The night wind howled over the empty quarry, stirring up clouds of dust.
The moonlight was completely obscured by thick, dark clouds, and the whole world seemed to have fallen into an endless chaos.
"Click--"
The soft sound of footsteps broke the solemnity outside the quarry.
Obanai Iguro stepped over the rubble and slowly entered this forbidden zone stained with blood.
His gaze swept over the mess, over the torn mine carts and twisted rails, and finally locked onto the dark shadow in the very center of the quarry.
That was a ghost.
A terrifying monster over three meters tall, its entire body covered in gray-brown rocks.
???
Upon first seeing this Rock Demon, Obanai Iguro's heterochromatic pupils, one gold and one green, suddenly shrank to the size of pinpoints.
"Such a heavy atmosphere..."
"His muscles were completely assimilated by the rock, and even the surrounding air was distorted by the gravitational field emanating from his body."
"This level of oppressive aura is beyond what the Lower Rank can possess; he... now has the power to challenge the Upper Rank."
"We cannot afford to be careless in the slightest. This is a fight to the death where even a single second of mistake could lead to instant defeat."
A hundred meters away, the Rock Demon, which resembled a rock statue, slowly opened its pair of crimson eyes.
He looked at the small, thin human swordsman before him, who was less than half his height, and his eyes showed none of the contempt and arrogance that demons usually show when facing humans.
On the contrary, a rare solemnity appeared on Rock Demon's heavy face.
He sensed a chilling, deadly, and terrifying killing intent emanating from this heterochromatic human, as if it were a venomous snake ready to bite through his throat at any moment.
"A Pillar-level Demon Slayer...?"
Rock Demon's voice boomed through the empty quarry, "Looks like tonight is destined to be anything but boring."
A human and a ghost faced off across the ruins, a hundred meters apart.
Two terrifying killing intents, almost tangible, collided violently in mid-air, as if the surrounding air had been completely sucked away at that moment.
However--,
Just when the tension was about to break out.
"Fire! Fire now!!"
"Monster! Kill that monster!!"
A series of hysterical screams suddenly erupted from the high ground surrounding the quarry!
Those were hundreds of government soldiers stationed here, responsible for sealing off the quarry.
These ordinary mortals had never seen such a terrifying, man-eating demon, over three meters tall and covered in rocks.
The moment they saw the Rock Demon open its magma-red eyes, the soldiers' mental defenses completely collapsed.
Fear robbed them of their reason, and with a desperate roar from an officer, hundreds of soldiers simultaneously pulled the triggers of their rifles.
"Bang bang--!"
Blinding flames flashed wildly in the darkness, and deafening gunshots exploded like firecrackers!
Hundreds and thousands of gleaming yellow bullets, accompanied by a shrill whistling sound as they tore through the air, rained down on the Rock Demon in the center of the quarry like a metallic storm!
However, faced with this overwhelming storm of metal...
The Rock Demon didn't even raise its hand to block.
He stands silently in place, like an ancient mountain that has stood for ages.
"Jingle bells--!"
Dense sparks flashed wildly across the Rock Demon's thick "Bedrock Armor"!
Those rifle bullets, powerful enough to pierce trees and tear apart human bodies, didn't even leave a white mark the moment they touched the rock armor on the Rock Demon's body. They were directly bounced away and shattered by the enormous reaction force, turning into countless metal fragments!
"That's incredibly stupid."
Standing on the other side, Obanai's brows were deeply furrowed.
"These pointless physical attacks have a 0% chance of penetrating the target Rock Demon's defense."
"But due to the indiscriminate firing causing stray bullets to deflect, my attack route was completely blocked!"
"These idiots who only waste ammunition, don't they know they're getting in my way?!"
In her Obanai cursed the stupidity of these civilian soldiers with venom.
His attack, which he had been preparing to exploit a weakness in the Rock Demon, was abruptly interrupted by this sudden friendly fire.
"Whoosh--!"
Three stray bullets, deflected by the Rock Demon's armor, flew in strange, refracted arcs as they hurtled straight toward Obanai!
A chilling glint flashed in Obanai's heterochromatic eyes, one gold and one green.
The Nichirin Blade at his waist was drawn with a fierce thrust!
"Serpent Breathing - First Form - Winding Serpent Slash!"
There were no unnecessary movements.
With a bizarre posture that defies the normality of human joints, Obanai instantly completed an extreme backward lean and side turn.
At the same time, the wave-shaped Nichirin Blade in his hand drew a dazzling purple-white sword aura in the darkness!
The sword energy seemed to come alive, twisting and turning in the air before precisely striking the three high-speed stray bullets.
"Clang! Clang! Clang!"
A crisp metallic cutting sound rang out simultaneously in mid-air.
On the high ground, the soldiers who had been firing wildly witnessed a shocking scene that they would never forget for the rest of their lives!
In the eyes of their mortals.
That slender, bandaged, mysterious swordsman strolled leisurely through the hail of bullets!
Those three brass bullets, which were impossible to detect with the naked eye, were smoothly cleaved in two by that strange, wavy longsword less than ten centimeters away from him!
The severed bullet grazed Obanai's cheek and disappeared into the frozen ground behind him.
"Oh my god... what did I just see?"
A young soldier was so frightened that he forgot to pull the trigger, and his rifle fell to the ground with a thud. His bloodshot eyes widened, his face blank with disbelief.
"He... he cut the bullet open?!"
"Is that even human?! That speed... that swordsmanship... is it a god descending to earth?!"
The soldiers, who had been in a frenzy just moments before, were now completely stunned by Obanai's miraculous swordsmanship. They stopped firing and stared blankly at the cold, murderous figure wielding a knife in the center of the quarry, like a group of clay statues.
To these mortals, the short swordsman's back now appeared incredibly imposing, like an insurmountable wall that could shield them from all hellish calamities.
However--,
Obanai, who was being worshipped as a god, was inwardly complaining:
"Finally stopped shooting? Those noisy bugs have finally shut their troublesome mouths."
"If they continue firing and obstructing my view, I'm even considering whether I should go up and cut off their hands and feet first."
Although she was thinking this, Obanai's gaze never left the Rock Demon opposite her for even a second.
"Obstacles cleared."
"Now, it's a fight to the death between you and me."
Obanai lowered her center of gravity, her wavy Nichirin Blade pointing diagonally at the ground.
The Kaburamaru darted rapidly along his neck, catching the slightest vibrations in the air with their tongues, creating a perfect, unobstructed view shared with Obanai's vision.