The man and the demon briefly clashed, then both pulled back.
Along with his heavy breathing, muffled groans of pain escaped his lips.
Haruto looked at his arm and gave a bitter smile.
His forearm had taken a heavy blow and snapped completely in two. The broken bones had pierced his skin, exposing their stark white cross sections.
Only a layer of flesh and skin held his forearm together. Blood poured from the wound, falling to the ground like rain.
Haruto could only try not to move his left hand, but he had a demon to face. He had to fight...
All he could do now was pray that trick would work.
A simple syringe lay on the ground ahead, its contents already injected.
It had contained the last dose of the Dream Thief Drug he carried. In that split second, he had made his decision.
Following the instructions in the scrolling comments, he had injected the entire dose into Akaza.
He had no idea whether it would work, but it was worth a shot.
He panted, struggling to control his breathing and strengthen his Constant Total Concentration. Stopping the bleeding had to come first.
Akaza raised a hand and touched his neck.
That brief sting had felt no worse than a mosquito bite-though no mosquito had been able to get near him since he became a demon.
The pain was trivial, but what had been injected into him?
He lowered his brows and studied Haruto, unsure what to make of the situation.
Bzz-
As he hesitated, several black-and-white afterimages suddenly flickered across his vision.
...What was going on?
Akaza raised a hand and rubbed his eyes. Night, an open clearing, a panting swordsman with a broken arm.
What had changed?
What exactly was different?!
Agitation welled up in Akaza.