"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! Go to hell!"
Seeing its attack so easily seen through, Wakuraba went into a fit of impotent rage, wildly flailing its arms.
Its body writhed even faster now, and skin that was merely damp before became completely coated in slime, some of which it even flung off.
Then it grabbed its own throat and squeezed hard, as if trying to snap its own neck.
But despite the force it used, its neck merely twisted a few times like putty.
"Geh… geh…"
After gagging a few times, Wakuraba shoved its hand into its mouth, rummaged around, and pulled out two reddish-brown teeth—the same kind it had in its mouth, only much larger, like oversized claw blades.
And, as expected, these two teeth were also covered in slime—but unlike the clear mucus from before, this slime had a slight greenish tint, like phlegm that had been festering in the throat for decades.
The revolting display made Akimi and Asuna instinctively show expressions of disgust.
"Ugh… that's just nasty…"
Akimi suddenly felt an urge to stop fighting altogether—if he got hit by something like that, it would be both psychological and physical torment.
"You're dead!"
Wakuraba shouted as it charged at them with incredible speed.
Akimi gripped his Nichirin Blade with both hands, eyeing the two sharp teeth in its hands as he prepared his sword technique.
"Water Breathing, First Form: Water Surface Slash!"
The downward slash of the Nichirin Blade met the crossing swing of Wakuraba's teeth right in front of them, producing a sound like porcelain clashing with metal.
But Wakuraba was still a Lower Moon Three.
Even with all his enhancements active, Akimi's strength was slightly inferior—his arms began to tremble as the force pushed back.
Yet, as the sharp teeth edged closer to him, Akimi showed no sign of panic.
"Water Breathing, First Form—Modified: Flowing Ripple Thrust!"
The extremely swift rapier strike pierced precisely through Wakuraba's crossed hands, pinning them together.
Surprisingly, the slippery slime failed to have any effect.
Naturally, Akimi wouldn't waste this golden opportunity—he went straight for Wakuraba's neck with a Ripple Droplet Thrust.
The creature hurriedly tried to tilt its head to dodge, but with both hands nailed together by Asuna's rapier, it had no room to evade.
Seeing the Nichirin Blade thrusting toward it, Wakuraba bared its teeth in a feral expression and retreated sharply, actually letting the rapier slice through its own hands just to escape.
Although Wakuraba had successfully avoided a fatal blow, both of its hands had been sliced in half between the middle and ring fingers by Asuna, leaving them in a pitiful state.
Its two sharp teeth had also fallen to the ground, now covered in dust.
At this moment, Wakuraba seemed to have calmed down instead.
It casually flicked its hands, allowing them to heal, and then once again reached into its throat—this time pulling out three teeth.
However, it didn't use these teeth as weapons.
Instead, it stabbed them into its own chest.
Its body then began to twist unnaturally, swelling and deforming, the color of its skin gradually darkening until it matched that of the other leeches; segmented rings appeared all over its skin.
In the end, its entire body swelled into a large, round ball, even its head retracting halfway into its body.
Only a pair of dark green eyes and its messy hair remained visible outside.
At this stage, Wakuraba no longer resembled a human—now it looked like an overfed, grotesquely fat leech.
The appearance was both disgusting and oddly comical, almost laughable to look at.
But there was no doubt that while it looked ridiculous, this transformation also made it much harder to kill—cutting off its head would now require pulling it out first, or slicing through its thick, bloated body along with the head.
Both methods were difficult, though relatively speaking, pulling the head out would be easier—mainly because the mucus covering its body posed a major problem.
Akimi had enough strength, but every strike would simply slide off.
Asuna's piercing attacks were barely affected, but it was hard for her to land a single killing blow.
"Tch… this is going to be troublesome…"
Akimi frowned at the ball-like creature before him.
Suddenly, more than ten palm-sized holes appeared on Wakuraba's body.
The skin around each hole began to bulge outward, taking the shape of small volcanic craters.
Faced with an unknown ability not found in any intel, Akimi and Asuna dared not act recklessly.
They kept their eyes fixed on Wakuraba, ready to adapt depending on its next move.
Gloop, gloop…
The sound of bursting water bubbles began to come from Wakuraba's body.
As the "volcanic craters" contracted, streams of scorching, pale green mist slowly sprayed out from them.
Not knowing what the mist could do, direct contact was obviously unwise.
Naturally, Akimi and Asuna didn't take the risk—they began retreating to avoid it.
But the mist spread at an alarming rate.
In less than thirty seconds, it had covered more than half the area, and the earliest patches of fog showed no sign of dispersing—if anything, they were growing thicker.
At this rate, in just ten more seconds, the entire space enclosed by the wisteria walls would be completely filled with mist.
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