Shadow Technique

"All you do is run, rat."

Sukuna stopped in midair, all four hands forming seals at once.

"Since I can't catch you, I'll destroy this entire area."

Immense cursed energy gathered in his palms, and black flames began to burn.

"Open."

Flame Arrow. It was the move that had once killed Mahoraga in a single blow in Shibuya.

Shiyue Shuo stopped moving at high speed. He looked at the flaming arrow capable of incinerating all things and took a deep breath.

"If that's how you want to play it."

Shiyue Shuo suddenly pressed his palms together.

"Agile Monkey grants me Myriad Transformations."

His body underwent a drastic change in an instant. His human form began to expand and stretch, his skin turning hard and rocklike until he transformed into a ten-meter-tall obsidian giant.

"Come on!"

The giant let out a deafening roar, crossing his arms before himself.

"Boom—!!!"

Flame Arrow struck the obsidian giant.

A massive mushroom cloud rose from the heart of Shinjuku. The terrifying heat instantly vaporized everything within a kilometer. Glass melted and fell like rain, while steel reinforcement bars went limp like noodles.

Yet at the center of the inferno, the black giant still stood tall.

Though his outer layer had been scorched red, melted, and even peeled away, new layers of rock continuously grew under the Ox Talisman's frenzied restoration, desperately blocking the flames' erosion.

"He blocked it?"

The cigarette in Kusakabe's hand fell to the ground. "That was... Flame Arrow! A move that can instantly kill even Special Grade cursed spirits!"

The sea of flames dissipated.

Shiyue Shuo released his giant form and returned to normal. He panted heavily, white smoke rising from his body and his skin flushed red. He had blocked it, but the pain of being burned was real.

"Hey, Sukuna."

Shiyue Shuo looked at the unscathed King of Curses opposite him and gave a provocative smile.

"Is that all the heat your fire has? A cook couldn't make a meal with flames like that."

Sukuna looked at him, the irritation in his eyes gradually fading, replaced by an utter chill. He had seen through it. Though this brat had many tricks, he was not capable of killing him.

He was stalling for time.

Or rather, probing him.

"Are you trying to force me to use that?"

Sukuna suddenly smiled. He raised a hand and made a strange gesture.

"You want to see my trump card? You want Mahoraga to come out and adapt to your abilities?"

Shiyue Shuo's heart skipped a beat. He had been seen through.

"Unfortunately, you're not worthy."

The familiar wheel with eight handles did not appear above Sukuna's head. Instead, an eerie, dark surge of cursed energy welled up from Sukuna's shadow.

"The Ten Shadows Technique isn't just for summoning Mahoraga."

"Shadow Technique: Extension: Chimera Beast Agito."

A massive monster, combining the traits of multiple shikigami such as Nue, Great Serpent, and Round Deer, emerged from the shadows. It had tiger claws, a serpent's tail, and wings that could unleash lightning.

"Go. Tear him apart."

Sukuna casually waved a hand, as though shooing away a fly.

Agito let out a piercing shriek and transformed into a streak of lightning as it charged at Shiyue Shuo.

"Not using Mahoraga..."

Shiyue Shuo gritted his teeth. His plan had been to force out Mahoraga and eliminate it with twelve different attributes before it could adapt. But Sukuna was clearly more cautious than he had imagined—or rather, more arrogant. He believed he had no need to use that trump card against Shiyue Shuo.

"Who are you looking down on?!"

Shiyue Shuo roared and charged forward instead of retreating.

"Cunning Mouse grants me the power to turn false into true."

He slapped his palm against the ruins of a nearby building.

"Come alive!"

The ruins of the several-dozen-story building instantly rumbled. Steel and concrete bulged like muscles, transforming into a steel dragon made of construction debris that roared as it met Agito head-on.

"Boom!"

The steel dragon and the Chimera Beast tore at each other in midair. Lightning and rubble flew everywhere.

Taking advantage of the opening, Shiyue Shuo charged at Sukuna again.

"If you won't use Mahoraga, then I'll beat you until you do!"

The explosive power of the Dragon Talisman was compressed to the limit around Shiyue Shuo's fists.

"Ora ora ora ora!"

A dense barrage of explosive fist shadows engulfed Sukuna. Every punch burst into a blaze of fire in midair.

Sukuna did not evade. He activated Simple Domain to neutralize the blasts' impact while his four arms moved like those of a thousand-armed bodhisattva, engaging Shiyue Shuo in the most primitive kind of hand-to-hand combat.

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"

The sounds of fists colliding with flesh were like a rapid drumbeat.

Blood splattered. Some of it was Sukuna's, and some was Shiyue Shuo's.

The longer Shiyue Shuo fought, the more alarmed he became. Sukuna's body was too powerful, and his combat experience was terrifyingly extensive. Even with the Ox Talisman's brute strength and the Rabbit Talisman's speed, he could not gain the slightest advantage in close combat. Sukuna always deflected his attacks at the smallest cost, then counterattacked from the most vicious angles.

In just a few minutes of fighting, more than a dozen of Shiyue Shuo's bones had been broken. Though they healed instantly, the pain kept wearing away at his will.

"What's wrong? Already out of strength?"

Sukuna grabbed Shiyue Shuo's incoming fist, a mocking expression on his face.

"Your regenerative ability truly is astonishing. But how long can your mind hold out?"

"Crack."

Sukuna suddenly exerted force and crushed Shiyue Shuo's wrist.

"If I cut off your head, you shouldn't be able to grow another one, right?"

His other hand became a blade, wreathed in pitch-black cursed energy as it slashed straight for Shiyue Shuo's neck.

There was no escaping it.

At that moment, a vicious glint flashed through Shiyue Shuo's eyes.

"Then let's find out!"

Rather than pulling back his broken hand, he used Sukuna's grip to hurl his entire body forward.

"Mysterious Sheep grants me an eternal soul!"

His soul left its shell in that instant.

His pale-purple spirit body charged directly into Sukuna's body.

It was a desperate gamble. He was betting that Sukuna had not completely suppressed Megumi Fushiguro's soul.

The instant his spirit body entered, Shiyue Shuo saw a pitch-black Innate Domain. It was a dead-silent sea of blood, and deep within that blood sea, Megumi Fushiguro was curled into a ball, tightly bound by countless black chains.

"Fushiguro!"

Shiyue Shuo's soul cried out.

Megumi Fushiguro, who had been utterly still, twitched a finger slightly.

Outside.

Sukuna's hand blade stopped only a centimeter from Shiyue Shuo's neck.

A trace of astonishment flashed through his eyes, followed immediately by fury.

"Brat... you're courting death!"

The cursed energy within Sukuna's body erupted wildly. It was rejection on the level of souls. He was forcibly driving Shiyue Shuo's spirit body out.

"Argh!"

Shiyue Shuo's spirit body was violently blasted back into his flesh. He coughed up a mouthful of blood and staggered backward. Damage to the soul was a hundred times more agonizing than damage to the body.

But he had achieved his goal.

During that instant of stiffness, a tiny gap had appeared in Sukuna's control over his cursed energy.

"Now!"

Enduring the excruciating pain, Shiyue Shuo clenched his left hand in the air.

"Free Chicken grants me flight to seize the moon!"

The scattered stones, steel bars, and shards of glass around them all became deadly weapons at that moment. Under the control of telekinesis, they shot toward Sukuna from every direction at supersonic speed.

"Pfft pfft pfft pfft!"

Countless fragments pierced Sukuna's body. Though most were blocked by cursed energy, quite a few still cut through his skin and buried themselves in his muscles.

Sukuna became a man covered in blood.

"You... have completely enraged me."

Sukuna lowered his head and looked at the dense wounds covering his body. Though they were healing, he could not tolerate such humiliation.

"Creak."

A teeth-grating sound of friction rang out.

Shiyue Shuo suddenly looked up.

Above Sukuna's head, that golden dharma wheel finally slowly emerged.

The ritual wheel of Eight-Handled Sword Divergent Sila Divine General Mahoraga.

"So... it's finally here."

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