“What does it mean…
to like someone?”
Faced with Todo Aoi’s question, Atsushi took a deep breath.
After wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth, he didn’t answer.
Instead, he asked a question of his own.
“Is it the feeling caused by hormones being released in the brain?
A surge of adrenaline?
Or your heart beating uncontrollably fast?”
There was no mockery in Atsushi’s voice.
He sounded genuinely curious.
“Love really is a luxury.”
“I’ve never experienced anything like that in my life.”
“But right now…”
“I can at least simulate it.”
The words leaving his mouth were cold.
But inside his body, the exact opposite was happening.
His body temperature, previously lowered by anemia, suddenly began rising at an abnormal rate.
Crimson veins bulged beneath his skin.
“You know, Blood Manipulation doesn’t just let you shape blood.”
“Red blood cell count, oxygen levels, hormones, body temperature, heart rate…”
“All of it can be manipulated.”
Thump!
Thump!
Thump!
Atsushi’s heart pounded violently.
He could clearly hear it hammering inside his chest like an engine running at maximum output.
“Blood Manipulation…”
Todo’s expression shifted for the first time as he sensed the unusual cursed energy surging through Atsushi.
“Are you from the Kamo Clan?”
“Blood Manipulation: Flowing Red Scale!”
Atsushi didn’t answer.
There was no need for any more conversation.
The instant his physical performance was forcibly pushed to its limit, he grabbed Dragon-Bone from where it had been embedded in the ground.
He stomped down.
His body became a crimson blur.
The slash that followed tore violently through the air, serving as the most direct possible answer to Todo’s question.
“Flowing Red Scale…”
“So it really is the Kamo Clan’s inherited technique.”
“And you used the opportunity while answering my question to reveal your technique and strengthen it through a Binding Vow.”
Watching Atsushi close the distance almost instantly, moving nearly twice as fast as before while swinging a Special Grade cursed tool toward his face, Todo’s eyes sharpened.
“That’s some damn good combat instinct.”
Faced with Dragon-Bone, a blade that looked fully capable of cutting him in half, Todo neither dodged nor blocked.
He simply raised both hands.
Clap.
A crisp sound rang through the forest.
And the instant Todo’s palms met, something happened that completely ignored normal spatial logic.
The enormous man who should have been cut down vanished from beneath Atsushi’s blade.
Then he appeared behind him.
No.
Todo hadn’t moved behind Atsushi.
The moment the clap sounded, their positions had switched.
Atsushi, who had been charging forward and slashing directly at Todo, suddenly found himself standing exactly where Todo had been a moment earlier.
His momentum hadn’t disappeared.
Unable to stop, Atsushi continued forward and brought Dragon-Bone crashing into a massive tree behind Todo’s former position.
The trunk was severed cleanly through the middle.
“You revealed the mechanics of your technique to your opponent.”
Todo slowly turned his enormous body around.
“A Binding Vow through Revealing One’s Hand, trading information for greater effectiveness.”
“Not bad.”
“No wonder Mechamaru went out of his way to ask me for help because of you.”
The casual tone disappeared from Todo’s voice.
There was no longer even a trace of underestimation in his eyes.
He forced our positions to switch.
So that was Todo Aoi’s Innate Technique.
Boogie Woogie.
By clapping his hands, he could instantly swap the positions of himself and anything possessing enough cursed energy.
That was the Innate Technique of Grade 1 Sorcerer Todo Aoi.
Even though I already knew exactly how his technique worked.
It’s still impossible to immediately adapt to it in an actual fight.
The information surfaced automatically in Atsushi’s mind as he turned around.
His eyes, now stained faintly red by Flowing Red Scale, locked onto Todo.
Using Flowing Red Scale, I increased my red blood cell count, accelerated my circulation, raised my body temperature, and pushed my physical performance higher.
Combined with cursed energy reinforcement…
My speed has probably doubled.
But that doesn’t make my injuries disappear.
I haven’t invested any Attribute Points into Cursed Energy Manipulation Precision yet.
That means I can’t precisely control only the blood leaking from my damaged organs and stop the internal bleeding.
If I can’t end this quickly and get away from him.
I’ll lose.
After reaching that conclusion, Atsushi spoke.
“Mechamaru really does love trying to be clever.”
“He already made a deal with me, and apparently he still couldn’t resist doing something extra.”
As Atsushi spoke, Todo noticed something unusual.
Dragon-Bone, which had originally possessed a dark blade, was now almost completely covered in deep crimson except for its cutting edge.
The shattered blood armor from earlier.
He had turned it back into liquid blood and coated the cursed tool with it.
“Blood Manipulation.”
Atsushi activated the technique again.
By controlling the blood wrapped around Dragon-Bone, he manipulated the weapon itself.
The Special Grade cursed tool that had previously felt extremely heavy now became almost weightless in his hands.
Blood Manipulation allowed Atsushi to freely control blood both inside and outside his body.
If that blood was wrapped around Dragon-Bone, then using it to manipulate the cursed tool as well was only natural.
Atsushi knew that even if he rebuilt his blood armor, there was no chance he could survive another direct punch from Todo.
So he abandoned defense completely.
In exchange for drastically increasing his cursed energy consumption, he pushed his offensive ability as far as possible.
No further explanation was necessary.
Both Atsushi’s speed and his attack rate had now surpassed what he’d shown earlier.
Dragon-Bone, a weapon that had previously required both hands to swing quickly, now moved through his grip as though it weighed almost nothing.
“Not even knowing what love feels like.”
Todo’s cursed energy surged without restraint.
For the first time, he released the full pressure expected of a Grade 1 sorcerer.
“What a miserable man.”
Atsushi gave him a faint smile.
“Isn’t it more miserable to need feelings from someone else just to give yourself a reason to live?”
He didn’t seem particularly bothered by Todo’s pity.
Slash!
Slash!
Slash!
The forest thundered.
Trees fell one after another.
Under Atsushi’s relentless offensive, even Todo was forced to repeatedly activate Boogie Woogie, constantly switching positions to avoid the crimson blade tearing through the shattered forest.
But Atsushi kept getting faster.
His instincts were even beginning to adjust to Todo’s Innate Technique.
A genius?
No.
Watching the figure in front of him continuously adapt in the middle of battle, even Todo couldn’t help thinking differently.
That combat instinct.
Calling him a beast might be more accurate.
Todo still held the advantage.
But even he couldn’t ignore the rate at which Atsushi was adapting.
Then finally…
During their next exchange, Atsushi almost instinctively predicted where Todo would appear after activating Boogie Woogie.
Clap.
The instant the sound rang out and Todo switched positions, Dragon-Bone, overflowing with cursed energy, suddenly changed trajectory.
Under Blood Manipulation’s control, the blade moved along a path that should have been physically impossible.
It swung directly toward the position Atsushi’s instincts had predicted Todo would occupy.
A strike faster than conscious reaction.
No room to dodge.
Which meant.
For that instant, Atsushi had won the exchange.
(To be continued.)