Chapter 4: On the Many Uses of the Fierce Locust Leg Technique (Sixth Update)

The girl’s eyes widened at the sight of him, and the demon lord before her—who only an instant ago had been no more than an ordinary man, with not the faintest trace of spiritual or demonic power—was now transformed in a flash into something more monstrous than any monster.

Thoughts raced through her mind. Her claw curled toward his face while the infernal flame in her other hand gathered at once into a violet-red sphere of energy.

The next instant, that completed sphere was about to fly from her palm and blast toward him.

But it was already too late.

The man lifted his leg with startling speed and drove it out in a savage kick, sending her flying as though he had booted a street thug.

A deafening impact echoed as she slammed into the cave wall, cracking it in a spiderweb of fissures.

Blood burst from her mouth in a spray. Her whole body seemed ready to fall apart, and the sphere of power in her left hand scattered and vanished.

He drew his foot back slowly, still gripping the hilt of the blade planted in the ground.

“Then I’ll draw my sword,” he said, amusement tinging his voice.

With a casual motion, he lifted his right hand.

Clang.

The layers of spell script binding the blade, together with the red cords tied to it, shattered and vanished in an instant, unable to withstand the surge of force.

The next moment, he had effortlessly pulled the sword free.

Amid the humming ring of the blade, its polished steel gleamed with a chill, clear light.

“A fine sword,” he praised with a smile, then tossed the treasured weapon backward, straight toward the girl still standing in stunned disbelief.

She instinctively reached out and caught the legendary blade, and immediately her right hand began to blaze with a flood of blue light.

For her, who had long been unable to find a sword capable of bearing her power, the vast demonic energy absorbed from all the fiends slain by this blade, especially the third-tier demon just now cut down, at last had somewhere to go.

As the sword rang with a sharp, resonant hum, the power within the seal on the back of her hand rapidly spread over the blade, transforming what had been merely a sharp treasure into a formidable demon sword wrapped in blue flame.

At the same time, she keenly felt strength pouring back into her own body, leaving her with the astonishing sensation that she had become unimaginably powerful.

At this moment, her strength had nearly doubled compared to when she had been using an ordinary blade.

This was the true power of her sword path.

He watched all this and nodded with satisfaction. “I promised I’d find you a good sword, and now that promise has been fulfilled.”

“My lord...” she said at once, “with a sword this fine, it should be you who wields it.”

Before he could answer, she cried out again. “Lord Yan, it’s trying to flee!”

“I know.”

He replied indifferently, then turned his head and looked toward the demon, which had already fled more than ten meters into the tunnel. Purple lines on the exoskeleton around his feet began to glow.

“It won’t get away.”

The words had scarcely fallen when the ground beneath him exploded apart. His figure blurred and vanished from her sight.

By the time she reacted and looked up in haste, she saw that he had already crossed more than twenty meters and caught up to the panicked fleeing demon.

The next instant, his flying kick slammed into its back.

With a thunderous collision, it coughed up blood and shot forward like a cannonball.

In the valley, the towering figure was sent flying backward, then crashed heavily to the ground. It scraped along the earth for several meters before barely coming to a halt.

“How could this be! Impossible!”

Blood gushed from its mouth as it roared in frenzy and panic, then abruptly turned to run again.

The shadow behind it closed in with a series of rapid leaps and appeared directly before it.

“Izumo no Okami, one of the famed demon kings, and yet you disgrace yourself like a stray dog with its tail between its legs.”

The armored man in gray-black blocked the road of escape, his back still turned to it as he spoke with a faint smile.

“Do that, and you’ll lose points in my book.”

The demon’s hideous face slowly calmed as it stared at his back, and it said coldly, “Oh? So you think you’ve got me cornered?”

As it spoke, demonic fire quietly gathered once more over the claw of its left hand.

Before he could answer, it seized the rare opening and lunged with a sudden claw strike toward the center of his back.

Die!

The girl, who had rushed out of the cave with sword in hand, saw only the scene of that claw about to pierce his back.

She cried out instinctively.

But the first sound of that cry had barely escaped her lips when the situation changed again.

The purple lines beneath the feet of the man standing with his back to the demon had somehow already shifted into a crimson glow.

Before the claw could draw near, he crossed his feet and spun at high speed with his back still toward the demon, his right leg whipping out in a violent, counterclockwise turning high kick.

Hurricane Riot Kick!

A deafening crash.

In the girl’s stunned gaze, the whirling kick swept across the demon’s upper body and kicked its head clean off in a single blow.

The man himself had already returned to his original stance, back turned to the demon.

Only then did he answer the question the demon had asked moments before.

“That’s right. I had you all along.”

The headless corpse shuddered once and silently collapsed backward to the ground.

[You killed Izumo no Okami and obtained 931 Spirituality.]

[You obtained Rune Factor: Physique]

[You obtained Rune Factor: Agility]

[You obtained Rune Factor: Spirit]

[You obtained Rune Factor: Endurance]

[You obtained Rune Factor: Blessing]

[You obtained Rune Circuit Core: Destruction 1]

[You obtained Oni King Arm, Modified]

[Slay three renowned great demons 1/3]

As expected, it was a huge drop.

Looking at the information before him, he felt thoroughly pleased.

Izumo no Okami’s rank was definitely beyond mere third tier.

He could tell, just as he could tell from the demon fire burning on its claw and the energy sphere it had formed.

This demon king surely possessed other esoteric arts hidden up its sleeve that it had not had time to use.

But because he had seized the initiative with terrifying physical force, and because its mind had been shaken by the shock, in its impatience it had fallen for the bait of his deliberately exposed back and attempted a sneak attack. In the end, that only let him land a single killing blow to its body.

This had been his trap.

And it was also the inevitable result of the vast difference between their physiques.

Of course, even if it had not been fooled, and had instead cautiously avoided him while trying to confront him with demon arts, he would still have won in the end.

He did not know demon arts, nor any special powers for the time being.

But the gap in bodily ability between the two sides was simply too vast.

After transformation, his basic attributes had reached the terrifying level of Physique 91, Agility 83, Spirit 53.

Added to that was the explosive power of Hurricane Riot Kick; the strength of that sweeping kick might well rival the force he could have produced only with nearly 200 points of Physique.

It was enough to instantly kill an enemy of the same tier, or even one above him.

He thought quietly to himself, amused: so the moves from a tokusatsu show actually work when used in real life.

Then he crouched and eagerly reached out to touch the corpse.

Izumo no Okami’s body

Type: High Demon Clan

Description: A natural-born high demon clan that came into existence out of nowhere in heaven and earth through calamity-tainted corruption. Red hair, long horns, and black eyes with golden pupils are common traits among these high demons. They possess an inborn powerful body, terrifying demonic force, and innate demon arts, and are the natural enemy of mankind.

Rating: 0-Star, Tier 4

Attributes: Physique 43, Agility 41, Spirit 35

Note: The vengeance of my severed arm will never be forgotten.

Just as expected, it was fourth tier.

And its attributes looked quite impressive.

Delighted, he immediately decided to set this creature aside as a candidate for fusion material.

Yes, even though it was an elite material of a higher tier than anything he currently possessed, it was only a candidate.

He had a very reasonable line of thought on this.

If there was Izumo no Okami, then might there be even higher beings?

Might figures at the very peak of demonkind such as the Great Heavenly Dog, the Nine-Tailed Fox, or Great King Daitakumaru exist?

Might the leader of the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons, the Mischievous Goblin Lord, exist?

And perhaps even the one known as the Demon God, Shuten, might exist as well?

Although Izumo no Okami was certainly a famous great demon in its own right, compared with those top-tier monsters it was still at least one rank lower.

With his current super-fusion form’s strength, he could afford to keep watching and see whether there was a chance to obtain even stronger fusion material.

As he pondered, the girl in the distance trotted over, then slowed with a trace of hesitation as she neared him.

“Lord Yan...”

As she spoke, a waterfall of demonic force poured from Izumo no Okami’s corpse and surged into the back of her right hand.

The torrent was so immense that it even stirred up a wind pressure with substance, whipping both of their hair violently about.

As the one absorbing this unmatched power, the girl’s eyes trembled. She could clearly feel that the seal on the back of her right hand had become “full.”

He turned back toward her. He meant to smile, but the limits of the exoskeleton kept his expression from fully showing.

Fusion released.

With a thought, the armor of the devouring locusts around his body shattered and dispersed, returning to its basic form of primary equipment.

He lowered the mask from his face and smiled faintly at the girl. “What is it?”

Seeing him return to his familiar appearance, and unable to investigate the state of her seal just then, she relaxed a little and asked carefully, “Lord... that form of yours just now...”

“Oh, that?” He chuckled. “That was my battle form. Pretty frightening, wasn’t it? Even more terrifying than that demon.”

She nodded reflexively, then shook her head furiously.

“Lord Yan is human. How could he possibly be more frightening than a great demon like that one?” she said anxiously.

He gently patted the girl’s small head. “That’s right. I’m an unquestionable human, so you don’t need to be afraid of me.”

Then he pointed at Izumo no Okami’s corpse. “This fellow’s blood should make even better material for my seal than that boar monster’s, shouldn’t it?”