fire & water (TanjiroxReader)

Chapter 25:Darts

(Y,n)'s POV
   The little girl drew her arms back and threw the first few darts, her attacks coming at very high speeds that cut through the previously still air. It was easy for me to block the wooden forms with tactful shifts of my blade, and all of the darts weakly ricocheted to the ground after being robbed of their inertia.

    I caught one of the small darts between my fingers before it could reach my face, and taking the tempting opportunity, I brought it up to eye-level to speedily examine it. The darts weren't that thick, in fact, they were too small to be considered even remotely lethal. But since they were so sharp, it wouldn't be very hard for them to puncture human skin.

    On the tip of the wood was a bright purple and black substance, which had a rather watery consistency. It didn't take long for the purpose of the darts to dawn on me after analyzing what the peculiar purple fluid was. The thin sharp structure of the wood, the purple liquid on that very wood, the mysterious cause of the man's death-

    "Don't let the darts get into your skin, they're laced with poison!" I warily warned the others while dodging the next upcoming rush of the demon's darts, throwing the dart in my hand to the side and out of the way.

    "You're so smart! I didn't think you'd figure it out so soon!" The sadistic child laughed, moving out of the way when Inosuke rushed at her and attempted to cut her arm off. The boar-headed boy moved out of the way as some of the now proven deadly attacks went whizzing his way, dropping to his knees to avoid the poisonous wake of the darts.

    Inosuke firmly planted his foot into the demon's small shoulder once back on his feet, causing her to keel over onto her back at the rough force. "Owie, that wasn't very nice!" The black-haired girl whined with a high pitched voice, she hugged her arms close to her chest whilst glaring at Inosuke with her big doll-like eyes.

    "Inosuke, get away from her!" I hastily signalled to the boy when our target conjured a handful of the poisonous darts in both her hands. I sprinted towards the both of them, skillfully drawing my sword behind me to prepare myself to block the oncoming attack.

    "Flame koi, 6th configuration, wildfire!" I made it just in time to disarm the darts before they could reach the boy's bare arms, my flames, raging on with a fiery passion, burned all of the wooden spikes to a charred crisp on the ground. The demon backpedaled when I swiftly changed motions to make a diagonal slash at her with my weapon ablaze from the tip down to the hilt, nearing her where there was just enough space in-between us to make a successful slash.

    "Humph, this game isn't very fun!" The girl yelled with a bratty frown, pulling out a different set of darts from the sleeve of her red kimono. Unlike the others, these pieces of wood were coated with a bright green liquid, a completely different shade compared to the purple substance on the original darts.

    Instead of throwing them at me, the girl whipped her arm around and shot the darts into an oak tree close to the two of us. I stared in awe and confusion as glowing green cracks crawled throughout the surface of the tree bark, causing an eerie groaning noise to escape from deep within the great oak.

    That couldn't be good-

    Letting loose one final concerning roar, the tree erupted into a million pieces of itself, sending sharp chunks of wood slicing dangerously throughout the battel in all directions. I was able to dodge the shrapnel that threatened me, but what I didn't anticipate was for the same thing to happen to yet another tree.

    Since I was so close to this particular oak, I was unable to block or even attempt to dodge the staggering wood that it cruely gifted the area. Acting more like literal knives than wood, three large pieces of shrapnel sharply impaled my right leg, I didn't even get a wink of time to react to the stabbing pain before the demon child sent a flurry of darts my way.