Sekiro challenge playthrough: Base ATK/VIT, Charmless, Bell Demon | Ashina Seven Spear Shume Fight

This mini boss was quite frustrating to beat. It already begins with the whistle-distraction at the start; you can easily mess this up by either unintentionally having the projectile lock on to an enemy (causing them to immediately discover you) or throwing it in such a way that the two won't even notice it. You have to be close enough to them while also aiming above them a good bit for this stunt to succeed. After stealth-killing the general-enemy, the fight agaisnt Shume can begin. Whenever Shume follows up with an attack after a succesful Mikiri counter, I punish him with a Whirlwind Slash as those two consecutive strikes help to make the most out of this short opening. During a regular exchange of blows, I try to only attack once and deflect once in repeat and not get too aggressive. Earlier attempts have shown me that attacking twice between deflects increases the number of times that Shume deflects Sekiro. And I really want to keep the amount of his deflects low, because if he then proceeds to perform his quick vertical attack from above, I tend to fail to deflect it. The only mini boss that is left now is the red-eyed Ashina Elite below Isshin's residence. I have already made a couple attempts to fight this one, and I can already tell that just deflecting his Ashina Cross attack won't cut it. Not only will I have to learn to consistently deflect this troublesome attack, but I also need to get a good deal of vitality damage in.