MHGA Chapter 17 – Doma’s Provocation

"Attack! Speed! Defense!"

Kairo Retsu called out once more as the three lights on his Insect Glaive lit up. "Doma! Now… it's time for a true hunter's head-on battle!!"

The moment Doma tensed in caution, he saw Kairo Retsu once again use the pneumatic launcher on his strange weapon to leap into the air—his entire body already soaring above the massive Buddha-shaped Blood Demon Art Doma had released.

Spinning midair, Kairo came crashing down with a slam—his glaive smashing the ice-formed Buddha into fragments that burst outward in every direction.

It wasn't swordsmanship, nor had he targeted a weak point in the Blood Demon Art. Doma could clearly feel it—his technique had been shredded purely by brute force, torn apart from top to bottom.

"Ow, ow, ow!!"

Having shattered the ice sculpture, Kairo Retsu was immediately pelted by the resulting shards—yelping in pain even as he charged toward Doma. His glaive spun wildly, scattering the frozen spikes created by the Blood Demon Art in a blur of afterimages.

Of the four people currently fighting him head-on, the one Doma found most troublesome was undoubtedly this so-called hunter, Kairo Retsu.

The other Demon Slayers all had strength on par with Hashira, but their physical abilities were still within human limits. Kairo Retsu, however…

With those strange lights continuously lighting up on his bizarre weapon, Kairo's physical capabilities had grown freakishly strong. At this point, he was smashing through Doma's Blood Demon Art with sheer strength alone.

"Akaza… still hasn't dealt with those two humans?"

Doma was now genuinely beginning to feel the pressure of impending death. Yet he could still sense Akaza's aura lingering in the same sector—clearly still fighting those two.

Under relentless pressure from five attackers, Doma's wide-area Blood Demon Art was theoretically perfect for fending them off, but his opponents had already begun adapting to it.

Kairo Retsu was absorbing most of the Blood Demon Art's onslaught by himself. He clearly understood that without a Nichirin weapon, he couldn't inflict fatal wounds on demons—so he focused entirely on clearing a path for the Demon Slayers.

In just a few engagements, the swiftest among them—Shinobu Kocho—though unable to decapitate, had repeatedly pierced through Doma's Blood Demon Art with her thrusting blade. Trading injury for injury, she'd punctured several holes into Doma's body and injected him with substantial amounts of wisteria poison.

Trading injuries… Before tonight, Doma never imagined such tactics would be employed by the Demon Slayer Corps.

"Damn it! Doesn't she feel pain or what?!" Inosuke bellowed as he deftly dodged a shard of ice.

His skin was incredibly sensitive—he instinctively evaded attacks before even thinking. Even now, he still hadn't gotten used to battles where injuries simply healed afterward.

But Shinobu Kocho and Giyu Tomioka had already begun adapting to this style of combat.

While chasing Doma alongside Kairo Retsu, an ice pillar had pierced Giyu Tomioka's calf and pinned him in place—yet without hesitation, he hacked off his own kneecap and pressed forward using a regenerated leg.

As for Shinobu… Doma had already lost count of how many times he had traded blows with her. It was as if she felt no pain—ripping the barbed icicles out of her own body with her hands, tossing them aside, and immediately readying herself to strike again.

Her madness… surpassed even that of starving demons pursuing flesh.

"You people are absolute lunatics," Doma muttered, adjusting the position of his iron fans—one raised, one lowered. "Such reckless fighting tactics…"

As he spoke, countless ice spikes erupted from the floor with Doma at the center, while icicles also began forming on the ceiling and rained down toward the room below.

An all-encompassing pincer attack—one that nearly blanketed the entire chamber. It was clear Doma was expending significant effort now.

Kanao Tsuyuri, almost instantly, identified a path through the ice. Before the spikes fully emerged, she had already bypassed them—only to slice off Doma's fan-wielding wrist.

But the Blood Demon Art, once activated, could not be stopped. The next second, ice spears shot from the ground and impaled Kanao, pinning her in place.

"Damn it!!"

Just as Doma was about to finish her off, Kairo Retsu triggered his glaive's pneumatic boost again—executing a midair double-jump that brought him face-to-face with Doma.

Then—he launched an attack that had nothing to do with hunters or glaives.

Thud—!

A heavy headbutt smashed straight into Doma's forehead. Both of their heads snapped backward from the impact—Kairo's explosive momentum and angle causing Doma's neck to fracture on the spot. But even then, Doma's iron fan still slashed toward Kanao's neck.

Kairo Retsu instinctively yanked Kanao backward. Though she remained pinned to the ground and the motion tore open her wounds even further, she narrowly evaded the fatal fan strike.

"Monsters… How the hell did you grant these Demon Slayers such regeneration?" Doma's unnaturally bent neck twisted backward as he retreated deeper into his ice-filled chamber via wide-range Blood Demon Art.

Looking at the now ice-laden room, he continued.

"Your companion… really did flee."

Doma frowned. "I originally thought he was hiding in this room, waiting to sabotage our fight. Seems I was overthinking."

"Kazuma always runs first when things go wrong," Kairo replied, spinning both arms to shatter the surrounding ice spikes. "But… what makes you so sure he isn't still in the room?"

"My Blood Demon Art now permeates this entire chamber," Doma replied calmly. "I don't know what strange technique he uses to mask his presence—but I doubt it can shield him from attacks."

"And you… are you really human?"

Doma pointed his iron fan at Kairo. "That insect must've absorbed my bodily fluids to boost your strength. That power of yours… it's not human."

"To absorb a demon's fluids to grow stronger… You so-called 'hunters'—can you truly call yourselves human?"