MHGA Chapter 19 – Dōma, Felled by the Trap Hunter Kazuma

A massive explosion boomed through the room, forming a visible shockwave to the naked eye.

Giyu and Shinobu nearly lost their balance under the force. In the end, Giyu stabbed his Nichirin Sword into the floor and grabbed Shinobu's collar to prevent them both from being blown away.

"What the hell! Where did he even pull those barrels from?!" Inosuke shouted in disbelief, while Kazuma yelled back, waving his arms angrily, "Hey! Is now really the time to freak out over that?! Get over here and beat the crap out of this guy already!!!"

Kazuma's words snapped the Demon Slayer Corps members back to focus. It was no time to be stunned—they charged straight into the thick smoke from the explosion.

As the smoke began to clear, Giyu—at the front—spotted Dōma's wrecked, half-destroyed body, still vaguely humanoid despite being ravaged by the blast.

Without hesitation, Giyu swung his blade at Dōma's neck. But Dōma, even in that state, instinctively blocked the blow with his iron fan. Facing the others' Nichirin Blades, he could no longer afford to regenerate and was forced to focus solely on survival.

Unable to even control his Blood Demon Art properly, Dōma released it in desperation, purely out of instinct.

In an instant, massive ice blocks erupted from his body and encased him, shielding him from decapitation. Ice shards floated around him, no longer the ornate humanoid figures from before, now reduced to crude, violent projectiles fired directly at the slayers.

But the more desperate he became, the clearer it became to the Demon Slayer Corps—Dōma was cornered. And in such a moment… they would never retreat.

Giyu, Inosuke, Kanao—all of them unleashed their strongest techniques upon the block of ice sealing Dōma. Lacking the raw force, Shinobu concentrated her strikes on a single point, piercing a large hole into the ice.

Yet the crystal was so hard it gave them a headache. Even when Inosuke attacked with brute strength, one of his twin blades was sent flying by the rebound.

Meanwhile, Dōma's Blood Demon Art continued its brutal onslaught. Each flying ice shard tore flesh from their bodies and splattered blood. Yet with the effects of Wide-Range Recovery medicine, the injuries rapidly regenerated.

Flesh and ice flew violently around the block imprisoning Dōma, making the attacking four appear almost deranged—as if it were unclear who the real demons were.

In that brief moment of encirclement, Kairo Retsu had once again taken flight with his Insect Glaive.

"Get clear!!!"

Kairo now soared high, nearly touching the ceiling of the massive chamber.

He shouted to the others below: "Clear out!!! The Flying Hyper Thrust is coming!!!!!!"

The warning prompted Giyu and the others to leap back, and in the air, Kairo made a brief adjustment before spinning downward—plunging straight toward the ice encasing Dōma.

Inside the ice, Dōma too realized that Kairo posed the greatest threat. The ice shards that had been hindering the other slayers now all converged toward the airborne Kairo.

But as they struck the spinning Insect Glaive, they shattered harmlessly. The others heard nothing but a rapid succession of crack! sounds as Kairo's staff crashed down on the crystal.

The hard ice that had resisted every sword was shattered in an instant by Kairo's dive thrust. Like a man left standing in a crowd with only his underwear, suddenly stripped of his final barrier—

Dōma's still-incomplete body was now fully exposed.

"Come crawling out of that ice, you grotesque demon!!" Kairo roared, his glaive's blade piercing through Dōma's chest and lifting him high into the air.

Dōma was torn out of the ice and flung upward. In the next instant, he twisted mid-air to face Kairo.

"You…"

Half-reconstructed, Dōma's face looked especially hideous. He lunged, aiming to wrap himself around Kairo and absorb him entirely.

Worn down by continuous assault, Dōma was now fatigued. But he had no other option—Kairo was the only one present without a Nichirin Blade.

If he could grab onto Kairo, he could digest him while using his body as a shield against the others' blades.

That was the plan—and Dōma managed to seize Kairo, his body engulfing Kairo's arm and beginning to digest it.

Dōma could clearly feel his cells breaking down the flesh—this tremendous power he was absorbing stunned even him.

Compared to rare blood, the energy within these Hunters was on another level altogether. In just the few seconds of digesting half of Kairo's arm, Dōma felt his strength recovering rapidly.

But then—

"Does it taste good?"

Just as Dōma was about to act again, he realized Kairo's other arm—with the claw hook—had already latched firmly onto his skull.

"You finally took the bait."

"!" Dōma had no time to speak. The half-digested arm suddenly flexed, while the hooked hand on his head pulled sharply in tandem, yanking his body taut.

His still-not-recovered neck was fully exposed.

Even without turning, Dōma could feel the overwhelming killing intent behind him as several demon slayers raised their blades—

In the blink of an eye, Dōma's neck was cleaved off, his head tumbling to the ground and rolling away.

But—

"I didn't sever his neck!!! He did it himself!!!" Giyu Tomioka roared at the top of his lungs, warning the others not to let their guard down.

Yet in the very next instant, they all saw it—the severed head, attempting to escape, had rolled into a peculiar-looking trap device.

[Shock Trap: A trap that halts monster movement with a paralyzing current.]

In a flash, a surge of electricity exploded outward, completely paralyzing Dōma.

And then, a sneaky figure appeared beside the incapacitated demon—Kazuma Satou, holding the serrated Nichirin Blade that Inosuke had lost earlier.

With one swift motion, Kazuma brought the blade down upon Dōma's remaining neck—

Shlick!—cleaving it clean through.

"It's the complete and total victory… of the great Kazuma-sama!!!"

Having delivered the final blow, Kazuma stood triumphant in the room.