The battle line split clearly into two parts in an instant.
At the rear was the flame guardian.
"Young Kamado! Young boar-head! And Nezuko!"
Kyojuro Rengoku's voice rang like a great bell across the noisy battlefield.
"The first three carriages are yours! I'll protect the five behind them!"
Before he finished speaking, he had already charged into the fifth carriage, where the fleshy tentacles were thickest.
"Flame Breathing, Second Form: Flame-Heaven Ascension!"
A spiraling blaze erupted skyward, burning the carriage's entire ceiling to nothing along with dozens of tentacles.
The firelight illuminated the passengers' terrified faces and Kyojuro's back, as dependable as solid rock.
Without pausing, he moved rapidly between carriages, his blade flashing into walls of flame that severed and scorched every mass of flesh trying to approach the passengers.
"Umu! As long as I'm here, you won't get your way!"
He alone was an insurmountable defensive line.
Up front, Tanjiro and the others had begun their own battle.
"Inosuke! Nezuko! Let's go!"
Tanjiro shouted. His sense of smell proved immensely useful, always letting him smell which corner the flesh would surge out of before it emerged.
"Water Breathing, Sixth Form: Twisting Whirlpool!"
With himself at the center, he unleashed powerful whirling slashes, shredding several tentacles that thrust out simultaneously from the floor and beneath the seats.
"Hahahaha! Watch the great me!"
Inosuke was even more direct. His beastlike instincts always let him find the weakest points in the walls of flesh.
"Beast Breathing, Fifth Fang: Crazy Fang Rend!"
He struck with both blades, like wildly growing fangs, tearing an entire writhing inner wall of the carriage to shreds.
Nezuko's way of fighting was the simplest and most straightforward.
Her small body unleashed astonishing strength. Faced with the oncoming tentacles, she neither dodged nor retreated, kicking straight at them.