They soon reached the top and glanced around. The peak seemed covered in snow with nothing unusual in sight, except one singular figure. It looked very much like the other spirit warriors, its mask similar to that of the last spirit warrior. It wielded a katana with a strange purple aura surrounding it, the blade also a bright shade of purple with white interweaving lines stretching across the blade like lightning.

The spirit warrior raised its head and looked at the two, inspecting them, seeming to be confused by Kesshō's appearance. "You don't seem like any creature I am aware of," He spoke after a short while, "rather you seem like many I am aware of, all at once."

"She is a hybrid," Kurai answered.

"So those type of things also exist in this age," The spirit warrior sighed. "Leave," He warned, "the treasure you seek here belongs to none and obeys none, if you wish to live, then leave." Neither Kesshō nor Kurai showed any sign of fear or of leaving as the spirit warrior waited. "If you wish to not leave then I will be happy to kill yo-" The spirit warrior threatened but was cut off.

Not pleased by his way of talking, Kesshō dashed up to him and jumping into the air hit his lower jaw with her knee. The spirit warrior didn't move from his position in the slightest, barely acknowledging the attack. With a palm strike he sent Kesshō flying back towards Kurai, who grabbed her by the hood of her coat and placed her back on her feet.

"Be careful, he is stronger than the others, your physical strength is not enough," Kurai warned.

Kesshō nodded and unsheathed her katana, fixing the spirit with her eyes as she breathed in. The spirit warrior aligned his katana with its sheath before slicing upwards, creating a blade of lightning that cut through the ground in a straight line. Kurai and Kesshō stepped aside, dodging the blade but still felt pain as the lightning crackling from it hit their bodies.

It mattered little for them however, barely having done anything to the two. This time as well Kesshō took the initiative, dashing straight to the spirit warrior. She slashed upwards, a moon blade following her blade.

San no kata: tsuki no shutsu.

The spirit warrior blocked her slash with his katana, still being pushed backwards from the force of the attack. He quickly dashed back to Kesshō, performing a low horizontal slash. Kesshō jumped above the slash, tilting her body upside down.

Shichi no kata: Gesshoku kiru.

She slashed at the neck of the spirit warrior, a crescent moon blade following her attack. His reflexes were extremely fast however, being able to raise his katana to his neck in that short time, blocking her attack and getting knocked to the side in the process. He rolled twice on the ground before stopping himself with his legs. While he remained crouched he noticed Kesshō jump into the air, raising her katana above her head and slashing downwards as she fell towards him, a moonblade following the katana.

Yon no kata: Tsukinoyumi

The spirit warrior raised his katana above his head, blocking the strike, the snow blowing away from the force of the attack. The spirit warrior pushed Kesshō backwards, getting up, spinning around and slashing at her horizontally right after. She blocked the attack, still getting sent flying backwards, rolling on the ground and sideways as soon as she stopped. The spirit warrior landed on the ground, slamming his katana towards Kesshō. She quickly dashed to the side, dodging the attack. Lightning crackled on the ground and the blade as it smashed into the snow, melting some of it.

The spirit warrior raised his katana upwards, causing a lightning strike right beside Kesshō. He clicked his tongue on having missed, glaring at Kesshō with his blank face. Kesshō dashed forwards and slashed at him while his guard stayed down. He stepped to the side, easily dodging her vertical slash and slashed down at her arm, lightning crackling between the blade and her arm. Kesshō clicked her tongue, two of her phoenix tails hitting the spirit warrior in the chest, knocking him nearly off the cliff before he could make contact with her arm.

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As Kesshō's arm slowly healed, the cracks from the lightning and burn recovering near instantly, her phoenix tails were raised in the air, their tips pointing towards the spirit warrior. They usually stayed very close to her body so to not get in her way during fighting, but she could use her tails to easily kill as well, though she preferred not to.

Kesshō raised her head and turned towards the spirit warrior. His throat dried up and he felt a weird feeling clawing at his heart, telling him to flee as she glared at him. He barely noticed the sclera of her pink eye change from white to black, her pink irises glowing menacingly in the dark. Two flames lit ablaze at the corners of her lips, blue on the left and pink on the right, as she took in a deep breath.

The spirit warrior raised his katana to the sky and charged a powerful lightning slash just as Kesshō opened her jaws, a blue-pink glow visible in her neck. Just as the spirit warrior brought his katana down and unleashed his lightning slash Kesshō let loose a torrent of blue-pink flames that melted through the snow on the ground, headed straight for the spirit warrior.

The spirit warrior realised the power in that breath attack and stabbed his katana into the ground, forming a barrier. The breath attack tore through the lightning, barely losing much energy while doing so, and headed straight for the barrier, exploding on impact. The snow around the path of the breath attack melted off, and some of the ground near the impact shattered.

The spirit warrior got back on his feet, pulling his katana from the ground. He seemed to have been hit by the breath attack, clearly not pleased about it. Dashing behind Kesshō he slashed at her neck in the blink of an eye. She spun around, dodging the attack and slashing diagonally upwards, landing a hit on the spirit warrior. She took in a deep breath and continued her onslaught, a moon-wave forming and following her blade. The moon-wave, made from a collection of moon-blades, moved in a more wave like form, being much bigger as it followed the blade of the katana.

She slashed downwards with her all her strength, being parried away by the spirit warrior. Spinning on her feet she slashed horizontally, to be parried again, the spirit warrior's hands shaking under her blows. She spun on her feet again and slashed upwards, knocking the spirit warrior's hands above his head. While her katana remained raised in the air she curved it around and slashed horizontally at the spirit warrior's exposed torso, landing a hit. As the spirit warrior slashed downwards she quickly spun again, the opposite way than before and slashed downwards, hitting his katana in the ground as it missed her. She spun again as she stepped forward and again performed a horizontal slash, slashing his chest again. She again spun on her feet and slashed upwards, this time however, the spirit warrior succeeded in blocking her attack.

He realised that the strength behind her last four strikes to be less than before, but their speed much higher than before. He figured she reduced the speed in her attacks to catch him off guard when heavier hits failed, but now he already got used to that speed.

Curving her katana around Kesshō changed her spinning direction and slashed horizontally. The spirit warrior blocked her strike, a bit earlier than he anticipated. Kesshō's katana clashed with the spirit warrior's, knocking it nearly out of his hands. She spun around again, slashing downwards, hitting his katana into the ground and out of his hands, embedding it in the snow. She spun again and slashed at his torso as she stepped forwards, inflicting a slash much deeper than any of the ones before.

The spirit warrior fell to the ground, heavily bleeding from his torso. "What was that?" The spirit warrior groaned.

"Tsuki Kenjutsu: Ju no kata: Chōseki no henka," Kesshō answered.

"You changed the speed and strength of your attacks based on your spin direction?" The spirit warrior coughed.

Kesshō nodded. "I did it this way only so others will have a chance at predicting them, I can change it every slash too, but it's more fun and fair this way," she shrugged.

"You truly are a monster," The spirit warrior chuckled as his body disintegrated away, leaving it's katana behind. Kesshō picked the katana from the ground and inspected it. It seemed to be in perfect shape to her and didn't bear any curse or similar either. She stabbed it in the ground, leaving it as that and returning to Kurai.

"Ready to go?" He inquired, a long wooden box slung over his back. Kesshō tilted her head at it, confused as to its purpose. "This is what we were tasked to retrieve," Kurai answered. "Now, all we have to do is return and hand this over, maybe."

Kesshō nodded and walked to him, but Kurai didn't move ahead, instead crouched down, taking the wooden box off his shoulders and opening it. Both Kesshō and Kurai were surprised to see the contents of the box, neither of them expecting it to be that.

"A bow?" Kurai thought.

Kesshō also tilted her head, confused as to why they were tasked to retrieve a bow. The two of them exchanged confused glances and shrugged. Kurai closed the box and slung it over his shoulders again, leading the way back with Kesshō following behind.

"Be prepared to fight when we reach back." Kurai mumbled to Kesshō as they returned to the path.