Feng vs. Mahito (2)

A smile curled at the corner of Feng's mouth as he hung in the air.

Just before he struck the bone shield formed from wailing faces, his body turned without warning into a stream of transparent water, merging completely into the torrential downpour.

At the bottom of the muddy pit, Mahito's pupils contracted sharply.

His legs, tensed to spring backward, suddenly lost their target, but his animalistic combat instincts screamed a warning.

Squelch-!

Right beside the crouching Mahito, the young man's figure abruptly emerged from a gathering stream of water.

The sinister Mikazuki Munechika never paused, driving coldly and precisely into Mahito's flank.

The crimson eyeball on its hilt spun wildly, and foul black blood swiftly seeped along the blade into Mahito's body.

A corrosive force reeking of medicine spread through the depths of his soul like a disease that clung to his bones.

"Gah-!"

Mahito violently coughed up a mouthful of dark red blood, which splattered onto the school grounds along with the muddy water.

Rather than resist the blow head-on, he instantly stretched and twisted the muscles around his pierced waist and abdomen like rubber being pulled taut.

Using that unnatural deformation, he released the springlike structures in his legs. He shot backward over ten meters like an arrow loosed from a bow, plowing two deep furrows through the muddy school grounds.

"Looks like your Cursed Technique doesn't work so well inside my domain. You're even coughing up blood..."

Feng stood calmly in the rain, casually resting the long blade, still dripping black blood, against his shoulder.

"Even if you could run it at full power and use your Cursed Energy to fight off that constant invasion... hahaha, how is it? Enjoying this dessert?"

Mahito crouched in the distance, panting heavily. The rain striking his pale skin was not merely cold; it carried a constant sense of neutralization.

He lowered his head and stared hard at the wound in his flank-it had not healed instantly as it normally would. Its edges had taken on a strange crescent shape and were steadily rotting outward.

There was a strange curse on that blade. He had to constantly expend large amounts of Cursed Energy to scour it away just to barely keep the wound from spreading.

And then there was all this rain... Mahito finally realized something.

Within this area, the rain was gradually reducing the efficiency of his Cursed Energy circulation. Unlike its earlier, ill-defined form, his opponent's Cursed Technique now possessed the properties of a domain approaching completion!

His opponent had turned the entire school grounds into an enormous field of attrition!

"What a dessert... infuriating and exciting all at once."

Mahito wiped the blood from his mouth, his mind racing. If he kept defending passively, the blade's lingering corrosion and this strange rain would drain his Cursed Energy completely.

I have to break through this domain's restrictions, or force his liquefying body to defend against me head-on!

In the brief moment Mahito spent thinking, Feng seemed to reach a decision with the long blade still resting on his shoulder.

He raised his empty left hand, pointing his fingertips directly at the crouching Mahito ahead.

Whoosh-!

A Water Blade condensed from highly pressurized rainwater shot out like a sniper's bullet, accompanied by a piercing whistle!

Mahito's mismatched eyes flew wide. That Water Blade was far too fast, and the density of the Cursed Energy it carried was astonishing.

He immediately crossed his arms over his chest, simultaneously compressing and calcifying the bones in both arms.

Bang-!

The Water Blade slammed into Mahito's crossed arms with a deafening roar.

The tremendous impact shoved Mahito back several more meters. A deep gash split the surface of his arms, exposing glimpses of stark white bone.

I can't let the distance grow any further. His ranged attacks are just as deadly. If I stay on the defensive, he'll wear me down until I'm dead!

"If your rain can neutralize my Cursed Technique, then all I have to do is create an 'evil' that even your rain can't wash away!"

Bracing against the Water Blade's lingering force, Mahito pushed hard off the ground. He stopped trying to fully heal the wound at his waist and concentrated all his Cursed Energy in his legs and left arm instead.

An enormous mouth split open in his left palm, ravenously devouring the muddy water on the ground and the black blood he had spilled. A vast amount of Cursed Energy, steeped in intense chaos and despair, began rapidly compressing inside him.

Mahito surged forward through the torrential rain, charging toward Feng with the reckless frenzy of someone intent on taking his enemy down with him.

At their next instant of contact, he would detonate that compressed soul power and blast all the surrounding water away!

Over the muddy school grounds, the curtain of rain fell like a cascading waterfall.

Feng had just steadied himself and slightly raised his long blade, preparing to deliver a fatal slash.

But at that very instant, something changed.

Mahito abruptly stopped his charge. A dazed, feverish look appeared on his stitched face, the kind seen only on the brink of death.

He flung his mouth open. Two deathly pale hands eerily emerged from deep within his throat, swiftly overlapping to form a complex, bizarre hand sign.

As the hand sign was completed, an immense surge of pitch-black Cursed Energy erupted from Mahito, sending chills down the spine.

"Domain Expansion-Self-Embodiment of Perfection."

Mahito's voice seemed to rise from the depths of hell, carrying an ethereal echo.

"This is bad!" Feng instantly sensed the danger.

My domain is still a domain, but it isn't particularly complete.

So while it can neutralize Cursed Techniques, it can't neutralize a domain's imbued sure-hit technique. That means I need to use Simple Domain to neutralize it in a domain clash.

(This mechanic was specifically mentioned during Megumi Fushiguro's fight against Reggie in the original work. A domain's imbued Cursed Technique is distinct from an innate Cursed Technique. Later, during the Shinjuku Showdown, Sukuna also externalized his Cursed Technique into his domain to use his Cursed Technique and Domain Amplification simultaneously.)

The space around them was replaced in an instant.

Countless enormous, grayish-white hands rose from the muddy water. Like closing lotus petals, they rapidly folded inward, completely engulfing the two men on the school grounds.

Everywhere they looked, darkness woven from arms of all sizes filled the space. The air reeked of souls, a suffocating stench.

At the center of this otherworldly space, Feng abruptly twisted his body.

Without the slightest hesitation, he stamped his right foot hard against empty air.

A circular field of Cursed Energy with a radius of roughly two meters instantly spread out around his feet, shining with a faint but unwavering light-[New Shadow Style: Simple Domain].

Mahito stood atop a mass of overlapping hands, looking down at Feng below.

A dangerous gleam flashed in his mismatched eyes as his mind rapidly analyzed the situation before him.

This domain was the killing move he had just grasped under the pressure of impending death.

Within this space, he did not even need to touch his opponent. His soul-warping "Idle Transfiguration" would descend upon Feng automatically.

But it had not taken effect.

Mahito stared fixedly at the faintly glowing circle beneath the young man's feet.

It was a simple barrier, like a resilient reef, forcibly neutralizing the sure-hit effect surging toward him.

As long as that circle remained intact, the rewriting of his soul could not reach Feng's body.

Meanwhile, a teeth-grating creak suddenly rang out overhead throughout the dark space.

Mahito snapped his head up, his brows drawing tight beneath his stitches. He could clearly sense that outside his domain, the torrential rain he had shut out had not stopped.

Instead, the rain had transformed into countless rapidly spinning, high-pressure Water Blades, frantically slicing into the domain's fragile outer wall.

A domain was incredibly sturdy from within, but easily broken from outside.

If the Water Blades shredded his domain's shell, he would not merely lose this perfect chance to kill Feng. The ensuing Cursed Technique burnout would leave him in a truly hopeless situation.

There's no time.

"Don't think you can hide inside that shell!"

Mahito shouted, abandoning the idea of waiting for the sure-hit effect to gradually dismantle the Simple Domain.

He drove off with both legs. Bolstered by the environment within his domain, he became a gray blur and dove straight from above toward the young man at the center of the circle.

As he rushed forward, the muscles in Mahito's right fist swelled and hardened wildly. With a storm of wind that tore through the air, he smashed it toward Feng's face.

Faced with this crushing blow, Feng did not meet it head-on.

His shoulders dipped slightly, and his feet slid lightly along the edge of his Simple Domain. With a clean sidestep, he let the enormous fist brush past the tip of his nose.

Immediately afterward, Feng turned his wrist. The black blade traced a bleakly beautiful arc from below, slashing with perfect accuracy across Mahito's exposed chest.

Squelch-!

The blade split flesh and breastbone, and foul black blood instantly gushed out. Corrosive, crescent-shaped Cursed Residue immediately clung to the wound.

But this time, Mahito did not retreat.

Not only did he refuse to retreat, a cruel, triumphant smile spread across his face.

Ignoring the agony of his split chest, he abruptly pitched forward, deliberately locking the sharp blade in place with the shattered bones of his rib cage!

Seizing that brief opening, Mahito transformed his dangling left arm into several sharp bone claws. With a whistling gust, they grabbed straight for Feng's sword-wielding right arm.

He did not need to defeat his opponent outright. He only needed to physically restrain the young man's movements before this domain shattered.

Even if he tore open a gap in that Simple Domain for just an instant, his "Idle Transfiguration" would end this fight for good!