Battle with the Spider Demon

Yuka had been taken?

"Weren't you two together? How... how could Yuka have been taken?" Akino was the first to rush up to Nohime and question her.

"W-We were fine at first. On our way back, some monster that looked like a spider suddenly sprang out from nowhere. It... it grabbed Yuka from behind and dragged her away. I wanted to chase it, but... but it was too fast. I... I..."

That was it! It had to be that Spider Demon. It was the one that had burst into the middle of the group and caused the entire party to fall apart. It had also lured that Giant Meatball Demon over.

At that thought, Akino's heart sank.

Nohime was so frantic that tears streamed down her face. She spun helplessly in place like a top.

"Han Zhiqi, hurry and save Yuka."

Seeing how anxious Nohime was, Han Zhiqi sighed. So I really was right.

He looked up at the star-filled sky. With his strength, if he simply waited here until dawn, he would definitely pass the Demon Slayer Corps assessment. But if he did that, it felt as though something would be missing.

Though his ultimate goal in joining the Demon Slayer Corps assessment had been to pass and join the Demon Slayer Corps, he had also wanted to test the results of his training.

The assessment was almost over. He had killed seven or eight demons, but every single one had been instantly slain in a single strike. They had been too weak—so weak that he had felt no enjoyment at all. The only one that had excited him was the Bouncing Demon, but aside from their first encounter, it had never appeared again.

Fine. Since it was the final stretch of the assessment, he might as well make a big scene. It was not as if he would lose his life, right?

Han Zhiqi jumped down from the stone platform and strode over to Nohime. "Which direction did they go?"

Nohime sniffled and pointed toward a spot in the forest.

"You two stay here. I'll go find her."

"I... I'll go with you," Nohime said.

Yuka had been taken by a demon. How could she possibly stay here?

"I'll go with you too."

Han Zhiqi glanced at the two beside him. "Fine, but you two have to stay close to me. Don't run around. If we get separated, I don't need to tell you what that means."

The two nodded hard.

The three quickly darted into the forest, chasing in the direction Yuka had been dragged.

"Help! Help..."

The Spider Demon was best at twisting people's necks. From the moment Yuka had been dragged away until now, she had not cried for help. Akino had thought Yuka had already been... but unexpectedly, Yuka's cries suddenly came from the forest ahead.

The three followed Yuka's cries and gave chase.

The Spider Demon had dragged Yuka through a forest full of obstacles, so it naturally could not move quickly. But Yuka's human body could not withstand such rough treatment. If they did not catch up and save her soon, she might be dragged to death even without having her neck snapped.

"You two stay together and look after each other. No matter what, don't get separated. If you encounter a demon, fight if you can. If you can't, stay where you are and wait for me. Understood?"

The sharp aura Han Zhiqi released in an instant was like a cold winter wind, making both of them shudder.

"Understood."

After instructing them, Han Zhiqi quickened his pace. Before their astonished eyes, he vanished into the pitch-black forest in the blink of an eye.

The two months of training on White Dragon Mountain finally showed their immense value.

With the aid of his breathing technique and his own sensitivity to temperature, even in a forest so dark he could not see his hand before his face, everything was no different from usual.

Following Yuka's intermittent cries for help, Han Zhiqi quickly caught up to a slope not far from the mountaintop.

A large tree stood on the slope. The Spider Demon apparently had not expected anyone to catch up so quickly, and was dragging Yuka up the tree.

Han Zhiqi guessed that this large tree was its nest, but he could not shake the feeling that there was something strange about it.

Unlike other trees, lush with branches and leaves and fluffy as a cotton ball from afar, this one was completely bare. Under the moonlight, something seemed to hang from its black branches.

There was no time to think. Han Zhiqi seized the moment, stepped on a protruding boulder, and leaped into the air. Facing the Spider Demon clinging to the trunk, he swiftly drew his blade and slashed downward.

Ice Breathing: Third Form: Shattering Timed Rain.

A flash of white light streaked through the air. Several thumb-thick ice spikes shot out, aimed at the Spider Demon's three right legs and both hands.

Sensing danger from behind, the Spider Demon let out a strange shriek, dropped Yuka, and scrambled toward the treetop.

The ice spikes embedded themselves in the trunk with a series of dull thuds.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Han Zhiqi rushed beneath the tree and caught the falling Yuka. The instant he looked up, he could not help but gasp. By the moonlight filtering down from above, he finally saw what was hanging from the tree.

Corpses!

Human corpses were skewered onto the branches like strips of dried meat.

Seeing its food snatched away, the Spider Demon let out a string of furious shrieks. Scuttling up with its six legs, it climbed onto a thick branch and pounced at Han Zhiqi and Yuka.

Holding Yuka, Han Zhiqi jumped down the slope and ran all the way to a clearing nearby. He gently propped Yuka against a rock, then turned to face the rapidly approaching Spider Demon.

A nameless fury rose from the depths of his heart, setting all the blood in his body boiling. The scars on his skin began to ache faintly again, as though countless ants were gnawing and biting at him.

The moment he saw those people, his sister's face and voice suddenly surfaced in his mind. Would his sister also be hanging from a forked branch like them, drying like a piece of meat?

In truth, the Spider Demon had not dragged people onto the branches to dry them. It was merely keeping other demons from stealing them. Yet that very act had ignited Han Zhiqi's rage.

Han Zhiqi was truly furious. Cold air surged out of his body, forming a cloud of white mist around him. The surrounding temperature instantly dropped below freezing, and patches of frost blossomed across the ground beneath his feet.

The Spider Demon's six legs moved swiftly. Twisting its flexible waist, it advanced in a serpentine pattern to confuse its prey's vision.

Han Zhiqi's unmoving stance made it mistake him for prey like all the others, someone whose neck it could snap without effort.

When only several meters remained between them, the Spider Demon suddenly reared up and lunged at Han Zhiqi.

From the shrill cries coming from its mouth, it was clear that it was furious, desperate to bite through its prey's neck at once.

Han Zhiqi moved as well. His right leg bent forward, his body lowered, and he assumed a sword-drawing stance.

Ice Breathing: Fusion Technique: Phantom: Falling Snow.

He attacked almost at the same moment as the Spider Demon, like a gust of snow and wind sweeping straight through its body.

Its shrill cries turned into screams. The Spider Demon crashed to the ground, its entire body covered in dense, snow-white blade wounds. Frost had formed over them, cold vapor rising from the cuts. Most importantly, it could no longer heal as rapidly as before.