Demon of Hatred

The **Demon of Hatred** (怨嗟の鬼, Oni of Deeply-held Resentment) is an optional Boss with three Deathblow counters found at the Ashina Castle Gate, when the final invasion of the Central Forces hits Ashina.

He's the vessel for the flames of hatred of a man who failed to become Shura. The one-armed demon prowls the battlefield, consumed by flames of deepest resentment. As Wolf's about to kill him, a voice thanks him for putting an end to the rampage. That man was bound stubbornly to this world, and it wasn't until he became a demon that he was able to depart for the next.

In order to access his closed off arena, Wolf must reach the Underbridge Valley from the Old Grave of Ashina Castle and traverse Ashina Outskirts until the Gate Path: upon communing with a Sculptor's Idol, he will be sent to the Flames of Hatred Sculptor's Idol.i

## Behaviour and Tactics

### Phase 1

* **Charge**: uses his right hand to scrape the ground before charging a long distance forward.
* **Combo**: raises his fiery left arm and sweeps it across once, back, then follows up with a medium closing distance *Stomp* and ultimately another sweep if Wolf is still close by.
* **Eruption**: flares up, then leaps high into the air before slamming down in a large fiery explosion which knock the target away. A grappling point is revealed after he lands.
* **Flame Chase**: quickly whips the blazing left arm around him if the target is behind.
* **Flaming Tendril**: raises his left arm in the air then delivers a long ranged overhead smash. A short pause afterward. If deflected successfully with the Suzaku's Lotus Umbrella, he will be briefly stunned.
* **Flaming Whip**: cover his face with the right arm while the left arm ignites then delivers a quick long ranged sweep, a close ranged sweep and finally a long ranged overhead smash. He may cancel the last overhead smash if the Wolf is nearby. The sweep attacks can be jumped over.
* **Flickering Flame**: whips the burning hand around then anticipates his target in a pose, if approached he smashes down and whips the burning hand again, ends with a powerful smash.
* **Shower of Fire**: a ranged attack coming from his left arm, which sends out a horizontal line of fireballs. He will use it again with closer range if Wolf's trying to close the distance during the attack.
* **Slam**: steps forward and slams a hand into the ground in front of him.
* **Double Stomp**: stomps first with left leg and then his right in quick succession.
* **Harite**: steps forth and does a sumo right hand push. He tends to walk before initiating this attack. May follow it up with *Flickering Flame*.
* **Head Slam**: after rearing back, he smashes his head into the ground up to three times.
* **Slingshot**: flings himself towards the target and slam down with the right hand, dealing damage in a small radius.
* **Stomp**: stomps with his right leg with after a short pause.

### Phase 2

* **Burning Wrath**: conjures a set of eight homing burning Buddha statues, dealing posture damage even when guarded with the Suzaku's Lotus Umbrella. Run sideways to dodge this attack entirely.
* **Flashfire**: sends out a wide, long line of flames in front of him. A grappling point is revealed right before the flame appears.u
* **Feral Claw**: quickly lunges a medium distance forward and claws.

### Phase 3

* **Blazing Trail**: after the initial *Charge*, he may quickly turn around and charge with the burning arm at an incredible speed. This second charge can be jumped over just like the first.
* **Inferno**: wildly sweeps the ground for three wide flaming swings which then soon becomes a tall fire ring, engulfing the area in a wall of flames. Jumping over the first sweep and dashing toward the boss through the second will leave Wolf unharmed.

Suzaku's Lotus Umbrella is very useful for this fight, as it shields against most of the Demon's Burn-inflicting attacks, such as the *Shower of Fire* and *Eruption*, and can even counter them for Vitality damage with the Projected Force Combat Art. As an apparition-type enemy, the Demon is vulnerable to the Divine Confetti buff and Malcontent can be used to stun him up to three times, while Lazulite Shuriken and Lazulite Sacred Flame can damage his health severely.

The Withered Red Gourd, Dousing Powder, and Ministry Dousing Powder are recommended, as any attacks from his demonic arm will cause fire buildup.

Due to most of his moves being unable to be canceled when struck, outside of a full stagger, striking two times before preparing to block or dodge is ideal. Occasionally a third or more hits might be added, but until his move set is learned properly, two strikes is the safest option.

Due to the tracking his attacks have, Deflecting, while it won't deal high Posture damage, may prove to be a valuable alternative to Side-Stepping. As his left arm is the source of most of his long distance attacks, running towards him along the opposite side from his arm gives more time for attacks to connect, allowing for more time to dodge or block.

After dodging to the right through the first fiery attack of his *Combo*, sticking close to his left leg is enough to avoid the second hit completely. While he appears to then stomp with his left leg after the second swing, this is not an attack and will deal no damage, so it can be punished.

He often follows his *Charge* with *Shower of Fire*, so if you leap directly backwards to dodge *Charge*, sprinting towards him as fast as possible allows Wolf to often escape under the fireballs. If you leap sideways or forwards to dodge, the fireballs will often land before Wolf can get past, so backing off and waiting is preferred.

When he leaps into the air to perform *Eruption,* begin to move backwards when he reaches the peak of his jump, then leap shortly before he lands and grapple. Using a grapple strike will often miss the second swing, however if the attack is delayed until when Wolf is about to touch the Demon, the second strike will usually connect. This move can be blocked by the Umbrella, but attempting to counter-attack too early will make Wolf vulnerable to the knock-back effect.

Deflecting his *Harite* will stun him for a brief second, but if done too close to him it'll expose Sekiro to *Flickering Flame*

It's risky to attempt to punish his Head Slam early, as there's no way to tell when he'll do it one or three times.

Dodging to your right of his single heavy stomp attack is extremely risky, dodging left is safer. Blocking the attack entirely is safer, but prevents Wolf from punishing.

If Wolf is within attacking range, most of his non-perilous attacks can be dodge by sprinting around him.

He can't be damaged through his transition to Phase Two and he'll conclude it with a harmless knock-back. This makes for a perfect moment to heal and use Sugars/Spiritfalls before his second phase begins.

Run to either side once he initiates the *Flashfire* attack, which he telegraphs by leaning to his right and slamming his left arm onto the ground, jump right before sends out the flames, then grapple to him. While being farther away allows for more time to see the firewave coming towards you, it spreads out as it travels making it more dangerous if you can't successfully grapple to him.

Running to the side can also be applied against his new Burning Wrath attack, but be careful not to get too close to the Demon as it'll make it harder to avoid his homing projectiles. After several projectiles, there is a very slight pause in his head's circular motion, this is a good time to begin closing in as only 4-5 projectiles are left in the attack.

In Phase 3, run away as soon as he starts sweeping the ground or Wolf will be trapped in a much smaller fighting area. Since the Demon is completely vulnerable all the way through his *Inferno* attack, one can choose to take advantage of this by staying in front of him, jumping above the first sweep and then dashing toward him through the second to avoid any damage.

While in the fire ring, the Demon will often use his *Charge*, following it up with a *Blazing Trail* that can be hard to detect, because of the flames hiding the Perilous Attack kanji.

It is worth saving all three uses of Malcontent for his final phase. As he often attempts to begin the phase with *Inferno*, attacking him until he has nearly finished his animation, and then using Malcontent, attacking, and then reusing Malcontent right before he recovers for all three uses allows for over 60% of his health and posture to be damage, with even more being dealt if a Sugar or Spiritfall is used beforehand.

 **During Shinobi Execution** | **Wolf**:Farewell, Sculptor
**Demon**: Wolf... thank... you...

## Notes

To unlock Wolf's dialogues during the bossfight, the player needs to complete the following steps before the Interior Ministry attacks Ashina for the first time:

* Kill Lady Butterfly and talk to the Sculptor, selecting "**Ask what the Buddha showed him**".
* Give the Unrefined Sake, Monkey Booze and Ashina Sake to the Sculptor.

Once the attack on Ashina begins, the player needs to complete the following steps:

* Eavesdrop on Emma and the Sculptor at the Dilapidated Temple.
* If the player tries to trigger the dialogue after defeating Great Shinobi - Owl, Emma must not be spoken to at the gravestones, otherwise she will never speak with the Sculptor and allow for the eavesdrop opportunity. Once the player has eavesdropped on the conversation, and spoken with the Sculptor to trigger his special dialogue, the Purification ending steps can be continued as normal.

## Trivia

* It's impossible to fill his Posture Meter to the end just by deflecting attacks: until a hit is landed, even when the Posture bar appears full, he won't become vulnerable to a Deathblow.
* His appearance being similar to a red-furred ape reflects the Sculptor's old shinobi name (Orangutan).

* The poses struck by the Demon after his *Harite* attack and *Burning Wrath* attack are similar to some of the Mie (見え) used in the Kabuki Theater (歌舞伎) to display the actor's emotions at their peak.

* The apparition of this boss is foreshadowed throughout the entire game by the Sculptor himself, the Old Maid, Emma, the Sculptor's Karma Combat Arts and, lastly, by the Info Broker.

* The projectiles that he fires during his *Burning Wrath* attacks are flaming Sculptor's Idols.

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