Maximum Technique: Blood Deception!

Bang, bang, bang!

In the spacious cavern, two figures clashed, their bodies colliding with violent thuds.

Every punch and kick carried tremendous force.

Bzzzt...

The bald, four-eyed cursed spirit began compressing cursed energy while still airborne after being kicked away.

A brilliant orange orb rapidly swelled between his palms!

Kamehameha?

Shinji had no time to make a snarky remark. He immediately dodged.

The next instant, a deafening explosion rang out!

The blast punched straight through the floor. With nowhere left to stand, Shinji could only jump down to the next level.

The bald, four-eyed cursed spirit immediately pursued him. Shinji wasn't about to put up with that-he brought his blade down straight at the spirit's head!

The bald, four-eyed cursed spirit raised his left arm, blocking and sweeping the blade aside. At the cost of his severed arm, he opened his mouth wide.

Cero!

Sorry, wrong show.

Boom!

Struck by an orb of compressed cursed energy, Shinji shot down like a cannonball and slammed into the floor of the next level.

Thud...

The bald, four-eyed cursed spirit landed steadily. Cells surged at the stump of his severed arm, and a brand-new arm grew back almost in the blink of an eye.

Holding his hands before him, palms pressing against empty air, he began compressing his immense cursed energy again, making it flicker.

He intended to annihilate his enemy with a single blast at maximum output.

The orange orb kept expanding and rapidly compressing again. That alone made it clear this attack would be several times stronger than the last!

Anyone hit by it would probably be lucky to leave an intact corpse.

With [immortality] at Shinji and Hidan's level, they would probably have no choice but to go serve the Evil God.

"Hah!"

The terrifying orb shot out at tremendous speed.

It's over.

The bald, four-eyed cursed spirit was utterly confident.

But the very moment he attacked was also the moment he was most vulnerable!

Cloak-Breaking Strike!

Shinji, who should have been annihilated, crossed the intervening distance almost instantly and appeared behind the bald, four-eyed cursed spirit.

He had held this strike in reserve ever since entering, patiently waiting for this very moment!

All four of the bald, four-eyed cursed spirit's small eyes widened. He strained with all his strength to turn and dodge.

But...

Whoosh!

The Kubikiribōchō, over two meters long, swept upward from between his legs, cleaving through his waist and all the way through his head!

Squelch!!!

The bald, four-eyed cursed spirit split apart.

Literally split apart.

"Hah... phew..."

Shinji had seized his opening and delivered that stunning strike, but he wasn't in great shape either. He was panting now, struggling to steady his breathing.

That earlier blast of "sweet breath" that had knocked him down had indeed wounded him badly.

If [Flowing Scarlet Scales: Load] and [immortality] hadn't worked together, he might already have lost the ability to fight back.

A [special grade cursed spirit] really was terrifying. Its flexible use of cursed energy alone was far beyond anything those other small fry could manage.

But... it wasn't over yet!

The bald, four-eyed cursed spirit's four eyes suddenly slid along his skull to the back of his head, fixing a fierce stare on Shinji.

At the same time, masses of fleshy tendrils sprouted from the two halves of his body and tugged at one another. Like modeling clay, the halves were visibly about to stick back together.

His body had merely been cleaved in two. As long as his core wasn't destroyed, he could keep spending cursed energy to heal himself.

So to destroy him completely, Shinji would either have to shatter his core with a single powerful attack or exhaust his cursed energy until he could no longer heal and regenerate.

The first method sounded simple, but no one except the bald, four-eyed cursed spirit himself knew what his core was,

or where in his body it was hidden. Besides, when faced with danger, he could simply relocate his core to keep it from being destroyed.

The second method was even harder. Trying to outlast a [special grade cursed spirit] in a battle of attrition-wasn't that just asking to die?

Fortunately, Shinji had never expected that slash to kill his opponent.

So while the bald, four-eyed cursed spirit healed, he began preparing his next move.

He casually planted the Kubikiribōchō beside him, quickly crushed two blood bags in his hands, and turned their contents into two Blood Blades.

Blood Manipulation: Blood Blade!

He coagulated the blood to form the outer contours, while blood spun at high speed inside to increase their destructive power.

Squelch, squelch!

The moment the two Blood Blades formed, Shinji drove them into the cursed spirit's back without hesitation.

Then he pulled out two more blood bags, burst them, and shaped the blood!

Squelch, squelch!

This time, he stabbed the bald, four-eyed spirit in the waist. His kidneys were probably shredded-assuming he had any.

By now, Shinji had used up every blood bag he carried during the fight. He immediately slit his own wrist with a fingertip, and blood began gushing out.

Squelch, squelch, squelch!

One Blood Blade after another mercilessly pierced the cursed spirit's body, drawing cries of pain from him.

But by the time Shinji had driven eighteen Blood Blades into different parts of the spirit's body as fast as he could, the bald, four-eyed cursed spirit had fused back together and regained his mobility. He promptly sent Shinji flying with a punch.

Crack...

As Shinji flew backward and smashed through a wall, he heard a sound coming from his arms.

Clearly, even though he had crossed both arms to block the attack, he still hadn't withstood that tremendous force. The bones in his arms had cracked.

Clatter, clatter...

Rising from the pile of rubble, Shinji somehow still had the leisure to brush the dust off himself.

The bald, four-eyed cursed spirit, meanwhile, was confused and uneasy.

Because just after he had knocked that guy away, he had been about to pull out all the "weapons" stuck in his body-only for them to suddenly disappear.

No, they hadn't exactly disappeared.

More precisely, they had all turned into liquid and seeped into his body, vanishing from sight.

The bald, four-eyed cursed spirit felt that whatever it was couldn't be good. He wanted to force it out immediately, but in less than a single breath, every wound on his body had already healed.

Well, that was awkward!

But on second thought, he didn't believe that stuff could do anything to him.

Poison?

He wasn't afraid of that at all.

So he decided to simply kill the guy.

Just then, however, the guy opposite him suddenly spoke.

"You don't think I'm trying to poison you, do you? The first few Blood Blades did contain toxins, but that stuff shouldn't work on you. Yeah, I can already tell from how you're acting. Otherwise, the poison would have taken effect by now."

Shinji looked relaxed and at ease, as though the battle were already over and its outcome decided.

Although the bald, four-eyed cursed spirit couldn't fully understand what Shinji meant, he understood part of it.

He immediately strode toward him.

This time, his guard was up. He wouldn't give his opponent another chance to ambush him.

Then he saw Shinji cross his hands in a strange gesture and smile at him. "Then let me show you what the deadliest 'poison' really is."

"Blood Manipulation: Maximum Technique: Blood Deception!"