"Honestly, why are young people so impatient? Cough, cough. Are you in such a hurry to compete with an old man like me for reincarnation?"
Once the old doctor's identity as the Evil-Slaying Blade had been exposed and his true face revealed, he knew he could not let Pakura leave. The moment he finished speaking, he rapidly swung his short blade and charged at her.
Having suffered once before, the old doctor gave every incoming Scorch Release fireball several extra slashes, making sure to cut them apart completely.
Pakura's Kekkei Genkai was not her only strength; her close-combat skills had likewise been honed on the battlefield.
Watching the old doctor steadily close in, she controlled the two Scorch Release fireballs around her with her left hand while gripping a kunai in her right and moving to meet him.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The sound of metal clashing fiercely echoed again and again through the silent forest at night.
Although Pakura's kunai precisely blocked every slash of the old doctor's short blade, she was both younger and female, leaving her weaker than him in terms of strength. She could only rely on her Scorch Release fireballs to constantly disrupt his attacks.
It seemed that the two had fallen into a stalemate, neither able to defeat the other quickly.
Thus, the outcome of this contest depended on whether Pakura, who had been multitasking all along, would give out first, or whether the aged and frail old doctor would run out of strength first.
Just as the two remained deadlocked, unable to determine a victor for a long time—
The old doctor, relying on the wealth of experience he had accumulated from samurai duels in his youth, keenly noticed that the chakra Pakura had expended continuously controlling the Scorch Release fireballs was beginning to