My punch landed clean on its jaw, sending the Cursed Spirit's head spinning at a grotesque angle. Any ordinary spirit would have been exorcised right then and there. Instead of collapsing, the creature grabbed its own mangled neck, forced it back into place with a sickening crack, and stood its ground.
"...?"
In that instant—
The air in the alleyway warped.
The turbid Cursed Energy billowing from its body began to condense with violent intensity.
If what had nurtured this thing until now was the mindless violence of the backstreets, what sustained it now was something it had never felt before: a 'warrior's spirit' ignited by facing a powerful foe.
Its distorted face writhed and twitched, rearranging itself into a new form.
Its glazed-over pupils snapped into sharp focus, surrounded by a swirling vortex of even darker, denser Cursed Energy. The puddles of blood on the asphalt trembled.
It had clearly ascended.
The energy that had previously peaked at Grade 2 while it was busy slaughtering non-sorcerers exploded outward. Its bloated, hulking mass was shaved away, rebuilt into the lean, rock-hard physique of a world-class combat sports athlete.
Fight... more... I'll kill you...!
That wasn't the mindless babbling of a low-grade curse. It was clear communication, heavy with murderous intent.
This was no longer some gutter-tier thug spirit. Having encountered a worthy opponent, it had finally achieved a full understanding of its own cursed technique and physical vessel—an evolution into a 'Grade 1 Cursed Spirit.'
Shwaaa—!
The creature vanished like mist.
It moved at a speed I couldn't even react to. A heavy fist buried itself in my solar plexus, followed immediately by a knee to the jaw. The pressure and precision of the combination were on an entirely different level from before.
"Guh... Argh...!"
My defensive rhythm was utterly shattered by the awakened spirit's onslaught.
Born from the violence of non-sorcerers, this thing had ironically glimpsed the pinnacle of 'true violence' through me—a sorcerer. Each of its punches rained down with enough crushing weight to turn bone into powder.
But in that desperate, fleeting moment, a cold resonance echoed from the top of my head.
Click—!
The Dharma Wheel above me finally completed a violent rotation.
"Ah."
An exclamation escaped my lips.
'Yeah. This is it.'
My vision shifted once again. The Grade 1 spirit's storm of consecutive strikes began to appear strangely slow and clearly legible.
Flash—!
I evaded its lethal straight punch with a simple tilt of my head.
A look of profound shock washed over the spirit's eyes. This human child had just brushed aside its maximum speed as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
My body had now finished adapting perfectly to its Grade 1-level Cursed Energy output and its sophisticated technical system. A bloody smirk played on my lips as I muttered under my breath.
"Thanks. You have my gratitude."
I lunged into the pocket, closing the distance.
I took that same refined combination the spirit had displayed during its awakening and threw it back, loaded with even faster and heavier acceleration.
Thud! CRACK! Bam—!
A fierce slugfest erupted, so intense it made the narrow confines of the alleyway seem trivial.
When the spirit's fist grazed my cheek, I hammered a counter into its ribs with maximum acceleration. The sound of flesh meeting bone filled the alley like a drum beat.
"Haha, Hahahaha!"
A laugh burst out of me despite myself.
This was hotter than any legendary match I'd ever watched on a screen in my past life. Even as my jaw spun and my vision turned red, dopamine was transmuting the pain into pure pleasure.
The interesting part was the creature's reaction.
The spirit's gaze, once filled only with murderous intent, now gleamed with battle-thirst and joy. It, too, was enjoying this exchange—this life-or-death sparring session.
'So you know it, too.'
Before this was a battle between a Curse and a sorcerer, it was a conversation between two fighters trying to reach the peak.
But the end of the fun arrived without warning.
My Cursed Energy was hitting rock bottom, and a tightening pressure squeezed my heart. The technique was placing a final, massive overload on my body.
"...The good times never last."
I stopped my ragged breathing.
The Dharma Wheel above my head vibrated more violently than during the first rotation, emitting a fierce, blinding light.
The second rotation.
As my remaining Cursed Energy drained away, the crushing pressure in my chest intensified.
I could feel it instinctively. If the first adaptation had been about matching the opponent's strength and technique to create an equal vessel, the second adaptation was the process of burning every last drop of energy to reach a state of overwhelming offensive power and speed. It was time to put a period on this fight.
The spirit seemed to sense it, too. That the next exchange would be our last.
When it raised its massive arm and clenched its fist, I didn't raise a guard. Instead, I lightly extended my left hand.
Tap.
A touch-glove. The gesture shared at the start or the end of a heated round in boxing or the UFC, wishing the other party well.
It was a minimum level of courtesy toward the monster, and toward myself.
A moment of silence.
The spirit's eyes wavered. It hesitated for a split second, looking confused, but then a twisted grin formed on its lips as if it were satisfied. It swung a full-power hook.
Click—!
The second rotation of the Dharma Wheel completed, and the colors of the world inverted.
Before its lethal hook could even brush my cheek, I was already inside its arc. Extreme concentration. All surrounding noise faded away, and only the spirit's chin—the vital point—was visible.
Beyond acceleration, with speed that seemed to tear through space itself, my right fist made contact.
At the moment of impact, a collision of Cursed Energy occurred without a single 0.000001-second margin of error.
Space distorted.
Crackle—!
Black sparks filled my vision, shredding the spirit apart.
A final blow, condensed with adaptation, technique, the ecstasy of struggle, and the miracle of jujutsu, erased the Cursed Spirit's very existence.
BOOOOOOM—!!!
The surrounding buildings in the alley shook to their foundations, and the asphalt floor exploded into a massive crater.