Tokyo bombing incident Nth time

"...Hmm?" The hunter seemed somewhat puzzled by this phenomenon.

Yuri knew why—the ever-open protective barrier continued to fulfill its duty, firmly separating Yuri from the hunter and absorbing the blows for Yuri.

The protective barrier wouldn't buy them much time, so Yuri reached out directly to the hunter's main body. For a fleeting moment, he seemed to see Takemura's face appear on it.

"Hmm... I don't know your direct opinion, but I don't think you became like this willingly, right?" Yuri sighed inwardly. "If you still have any consciousness, could you help me? I don't think you can go back to the way you were, but if I win, it'll be revenge for you, right?"

"—Yes." A faint, ethereal voice seemed to whisper in response.

Yuri didn't know if he had really received a response, or if it was just a hallucination caused by his excessive expectations. This didn't change what he had to do.

—Go all out to seize the essence from the hunter's body.

Increasing the contact area has no reason to increase the speed of absorbing spiritual essence, but at least it can satisfy the condition of "contact" anytime and anywhere.

Intuitively, the body's resistance shouldn't be weaker than that of external limbs; if there's a difference, it should be stronger. But whether this is truly the case for hunters, no one can guarantee.

Besides, there's nothing else to do. Are we supposed to punch the hunter in the chest? This is just a desperate struggle after a failed attempt.

Fortunately, the gamble, based solely on guesswork and without any real basis, succeeded. A massive amount of spiritual essence rapidly poured from the hunter into Yuri's body. The hunter's main body resisted the absorption of spiritual essence even less than the injured tentacles, and the reserves of spiritual essence were abundant.

Soon, the startled and enraged hunter hurriedly pushed Yuri away again, but Yuri had already received a considerable replenishment.

“The tentacles grew later, so they are yours. The shell grew later, so it is also yours. But the main body was there from the beginning… so even though it has become like this, it is still Takemura’s, right?” After succeeding, Yuri was convinced of his conjecture. “He is dead, you have taken over him, but you have not returned to your original form, even his clothes are still there—your control is still not absolute.”

Yuri knew that he had no confidence whatsoever before he carried out the plan.

"Even if you know this, it won't change your fate!" The hunter waved his tentacles so densely that they were impenetrable—in fact, they were quite sparse—that Yuri was completely surrounded, and he charged forward again.

Saying the same thing too often loses its deterrent effect, even if the wording changes. Hunter, you probably don't understand that.

Even so, the hunter had accumulated a considerable fortune; how many ghosts had it actually devoured?

Even though they suffered losses due to unexpected events, their overall expenditure was still greater than Yuri's.

Yuri continued to struggle for his life. By now, he had exhausted all his tricks and even managed to take advantage of the hunter's carelessness a few times. There was no longer any room for cleverness to hide.

Five minutes haven't passed yet?

Pull your spirits up, try your best to block, and buy some time.

Dodge heavy blows, take light blows to the face, and avoid vital points.

Blocking the tentacles doesn't reduce the damage they cause, but it can deflect them aside to prevent them from attacking again quickly. It's a drop in the ocean, better than nothing.

The surrounding environment hadn't changed much, and even the crowd of onlookers hadn't completely dispersed—after all, the two were currently in a phantom state, which ordinary people couldn't see.

Similarly, hiding in the shops on either side is pointless. If the hunter pursues, a battle will still be necessary; if the hunter doesn't pursue, Yuri will have to go back and continue taunting it to draw its attention.

“Besides, not much time has passed. If we retreat now—” Yuri banished the thought of escaping from his mind. “No.”

If the hunter can lift the motorcycle's rear wheel, he should also be able to influence the wheels of a large vehicle to some extent. Even a slight slip would force the driver to stop immediately, allowing Yuri to be pulled back. However, if the hunter doesn't follow up, he's essentially handing the problem over to the hunter.

There won't be a better opportunity, but the problem is, even if Yuri gets this best opportunity, it seems like there's nothing he can do.

Two attempts to switch from defense to offense were both firmly blocked by the tentacles, resulting in more serious injuries to himself. The spiritual essence could sustain him for a while if only used to maintain the protective barrier, but it was insufficient for healing wounds.

Just as Yuri was considering retreating slightly to regroup, he vaguely noticed a suspicious yet familiar man in a trench coat riding a motorcycle in the distance, behind the hunter—the direction from which they had initially come.

"They've finally arrived!" If Yuri weren't already a spirit, he would have been moved to tears. This is a good thing; if he were to actually cry his heart out, it might alert the enemy.

But it wasn't over yet, it wasn't time to celebrate the victory. Remembering his previous plan, Yuri pounced on the hunter and deliberately entangled himself with the tentacles.

"Even if I die, I'll take you with me!" He shouted a very low-class slogan, trying to make the hunter think he was making a last-ditch effort. Perhaps more skillful words would have been more effective, but Yuri was incapable of crafting a coherent response in this situation.

The hunter seemed to realize something was wrong, even taking a slight step back the instant Yuri pounced. But after recovering, it decided to deal with Yuri first. This decision cost Yuri dearly, leaving him almost defenseless as the tentacles wrapped tightly around him.

Fortunately, this also meant that it didn't react until the motorcycle was ten meters away, at which point Yuri could see the anchor tied to the front of the motorcycle.

The hunter frantically waved its tentacles, shrieking, and channeled energy toward the motorcycle, attempting to steer it at the last moment. It even loosened its grip on Yuri, giving Yuri the opportunity to break free if he wanted, but Yuri focused more on the motorcycle, watching nervously without struggling.

Its efforts did have some effect; the rider lost control of the bike and began to veer erratically to the left and right.

But it still wasn't enough. Although Yuri was worried about the rider, the rider just slammed on the accelerator and leaned back, lifting the front of the bike a little—not quite to the height of a stunt, but enough to stop interfering with the direction of travel.

The hunter appeared to be trying to shift the force towards the vehicle, but before it could do so, the motorcycle crashed into it.

After the physical wheel and the virtual hunter passed each other, the high-speed moving anchor hit the hunter squarely.

The effect was remarkable; Yuri could see numerous tentacles broken and carapaces shattered from the hunter. Although the clump of gelatinous substance didn't show much change, it must have suffered significant damage, a fact Yuri could sense from the leaking essence of the hunter.

Driven by inertia, the motorcycles propelled the anchor, the anchor propelled the hunter, and the hunter propelled Yuri, forming a line that continued to move forward.

"—" A painful scream pierced Yuri and Akemi's ears. Akemi, dizzy, lost control of the vehicle, causing it to tip to one side. Fortunately, she managed to jump off beforehand and was not crushed underneath.

The hunter struggled to shake off Yuri and began to flee at full speed into the distance.

“I’ll go first! You follow with the anchor!” “Okay!” The two quickly exchanged ideas.

As Akemi ran towards the car and tried to lift it up, Yuri desperately chased after her.

The hunter was weakened and severely wounded; the cracks in its body were leaking its essence, and it would die even if left unattended—without resupply.

Both Yuri and the hunter are wounded, but Yuri's wounds are so severe that any further damage would endanger his life, while the hunter's wounds could kill him at any moment.

But hunters can always replenish their supplies by plundering other ghosts nearby. And this city has an unusually large number of ghosts.

They only managed to achieve this by repeatedly catching the hunter off guard. If the hunter escapes again, will they have a better chance?

The first repeater appeared not far away, and the hunter pounced on it, with Yuri close behind.

Chapter Twenty-Three: Hunter and Prey

The hunter extends its tentacles to capture the repeater.

Unable to get between the two in time, Yuri simply attacked the hunter from behind.

Presumably believing that dealing with a die-hard like Yuri would only waste more spiritual essence, the hunter only extended tentacles to block Yuri's side, while trying to devour the repeater as soon as possible on the other side.

Unable to launch an effective attack on the hunter, Yuri did the same thing: directly absorbing the spiritual essence from the hunter's wounds.

The hunter cannot obtain enough spiritual essence from a single repeater (even without Yuri continuously stealing from it), so after eating one, it will move on to the next.

—They were completely independent. If the hunter stopped to engage Yuri, he would destroy himself. Then Yuri couldn't completely stop the hunter's actions, so he could only try to reduce the hunter's gains. This, in turn, forced the hunter to keep going instead of stopping to engage Yuri.

Unable to break the deadlock, Yuri could only think to himself that if he had the anchor in his hand, the hunter would definitely not dare to withstand his attack and run to resupply.

Currently, in terms of the benefits of the spirit marrow alone, Yuri's benefits are still greater than the Hunter's, but the remaining portion still greatly extends the Hunter's life.

Yuri even suspected that if he were to pursue them alone, he wouldn't be able to exhaust them unless the hunters went into a ghost-free area in a daze.

And there are two other problems.

Firstly, after this period of depletion, Yuri's spiritual essence has been almost entirely absorbed from the hunters. Previously, the intense, rapid battles hadn't made the sensations too noticeable, but now, with some remaining strength, he feels a disharmony that makes him uncomfortable, requiring conscious effort to overcome.

Secondly, he was almost full. The spiritual essence he had stolen from the hunter's tattered bag exceeded Yuri's capacity. Even after he used the spiritual essence to treat his wounds and fill his protective barrier, the total amount of spiritual essence was still inevitably increasing. —And if he were already full, Yuri could not absorb spiritual essence from the hunter.

If the spirit essence is released directly, it will be absorbed back by the hunter. Although there will definitely be some loss, it will also increase the hunter's speed of recovering spirit essence.

Then the number of hunters will accumulate rapidly, and the problems will increase accordingly.

In short, just keep transforming, it doesn't matter what you transform into, as long as you consume the spiritual essence—in Yuri's not-so-long memory, he never thought that one day he would actually worry about not being able to use up the spiritual essence.

Moreover, the tentacles are also a good way to entangle the opponent, absorb energy, and hinder their movement, as the hunter himself proved on Yuri.

Of course, Yuri himself has proven that he was pushed away by the hunter, since the tentacles that Yuri's limbs turned into were not only few in number, but also had no suction cups.

“What goes around comes around,” Yuri tried to provoke the hunter. “Now it’s your turn to run, and I can’t catch you.”

"Even now I can take you down with me! Get out of my way!" The hunter's voice was furious, but his actions remained unchanged. After the nearby repeaters disappeared, he continued to rush forward.

The hunter did not stop and fight him as Yuri had expected.

If only I could increase my damage output. Whether it's throwing a psionic ball or something else, it'd be fine. Yuri is like a kitten that's caught a big fish, helpless and only regretting that he doesn't have enough abilities.

I tried gathering the spiritual essence and releasing it—it had no destructive power, just like releasing the spiritual essence itself.

Scattering spiritual essence into the body to strengthen oneself—this does generate some consumption, but Yuri can't feel where he has become stronger at all—the ghost he once saw in the teaching building could suddenly unleash a great deal of power, while Yuri's side is more like wasting energy.

More drastic transformations, such as turning oneself into a tentacle monster—failed outright.

I tried to launch a ranged attack, but to no avail. Instead, while I was concentrating, the hunter managed to create some distance between us.

Yuri couldn't let the hunters get any further, so he halted the wartime development of his new ability. He consoled himself that at least he had mastered the ability to deplete spirit essence more quickly.

What a useless ability! I can't use it except in this situation. I knew actively seeking a last-minute burst of power was unreliable, but this time it was just too unreliable.

Yuri continued to engage the hunter.

Finally, the force that broke the deadlock arrived once again.

Akemi, carrying the anchor, ran over.

"Where's your car?" Yuri was dumbfounded. No wonder they had been entangled for half a street, almost to the intersection to cross the road, before Akemi caught up—chasing like this, while having to dodge people, if the hunter hadn't had to slow down while catching the repeater, they probably would have chased her all the way to the end of the next street.

"It won't start—I don't know—something's broken." Akemi answered loudly during a breath-taking pause.

The hunter began to climb rapidly up the outer wall toward the adjacent building.

This is a five-story hotel. If the hunters were to go up there, it would be quite difficult for Akemi to keep up.

Yuri hurriedly followed, trying to pull the hunter down.

As soon as it was on the wall, I heard a shout of "Realize!" and before I could react, it became a physical object.

Akemi, below, took aim and threw the anchor up, hitting the hunter squarely and causing the already badly injured hunter to stumble. The anchor then fell to Yuri, who caught it. As for the Takemura repeater hanging above… well, everyone's used to ignoring him now.

"Alright, let's settle this once and for all, Hunter." Remembering Mingmei's previous failure, Yuri diligently expanded the perimeter of the protective barrier. Then, he stretched out his arm holding the anchor and wrapped it twice around the anchor.

Carrying the anchor, they followed the hunter, going up and down until they reached the rooftop.

It's a good place; it's deserted, spacious, and ghost-free.

And the hunter stopped.

“It’s no use running away now, Hunter.” Yuri seemed to sense some of the Hunter’s mindset when he made those words earlier. “You are seriously injured, and even if you find other ghosts, you can’t absorb them faster than you were struck by this anchor.”

The hunter exerted force again, and a force, weakened by the protective barrier, acted on the anchor, where it was then pulled back by Yuri.

Yuri discovered another advantage—spirits can exert downward force on an object while floating without worrying about flying up themselves. As expected of spirits, they are incredibly disruptive to real physics.

"You think you've beaten me?" The hunter's words were laced with malice.

“I didn’t defeat you—it was Takemura and someone else who defeated you,” Yuri added. “Takemura found a way to deal with you, and then I and someone else carried it out, Hunter.”

"You're quite self-aware—you're going to die here today!"

The hunter pounced.

Yuri swung the anchor with all his might, smashing it down on the hunter's head. The hunter's body, already unable to withstand the force, was torn to pieces as if it had exploded.

—No, it really exploded. But it wasn't the entire hunter that exploded, only the hunter's carapace.

The hunter's carapace shattered, and fragments flew in all directions. Yuri was unable to retreat in time, and the hunter even pressed down on his hand holding the anchor.

Now, Yuri and the hunter's gelatinous bodies are separated only by a layer of protective barrier that has just been weakened.

Yuri was badly injured, but the hunter before him was in even worse shape.

"I will remember you—I will come back—to wipe you out completely." The hunter and Yuri exchanged one last glance. Sensing something was wrong, Yuri ignored his injuries and focused all his energy on supporting the protective barrier once more.

A second explosion occurred.

The hunter violently disintegrated at extremely close range, and the spiritual energy that constituted its body surged towards Yuri like a boiling torrent, attempting to tear him to pieces as well, but Yuri ultimately withstood the attack.

If there's a third explosion, they'll either die from severe injuries or from the loss of their spiritual essence.

After the spiritual energy dissipated, nothing remained.

The hunter is dead; the enemy is finally gone.

Its final explosion not only destroyed itself and severely damaged Yuri from its intact state, but also broke the anchor.

Fortunately, we don't need it for now. It should still be effective after some repairs... right?

Yuri, suddenly relaxing, let himself float on the rooftop, feeling a wave of exhaustion. Too fast, one thing after another in this short time… thankfully, they were all—

Then the door on the rooftop opened, and Akemi rushed out.

Are you still alive?

Yes, I still need to give Mingmei a proper explanation, since she helped me so much and took such a big risk.

Yuri struggled to explain that although he looked a bit battered and bruised, although the two consecutive spiritual energy storms he had just experienced could be felt even by Akemi who was climbing the stairs, and although even the anchor he used to restrain his opponent was broken in two and had a corner chipped off—Yuri was not dead, not close to death, and had not suffered any serious injuries or loss of his spiritual essence that forced him into a deep sleep.

In short, Yuri was indeed seriously injured, and his spiritual essence was depleted again after treating his injuries, but he was still alive and doing quite well.

Akemi's eyes still held doubt.