Chapter 49 49 – Crisis Avoided

Kai walked toward the crater calmly. But then, something unexpected happened.

"Ksaaa! Krasaahaa!!"

The Boogeyman moved uncontrollably as it ran toward the village. More specifically, toward the collapsed building that was right behind the wall. It crawled into it through the hole it made when it fell from the sky.

[Oh no, Master! It's trying to recover its lost body with the rubbles!] Ibaraki warned him in his head.

"That's bad!"

When Kai saw that, he immediately started running toward the village. However, he still wasn't used to his newly found strength from fusing with Ibaraki Douji. In just one powerful step, he accelerated faster than a car and crashed against the wall. The wall cracked, and he pulled his body away while shaking his head.

When he did that, the Boogeyman fell down from inside the collapsed building, rolling on the ground before it got up and ran again toward the village.

"Haa… I should learn how to control my strength..." He said in an annoyed tone as he looked at the collapsed building where the Boogeyman fell down too.

It rumbled loudly. When he looked closer, he realized that the building was moving and had turned into a huge humanoid shape. He thought the Boogeyman was trying to fix its body, but it was wrong. It tried to become bigger now by using the rubbles.

It grew at a fast speed as its body became bigger and bigger until, finally, it looked like a giant. It stood up slowly from the rubbles and moved its arms as if testing its own body's condition. The Phoenix fire was somehow extinguished. It then looked at Kai with an ear-to-ear grin, though the Boogeyman had no ears.

"Now what?" Kai asked as he smiled dryly. "Stomp me with its leg?"

He decided to wait for it to make a move first, but when he noticed, the Boogeyman started to run at him while letting out a sound that sounded similar to a laugh.

"Kishishishi."

The direction where it ran was a different direction from where he stood. The Boogeyman was running directly toward the central plaza where the VIPs and Oni villagers were evacuated to.

"!!!"

[Master!]

"I know!"

Kai realized what was happening and decided to run toward the giant rock scarecrow. The Boogeyman started to run faster at a much faster speed than before, creating a loud thump with each step, while Kai also ran faster at his super-fast speed.

They had already returned to where they had fought before. He noticed the Boogeyman wasn't running anymore, and he noticed Shuten Douji was standing in front of it.

"Young man. Do it seriously, or I will destroy this Boogeyman by myself!" The Oni god shouted at him, making him smile dryly.

"Thanks, you help a lot!" He shouted toward Shuten and jumped toward Boogeyman's head.

He found out about something when he fought the Boogeyman. This creature was similar to Malice, but stronger.

Still, because it was similar to Malice, it must have a core somewhere in its body that moved it.

He used to use the same strategy with Malice by destroying their core, but this time he needed to smash its whole body. He didn't know whether the Boogeyman could recover using the rubble around him anymore.

The Boogeyman moved quickly, turned him, and sent a punch while Shuten screamed at him in an amused tone as she jumped to where Amber and the others were.

"Do it, young man!"

Kai used Phoenix fire to propel him faster, evading the Boogeyman's punch. It screamed loudly as it saw its attack missed the target, and Kai smirked as he covered his whole body in Ibaraki's Spirit Power.

As she had said, she could only destroy something. Her Spirit Power increased not only his physical strength but also his destroying force. It had an element of destruction if he needed to describe it.

And so he condensed the Spirit Power around his hand and sent his full power punch straight at the Boogeyman's body.

"Kssh!!"

The Boogeyman screamed again as it saw Kai's punch made from Phoenix fire hit its body. The fist covered in black Spirit Power crushed its body into pieces. It even shattered the stone of the collapsed building that served as the Boogeyman's body, turning into tiny stones that went everywhere.

The Boogeyman tried to stand up again but couldn't do that anymore, with all its limbs and body being destroyed. Its head collapsed on the ground, creating a large crater. It tried to consume the rubbles again, but Kai's leg stopped it from doing so.

"I won't let you do that." Kai declared. That was a rather dangerous situation. He had underestimated the Boogeyman. "This time, it's a real goodbye."

"Kshaaaa!!!"

Then he stomped the Boogeyman's head to pieces, destroying the tiny black core that hid behind its golden eyes.

Kai looked back, and then he frowned. The destruction he caused by fighting the Boogeyman was… too great. The ground was gouged and created a crater here and there. The rubble flew everywhere and landed on perfectly fine buildings in the distance.

He felt… a bit guilty. All he thought about when he fought the Boogeyman was how to defeat it, not even thinking about the buildings around him.

The barrier… couldn't fix it. The type of barrier that hid the Oni Village was different. In fact, it only separated the area into another space. The one inside the barrier would stay inside unless the barrier was released.

That was why those buildings would keep as rubble and needed to be fixed manually.

[Master, what are you thinking about? Your face is a bit scary.]

Ibaraki Douji's innocent voice pulled him out of his thoughts.

"Ah, my bad. I was lost in thought." He scratched his cheek and let out a low chuckle. At that time, he noticed a group of people walking toward him.

Amber and Shuten Douji were in the front, smiling as if they had known he would win from the start. Behind them, Kirimaru looked at him with respect, while Ranga had a competitive gaze.

Kai did his best not to look at the younger red Oni. He had a feeling that told him he would be in another fight if he looked into Ranga's eyes.

Seeing them unhurt was enough for Kai to smile and cancel the fusion. Ibaraki Douji reappeared from a cloud of black smoke beside him, smiling in her leotard bodysuit.

She was sweating, and her bodysuit became half-transparent. Her breath was also rough. Apparently, he had spent too much of her Spirit Power which was already a quarter when they made a contract. Was canceling the contract with Shuten Douji depleted her Spirit Power too much? That should be the case.

Anyway, Boogeyman had been defeated. For now, he could say it confidently, right?

"Crisis is avoided." He said with a big smile, gaining a nod from Ibaraki Douji.

"As expected from you, Master."

He looked at her when he heard the way she called him.

'I should work on that, right? I have a feeling she will follow me to the US and keep calling me that… I would really be in trouble if that happened. Especially if that old man found out about it!'

Maybe he still had a crisis to avoid after all.