With a gigantic blazing dog towering overhead, its searing aura threatening to vaporize us, and the rest of my team physically or emotionally incapacitated, there was only one thought running through my mind, burning with equal intensity:

I had to protect them.

Tactics be damned, careful weighing of the pros and cons of any strategy be damned, I had to act quickly and decisively. And in this situation, there was only one way to do that.

Leaving a barrier around the others, I launched myself forward and shed my human form, growing to my full canine size and throwing my weight against him to push him back. Unfortunately, I found that even in my full size I only came up to his shoulder, but with surprise and momentum on my side, I was still able to drive him back a considerable distance.

The problem was that, in exchanging youki for physical mass, I had absolutely no buffer between myself and his burning aura. So while I had gotten him away from the others before my barrier failed, the fur on the side of my body where I had struck him quickly burned away, the skin reddening and puckering.

I leapt back, panting, my side hissing and a wisp of smoke rising off my burned flank. My immediate goal of keeping the others from burning to death may have been achieved, but at this rate I wasn't going to be able to get close enough to him to hit him again.

Souzou Tennou's lip curled back into a fanged smirk. "Transforming to the point of exhausting your youki and this is the extent of your size?" It was like the air itself was speaking, echoing all around me. He must have been channeling his words through the miasma much like I did with my own youki, however his projected speech was quite omnipresent and public, reverberating off the fortress walls and rocky spires.

The miasma... it was true I had that at my disposal to draw on as a nearly unlimited supply of backup youki, but the cost was just too great. I was already taking a severe risk by exposing myself to it without my mask, so there was no sense in further compounding that risk by intentionally absorbing more with no clear idea of what I'd do with it.

Souzou Tennou lunged forward, and I had no choice but to shrink down to an even smaller dog in order to free up enough youki to shield against his oncoming inferno and quickly propel myself out of the way. However, now I was no larger than his head. I'd traded offense for defense, but with his much larger pool of youki to draw from, it didn't seem like I'd be particularly effective at either.

"You've been making light of me and my power," Souzou Tennou boomed, slowly turning around. "Now do you understand how small and insignificant your resistance truly is? How paltry your female, human-nurtured power is compared to mine?" I highly doubted that had anything to do with it, and our difference in power was primarily due to the extra decades or centuries he had on me in age.

Not to mention I rarely assumed my full size due to the many inherent disadvantages. I was slower, I couldn't fly, speak, or use youki techniques, and I was much sloppier with my attacks. I only hoped the same disadvantages held true for him. If that were the case, there was no need for me to match him in size and strength. Like when Akagane and I fought the giant serpent in front of the shrine, all it took was a precision strike at the right spot.

Souzou Tennou raised his giant paw to smash me, but I easily whisked myself out of the way, shrinking myself even further to put even more youki at my disposal. "Oh, come now," he taunted. "At this rate I'll be swatting at you like a flea." That's the beauty of that, though: fleas are notoriously difficult to get rid of.

I flew around behind him, and he swatted at me with his long, flaming tail. I dodged again and picked up speed, circling higher and trying to determine the best place to hit him. He turned his head back and forth a few times as if looking for me, then let out a snort and expanded his heated aura more. Did he... lose me? ... Of course, he had no sense of smell! He had to rely on sight alone, and at this size, speed, and distance, he likely couldn't even see me.

But with me temporarily lost, he instead began advancing back towards his original target: My barrier where I was shielding the others.

No! I couldn't just be a pest for him to swat. I had to legitimately draw his attention away from them. Make myself a genuine threat. Hit him someplace where it mattered.

Souzou Tennou's aura strained against my barrier, causing the others to recede the best they could. Of the three, Wakage was at least back on her feet, but even she looked decidedly unsure about what she could do against the beast in front of her. Souzou Tennou didn't even look at them as he raised his paw to squash them like insects.

A flash suddenly streaked across his face, causing him to stumble backwards. His left eye squinted shut, a small trickle of blood coming from the corner. I hovered in the air beside his head, having used my youki to turn myself into a small canine projectile, swiping across his eye, his only means of sensing the world around him.

He snarled, glaring at me with his good eye. Well, that's what you get. You targeted the others in order to draw me out once you lost sight of me, and draw me out you did. I had his attention now, just as I'd hoped, but now the question was what to do with it.

I dove down beside and slightly behind him in the hopes of getting him to swipe with his paw -- and therefore step -- in that direction. Well, he moved in that direction, all right, but not with his paw. Instead he lunged with his head, gaping his mouth open and snapping it closed around me before I had time to react.

Well, around most of me. I felt a sharp twinge at my rear as it turned out not all of my tail had made it into his mouth, and it had been sliced down to a bob.

M... my tail! My cute and fluffy tail! He BIT IT OFF! It was bad enough when I lost my hair, but my tail pretty much defined me! And he was just going to take that away from me?!

These thoughts were all much more pressing on my mind than the fact that I was currently in his mouth and about to be swallowed. But, you know what, if he wants to mess with my tail, then this is exactly where he doesn't want me to be.

I flared out my youki expanding it out against the inside of his mouth like a dog trying to swallow a watermelon. He had no choice but to release his jaw and open his mouth, allowing me to fly out, a little awkwardly because I DIDN'T HAVE A TAIL ANYMORE. But I buzzed around his head like an annoying dogfly, then when I got close enough and picked up enough speed, concentrated my youki in front of myself like I did when fighting Oniuma and gave him the equivalent of a good hard punch in the face.

His head snapped to the side and he stumbled a little, causing me to smirk in satisfaction. I swooped down low and then pivoted upward, picking up speed and concentrating my youki again. If you want to get something out of me, you don't act like you're entitled to it... Uppercut to the chin. You don't threaten my loved ones... Bodyslam to the snout. And... You don't... mess... with the fluff.

I slammed into the back of his head, sending him stumbling forward. Due to the limited visibility in the miasma, without even realizing it I had driven him to the edge of the mountaintop, with nothing but a void of miasma to be seen below. Souzou Tennou dug his claws into the rocky ground and let out a huff. "You... annoying insect!"

Better an insect than whatever the hell you're supposed to be. I regarded him flatly, then swooped at him for one more run. But instead of aiming for his head, I pushed my youki behind me to pick up as much speed as I could, then at the last second concentrated it into a hard mass at my front and blasted right through his kneecap, shattering it. His leg bent at an awkward angle, and without its leverage, he had no means of keeping his footing and slowly toppled over the side of the cliff.

I watched his hulking form disappear into the miasma below, the fiery glow of his aura illuminating the pale clouds for a few seconds after his physical form had disappeared until it, too, faded. So, he can't fly in that large form, either. Good to know. Although, as symbolically triumphant as it was to throw him off the mountain, I knew quite assuredly that he'd be back. But for now, I could feel at least a little satisfied.

As I expected, a blast shot up through the haze below, though was not particularly aimed anywhere. The flaming white dog emerged from below, burning even hotter than before, although noticeably smaller than he had been when he fell. Still, "smaller" only meant he was merely ten times my size now.

He landed on the mountaintop with an angry crash, the rocks melting beneath his feet, his knee once again fully supporting his weight and his left eye joining his right in glaring furiously at me. His aura expanded forcefully out against me, and I had to shield myself with my own, getting pushed back all the same. Now that his physical form was smaller, he had even more youki at his disposal to keep me at bay, so even with my precision speed tactics, I didn't know if I'd be able to get close to him anymore.

Souzou Tennou strode threateningly forward, his mere presence pushing me backwards towards the barrier where the others had taken cover. "Enough of your childish tricks," he bellowed. "In the end, they amount to nothing."

I dug my claws into the ground, but it was no use. If only I could pull Akagane out here to cut through his aura, but he was in no shape to have enough fortitude to wield his youki-cutting ability in the face of his childhood nightmare. And as only he could unleash that power from his weapon, it wasn't like I could just borrow Sansazume. But I had no way to cut through it myself--

Without a mask on, a faint scent reached my nose through the miasma surrounding me. A burning smell that was different from the scent of the surroundings burning away under the pressure of his aura, but it was still familiar.

... Oh my god, I am such an idiot.

I reverted to my human form and flailed forward slightly, unused to the lack of stabilizing weight at my back. The reminder of the loss of my tail only steeled me more as I glared up at Souzou Tennou and drew my sword.

Souzou Tennou's aura bore down on me, crackling against my barrier. "If you can no longer reach me with your teeth or claws, what good will a mere human sword do?" he mocked in conceit. "I melted that thing away once, and I will do so again."

I gave him a flat look, then raised the sword over my head. You know, it's a good thing you look down on me so much, or you would have seen this coming.

With a great shout, I bellowed, "KAZE NO KIZU!" and swung the blade through the fissure that separated his youki from mine. The fissure destabilized and erupted into jagged golden bands, feeding off his plentiful youki and streaming back through it, encircling him in arcs of radiant energy.

"Wh... WHAT DID YOU DO?!" he shrieked from beneath the glowing claws of disrupted youki. They descended upon him without mercy, tearing through his flesh like a pack of ravenous wolves. They coalesced into a brillaint glow that forced me to avert my eyes, then exploded away in a loud rumble, shaking the very mountain.

I slowly lowered my arm from my eyes and gazed over the landscape, already melted and burned from Souzou Tennou's aura, but now marked with deep grooves like some beast the size of the mountain itself had left its mark. The already hazy air was now choked with debris, making it impossible to see what kind of state Souzou Tennou was in now.

"Y... you just blew him up... with your sword," Wakage exclaimed from behind me. "You blew him to bits with your sword!"

"Y... yeah," I replied, awkwardly re-sheathing my sword and stumbling towards their protective barrier, trying not to fall forward. Wakage's face was in complete shock, mixed with awe and excitement.

Except when I reached the barrier, her face turned to anger and she slammed her fists against it. "Why the HELL didn't you do that to begin with?!"

I rubbed the back of my neck. "S... sorry. I actually completely forgot about it until just now. I can only use that technique when my youki intersects my opponent's, and since I didn't have anyone with youki to train against, it wasn't anything I was ever able to practice."

"And yet you thought about it enough to give it some stupid name," she muttered.

Akagane unceremoniously pushed her out of the way and pressed his hands against the barrier in front of me. With a pleading expression, he begged, "Bake-inu, release me from this confinement. The beast is gone, and I cannot allow myself to cower behind a wall while you battle it alone."

"Ah, right..." I said, reaching out and touching the barrier, re-absorbing it. "Although, I don't know how long he'll--"

But Akagane shut me up by pulling me into a tight embrace. "I apologize for allowing my fear to control me and failing to be by your side. That beast burned you... devoured you... like it was replaying my childhood nightmares. And I could do nothing but watch in horror. But then... you struck it down. It came for us, and with a single stroke, you wiped it away..."

"Uh, y... yeah..." I replied, giving him an awkward pat on the back, unused to the sensation of him touching my actual back as usually my tail was in the way. I didn't have the same traumatic memories of Souzou Tennou's dog form as Akagane did, so I hadn't really expected this reaction from him. Not to mention I was wholly preoccupied worrying about when said dog would pop back to life and proceed to burn us all to ashes again. "I'm glad you were able to overcome your fear, but even with my Kaze no Kizu we still have no means of taking him out for good."

Akagane held me by the shoulders. "We had a working plan in progress before. When his youki is damaged, he cannot heal himself, nor can he escape Kijin-dono's barriers. If we can return him to such a state and keep him there..." Kijin flinched guiltily behind him.

"Yeah, one problem," Wakage interjected. "In order for him to get into that state, he has to consciously heal his wounds instantaneously. And to do that, he has to anticipate the attack long enough in advance. Meaning he'd have to let you hit him with your bedeviled spear. Now that he knows what it does, why would he ever do that? Whether he saw it coming or not, he'd just let you kill him and let himself heal completely."

"Then it would require striking a non-lethal blow," Akagane retorted firmly.

My eyes widened. "'Don't kill him'..." I whispered. "That might be it! That's the directive my mother's been giving me this whole time, and that it has to do with the differences in his two healing abilities. If you only injure him with Sansazume, his only choices will be to continue to fight wounded, or use his conscious healing abilities, which won't heal his youki."

Akagane stood and firmly planted the end of his spear in the ground. "If he continues to present himself as that hellbeast, merely injuring him will be a trivial matter."

A blast erupted out of the miasma and I barely had enough time to erect a barrier to block it, however the force of the blast shattered the barrier around us. Souzou Tennou's human figure appeared out of the haze, a glowing spear in each hand. "That's quite the plan you've concocted," he smirked. "It would be a shame if I didn't go along with it."