Among League of Legends players, there’s a saying:
True damage is true damage.
The reason is simple.
True damage ignores resistances, bypasses defensive mechanics, ignores damage reduction, and applies its full damage value directly to the target’s health.
There were still mechanics such as invulnerability, death immunity, and shields that could stop true damage.
But Ko-Guy, standing in front of Atsushi right now, obviously had none of those.
Fifteen percent bonus true damage didn’t sound like much.
But the way that fifteen percent worked was that the system first calculated how much damage the attack would deal if it completely ignored all of the target’s defenses, then took fifteen percent of that value and applied it as true damage.
So in the world of Jujutsu Kaisen, how exactly was that fifteen percent supposed to be calculated?
Even without using Convergence to compress it first, Atsushi’s Piercing Blood would still pass straight through an object if that object offered absolutely no resistance, wouldn’t it?
Because an object with absolutely no resistance was, in essence, something existing in a perfect vacuum where even air resistance and gravity were absent.
Then what did fifteen percent of complete penetration amount to?
Would it only travel fifteen percent of the original distance?
No.
If all resistance was ignored, movement itself would consume no additional force.
Once kinetic energy was applied, an object could continue moving indefinitely in a perfect vacuum without air resistance or gravity.
Fifteen percent of infinity was still infinity.
Therefore, the fifteen percent true damage produced by Atsushi’s [Glass Cannon] was calculated based on the mass of his Piercing Blood.
Of the Piercing Blood Atsushi fired, fifteen percent of the blood completely ignored Ko-Guy’s exoskeleton and passed straight through his head without the slightest resistance.
It continued onward, still ignoring all resistance, shooting toward Kenjaku and the swarm of cursed spirits behind him…
Only when Atsushi’s anemia pushed his effective control range for Piercing Blood to its limit, leaving him unable to maintain the technique any longer, did he finally recall the blood and stop its advance.
[Grade 2 Cursed Spirit killed.
100 EXP absorbed.
50 gold obtained.
Current EXP: 813.
Current gold: 366.
327 EXP required to reach the next level.]
[Grade 3 Cursed Spirit killed.
65 EXP absorbed.
20 gold obtained.
Current EXP: 878.
Current gold: 386.
262 EXP required to reach the next level.]
The system notifications sounded inside Atsushi’s head.
“Did it work…?”
The crude Piercing Blood he had been forced to use in the middle of a crisis had cost him a significant amount of blood, and Atsushi’s vision was already beginning to double.
He could only brace one hand against the alley’s rough brick wall and squint as he thought.
The system only reported a Grade 2 and a Grade 3 cursed spirit.
Those must have been the weaker cursed spirits behind Ko-Guy that Piercing Blood hit after passing through him.
The Grade 1 cursed spirit, Ko-Guy, was still alive!
A chilling series of footsteps approached.
Atsushi lay quietly among the trash, listening as the cursed spirit’s broken, violent voice came from ahead.
“Your…
attack…
is weird…
Can’t defend against it…
But I’m really smart!
I won’t die that easily…
So…
die…
human!”
Only then did the strand of blood Atsushi had fired with Piercing Blood finally return to his body.
His anemia eased slightly as well.
Even so, his face remained pale, and his condition was clearly much worse than before he used Piercing Blood.
“A cursed spirit’s body is made entirely of cursed energy.
Higher-grade cursed spirits barely even have anything you could call a fatal weak point.
Even putting a hole through your brain isn’t enough to kill you, huh…?
You really are stubborn.”
As he spoke, Atsushi slowly climbed out of the pile of garbage.
“Good thing I cover myself in blood armor before every fight…”
Atsushi pulled open his jacket.
The hardened blood armor covering his chest had cracked into uneven fragments that fell away piece by piece.
“It makes the anemia worse, but without this, that punch probably would’ve killed me.”
And Atsushi, whose already limited health had been further reduced by [Glass Cannon], wasn’t about to waste the shattered blood armor.
“Blood Manipulation…
Blood Edge!”
The blood that had liquefied and dripped onto the ground rose once again under Atsushi’s control.
In his palm, it formed into a vicious crimson dagger.
“If putting a hole through your brain isn’t enough to kill you…
then I’ll just make sure your head comes all the way off.”
At this distance, he had no chance to use Piercing Blood again.
And after Ko-Guy had already been hit by it once, Atsushi didn’t expect the same attack to work a second time anyway.
Staring at the cursed spirit, whose horrific head wound still hadn’t healed and whose purple blood continued pouring out, Atsushi forced himself into position to meet its next attack.
“Well, this is getting interesting…”
Not far from the battlefield, Kenjaku tilted his head slightly as he watched.
“If I hadn’t moved my head just now, even that pathetic-looking Piercing Blood would’ve gone straight through my skull, wouldn’t it?”
As he spoke, Kenjaku rested a hand against his chin and slowly straightened his head again.
“That’s not something an ordinary Blood Manipulation user should be capable of.
Should I tell Ko-Guy to hold back…?”
A sharp gleam appeared in Kenjaku’s eyes, and his voice carried an excitement he no longer bothered to hide.
“No…
It’d be much more interesting to push him to his limit.
Just how far can a mere Grade 3 sorcerer go?”
At the same time, Ko-Guy’s roar filled Atsushi’s ears.
“Don’t underestimate me…
I’m really smart!
Weird attacks…
don’t matter if they can’t hit!
You’re…
slow!”
A relentless barrage of fists rushed toward Atsushi, each moving so quickly that they blurred into afterimages.
With four arms to begin with, Ko-Guy held an overwhelming advantage over Atsushi in both strength and speed.
Even with the Blood Edge in his hand, Atsushi could only retreat step by step, using the crimson dagger to fend off the rain of punches.
Compared to Ko-Guy’s fast, coordinated attacks, Atsushi’s movements looked downright clumsy, like a frightened kid desperately swinging a toy knife.
Against a Grade 2 or Grade 3 cursed spirit, this probably wouldn’t work at all.
Watching from nearby, Kenjaku was almost certain of it.
An ordinary Grade 2 or Grade 3 cursed spirit would simply take the hit from Atsushi’s dagger and smash his skull apart with a single punch.
But to Kenjaku’s surprise, Atsushi’s seemingly reckless strategy was working unusually well against the Grade 1 cursed spirit in front of him.
Ko-Guy could have traded blows and crushed Atsushi’s skull with a single punch.
Yet every time Atsushi’s crimson dagger was about to touch his body, the huge grasshopper curse’s expression changed.
He would rather give up a perfect chance to kill Atsushi than risk taking one of his attacks.
“Ah…
I see.
He’s already figured it out.”
Kenjaku’s smile gradually widened.
“Ko-Guy is unusually intelligent for a Grade 1 cursed spirit.
After having his skull pierced by Piercing Blood once already, he knows better than to take another one of that kid’s attacks head-on.”
“He even accounted for the curse’s intelligence…”
Watching Ko-Guy struggle against Atsushi’s wild but rapid dagger swings, Kenjaku’s interest continued to grow.
“But how long can your stamina hold out?
You’re going to burn yourself out soon…”
Resting his chin on one hand, Kenjaku calmly analyzed the fight.
It took him almost no time to conclude that Atsushi couldn’t keep this up for much longer.
Then something occurred to him.
Kenjaku’s eyes sharpened, and his smile grew wider.
“The one who’s going to give out first is…”
On the battlefield, Atsushi appeared to be swinging his dagger wildly.
But his eyes had never once left Ko-Guy’s head.
Cursed spirits were different from humans.
Because their bodies were naturally formed from cursed energy, they didn’t need to learn an advanced technique like Reverse Cursed Technique to regenerate themselves.
In theory, the wound caused by only fifteen percent of the blood mass from Atsushi’s Piercing Blood should have healed long ago.
But reality said otherwise.
Nearly five minutes had passed since the fight began, and the wound on Ko-Guy’s head still showed no sign of healing.
No.
It wasn’t just failing to heal.
The purple cursed blood leaking from the wound was actually becoming darker and darker.
“What did you…
do…?
My head…
The wound…
the wound…
the wound…
IT HURTS!”
Ko-Guy kept throwing punches and pressuring Atsushi, using his intelligence to wear him down so he could win without taking another hit.
But his movements were becoming slower and slower.
At first, Atsushi had barely been able to block his attacks even while swinging his dagger with everything he had.
Then defending gradually became easier.
Until finally, the moment Atsushi had been waiting for arrived…
Purple blood suddenly burst from Ko-Guy’s mouth.
His body staggered forward and collapsed!
“The blood of a Blood Manipulation user is poisonous to cursed spirits!”
At that moment, Atsushi and Kenjaku spoke almost the exact same words.
“So most of the blood from that Piercing Blood was actually left inside Ko-Guy’s brain?”
Kenjaku immediately understood what had happened.
“He only pretended to recall all of it.
Then, during the fight, he kept forcing Ko-Guy to attack and exhaust himself, accelerating the effects of the poison…”
Kenjaku had seen through the entire plan.
And then, in the brief instant Ko-Guy lost consciousness from the poison.
The crimson dagger in Atsushi’s hand cut cleanly across his neck.
“I told you, didn’t I…?”
Atsushi looked back.
“If putting a hole through your brain isn’t enough, I’ll just make sure your head comes off.”
Ko-Guy’s grotesque head was already clutched in Atsushi’s hand.
No roar.
No scream.
No plea for mercy.
Atsushi gave the cursed spirit no chance to do anything.
The crimson dagger in his hand flashed.
Under the effect of true damage, the grasshopper-like curse’s severed head was sliced into pieces in midair.
[Grade 1 Cursed Spirit Ko-Guy killed.
250 EXP absorbed.
125 gold obtained.
Current EXP: 1,128.
Current gold: 511.
12 EXP required to reach the next level.]
The system’s cold notification confirmed the outcome of the battle.
(To be continued.)