'I must summon Nue or the Great Serpent first! We need to create distance!'
Veins bulged on Fushiguro's forehead, and the speed at which he formed hand signs was faster than ever before.
He knew well that probing this kind of enemy was suicide, he had to use powerful Shikigami immediately to gain the initiative.
"Divine Dogs! Delay it!"
However, the moment the command was issued, the response was not the ready growl of the Shikigami, but two extremely brief whimpers, almost drowned out by the thick aura, followed by the sickening sounds of "pfft" and "crunch."
Fushiguro's pupils suddenly constricted to the size of pinpricks.
The solid concrete floor was smashed like tofu, leaving two deep pits with clean edges. At the bottom of the pits were two puddles of sludge—barely recognizable as canine shapes—mixed with Cursed Energy residue and actual flesh and blood.
The Divine Dogs didn't even have time to let out a proper scream before they were instantly flattened and embedded in the floor, their life force completely extinguished, reverting to two wisps of dissipating black smoke.
Fushiguro's face instantly turned paper-white. The Divine Dogs were his most trusted and quickest Shikigami to summon, the starting point of his tactics.
Yet, before this Special Grade Cursed Spirit, they couldn't last even a second, casually crushed like two actual insects.
He couldn't even react.
This was not just the loss of Shikigami, but a devastating blow to his confidence.
The gap... it was too vast!
"Giggle... Giggle..."
The Curse's bizarre laughter, sounding like a mix of an infant's cry and bone scraping, rang out again, full of mockery and cruelty.
Its lower body, encased in dark purple fetal skin, slowly writhed, making a sticky sound as it approached the two paralyzed individuals.
Its four eyes rotated erratically, locking onto its prey. Its massive mouth stretched open, and foul-smelling drool dropped, corroding the ground with a sizzling sound.
Yuji's eyes were bloodshot. Witnessing the instantaneous slaughter of his comrade's Shikigami, boundless rage mixed with a strange unwillingness, temporarily overwhelming some of his fear.
"Fushiguro!" He roared as a warning and a way to steel his own resolve.
He couldn't just sit and wait for death! No matter how vast the difference!
Yuji suddenly bit his tongue. The intense pain and the metallic taste of blood allowed him to regain a sliver of control over his body from the pressure of the aura.
He pushed off the ground, but the force that should have easily cracked the concrete only allowed him to squeeze out a small, difficult step forward, as if trapped in a swamp.
But he disregarded everything, channeling all the Cursed Energy in his body, madly into his right arm.
He swung the Cursed Tool short sword, which Satoru had temporarily issued him before departure, aiming to cleave the Curse's sickening, fetal-skin-wrapped lower body.
This strike was devoid of flourish, condensing all his will, strength, and fury. The blade sliced through the viscous air, emitting a sharp whistle.
This was a desperate counterattack launched by the weak against the strong.
However—
The Curse didn't even make any obvious dodging or blocking movements. Its eyes didn't twitch once.
The next moment, Yuji only felt a flash of dark purple light before his eyes—it was fast.
So fast it exceeded the limits of his dynamic vision.
He didn't even see where the attack came from, only felt a chill on his right shoulder, followed half a beat later by an overwhelming, heart-wrenching pain.
Pfft—
Blood gushed out like a fountain.
Yuji's entire right hand was severed cleanly at the wrist. The cut was smooth as a mirror, revealing the stark white bone fragments and the cross-section of pulsating blood vessels.
The hand, which had tightly gripped the Cursed Tool short sword and contained all his strength, traced a tragic arc in the air before dropping onto the ground nearby, its fingers still twitching slightly from nerve reflexes.
Yuji's body stumbled forward two steps due to inertia. The intense pain and massive, sudden blood loss made his vision darken, and the world spun.
He struggled to cover the spurting wound with his left hand, but warm blood still welled out between his fingers, quickly staining half his body and the ground.
He knelt on one knee, looked up, and stared at the Curse with eyes full of unbelievable horror and defiance.
Too fast! Too strong!
Was this... the true power of a Special Grade Cursed Spirit?
This felt completely different from the Cursed Spirits encountered during training. This was a pure, despair-inducing, insurmountable disparity in violence.
The Cursed looked at Yuji, severely wounded and near unconsciousness from the severed arm, then at Fushiguro, whose mind was reeling from the instant death of his Shikigami and his comrade's severe injury, his face pale as paper and his will to fight nearly gone. Its four eyes simultaneously revealed a "pleasure" mixed with hunger, mockery, and cruelty.
"Goo... woo..."
It made a muffled sound, opening its massive mouth and slowly writhing toward Yuji, who was temporarily incapable of resistance.
Viscous saliva dripped down. Its target was clearly Yuji's body, which contained special Cursed Energy and vitality.
Fushiguro's eyes were splitting with fury. He tried to form hand signs to summon other Shikigami, but his fingers trembled uncontrollably from fear and shock.
Countless thoughts flashed through his mind, but none offered a solution to this despairing situation.
Were they... going to die here?
Just as the Curse's massive mouth was about to touch Yuji, a sudden change occurred.
At the severed stump of Yuji's right shoulder, where blood was still spurting, the flesh suddenly began to writhe violently and unnaturally. It wasn't healing, but something deeper and darker, which seemed to have been activated by this extreme crisis and Yuji's near-death state.
An aura of savage curse—of the same origin as the Curse's but far more ancient and pure, like a sleeping fierce beast opening its eyes—began to seep out in wisps from Itadori's wound and from every pore of his body.
The Curse's movement, poised to bite, suddenly froze.
For the first time, its four eyes simultaneously stopped their erratic rotation, staring fixedly at Yuji, especially his profusely bleeding shoulder. Its massive mouth emitted an incomprehensible "ho-ho" sound, laced with shock and greed.
Fushiguro also felt this sudden, chilling aura. He jerked his head toward Yuji, his eyes filled with terror.
What... is this?!
Yuji himself, due to blood loss and intense pain, was gradually sinking into unconsciousness.
Just before completely losing consciousness, he seemed to hear a satisfied yet hungry sigh echoing from the depths of his heart, like the abyss itself.
***
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