THUD! THUD!
Shiraishi Kagetora cold-bloodedly tossed the two severed, bloody heads of Higa and Kyo onto the ground. The two heads rolled along the Tatami floor, coming to a halt right before the tips of Shin's shoes.
In the suffocating, deadly atmosphere, Shin's and Kagetora's eyes locked onto each other. Tension escalated to a point where even the slightest movement could ignite a desperate, life-or-death brawl.
Kagetora wiped a smear of fresh blood from his chin, his deep voice heavy with suspicion:
— "I've never met you punks before. Why did you come here causing a rampage? We have no prior grudges between us."
Shin casually thrust both hands into his pants pockets, replying calmly:
— "I didn't expect to either. We simply wanted to come here and take over your entire gang. Because right now, my goal is to unify all the forces in this city! And the Kurohana Kai is just our first stop!"
Upon hearing this, Kagetora curled his lips into a disdainful sneer, his eyes filled with contempt:
— "What utter rubbish! For years, the underworld here has been doing business in peace. Only the Ryuzaki family has been overly arrogant... relying on their massive lineage to sit atop the food chain as a matter of course and run wild!"
The skin bearing the White Tiger tattoo on Kagetora's body began to bulge with thick, pulsing veins as he grit his teeth viciously:
— "I was already furious enough with those Ryuzakis... Now you bastards come here waltzing into my way. Then I'll just take all of your heads!"
Shin silently stared straight into his bloodthirsty eyes, making no reply.
Without a word of warning, Kagetora instantly threw a devastating punch aimed straight for Shin's face! The wind-tearing strike surged forward, stopping mere centimeters from Shin's nose.
SWOOSH!
In that split-second brink of death, Roxy burst forward with explosive speed, shoving Shin out of the way! Kagetora's punch missed its mark, driving straight into the stone wall behind them. Strangely enough, the blow emitted no shockwave or deafening impact—instead, that concentrated force cleanly bored straight through the concrete wall, as smooth and effortless as a hot blade slicing through butter!
Seijuro narrowed his eyes, placing his hand onto the hilt of his Katana, whispering under his breath:
— "Time to swing the blade!"
While Kagetora, Shin, and Roxy were still startled by that bizarre physical strength, Seijuro closed the gap in the blink of an eye. He instantly executed a supreme Quick-Draw technique:
— "Mugen Kiri: Zetsu! (無限斬: 絶 - Infinite Slash: Severance)!"
SLASH!
A streak of starlight flashed from the scabbard at a speed far exceeding human sight! A vacuum blade arc thin as a strand of hair launched horizontally. The strike cut through space itself, sweeping across the entire ground floor structure of the headquarters!
RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!
The ceiling and the entire upper floor of the massive estate were cleanly severed! A multi-hundred-ton structure of stone and timber collapsed downward like an erupting volcano!
Kagetora looked up at the caving ceiling, roaring at the top of his lungs:
— "DAMN IT! MY MANSION!!"
In the split second of cascading debris, Roxy and Shin darted forward like lightning, grabbing the two panicked Geishas collapsed on the floor. Both embraced the women, flipping backward out of the collapse zone. Seijuro repeatedly swung his Katana, slicing massive concrete slabs descending upon his head into dust to carve an escape route.
Kagetora was the sole target who bore the full brunt of the disaster. He was completely submerged under a mountain of rubble. Billowing dust clouds surged violently, the deafening tremors sending mild quakes felt by citizens living miles away.
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As the dust gradually settled, Roxy gently set the two Geishas down on the ground, waving them off:
— "You two get out of here right now!"
Shin covered his mouth from the dust particles, staring at the cluttered ruins as he swallowed hard:
— "Taking that hit head-on would slice a person clean in half! But Seijuro, why did you cut down the surrounding structure?"
Roxy clicked her tongue:
— "Probably just clearing the battlefield for some open space?"
Seijuro casually stepped out from the smoke, wiping a speck of dust off his blade, narrowing his eyes at his two companions:
— "Are you two badmouthing me?"
Shin spread his hands:
— "Not at all!"
Roxy squinted at the mountain-high pile of stone:
— "Is Kagetora dead yet?"
BOOM!
Just as the three were doubting, the rubble suddenly detonated! Multi-ton concrete slabs were flung straight into the air by a furious force!
From the ruined mountain, Shiraishi Kagetora stood tall as he stepped out. Standing atop the peak of his completely leveled mansion, his entire body was drenched in blood, yet his cruel eyes gleamed bright like a wild beast:
— "You bastards... Destroying my property means paying with your lives!"
BANG!
With incredible explosive power, he leaped down from the top of the wreckage like a black meteor! Kagetora drove a straight punch toward Seijuro's face. Seijuro pivoted on his toes, tilting his head to dodge by a hair's breadth. Without stopping, Kagetora pivoted and delivered a sweeping strike packed with terrifying air pressure aimed right for Shin's ribs!
BANG!
Shin raised his arms to guard, but the sheer force launched him flying dozens of meters away, crashing hard into a pile of concrete.
Roxy grit her teeth:
— "Damn it! This lunatic is purely using physical force amplified by Sophion!"
Before she could finish her sentence, Kagetora tore through the air to close in on Roxy. He brutally reached out, grabbing her hair and lifting her entire body into the air!
However, Roxy didn't flinch. Both her hands erupted with crimson Hellhound energy burning hot as lava, clamping down on Kagetora's wrists! The extreme temperature scorched the skin on his arms, producing a sickening sizzle and acrid smoke that forced Kagetora to let go in pain.
Roxy landed on the ground, curling her lips into a defiant smirk:
— "How's that? This isn't normal fire! It's heat straight from hell!"
Kagetora glared at his blackened, blistered hands, roaring:
— "You bitch! You talk too much!"
Right before Roxy's eyes, the burn wounds on Kagetora's hands began to contract, fresh tissue sprouting at a speed visible to the naked eye! Within seconds, his hands were completely restored.
Kagetora charged forward to grab Roxy once more. Roxy nimbly stepped aside, but Kagetora immediately shifted direction in pursuit. Yet, just as his hand came within centimeters of Roxy, he suddenly realized... his right arm had lost all sensation!
SLASH!
Kagetora's arm was severed at the elbow, dropping onto the ground with a thud. Seijuro stood right beside him, casually sheathing his sword:
— "Taking that misbehaving arm off your hands!"
Kagetora snapped, redirecting his full hatred toward Seijuro!
This time, he exploded with speed far surpassing the speed of sound, generating continuous, compressed sonic blasts—BOOM! BOOM! Closing in on Seijuro at point-blank range, his remaining fist—dichtly coated in a dense layer of dark Sophion—was unleashed with all the power and speed of a monster, aiming straight for Seijuro's chest to punch a hole right through the swordsman!
Roxy yelled from afar:
— "He's going all out! He's not holding back anymore!"
Yet, facing that destructive strike, Seijuro didn't back down a single step. His eyes turned icy cold, his grip tightening on his Katana as he executed an ultimate defensive counter-technique:
— "Kongō Bashō: Senjin! (金剛覇障: 閃刃 - Vajra Dominance Barrier: Flash Blade)!"
Seijuro poured a maximum concentrated charge of Sophion into his Katana's blade, holding the sword horizontally before his chest to directly intercept Kagetora's supersonic fist!
BOOM!
The absurd durability and absolute rigidity of the Katana not only negated the attack, but absorbed and reflected Kagetora's entire offensive kinetic energy right back at him!
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
Instantly, from Seijuro's position, a web of tens of thousands of lotus-shaped Sophion energy slashes erupted with world-shattering force! The violent storm of blade qi radiated outward, shredding everything within a radius of dozens of meters!
Kagetora—standing closest to Seijuro—took the full brunt of this ultimate move at point-blank range!
The scene that followed was horrific and gruesome to the absolute extreme.
Kagetora's massive frame was torn to shreds by tens of thousands of lotus blade arcs!
CRACK! SNAP! BLOOD SPURTED EVERYWHERE!
His left lower leg was pulverized by the slashes, severed completely and blasted into the distance. A third of his right skull was sheared off, exposing a patch of grayish brain matter and twitching cellular tissue before sloughing off onto the blood-soaked ground.
The skin bearing the White Tiger tattoo was completely ripped into ragged strips of raw flesh, exposing crimson muscle fibers and a mess of shattered ribs. His entire abdominal area was torn wide open—stomach, severed small and large intestines, and internal organs poured out in a heavy avalanche, collapsing onto the rubble in a sickening, bloody heap that reeked of a nauseating, metallic stench!
He staggered, then collapsed onto his one remaining leg. Fresh blood spurted from countless slashes across his body like broken pipes, painting the ruined wasteland bright red.
At the same time, Shin crawled out from the rubble. Seeing Kagetora's shredded body and spilled organs scattered across the stone, even Shin gasped in awe:
— "Seijuro... You went way too far!"
Roxy stood beside him, clicking her tongue with palms pressed together:
— "Taking the full force of that move... even a god would turn into a devil!"
However... a grotesque sight, defying every law of biology, unfolded before their eyes.
From that shredded body that appeared completely dead, Kagetora began to move in a horrific fashion!
CRACK! CRACK! SNAP!
From the stump of his severed leg, countless dark crimson muscle fibers intertwined like crazy tree roots. Bone extended outward, and new skin wrapped around it instantly, forming a complete leg in just a few blinks of an eye!
Kagetora brutally used his bloody hands... to bare-handedly pick up his spilled intestines and stomach from the ground, shoving them back into his torn abdominal cavity! The surrounding flesh closed up immediately, stitching his chest and abdomen back together as if nothing had ever happened.
The shattered section of his skull bulged with bone, growing flesh and skin over the exposed brain!
Kagetora slowly stood up. Throwing his head back toward the sky, he burst into a frantic laugh filled with ultimate satisfaction and exhilaration. His laughter echoed across the ruined space like the roar of a demon returning from the dead:
— "HAHAHA! THIS IS GREAT! HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN SINCE I WAS PULVERIZED LIKE THIS?! HAHAHA!"
He turned back to look at the Zero Horizon trio, his eyes turned completely blood-red:
— "I'll show you... what kind of monster I truly am!"
While still stunned by this horrific, grotesque regeneration, Shin clicked his tongue, frowning:
— "This guy really is tough to chew!"
Seijuro's gaze deepened into an icy chill, his grip tightening on his Katana as the surrounding pressure shifted violently:
— "Guess I'll have to release my limiter to 50% this time!"
Suddenly, Kagetora glared at the three with wild, insane eyes. Without a single warning signal, he smashed the stone ground beneath him and rocketed forward at wind-tearing speed! But his target this time wasn't Shin or Seijuro—it was Roxy!
He thrust out a hand wrapped in dense, dark-red Sophion energy aimed straight at Roxy, throwing his head back to unleash a manic roar that shook the entire mountain of rubble:
— "I'LL SHOW YOU WHAT POWER ON PAR WITH A GEN-PRIMAL IS LIKE! HAHAHAHA!"
(To be continued)