Awakening to a Special-Grade Explorer
Vol. 5 - Ch. 234

As they exchanged their moves, intense sparks shot out.

The resultant shockwaves, impossible to be disregarded, rocked the surrounding area. The trees around were blasted into splinters, and in no time, nothing left of them.

A series of violent clashes were ensuing at the centre of the open lot.

"—<Beheading Demon>!"

"—<Unmoved>!"

Fwoosh!

With augmented firepower condensed into the blade, Tenji sharply slashed with the Demon Executioner Blade.

Hai easily parried the strike with his wavering dark sword. The dark sword was like a piece of flowing water, constantly distorting its shape.

(Again? There's something strange about that black water.)

Having witnessed his attack being deflected for a second time, enhanced with power up skill abilities that come with hell weapons, Tenji murmured to himself in surprise.

He had targeted Hai's sword with so many types with his weapon, but that sword was surprisingly still in one piece. He barely had experience fighting someone whose weapon hadn't given up so far.

Demon Executioner Blade was a third-grade hell weapon, capable of insta killing a second-grade monster easily. Even first-grade monsters would be gravely injured from just a single attack.

However, Hai easily countered the strikes, carrying an impressive momentum. It wasn't a fluke either, this was what had been ongoing for a while.

(What is going on......? I'm sure my weapon should have melted any normal sword. Is that much firepower not enough? I probably have to deal with that black water like stuff over the weapon, but then Hai himself has put that thing over himself. It was so close.)

Tenji pulled back, more so to re-think his tactic. However in his runaway state, Hai didn't like that move.

"Where are you runninnnggggg!!? <Black Water Sphere>! Die, die, dieeee!"

At the same time Tenji had made that timid move, Hai waved his dark blade again and again from the distance. Immediately, ten—no, more than twenty 20 water spheres the size of coins rained down at Tenji.

"Ugh...so black water also had the ability to attack from a distance?"

Letting out a tiny murmur like a chirp of a bird, Tenji stuck out his tongue. He channelled his power into that tongue and soon, a blue character surfaced on it.

The appeared character was <繍>, means 'Embroidered.'

This was a defensive ability granted by the release of a new Blue Demon weapon. It was a type of power that activated merely by focusing energy into one's tongue without uttering a word.

Unlike the past's sound activated defensive ability, he could now set up a shield without any telltale sign.

"Whaaatttt!?"

As soon as those black water spheres, giving off an ominous vibe, crossed a certain distance, it transformed into a clean, transparent water. At the end, it then turned into the mist.

A mist floated around Tenji for a moment before settling down due to the gravity. However, when the mist descended, a mysterious scene unfolded where the supposedly dead plants and trees came back to life.

The unrealistic, yet phenomenal mystery of life caused even Hai's eyes to turn wide from surprise.

"Hii-hii......whoooo thee hellll are yooou? This move is definitely from a distinctively different power system. Normally, one can only have one type."

"I don't know. This is what scares me as well."

"Hihihihi......I knew it, we're the same kind."

"Maybe when you return to the Hai Ukai that I know... I would love to hear those words again. It doesn't make me happy at all for now, giving your state."

"Who the hell is?! Who the hell is Haiiii? Hey... let's make things more exciting."

Hai words had just dropped when he disappeared from Tenji's sight, his speed too quick to be followed by dynamic vision.

Then, in the same split second, Tenji felt an unprecedented murderous intent from behind.

"Haaaa!!"

Reacting instinctively, Tenji lifted one of his feet off the ground.

As he fell forward, he twisted his upper body and swung back his Demon Executioner Sword at the backstabber. He also increased the intensity of hell flames as he physically blocked Hai's pursuit.

But the firepower of his sword wasn't as strong as he expected.

Nevertheless, Hai apparently judged otherwise than to confront those flames directly and opened the distance by himself for the first time in this fight, escaping.

"Hiihii, it's not either!? It's not effective eitherrrr!!"

Hai somehow managed to land safely amidst Tenji's attempt to suppress him.

"High-speed movement......no, it's some kind of instantaneous movement."

After getting blindsided by Hai's impossible speed, Tenji had an inkling.

In the earlier exchange, he also understood the principle behind that black water. He thought his Demon Executioner Sword wasn't powerful enough, which was why he couldn't overpower black water.

But, his thinking was wrong.

(It's not hell flames aren't strong enough, but...they're being absorbed? Is it even possible? It would mean he was weakening the heat of hell flames in the instant our weapons collided and using that split second to... absorb the flames. Just how....no wait, the intensity of hell flames had slightly weakened even before the weapons intersect.)

Each blow he exchanged with that sword of black darkness, the hell flames weakened.

"Being able to absorb everything around is...too broken and dangerous."

"Hiihii, you have finally caught up! Yes, my Mystic Water Sword can take surrounding energy inside m—"

"Output, thirty percent."

Suddenly, Tenji murmured.

"Ah, what?"

The hell flames dwelling on Demon Executioner Blade would constantly burn at its peak unless wielder chooses to restrict them. But while it sounds easy in words, it was just as difficult to control the output.

It’s akin to holding only the tip of a wide-open sunny hose and figuring out how to control the water pressure. For example, one might change the direction of the hose to weaken the force using gravity, squeeze the hose to narrow the nozzle, or block part of the opening with fingers to adjust the water pressure. However, these only alter the force; they don't control the absolute volume of water flowing in.

At the start of his one year training, Leon had given him an assingment.

—Zero-grade explorers are born from their undying tenacity. It'd be foolish to give up just because it sounds impossible.

—Press on your imagination. Find a way to freely control the absolute amount of water without turning the faucet.

Tenji pondered over this fact for a few days, but he couldn't find the answer to that. The conclusion he arrived was—

—How about making holes in the hose at various points and collecting the water in a bucket?

—Then, you can throw the entire bucket of water at the enemy.

Perhaps Leon found his answer amusing, he said, "Idiot, what's the point if you change the question? But it's interesting enough."

This was one of the factors that pushed Tenji to reach new heights.

If it was impossible to change the constant flow, then he could make do by opening a hole in it, and then store that overflowing excess onto another weapon.

Though, of course it sounds simple when putting in words. Tenji, however, took half a year to achieve that. And it was recently he finally had the skill to overturn that filled bucket.

"Now try to deal with that."

Demon Executioner Blade released a blinding radiance. The flames crackling on the blade was now different than ever. What should have been red hell flames was replaced by—white hell flames.

They're the flame of the same colour Ibuki Douji had been using.