Hajime Kashimo’s Reverse Cursed Technique rapidly gathered along his back.
Immediately after, his body regained its original strength.
Wind roared past him as he continued flying upward, carried by the force of that kick.
Gen’s Cursed Technique, the Ten Shadows Technique, was recorded in the Zenin Clan’s archives as a technique that summoned ten kinds of Shikigami to provide combat power.
Only in a very small number of entries was the “shadow” aspect of the technique mentioned.
In reality, what formed the very foundation of this Cursed Technique was precisely the shadow that the Zenin Clan had overlooked.
The Ten Shadows Technique was also one of the few Cursed Techniques with a Cursed Technique Reversal.
Even though no one in the Zenin Clan had ever used it, Gen, who had mastered both the advanced application of Reverse Cursed Technique and the complete form of the shadow technique, could prove it.
[Cursed Technique Reversal · Light].
As previously explained, it turned the user into light, making it impossible to attack through normal means.
That was the move Gen had just used.
At a speed even Hajime Kashimo’s dynamic vision, which could track the path of Cursed Energy lightning, could not perceive, Gen had instantly appeared behind him.
Then came a heavy uppercut carrying sub-light-speed force.
Although Gen could not use ordinary attacks while in the state of [Light], if he exited that state right before the attack landed, he could deliver a heavy blow at rapidly decaying light speed.
Gen still could not control this method properly.
Just like that strike just now, he had probably only managed an uppercut at around ten times the speed of sound.
Even so, his fist, wrapped in dense Cursed Energy and covered in shadow, still exploded the instant it hit.
It was simply repaired by Reverse Cursed Technique in less than half a second after the explosion.
Then Gen’s body changed once more, and a streak of light shot upward toward Hajime Kashimo, who was already more than seven hundred meters off the ground.
Boom!
A sound like heaven and earth shaking spread through the entire Barrier.
At some point, Hajime Kashimo had slammed back down to the ground, and not long after landing, he rushed out of the dispersing dust, swinging the Nyoi Staff in his hand at Gen, who had just touched down.
While flying upward through the air, Hajime Kashimo had already guessed that Gen might be attacking at a speed he could not perceive.
He did not know exactly how fast that was, so he chose the simplest method.
He wrapped Cursed Energy around his body.
His lightning-natured Cursed Energy would defend against the next attack like a shield covered in spikes.
Hajime Kashimo’s long staff slammed hard into Gen’s raised katana.
Although it was blocked again, Hajime Kashimo’s excitement truly surged this time.
The Nyoi Staff in Hajime Kashimo’s hand began to whirl, leaving dozens of afterimages in the air.
Gen parried with ease, but under Hajime Kashimo’s sudden increase in strength, he was still forced to retreat step by step.
“Ah!
Strongest, I acknowledge your strength… Before you can kill me, I’ll release my Cursed Technique and kill you.”
Gen’s eyes quickly swept over Hajime Kashimo’s body.
The flowing lightning Cursed Energy was stimulating Hajime Kashimo’s nerves, creating an effect similar to a stimulant.
It kept strengthening his body, giving him not only speed beyond what he had shown moments earlier, but a successful boost in strength as well.
Still not enough.
Naturally, that speed was still too slow for Gen.
Hajime Kashimo’s attack trajectory was completely visible to him.
Every strike looked as if it had been slowed down dozens of times.
“I’ll stop you before you activate your Cursed Technique.”
“Fine!
Come on, if you can!”
Hajime Kashimo roared as the Nyoi Staff in his hand began charging violently.
Then, as the long staff swung down, a streak of lightning with an unusual path appeared along its trajectory.
Gen immediately abandoned the idea of blocking with his longsword.
He gripped the Caduceus and sent it back into the shadows.
Then he raised his hand, and Nue’s lightning surged through his palm.
Using the exact same current, he caught Hajime Kashimo’s long staff and immediately pulled it away.
As expected, Hajime Kashimo instantly let go of the Nyoi Staff.
To him, that thing could return to his hand at any time.
There was no need to grip it tightly.
Gen seized the long staff and dragged it backward.
The Nyoi Staff shot out in an instant, smashing through several building walls before disappearing beyond the edge of the ruined circular battlefield.
“Black Flash!”
As the leaping lightning kept adjusting Hajime Kashimo’s nerves, his reaction speed and Cursed Energy control both reached their peak.
That feeling of “I can land it” came from Hajime Kashimo’s palm again.
Black lightning flashed across the battlefield once more, instantly crashing into Gen’s raised fist.
The Cursed Energy output blew apart Gen’s defending arm in an instant.
Gen stepped back several paces, and Reverse Cursed Technique restored the exploded arm to normal just as quickly.
“Haha!
That hurt, Hajime Kashimo!”
“Thanks for the compliment… Strongest!”
From this point on, there was no need to hold anything back.
At the same moment, both of them covered their entire bodies in lightning, causing every cell in their bodies to become hyperactive.
Focus, strength, reaction speed, movement speed.
Both of them received an all-around boost.
Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!
Fist against arm, fist against fist, leg against leg.
Block, deflect, strike again.
Their fists blurred like footage of a boxing match sped up several times over, clashing at a speed ordinary people could neither understand nor see.
“Black Flash!!”
“Black Flash!!!”
Gen’s face still bore the wounds from his previous fist clash with Hajime Kashimo’s enhanced attack.
Reverse Cursed Technique kept supplying healing without pause, leaving him no need to rest.
Hajime Kashimo was not much better off.
His face and body were covered in branch-like lightning burns that Reverse Cursed Technique had no time to fully heal, and his fists were still bleeding, not yet completely repaired.
Just as Hajime Kashimo’s condition was rapidly declining, their gazes finally crossed through the blur of fists and met.
In response, their strikes once again produced that black lightning.
Another Black Flash brought recovery and enhancement, making the efficiency of Hajime Kashimo’s Reverse Cursed Technique rise at a visible speed.
Using the force of Black Flash, the two retreated and stood facing each other in the middle of the battlefield once more.
“If we don’t finish each other in one blow… we’ll just keep fighting forever in this endless tug-of-war, won’t we, Strongest?”
“Maybe so.
Mm?”
Hajime Kashimo looked at the man before him, who seemed relaxed again, but he did not let go of his caution.
He clenched his fist, crackling lightning snapping in his palm.
Those repeated Black Flashes had given Hajime Kashimo tremendous improvement, but the man before him showed no corresponding growth.
Hajime Kashimo’s potential for Reverse Cursed Technique had been drawn out under the pressure of possibly being defeated, or even killed, at any moment.
And just now, he had grasped a unique way to use his own Cursed Technique.
In his field of vision, Gen raised his hand, Cursed Energy surging.
[Return To Life]
[Abyssal Depths]
[Bottom Of Darkness]
An incantation?
Damn it, I have to stop him.
The instant Hajime Kashimo sensed the incantation, his body moved at top speed, but he was still one step too late.
The long spear condensed from the thick black shadow in Gen’s hand had already been fired as the incantation ended.
[Cursed Technique Lapse · Shadow]