The demon now had no thoughts of eating at all; it only wanted to escape as quickly as possible from this terrifying man who was more like a demon than itself.
But how could Gyoumei possibly let it go?
A filthy and vicious monster like this, which possessed near-immortality, might sneak back to kill someone at any time if allowed to escape.
If not for Kanzaki Kumo’s shout earlier, Gyoumei wouldn’t have arrived so quickly.
Even a delay of a few seconds would have surely resulted in most of the children inside being killed or injured.
This monster found it hard to resist before Gyoumei, but to the children inside, it was an existence that could crush them at will.
“You’ve really angered me!”
Suddenly, the demon forcibly tore off one of its own arms to briefly break free from Gyoumei’s control.
Although it wouldn’t die due to its unique traits, the pain of having its limbs and head repeatedly broken would not vanish.
To avoid further beatings or being dragged until the sun rose or the Demon Slayer Corps arrived, the demon could only endure the pain of severing its own arm.
Gyoumei’s condition at this time wasn’t very good either; maintaining high-intensity attacks for a long period was a huge drain on his chronically malnourished body.
Moreover, the demon’s several counterattacks—trading injury for injury—had left him with some wounds, though he had avoided vital spots, so his combat strength was unaffected for the time being.
Catching his breath slightly, Gyoumei continued to press his advantage.
Being congenitally blind, it was difficult for him to suppress the demon’s agility; if the opponent were to break free from his control completely, the children behind him could still be harmed.
The demon, its ferocity fully ignited, also met the attack.
The man and the demon, clashing once more, showed a trend of shifting offensive and defensive positions.
Previously, because of its carelessness, Gyoumei had pinned its body down, causing the demon to take a continuous beating with almost no way to effectively counterattack.
Now, after paying the price of temporarily losing an arm, the demon had gained temporary freedom.
Even though Gyoumei’s high-density attacks left it no opportunity to break away and kill the others, it could better dodge Gyoumei’s strikes and inflict wounds upon him.
Gyoumei was human after all; the demon was confident it could win a war of attrition.
As for running away?
Why run when it saw a glimmer of hope for victory?
Wouldn’t the previous beating have been for nothing if it fled now?
Moreover, given the density of Gyoumei’s attacks, escaping wouldn’t be that easy.
Seeing the situation turn sour, Kanzaki Kumo also grew nervous.
Even though in his memories, Gyoumei had enough strength to suppress this demon until dawn, how could he rely entirely on his past life’s memories to make judgments when his own life was at stake?
Under high concentration, Kanzaki Kumo quickly discovered a problem.
He could clearly see the movements of both combatants.
Whether it was the demon or Gyoumei, their physical fitness was significantly superior to that of ordinary people.
A well-trained ordinary adult would already be fast enough that a ten-year-old child couldn’t see their movements clearly, yet Kanzaki Kumo could clearly see every move from both sides at this moment.
He could even predict the target’s next move through subtle movements and the degree of muscle tension.
This was no longer something that could be explained by simple good observation skills.
After observing several exchanges between Gyoumei and the demon, Kanzaki Kumo confirmed that his feeling was no illusion, especially since his predictions of the target’s next move were validated during his observation.
With no time to think or research this special ability in more detail, and seeing the situation between the man and the demon shift from initial one-sided suppression toward a stalemate, Kanzaki Kumo began to move.
He first found a piece of gravel of suitable size nearby, then watched for an opportunity.
When the demon tried once more to trade injury for injury, he threw the stone, hitting the inside of its elbow and causing its punch to stall for a brief moment.
The result was that it took a solid hit from Gyoumei, nearly having its entire shoulder blown apart, while Gyoumei managed to avoid its attack just in time, only grazing a bit of skin on his arm without even drawing blood.
With its rhythm disrupted once, the demon was once again suppressed by Gyoumei.
Afterward, Kanzaki Kumo acted several more times, targeting areas like the back of the knees, the back of the head, the eyes, and the wrists—places where heavy force wasn’t needed to affect movement.
When he ran out of suitable gravel, he picked up the prayer beads Gyoumei had scattered all over the floor.
Their size was just right for Kanzaki Kumo to hold, and though he didn’t know what they were made of, their weight was surprisingly similar to the gravel from before.
In this way, under Kanzaki Kumo’s interference, the situation in the field returned to Gyoumei suppressing the demon.
Just as Kanzaki Kumo was preparing to keep up the effort, he suddenly noticed a few brave children actually trying to approach and help.
Perhaps seeing Gyoumei beating the demon senseless and Kanzaki Kumo affecting its movements by simply throwing things made them think the monster was only scary in appearance.
An illusion of “I could do that too,” combined with a child’s desire to show off, made several brave children want to join in.
Kanzaki Kumo immediately ran back and held them down.
Are you kidding?
Even he, who could see and even predict the demon’s movements, could only interfere from the sidelines.
These kids, who knew nothing, wanted to enter the fray?
Aside from causing trouble for Gyoumei and providing the demon with a source of energy, they would be completely useless.
Furthermore, unable to see the movements of either side, they couldn’t even manage to interfere by throwing stones; they might even end up hitting Gyoumei.
“Stay quiet!”
Kanzaki Kumo’s stern shout combined with a fierce glare quickly intimidated those children who didn’t know their own limits.
Fortunately, Gyoumei had regained control of the battle, seizing the opportunity to pin the demon to the ground and pummel it again.
This time, he pinned his entire body down, giving the opponent no chance to break free.
Every punch was heavy and powerful, making the ground tremble.
“Big brother, I was wrong…”
“Please spare me…”
“I won’t do it again…”
“…”
Suppressed once more, the demon’s ferocity faded, and it began to plead for mercy in various ways.
But Gyoumei didn’t care, only continuing to throw punches.
He still remembered that this monster needed sunlight to be killed, so he was now focused solely on maintaining this offensive until the sun rose.
As the sky outside gradually brightened, the demon stopped its futile pleas and resistance, resorting instead to constant cursing.
“You monster!”
“Blind man!”
“You’ll die a horrible death!”
“I was just hungry and wanted something to eat!
What did I do wrong?!”
“It was clearly that other brat who led the way for me and even destroyed that incense the demons hate!
Why are you only picking on me?!”
Kanzaki Kumo listened to the demon repeat the same few curses and its attempts to defend itself, shaking his head somewhat speechlessly.
This demon’s education level was clearly not high; it didn’t even know how to curse properly.
Demon:?
Some more time passed, and the first ray of sunlight pierced the night, pronouncing the demon’s death sentence.
However, Gyoumei couldn’t see the sunlight, so he continued to throw punches.
Kanzaki Kumo didn’t dare speak up to remind him; what if Gyoumei stood up and the demon seized the chance to take a few children with it before dying?
No matter how low the probability, Kanzaki Kumo was unwilling to gamble.
Because Gyoumei had arrived in time, their battlefield was near the broken door, and the house’s orientation allowed the sunlight to shine in quickly.
Seeing that Gyoumei still had plenty of energy, Kanzaki Kumo completely abandoned the idea of speaking up.
And so, Gyoumei continued to punch until the sunlight passed through the broken wooden door and hit the demon beneath him.
The fanged figure finally stopped as it dissipated in the sun.
Gyoumei’s descending fist stopped mid-air, and he was stunned for a moment as the monster beneath him vanished into thin air.
“The sun is out, that monster has completely dissipated.
Thank you for your hard work, Mr.
Gyoumei.”
Seeing this, Kanzaki Kumo stepped forward and spoke, his tone carrying the relief of having survived a disaster.
If it followed the original plot, because Gyoumei arrived a few seconds late and some children tried to help, only Gyoumei and one little girl would have survived in this house.
When the authorities arrived, the demon would have already dissipated, and the little girl, too shocked to speak, would have only been able to point at the empty space beneath Gyoumei before fainting.
As a result, Gyoumei would have been identified as the murderer of the children and thrown into prison.
This would have led to him being unwilling to trust anyone in the future, except for the master of the Demon Slayer Corps who saved him from his cell.
But now, because of Kanzaki Kumo’s appearance, there was a chance to spare Gyoumei from imprisonment, and he had also saved the lives of all the children in the house, including himself.
However, as the demon began to dissipate in the sunlight, Kanzaki Kumo’s excellent vision caught a glimpse of a figure flashing past outside the temple.