Gyutaro could accept that a human Hashira could trade blows with him evenly, but he could not accept a human blocking his Blood Demon Art without a weapon and coming through it completely unscathed.
He had seen the battle just now. The attacks of that Demon with a long-range Blood Demon Art had landed on the man in black, yet they had failed to break the skin on his body.
If the other man had been a Demon, Gyutaro could have understood. Powerful Demons possessed incredibly tough skin, tough enough to shatter the Nichirin Blades of Demon Slayer Corps swordsmen. But according to his senses, this man clearly... was not a Demon.
Yet he was equally certain that the male creature standing before him was absolutely not human!
Human bodies were frail. There was no way they could withstand Blood Demon Arts or shatter iron swords. This guy could not possibly be human!
"How rude."
Luke’s expression darkened. "My name is Luke. I’m a newly inducted Kanoe-ranked swordsman of the Demon Slayer Corps, officially certified as a pure-blooded human."
As he spoke, lightning coiled around him with every breath. Empowered by Flash Step, he shot forward at extreme speed. Thunder boomed and air shrieked from friction through the street, while dust billowed behind him in expanding rings. Like a streak of lightning, he crossed the long street and leaped toward a distant rooftop.
The sniper, who had been tracking Luke through his scope, widened his eyes. Luke had been two hundred meters away just a moment ago, but in less than a second, his face rapidly filled the scope...
The man had already reached him.
What kind of monster... had they been trying to surround and kill?
Driven by its hunger for souls, Prison Demon sliced through the neck of the sniper, who was still too stunned to fire.
Gyutaro arrived a moment too late. His blood sickle slashed down behind Luke, only striking the lingering golden sparks.
Luke had already jumped into the air. His long blade came crashing down from above with enough force to split a mountain. Gyutaro barely managed to defend, blocking the strike—only to be hammered straight into the house below by the overwhelming power.
Luke stood at the edge of the hole and flicked blood from his blade. The sniper’s blood arced across the roof beams as he looked down at Gyutaro below. "Now that it’s quiet, I’ll send you to see your sister."
"Luke!"
Gyutaro roared and unleashed all of his power. The blood blades carved out by his Blood Demon Art formed a crimson storm that shredded the entire house apart. Riding the whirlwind, he charged at Luke above, his eyes overflowing with resentment and hatred.
Can’t I even avenge my sister?
I’m sorry, Ume. I’m such a useless brother!
Boom—
Consumed by grief and fury, Gyutaro charged Luke with everything he had. In an instant, his blood sickles and Luke’s blade clashed dozens of times in midair.
Gravity pulled the two of them to the ground. Their deadly struggle sent sparks spraying from colliding weapons, along with a raging blood-red storm.
Hinatsuru, having just finished evacuating the civilians, returned to find Luke battling Gyutaro amid the corpses of seven evil Demons. Her small mouth fell open in shock.
She had only been gone for a few minutes. How had this group of powerful Demons been completely wiped out already?
The evil Demon fighting Luke in the street had to be an Upper Rank. Lower Ranks could never cause such a spectacle when they fought; their destructive power was on an entirely different level.
She was thankful that Yoshihara’s residents had already fled. With the speed and destructive power of these two, dozens of people would have died instantly everywhere they passed.
Hinatsuru’s sister, Makio, a kunoichi with short black-and-gold hair, also jumped onto the rooftop. Her eyes widened at the sight. "He’s so strong... Is he a newly appointed Hashira?"
"So this is the power of an Upper Rank? It’s terrifying. We can’t even get involved..."
Suma, with her long black hair, had also come to join them. Gyutaro’s terrifying aura made her hug her own shoulders.
"Did he... do all this?"
Hinatsuru stared at the Demon corpses and muttered to herself, though confusion filled her eyes as well. Why had the Demons clearly lost all life, yet still not disintegrated?
"There shouldn’t be any other Demon Slayer Corps members here... right?"
Makio answered Hinatsuru, though disbelief was evident in her own eyes. When she had met up with Hinatsuru earlier, Hinatsuru had told her there were several members of the Twelve Kizuki here.
She knew her dear sister would not lie to her. Did that not mean seven Demons with strength comparable to the Twelve Kizuki had already been beheaded below?
Even if they had merely possessed the strength of Lower Ranks, a Hashira who could kill seven Lower Rank Twelve Kizuki by himself would be incredibly formidable.
What was more, the man in the street was currently fighting Upper Rank Six. Did that not mean he had faced eight opponents alone and killed seven of them!?
"He’s so strong. Maybe he’s even stronger than Lord Tengen."
Suma marveled. It was her first time seeing a Demon Slayer Corps swordsman this powerful. Although she greatly admired her husband, she had to admit that if Tengen Uzui had faced that earlier situation, escaping alive would have been impressive enough. Forget fighting eight enemies and killing seven of them in return.
"What are you talking about? Lord Tengen is the strongest!"
After hearing Suma, Makio raised a hand and smacked her on the head.
Suma covered her head, looking aggrieved. "But the Hashira down there really is strong..."
Hinatsuru did not join their bickering. She focused on the battle in the street, privately conceding that the Hashira fighting eight enemies alone truly was powerful.
Wait... fighting eight alone?
She remembered that the Upper Rank from before had been a woman. Seven Demons had surrounded the Kyogoku House, and she had just seen Daki’s corpse. So where had this Upper Rank battling Luke come from?
Could it be that Luke had already killed one Upper Rank and was now fighting another?
When had the Demon Slayer Corps gained a man this powerful?
At that moment, the clash between Gyutaro’s blood sickles and Luke’s long blade rang out like a blacksmith’s hammer beneath the false night sky. Both possessed extraordinary speed and strength, and the shockwaves from every collision continuously ravaged the already devastated street.
Prison Demon struck against a blood sickle. Through the sparks, Luke saw Gyutaro’s eyes clearly at close range. There was not the slightest desire to live within them.
After another clash, they separated. Even Gyutaro, a Demon, had begun to pant, showing just how much power he had expended.
Normally, Demons did not tire unless they had spent too much power regenerating or using Blood Demon Arts. Gyutaro was doing both.
His body had been wounded repeatedly during his fight with Luke. Even though he had mastered high-speed regeneration, recovering was becoming difficult. Worse, Luke’s blade was strange. The places it cut seemed to be afflicted with a kind of poison that gnawed at his wounds and continued damaging him.
Whenever he was injured, the duration of that lingering damage increased, greatly draining his strength.
What drove him to despair was that he had already used every trick at his disposal and fought until he was covered in blood, while the man across from him had yet to suffer even a single wound.
Gyutaro had never received formal instruction in swordsmanship or martial arts, but he considered himself highly gifted at fighting and killing. Otherwise, he would not have been feared by so many people as a debt collector in life, nor would he have been able to kill properly trained samurai in return.
After becoming a Demon, he had continued fighting for centuries to protect his sister. His battle experience and skill could be said to far surpass what he had possessed as a human.
Yet even so, he had failed to harm this man in the slightest. His battle instincts, which he had always trusted, seemed worthless before his opponent. In terms of refined combat skill, he was several leagues behind.
After Daki’s death, he had reclaimed the power he had placed within her. He could clearly feel that he was stronger than the man across from him, yet he could gain no advantage in a direct exchange. On the contrary, he was showing signs of being suppressed.
His opponent was a swordsman who used Thunder Breathing, so he could not compare in speed either. The only thing that puzzled him now was why Luke had not killed him yet.
Yes. After fighting for a while, Gyutaro had finally realized the truth. Though unwilling to accept it, he simply could not defeat the man before him. There had been several opportunities for Luke to cut off his head, yet Luke had not done so.
Thinking of that made Gyutaro even more grief-stricken and enraged. "Are you humiliating me?!"
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