After leaving town behind, Tanjiro followed the narrow country road toward his next destination.
The distance was longer than he had expected.
He walked from dawn until sunset, and by the ti the last light faded from the horizon, he was still on the road. Night settled over the countryside, cold and quiet, with only the moon hanging above to silver the empty path.
Then Tanjiro stopped.
His nose twitched once.
Twice.
A demon's scent.
No—more than one.
His expression sharpened instantly. In one smooth motion, he drew Asuramaru from his waist and scanned the darkness around him.
At the sa ti, Alex's warning ca from within the blade.
"Tanjiro, there are three demons waiting ahead."
The words had barely fallen when the demons gave up hiding.
One after another, they erged from the darkness by the roadside.
There were three in total.
The first was enormous—grossly fat, towering and broad like a monstrous sumo wrestler. Crimson eyes stared at Tanjiro with naked hunger, and saliva dripped from the corners of its mouth.
"Hanafuda earrings..." it muttered, its voice thick and greedy. "So you're the Demon Slayer that that lord wants dead. Sharp enough to notice us this fast... Your at must be delicious."
Beside it crawled a second demon so grotesque it hardly resembled a human at all. Its body hugged the ground like a reptile's, four eyes blinked independently across its face, and a long, slick tongue lolled obscenely from its mouth.
It looked like so human-gecko hybrid dragged out of a nightmare.
The long-tongued demon hissed and licked its lips. "Fatty, back off. This prey is mine."
The sumo demon imdiately turned its head.
"You want to die?"
The two demons were already at each other's throats before the fight had even begun.
The third demon, a female one standing farther back, was the only one who looked remotely composed. She curled her lip at the sight of them.
"What are you idiots arguing about?" she snapped. "Kill the Demon Slayer first. Fight over the corpse afterward. Or would you rather let him slip away while you bark at each other?"
That shut them up.
The long-tongued demon clicked its tongue.
"Fine. We kill him first. Then whoever takes the head claims the credit."
"Works for ," the sumo demon grunted at once.
The female demon looked at both of them as if they were already dead weight.
"Then stop wasting ti. Move."
Even so, she did not attack first.
The sumo demon lumbered forward, raising its massive arms, clearly intending to crush Tanjiro head-on.
Tanjiro did not move.
His face remained calm.
He adjusted his breathing.
Then, gripping Asuramaru in one hand, he pushed off the ground and burst forward. His body rose into the air, and water seed to surge along the blade.
"Water Breathing, Fourth Form: Striking Tide!"
The slash ca down like a crashing wave.
The sumo demon did not even realize the danger in ti. It only sneered and spread its arms wider, planning to catch Tanjiro and strangle the life out of him.
"You charged head-on? Admirable courage. Let crush you—"
The words ended there.
A flash of water cut through the night.
Then its head left its shoulders and hit the ground with a wet thud, rolling several tis across the road before finally coming to rest.
The body stood for an instant, then collapsed.
That single exchange made the other two demons recoil.
The long-tongued demon reacted first.
It turned and fled without the slightest hesitation.
No pride. No rage. No bravado.
Only survival.
If that slash had landed on it, it would have died just as easily.
Only an idiot would stay.
But Tanjiro had already landed.
He shifted his grip to both hands, his feet tracing an unfamiliar, flowing pattern across the ground.
"Water Breathing, Third Form: Flowing Dance!"
His body glided forward with astonishing speed.
In the next breath he had already caught up.
Several slashes flashed through the dark in quick succession.
The long-tongued demon did not even get the chance to scream.
Its body split into pieces and collapsed, already beginning to crumble apart before the fragnts hit the ground.
Tanjiro ca to a stop.
For a brief mont, he looked down at his own hands in disbelief.
He had known he was getting stronger.
He had felt it with every battle, every burst of Feedback, every ti Asuramaru returned strength to him.
Still, he had not expected the difference to be this obvious.
These two demons—both of whom should have been real threats to him—had fallen so fast it almost felt unreal.
And just then, Asuramaru's power stirred again.
Feedback activated.
Strength flowed back into his body, warm and imdiate, deepening the changes already taking root in his flesh and bones.
Tanjiro felt it clearly.
And because he was Tanjiro, joy was not the only thing he felt.
Looking at the dissolving remains of the two demons, he lowered his voice and whispered, "Thank you."
The female demon's expression twisted.
Her eyes widened.
Was this kid insane?
He had just cut them down like weeds—and now he was thanking them?
Inside the blade, Alex was also briefly at a loss.
Even after seeing it with his own senses, he still had to admit it.
Tanjiro was kind to the bone.
But admiration did not an losing focus.
"There's still one left," Alex reminded him. "Try not to get sentintal before the battle's over."
That snapped Tanjiro back imdiately.
He raised his head and turned toward the female demon.
This ti, the female demon no longer regarded him as so ordinary prey.
Those two had just made one thing painfully clear.
In close combat, this Demon Slayer was far more dangerous than he looked.
She lifted one slender hand and said coldly, "If killing you earns that lord's favor... then die here."
As she spoke, she flicked a single drop of blood toward him.
It was so small, so ordinary-looking, that it would have been easy to miss.
Then she spoke again, clearly trying to distract him.
"Before you die, tell your na, Demon Slayer."
Tanjiro did not answer.
His attention had already locked onto that drop of blood.
He did not know what it would do, but he had no intention of underestimating it. He imdiately raised his sword in front of him, body tensed, ready for any sudden change.
A heartbeat later, it ca.
The drop of blood transford in midair.
Its speed exploded.
It shot toward him like a bullet.
The abrupt acceleration was almost impossible to predict.
Fortunately, Tanjiro had already braced himself. He swung Asuramaru across and t it head-on.
Sparks burst in the dark.
A sharp tallic impact rang out.
Bang!
When the sound faded, the blood projectile had been stopped.
Tanjiro's hands tingled from the force.
That alone told him how dangerous it was.
If he had been careless for even a mont, that single drop of blood might have pierced straight through him.
Alex, for once, did not offer any clever analysis.
Unknown demon. Unknown Blood Demon Art. Unknown limits.
At tis like this, there was no shortcut.
The rest was up to Tanjiro.
Even so, Alex quietly pushed a little Demon Power into him, giving him a slight edge.
Across from him, the female demon's expression had already darkened.
Her sneak attack had failed.
Without hesitation, she tore a grotesque wound open across her right arm, then flung her blood forward with brutal force.
"Blood Demon Art: Piercing Blood Rain!"
A dense storm of blood bullets scread across the night.
Tanjiro moved at once.
He dodged, shifted, blocked, using one hand on the sword to deflect as much of the barrage as he could. But there were too many.
Several shots slipped through.
They struck his body one after another, punching bloody holes into his clothes and flesh.
Fortunately, while the blood was fast, it was not as hard as the first shot had been. The penetrating power was lower.
It hurt like hell—
But it was not instantly fatal.
Even so, the pain tore a sharp gasp from Tanjiro's throat.
.....
[If you don't want to wait for the next update, read 50 chapters ahead on P@treon.]
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