"Hmph!"
A flicker of surprise crossed Sukuna's eyes, but he didn't stop.
The instant divine weapon: open's thrust missed, his other two arms, clenched into fists, bulged with muscles like coiling dragons, carrying a pure, brutal physical strength capable of shattering mountains and splitting rocks. They hammered towards Toho Hiroshi's temples, one from the left and one from the right, like giant siege hammers. The true killing blow was only now baring its fangs.
Toho Hiroshi remained calm in the face of danger. He used the momentum of the scarlet blade, which had been blocking flying heaven, to press down. With a clever force, he deflected flying heaven's impact, and at the same time, his body spun sharply like a rapidly rotating top.
His other free elbow, imbued with the immense power gathered from his full body's twist, struck fiercely and with pinpoint accuracy at the weakest point on the inner side of the elbow joint of one of Sukuna's attacking arms, like a battering ram collapsing a city wall.
"Bang!"
A dull, heart-stopping thud of flesh colliding erupted, a pure clash of force against force, flesh against flesh.
Under the immense recoil, both of them slid back several steps simultaneously, each foot plowing deep furrows in the ground.
The first round of close-quarters, rapid combat was swift and decisive.
It seemed evenly matched, but in a flash, both sides had unleashed their killing moves, treading a fine line between life and death.
However, Sukuna possessed a full four arms, which gave him an almost inherent strategic advantage in close combat, where Cursed Techniques were abandoned and they returned to the most primal form of fighting.
He didn't give Toho Hiroshi any chance to catch his breath or adjust. The moment he stood firm, divine weapon: open flashed with lightning at his feet.
He let out a low roar, his body treading on the explosive lightning snakes generated by divine weapon: open, and his speed surged once more.
He transformed into a sharp, deep-blue Z-shaped lightning bolt, constantly changing trajectory, launching a frantic, suffocating whirlwind attack around the stationary Toho Hiroshi.
Every swing of divine weapon: open brought forth a piercing lightning slash that tore through the air!
Chopping, hacking, thrusting, sweeping... the speed was fast! The angles were tricky!
Blue electric light intertwined to form an impenetrable, deadly electric net! Every lightning strike carried a powerful paralyzing effect and destructive high temperature.
Meanwhile, flying heaven was like a true spatial viper, appearing and disappearing unpredictably in the gaps of the electric net. Sometimes it was a sudden, fatal thrust from the shadows.
Other times, it utilized its ability, suspected to be short-range spatial folding, to perform instantaneous, extreme-angle "flashes," with its spearhead often appearing out of thin air from a position that human limbs simply couldn't defend.
These unpredictable spatial thrusts caused immense trouble for Toho Hiroshi, who was focused on countering the lightning net, constantly forcing him into extreme evasions.
"Sizzle—"
A curved lightning slash, with an angle too tricky and pressured by the lightning net, finally couldn't be completely avoided.
It grazed Toho Hiroshi's right shoulder blade like a red-hot branding iron, leaving a charred mark where the skin was torn. Although the wound wasn't deep, the powerful paralyzing effect contained in the lightning instantly invaded his nerves.
Toho Hiroshi's movements froze for a split second, almost imperceptibly.
Sukuna's four crimson pupils simultaneously burst forth with an extremely ferocious light at that instant.
Now!
His innate battle instincts and killing intuition were completely ignited by this tiny window of opportunity.
Driven by that arm, the spatial ripples at flying heaven's spearhead suddenly expanded. The spear itself seemed to directly break through the constraints of physical space, abruptly disappearing right in front of Toho Hiroshi's heart from an angle that completely defied leverage and posture.
Then, in the next picosecond, it silently "flashed" out from another spatial node.
The spearhead, carrying a sharpness capable of piercing diamond, thrust directly at Toho Hiroshi's heart, moving too fast for even thought to react.
In this critical moment, a fierce glint exploded in Toho Hiroshi's eyes, almost tangible.
He no longer tried to dodge this fatal blow, seemingly abandoning defense.
Instead, he poured all his strength, will, and even the subtle energy he had just absorbed, without reservation, into the scarlet blade in his hand.
The demonic blade instantly erupted with an unprecedented, almost viscous and dripping, bloodthirsty red light.
That red light condensed to the extreme, transforming into a giant, dark-red, crescent-shaped sword qi, as if capable of splitting hell itself—Blood Devourer Slash.
With a piercing howl that seemed to tear at the soul, it was not a block, not a defense, but a resolute strike with the determination to perish together. With the momentum of creation, it aimed to cleave Sukuna, who was charging forward with his guard wide open, at the waist.
It was a daring tactic, using his vital heart as bait, trading life for life!
Sukuna's sneer froze on his face. He had never expected Toho Hiroshi to be so ruthless when facing a life-or-death threat.
The devouring and slashing power contained in this Blood Devourer Slash, coupled with such close proximity, meant that if he insisted on thrusting flying heaven into Toho Hiroshi's heart, his own half-body would inevitably be severed at the waist by this dark-red crescent.
"Tch! Madman!"
In the nick of time, Sukuna let out an unwilling snort from deep in his throat.
He forcibly halted flying heaven's fatal thrust, and his four arms instantly moved back to defend with incredible coordination.
divine weapon: open and flying heaven crossed in front of him, forming an emergency cross-guard.
At the same time, his entire body's muscles bulged to their limit. Although Cursed Energy couldn't be released to activate Cursed Techniques, it still surged wildly within his body, reinforcing his physical defense.
"Boom!"
An earth-shattering roar shook the entire Shinjuku ruins. The Blood Devourer Slash, which condensed the scarlet blade's devouring characteristic and all of Toho Hiroshi's power, bit fiercely into the two crossed millennium Cursed Tools like the gaping maw of a hellish demon.
Dark red, blue electric light, and distorted spatial glow furiously intertwined, tore, and annihilated each other.
A massive energy shockwave swept outwards like a tsunami.
The terrifying "devouring" characteristic within the blade qi, like a maggot clinging to bone, frantically eroded and gnawed at divine weapon: open's thunderous essence and flying heaven's spatial power.
The surfaces of the two Cursed Tools rapidly flickered with light, resisting, emitting a grating "hissing" sound, like metal being corroded by strong acid.
Under the powerful impact, Sukuna was pushed backward at high speed by this irresistible force.
His feet plowed two shocking, several-feet-deep furrows in the ground like iron plows.
His bulging muscles, strained from the forceful block, trembled slightly, and the electric snakes coiling on divine weapon: open became much dimmer and sparser.
He steadied himself and looked down at the contact point of the two crossed Cursed Tools.
He saw two subtle but exceptionally clear corrosive marks, as if savagely gnawed by something extremely greedy, precisely where the dumbbell-shaped middle section of divine weapon: open intersected with flying heaven's spear shaft.
"Hmph, what a greedy blade!"
Sukuna's gaze grew even more solemn, his crimson eyes fixed on the demonic scarlet long blade in Toho Hiroshi's hand.
An alarm blared in his heart; this blade could not only devour energy but also had corrosive properties on a purely physical level.
At this moment, Toho Hiroshi also took the opportunity to create sufficient distance. He glanced at the charred wound on his right shoulder blade, which had been grazed by divine weapon: open. He then looked at the two Cursed Tools in Sukuna's hand, and finally cast his gaze down at the scarlet blade in his own hand, understanding clearly:
During the Cursed Technique meltdown, relying solely on the scarlet blade's devouring ability and its physical strength alone, it was indeed at a disadvantage when trying to simultaneously counter the combination of two millennium Cursed Tools that possessed both the "berserk lightning" and "eerie space" (peculiar space) ultimate characteristics.
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