I Can't Accept This!

With two quick broken steps, Kana Shizumi sidestepped and slightly drew in a breath. Faint bloodshot veins surfaced in his eyes.

Flowing Red Scale?

Not quite!

He was merely consciously controlling his heartbeat and the speed of his blood flow, rather than wrapping his whole body in cursed energy and forcibly driving his organs and circulation...

In terms of effect, it could probably only raise his physical abilities by around one-fifth. Overall, it was practically negligible.

But its advantage was that it imposed almost no burden.

It consumed no cursed energy; simply consciously controlling his body was enough to achieve this much.

Nearly half a month of Barrier Technique training had not only taught Kana Shizumi various techniques, but also given him a profound understanding of the essence of "control."

Using his forward step, Kana Shizumi raised his shoulder and drew back his fist... Then, amid a brief adjustment and exhale, he suddenly struck.

His left fist howled through the air, tearing through the wind as it smashed squarely into the mechanical puppet's jaw.

The edge of his fist pierced through the cursed energy barrier, crushed the wooden framework, and shattered it completely.

Kana Shizumi shattered the puppet on his left. The one on his right, which he had "ignored," charged straight at him... yet instead of punching or kicking, it directly wrapped its arms around his waist.

"..."

Kana Shizumi raised an eyebrow.

He was not afraid of fists. Blood Armor specialized in close combat. But if they intended to slow his movements... that was somewhat troublesome.

Not bad. It had a little strategic awareness.

"Overclock Operation, Self-Destruct Incineration Cannon!!!"

As Kokichi Muta's command spread, the puppet construction allowed those units to move with precision and order. At that moment, several mechanical puppets began to tremble violently.

Driven by cursed energy, their cores began operating at an overclocked rate.

They unleashed all their thermal energy, sacrificing the individual puppets to fuse cursed energy and firepower, erupting with nearly 120% of their normal power!

A full five mechanical puppets twitched as they charged madly toward Kana Shizumi. Their heads twisted, mouths opening.

The nozzles emerging within were already gathering power. The internal heat scorched the steel pipes red-hot, even igniting their wooden "bodies."

Kana Shizumi tried to break free, but the results were less than ideal... By locking its joints, the mechanical puppet had inevitably given him a more than two-hundred-pound "ball and chain."

"Ha..."

Kana Shizumi chuckled softly, his gaze sweeping around as he made his judgment in an instant.

This is when I should use this move— His thoughts gathered for a moment, and several round crimson spheres suddenly appeared on the seemingly empty ground.

Kokichi Muta's mechanical eyes accurately captured the shapes of those objects, while doubt rose in his heart.

What was this now?

"Supernova."

Choso's signature technique had already been fully mastered by Kana Shizumi during the past half month of training.

In truth, the learning process had not been simple. Unlike the "inherited memories" of other Crimson Blood Manipulation techniques, this was not etched into the blood itself. Kana Shizumi had needed to figure it out on his own.

And as he repeatedly cycled through control and explosion, Kenjaku noticed this attempt as well.

"Not bad technique development. Let me give you some pointers too."

The addition of that thousand-year-old monster made developing the technique extraordinarily smooth. Under his guidance, many seemingly contradictory points suddenly became clear.

In fact, compared to Choso's lonely exploration over more than a century, Kenjaku, acting with a clear direction in mind, needed only five days to fully develop it.

So-called talent was nothing more than that... Truly enough to make one sigh.

And Kana Shizumi had indeed now grasped the essence of this technique.

The blood flung out by his earlier forward rush and whipping punch amounted to more than thirty droplets in total.

While controlling them with cursed energy wrapped around them, he selectively activated them—compared with Choso's setup, this method was more insidious, and it could be used whenever needed.

Hiss...

Crack!!!

Driven by cursed energy, the blood underwent the full transformation of boiling and exploding after a brief pause.

A succession of explosions rang out, like a string of firecrackers appearing from thin air and bursting beside several mechanical puppets!

Wrapped in cursed energy, the blood transformed into arrow-like projectiles, sharp and piercing as they stabbed toward the charging puppets.

Of course, since they were not direct attacks, the damage they dealt was quite limited.

With 33 points of cursed energy control and an output level of 22, the Blood Arrows produced by the blasts could only pierce the puppets' outer surfaces.

But that was already enough.

As long as the force was sufficient... As if shoved by several invisible strongmen, Kokichi Muta's mechanical puppets stumbled into one another.

"No, wait..."

It was already too late to cut off the cursed energy output.

Within the steadily brightening, boiling radiance, the mechanical puppets paired off and became fragments amid flames shooting into the sky.

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!

Amid the unbroken thunder of explosions, Kana Shizumi's figure abruptly "pierced" through them.

Obvious burn marks remained on his face, but his movements did not slow. At the same time, visibly... his blood entered a state of rapid circulation.

Flowing Red Scale!

Having fully activated his physical abilities, Kana Shizumi charged straight into the mechanical puppets.

Seizing that fleeting opportunity was crucial.

Having his offensive interrupted would certainly take Kokichi Muta by surprise, and this was Kana Shizumi's best chance to break through.

Before the other side could react, he reached out and grabbed the nearest mechanical puppet.

With his physical functions bursting forth, Kana Shizumi crushed its head in his grip, cutting off its signal transmission... Then he grabbed its lower leg and swung it viciously like a warhammer.

The mechanical puppets lined up before him collapsed at once, barely able to make any worthwhile defensive movements.

Kana Shizumi rushed forward and delivered a soccer kick straight at their heads.

Scenes like this kept unfolding, making Kokichi Muta's body far away at the other end begin to tremble uncontrollably.

Wait, wait, wait wait wait...

This was not how the battle was supposed to go!

You should have been confused first, realizing there was no real body among the mechanical puppets.

Then you should have been overwhelmed by my human-wave tactics, gotten a headache, been suppressed, or run away on your own... While feeling the pressure, you should have voluntarily revealed more information to me.

That way, I could make all sorts of follow-up judgments... So why were you almost clearing out all my mechanical puppets right from the start?

I can't accept this!

How could a Heavenly Restriction battle be this humiliating?!