Facing a Special Grade

From the shadows, a brand-new pale yellow puppet with red light flickering at its joints slowly emerged. It was the mech Kokichi Muta had rebuilt. With his body restored by the Horse Talisman, his control precision was no longer what it had once been.

"Boom!"

Read novels every day, with plenty of books to collect and read anytime.

While everyone was still celebrating, the Special Grade cursed spirit's huge, black-haired hand suddenly smashed the massive gear beside it. Shattered iron fragments shot toward them like buckshot.

"Crimson Binding!"

Noritoshi Kamo steadied himself again. He knew that against a Special Grade, he had to remain even calmer. A blood arrow shot from his fingertips straight at the cursed spirit's ankle. The instant the blood touched its target, it transformed into tough chains that forcibly restricted the monster's movements.

"Miwa, guard us!"

"Yes!" Kasumi Miwa immediately understood. She spun back, not attacking but placing herself in front of Kamo, whose technique had not yet fully unfolded. "Simple Domain—Quickdraw!" Sword energy split the air, knocking down every gear fragment flying toward them.

At the same time, Mai's revolver kept firing.

"Bang! Bang!"

Every bullet struck the Special Grade cursed spirit's head with precision. Though they dealt no real damage, she only needed the explosions of cursed energy to disrupt its vision and senses, creating an opening for the others.

"Now, Kokichi!"

"Great Exorcism Cannon—Rapid Fire!"

Blinding blue beams erupted from the pale yellow mech's palms. Thanks to the precise control granted by his restored body, the mech's beams firmly suppressed the cursed spirit's arms as it tried to counterattack.

But it was still a Special Grade cursed spirit. Sensing the threat, it let out a piercing shriek. The black hair covering its body stood erect like steel needles, and dense cursed energy formed a dark red force field around it as it forced itself upright against the blue beams. Its head, covered in compound eyes, snapped sharply to one side, and several black blades condensed from cursed energy tore through the air toward Mechamaru at the front.

"Don't think you'll get away with it!" Blood-red light flared in Noritoshi Kamo's eyes. In an instant, he activated "Flowing Red Scale." His body temperature and pulse surged to their limits as he moved like an afterimage, blocking the mech.

He waved both hands, and the blood threads flicked from his fingertips wove together in midair into a net. "Crimson Binding—Iron Net!"

The cursed-energy black blades slammed into the blood net with a screeching grind. Kamo grunted, a trace of blood spilling from the corner of his mouth. Taking that attack head-on had clearly placed a tremendous burden on him.

At the same time, Shiyue Shuo moved, arriving beside the others.

No cursed energy rose from him like it did from a sorcerer, yet a heat wave around him made even the air faintly distort.

It was also Shiyue Shuo's first time using the Dragon Talisman in actual combat. He did not know the talisman's exact power. He feared it would not be enough to harm a Special Grade cursed spirit, but he feared even more that its power would be too great and harm his companions—or himself.

Rolling heat waves radiated from his body, while boiling steam formed a ring of white mist around him. "Work with me. Help me open up a gap."

Seeing this, Mechamaru's rear vents blasted steam as every joint in its body operated beyond capacity. It charged forward, both arms transforming into enormous mechanical hook claws that clamped tightly onto the cursed spirit's shoulders, forcibly pinning its huge body in place. "Great Exorcism Cannon—Full Power!"

Blue energy detonated against the cursed spirit's chest, peeling away layers of charred flesh and exposing the dark purple core pulsing within.

"Convergence—Piercing Blood!" Noritoshi Kamo seized the moment, pressing his hands together. The blood threads compressed to their limit shot out like lasers, precisely piercing the final defensive membrane and tearing open a gap in its chest.

The Special Grade cursed spirit let out a furious, desperate roar. But at that moment, the techniques of everyone from Kyoto School became locks, nailing it firmly in place.

Shiyue Shuo loosely clenched his right hand, and crimson light condensed in his palm into a pinpoint.

What he released this time was not the broad Flame Wave from before, but a compressed golden-white pillar of fire. It roared from Shiyue Shuo's palm, drilling straight into the cursed spirit through the gap Kamo had opened.

"Boom!"

Violent thermal energy erupted from within. The Special Grade cursed spirit's massive body resembled an overheating reactor, and blinding white light shone through every gap in its black fur.

The heat wave swept through the entire abandoned factory. Noritoshi Kamo raised a blood shield in front of Miwa, while Mai was blasted several steps back by the shockwave, staring in horror at the small mushroom cloud rising before her.

Shiyue Shuo was also repeatedly driven back by the blast's aftermath.

"Click."

The mechanical watch on his wrist pointed to 9:00.

The aura within him shifted from blazing heat to emptiness. The Dragon Talisman went out, while the dark green glow belonging to the Snake Talisman slowly filled his mind.

"Is it over?" Kasumi Miwa stared blankly ahead. Where the Special Grade cursed spirit had stood, only a massive crater ten meters wide remained, and the air reeked of burning.

"I saved up for so long, and it all ran dry in one go." Shiyue Shuo slumped to the ground, his face frighteningly pale.

Shiyue Shuo was indeed extremely weak right now, not because of cursed energy depletion, but because his physical condition was genuinely poor under the effects of the other talismans.

Mechamaru slowly walked over, its pale yellow armor faintly hot. Kokichi Muta looked at the weakened boy on the screen, silently astonished by his methods.

He knew that without everyone risking their lives to suppress the cursed spirit, Shiyue Shuo would have found it difficult to pierce it so accurately. Yet the destructive force the kid displayed at the final moment still made his heart tremble. Not to mention his miraculous healing ability and attacks targeting the soul. At this moment, Kokichi Muta only felt that the more he learned about the person before him, the more secrets he seemed to have.

"That kind of power..." Noritoshi Kamo released "Convergence." The remaining blood on his fingertips dripped through the gaps between his fingers, instantly drying on the parched ground. His ever-narrowed eyes opened slightly as he stared fixedly at Shiyue Shuo sitting on the ground.

As the heir of the Kamo Family, one of the Three Great Families, he had seen countless powerful techniques. But such pure "physical thermal energy," entirely free of even the slightest negative emotion, was simply unheard of.

Kasumi Miwa sheathed her sword and patted her chest with lingering fear. In that instant just now, if not for Kamo's blood shield and Mechamaru's precise suppression, she suspected she might have been vaporized along with everything else by that terrifying white light.

"Hey, Shiyue, be honest. Was that really your technique?" Mai walked to the edge of the crater, looked at its nearly translucent walls, then turned and questioned him.

"Senior, you think too highly of me." Shiyue Shuo flopped backward, lying without any regard for appearances amid the ruins. His voice was as weak as if he had just run ten thousand meters. "I'm actually under a Heavenly Restriction too. I can continuously store cursed energy, then release it all at once with the Flame Wave technique. That was cursed energy I'd saved for a long time, and now it's completely empty. I'm applying to slack off for the rest of the mission."

It was now the hour of the Snake. The Snake Talisman's dark green light gleamed within his mind. The Snake Talisman granted him the utmost concealment. In this state, he completely hid even the already faint cursed energy he possessed.

"But we never noticed that your cursed energy was particularly high before," Kasumi Miwa asked at once.

"That's because the cursed energy I store has extremely faint fluctuations. Even the Six Eyes would need to observe carefully to detect it."

"Trash is still trash. You saved up for so long, and that was all you had." Though Mai sounded disdainful, she still tossed a lightly scented handkerchief onto his face. "Wipe off your sweat. You're disgusting."

Shiyue Shuo caught the handkerchief and chuckled. Without caring in the slightest, he carelessly wiped his face, then casually tucked it into his clothes.

Add bookmark

Return to contents

Report chapter error

Share with friends: