Chapter 117: Fierce Clash x Eye of Revelation
Clang!
The training blade met the Nichirin Blade.
Veins popped on Roy's arms as he pressed down with all his might! Immense power surged from the training blade, through the Nichirin Blade, and into Giyu Tomioka.
A ripple passed through Giyu's cold eyes. His arm bent slightly. He hadn't expected Roy's strength to be this great! It was easily a match for any demon he had ever fought—no, it far exceeded them.
It couldn't help but remind him of a towering figure: the Stone Hashira, Gyomei Himejima, a man who could kill a demon with his bare hands!
"Water Breathing, Sixth Form: Twisting Whirlpool!"
There are only two ways to counter brute force. One: overwhelm the opponent with even greater brute force. Two: the strategy Giyu was now employing—redirect the force and use their own momentum against them!
He dipped his shoulder, giving way half a step, letting Roy's blade press down towards the ground. Then, he twisted his body, his sword scraping against the training blade with a shower of sparks, and in a fluid motion, slashed towards Roy's neck!
"Giyu-senpai is scared!" Makomo's pretty eyes saw it clearly. "He probably didn't expect Eiichiro's strength to be so massive."
"That's not fear, it's experience." Sabito rubbed the hilt of his own sword, noting that Giyu's motion of redirecting and striking was incredibly fluid, an almost instantaneous, instinctive reaction. "Long ago, before humans had Breathing Styles, we couldn't match demons in strength," he said gravely. "Therefore, learning to redirect force and use an enemy's power against them became the mainstream way of fighting demons."
"Giyu is smart. When he realized he was outmatched in strength, he immediately changed tactics to avoid a direct confrontation. That is the mark of a qualified Hashira."
Shing! The bright flash of the blade was almost blinding. Roy leaned back, dodging. The Nichirin Blade grazed past his nose, and the "flowing water" from the technique cut through the air, whistling into the forest, and sliced a thick cypress tree clean in two!
"Giyu-senpai, friendly fire!" Shinsuke had been lying on that very cypress branch, watching the show. Seeing the blade coming for him, he nearly had a heart attack, leaping to another tree and tackling Fukuda.
"Get the hell off me!" Fukuda dug his fingers into Shinsuke's nose, got him in a headlock, and then looked back at the fight.
Clang! Clang! Clang! In the flash of blades, within just a few breaths, Roy and Giyu Tomioka were locked in combat, exchanging over a dozen blows in an instant!
Sparks flew, the sound of steel on steel ringing out relentlessly. Giyu's heart pounded. He truly hadn't expected the boy to keep up with his pace! This was clearly not the level of a "beginner"!
"Water Breathing, Second Form: Water Wheel!" At one point, seeing Roy press in again, Giyu flipped his wrist, slashing upward in a circular motion to force him back. In that brief opening, he took a sharp, deep breath, and his entire aura changed!
"Total Concentration: Constant!" Oxygen flooded his lungs, burning hotter. His cardiopulmonary functions skyrocketed, his blood flowing faster. His heart gave a powerful thump, doubling its beat. In one second, Giyu Tomioka was like a machine wound tight, operating in overdrive!
This was the biggest difference between a Hashira and an ordinary Slayer: the ability to maintain the Breathing Style 24/7. It wasn't just a test of lung capacity, but a measure of one's determination and will.
Sabito narrowed his eyes. "Giyu's getting serious!"
"It's because Eiichiro is just too monstrous," Makomo said, her eyes wide, staring unblinkingly at the boy below. "He's several years younger than Giyu-senpai, but he can completely match his pace, not falling behind at all."
"Giyu-senpai has to take him seriously!"
Monstrous strength, a powerful physique, superhuman reflexes, and the ability to adapt on the fly, all at such a young age. As Makomo said, Giyu Tomioka didn't know what Gyomei Himejima was like back then, but he knew... at this age, he was nowhere near Eiichiro's level.
Hsss... Giyu Tomioka leveled his Nichirin Blade, exhaling a long, hot dragon of white mist from his nostrils. His figure flickered.
It was the same "Water Breathing, Seventh Form: Piercing Rain Drop," but this time, the effect was completely different. A single point of cold light instantly appeared before Roy's face. Giyu had moved like a ghost, slipping into Roy's blind spot and closing the distance! This was the enhanced speed and perception granted by 'Total Concentration'!
'Senpai is much faster this time... Looks like I'll need to make a trip to the Butterfly Mansion to speed up development of 'Total Concentration: Constant'.' The tip of the blade, glinting with cold light, was inches away.
Fwoosh! Two suns ignited in Roy's pupils. He calmly watched Giyu.
Giyu froze. Before he could understand what was happening, he felt his thrusting sword, and everything else around him, slow down to an infinite crawl. To an outside observer... he had simply stopped!
"What's happening?"
"Why did Giyu-senpai stop?"
"Is he afraid of hurting Eiichiro?"
Shinsuke and Fukuda, who had been watching the fight intently, sensed the anomaly. They stopped wrestling and flew to the treetops to get a better view. Across the waterfall, on the tall birch, Sabito and Makomo stared down, just as confused. The former frowned. It doesn't look like Giyu meant to stop. He looked again.
Roy, using his [Eye of Revelation], had anticipated Giyu's attack line. He sidestepped, letting the blade strike empty air and stab into the waterfall!
Voom... Ripples spread. When Giyu Tomioka came to his senses, he was already under the waterfall, his blade embedded in the rock, getting drenched. He paid it no mind, letting the water pound on him as he turned to look at Roy, ripples of shock in his cold eyes.
"Was that... your own original sword technique?" Or was it... a domain? Giyu's gaze was intense.
Unfortunately, it was neither. Roy thought back to the conversation he'd had with his father, Tanjuro, over tea on that snowy New Year's Eve. "My father taught me," he said truthfully.
Giyu's eyes flickered. "Your father is also a swordsman?" A man with a technique that can slow an opponent's movements and predict their attacks... couldn't be a nobody. "But I remember... Eiichiro's father is just an ordinary charcoal seller, isn't he?"
Makomo scratched her head, trying to remember. "Did that Tanjiro kid lie to us? Is he actually a powerful, reclusive swordsman? Or a retired Hashira, like Master?"
Sabito crossed his arms, frowning. His intuition told him that Tanjiro Kamado wasn't the type to lie. "Perhaps there's more to the story." His gaze locked onto Roy.
The boy touched his Hanafuda earrings and raised his blade again, slashing towards Giyu. He smiled. "No. He's just an ordinary father."
"Aside from being a bit frail... he's just like your father, my father, and everyone else's."
☆ ☆☆
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