A Fierce Battle: Giyu Tomioka vs. the Demon King Muzan (I)
The forty-meter-long sword aura, pressing against Muzan Kibutsuji, soared through the night sky for thousands of meters, completely crossing the city boundaries of Tokyo, before crashing into a desolate, uninhabited mountain forest!
"Boom--!"
The sword energy, still powerful, sliced smoothly across the middle of a precipitous mountain peak, hundreds of meters high!
With a deafening roar, a large portion of the mountain was instantly cleaved flat by this single sword strike!
Countless boulders tumbled down the cliff into the deep valley, stirring up clouds of dust!
"Bang! Sizzle--!"
Muzan Kibutsuji smashed through seven or eight boulders blocking his path, creating two hundred-meter-long trenches in the ground, before finally dissipating the terrifying kinetic energy!
"Clatter!"
Muzan's two arms, which were crossed in front of his chest, were completely carbonized and broke off at the elbows, falling to the ground and shattering into pieces!
His expensive black suit was now completely tattered, and a deep, charred sword wound, revealing bone, ran down the center of his chest. The residual heat from the Red Nichirin Blade was sizzling at the wound, constantly burning the flesh that was trying to heal.
"Cough... Haa!!"
Muzan coughed up a mouthful of blood, his face so dark it could drip water, his crimson plum blossom-shaped vertical pupils staring intently at the night sky in the direction of Asakusa, a trace of fear surging uncontrollably deep in his eyes!
A mere casual slash of sword energy was enough to sever his hardened arms and flatten half a mountain from nearly ten miles away!
In just one year, how has Giyu Tomioka's strength swelled to such an utterly unreasonable level?!
"However... mere physical injuries are utterly meaningless to me!"
"Pfft!"
Muzan's blood essence surged wildly, and the charred flesh at the severed arm was instantly shattered and peeled off, with countless scarlet flesh buds intertwining wildly!
In the blink of an eye, the two perfectly healed, pale arms grew back!
The charred wound on his chest, left by the Red Nichirin Blade, was also healed by the massive amount of blood and energy flowing through it.
"Tread--"
At the very same second that Muzan's arms grew back.
Amidst the billowing dust ahead, Giyu Tomioka descended from the sky, landing steadily on the edge of a precipice thirty meters away.
After a ten-mile run, Giyu didn't even lose his breath. He held the Red Nichirin Blade in one hand and coldly Muzan at Muzan ahead.
Muzan took a half-inch back, his eyes scanning the dark forest around him as he considered his escape route by burrowing underground under the cover of darkness.
However, Giyu had no intention of giving him even the slightest chance to take advantage of the situation!
"No need to look anymore, Muzan."
Giyu's voice was calm as he gripped the hilt of the knife with both hands and plunged the crimson blade directly into the rocky ground beneath his feet, twisting his wrist!
"Total Concentration: Sun Breathing, Eighth Form, Modified--"
"Solar Heat Haze: Prairie-Fire Inferno!!"
"Boom--!"
A violent, golden-red flame spread along the earth's veins!
Within a radius of one kilometer, the ground instantly cracked open, and a ten-meter-high wall of fire shot into the sky!
The towering flames illuminated the entire night sky as if it were daytime, and the terrifying heat instantly evaporated the moisture in the mountains and forests, turning the entire mountaintop into a fiery arena!
Seeing the raging walls of fire all Muzan him, Muzan's pupils contracted slightly.
He knew very well that forcibly turning his back to Giyu Tomioka, who had opened the Transparent World and the Red Nichirin Blade, and trying to break through the wall of fire would be tantamount to suicide.
The chances of running away on my own two legs tonight are practically zero.
However, Muzan did not show any despair on his face!
The reason is simple--
Even before he was blasted into the air, he had already sent his real-time coordinates to Nakime in the Infinity Castle!
However, it will take Nakime about thirty minutes to get here with the Infinity Castle!
In other words, he doesn't need to beat Giyu Tomioka tonight; he just needs to hold out here for thirty minutes!
In a head-on sword fight, he might indeed be inferior to Giyu, whose stats are monstrous.
But no one in this world could kill him in just half an hour!
If Giyu Tomioka could not do it four hundred years ago, Yoriichi Tsugikuni Giyuu Tomioka in front of him could never do it either!
"Giyu Tomioka, you think way too highly of yourself!"
Muzan sneered arrogantly:
"I admit your swordsmanship is excellent! But so what? Humans have their limits, and your heart and lungs will eventually fail!"
"And I possess endless life!"
"Come on, let me see just how far your so-called strongest Demon Slayer Corps member really goes!!"
Faced with Muzan's taunts, Giyu Tomioka, standing on the edge of the cliff, tilted his head, his face expressionless.
"With my current physical condition, I could probably chop you down non-stop for a month!"
"Besides, you talk too much nonsense. I hope that when the fight breaks out later, your bones will be as hard as your mouth."
Muzan's eyes bulged with veins. "Arrogant scum... Die!"
--
"Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!"
Before he could finish speaking, Muzan by and wait for his doom; he launched the first attack!
Suddenly, the flesh on his back burst open, and eight pale white bone whips burst out of his body!
At the same time, his arms instantly transformed and extended, turning into two serrated bone blades!
"Shuashua--!"
Muzan stomped his feet on the ground, using the super-fast swinging of his eight bone whips to weave a black net of blades in front of him, meeting Giyu head-on as he charged forward!
Each strike of the bone whip shattered the air, carving dozens of deep furrows into the ground along its path!
At the same time, tens of thousands of highly poisonous bone spurs burst out from the joint holes, sealing off all the space around Giyu!
However,
With Future Sight vision, the flight paths of the countless bone spikes were clearly visible.
Giyu, holding a knife in one hand, took a step forward, his wrist vibrating rapidly.
"Water Breathing - Eleventh Form - Modified - Blazing Sun Dead Calm!"
"Ding--!"
The sounds of rapid, continuous impacts blended together!
Within a five-meter radius of Giyu, crimson blade light flashed, and all the bone spikes that entered the range were instantly and precisely severed by the Red Nichirin Blade, burning to ashes on the spot!
Immediately afterwards, eight bone whips reached the top of his head!
Giyu didn't dodge at all. He gripped the hilt of his sword tightly with both hands and slashed straight at the eight bone whips with pure brute force!
"Sun Breathing - First Form - Dance!!"
"Boom--!"
A golden-red flame arc, over ten meters long, suddenly exploded!
"Snap! Splash--!"
The eight bone whips, as hard as iron, were instantly severed by a single stroke!
Not only that, Giyu moved with lightning speed. At the same moment he cut the bone whip, he took a high-speed step and rushed to within a meter of Muzan's chest, his whole body brushing against the flying bone fragments!
"What?!"
Muzan's pupils contracted sharply. The broken bone whip on his back hadn't even had time to regenerate. He could only swing the serrated bone blades on his arms, trying to sever Giyu's neck!
Giyu's eyes were icy cold. He released the hilt of his sword with his left hand and slammed a heavy punch directly into the side of Muzan's bone blade!
"Bang!"
The immense force instantly smashed Muzan's left arm bone blade, causing it to snap outwards!
At the same time, Giyu's right hand wielded the crimson Red Nichirin Blade in a swift upward slash:
"Sun Breathing, Third Form - Blazing Sun Red Mirror!!"
"Sizzle--!"
The crimson blade sliced through Muzan's chest without Muzan resistance, and then cut off most of his right shoulder, causing blood to spurt out!
"Ugh!!"
With Muzan roar, its ferocity erupted completely!
Relying on his immortality, he completely ignored his injuries, splitting open three large mouths on his chest and spewing a highly corrosive poisonous mist at the nearby Giyu!
At the same time, the muscles on both sides of his waist and abdomen suddenly tore apart, and six new tentacles covered with bone spurs grew out, sweeping across Giyu's knees along the ground!
Injury for injury!
This is a rogue fighting style that only Demon King with infinite regeneration would dare to use!
However, Giyu reacted even faster than him!
Faced with the black blood poison mist sprayed right at his face, Giyu flipped his wrist, and the blade spun rapidly in front of him to form the Sun Breathing: Fire Wheel. The violent vortex of flames instantly evaporated the poison mist!
At the same time, he leaped three feet off the ground to avoid the sweeping tentacles, and then slammed his right foot down hard!
"Boom!"
This stomp created a two-meter-deep crater in the ground, and Muzan's six fleshy tentacles that swept across were Muzan crushed into a pile of minced meat!
Using the recoil from stomping on the ground, Giyu twisted his body in mid-air and swung his sword, gripping the Red Nichirin Blade tightly with both hands, and cleaved it down towards Muzan's head!
"Sun Breathing - Sixth Form - Burning Bones, Summer Sun!!"
"Pfft--!"
At the last moment, Muzan tilted his head to the left, while eight newly grown bone whips crossed above his head!
But Giyu's strike was simply too powerful!
The Red Nichirin Blade shattered the eight Muzan bone whips on the spot, and the blade traveled down Muzan's temple, cleaving his right head, right shoulder, and right side of his abdomen in two!