Holding the Nichirin sword, Ryou casually spun it in his hand before slashing forward to intercept the incoming hair-tendril attack.
The female demon's head, which had been previously kicked away by him, returned with the help of her hair. In no time, she reattached it to her neck.
The demon had a look of terror on her face. In fact, she was scared senseless. The moment her head was sliced off, she truly believed she had died.
"You! I am going to kill you." The female demon roared with a crazed expression, and a suffocating pressure surged from her body, momentarily intimidating the two Demon Slayers.
As a demon with inhuman abilities, she felt humiliated when her head was chopped off and enraged by the fact that she was frightened by a mere human.
Unfazed by the ominous aura released by the Demon, Ryou pointed the Nichirin sword at her and uttered, "Come!"
Without any hesitation, the female demon lunged forward at extreme speed while her hair tendrils whipped out erratically, attacking him from various directions.
'Second Form: Current of the Ocean' Facing the onslaught, Ryou took a step back and swung his sword in a smooth circle.
The sword swing seemed gentle and harmless without any strength, but when the blade completed its arc, there was a sudden heaviness in the air.
The next moment, a massive water vortex resembling a deep-sea whirlpool erupted outward, obliterating the demon's attack and everything in its path.
Within a 25-meter radius, the powerful whirlpool ravaged everything, but the female demon managed to escape with just a few sword cuts, which healed almost instantly.
"What a powerful sword style!" Hoshiko exclaimed.
"He's strong," Suzuki added, eyes wide.
Ryou looked at the demon and thought, 'My strength and skills are lacking. This move could have decapitated the demon if I were slightly more powerful.'
The demon's hair was extremely resilient, acting as a shield to block incoming attacks and recovering almost instantly.
After clashing with the demon, he could tell that the female demon hadn't reached the stage of using Blood Demon Arts. Her strength was somewhere between that of an ordinary demon and a special one with abilities.
'Crack!'
Applying pressure to his feet, Ryou rushed towards the demon. 'First Form: Wind Slash' His sword arced through the air, unleashing a razor-sharp wind blade that sliced through her tendrils with ease.
But Ryou didn't use this opportunity to finish off the demon. Instead, he continued using other forms in his breathing style, testing them in real combat.
"Why didn't he behead the demon? He could have killed it just now?" Hoshiko asked with his fist clenched.
"He's using the Demon to improve his breathing style," Suzuki remarked, at a loss for words.
The demon used her inhuman strength, speed, and reflexes to attack Ryou with the intent to kill, launching strike after strike. But he danced through her attacks with agile footwork, dodging every strike with ease.
Ryou parried her attacks with fast reflexes and swift sword movements. As he continued to dominate the battle, a sliver of doubt crept into the female demon's mind. She began to wonder, 'Is he truly a human?'
The battle dragged on for an hour, yet the female demon noticed that the human showed no signs of exhaustion, and she hadn't landed a single vital blow.
"Is that guy even human? How can he fight for so long without any tiredness?" Hoshiko, the demon slayer, gaped in astonishment.
"Did you notice the breathing style he uses?" Suzuki asked.
"Yeah. It's... his breathing style is odd; it incorporates elements of Wind, Water, Fire, Earth, and some other style I can't identify," Hoshiko replied.
On the other side, the female demon felt as though she was being toyed with. She was used to playing with humans, not the other way around.
"I am going to kill you! I am going to kill you," she screamed, losing her sanity to anger. She shot her tendrils with sharp tips madly, her rage enhanced her abilities, and further amplified the speed of her attacks.
Accustomed to the demon's strength and speed, Ryou effortlessly dodged her assaults. 'I have played enough. It's time to finish this.'
'Eighth Form: Time Zone' Time came still in Ryou's eyes as his senses and speed rose to the limit.
By the time the demon reacted, Ryou had walked past her, while a thin red line appeared on her neck. A heartbeat later, her head slid from her shoulders and hit the ground.
'Ah... I can finally go and meet my husband.' Slowly, the demon's entire body crumpled to dust, swept away by the wind.
From the outside, it would seem as if Ryou is a monster with endless stamina who can fight a demon for a long period of time. But only he knew his state.
His entire body was exhausted to the limit, drained of physical energy. Maintaining Nature Breathing during the battle was far more difficult than he had anticipated.
He was stronger than the demon, but it was just an ordinary one. He needed to train more and increase his strength further.
Tossing the Nichirin sword back to Suzuki, Ryou leaped high into the air and disappeared into the darkness of the night.
"Wait! Tell us your name!" Hoshiko called out. But there was no reply. "Who was he? He didn't even give his name," he muttered.
"It doesn't matter. We'll report everything as it happened," Suzuki said, still watching the darkness where Ryou disappeared.
--
Ryou ran for some time before stopping at a secluded place. He hadn't conversed with the demon slayers because he wasn't ready to join the Demon Slayer Corps—at least not yet.
After ensuring no one was nearby, he relaxed and checked the system panel. As soon as he killed the demon, a notification had appeared:
[~ Name: Ryou
Race: Ordinary Human
Skill: Nature Breathing - Unranked [4/5]+
Demon Points: 1 ~]
[~ Achievement: First Demon Kill
Reward: One Lucky Draw + Activation of system functions ~]
"System, what functions have been activated?" Ryou asked.
"First, Demon Points. Now, you can earn Demon Points by hunting demons. These points can be used to advance your skills. For your reference:
-->Ordinary Demon: 1 Point
-->Special Demon: 2 Points
-->Lower Moon: 5 Points
-->Upper Moon: 10 Points.
Second, the Task Function has been officially activated. From now on, the system will issue tasks randomly, which you can complete to earn rewards."