"Are you alright, Mr. Rengoku..." Tanjiro and his two companions ran to Kyojuro Rengoku's side, asking with concern.
"Cough..." Kyojuro coughed up a mouthful of blood, using his breathing technique to suppress the pain in his body.
Then he stood up and said to Tanjiro, "I'm fine!"
"Mr. Rengoku, leave the female demon to us!" Tanjiro suddenly suggested.
"You..." Rengoku looked at the three of them. The strength the female demon had displayed was already great, and there were likely more abilities she hadn't shown. Leaving her to them... was that really a good idea?
'And there are still so many passengers on the Mugen Train... they also need to be looked after...'
'But, if the two demons on the other side cooperate, I...'
"Leave it to us, Big Eyes!" Inosuke suddenly raised his twin swords and shouted.
"Haha, then I'll leave it to you!" Rengoku didn't hesitate for long, nodding in agreement.
"Eh? We're going to fight that demon holding the heads?" Zenitsu said nervously, sweating. "Won't that be a bit... Hey, hey, Tanjiro, Inosuke, wait for me!"
Before Zenitsu could finish, Tanjiro and Inosuke had already started walking forward.
Rengoku adjusted his condition, circulated his breathing technique, and abruptly appeared in front of Akaza.
Akaza looked at the swordsman before him with great interest and praised him, "You're a Hashira, aren't you... I can tell at a glance. Your fighting spirit is very strong, burning brightly... at the absolute peak of humanity!"
"Let me make an excellent suggestion... would you like to become a demon?"
He extended an invitation to Kyojuro.
"No!" Kyojuro Rengoku directly refused Akaza's invitation.
"You are not far from the supreme domain... if you become a demon, your strength will increase, and you will have a longer lifespan to practice and reach the peak..."
"I am the Flame Hashira, Kyojuro Rengoku! My duty is to slay evil demons! I will never become a demon!" Kyojuro gripped his Nichirin Sword tightly, his fighting spirit soaring, and replied in a resonant tone.
"I am Akaza... Upper Rank Three..." Out of respect for Rengoku, Akaza also introduced himself.
Next, he extended a hand towards Kyojuro Rengoku and said, "Kyojuro... let me tell you why you can never reach the supreme domain!"
"I don't need to know!" A soaring voice came with the flames. Rengoku swung his Nichirin Sword and charged to Akaza's side, delivering a horizontal slash of expanding flames towards his neck.
"Flame Breathing, First Form: Unknowing Fire!"
However, this slash was avoided as Akaza leaped backward in a flash, his neck moving just out of reach of the Nichirin Sword's tip.
Rengoku's slash thus missed.
"Kyojuro... you are human. You will grow old, you will die..." Akaza, having dodged the slash, leisurely spoke words that Kyojuro did not want to hear.
"If you become a demon... you can train for one or two hundred years at your leisure. You can easily become stronger, without being stuck at your current level..."
"Flame Breathing, Sixth Form: Piercing Flame!"
Kyojuro Rengoku paid no attention to any of Akaza's words, focusing his entire being on the battle.
With his Unknowing Fire having missed, Kyojuro instantly changed his sword's momentum. He flipped his wrist, reversed his grip on the Nichirin Sword, and the power generated by his Flame Breathing technique gathered in his arm, driving the Nichirin Sword forward in a thrust towards Akaza's neck, carrying with it a burst of scorching flame.
At such a close distance, it was almost impossible to avoid!
"Destructive Death: Air Type."
As if also believing this move was unavoidable, Akaza did not attempt to dodge. Instead, in an instant, he clenched his fist and swung it upward towards the Nichirin Sword.
His fist did not touch the sword, but a circular shockwave transmitted from the punch solidly struck the blade.
It caused the path of the Nichirin Sword that was thrusting towards Akaza's neck to deviate.
In the end, the Nichirin Sword grazed past Akaza's neck, drawing a few drops of fresh blood.
But such a small wound was easily healed by Akaza in the next moment.
And the instant the Nichirin Sword grazed past Akaza's neck, Akaza's other hand also threw a similar circular shockwave at Kyojuro's other arm.
Rengoku was aware of the incoming impact but had no time to dodge.
In an instant, the shockwave, carrying intense wind pressure, struck Rengoku's other arm, making a distinct "crack" sound. His bone was distorted, and blood burst forth.
The next moment, Rengoku quickly retreated, putting some distance between himself and Akaza, and once again used his breathing technique to suppress the pain in his arm.
"See... Kyojuro... the human body is just so fragile..." Akaza looked at the blood-trickling Kyojuro with pity and said with regret, "When you are injured, you cannot recover immediately, which affects your movements and combat power..."
"If it weren't for the fact that your ribs were broken by me and your internal organs were damaged... you would have been able to completely avoid my Air Type just now..."
"So, become a demon... Kyojuro! Become a demon and fight with me forever! Let's get stronger together!"
Akaza once again extended the olive branch of "becoming a demon" to Kyojuro.
"Absolutely not!"
Kyojuro Rengoku lowered his injured arm, gripped his Nichirin Sword tightly, and loudly declared his will to Akaza.
His fighting spirit flared, and Rengoku's will seemed to reach its peak at this moment. "No matter the reason, I will never become a demon!"
"Is that so..." The amusement on Akaza's face gradually faded. He planted his feet firmly, and the ground beneath them cracked from the force of his legs.
"Technique Deployment, Destructive Death: Compass Needle!"
Suddenly, a strange, twelve-pointed snowflake pattern appeared on the ground where Akaza stood.
An invisible, oppressive aura emanated from his body.
The Compass Needle was the core of Akaza's Blood Demon Art.
It could sense an opponent's fighting spirit like a compass, making his attacks and evasions as precise as if drawn by a magnet.
The stronger the opponent's fighting spirit, the stronger the Compass Needle's reaction, and the higher the corresponding strength and precision.
The weakness of the Compass Needle was that it was useless against opponents with no fighting spirit or those who could hide it—in other words, opponents who had reached the state of the Transparent World.
But Kyojuro Rengoku was clearly neither of those.
"Since you don't want to become a demon, then I will kill you!"
The corners of Akaza's mouth curled up slightly as he issued this ultimatum to Kyojuro.
"Flame Breathing, First Form: Unknowing Fire!"
To Akaza's ultimatum, Rengoku only responded as such.
Rengoku's body charged forward at extreme speed, arriving at Akaza's side and delivering a fiery slash.
The Compass Needle under Akaza's feet suddenly shifted. As if predicting it, he precisely avoided Rengoku's slash and threw a punch containing immense power at him.
But Kyojuro's reaction was also extremely fast. The moment he raised his sword to stop the punch, he immediately swung out with another form of Flame Breathing.
Continuously trading blows, back and forth... slashing, punching, dodging, blocking...
Before they knew it, the two had exchanged dozens of blows.
The aftershocks and wind pressure generated from their clash had even crushed the ground around them to pieces.
[Reviews - Power St0nes - Comments are highly appreciated to keep me going.....(+50 chapters) patre0n.c0m/talecrafter]