Something roared beneath the soil.
In the space of a breath, a giant flower made of countless leaves burst out of the ground.
The giant flower spun at tremendous speed. Guided by Lower Rank Four's hand movements, its leaves scattered rapidly, attacking every target nearby!
Blood Demon Art: Demon Buds!
Clang, clang, clang! The leaves were incredibly sharp, cutting through trees, smashing houses, and destroying everything in their path!
Haruto held his sword in a reverse grip and swept out a fan-shaped, blue-violet shield of blades before him. The leaves struck it in showers of sparks.
The flamboyantly dressed boy was just as nimble as the three girls dressed as ninjas. They darted through the gaps between the attacking leaves, struggling but managing to stay alive.
"Don't push yourselves! Take them down the mountain. I'll deal with her!"
Haruto turned and called out sharply. Attacks like these could hardly do him any real harm, but these ordinary people... no matter how skilled their footwork, they would inevitably make a mistake under such relentless attacks.
"Just a little longer... just a little longer!"
Intensity gathered in Tengen Uzui's eyes as he brought both his hearing and vision fully into play.
Using his enemy's moves as musical notes, he constructed his own Score from them!
The Score was a combat calculation formula he had devised himself. It allowed him to read the rhythm of an enemy's attacks during battle, record it, and write it into his own musical score!
Once he finished reading and analyzing them, every habit and blind spot his target possessed would be laid bare in his Score!
Time... he needed time!
The giant flower in the center of the clearing kept spinning, its leaves restricting Haruto and the others' movements.
Lower Rank Four did not let this perfect opportunity slip away. She lunged straight at Haruto!
Once I kill this pretty-faced little fellow, the rest won't even be worth mentioning!
Ha... if I slaughter the demon slayer who killed Byōha, that lord should think more highly of me! Perhaps I'll even be rewarded with more of his precious blood!
So what if Byōha died at his hands? What does that prove? Since he got rid of Byōha, who controlled plants just like me, I ought to thank this swordsman properly!
"Come on, come on! Letting you die painlessly and enter my stomach is the greatest mercy I can offer!"
Her face was wild with excitement. An ominous black light gleamed between her claws as she swiped at Haruto's head.
Thoroughly irritated by the suppressing barrage of leaves, Haruto shifted aside, evaded Lower Rank Four's claws, and swiftly unleashed Bright Tears.
Clang!
Blood-red buds immediately gathered beside Lower Rank Four, forming a shield that blocked Haruto's attack.
Blood Demon Art: Evil Potato Apple!
"You're not very big, but you've got plenty of tricks..."
Haruto muttered under his breath. His Nichirin Blade did not produce a metallic clang when it struck the shield. Instead, it seemed to sink into sticky flesh, producing a teeth-grating creak!
Lower Rank Four grunted and took a step back. The blood-red fleshy buds rapidly returned to her body. Even the spinning giant flower stopped shooting leaves and burrowed back into the soil.
Freed from the indiscriminate barrage, Tengen Uzui breathed a sigh of relief. Before his eyes, Lower Rank Four's attacks were fitting his Score more and more closely!
Lower Rank Four's expression grew grim. All the power in the shield she had just formed came from the human flesh and blood she had consumed in the past.
When she had faced demon slayers before, not even a Hashira-level swordsman had nearly cleaved apart her Evil Potato Apple with a single strike.
Yet this white-haired boy had remained unaffected by the spinning Demon Buds and swung his sword with such calm precision that he had almost cut her Evil Potato Apple in half!
A chill gripped her heart, and Lower Rank Four suddenly felt the urge to flee!
That lord will notice...
The thought surfaced in her mind, instantly snapping her back to her senses.
That's right. If that lord finds out, never mind surviving-I'll probably be killed on the spot!
Haruto watched the female demon's expression shift back and forth without letting up his attacks.
Lower Rank demons could no longer pose much of a threat to him.
Since defeating Byōha, his mastery of his Breathing Style and swordsmanship had risen to another level. Even if he encountered Byōha again, he would not win in such a miserable state as he had last time!
Haruto stamped hard against the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.
The force rebounded through his foot, propelling him swiftly toward Lower Rank Four.
His blade trailed blue-violet light as it swept through the air. Starlight flooded his chest, bringing a cool sensation like mint.
In Lower Rank Four's eyes, his figure suddenly flickered.
That flicker again! That flicker again!
The white-haired female demon whipped her head around. A pair of mist-blue eyes suddenly opened beside her.
"Star Breathing, Second Form..."
The whisper sounded beside Lower Rank Four's ear, and the starlight filling the sky seemed to turn bone-chilling.
"...Starlight Prairie Fire."
The blade brushed lightly across her limbs, causing no more pain than an insect bite.
What is this? A mistake? Or the pity a swordsman should never feel for a demon?
The white-haired female demon abruptly put distance between herself and the swordsman, spreading her arms toward Haruto.
"Dodge!"
As the word rang out, Lower Rank Four's movements danced across Tengen Uzui's completed Score.
The god of flamboyance had finished his most flamboyant technique, the Score!
He shouted a warning to Haruto. The instant Haruto heard it, he used Bright Tears and swiftly dodged behind Lower Rank Four.
Countless fleshy buds reeking of blood shot from Lower Rank Four's mouth, nose, and the hollow in her chest beneath her clothes. Like cannon shells, they pierced the area where Haruto had been standing!
Blood Demon Art: Gluttonous Species!
She had missed!
Lower Rank Four, her beauty now gone, turned her head blankly. The sharp pain coming from her limbs soon made her understand.
It had been neither a mistake nor supposed pity, but a swordsman's ruthless resolve to slay demons!
Searing pain surged inward from her limbs, as though someone had nailed her to a gallows. The heat hidden beneath her flesh had spread through her body in concealed, far-reaching threads, now converging through her veins to strike at her neck!
An unprecedented sense of danger shot straight to her brain, driving Lower Rank Four to make an astonishing move in the final moment of her life.
Before Starlight Prairie Fire could blast her neck apart, she twisted off her own head!
Boom! An explosion rang out, sending her entire torso flying!
But her head, streaming bloody tears, streaked across the night sky like a ray of light, fleeing for its life under the protection of floating blood-red buds!
"Hyah!" Spotting her attempt to escape, Tengen Uzui hurled both his swords with all his strength. He threw them so hard that they lodged firmly in Lower Rank Four's head, and she carried them away as she fled out of sight.
"Damn it! Give me back my swords!" Tengen Uzui's eyes widened, and he stamped his feet in fury. "I had those blades specially forged! They're the exceptionally flamboyant weapons of the Festival God!"
Haruto had likewise never expected Lower Rank Four, one of the Twelve Kizuki, to flee with her own head in hand. He stood stunned with his Nichirin Blade for only an instant, but that was enough to leave him unable to keep up with her feet-no, her head.
A demon who had lost her torso would need a very, very long time to recover her strength. He would have to step up patrols during that period and warn Kagaya Ubuyashiki, lest she cause trouble as the New Year approached.
Haruto breathed a sigh of relief and turned around.
The flamboyantly dressed boy, glittering with jewels, stood beside him, watching him with lively eyes.
"My flamboyant friend, I am Tengen Uzui. Thank you for your help."
Before you continue