On the ground, the battle between Louis and Shachi had also reached fever pitch. Shachi used his Kagune to unleash astonishing bursts of speed, closing in on Louis again and again. The Ice Feathers darting through the air could barely hold him back anymore.
"Just as I thought. There may be hundreds of them, but no more than thirty can actually hurt me. The rest are nothing but a smokescreen!" Shachi shielded only his vital points with his Kagune and charged straight ahead.
"Tch..." Louis gritted his teeth. Shachi was exactly right. Against an ordinary person, he could make every one of those hundreds of Ice Feather Blades lethal. But a ghoul's body was anything but ordinary; even bullets and blades struggled to damage it. He had plenty of Ice Feather Blades, but making them pierce a ghoul of Shachi's caliber required considerable concentration. Focusing on thirty was already his limit.
And now, constantly fleeing divided his attention, making even those thirty difficult to maintain.
This was something Louis had always wanted to complain about. Breaking through their defenses was hard enough, but their healing was ridiculously fast, too. A wound he had struggled to inflict would heal before he could even catch his breath.
Anyone with three S's in combat strength really is a pain to deal with... Louis sighed inwardly, planted his foot, and abruptly stopped. Hundreds of Ice Feather Blades lost their driving force at once, scattering in every direction under their own momentum.
"Done running?" Shachi narrowed his eyes and lunged. The instant he closed in, he brought a vicious knife-hand strike down toward the crown of Louis's head.
But suddenly, Yoshimura Kuzen's pupils contracted. He withdrew his hand and twisted his body, switching to a Kagune strike aimed at Louis's side.
Boom-!
Splurt-!
The two