Fast.
But still dodgeable.
Hajime Kashimo charged in, dropping low as the spear shot past.
It only grazed his left hand, doing no serious damage, and by then he had already closed in on Gen.
He was smiling?
Why?
Hajime Kashimo’s right arm instantly detached from his body, lightning bursting out like a spear.
Using Mythical Beast Amber to partially convert part of his body into electricity was something he had conceived long ago in his first life.
The problem was, among everyone Hajime Kashimo had fought, he had never once met an opponent who pushed him hard enough to grasp the Reverse Cursed Technique.
So after learning the Reverse Cursed Technique, Hajime Kashimo immediately began using this “self-mutilating” style of combat.
Gen raised his hand and knocked aside the right arm Kashimo had flung out.
His own right hand flattened into a palm, then slammed toward Hajime Kashimo.
Cleave.
The instant Hajime Kashimo’s left fist struck Gen’s right palm, a rapid series of cuts sliced it to pieces.
The moment it left his body, Kashimo’s entire left hand turned into a sphere of lightning, and it exploded just as he was blasted away by the Cursed Energy carried in the slash.
Once he had broken out of close range, Hajime Kashimo immediately turned back.
The spear was gone.
In its place was a black sphere spreading outward from where the spear had been.
In Hajime Kashimo’s Cursed Energy vision, the black sphere was still expanding.
If that thing had hit him just now, he probably would have had to activate Mythical Beast Amber to escape in one piece.
He had to stop Gen from chanting the next incantation.
Hajime Kashimo ran the Reverse Cursed Technique at full power, and his hands reappeared.
But that brief glance away, not even a full second, was enough.
When he looked back into the lingering dust, all that remained was the trace of Gen’s Cursed Energy.
Following that trace, Hajime Kashimo looked up and saw Gen beating his wings, hovering in the air.
Gen raised his hand.
Hajime Kashimo’s pupils shrank.
In the instant he sensed the air buzzing, lightning slammed into him mid-dodge as he moved left.
He had avoided most of it, but Hajime Kashimo was still panting as he activated the Reverse Cursed Technique again.
The Gen before him was not only far more skilled with the Reverse Cursed Technique, his Lightning technique was not inferior either.
If he wanted to defeat him… was activating Mythical Beast Amber his only option?
Let me get used to it first… to this incomplete Mythical Beast Amber.
Hajime Kashimo took a deep breath.
Lightning instantly covered his left hand.
Then he violently cut off the hand now completely wrapped in lightning, caught the arm that Mythical Beast Amber had transformed into a “javelin” with his freshly regenerated left hand, and hurled it at Gen in the sky.
In their earlier exchange, a great deal of negative charge had been driven into Gen’s body, while Hajime Kashimo had infused the tip of the “javelin” with a large amount of positive charge.
So in theory, this strike could not miss.
But theory was only theory.
“Ah!
You noticed.
Makes sense… it would’ve been strange if you hadn’t.”
The javelin Hajime Kashimo threw was drawn away by an electric sphere Gen casually tossed out.
Wrapped in Hajime Kashimo’s Cursed Energy, the sphere smashed into the ground where he had been standing, and the Cursed Energy explosion collapsed another huge section of the street.
“Don’t let your guard down.”
Dismantle, electric orb, continuous Dismantle, thunderstorm.
The moment he heard Gen’s voice, Hajime Kashimo immediately altered his legs and eyes.
With his agility and reflexes enhanced, he kept darting through Gen’s continuous barrage, but the net of attacks formed from different types of Cursed Energy still carved several wounds into him.
A slash instantly cut through the building behind him.
Hajime Kashimo slid under it and sprang up, only for a charged electric orb to land behind him.
Dust billowed from the explosion, and several transparent slashes cut toward him.
Unable to dodge in time, Hajime Kashimo lost one arm, but he did not regenerate it right away.
Instead, he kicked off the ground with both legs, using the sudden drop in weight from the severed arm to launch himself upward.
In midair, Hajime Kashimo’s arm slowly regenerated.
Just as he was about to reach Gen, he released a portion of Mythical Beast Amber and transformed his not-yet-fully-restored arm into the arm of the “Qilin” in his mind.
He threw a punch.
Surging Cursed Energy erupted from the scales on his fist, mixed with lightning, and blasted toward Gen.
Gen raised a hand to block it, but the blow knocked his flying posture off balance.
Without hesitation, Gen abandoned the wings that had become little more than targets, then returned Hajime Kashimo’s punch with one of his own.
Hajime Kashimo clenched his other hand into a fist and collided with Gen head-on.
Arc-shaped lightning burst in midair, and the two of them landed almost simultaneously.
Hajime Kashimo shifted and followed up again, curling his claw into a fist.
As Mythical Beast Amber continued to churn his flesh and blood, pushing him ever closer to “death,” that intense sensation found him again the moment he stepped in toward Gen.
Explosive black lightning burst from his arm, now transformed into that of a Qilin.
“Black Flash!”
Under the force raised to the power of 2.5, Gen’s body was sent flying and crashed into a shop across the street.
Immediately after, several shelves shot back out, wreathed in lightning.
Hajime Kashimo punched the shelves away one after another.
Then Gen walked out of the shop, tore open a bag of potato chips, and even tossed a few into his mouth and chewed them.
Hajime Kashimo instantly rushed in front of him, and as half a bag of chips flew into the air, the two began trading blows at close range again.
Fed back by Black Flash, Hajime Kashimo could once again run the Reverse Cursed Technique at full power.
The technique, which had slowed earlier while repairing his eyes and nerves, began operating properly again.
Hajime Kashimo clenched his claw into a fist once more.
The instant he swung, he detonated the lightning Cursed Energy again.
At that moment, enough charge had accumulated on Gen’s body once more.
“Take this punch!
Strongest!”
With a roar, Hajime Kashimo threw his fist with all his might.
Gen neither dodged nor blocked, letting the strike land.
As the explosive lightning slammed into Gen, Hajime Kashimo felt it.
The man before him had not been stumped by the accumulated charge.
The punch that should have detonated his Cursed Energy core was blocked by wings that suddenly spread open.
Then he blew that wing apart.
The remaining half of the wing violently knocked Hajime Kashimo away.
His body flew backward, crashed into the ruined street, and rolled several times in a miserable tumble before he finally steadied himself.
“[Return to Life]”
“[Eyes of the Three Realms]”
“Not happening!”
Hajime Kashimo immediately raised his hand, palm out.
The Nyoi Staff shot out from the remnants of the city behind Gen and struck him, interrupting his chant.
But the attack only stopped Gen once.
Gen raised his hand again.
“[Return to Life]
[Eyes of the Three Realms]
[Crimson Dream Sky]”
Hajime Kashimo instinctively sensed that something was wrong.
He instantly hurled his Nyoi Staff like a javelin, but he still failed to stop Gen from finishing the incantation.
“[Cursed Technique Reversal: Light]”
Hajime Kashimo saw the light coming toward him and immediately released Mythical Beast Amber in full.
Something like a pillar of light grazed Hajime Kashimo’s cheek.
Only then did he realize something.
That light formed from Cursed Energy had not hit him.
And he had not activated his own Cursed Technique either.