Chapter 175: If You Can't Win, Transform
"Healing comparable to a vengeful spirit?" In a flash, Yasutaka Inoue's pupils contracted, and he gritted his teeth, stopping his retreat and charging back toward Hachiman Hikigaya.
Since Hachiman possessed such a powerful healing ability, Inoue's previous plan to take him down with minor injuries had completely failed.
His katana struck again, but this time, Inoue's target was no longer the soft stomach—it was Hachiman's heart and throat!
Facing Inoue's assault, Hachiman didn't even blink and continued swinging his blade at his own predetermined target.
Just as the katana was about to pierce his chest, he slightly sidestepped, causing Inoue to miss. The katana stabbed again, and Hachiman, enduring the pain, used his body to wedge Inoue's weapon, driving the Demon-Slaying Sword into Inoue's chest.
The sword pierced exactly into the heart. With its core destroyed, Inoue lost his strength and gradually dissipated into a cloud of black smoke.
That should have been the outcome… However—
"What?!" Seeing Inoue still grasping the Demon-Slaying Sword, Hachiman's mind filled with doubt. If the core is pierced, no spirit should be able to keep moving. Could it be…?
Looking up at Inoue's face, which was brimming with unrestrained confidence, Hachiman's heart sank. "His heart… is on the right side?" Thinking this, Hachiman twisted his hand, rotating the Demon-Slaying Sword 90 degrees within Inoue's body, aiming to slice horizontally.
"Clang!" Several spirit arms suddenly landed on Hachiman's shoulders, preventing him from swinging with full force.
It turned out the remaining spirits in the warehouse had surrounded him while he and Inoue were locked in combat.
"Burning Flames of Purgatory…" Without hesitation, Hachiman summoned the spectral fire across his body. Although he also suffered some burn damage, it was minimal compared to the spirits, who were naturally vulnerable to it.
"Ah!" The weakest of the elite spirits, holding Hachiman's shoulder, screamed in agony.
Its entire body was engulfed in spectral flames and burned to a cloud of black smoke. The system notification indicated 1,000 spirit coins gained, but Hachiman didn't care.
As his companions were burned alive, the stronger spirits that had been resisting him began to retreat.
"You damn creatures! You think you can survive just because I'm hurt?!" Seeing his elite subordinates flee, Inoue scolded them furiously, hating that his spirits had developed fear. But his scolding had no effect.
The first spirit, unable to bear the burn and fear, fled—and more followed, leaving the factory.
"Damn it!" Feeling the Demon-Slaying Sword slowly but surely move toward the heart horizontally, Inoue's resolve hardened.
"Human, you leave me no choice!" As his words fell, a massive cloud of black mist emerged from behind him, quickly enveloping him.
The Demon-Slaying Sword immediately encountered no resistance, and Hachiman easily slashed a semicircle. He pulled out the katana from his chest, tossed it aside, and the wound barely bled before healing instantly.
Facing the black mist, Hachiman took a deep breath, concentrating all his spiritual energy.
Although he didn't fully understand what Inoue had just done, judging from his words, this Demon King was using an extremely costly method to fight him to the death.
"Thud!" Hachiman didn't wait long; a massive foot emerged from the black mist. Judging by human proportions, the owner of this foot must be around ten meters tall.
But reality was worse. As the foot appeared, the rest of Inoue's body gradually emerged from the mist. A grotesque monster, fifteen meters tall, blew the black mist aside, fully revealing itself.
"You damned human! Forcing me back into this disgusting form—I'll crush every bone in your body!" After this threat, Inoue wasted no words and reached out for Hachiman.
The enormous body didn't seem bulky. With a gust of wind, the concrete floor beneath Hachiman shattered under the monster's swing.
Using the dust as cover, Hachiman seized the chance to grab Miura Yumiko and escape the warehouse.
"Don't run! Weren't you here to kill me?!" Inoue's giant eyes locked onto Hachiman fleeing with Yumiko. With a few strides, he closed the distance, raising his foot to stomp. Hachiman rolled agilely to evade.
"This won't do…" While dodging, Hachiman searched for a way out. He couldn't fight effectively while carrying Yumiko, but abandoning her under Inoue's relentless attack would likely be fatal.
What to do? Hachiman scanned the area. The abandoned factory was in Chiba's outskirts, and they were on flat ground with no cover.
"Ugh…" At this critical moment, Miura Yumiko finally woke up! Slowly opening her eyes, she immediately felt intense shaking.
An earthquake?! The only plausible explanation for such violent movement was an earthquake. She needed to escape quickly.
But when she opened her eyes fully, she didn't see her familiar bedroom. Instead, she saw Hachiman's dust-covered face and his deadfish eyes—eyes she would never forget.
"Huh?" Blinking, and noticing the violent shaking, Yumiko instinctively clutched Hachiman's neck. Then she looked upward.
A face made of thousands of handsome faces appeared before her. In an instant, Yumiko, with her trypophobia, felt her hands and feet go ice-cold.
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