): oof
EarphoneJack: happens to the best of us
NurseFetish(Mod): Look on the bright side
NurseFetish(Mod): At least you weren't slapped with twenty different NDAs
AlienQueen: Why?
AlienQueen: nt lke it's illegal righm?
NurseFetish(Mod): I am legally required to answer yes
AlienQueen: ...
BigSis(Mod): Please tell me you're not doing anything dangerous
NurseFetish(Mod): I am legally required to answer yes
AlienQueen: ...
BigSis(Mod): ...
DinoGirl(Admin): bruh
EarphoneJack: is there anything you can tell legally tell us truthfully?
NurseFetish(Mod): Depends
NurseFetish(Mod): @MisakaStan how much do you think she can handle?
EarphoneJack: what
DinoGirl(Admin): spicy gossip? I'm in!
AlienQueen: @Incognito
Incognito: here
Incognito: Spill
EarphoneJack: this is not what I meant!!!
MisakaStan: Too late