Hardcore Exorcist: Reborn to Grind

In the world of martial arts, every theory is built around a one-on-one engagement. 

Why? Because a two-on-one fight is a massive disadvantage. The same holds true for any greater numerical disparity.

When you’re outnumbered, your odds of winning plummet. That’s a simple, undeniable fact.

Therefore, Ikaku Akamuro’s primary consideration when facing a pack of Demons was how to create a series of one-on-one encounters.

When surrounded, a true master prioritizes using positioning and feints to engineer pseudo—or at least momentary—duels.

If you can isolate a single enemy, even for the instant of one exchange, you can theoretically handle a larger force by repeating that process for every foe.

Was this just an armchair theory? An unavoidable trial now stood before Ikaku Akamuro, demanding an answer.

A twelve-on-one is way beyond my predictions, but the logic of fighting multiple opponents doesn’t change.

I’ll give it a shot… The left first… No, I’ll start from the right.

Ikaku backs away, firing his SCAR-H in a sustained burst at the Demon on the right wall.

Hitting a fast-moving Demon with bullets is no easy task. But since their ultimate goal is to reach him, their movements are largely linear.

By the time he’s fired seven rounds, two of the three Demons crawling along the right wall have taken hits to the torso.

Blasted by the force of the 7.62mm mercury bullets, they peel off the wall and drop like bugs hit with a can of insecticide.

The muzzle of the SCAR-H shifts smoothly toward Suzuri Tomoshigawa. Two shots ring out, only grazing her back as she scrambles for cover.

Having reached a temporary safe zone, Suzuri takes a deep breath.

Ikaku Akamuro isn’t supposed to be able to use mana. Why are his mercury bullets so effective?

Her mind races with questions about the fallen Demons.

Whoa! Ikaku, they’re all over you!

While Ikaku spent precious seconds firing on Suzuri, eight Demons were closing in on him.

He swings his rifle toward them. The distance is fifteen centimeters. He’s within easy reach.

In another second, a Demon’s grip will close around the weapon and crush it.

But Ikaku is faster.

The instant a hand grabs his rifle, he executes a winding technique with the weapon itself. The barrel traces a circle, hooking the outside of the Demon’s wrist.

Given the limits of joint mobility, it’s impossible to maintain a grip. The pain alone should have made it let go.

But what if the Demon is too slow to react to the technique and holds on?

Ikaku’s execution is lightning-fast. The move itself shatters the Demon’s wrist.

“Gwah?!”

Gyaah!

The Demon falters. It finally lets go of the rifle.

Ikaku holds the weapon horizontally across his chest and fires without aiming. The full impact of the 7.62mm round strikes home.

The bullet lacks the power to fully penetrate, so all its kinetic energy is transferred. Even a Demon will get sent flying from a hit like that.

Sharp claws slash sideways through the air. Close range.

Ikaku deliberately moves in closer and slams into the Demon with a back-check—a full-body tackle using his back.

He gets inside its guard, using the broad impact to send it flying while making the claws miss their mark. Offense and defense in one.

Without missing a beat, sharp claws dig into his left shoulder from the other side. 

He’s been grabbed.

Using only his left arm, Ikaku wraps around the Demon’s limb from the outside, locks the joint, and snaps the elbow backward to break the hold.

He follows up with a vicious elbow strike, snapping the Demon’s head back. He’s rattled its brain to buy himself a few precious moments.

No time to breathe—another one comes from the front, its vicious face lunging for a bite.

Ikaku stomps its knee with an axe kick, then whips his other foot around to strike its inner thigh.

As the Demon’s posture breaks, he smashes the butt of his battle rifle into its face, knocking it to the ground.

This is bad, this is bad!

“Shut it.”

Ikaku takes two steps back to create distance.

Two more Demons from the left wall lunge for his rifle, refusing to give him a moment’s rest.

Again, he holds the weapon horizontally across his chest and fires without aiming. A direct hit to the torso sends both of them flying into the left wall.

I hit them with bullets, I hit them with strikes… The ones I’ve downed will probably get back up in one to three seconds, tops.

Ikaku’s eyes assess the battlefield with a clinical, bird’s-eye view.

The two he shot off the right wall are already starting to recover. The one whose wrist he shattered and whose gut he shot is also stirring.

I need to down more of them before those three get back up.

Two Demons remain untouched.

One spreads its arms, moving to tackle him.

The other reaches out, aiming to grab his head.

Ikaku unleashes a side-kick with a leg packed with more muscle than a grown oak.

Before the Demon can embrace him, his long leg strikes first, sharply hitting its solar plexus. It’s sent flying into the right wall with enough force to embed it there.

As for the hand reaching for his head, he presses the rifle barrel against the inside of its extended elbow, locking the joint and forcing the arm back. He uses the Demon’s own back as a makeshift gun rest.

The two he shot off the right wall recover and pounce. Distance: two meters.

Using the Demon as a platform for a more stable shot, Ikaku quick-fires at both.

One in the torso, one in the head. Both are sent flying backward.

The one shot in the head stops moving.

That makes three, counting the first two kills. Eleven left.

“Gwaaargh!”

The Demon whose wrist he’d broken and the one he’d hit with the back-check have recovered.

Ikaku fires from his stable platform, dealing out two mercury bullets apiece.

A total of four shots. Gut and head. Chest and head. It’s more than enough damage to be lethal.

That’s five. Nine left.

“Vaaargh!”

The Demon he’s using as a platform begins to thrash. It breaks its own arm to escape the joint lock, pushing past the limits of its body to try and sink its teeth into Ikaku’s thigh.

Ikaku grabs the Demon’s head in a vice grip and drives a knee into the beast’s snarling face.

Bones shatter. The Demon falls backward, clutching its ruined face.

Ikaku moves to shoot it—click. The magazine’s empty.

He tosses the SCAR-H aside, draws a large-caliber revolver, and blows the head off the Demon writhing on the ground.

Sixth one.

“Gagyaaargh!”

The Demon whose jaw he’d shattered with an elbow strike is back up. It lunges, trying to snatch his gun.

Ikaku holds the revolver across his chest and fires at point-blank range. The bullet hits the Demon’s torso, forcing it back.

Bracing his upper body, he adjusts his angle and fires a second time.

The bullet finds its mark, striking the staggered Demon squarely in the head and ending its life.

Seventh one.

The Demon he’d stunned with the rifle butt stirs and attacks again.

Once more, Ikaku rapid-fires without aiming. The first shot hits its torso, stopping its advance; the second drills through its head, killing it instantly.

Eighth one.

“You two, go get him!”

The two Demons by Suzuri’s side spring into action. They’ll have their claws in Ikaku’s flesh in less than four seconds.

The two he’d blasted into the left wall are back on their feet, baring their ferocious fangs.

Ikaku extends his arm, takes careful aim, and blows one’s head apart.

Brains splatter against the left wall, blooming like a red flower.

Ninth one.

“Gyaaaaargh!”

The other Demon, the one the bullet hadn’t chosen, grapples with Ikaku, trying to use its momentum to tackle him to the ground.

But Ikaku doesn’t fall.

“Gih, gwaah…?”

The beast, driven by pure instinct, has the disorienting sensation of clinging to a giant boulder.

Solid. Immovable. His stability is so absolute that it crushes its will to push.

Ikaku’s revolver is empty. He drops it and slams a Surge strike into the belly of the Demon clinging to him.

The Seismic Kick he uses to generate the power sends cracks spreading across the floor.

The Demon’s body is launched through the air as if it were hit by a car.

Tenth one.

The Demon he hit with the side-kick is now closing in from behind. The instant he finishes the Surge strike, Ikaku shifts his focus backward.

Another small Seismic Kick cracks the floor, generating a counter-force. He lifts his leg, still imbued with that power, and unleashes a spinning back kick.

He intercepts the surprise attack, slamming the Demon into the wall and stopping it cold.

Then he draws his shotgun, aims, and pulls the trigger.

Eleventh one.

He stomps on a Demon writhing on the floor, finishing it off.

Twelfth one.

Eighteen seconds have passed since the start of the battle.

Ikaku has laid twelve Demons to rest.

Suzuri watches the overwhelming display, her mouth hanging open in stunned silence.

A continuous flow of beautiful, deadly movements. A distribution of offense and defense that seems to tread a razor’s edge.

She finds herself completely mesmerized.

No way… What is this?! How is this possible?! A human with no mana can’t survive getting that close to a Demon! Even Exorcists with mana are told they won’t last seconds if a Demon gets that close!

He was a type of Exorcist that didn’t exist in any book she’d ever read.

How was he still alive? Why could he dominate at such close range? How could he dispatch so many Demons in so little time?

And his movements… are they fast?

No, not really. Not especially fast.

It’s more like… there’s no hesitation. It’s smooth. The speed at which he decides his next move is what’s fast. And he seems to shoot a beat quicker, too.

But why does it feel that way…?

There is a technique known as Center Axis Relock, or the C.A.R. System. It is a shooting stance and methodology specialized for close-quarters combat.

It’s not the conventional method of extending the arms, raising the gun to eye level, and firing while looking down the sights.

It’s a distinctive style characterized by keeping the gun extremely close to the body, so much so that it looks like it’s resting on the chest. Its true value is realized in combat at arm’s reach.

It has four major advantages.

First: With the arms unextended, the weapon is much harder to grab.
Second: It boasts a superior rate of fire, as it shortens the time spent acquiring a sight picture.
Third: The weapon is held at the body’s most stable point—like a child hugging a favorite doll—allowing recoil to be managed by the entire body’s musculature.
Fourth: Pointing the weapon at an enemy naturally creates a bladed stance, narrowing the user’s silhouette from the front and reducing their target area.

Its greatest disadvantage is the sacrifice of accuracy. That’s the price of not using sights.

An amateur couldn’t hit a stationary target a meter away.

But for one who’s put in the training, that limitation doesn’t apply. By locking the upper body and moving it as a single, coordinated unit, the gun remains in a fixed position, ensuring bullets fly to the same spot.

With even greater mastery, one eventually learns to feel where the bullets will land based on the body’s angle and orientation. This allows for the recovery of shooting accuracy.

That is the C.A.R. System. When it comes to dominating the fight at point-blank range—three meters or less—it is an unrivaled shooting style.

Ikaku Akamuro learned this close-quarters shooting technique during his martial arts exchanges with Ron of the Hidden Force.

He then integrated it into his own combat system at an extremely high level.

He had spent thousands of hours honing this skill, sharpening it into a tool to deal with Demons that move with superhuman agility. That was why Ikaku could intercept the swarming pack of Demons.

All of it was the art of a mortal man. A state reached only at the apex of relentless training.

But Suzuri Tomoshigawa could never know that.

He wasn’t just some guy who couldn’t use mana! I was fed false information! That coward! Pretending to be weak when he’s a full-fledged Mage!

Forced to swallow this bitter pill, Suzuri decides to slip out of the hall.

There are still plenty of Demons left! I’ll unleash all of them and make a total mess! I’ll make him regret attacking my castle and force him to apologize! I won’t give you an easy death, Ikaku Akamuro!

Meanwhile, the two Demons that had been guarding her had reached Ikaku.

A powerful arm swings, driven by pure violence.

Ikaku parries the limb, delivers a sharp slap, and redirects the Demon’s charge without fully stopping its momentum.

Now it’s one-on-one. I’ll neutralize this one in under a second.

Ikaku meets the other Demon’s wild swing with his wrist, his stance rock-solid.

He strikes its elbow from the outside-in, shattering the joint and destroying the arm.

He fires the shotgun down into its thigh, destroying the leg.

After confirming its masculine features, he follows up with a kick to the groin for catastrophic damage. 

The Demon collapses, no longer a threat.

“Gaaaargh?!”

The Demon whose first attack was parried and redirected had overshot Ikaku, creating a five-meter gap.

Ikaku scoops up the Axe of Price.

“Voooooooh!”

The Demon raises its black claws and throws a lariat with its beastly arm.

Ikaku intercepts the attack with his handaxe. The blade bites deep, hooking the arm and keeping it extended.

“Vvvh… Ooooh…!”

Ikaku stomps the Demon’s right knee, making it buckle. He grabs its hair and delivers two knee strikes to the face.

Once its consciousness is addled, he yanks the embedded axe free. Using the output of Force Release, he swings.

The blade cleanly severs the neck. The headless body crumples to the floor.

As he turns, Ikaku hurls the handaxe with all his might.

The heavy, spinning blade sinks deep into the back of Suzuri Tomoshigawa as she tries to flee the hall.

“Aaargh! Ahh, ahh, ugh…!”

It’s a pain unlike any she has ever known. She collapses to the floor, unable to get up.

Through tear-filled eyes, she looks back. The Exorcist who built a mountain of Demon corpses is staring right at her.

He knew… Damn it! What the hell is he?! Who is he?! This isn’t what I was told! It’s completely different from the reports! I was told he was just some pebble on the side of the road who couldn’t even use mana…!

The pain surpasses its critical point. Blood flow to her brain decreases, sending her into shock—and Suzuri Tomoshigawa loses consciousness.

“Ga… ah… aah…”

The only one left is the Demon that was kicked in the groin by a pillar of solid muscle. It’s foaming at the mouth and writhing on the floor.

Ikaku walks over and crushes its head under his heel, putting it out of its misery.

Thirty seconds have passed since the start of the battle.

Ikaku Akamuro has laid fourteen Demons to rest.

“Hah… I survived.”

Ikaku lets out a sigh.

I made it through that unavoidable trial… but man, that was rough.

“Axey. Don’t kill that one.”

It’s Redemptio, remember?

“I’m counting on you.”

Honestly… All right, I’ll plump up the wound and seal it for you!

“Thanks.”

Ikaku does a light stretch, then begins to collect his scattered weapons.