The demon queen lurched like a ship at sea, ichor streaming from the ruins of two boulder-sized eyes. Katsuko darted around another swipe of the monster’s claws, her sword trailing an arc of fire through the rain. She glanced back just in time to see a mastiff-sized soldier demon scuttle up from the other side of the queen’s carapace to lunge at Ryouma.

Her heart leapt into her throat. “Tousaki!”

Ryouma’s hands glowed sickly-red as he spun around, meeting the soldier demon head-on. They collided in a tangle of limbs and bared teeth, the demon’s pincers scrabbling for purchase on Ryouma’s armor. The momentum knocked them off the queen’s armored back, sending them tumbling through the air. On the ground below, more of the queen’s children swarmed in a mass of gleaming black carapaces and clicking mandibles.

She didn’t see Ryouma land; one of the demon queen’s massive claws missed Katsuko by scant inches, whistling past her face to slam into the chitinous armor that protected the queen’s neck. Katsuko staggered at the impact, grabbing a spiked protrusion near the hinge of the queen’s jaw for balance. It was the work of a moment to leap up onto the rain-slick, massive forehead, reverse her grip on her katana, and stab the point of the burning blade deep into one yellow eye.

The world spun as the queen howled and thrashed her head, clawing at her own face in a desperate bid to dislodge Katsuko. Katsuko rolled down the back of the queen’s skull and landed at the base of the neck, where it would be harder for the queen to reach.

Mere seconds had passed since Ryouma had fallen. Katsuko sent chakra to her hands and feet to anchor herself against the queen's thrashing, frantically scanning the ground below.

Ryouma and the soldier demon that had attacked him lay sprawled in the dirt, knocked apart by the force of their landing. More demons surrounded them in a loose ring, caught off-guard by the sudden descent. There was no red glow around Ryouma’s hands, but as Katsuko watched he stirred and lifted his head from the muddy ground. The soldier demon was moving, too, shaking rain off of itself like a dog.

Raidou’s voice roared into the silence. “Ram, don’t move!”

The words seemed to snap Ryouma out of his daze. His hands came up just as the ring of demons surrounding him surged forward. The earth beneath them cracked; a circular trench yawned open, leaving Ryouma safe on an island in the middle as it swallowed the wave of attacking demons.