The young man's survival instinct overwhelmed his unwillingness, and without much hesitation, he endured the intense pain and fear.
"I understand! Thank you! Please... please be careful too!"
He gritted his teeth, dragging his injured leg, and stumbled towards the wisteria flower sea.
This was just the beginning; there were more demons on Fujikasane Mountain than he had imagined, and they were more dispersed. He had saved one, but he couldn't possibly save everyone.
Watching the shaken young man stumble and disappear into the faint glow of the wisteria flower sea, Lorne turned, his gaze fixed on the deeper parts of Fujikasane Mountain.
He didn't continue searching the periphery but began to climb higher. The few miscellaneous demons he encountered along the way varied in strength.
Suddenly, there was a strange noise from the tree canopy above!
A dark shadow, carrying a foul wind, descended from the sky, its sharp claws like hooks, aiming directly for Lorne's seemingly unguarded back!
Lorne didn't even turn his head; his senses had already captured that killing intent.
With a flick of his wrist, his nichirin blade was thrust upwards with a strange backhand angle, and at the tip of the blade, a faint blue cold light suddenly ignited.
"Ice Breathing Style: Seventh Form: Piercing Ice Spear!"
Ice condensed at the tip of the blade! The moment it was thrust out, a slender, sharp, rapidly rotating ice crystal drill formed out of thin air.
With a piercing whoosh and absolute coldness, it struck first despite being launched later!
"Pfft!"
The ice drill penetrated precisely from the jaw, piercing through the entire head of the attacker.
The next moment, terrifying cold air exploded from within!
The demon's greedy, twisted expression, along with its upper body, was instantly frozen from the inside out into a crystal-clear ice sculpture by the extreme cold.
The ice sculpture, maintaining its pouncing posture, crashed to the ground, then shattered with a "clatter" into countless ice crystals wrapped in dark flesh remnants, scattering everywhere!
The battle ended cleanly and swiftly, but Lorne's brows furrowed even tighter.
These demons were too weak, so weak they seemed to be serving as appetizers for some more terrifying entity.
After circling the area a few times and not finding the Hand Demon, and unsure if Tanjirou had encountered the Hand Demon, Lorne decided to find a high ground with a better view to see if he could locate it.
He quickened his pace and finally climbed a steep rocky outcrop.
The moment he stood at the top, overlooking the forest below, a viscous, putrid stench, like swamp gas, that almost made one faint, assailed him!
"Ahhhhh—!!"
"No, no way! I've never heard... that there would be something like this in the Final Selection!!"
Lorne's pupils suddenly contracted. He saw, under the moonlight, a clearing in the forest that had been forcibly emptied.
A massive, bloated "mountain of flesh," made up of countless pale arms, was writhing.
A candidate holding a nichirin blade was running for his life, with the giant, foul-smelling mountain of flesh chasing him from behind.
The arms on that demon's body were twisted and convulsing, like drowning people struggling silently.
It was the culprit that had devoured over a dozen of Urokodaki-sensei's disciples—the Hand Demon!
"Hehehe... run, run, little snack!"
At this moment, the Hand Demon was emitting a spine-chilling giggle, and several of its arms were extending like pythons.
It easily wrapped around a panicked young swordsman who was trying to escape, slowly lifting him into the air.
"Found it... but it looks like Tanjirou hasn't arrived yet!"
Lorne's figure, like an ice arrow released from a bow, instantly swooped down from the rocky peak!
He didn't even draw his sword; he merely kicked the end of his scabbard in mid-air, and with a "clang," his nichirin blade shot out like lightning, transforming into a cold arc of light!
The blade light precisely severed the arm, and the rescued swordsman fell to the ground.
"Oh? Another little bug?"
The Hand Demon rotated its small eyes, buried in a pile of arms, and mockingly locked onto the intruding Lorne.
But upon seeing the fox mask, that mockery was instantly replaced by a morbid ecstasy.
"Here again! Another one of Urokodaki's little foxes! Hehehe!"
Lorne landed steadily, caught his rebounding nichirin blade, and repositioned it, his cold gaze sweeping over the mountain of flesh.
"Yes! But a filthy existence like you, it's time to completely vanish here!"
"Hahahahaha!"
The Hand Demon seemed to have heard the funniest joke, and the entire mountain of flesh trembled violently from its maniacal laughter.
"Kill me? With just you? Forty-seven years! That bastard Urokodaki Sakonji has kept me trapped here for forty-seven years! But I'm still alive! And living very well! I've also eaten fifty people here!"
The swordsman rescued by Lorne, hearing the words "forty-seven years" and "fifty people," lost the last trace of color in his face.
His sanity completely consumed by fear, he screamed and fled using his hands and feet, only wanting to escape this nightmarish scene.
The Hand Demon clearly enjoyed this fear. It ignored the fleeing swordsman and instead provoked Lorne with more malicious and specific words, trying to make Lorne lose his composure by mentioning the deaths of Urokodaki Sakonji's disciples.
"Eleven, twelve, thirteen... you are the fourteenth."
No sooner had he spoken than, on the other side of the forest, the Hand Demon saw Tanjirou, also wearing a fox mask, arrive.
"Oh... oh! Excellent! There's a fifteenth tonight!"
The Hand Demon's laughter became even more shrill.
When Tanjirou learned from the malicious boasting that this was the number of Urokodaki's disciples this demon had eaten.
Especially when he heard that Sabito and Makomo had already died here, and that the mask was used as a marker to identify them.
The string named "reason" in his brain snapped with a "crack."
"—Ahhhhhh!!"
Tanjirou let out a beastly roar, charging recklessly towards the Hand Demon.
"That's it! Be angry! Then become my nourishment!"
The Hand Demon watched Tanjirou, enraged by his words, attack him, and excitedly extended several arms, grabbing at the irrational Tanjirou.
But a figure was faster than it.
"Ice Breathing Style: Seventh Form: Modified—Piercing Ice Spear!"
Lorne's figure instantly blocked Tanjirou's path, and Lorne's nichirin blade transformed into a dazzling cold star.
This time, a rapidly rotating, spiraling ice drill, shimmering with a faint blue cold light and possessing a terrifyingly high density, instantly formed in front of the blade tip.
It emitted a sharp whooshing sound, piercing directly towards the Hand Demon's core head, protected by its stacked layers of flesh!
"Hm?!"
A hint of astonishment flashed in the Hand Demon's eyes. It instinctively felt the terrifying penetrating power and the unprecedented extreme cold contained in this strike.
Its dozens of extended arms instantly began to retract, then layered and crossed in front of its body, attempting to form a wall of flesh!
The moment the ice drill struck the arm wall, Lorne's other hand reached out, grabbing the furious Tanjirou's collar, and with a skillful force, he flung him backward!
"Tanjirou! Calm down!"
Lorne's sharp cry was like a bucket of ice water poured over him.
"It's deliberately provoking you! Don't play into its hands."
Tanjirou, thrown back, stumbled a few steps and regained his balance, his crimson eyes glaring at the Hand Demon, his chest heaving violently, still wanting to argue.
"But it—!"
However, Lorne immediately cut him off.
"Your breathing is all messed up!"
Lorne's voice was firm, but his gaze never left the demon in front of him.
"Can you get revenge by charging in like this? Do you want Urokodaki-sensei to lose another disciple?!"
He took a deep breath, and the chilling aura emanating from him caused frost to condense on the ground beneath his feet.
"We will avenge Sabito and Makomo together."
Lorne's voice was low but incredibly resolute.
"But for now, leave it to me!"