"Tsk, it didn't work?" Gyokko stopped the now-ineffective technique and twisted his body. Even the pot beneath him swayed along with his movements.
"You're a very skilled demon hunter... you couldn't be a Hashira, could you?"
Lexon remained silent. After the flames around him gradually dissipated, he casually swung his sword and shattered the pot Gyokko had used to cast the technique.
Gyokko took his silence as an admission and a strange excitement appeared on his face. "Ah... Lord Muzan... to show my loyalty... this Hashira will definitely die at my hands..."
Suddenly, the small hands on his body produced a pot with a water-grass pattern from somewhere, its mouth aimed at Lexon.
Blood Demon Art: Ten Thousand Needles - Fish Kill!
In an instant, brightly colored goldfish with strange expressions emerged from the mouth of the pot, their cheeks puffed out, swimming in the air as if it were water.
'This move...'
Fragments of the manga about Gyokko flashed through Lexon's mind.
'I need to be careful.'
The puffed-up cheeks of the goldfish swelled even larger, like inflating balloons. The next moment, their cheeks contracted abruptly, and sharp, long needles shot out from their mouths, rocketing towards Lexon.
'Dodge?'
Lexon considered his options.
'No, the range is too wide.'
'Use Blooming Flame Undulation again?'
Without hesitation, he circulated his Flame Breathing once more. The Nichirin Sword swung again, and the vortex of flames surged up, enveloping Lexon.
However, to Lexon's surprise, the long needles actually pierced through the vortex's obstruction, shooting towards him with immense kinetic energy.
'It didn't block them...'
His thoughts raced for a moment.
"Water Breathing, Third Form: Flowing Dance."
The raging flames on the Nichirin Sword's blade instantly transformed into flowing water.
Normally, switching breathing styles would put a huge strain on a person. This was the case for Tanjiro in the anime when he switched from Water Breathing to Sun Breathing during the battle on Mount Natagumo; he was left almost completely drained.
But for Lexon, both Water Breathing and Flame Breathing were skills that came from sign-ins. He could use them at will and stop them just as easily; there would be no such consequences.
As his words fell, he danced with the current of water, leaping and twirling, moving with elegant steps to dodge the long needles one by one.
The few needles he couldn't completely evade were cut down by the blade that swung along with his dance.
And after dodging and cutting down all the long needles, his steps still did not stop. He carried the sea-like current of water and closed in on Gyokko.
Faced with the approaching demon hunter, Gyokko showed no nervousness. Instead, a smile appeared on his face, and he produced another new pot from somewhere.
"Blood Demon Art: Octopus Pot Hell."
Instantly, giant octopus tentacles emerged from the mouth of the pot and rushed towards Lexon, seemingly intending to surround and crush him to death.
Water Breathing, Second Form: Water Wheel.
In a flash, Lexon changed his sword's momentum. His entire body flipped upside down in mid-air, and the flowing water, like a rolling water wheel, swung in a full circle and slashed at an octopus tentacle.
The octopus tentacles were extremely soft, and the Water Wheel slash didn't cause much damage even when it landed.
However, it served as a leverage point, allowing Lexon to spin backward and leap out of the giant octopus tentacles' crushing range.
"You really are quite skilled... a Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps... hahaha," Gyokko laughed, twisting his body.
'A bit troublesome.'
Lexon stared at Gyokko, thinking.
He had originally thought that with both Water Breathing and Flame Breathing, his current strength would surely surpass that of the marked Mist Hashira, Muichiro Tokito. Although he didn't expect to defeat Gyokko easily, he thought it shouldn't be too difficult either.
But after formally trading a few blows, Lexon felt a bit of pressure.
'I should be able to kill him.'
After all, he knew most of his moves.
And the exchanges just now were only probing attacks.
'But I'm still used to overwhelming my opponents with a single slash.'
The thought of "playing it safe to power up" flashed through Lexon's mind, but he quickly extinguished it.
'I finally ran into an Upper Rank. Wouldn't it be too much of a pity to just let him go?'
'But... even though I can kill him... it doesn't align with my plan...'
In reality, Lexon's goal was not to slay Gyokko, but to capture him alive and use him as a daily sign-in tool.
'Let's not worry about killing or capturing him for now... I'll just do a little experiment first.'
The azure Nichirin Sword was raised, and a faint mist began to emanate from the blade.
"Mist Breathing."
Seeing the mist gradually thicken, Lexon was suddenly reminded that the Mist Hashira also seemed to produce mist when he used his Mist Breathing.
However, his Mist Breathing was a derivative of Wind Breathing, while his own Mist Breathing was a combination of Water and Flame.
'But there should still be some common ground. I'll find a chance to ask him about it.'
Immediately, Lexon increased the intensity of his breathing.
The mist in the hall grew thicker and thicker, spreading throughout the entire space, almost to the point where he could no longer see his surroundings.
"Mist?"
Gyokko looked at the rapidly spreading mist, and a sense of foreboding rose in his heart.
'I can't let this mist spread any further.'
The number of hands on his body gradually increased to ten, and each arm held a pot with a slime fish pattern.
"Blood Demon Art: Ten Thousand Gliding Slime Fish!"
As his voice fell, streams of long, sharp-toothed slime fish erupted from the mouths of the pots like a fountain, numbering in the tens of thousands, blotting out the sky.
Each sharp-toothed slime fish was incredibly ferocious, and their body fluids contained a terrifyingly potent poison that would enter a person's body upon the slightest skin contact.
Countless slime fish tore towards Lexon's direction.
But the next moment, Gyokko couldn't feel the joyous sensation of his fish hitting their mark, which meant that there was no one in that position at all.
"He's gone?"
Gyokko wondered, sensing around for a moment only to find that even the human's presence had disappeared.
Next, he aimed the pots in all directions, spewing out even more sharp-toothed slime fish to fill the entire hall.
At the same time, the mist had already filled the entire space, and the surroundings were completely obscured by the thick fog.
Innumerable sharp-toothed slime fish attacked every direction of the hall.
But the result was always the same: they hit nothing.
"Did he escape?" Gyokko stopped the output of his Blood Demon Art and continuously looked around.
All he could see was white mist.
At the very least, the person had disappeared from within the hall.
"Mist Breathing, First Form: Clearing Mist."
A calm voice suddenly came from within the thick fog.
"He's still here?"
Gyokko's face was filled with shock and uncertainty. He whipped his head around to look in the direction the voice came from.
He saw the thick fog in that direction suddenly ripple and stir. A deep azure Nichirin Sword cut through the dispersing fog of the hall, its blade glinting as it slashed towards Gyokko's body.
Gyokko only had time to tilt his head back to prevent the other party from cutting off his head.
"Ah! Ahhhhhhhh!!!"
As the Nichirin Sword sank into Gyokko's body, diagonally cleaving open half of his shoulder, he let out a furious and pained scream.
"Damn you!! Damn you!! Damn you!!"
Watching Lexon withdraw his Nichirin Sword and retreat, Gyokko's face became abnormally ferocious and hateful as he stared deadly at the demon hunter before him.
Although the wound was repaired in an instant, Gyokko still couldn't tolerate being struck by a demon hunter.
'And if his sword had been aimed at my neck just now, it's also possible that...'
Gyokko's pupils widened, and his entire body underwent a different kind of transformation.
He slowly walked out of the pot, revealing his complete form.
"Let me show you the perfect form I have refined within my pot. You will be the third person to witness this form, and I will slaughter you mercilessly."
The form Gyokko revealed was covered in scales harder than diamond. There were webs between his long, slender fingers, and his lower body was like that of a snake, exuding an incomparably eerie and evil aura.
"Bow before this flawless and beautiful form!"
He uttered these words with supreme confidence.
[Reviews - Power St0nes - Comments are highly appreciated to keep me going.....(+50 chapters) patre0n.c0m/talecrafter]