"You're... Yamada-san?!"
Tanjiro, who had already closed his eyes to wait for death, struggled to open them.
When he clearly saw the familiar and domineering back standing before him, his eyes instantly grew moist, and an intense sense of security flooded through his entire body.
The monster from Mount Fujikasane... he was here!
"Not bad, Head Hashira."
Yamada didn't even turn his head, merely offering a casual tease. "To be able to burst out with that fire technique in such a desperate situation, you've already surpassed ninety-nine percent of the trash in this batch. However, your blade is still too dull."
"Who are you?!"
Rui stared fixedly at the suddenly appearing Yamada. Those red eyes with three tomoe actually made him, one of the Twelve Kizuki, instinctively feel a shiver in the depths of his soul.
"You dare break my blood threads! No matter who you are, you're going to die!"
Rui let out a shrill scream, his hands waving frantically as he pushed the blood in his body to the limit.
Blood Demon Art: Cutting Thread Spindle!
A blood-colored spider web, twice as thick as the one used against Tanjiro just now, came sweeping toward Yamada with a piercing whistle, like a crimson meat-grinding storm.
"Die? With just these few broken spider silks of yours?"
The Three-Tomoe Sharingan radiated a cold pressure in the night.
In the face of ultimate insight, Rui's terrifying full-screen attack was so slow it seemed like slow-motion playback.
Clang!
The Kusanagi Sword at Yamada's waist was drawn in an instant.
The black-bladed straight sword, forged from premium scarlet ore and possessing innate demon-slaying properties, was instantly covered by violent, high-density lightning-attribute Chakra.
Lightning jumped frantically on the blade, letting out a heart-pounding roar.
Lightning Release: Chidori Katana!
Yamada faced the overwhelming blood-colored spider web and swung his sword fiercely.
Rumble!
The lightning slash was like a roaring lightning beast, crashing into that blood-colored spider web.
Rui's blood-colored spider silk, claimed to be dozens of times harder than steel, was completely annihilated the moment it came into contact with the Chidori Katana's terrifying heat and cutting power.
"Impossible! My strongest spider silk was actually cut in an instant?!"
Rui's eyes almost bulged out as extreme fear instantly seized his heart.
Run! I must run!
This man is not some ordinary Demon Slayer, he's a monster in human skin!
Rui turned without hesitation, attempting to use his fastest speed to escape for his life.
"In front of me, you don't even have the right to run."
A voice like a Shinigami's whisper suddenly sounded in Rui's ear.
Too fast!
Yamada's figure had appeared behind Rui at some unknown point, and the black sword flickering with violent lightning was already resting coldly against his neck.
"This head of yours is worth quite a few points."
Ssh—
Rui's pale head instantly soared into the sky. This time, he had no chance to use his spider silk to cut his own neck.
Because the moment the Kusanagi Sword severed his neck, the violent lightning Chakra attached to it had domineeringly flooded into his body, turning every demon cell attempting to regenerate into charcoal.
Thump.
Rui's headless corpse fell heavily to the ground, beginning to rapidly crumble and dissipate.
The head that had rolled to the side still maintained an expression of extreme terror and disbelief. Until the moment it turned to ash, he could not understand why he, the dignified Lower Moon Five, couldn't even withstand a single move from the opponent.
[Ding! Detected that the host has killed Lower Moon Five 'Rui'!]
[Forcefully intervened in Kamado Tanjiro's life-or-death crisis, demonstrating absolute crushing strength!]
[Congratulations to the host for obtaining 6,000 Dimension Points!]
The pleasant system notification sounded in his mind.
Yamada sheathed the Kusanagi Sword, which didn't have a single speck of blood on it.
The crimson in his eyes receded, returning to a plain pitch-black.
"The strength of a Lower Moon is only at this level. It doesn't even count as a warm-up."
Yamada turned around and looked at the dumbfounded Tanjiro nearby. He walked over, took out a low-level military ration pill exchanged for 10 points from the system shop, and flicked it into Tanjiro's slightly open mouth.
"Eat it. It'll help your body, which is nearing its limit, recover some strength."
Tanjiro subconsciously swallowed the pill and felt a surge of warmth instantly flow to his limbs. His agonizing lungs and twitching muscles miraculously calmed down.
"Yamada-san... You... Just how strong have you become..." Tanjiro sat on the ground, looking at Yamada's calm profile, his tone filled with intense shock and admiration.
A Lower Moon that he couldn't kill even after exhausting all his efforts and trump cards couldn't even last a single sword strike in Yamada's hands?
Just then, two extremely swift figures finally arrived on the scene.
It was Giyu, who had rushed all the way following the roar of lightning, and Shinobu, who was full of anxiety.
When they saw the ashes dissipating all over the ground and Yamada, whose clothes weren't even wrinkled, the two stopped in their tracks simultaneously.
Shinobu glanced at the remains of an eyeball on the ground nearby, carved with the characters for 'Lower Five,' and took a sharp breath.
"You... we're less than a minute late, and you actually killed one of the Twelve Kizuki?!" Shinobu glared at him, but her purple eyes sparkled with an extremely bright light.
Yamada shrugged. "Like I said, I'm in a hurry."