According to Tatsuma's request, Yuuto took out two wooden swords, one for each of them.
"Tatsuma-kun, are you ready?"
"Anytime."
"Then I won't hold back."
Knowing that Tatsuma had the ability to boost his power, Yuuto took the initiative to attack first.
A sound of tearing air rang out, and a black sword streaked across the sky, falling straight down.
At the same time, Tatsuma raised his wooden sword and blocked in front of him.
Bang!
The two wooden swords were locked in a stalemate in mid-air.
"Blocked it?"
Yuuto was a little surprised.
This wasn't the same as what Koneko said. Tatsuma clearly hadn't boosted his power yet, so how were his speed and strength almost the same as his?
No... not almost the same.
Feeling the immense force coming from the other end, Yuuto, who was gradually being suppressed, realized something was wrong.
Applying slight force with his hand, he voluntarily retreated to create distance, becoming fully serious.
"Nice expression."
Tatsuma nodded in satisfaction. "Don't hold back, show me all your swordsmanship."
"As you wish."
Yuuto disappeared from the spot again. Utilizing the high-speed characteristic of a Knight, he continuously appeared around Tatsuma, launching attacks. But just like the initial strike, these attacks were all blocked by Tatsuma without exception.
"So strong."
Koneko, watching from not far away, widened her eyes and instinctively let out a gasp.
"Compared to last night, Tatsuma's strength has improved by several levels."
"He has completely assimilated the power brought by the Devil Pieces." Rias was also a little surprised.
The Devil Pieces can convert beings of different races into Devils and grant them stronger power. Generally speaking, newly born Devils need a certain amount of time to adapt before they can control this power.
But Tatsuma was different. From the moment he fused with the Evil pieces and became a Devil until now, it had only been a few minutes. And in just these few minutes, he not only gained control of the power brought by the eight Devil Piecess but also perfectly applied it in actual combat.
"His swordsmanship is also improving." Akeno pointed out another unusual aspect at this moment.
At the beginning of the battle, Tatsuma relied entirely on his superior physical attributes to receive attacks. But as time went on, his swordsmanship level was visibly improving rapidly.
What was initially an evenly matched situation had now turned into a one-sided suppression.
After another few minutes, Tatsuma completely gained the upper hand, forcing Yuuto to retreat repeatedly.
Yuuto, who was originally maneuvering and creating distance, could now only continuously retreat to evade Tatsuma's attacks.
"It's almost time to end this."
Seizing a gap in Yuuto's evasion once again, Tatsuma knocked the wooden sword out of his hand. Then, before Yuuto could react, he took a step forward, raised his wooden sword, and placed it against his throat.
"...I lost."
Yuuto had a bitter expression.
In just ten minutes, he had personally witnessed Tatsuma's evolution in swordsmanship. His worldview, built over many years, instantly collapsed, and he successfully experienced the feeling Koneko had last night.
"Acknowledged."
Tatsuma was in a good mood.
After defeating Yuuto, he unsurprisingly gained a new trait.
[Demonic Sword Creation (Blue): Consume a certain amount of stamina or demonic power to create demon swords of different attributes.]
Before his physical attributes improved to a certain level, having a weapon was always better than fighting bare-handed. However, the number of traits had already reached its limit, so Tatsuma temporarily put Demonic Sword Creation into storage.
"That was a wonderful battle."
Rias walked over. "Tatsuma, your strength is even greater than I imagined."
Tatsuma asked, "How strong?"
Rias said, "Judging solely by your recent performance, you are at an upper-middle level among Mid-class Devils."
"Only a Mid-class Devil, huh."
Tatsuma was not very satisfied with this result.
There were quite a lot of dangerous individuals in this world. Let alone Mid-class Devils, even beings at the Satan level could easily encounter life-threatening danger.
Looks like he still needs to train.
Rias said comfortingly, "To have this level of strength after only training for a little over a week, your rate of progress is already very fast."
Akeno asked curiously, "Speaking of which, Tatsuma, what is your Sacred Gear?"
"Sacred Gear? Just this."
Tatsuma gestured towards the bracelet on his wrist and briefly introduced its effect.
"Healing injuries?"
Akeno was stunned for a moment and asked, "Then what about your Boost? Isn't that a Sacred Gear ability?"
"Consider it my innate ability." Tatsuma fabricated an excuse without changing his expression.
He was a super genius who had used eight Pawn Piecess, so having an innate ability was perfectly normal, wasn't it?
Rias and the others immediately accepted this.
Innate abilities were real.
For example, among humans, the lineage of Curse users who specialize in exorcising Cursed Spirits had quite a few people with innate abilities.
The strongest active Jujutsu sorcerer, Satoru Gojo, even possessed an ultra-rare innate ability like the Six Eyes, and combined with his cursed technique, Limitless, his strength was comparable to that of High-Class Devils.
"Oh, right, President."
Having temporarily recovered from the shock, Yuuto seemed to have thought of something and spoke up to report.
"We received contact from Tokyo Jujutsu High. They will send someone next week to reinforce the seal on a Sukuna finger."
Tatsuma was stunned for a moment and asked, "Sukuna finger?"
Yuuto explained, "Sukuna was the King of Curses from a thousand years ago, a human who particularly enjoyed challenging strong individuals."
"Because of his fervent pursuit of battle, Sukuna provoked a powerful individual with a not-so-good temper a thousand years ago."
"After killing Sukuna, that person cast an extremely powerful curse on him, and Sukuna's fingers are a product of that curse."
"Affected by the curse, Sukuna's soul was split into twenty parts after his death, scattered among different fingers, eternally enduring torment."
"Tatsuma, you should also pay attention to this matter."
Rias took the opportunity to remind him, "I don't object to pursuing strength, but this world is very dangerous. Carelessly challenging strong individuals can easily provoke troublesome guys and end up like Sukuna."
"I will keep that in mind." Tatsuma stroked his chin thoughtfully.
Compared to the original story, Sukuna's experience could be said to have undergone a great change. It seems that after merging different worldviews, some parts of this world have already diverged from the original plot.
He has to pay attention to this point and can't overly rely on the information he knows.
He asked, "Speaking of which, who was the strong individual Sukuna provoked?"
"The son of the First Lucifer, Rizevim Livan Lucifer."
Tatsuma: ?