Hardcore Exorcist: Reborn to Grind

Ikaku Akamuro narrowed his eyes, observing Retsu Shido, who had just dropped his mimicry before him.

He’s ten feet tall. I’d estimate his weight at fifteen hundred to eighteen hundred pounds.

Twisted horns sprout from his temples. His arms are particularly developed… forearms as thick as wine barrels.

He’s top-heavy; the development of his lower body hasn’t kept pace with his upper half. Still, the fact that he can walk upright means his legs aren’t exactly weak.

Ikaku took a step back, then another, measuring the distance between them.

No doubt about it. Retsu Shido is a Monstrosity-Type Demon, the stage beyond Mutation-Type. That classification is for Demons with three or more areas of extreme, abnormal growth.

Their bodies become exponentially larger. Usually, that increase in size and power comes at the cost of speed... but still...

A few things were nagging at Ikaku.

First, the damage to his own body. The right side of him was riddled with grenade shrapnel. A 5.56mm round had torn through his left shoulder, right in the deltoid. 

These were not minor injuries.

Second, the Minotaur was already beyond human scale. He’d never had the chance to land a Force Release on a creature this massive. Even Ikaku, who was large by human standards, looked like a child next to the Demon’s towering frame.

And this thing... it has the ultimate physique.

And third... Ikaku saw the gorilla in the Minotaur.

No matter how much a human trains, their grip strength caps out around 440 pounds. A gorilla’s is over 1,100.

Even the hardest-hitting heavyweight boxer’s punch tops out at one ton of force. A gorilla can punch with five to six tons of force.

The fastest human sprinter can break twenty-five miles per hour. A gorilla can match that speed.

In strength training, visualizing your ideal physique is crucial. The ones with the clearest vision are the ones who win in the world of bodybuilding. In his past life, Ikaku’s vision had been exactly that: a gorilla.

The physique he’d always aspired to was now manifest right before his eyes. And this Minotaur was even bigger.

That was why Ikaku was afraid.

Afraid of the Minotaur, whose body so closely resembled his own aspiration.

“VRAAAAGH!”

The Minotaur slammed both fists into the ground and launched itself forward. The massive body flew almost horizontally through the air, its thick right arm swinging down to crush Ikaku.

Faster than I thought.

Ikaku revised his assessment.

Thankful that the Demon couldn’t change its trajectory mid-leap, he took aim with Alek’s shotgun and fired.

He leaped away without waiting to see the result, slipping clean past the massive arm. His fluid movements betrayed none of the pain from his injuries.

The mercury slug slammed into the Minotaur’s flank. It tore through hide and gouged out flesh, but the Demon barely seemed to feel it. As he dodged, Ikaku assessed the impact zone.

Too shallow. The slug had buried itself in a thick layer of fat but failed to reach any vital organs.

A twelve-gauge slug should be able to punch through the muscle and fat of a moose or a grizzly bear to hit the vitals...

Is its physical structure just that strong? That dense? That thick? Or am I just not neutralizing its Mana Armor enough?

The Minotaur lunged, trying to catch the darting Exorcist. Ikaku fired again.

The mana-infused slug, aimed for the face, went slightly wide and hit its shoulder. 

Blood sprayed, but it wasn’t enough to stop the Demon’s charge.

So against this thing, Alek’s shotgun can only inflict superficial wounds.

A colossal fist smashed into the ground. A blow that would have been fatal with a mere graze, but Ikaku drew it in until the last possible second before making a wide dodge.

The attack missed completely, sending large, radial cracks through the asphalt.

The Demon used the fist it had just slammed down to push off, launching its massive frame forward with a single arm. Ikaku planted his feet, timed his breath, and ducked under the flying behemoth.

Another miss.

The Demon didn’t give up, unleashing a storm of agility and violence to catch him. Its fists punched manhole-sized craters in the ground.

A glancing blow flipped a parked car. It was destruction incarnate.

“GRAAAAAAGH!!”

The Demon roared in frustration. It should be superior in both speed and power, so why couldn’t it catch him? Its bestial mind couldn’t comprehend the reason—that Ikaku was using a change of pace to control the distance.

Whenever the Demon attacked, Ikaku was perfectly still. This forced the Demon to attack a stationary target. No matter how high its top speed, it had to slow down to aim before it struck.

In that moment, it lost its speed advantage.

That was the instant Ikaku created distance. His acceleration—his ability to go from zero to one hundred—was explosive.

The Minotaur, for all its power, was slower to accelerate. It couldn’t match Ikaku’s initial burst.

And so, even though the Demon’s top speed was greater than his, it could never control the rhythm of the fight.

It could never catch him.