49 Chapter 49

While the standoff continued, Goemon's fur suddenly stood on end, and she felt a cold, slippery sensation beginning from the base of her tail all the way to the tip of her ears.

Before she knew it, she found herself on the ground.

Boom!

The sound of wood breaking soon assaulted her ears as soon as she came to her senses.

Looking up, she could see Tsukiko falling down from the tree she had just been perched on moments ago.

The tree was now broken and falling to the ground.

"Tsk, I almost had her," Tsukiko muttered to herself.

Goemon, after hearing this, quickly realized what had happened, she could hear the sound of her heart beating faster.

Just now, she had almost died again, as she was sure that Tsukiko was in front of her and Inuchiyo just moments ago.

But her newly awakened instincts had helped her evade such a deadly attack.

'So that's how she got Goemon before,' Inuchiyo thought as she remembered what happened the last time they fought Tsukiko.

But this time, she was able to follow a blurry silhouette of Tsukiko; sadly, she didn't have enough time to warn Goemon.

If they were to be victorious this time, she couldn't afford to miss any opportunity.

Inuchiyo immediately charged toward the area Tsukiko was falling.

Since Tsukiko was still in the air, she couldn't maneuver easily - this was a chance.

Without hesitation, Inuchiyo raised her spear to skewer Tsukiko above her, but right before Tsukiko hit the spear, Tsukiko flipped herself upside down and reached her hand towards the spear shaft.

Using the shaft as leverage, Tsukiko put her full weight on it, forcing it to slip out of Inuchiyo's hands.

Inuchiyo's grip was weaker on the spear due to her claws getting in the way of folding her palms.

She could retract them into her paws, but she instinctively released them when she was riled up.

As soon as Inuchiyo let go of her spear, Tsukiko kicked her face, using the force to get herself balanced so she could land on her feet.

She wasn't going to trust the durability of the spear's shaft to hold her weight from such a fall.

Inuchiyo staggered and fell to the ground, the kick came too fast and was at a close range so she couldn't evade.

Goemon, crouched on the ground, wasn't going to miss another opportunity to attack.

Immediately, she mustered all the strength in her feet and feigned pouncing at Tsukiko.

She initially wanted to throw some shurikens to provide support, but Inuchiyo, from her position, was behind Tsukiko.

She still remembered how Tsukiko used Inuchiyo's body to block her last time.

Though Tsukiko couldn't currently do such a thing, the memory of hitting her friend with her shuriken still remained fresh in her mind.

Tsukiko, who was about to hit the ground, felt someone coming from behind her.

As soon as one of her feet touched the ground, she used her blood art to speedily twist her body to turn around, widely swinging the spear she had taken from Inuchiyo.

Swish!

The sound of the wind parting as she used a lot of force to swing the spear sideways.

She was shocked to find out that she had hit nothing.

'Huh, I hit nothing. No wait, it can't be,' Tsukiko barely thought as she looked down to see a kunai coming towards her face from below.

Instinctively, she raised her arms to block it, leaving her lower body completely open to an attack.

When she had swung the spear, Goemon was already crouched low on the ground.

Instead of pouncing up, she had used the energy mustered in her feet to go for a low dash instead.

She was already small in size, and Tsukiko wasn't facing her.

To successfully deal a lot of damage to Tsukiko, she even feigned an attack on Tsukiko's face, leaving her vision blocked on what she was going to do next.

Quickly, Goemon made an incision on Tsukiko's belly with her kunai. Next, she stuffed her hand inside.

Tsukiko quickly recovered from the earlier feint and attempted to grab Goemon.

Inuchiyo, upon seeing what Goemon had done, didn't waste any time dashing towards Tsukiko.

She needed to distract Tsukiko for a little while for what Goemon had done to take effect.

Seeing as she missed grabbing Goemon, Tsukiko attempted to open up her stomach.

She had subconsciously healed it after Goemon hand exited her stomach.

She could tell that a foreign item was in her stomach.

She didn't know what it was, so she decided to be cautious and remove it.

While she tore open her stomach to remove what Goemon had put inside, Inuchiyo arrived behind her and attempted to kick her from behind.

Tsukiko quickly caught Inuchiyo by the leg and threw her towards Goemon. She had a bad feeling about what was put inside her.

Upon digging out what was in her stomach, Tsukiko felt immense fear. It was a bomb.

This was not just any bomb, but the mini bomb that Goemon planned to use when Tsukiko had been hunting them.

Goemon had modified it to have a shorter fuse, and Tsukiko only had less than 3 seconds before it went off.

Tsukiko's mind churned, seeking a solution to the current dilemma that she faced.

Looking forward, she could see that Inuchiyo and Goemon were together.

'Why not use this to take them with me,' she thought.

Without hesitation, Tsukiko squeezed every ounce of energy within her body and dashed towards Inuchiyo and Goemon.

The last thing she saw was a flash of light after she had reached them.

Boom!

The sound of the explosion echoed through the night. Smoke and debris covered the area, making it hard to tell who the victor was.

Yin and Yang quickly went to check if Inuchiyo and Goemon were alright.

Thud!

The sudden sound of something dropping to the ground quickly drew their attention.

This was the head of Tsukiko; she was still alive, if one could call it that.

"Ha, Ha, Ha. How do you like that, I won?" Tsukiko screamed out in glee, but that soon turned into disappointment.

As the smoke cleared up, the glow of the rising sunlight reflected the true result. Inuchiyo and Goemon were completely alright.

This revelation left Tsukiko in deep shock; she was so sure that the bomb had detonated near Inuchiyo and Goemon.

It didn't take Tsukiko long to realize what had happened.

"So it's like that," she muttered in realization. She had thought that she dashed towards Inuchiyo and Goemon, but in reality, her body betrayed her mind.

Perhaps, despite her surface thoughts, she subconsciously wanted to still live, so her body detached her head from itself to preserve her life.

Her body took the full brunt of the explosion, so only her head survived.

"Ha, Ha, Ha. To think that such a thing could happen. You know I wasn't always like this, but…" Tsukiko began to explain, but Yin just walked up to her head and crushed it to meat paste.

It looked like Tsukiko was about to begin telling her backstory, something most villains did for some reason before death.

Yin didn't want to waste any more time and listen to some nonsense story.

She had been out all night running and chasing some demon that she could care less about, so she was a bit irritated.

It was also sunrise, so the game was over. It was time to return to camp.