"AAARGH! AAARGH!" Bunjiro yelled, trying futilely to resist the pull. The pain of his arm bones shattering one by one was too intense to impose resistance.

"How do you feel now?" Yoichi boomed. Applying further force, the young tamer twisted his arm even more, crossing his gaze with that of the villain. "How does it feel to not be able to defend yourself against an attack? Do you think the princess was having fun when you immobilized her? Huh?! Answer me!"

​​

*track* - Bunjiro's arm bone came out of his shoulder, disconnecting his limb from the rest of his body. Simultaneously, next to him, beyond the fragments of the wall that had protected him, his demon writhed on the ground.

The pupils of Bunjiro's shifted behind his eyes and his senses gradually began to abandon his body. Before he passed out, the joints in his legs also gave way and he hung on Yoichi's arm like a lifeless puppet.

"What do you think you're doing? I'm not done with you yet!" Yoichi exclaimed angrily, throwing his enemy forward and knocking him to the ground. The blow sustained to his head and back awakened Bunjiro. He began to settle that excruciating pain again and, out of the corner of his eye, looked at his grass-type demon.

"Taka... Taka!" Bunjiro whispered, using the remaining breath in his lungs to call his Oracle's name. Its vines had lost their strength and still lay on the ground as if they were part of the landscape. Even its small black eyes were dull and half-closed, almost helpless.

I won't pity him, thought Yoichi. I can't be that weak! This guy would have killed me in cold blood if I didn't dodge his attack! Besides, if I let him live, he might return to Goldhaven and give important clues about my whereabouts to Yozo.

Reasoning over the incident, Yoichi realized that if indeed Bunjiro had been following him since his departure, then he also knew of his plan to search for Shusaku in Oakenfair. But why hadn't he attacked him when he had taken shelter in the Boneside Swamp cave?

Yoichi's foot stepped on Bunjiro's broken arm, accentuating his pain and forcing him to turn belly-up. "When did you start following me? Are you alone or is there someone else hiding in the trees?" he inquired. Frantically, his eyes swung between his enemy's face and the forest before him, as if trying to scan someone in the darkness.

"Go fuck yourself!"

*spit* - Unable to accept defeat and trusting in Yoichi's good nature, Bunjiro challenged him by spitting on his pants.

"Takuma," the blond-haired tamer called, clenching his fists in anger. "Check to see if there's anyone else hiding in there. Be careful," he ordered his friend.

"Of course, Yoichi! I'll check right away!" Takuma diligently replied, jumping with his feet onto the back of his horse and riding past the two challengers, scouring the remaining part of the small forest, hidden by the foliage of the trees.

Yoichi lowered himself onto his knees, bringing his face closer to that of his helpless opponent. At the same time, Kenji emerged from the shadows of the trees, moving stealthily toward Taka, Bujiro's demon.

Using the pads of its feline paws and framing the enemy demon with its terrifying blood-red eyes, the little dragon was carefully studying its prey, sharing its tamer's predatory instincts.

"Still think you can defeat me, Bunjiro?" Yoichi growled, resting a hand on his interlocutor's chest. With open fingers, Yoichi's hand covered almost all of it.

"Mhmh... ahahah... BUAHAHA!"

The young tamer received no response to that taunt, and Bunjiro burst into hysterical laughter. The drops of blood from his arm had smeared the corresponding side of his face, but the Heralds warrior no longer looked afraid.

"You think you're the strongest, don't you, Yoichi? In my guild, those weaklings of mine did nothing but talk about you and the power of your demon," Bunjiro admitted, looking fearlessly into Yoichi's eyes. "Yoichi destroyed Kato, Kato looked like a beginner tamer when he fought against Yoichi, Yoichi, Yoichi! Fucking bullshit!" he huffed, inadvertently spitting blood and saliva out of his mouth and smearing Yoichi's face.

"No one ordered me to follow you. It was my decision. I wanted to teach those chickenshits a lesson and take your head to my guild leader. That way, I would never hear your stupid name come out of their mouths again." During those words, the anger in Bunjiro's gaze overcame his fear of death.

"After our first meeting, every time I heard your name, I remembered what had happened. I remembered the fact that a rookie like you had been able to defeat Bunjiro of the Emperor's Heralds! Do you know how long it took me to get into the most famous guild in Tentochu? Do you know what I was forced to do?!"

"That's enough!" Yoichi roared, pushing his hand on Bunjiro's chest and forcing him to expel all the air from his lungs. Feeling sick by those meaningless words, he was about to give in to Therion's primal instincts.

Unlike what had happened to his body during the fight with Urgerross, Yoichi could not know what the consequences of such an act would be in the real world. If he surrendered to that power, would his body really be able to handle it? How could he return back to normal if the primal flame took over?

His burning heart pumped more blood and distributed more heat energy to his arms. The fiery veins carried small flames from his shoulders to his forearms, finally reaching the backs of the hand resting on his enemy's body.

"I don't care what you did to get into the guild! You raped a woman! You raped the Princess of Tentochu!" Yoichi yelled, no longer able to hold back his words.

Those very words were carried by a gust of wind that caressed the trees and traveled through their trunks, reaching almost every point in the undergrowth. The attentive ears of Takuma, used to hunting alone and able to hear the steps of a hare hundreds of meters away, picked up that sound, storing that secret information.