Kurozawa Goes Berserk

A wave of malice reached his senses, and only then did Kurozawa shift his attention from the broken Nichirin Blade to the Hand Demon, whose face was twisted with ferocity and rage.

As if he had found the culprit, Kurozawa gritted his teeth.

"Hey, you broke my master's Nichirin Blade. Have you figured out how you want to die?"

Thinking of how solemnly his master had placed the Nichirin Blade in his hands—and how, whenever he had nothing to do, his master liked to quietly gaze at the blade—gave Kurozawa a headache.

So he redirected his anger toward the Hand Demon.

"Master? So you're Urokodaki's disciple."

The Hand Demon was still shaken, but at the thought of Sakonji Urokodaki, its hatred and resentment surged.

"Without a Nichirin Blade, you're dead for sure!"

Noticing the broken Nichirin Blade in Kurozawa's hand, the Hand Demon's arrogance visibly swelled.

Once a swordsman lost his weapon, his combat strength would drop by more than half.

Most importantly, he would no longer be able to inflict real damage on demons.

Boom! One of the arms on its back instantly extended and grabbed at Kurozawa.

The bulging-veined arm clearly intended to crush Kurozawa into pulp in its grip.

Kurozawa snorted, then stepped forward heavily, lowered into a bow stance, and threw a punch.

Bang! His bowl-sized fist collided with a palm half the size of a man. An explosive sound rang out between them as a small shockwave spread outward to either side.

"Impossible! How can you be so strong?!"

Feeling the bones in its palm shatter inch by inch, the Hand Demon let out an incredulous roar.

If it had been severed by a sharp Nichirin Blade, the Hand Demon would not have been surprised. After all, Nichirin Blades were weapons specifically made to kill demons. But for a human fist to smash apart its flesh and bones was something it could not accept.

At the same time, Kurozawa was blasted backward by the tremendous force, retreating more than ten meters and carving two deep trenches beneath his feet.

His right arm hung limply at his side.

Compared to a Mutated Demon that specialized in strength, Kurozawa was still somewhat inferior.

By his estimate, the Hand Demon's strength was around 0.5—more than five times that of an ordinary person.

Do not underestimate that fivefold increase in strength. Strength did not merely mean having more physical power; it represented overwhelming superiority across many attributes.

"Swordsman, your strength exceeded my expectations, but you still can't compare to me."

Seeing Kurozawa's powerless right arm, the Hand Demon knew it had broken his arm. After steadying itself from its shock, it grinned viciously and continued its attack.

Several massive arms surged toward him at once, but Kurozawa's expression remained calm, untouched by fear even in the face of danger.

If his strength was not enough, then he would add more!

No longer saving his Potential Points, every last point vanished from the Gray-White Panel in his vision, plunging to zero.

At the same time, an addictive comfort spread throughout Kurozawa's body. Especially at the site of the broken bones in his right arm, a numb, tingling sensation drove away the searing pain and instantly healed the injury.

The muscles across his body began to pulse and ripple, rising and falling as though large rats were crawling beneath his skin. His originally streamlined, toned muscles became thick and heavy, with bulging veins like ancient tree roots.

Crackling sounds erupted from within Kurozawa's body as his height increased inch by inch. In the blink of an eye, he had grown to two meters tall. His shirt burst into scraps, while his hair and eyebrows fell out strand by strand.

Healing injuries was a useful application of Potential Points that Kurozawa had discovered through experimentation not long ago.

While improving his physique, they could also repair his injuries, though it consumed more Potential Points than usual.

After using up the more than 130 Potential Points he had accumulated in one go, his strength reached 0.59. His physique and agility also rose slightly, while his intelligence remained unchanged. His Charm Stat, however, had dropped instead.

"Inch Force, Heaven Splitter!"

Feeling the surging power within him, nearly overflowing from his body, Kurozawa shouted inwardly.

He stomped forward heavily. Then, with muscles knotted and veins bulging, his arms lashed out like evil dragons as he threw a pair of heavy punches with a low roar.

Bang! With one punch, the Hand Demon's foremost arm burst apart, flesh and blood spraying everywhere.

Immediately afterward, Kurozawa grabbed the fingers of another arm and yanked down with all his might, tearing it off. At the same time, he leaped onto the Hand Demon's arm.

The Hand Demon had never expected that this strange swordsman would seem to become an entirely different person after his Nichirin Blade broke. He was like a savage demon wearing human skin, even more brutal than it was.

The transformation had happened too quickly. Before the Hand Demon could react, Kurozawa was already rushing along its arm, each step leaving behind a bloody crater as he closed in on its main body.

Using his left leg as a pivot, driving it deep into the Hand Demon's flesh, Kurozawa's right leg swept out like a thunderous battle-axe and slammed into the side of the Hand Demon's head.

Thud! A tremendous sound echoed through Mount Fujikasane. The Hand Demon's massive body was kicked sideways into the air before crashing to the ground.

Half of its millstone-sized head had caved in, bearing the mark of that whip-like kick.

As the Hand Demon struggled to rise, it was shocked once more. In just a few short minutes, this swordsman had shocked it so many times that it was beginning to go numb.

Why? Why had his strength suddenly increased? Why had his injuries suddenly healed? And how could a human suppress a Mutated Demon like it in terms of strength?

No matter how hard it thought, it could not understand. Its brain felt insufficient for the task.

In its vision, a black shadow descended again. A storm of attacks instantly engulfed the Hand Demon's upper body, pinning it directly to the ground.

Kurozawa's strength had increased by too much all at once, leaving him with a swollen, overflowing sensation and an urgent need to vent it.

The durable Hand Demon became the perfect target.

After Kurozawa closed in, most of Hand Demon's methods became useless. Kurozawa constantly twisted, spun, and shifted around it; every one of Hand Demon's attacks either missed or was violently interrupted. For a time, it could only endure the beating in humiliation, excruciating pain engulfing its entire body.

Hand Demon's head took repeated heavy blows, leaving dent after dent that made for a gruesome sight.

In its daze, Hand Demon's consciousness began to blur. It seemed to understand something.

"It's a demon. This guy must be a high-ranking demon hiding his true nature, using a human body to toy with me."

The instant barrage of attacks had already beaten it senseless.

Demons could regenerate their bodies without limit, but every injury sustained in battle brought real pain. Though demons had a high tolerance for pain, even they could not withstand such a relentless storm of attacks, especially when every blow carried overwhelming force.

Even the ground beneath Hand Demon had sunk several centimeters from the collateral impact.

"Defend with everything I have. I refuse to believe he can keep up such a ferocious assault forever."

Given the situation, Hand Demon chose to draw in all of its arms. It no longer tried to attack Kurozawa, instead curling into a lump of arm-flesh and silently taking the beating.

Meanwhile, with every strike Kurozawa threw, his control over the power inside him deepened. By now, he had completely made the newly gained strength his own.

Amid the gusts kicked up by his movements, Kurozawa felt a little chill atop his head.

He found an opening to touch his scalp, only to discover in shock that his beautiful black hair had somehow all fallen out.

In an instant, Kurozawa understood the cause. The sudden increase in power had been too great; when his body mutated, his originally fragile hair had automatically shed.

Thinking that Hand Demon had turned him bald—and that he did not even know whether his hair would grow back—Kurozawa's killing intent surged explosively.

The bone-chilling killing intent made Hand Demon shudder, though it had no idea why. Even when the Nichirin Blade had broken earlier, Kurozawa had not revealed such murderous intent.

"Hand Demon!"

Kurozawa was furious enough for his hair to stand on end—if he still had any.

At the same time, Kurozawa's desire to kill Hand Demon reached an unprecedented peak.

He decided that once this was over, he would borrow a sword from one of the swordsmen and personally behead Hand Demon to vent the hatred in his heart.

And because it was nighttime, Kurozawa failed to notice a thin, faintly flickering layer of Pitch-Black Aura silently covering his hands as his killing intent peaked. The Pitch-Black Aura exuded a profound, despairing presence; merely looking at it was enough to make one dizzy and want to flee at once.

The next second, a heavy fist wreathed in Pitch-Black Aura smashed viciously into Hand Demon's head, shattering its skull as the Pitch-Black Aura scorched its brain.

"Ah!"

A heart-rending howl rang out, startling even Kurozawa. Since the battle began, this was the first time Hand Demon had made such a pained sound.

Please vote...