Blood Battle

The Child Demons were sprawling throughout the road of the Residential District. They didn't have a focus, it was chaotic. The grunting, high-pitched screaming fumed out the sprinkles of snow as they rumbled through the white blanket. Many of them ran towards the Market District and to the Industrial District. Many were coming for Ketsueki and Faolan. Some of the demons were attempting to cling themselves onto buildings, but they were having trouble because of the crazed nature of their movements.

Ketsueki, who sliced his palm, attracted what appeared to be the vilest of the child demons whose hunger made them seem much more ferocious than they actually were.

"HUNGERHUNGERHUNGERHUNGERHUBGER…"

"EATEATEAT EAT EATEAT EAT EAT…"

"MOTHERIWILL EATIM HUNGERY MOTHER I NEED TO EAT FORMOTHER."

"EEHHEEEEEHHHEEEEEEEH…"

The demons salivated at the smell of his blood; the demon's perplexions were all of the sorts disfiguring and discomforting to look at, with their caphonically limbs, body parts, with the face of malicious creatures. They ignored civilians that were running for their lives. Their focus was primarily on Ketsueki.

"Faolan! The demons are going to be focused on us, I'm using my Marechi blood to keep them away from the civilians. Get READY." Ketsueki readies himself for battle.

"What, Marechi blood?" Faolan asked, still holding his ground.

"It's some special blood shit that I have! It just makes me more gullible to these bastards, I also use it on my breathing style, of course!" Ketsueki enforced his footing into the snow.

Faolan, who was already in his thunderous state, held his blade within his sheath, ensuring that none of the demons were moving past them. 'Ketsueki's Marechi blood? The demons will attack him and put him in too much danger!' Faolan placed his eyes into his rough palms, the crevices of his skin were pumping, but then his eyes fixed on the demons who were moving onto the other districts; they seemed bothered by it. There was something that he still couldn't paint yet.

'The Demons seemed too organized for this chaos.' Faolan thought.

"FAOLAN, FOCUS WE HAVE TO FOCUS ON THE ONES CLIMBING ONTO THE ROOFS AND GROUND LEVEL! I WILL FOCUS DOWN HERE. YOU STOP HOWEVER MUCH YOU CAN FROM ESCAPING THE DISTRICT! EVERYONE HAS BEEN COATED WITH A HINT OF MY BLOOD!" Ketsueki's blade thickens like a sponge, and the blood drips into the snow, brushing it red.

"If everyone has been coated with a "hint" of your blood, then why are you spilling more? You'll just attract more to yourself!" stated Faolan with a distraught expression.

"That's the point! Now Go!" Ordered Ketsueki.

As much as Faolan didn't want to leave Ketsueki, he understood why he made such a decision. Faolan didn't want to dwell on it, what he needed to do now was stop the demons from taking the lives of innocent people. Nodding to Ketsueki, he departed like a lightning bolt, he burned through the snow, moving forward while the Demons did not care, they kept surrounding Ketsueki.

"I have to get them off the buildings!" Faolan hopped onto some large wooden carts that led him to jump onto the roof, to where multiple child demons were scrambling on the slippery snow.

Faolan's expression focused on the child demons who now smelled the Marechi hint of scent on him. They turned to him, salivating,

"Five of them," analyzed Faolan.

Faolan's eyes weakened at the sight of his enemies. The torn nature of their bodies and the malicious energy that perfumed from their body. Faolan tilts his head diagonally back into focus and prepares for an attack.

The child demons arm themselves with the intent to attack, and they hunger for blood, and the grotesque nature of their appearances disfigured the snow at their clawed legs and feet.

"yOuR , yoU smeeLl sOoO good!" A demon with profuse veins appearing from its bald head

"I waNa eaT," a demon that was much smaller than the rest elongated its claws.

Faolan inhales, readying himself for the perfect opening.

Faolan emanates an aura of electricity, extending his legs, with his right forward and his left leg behind him, but then a thought zapped through his eyes and into his mind.

'More demons are climbing up to the other side. They will definitely overrun the town!'

Ketsueki's words flooded back into his vision, "We can't save everyone…"

Faolan could not accept this kind of mentality no matter the case; the sprinkles of snow electrified into embers, no matter if he understood the truth of it.

"I–I need enough time to stop them all!"

He glances back at his clenched hand that holds the sheath of his blade.

"This is what I'll have to do."

He slowly draws his blade.

————————————

"Come here, you little shits," Ketsueki focused on his targets; he won't be easily toyed with again.

"MY CHILDRENMYCHILDREN, MY CHILDREN," the Mother Demon continued to cry out.

"ARRRRRGGGGHHHHH!" a child demon now rushes on its four limbs to kill Ketsueki.

"YOURE YOURE MINE HAHAAHAH!" another child demon pushes itself from the snow with a disastrously sized talon.

Ketsueki tightened his grip to his hilt, causing the slice in his palm to ooze red blood along his hilt. He held the blade close to his chest and widened himself accordingly.

"Focus, focus, focus." His eyes scanned the two demons that were going to strike him. Five other demons were also attacking, one had a horn, another with jagged teeth, a demon with thicker talons, the fourth had a gaping jaw of a snake, and the last demon ran with a malicious smile and wide eyes. His eyes fixed back on the demon breaking through the snow with its four limbs like a beast and then the demon's disastrously long-sized talon that was the closest.

"Breath Of Blood: First Style: Bloody Swing!"

His blade turned thick and bloody, much longer than it was originally. Ketsueki rapidly slid on his right knee; it crashed through the snow, exploding the snowy participles as the red blood of his blade drenched itself into the demon's disastrously sized talon, and with the back of his left leg, he splashed it into the snow and spun it so the demon could fall to the white blanket.

The demon attacking like a beast, pounced from the snow, leaving a trail of exploding snow. Ketsueki quickly placed his bloodied blade over his shoulder and punctures the demon's throat. The blood spilled over his head and onto his attire before the demon could slice his neck. He flinched his body to slice the demon's neck instantly, leaving the demon to rip his haori and a bit of his scarf.

In another swift motion, he instantly cuts through the neck of the demon's disastrously sized talon. Leaving them both in a bloodied mist as they dissipate.

"FOCUS, FOCUS!" Ketsueki grits his teeth and blood flows onto the white snow.

He positions himself up quickly for the next five demons that are about to strike. The demon with a horn was the next closest to attacking him,

"MAMA MAAAAAAMA!!!!!

The demon takes a swipe for Ketsueki's forearm, but he elbows the soft palm-like area of the demon into itself. The blood inside of the demon clots and crushes within itself; when Ketsueki slashes its neck clean into a spray of red, the snowflakes discolored itself in red. Hearing those cries disgusted him. They weren't human. They were just demons.

Ketsueki pummeled the demon with jagged teeth with his hilt onto the bloodied snow that surrounded him.

"ARGGH!"

The demon with jagged teeth was stunned under the tinted red snow. "UHUAHAHAUGHUHAHA,"

The demon with much thicker talons swung its massive talons for Ketsueki's shoulder. He easily dodges it as he slices the left arm of the thicker-taloned demon in an upwardly left diagonal motion; the blood of the creature spewed into a crescent shape. Ketsueki then breathed quickly as he injected the bloodied blade into the demon's chest, crunching the blood of the demon when splitting the demon into two, showing off its multi-layered ribcage, and finally decapitating the demon into a bloody mess, swinging to his right.

Allowing his blade to fly right, he crunches through the rib of the gaping-jawed demon; Ketsueki saws his blade into the rib demon.

"AAAAAAAAAGGHHHHHH!"

The demon cried out in pain, the rumble and tumble of its bones melting itself with his blood, as its internal organs spilled out, and he instantly cut into the neck of the demon.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!" The last demon child just across the bloodied blanket of snow laughed. Its mouth salivated off its disgusting lips. Dripping onto the snow, it dis-purifying the white snow with a gross grey.

Ketsueki repositioned himself as he recovered from the rapid movements, the demon with the jagged teeth was still caved into the snow. Ketsueki looked down upon that child demon who was aching in pain and saw it flinch. His eye twitched and sliced its neck. A bloody mist dissipated the demon.

"What the hell are you laughing at?" questioned Ketsueki, holding his bloodied blade along the red snow that surrounded him.

'THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP'

Ketsueki quickly turned to strike whatever was going to strike him from behind, and the red snow particles flew up from the swiftness of his speed. However, there was nothing behind him. What he saw was that hopeless boy darting through the snow, leaving a trail of blood along with the snow with several demons following him.

"Huh?" Ketsueki was visibly confused.

Faolan was packing the demons with the scent of his own blood, he rushed towards the edge of the building, but the demons that were already on the roof were instantly turning to the scent of his blood before he could see them. The moon reflected the blade on his back brightly.

"He's gathering the demons with his own blood. Does he also have Marechi blood?" Ketsueki shook his head in confusion, the thoughts of the attack on his home village.

"Could that be it?"

"Whatever his blood is, it's extremely potent… to the demons, even more than mine…. what the shit," Ketsueki watched in amazement.

"This kid."

Faolan rolled into the snow, covering himself with the blanket of snow. The white snow flew even into his hair. He had gathered about fifteen demons at his back, and this was the most he could do for now. The demons were rapidly catching up with him, and his blood was too enticing for the demons.

"Okay, it's time to prepare myself!" Faolan short-hopped onto the snow and cut through the snow, landing into his fighting stance. He focused on the school of demons that was getting much closer.

The view of the demons nearly saddened him. However, Faolan needed to do what needed to be done. To protect the people from harm from those who cause them. Faolan inhales, and for a split second, he blinks—

'SplSshhhhhhh."

Faolan, opening his eyes, saw that the demons had disappeared, completely vanished from their very place. There was only the blood of the demons burrowing into the snow.

"What ha-happened? Did they just die?" Faolan quickly analyzed the floor to rationalize what could happen next.

'Last week, Ketsueki and Arashi both found a pond of water, whence blood oozed when Ketsueki struck it,'

—"Could this mean that the demons!"

Ketsueki had also noticed that the demons had dissipated.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" That wide-eyed demon was still there.

"Wait, where is the mother?" Ketsueki had lost focus.

"Shit–no!" Ketsueki readied his blade,

The red snowy ground around Ketsueki was infesting itself with blood from the direction of both the market district and the industrial district and from where Faolan stood.

Faolan shouted out, "Ketsueki, watch the ground!" He sprinted for Ketsueki.

The bloodied snow burst upwards, and a violent eruption cracked the snow and the wooden buildings that surrounded it. A shockwave of a blast flung Faolan into one of the wooden buildings of the Residential District. He crashed into a building, shredding a portion of the sleeves of his haori. In the building, Faolan felt that there were some civilians that were inside, scared of the violent crash.

The rattles of plates, woodwork and paper tumbled and rumbled over each other. Several planks had fallen over Faolan harshly, knocking his head downwards. The snow slowly crept its way inside, melting into the shattered inner woodwork of the planks.

———————————

Faolan was dazed. The world spun from his very vision, he wanted to get to his feet, but his body felt numb, with a sharp pain cutting across his jaw. The snowy mists outside further invaded the building, turning the brown woodwork now into frozen planks.

"Get up…. get up.." Faolan heard the voices of the civilians speak to him, attempting to reawaken his head from the blurry images of the snowflakes. Faolan couldn't see them, and it was so blurry.

'Ketsueki…' the civilians help Faolan back to his feet. Faolan pushes the broken, shattered planks of wood from his chest.

"Save us….."

"Don't quit….."

"Please…."

Faolan returned back to Ketsueki. His mind gave him a clear picture of what had just happened. The people that were trying to help him to his feet. He can feel their spirit, and they are in need.

"They need someone to help."

"I need to go to Ketsueki."

"Ketsueki needs me."

"Everyone needs us now!"

Faolan hammered his chest to wake himself up from the stunned nature. With every beat beaten into his chest, he shook his head.

"Thank You."

Then the voices of the civilians disappeared.

Faolan felt a new rush fill him now. He didn't know where the civilians went as he stepped back into the snowy night; he assumed that they had gone into hiding. The moon's light shined over him now, glimmering a new light within his eyes.

Getting him back to himself.

He saw where Ketsueki was, and he had also been flung from the blast. He was unconscious, his scarf still wrapped around his face, yet his entire outfit was now damaged, with tears of cuts.

The same applied to Faolan. He could feel some internal cuts from within his demon slayer attire, and there were cuts within his hakama pants as well.

Faolan was on his own now, and he had to fend off a powerful demon…..the demon wasn't just hungry or powerless. Faolan observes the Mother Demon again; he thinks back to earlier.

'Organized yet chaotic.'

Faolan didn't feel any hatred for this demon, and he was not sure what to feel. He visibly expressed pity. Even with all the destruction and the lives lost.

'Should I be feeling this way?'

Faolan didn't know, and he felt pain in his chest. He was unsure.