Kenshin confidently leaped at Dokuro. Despite daggers piercing both his arms, he grabbed Dokuro's neck tightly while covered in blood. With a huge smile on his face, he said, "This doesn't count." His feet were planted so firmly on the ground that the surface cracked under the pressure.
Soma suddenly panicked and shouted "Dokuro!"
Kenshin laughed, "You shouldn't have brought a child with you, now I remember you," he said, his face growing serious towards the end of the sentence.
Dokuro pulled his right dagger out of Kenshin's arm and swung it quickly towards Kenshin's neck, but Kenshin caught the dagger again with his left palm. His wounds were healing rapidly, though the pain remained.
Meanwhile, Clay lunged at Asahi who was standing back. He was throwing rapid punches, but Asahi swiftly dodged them all and jumped to deliver a kick. Clay blocked the kick with his entire arm, but the impact was extremely painful. Though he staggered slightly, he didn't lose his balance. His eyes were locked on Asahi. "This isn't my first time killing a beast, but you seem like you'll be a bit of a challenge," he said with a condescending attitude.
"The hunter will become the hunted." Asahi maintained his composure and charged forward, attacking with his claws.
Dokuro was nearly losing consciousness, but Soma decided to help from behind. "Element Fire: Blazing Breath!" Waves of fire advanced towards Kenshin. Kenshin suddenly released Dokuro and jumped backward.
Dokuro was out of breath. "Stupid child, I shouldn't have brought you without training," he muttered.
"Child, know your place. Let's take a breather. I'll give you 10 seconds - run as far as you can, kid," said Kenshin, shooting aggressive looks. "I'll take you Dokuro as prisoner for questioning, and when I'm done, your corpse will be all that's left here," he added.
"Well then, let's begin, one, two..." Kenshin started counting. He clapped with each number. After a while, he stopped counting and the rhythmic claps took over, one for each second.
Dokuro had slowly come to his senses but couldn't find an opening against Kenshin.
An incredible fear had gripped Soma. It was like facing a lion's roar; he trembled, couldn't respond, his legs wouldn't move. Kenshin's aura was rapidly consuming him. This wasn't energy, it was something else - no matter how great a person's energy might be, even if it created fear, this power was on a completely different level. Time seemed to slow down. Soma swallowed hard and somehow managed to move his body. He felt slightly relieved after activating his eyes, but the pressure was still bearing down on his neck.
With three seconds left, Soma quickly ran into the forest. When Kenshin reached nine, he stopped, "Ah, that was fun, let's give him a bit more time while I deal with you first, Dokuro." He lunged forward - his wounds had healed during those ten seconds.
Dokuro was evading Kenshin's attacks by backing away. "Your healing was good at first but then got worse. Seems like fatal wounds are troublesome for you."
Kenshin suddenly paused, and Dokuro stopped simultaneously. "Your analytical thinking exhausts me, Dokuro Namboku. I should have killed you back then."
"Did you think you had such an option?" said Dokuro. He had faced this enemy before and knew him somewhat, but this healing ability truly made him powerful. No matter what he did, he couldn't win this fight - his only goal was to buy more time for Soma. "If this psychopath goes after him, he'll definitely kill him. I must buy as much time as possible," he thought.
Meanwhile, Clay and Asahi were fighting like cat and mouse. Clay's daggers whistled through the air in a dance, while Asahi's agile movements kept him constantly out of reach. Though Clay stayed mostly defensive, he attacked whenever he found an opening. However, each strike cost him more damage than he dealt.
Asahi suddenly lunged forward, striking at Clay's chest with his claws. Clay barely managed to dodge by throwing himself sideways, but Asahi's claws still grazed his arm. Clay groaned in pain but maintained his stance, holding his daggers crossed in preparation for defense.
No matter how hard he tried to resist, Clay couldn't withstand Asahi's bestial strength. Each of Asahi's strikes seemed to grow stronger. Clay was losing blood on one side while running out of breath on the other. Moreover, the blows he was deflecting were getting increasingly powerful. In Asahi's final strike, he hit with such force that one of Clay's daggers flew from his hand. "You've reached the end of the road," said Asahi, walking heavily toward Clay.
Clay placed his hand on the ground, "Do you know the other quick way to release elements? Shapes."
Asahi hesitated momentarily and couldn't make sense of it until he looked at the ground where shapes had been drawn. Clay shouted "Element Earth: Prison" and earthen walls rose faster than normal, imprisoning Asahi. "This should be enough to hold you," he muttered.
Meanwhile, Dokuro attacked more aggressively, forcing Kenshin to retreat. He was making very quick cuts. But Kenshin realized that such evasion was pointless and hesitated, delivering a solid kick to the dagger coming from his left side, causing Dokuro's hand to be thrown off.
He jumped on him and threw several punches. Although Dokuro blocked these, his breath was knocked out by a sudden knee strike. A solid punch was coming toward his head; he blocked it with his hand at the last second. Kenshin's wounds had healed.
"Pointless," said Kenshin. He was thinking of finishing him off with a single punch as he approached, but Dokuro dodged the punch and jumped on top of him. He bit his neck with his mouth and tore off a piece with all his might. Blood was everywhere; Dokuro's black hair suddenly turned red as it was stained with blood.
Kenshin screamed in pain but hadn't lost consciousness. He grabbed Dokuro's hair with his left hand and repeatedly punched him in the middle of his face with his right. Dokuro's face was completely destroyed, but he managed to escape his grip by jabbing his finger into Kenshin's eye.
"So you want to play dirty," Kenshin roared. After a brief loss of vision, he looked back at Dokuro. Just then Dokuro was jumping at him, but Clay's dagger from their fight behind them happened to fall into Kenshin's hand. He slapped Dokuro with the dagger piercing through his hand; the blade entered through one cheek and exited through the other. Dokuro lost consciousness from the impact of the slap and the pain of the cutting blade. He had barely been standing anyway from all the punches he had taken.
Kenshin looked over his shoulder. "Thanks for the dagger," he said. Clay was incredibly tired and out of breath. "Would you prefer to die, or be subjected to torture?" Kenshin asked as he turned around and bent down beside him.
Suddenly, the prison walls Clay had created crumbled and scattered everywhere. Asahi emerged from the dust saying, "He's mine, don't touch him. I'm interested in this technique he used." With a angry smile, he added: "I'll kill him myself when I'm done."
Clay had no strength left but he had no intention of being captured. He glanced at Dokuro from the corner of his eye. "Element Earth: Landslide!" he shouted. The ground they were standing on suddenly broke apart and began sliding down. Clay had trusted his instincts; he thought Kenshin would save him and he wasn't wrong. Meanwhile, Asahi escaped to safe ground with agile movements, jumping over the sliding earth and rocks.
Clay disappeared into the earth. When the dust and loud noise settled, Kenshin was seen falling to where the warriors were, holding Dokuro in his arms. Asahi was looking down at the massive ruins from above; he searched for Clay with his eyes but quickly descended thinking he was buried under the soil.
"I think he committed suicide, it seems impossible to get out from under that pile of earth," said Asahi. Though he was disappointed that he wouldn't be able to learn Clay's techniques, at least the brief battle was over.
"Being able to do something like this with his remaining energy shows he had great willpower," said Kenshin. He truly hadn't expected such a move and honored his death with praise.
"Our departure will be delayed, let's interrogate Dokuro. We'll act according to that," said Asahi.
Kenshin nodded. "Let's send Naru ahead and wear them down a bit. Threaten him well so he doesn't try to betray us, he can cause serious damage with his power."
"Leave that to me, and I'll leave the interrogation to you." Asahi stepped back and went toward Naru.
In Yuiken village, Kamiya took some food and went to the house where his father was staying to talk and confide in Soma. When he opened the sliding door and went in, he said "Kamiya here," but there was no response from inside. After looking around a bit, he realized the house was empty. Upon careful inspection, there was no sign that anyone else had been staying there. He dropped the bag he was holding and quickly headed toward the central building. He went up to the second floor and burst into the room where the elders were gathered; inside, Hirabayashi, Endo and other elders were talking. "Everyone out! Except you, Endo," he roared.
Everyone quickly left the room while Hirabayashi glanced at Endo and thought "So you're up to something again," thinking that he must have done something to even anger his son. Though he left the room, he stayed within earshot.
"Where is Soma?" he grabbed his collar angrily. Endo showed no reaction, "What's with the anger? He's staying with me, didn't Kinjo tell you?" he said.
"I went to your house and looked - nobody was there!" Kamiya's anger wasn't subsiding.
Rikimaru was nearby, and after seeing Kamiya running outside, he had secretly followed him. When he entered the corridor, he ran into his grandfather. "Grandpa? What's wrong?" he asked. "Be quiet, the Naizens are up to something again." He signaled him to be quiet and they both started eavesdropping secretly.
"Foolish child, he's probably out somewhere, how should I know?" Endo's lies weren't enough to convince Kamiya.