Tobio struggled to stand.
His body trembled, one knee touching the ground before he forced himself back up. His hand clutched his abdomen, still burning from my Demon Palm. Blood dripped from the corner of his mouth, but his gaze remained sharp—stubborn in that classic protagonist way that refused to give up.
Seeing him like that and… yeah, I felt a bit guilty. Just a bit.
'Come on… he's a main character in this world's setting. There's no way he goes down from one Demon Palm, right?'
Tobio lifted his face, eyes sweeping the battlefield. Kouki? Already half-unconscious on the floor. Sae? Too busy stopping my tiny slime from jumping onto her face to keep fighting. His team? No longer able to help.
The only one left was him.
And the black entity that always stood behind him.
Jin—the shadow wolf—appeared again, his body growing by a few centimeters every second, responding to his master's condition.
Tobio took a deep breath.
"Looking at this… it's not balanced," he said in a low but steady voice.
He raised a hand toward Jin, the shadow around his feet pulsing as if alive.
"In that case… I'll destroy that balance."
He called out, loud, as if summoning a beast that had long awaited this moment.
"Jin!"
The wolf lifted his head, and his roar echoed like a voice from another dimension—deep, heavy, splitting the air like a black blade. Shadows surged wildly around Tobio; not only from the floor, but from the ruins, from cracks in the wood, from every crevice touched by darkness. All of it was drawn into him, like a gravity possessed only by demonic creatures.
And at that moment—
I raised an eyebrow.
'Oooh… so you're really going to use it? Balance Break, huh?'
Tobio's body cracked with dark light—black glowing lines crawled fast across his skin, intersecting with silver aura that shifted like forced submission. The air pressure around us shifted drastically: heavier. Denser. Colder. As if every breath was a warning.
Canis Lykaon trembled… not like a weapon, but like a creature growling from within his body.
"BALANCE BREAKER!!"
I felt the wave of mental pressure crash in as that form emerged—not human, not wolf, but something destined to exist between darkness.
Night Celestial Slash Dogs.
Tobio transformed completely: his entire body coated in pitch-black fur that devoured light, his muscles swelling hard, and from his arms grew shadow blades twitching eagerly to tear anything apart. Even his gaze changed—golden eyes no longer looking at me as a human, but as a target.
"HAHAHAHA! Come here!!" I shouted, laughter erupting uncontrollably. Not out of arrogance—but because I had been genuinely waiting for this. Come on. Show me. How far can I go against the power system of this world?
I lowered my center of gravity, my aura cracking like scraped metal.
"Come. Don't hold back."
Tobio vanished—truly vanished. And only the tearing sound of the air served as warning.
The epic battle began right here!
Tobio disappeared.
Not just fast—he ripped through space. A small "crack" sounded as the spot he stood in compressed under a burst of rebounding shadows.
I tilted my head slightly.
Left side.
A shadow blade swept for my throat in an almost perfect horizontal arc. I raised my arm, blocking it with the outside of my elbow—my bones shaking harshly under the raw force of the Balance Breaker form.
Tobio fully appeared. His golden eyes wide—pure predator instinct.
"KE-RAHH—!!"
The second strike didn't wait.
The blade from his right arm stretched, elongating like a shadow whip. I stepped back half a step, leaning my torso, letting it pass just millimeters from my chest. The sliced wind felt like a cold blade.
His technique… increased several times compared to his normal form.
Not only faster—he was reading my body's responses.
Tobio twisted his wrist. Six shadow blades formed around me in half a second, arranged in a pattern resembling a kill-zone perimeter.
'So this is the full version of Night Celestial Slash Dogs.'
I knew one feature of Canis Lykaon's Balance Breaker—automatic shadow slashes that react to the enemy's movement. Like an auto-assault system fueled by the user's aura intensity.
And sure enough—
The moment I shifted my foot to advance, three blades shot toward me.
I ducked.
Two blades crossed above my head, slicing through rubble like cutting wax. The third stabbed into the floor, erupting chunks of concrete everywhere.
I landed, using the momentum from the collapsing debris.
Tobio lunged.
Claws and shadow blades merging into one motion. He swung downward, forming a vertical strike that split the air. I blocked with my left arm, angling my shoulder to maintain balance.
BRAAK—!!
A shockwave traveled from my arm down to my spine.
"Faster!" I shouted while twisting my waist.
I countered—a straight right punch to his jaw.
Tobio raised his arm, blocking. His body only stumbled two steps back.
He growled low, his shadow vibrating—then bursting into another automatic attack.
Shadow Fang Array.
A relentless assault targeting every blind spot.
I kicked the ground, shattering the floor to disrupt the attack pattern.
The shadow blades adjusted their trajectory in a split second.
'Adaptive tracking… quite troublesome.'
One blade aimed for my back. I ducked, spun, deflecting it with minimal force to redirect the angle. The blade embedded itself into a brick wall, melting the part it touched.
Tobio jumped high—his shadow stretching, creating an afterimage that deceived the eyes.
I saw him descending like a black arrow.
One second before he hit, I focused force into my legs.
BOOM—!
I blasted myself backward, and Tobio crashed into the ground, creating a small crater.
The earth split.
Tobio turned toward me with unnatural speed. Shadow blades sprouted from his back like demonic spears.
He lunged again.
I smiled faintly.
"This is what I've been waiting for."
I stepped into his range.
Not retreating—closing in.
The one area where his shadows couldn't react perfectly.
Tobio was stunned for a fraction of a second—and that was enough.
I raised my knee, slamming his abdomen with a clean strike.
DUAARR!!
Tobio was blown back, but instead of flying straight, his shadow pulled his body into a spin mid-air. He landed on all fours, posture low like a beast ready to kill.
His golden eyes flared.
He was about to strike again. Wilder. More brutal. The air between us throbbed like a heart struggling to stay alive.
I lifted my chin slightly, staring at Tobio without taking even half a step back.
'If only… I had a real sword.'
It was just a fleeting thought. Brief. Unimportant.
Then the slime on my shoulder—who had been trembling like a restless kitten this whole time—jumped into my hand. Its soft body wrapped around my wrist… and transformed.
Its texture hardened. Its temperature rose sharply. From a gel-like transparent body, it solidified into a clear blade—translucent, yet gleaming like crystal reflecting a light from another world.
The slender sword snapped perfectly into my grip.
I froze for a moment.
'…Hah!? What the hell is this!? You can turn into a sword!?'
No one answered, of course. The slime only shimmered softly.
No time to think—Tobio had already lunged.
The dense black aura pouring from his body swept across the room like a wave of burning smoke. Shadow-blades on his back flared outward like the spines of an enraged beast.
I took a single breath.
And my body moved.
We clashed—two lines of speed tearing through the air.
CLANGG!!
The first impact exploded. The slime-blade—whatever its name was now—held against Tobio's shadow sword with impossible clarity. No cracks. No shaking.
'This… isn't light. Not heavy either. Precise.'
Tobio attacked without rhythm—wild strikes with the structured instinct of a predator.
I countered with movements carved into my body long ago—
Heavenly Demon Martial Arts.
Trained motion. Soft on the outside, brutal within. Flowing like wind, but breaking like a storm.
Tobio swung from the side. I pivoted half a step, letting the strike pass while sweeping back with an elbow—he blocked it with a shadow fang.
The slime-blade curved, slicing diagonally, creating an arc of pale blue light.
Tobio's blade collided with it.
DOOONG—!!
The shockwave split the floor into two long lines of cracks.
Tobio growled. I smirked faintly.
'Alright. Now this is getting interesting.'
We shot at each other—faster, sharper.
Tobio attacked like a dark tempest, following the laws of his supernatural strength:
Shadows reacting automatically to his killing intent.
I danced with martial arts that shouldn't exist in this world—
Demon Palm, Demon Twist, and Heaven-Sundering Palm techniques minimized so they wouldn't kill a character as important as him.
The slime-sword shifted its shape slightly with each impact, adjusting its structure every time I swung it.
'Seriously…'
Tobio lunged again, his eyes nothing but two blazing gold slits.
I bent my knees slightly. Countered.
And two forces a distorted divine beast's shadow power and martial arts from the murim world collided.
...
Ten minutes felt like several hours—a long fight between two people equally stubborn and equally unwilling to die. In the end, it wasn't about who was strongest… but who could stay standing longer.
Tobio finally collapsed into a sitting position, his body shrinking back to human form. His breathing ragged, shoulders rising and falling like he'd just been dragged out of hell.
His black wolf—Jin—who earlier became a monster of darkness, shrank into something closer to a small dog. His black fur was messy, his body trembling, and he could only curl up beside his master with a weak whimper.
Meanwhile I… was still standing.
Though honestly, my knees were definitely planning to betray me within seconds.
'Okay… maybe I enjoyed that fight a bit too much.'
I gave a small smile.
"I think you were still holding back," I said while resting the slime-sword on my shoulder.
Tobio snorted, wiping the blood from the corner of his lips.
"Urgh… speak for yourself."
He wasn't wrong. From the beginning I adjusted the force of my techniques. And he, despite those wild golden eyes, never aimed to stab my heart. We were both idiots, both stubborn, both unwilling to kill someone who felt… fun to fight.
Strange, really. But that's how it was.
I tilted my head upward. Something was above—traces of energy, light footsteps moving quickly.
'Hm. Reinforcements, huh? If they're from Tobio's side… I probably shouldn't be here when they show up.'
I stretched my shoulders.
"That was fun," I said, looking at the half-conscious Tobio. "Let's meet again. Next time… I won't hold back."
Tobio tried to spit a curse, but only raspy breath came out.
I slapped my palm against the floor—the shadow beneath me spread like dark ink.
Shadow Step.
My body vanished from the scene, swept away by a thin wave of shadow that left only a faint tremor in the air.
And as I disappeared, one thing crossed my mind.
'…Tomorrow is definitely going to hurt.'
//-AN-//
I've read your comments on the previous chapter 18, and I appreciate all your feedback on the story.
If that's the case, then the main character's power system will focus on martial arts. Besides making him more interesting, it also makes him an anomaly in this world.
I think there needs to be a clear background to the main character's powers, along with an explanation that makes sense to the other characters in the world.
And since this is a world where Sacred Gears are the most prominent power system, I decided to give the main character one. Besides making his power development more focused, at least he'll have a partner to accompany him along the way—not just living and talking alone.