Rui had barely finished speaking.
Killing intent descended.
Countless threads, almost invisible to the naked eye, sliced in from every direction.
They sealed off all of Tanjiro's escape routes.
"Water Breathing, Second Form: Water Wheel!"
Tanjiro forced down the agonizing pain in his body, flipped through the air, and swung his broken blade, trying to cut through the deadly web.
Yet...
"Clang! Clang! Clang!"
The blade struck the threads, but the sound was that of metal clashing against metal.
Those seemingly slender threads were actually harder than steel.
For the first time, his Water Breathing proved completely ineffective.
He could not cut the threads.
Instead, a tremendous recoil traveled through the blade, numbing his arm and nearly splitting the skin between his thumb and forefinger.
"How is that possible..."
Tanjiro's eyes filled with disbelief.
The swordsmanship he took such pride in seemed so powerless before absolute strength.
Rui stood where he was, smiling like a cat toying with a mouse.
"Too weak."
"Your sword can't even cut my threads."
"What right do you have to talk about bonds?"
He raised a finger and gently curled it.
More threads shot out of the shadows among the trees, weaving into an even more tightly sealed web of death that closed over Tanjiro.
"Water Breathing, Tenth Form: Constant Flux!"
Tanjiro staked all his hopes on this move.
It was a Water Breathing technique that grew stronger with every rotation.
He swung his broken blade into a surging water dragon and met the web head-on.
This was the strongest strike he could currently muster.
In the distance...
Sasuke's scarlet right eye calmly observed it all.
Foolish.
That was the only word in his mind.
Through his Sharingan, he could clearly see extremely dense energy coating every one of Rui's threads.
Though Tanjiro's swordsmanship was