The clash between Katame and Tatsuo began.
Katame brought his hammer down and swung his blade in wide, brutal arcs.
The force was tremendous. Trees around them shattered with a single hammer blow or were split cleanly in two by one slash.
And yet none of it could touch even a hair on Tatsuo’s head.
Katame’s blade shot toward Tatsuo. But where the cut landed, Tatsuo was nowhere to be seen. Instead, Katame’s own blade was sliced into three pieces.
Arms above his head moved without pause. The eyes embedded in his hands rolled wildly, searching for Tatsuo’s position.
His blade had already regenerated. At the same time, he spotted Tatsuo on his right.
“How long are you going to keep running? Is it because of those humans over there?”
Katame asked in a voice that had grown surprisingly calm, as if he had regained his composure in the middle of battle.
He glanced toward the rear. As the fight dragged on, the two of them had moved quite a distance from where they had started.
“That too, but there’s someone important over there. It’d be a problem if the surroundings got wrecked too badly.”
That was only natural. The old man’s grave was nearby. If they fought here, there was a real chance the grave would get blown away.
“Human. I think I underestimated you too much. I’ll admit it. From here on, I’ll fight you seriously.”
Veins bulged across Katame’s body, and his eyes began to redden.
[Blood Demon Art]
Katame kicked off the ground and leaped high into the air.
[Ground Shatter]
His hammer slammed into the earth. With a thunderous boom, the ground caved in.
Cracks spread outward from the impact point and began to explode.
Not bad.
Tatsuo praised it inwardly as he hurled himself into the air before the blast erupted.
He sensed something in an instant and looked up.
[Blood Demon Art - Body Hardening]
Katame’s skin had already turned a deep bronze as he came at him with the hammer raised.
There was nowhere to dodge in midair. Tatsuo gripped his guandao with both hands and took a defensive stance.
He felt the weight in both arms as he met the swinging hammer with the blade of the guandao, and his body was sent flying downward.
So the speed and the force had definitely increased, Tatsuo thought as he twisted lightly and landed.
His feet touched the ground, slid a little, and stopped. Tatsuo immediately reset his stance.
Katame used the surrounding trees as footholds and charged. His blade flashed as it rushed in.
Tatsuo swung his guandao diagonally, intending to cut through the blade along with Katame’s body, but unlike before, all he heard was the ring of metal. Nothing was cut.
I see. His body has become even harder. That must be why. I can’t find the braking force I felt in his movements before.
Maybe his original body can’t withstand going all out, so he makes up for it by reinforcing his physical durability... Interesting.
“Hoo...”
He let out a light breath. His body temperature rose, and his blood began to boil. What he felt was a slight exhilaration. Not too much, not too little—just the right amount.
He spun his body quickly and unleashed a rapid series of strikes.
Unlike before, Katame reacted. He swung both arms to block and parry. Even so, he couldn’t defend against everything, and wounds began to pile up across his body.
But Katame regenerated them at once. He had no hesitation when it came to taking damage.
The exchange grew fiercer and fiercer, the only sound the metallic ring of blades colliding.
Tatsuo broke the rhythm. He swung his guandao as if attacking, then immediately leaped to the side at the same time.
Katame’s counterattack cut through empty air.
His eyes widened in shock as his head turned, and in that same instant, his body was split diagonally.
“Ghk...”
The eyes on the collapsing upper half rolled around. The one who had cut him, naturally, was Tatsuo.
He had kicked off the ground, spun his body with the guandao, and sliced through Katame as he flew past.
Damn it... My neck’s been cut!
Tatsuo’s blade, now close enough to touch, reached Katame’s throat.
Katame hurriedly raised an arm to block, but he could not stop his neck from being severed.
My body... is dying?
With a light slicing sound, Katame’s head flew into the air.
His body had been split diagonally in two, and his head had been severed cleanly. For any ordinary living thing, it would have been a fatal wound.
“...But you’ll regenerate again. Get up, Katame. And keep fighting me.”
At Tatsuo’s words, confusion rose in Katame’s mind.
What is this guy talking about? If the Demon Slayer Corps cuts off our heads with their weapons, we die...
Wait. Why is my body regenerating?
The severed upper and lower halves rejoined as they regenerated. Instinctively, Katame realized that if he attached his head now, he could recover.
His thoughts were fast, and his actions were even faster. The moment he pressed his head back onto his neck, regeneration began.
Before long, it was complete. But Katame did not rush in. He only stared at Tatsuo.
“Human. Are you not with the Demon Slayer Corps?”
“What’s that?”
“Then why are you fighting me?”
“Because it’s fun.”
At that brief exchange, Katame seemed to realize something and sneered.
“Khahaha... Human! You really are insane!”
“I didn’t expect to hear that twice in one day.”
As he answered, Tatsuo’s figure vanished. Katame hurriedly pulled back, but a huge gash opened across his body.
And then their exchange began again.
“You said you’re not with the Demon Slayer Corps, human? Then what the hell is that breathing technique!”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Breathing! I mean breathing! It seems every member of the Demon Slayer Corps can use it. You’re using something similar to them!!”
Katame’s hammer aimed for Tatsuo’s head, but it was stopped by the blade of the guandao.
Tatsuo immediately shifted the blade to deflect the attack, then cut off Katame’s arm.
“Breathing, huh... I learned it on my own after going to a dojo when I was young. One day, it just clicked.”
Katame stamped his right foot into the ground. He drove it down so hard that his foot sank deep into the earth up to the ankle.
[Blood Demon Art - Rushing Blades]
Six slashes burst from the blade in his right arm and rained down on Tatsuo in an instant.
Tatsuo swung his guandao at a speed too fast to see and knocked them all away.
“What a shame. If I were Upper Rank, I would have turned you into a demon.”
“Upper Rank, demon. What are those?”
“Well... they’re a thing.”
!
At that moment, Tatsuo sensed something coming toward them at tremendous speed.
Who is it?
Katame still hadn’t noticed and kept attacking.
Just as Tatsuo deflected the third strike—
There.
He felt it arrive, and at the same time, he sensed it pass by his side.
It wasn’t so fast that he couldn’t track it with his eyes, but it was incredibly quick.
Whatever it is, it isn’t aiming for me. It’s aiming for Katame.
Then he heard an explosive sound.
His gaze shifted instantly.
“Graaahhh!!”
Katame’s arms had already been sliced apart as if they had been shredded.
“You there. Did you say I was loud?”
The “something” that had cut Katame down in an instant spoke.
He was human. Tall, with bulging muscles and a massive sword in both hands, he looked like someone with monstrous strength.
“So you can die in style.”
Finally, the white-haired man adorned with extravagant decorations spoke.
At the same time—
Ghk...
Katame’s head fell.
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