Tatsuya's pupils shrank. In an instant, he shielded Obanai behind him, his Nichirin Sword clearing its scabbard with a sharp shing. Gold-red lightning hissed in the freezing air. His muscles coiled as he pushed his Breathing to the absolute limit.
"I have to give this 120%! Don't think about the Flame Hashira. Don't think about backup. If I hesitate, we die!"
"Run, Obanai! I can't protect you in this fight!" Tatsuya roared with an authority that left no room for argument. He had to put his life on the line to find a way out.
Tatsuya's mind locked onto the Snake Demon. A suicidal resolve surged through him like lava, yet he failed to notice that his aura was climbing to a new height. His presence became as sharp as a blade's edge, quietly breaking through a boundary under the pressure of death.
"Survive! Obanai has to get out!" The thought consumed him, blinding him to the purer power awakening in his body.
Obanai trembled, his eyes bloodshot and welling with tears. But he bit his lip and didn't hesitate. He knew staying would only make him a burden. He took one last look at Tatsuya's back—the wall standing between him and death—then turned and sprinted with everything he had in the opposite direction.
"Good. Go, Obanai!"
Relieved, Tatsuya focused entirely on the Snake Demon emerging from the snow mist. It looked more wretched than before; its scales were dull and cracked in places, and the sheer pressure it radiated had significantly weakened.
Tatsuya's mouth curled into a cold, mocking smirk.
"Tch. The great 'Snake Goddess,' chased like a stray dog by the Flame Hashira. Now you've come crawling back to snack on me? You're a pathetic excuse for a 'god'!"
"HISS—!" The demon shrieked in fury. It twitched its newly regenerated tail nervously, its vertical pupils fixed on Tatsuya with pure venom.
"Shut up! Shut up! You forced my hand! That damned Flame Hashira! He made me molt again just to escape through the serpent-paths!" It licked its fangs with a crimson tongue, staring greedily at Tatsuya. "But... you managed to survive our last exchange. Your flesh smells... special. I won't let it go to waste! You and that 'snack' are staying here!"
Without warning, the demon pounced. Scaled claws tore through the wind, aimed for Tatsuya's face, while a dark green poison mist sprayed from its mouth to box him in.
"Blood Demon Art: Putrid Venom Breath!"
"Thunder Breathing, Second Form: Rice Spirit!"
Tatsuya didn't retreat. He lunged forward, weaving through the poison clouds as multiple arcs of golden lightning shot out like arrows, aiming precisely for the demon's wrists.
Clang! Sizzle—!
The sounds of clashing metal and the evaporation of the poison rang out together. This time, the counter-force on Tatsuya's blade was far lighter than before. He saw with grim satisfaction that his lightning had not only shredded the mist but also carved deep fissures into the demon's scales. Black blood oozed out instantly.
"It's working! It's cutting through!"
"The twice-molted body is significantly weaker! Its defense has dropped! This is my chance. My body feels light... the breathing is fluid. I can do this!"
His will to fight skyrocketed.
The Snake Demon roared in pain, its tail sweeping through the snow like a massive whip. Simultaneously, countless venomous snakes shot out from the gaps in its scales.
Tatsuya became a blur of electricity. He used the high speed of Thunderclap and Flash to perform rapid, small-scale directional changes.
Zip! Zip! Zip!
He wove through the tail-sweeps and the rain of snakes, his blade a traveling arc of gold-red sparks. Every dodge was perfect; every strike targeted the demon's damaged scales, forcing it into a desperate defense. He felt his movements becoming more weightless than ever. The Flame Breathing rhythm he had observed was now fueling the explosive power of his Thunder Breathing, creating a self-sustaining, enduring force.
"Why... even if I'm weaker, how can a brat like you—!! Blood Demon Art: Heart-Devouring Myriad Snakes!"
The demon was panicked and enraged. It had returned expecting an easy kill. Now, seeing its attacks fail repeatedly, it shrieked as a tide of snakes erupted from the shadows, surging toward Tatsuya.
Faced with the flood of serpents, Tatsuya took a deep breath.
"Thunder Breathing, Fifth Form: Heat Lightning!"
BOOM!
A pillar of gold-red lightning, thicker and hotter than any before, slammed down. The violent thunder and heat carbonized the swarming snakes instantly, filling the air with the smell of char and blinding light.
In the fraction of a second where the demon blinked, blinded by the flash, Tatsuya caught the opening. He aborted the remains of the Fifth Form and poured everything into his legs and the tip of his blade.
"Thunderclap and Flash!"
This time, the speed was different. The trajectory was more lethal. A gold-red streak of light carved a deadly arc through the air, aimed straight for the demon's scaled neck!
"Decapitation!"
The chill of the blade was inches from the scales!
"HISS—!"
The demon's pupils shrank. In a desperate act of survival, it raised the claw Tatsuya had previously damaged like a shield, meeting the lethal blade head-on!
SQUELCH—!
The gold-red light cut through without resistance. The scaled claw was severed cleanly, flying into the air in a spray of black blood. The remaining edge of the strike carved through one of the demon's eyes, blinding half its vision.
"GAAAAAAHHHHH—!" The demon shrieked in a distorted wail of agony, its massive body coiling and convulsing from the shock.
Seeing the kill fail, Tatsuya immediately reset his distance, his blade held ready. A mocking smile remained on his face.
"My, my. It seems those two molts really drained you dry, 'Goddess.' You're falling apart. Why don't you go find another 'snack' to replenish yourself? Oh, wait—I'm the one who's going to end you!"
The mockery was the final straw. The demon's remaining eye filled with bloodshot rage. Its body trembled as it radiated a chilling, murderous aura. It lost all reason; only the urge to crush this insect remained.
"Hiss... little gnat... I will tear you into jerky piece by piece...!!!"
With an earth-shaking roar, the demon lunged like an out-of-control battering ram. Its severed claw and eye regenerated instantly, and both sets of claws swung in a blurred frenzy of desperation.
"Thunder Breathing, Second Form: Rice Spirit!"
Tatsuya precisely tracked the trajectories of the dual-claw assault and charged! His blade erupted with gold-red lightning, transforming into a dozen rapid strikes that met the demon's charge and claws head-on.
Clang-clang-clang-clang-clang!!!!!
The sounds of steel hitting scales and lightning rending flesh exploded in unison. Every strike carved into the wrists and the front of the demon's torso. Scales shattered, and black blood sprayed into the air.
"ROAR—!" The demon pressed on through the pain, its massive tail sweeping through the snow like a waterfall of force. It opened its mouth wide—
"Blood Demon Art: Putrid Venom Breath!" A high-pressure torrent of foul, dark green poison erupted point-blank at Tatsuya's face.
"How many times are you going to try that?! It's useless!!"
"Thunder Breathing, Sixth Form: Rumble and Flash!"
Tatsuya was ready. As the tail swept in, he burst forward, narrowly clearing the tail-strike. Facing the torrent of poison, he took a deep breath, his blade wreathed in violent gold-red thunder, and slammed it down against the flood of venom. A massive pillar of lightning erupted!
"Keep your poison to yourself and save your energy!"
BOOM!
The blinding lightning clashed violently with the toxic sludge! The extreme heat evaporated most of the venom instantly, producing a sharp hissing sound and a pungent, burnt odor. The remaining liquid was scattered by the concussive force of the thunder.
Stunned by the point-blank explosion, the Snake Demon's massive frame faltered, stumbling back several paces. Confusion flickered in its eyes; it clearly hadn't expected Tatsuya's assault to be this relentless. It instinctively retreated to find a moment to breathe.
"Thunder Breathing, Fourth Form: Distant Thunder!"
Tatsuya seized the moment the demon lost its balance. He pursued the monster with the speed of light, his blade once again locked onto the demon's throat.
This time, the demon had no room to dodge! It twisted its body violently, throwing the thick, scaled end of its tail forward like a shield to meet the berserk lightning.
BOOM—CRACK!
A deafening explosion was accompanied by the crisp sound of shattering bone. The tip of the tail, despite its heavy armor, was hacked clean off by the destructive power of Distant Thunder. A thick segment of tail covered in charred scales flew into the air, trailing a spray of gore.
"GAAAAAAHHHH—!" The demon shrieked in a distorted wail. The pain of the severance caused its massive body to writhe and spasm. Granulation tissue began to crawl at the stump, but the regeneration was noticeably slower than before, and the new scales were duller in color.
"Is your tail just for escaping? Maybe you aren't a Snake Demon after all—you're a Gecko Demon," Tatsuya mocked, his pursuit never wavering.
"UNFORGIVABLE!!" The demon snapped. Ignoring the agony, it parried Tatsuya's blade while releasing another swarm of serpents.
"Blood Demon Art: Heart-Devouring Myriad Snakes!"
Countless multicolored snakes shot out like arrows from the gaps in its scales and the shadows beneath it, saturating the air around Tatsuya.
"Thunderclap and Flash—Six Fold!"
Sparks exploded repeatedly beneath Tatsuya's feet as his figure split into six near-simultaneous streaks of gold-red light.
First Flash: Tatsuya blurred, weaving through the rain of snakes and evading the core of the swarm. Second Flash: He closed the distance to the demon's main body, his blade glowing with lethal intent. Third Flash: The blade struck with pinpoint accuracy, severing one of the demon's claws in a spray of black blood. Fourth Flash: He pivoted mid-air, a second strike following through to sever the other claw at the wrist. Fifth Flash: Leveraging the demon's loss of balance, Tatsuya's trajectory shifted sharply, hacking away the newly regenerated section of its tail. Sixth Flash: The Final Blow! Tatsuya condensed his entire will and the power of Thunder Breathing into a single point. His Nichirin Sword became an infinitesimally thin golden line. With a resolve that demanded an end, he struck the center of the demon's neck!
CRACK! A sickening, bone-jarring sound echoed.
The feel is off... it didn't go through! The blade was lodged halfway into the spine, unable to bite deeper.
Is its bone this hard?! Did it sacrifice the density of its other limbs to concentrate its hardest scales and bone here?! Internal alarms blared in Tatsuya's mind.
"DIE, BRAT!" the demon shrieked in triumph. Driven by madness and pain, it twisted its head 180 degrees, its fanged maw lunging for Tatsuya's head at point-blank range. It was a perfect execution trap.
In that heartbeat between life and death, Tatsuya didn't panic. Instead, he emptied his mind. He mobilized every ounce of his will, his breath, and his strength. He recalled Shinjuro Rengoku's burning, rhythmic pulse and allowed his body to harmonize with it by instinct. His explosive power reached an unprecedented zenith.
"Thunder Breathing, First Form: Thunderclap and Flash—Godspeed!"
There was no warning, no visible trajectory. Tatsuya's figure simply vanished from the spot, reappearing instantaneously behind the demon. A condensed, nearly invisible gold-red line lingered briefly in the air, having passed soundlessly through the demon's neck.
Zip—!
A cutting sound so faint it was almost silent.
The demon's look of ecstasy froze. Its biting motion stopped mid-air. The head, covered in dull scales and wide-eyed with disbelief, slowly slid off the neck and hit the frozen ground with a dull thud.
The headless torso remained rigid for a moment before crashing down, dissolving into ash that scattered in the bitter mountain wind.