Golden light blazed from Zenitsu's eyes. In less than a second, his entire body bent like a fully drawn bow.
"Thunder Breathing, First Form: Thunderclap and Flash!"
Boom!
A dazzling golden line pierced the night. With extraordinarily precise force, Zenitsu not only slipped through the gaps in that dense barrage of thirteen strikes, but his terrifying burst of power also whipped up a razor-sharp gale aimed straight at Kaigaku's throat, marked with demonic patterns.
"You'll never beat me with just the First Form, you idiot!!"
Kaigaku clearly knew his junior disciple's abilities inside out. Or rather, he had never believed the First Form could pose even the slightest threat to him. The instant Zenitsu closed in, he stamped a foot against the ground. Rather than retreat, he forcibly bent his inhuman demon torso in an instant.
"Thunder Breathing, Third Form: Mosquitoes Gather into Thunder!"
Wave after wave of incredibly fast, unbroken black slashes swept wildly before him like a black sea exploding outward.
"Too slow! I've seen the openings in this move far too many times!"
Screaming wildly, Kaigaku put still more strength into his wrists, driving the black arcs of electricity outward with a roar. The powerful impact tore up a swath of tatami several yards wide, along with the hard flooring beneath, and hurled it all against the ceiling!
Yet at the critical instant before those dense waves of black lightning struck Zenitsu, Zenitsu, still charging at full speed, suddenly made a move that no one present could understand.
Instead of continuing his headlong charge along the straight-line momentum of Thunderclap and Flash, he abruptly locked his ankle joints at an extremely unnatural angle, his feet pressed hard against the ground. Then his entire left leg executed an overloaded emergency stop and lateral muscular twist in an instant.