"Groooowl..."
The Spider Demon fully emerged from its shed skin. Its body, originally around two and a half meters tall, now towered at three and a half. Not only had its height increased dramatically, but its power had also surged. Inosuke could even feel his own body trembling slightly...
"So strong. This is the strongest demon I've ever faced—" Tanjiro struggled to steady his breathing. He was scared, but not terrified, not cowardly.
"Water Breathing, Tenth Form: Constant Flux—" Tanjiro roared, launching the first attack. The Tenth Form was the final and most powerful technique of Water Breathing (not counting Giyu Tomioka's self-created Eleventh Form).
However, even such a powerful strike, which sent flesh and blood flying and shattered the demon's arm into several pieces, found its blade stuck fast in the demon's neck, unable to penetrate further.
"St... stuck?" Tanjiro was horrified.
[ROAR—]
The giant spider roared, snapping Tanjiro's blade with a swipe and kicking him away.
Tanjiro tumbled end over end through the air, crashing through a large tree. He coughed up a large amount of blood, several ribs broken.
"Oooh, Pig Assault—!" The little boar, Inosuke, bellowed, grabbing his two serrated Nichirin blades and rushing in to help. However, from fighting the Mother Spider Demon earlier, his body was already covered in cuts, and his stamina was far from what it had been.
In the end, Inosuke, using his Beast Breathing, found his Nichirin blades firmly blocked. Then, the giant spider grabbed his head, squeezing it with terrifying force.
"Bast...ard! Beast Breathing, First Fang: Pierce!" With his last ounce of strength, he unleashed his Beast Breathing, plunging his short blade into the demon's neck.
However, it only pierced the flesh, failing to sever the neck. It was completely useless. As the demon tightened its grip, Inosuke's head began to bleed. He was on the verge of having his skull crushed.
At the critical moment, Tanjiro, gripping the short remnant of his Nichirin blade, endured the excruciating pain and used his Water Breathing to rush forward and save his comrade.
An image flashed through Tanjiro's mind: his frail father, dressed in thin clothes, dancing in the snow and ice for hours on end.
["Mother, Father is so weak, how can he dance for so long? I feel like my lungs are going to freeze."]
["Tanjiro, there's a way to breathe. A way that allows you to move indefinitely without tiring, as long as you breathe correctly."]
["Breathing?"]
["That's right. If you breathe correctly, Tanjiro, you too can dance like your father, and the cold will be nothing."]
["Tanjiro, this Kagura dance and these earrings, you must ensure they are passed down. Ensure it is never broken."]
Suddenly, subconsciously, Tanjiro switched from Water Breathing to his family's Kagura dance. Unbeknownst to him, the long-lost Sun Breathing had reappeared in the world.
"Hoo~~ Hinokami Kagura: Dance!"
Flame-like patterns began to trace the path of his broken Nichirin blade. As Tanjiro swung it continuously, he sliced through the giant spider's defending arms and then, as if slicing through tofu, severed its neck.
After the flame-like figure swept past, the giant spider crashed to the ground with a thud. Its severed head rolled a few times across the ground before the wound erupted in flames...
"So... so strong! When did Gonpachiro get this powerful?" Inosuke muttered to himself.
Struggling to his feet, the little boar Inosuke yelled at Tanjiro, "Bast... bastard! If you can do it, I can do it too! Don't underestimate me, Gonpachiro~"
"Mm-hmm, I know. But can you get my name right? It's not Gonpachiro, it's Tanjiro... Hiss, that hurts~" Tanjiro clutched his body and collapsed.
Tanjiro's entire body was wracked with excruciating pain, accompanied by a ringing in his ears. The Kagura dance was more than ten times stronger than the Water Breathing he usually used, but the side effects were also...
————
"I don't want to... Waaah, Tanjiro, save me..." Zenitsu clung to a large tree, sobbing.
He had wandered here alone and had been bitten by a small spider, succumbing to a potent poison.
Then, the culprit, another Spider Demon, appeared, excitedly waiting for Zenitsu to die from the poison – a toxin that would transform the poisoned human into a spider.
One look at the large spiders on the ground confirmed it: they were the size of washbasins, each with a human head perched in the middle. The scene was utterly terrifying. Seeing these human-headed spiders, Zenitsu was petrified, hugging the tree and refusing to come down.
"Hahaha, you're such a coward. Are you really a Demon Slayer?" The Spider Demon roared with laughter, having never seen such a timid member of the Demon Slayer Corps.
"Ah..." Zenitsu, too deeply poisoned, fainted and fell from the tree.
"Falling from this height, won't he just... die from the fall?" The Spider Demon's eyes widened. A Demon Slayer dying from a fall? That was almost unheard of.
However, as he fainted, a thunderous breathing pattern began to emanate from Zenitsu...
Thunder Breathing, awakened.
————
"Blood Demon Art: Cutting Thread Cage—" Rui growled, and a massive web of spider silk flew towards Uchiha Nagi. It was so enormous, it was impossible to dodge.
The threads, originally white, had been dyed blood-red by Rui, their tensile strength immense. A single thread, almost invisible to the naked eye, was harder than steel and could easily slice through it. Can you imagine?
"Earth Style: Earth-Style Wall~" Uchiha Nagi quickly formed hand seals. However, things didn't go as planned; the Earth-Style Wall was instantly shredded by the fine threads, crumbling to dust.
"Water Breathing, Sixth Form: Twisting Whirlpool—"
The Earth-Style Wall bought him a precious moment, and Uchiha Nagi used Twisting Whirlpool. The rapid rotation finally managed to break Rui's [Cutting Thread Cage], avoiding the fate of being diced into mincemeat.
Before this, he had already used many Water Breathing techniques.
"Still struggling so desperately? Dicing you up will make you a bother to eat, but seeing as you're trying so hard, I suppose I can grant your wish," Rui said with casual cruelty.
"Struggling desperately? You don't really think I can't beat you, do you?" A slight smile played on Uchiha Nagi's lips. "Foolish. I was just using you for sword practice—"
Although his Mangekyo Ultimate Copy was powerful, it didn't mean that he could use copied abilities as proficiently as their original owners.
For example, if he copied Might Guy's Eight Inner Gates and they both opened, say, the Seventh Gate to fight, did he truly believe they'd be on equal footing? The Eight Inner Gates became stronger when a strong person opened them; it wasn't just about opening more gates. Disparities in physical conditioning and taijutsu proficiency meant that even if Uchiha Nagi perfectly copied Guy's Eight Inner Gates and they fought with the same number of gates open, Nagi would still lose miserably.
Breathing Styles were the same. Tanjiro had painstakingly practiced Water Breathing for two years. Although Uchiha Nagi had perfectly copied it, in actual combat, he was nowhere near as fluid or instinctively skilled with it as Tanjiro.
So, from the beginning, Uchiha Nagi had intended to use Rui, this Twelve Kizuki member, as a sparring partner to further strengthen his Water Breathing and catch up to Tanjiro.
To put it bluntly, his right eye's ability, [To See Through and Analyze the Principles of All Things], only copied techniques; it couldn't replicate the opponent's combat experience or physical strength...
If it could, Uchiha Nagi would basically be invincible. Even a resurrected Kaguya would be mere fodder—
Being looked down upon by Uchiha Nagi like this, Rui became furious. It had been a long time since he had felt such anger. Having slain even Hashira, he paid no mind to this apparently low-ranking Demon Slayer. Because Uchiha Nagi's clothes weren't the Hashira-exclusive uniform, Rui subconsciously assumed he wasn't a Hashira.
"Blood Demon Art—Cutting Thread Rotation." Rui formed hand seals, and a deadly attack composed of several layers of red thread webs appeared in the air.
Such a large-scale and wide-ranging Blood Demon Art was impossible to dodge, and it was layered. If it were Tanjiro, he'd be dead for sure without a healthy dose of protagonist plot armor.
But Uchiha Nagi simply said—
"So, you want to dance too?"
"The light of a firefly dares to contend with the bright moon!"