"Let her go, Demon King!" Kariudo yelled. "This is between you and me, not her!"

"Is that so?" The king sneered. "She attacked me. You're lucky I didn't kill her."

Kariudo raised his weapon again.

Then, the demon king made his biggest mistake. "Say farewell, hunter!" He raised the hammer, about to strike her head.

"NOOOOO!" Kariudo flew at him, raining attacks that even he was barely able to block. The demon king dropped the wolf girl onto the ground, his hammer was getting battered badly.

He never knew a human held so much force, even with a demon infecting his right arm.

He was certainly struggling, his parries were growing weaker and his moves much more sluggish. The human struck at him with strength that was not a god, nor a human, not even a demon's.

Kariudo brought the sword around in one mighty blow. The blade shattered the hammer, and he held the sword an inch to the demon king's throat.

The blade was hissing, and glowing strangely blue.

The demon king cackled. "You may have me at a slight disadvantage, but I will regain it soon once I assault your mind. Open up your thoughts to me…

-----

Kariudo suddenly found himself five years old, in a forest far more wilder than the one next to Iron Town's. His wolf brothers beside him, they chased after a deer.

The tribe caught it, Kariudo feeling the exhilaration of the chase. As he bent to eat it, he was suddenly clothed in darkness.

"That would have been your paradise, if you had surrendered your mind to me." The demon king walked out. "Your mind now belongs to me. You are weak."

"We are not weak."

"We are powerful."

Out of the darkness came Kariudo and a wolf. "You have no place in the world," Kariudo said. "And you shall not reign terror over its inhabitants any longer," The wolf finished.

"And why are you so powerful?" The demon king scoffed.

"We move as one."

"We think as one"

"We act as one."

"Alone, we are strong."

"Together, we are invincible."

Kariudo suddenly found himself in the real world again. Below him, was the limp form of the demon king. As he bent down to examine it, he realised that it was just the armour. The body was gone.

"Well done, Kariudo." Ashitaka walked up to him with a smile. "You destroyed all demons."