Red light sizzled across the clearing, flickering like wildfire. Riku's body trembled under the strain of Kaioken x2, but he gritted his teeth, eyes blazing with raw determination.
He vanished from view, reappearing in a blur beside the cursed spirit.
With a growl, Riku shifted into a Muay Thai stance mid-step and twisted sharply on his grounded foot. His leg snapped out, coated in Cursed Energy and Armament Haki, like a steel whip cloaked in flame.
CRACK!
His shin connected clean into the curse's ribs. The force was explosive—sending the cursed spirit hurtling like a ragdoll across the ground. It bounced three times, cratering earth and snapping trees until it finally slammed into a massive oak, which shattered under the impact.
Riku didn't wait. He flashed again—instant—and appeared right in front of the downed monster. His right arm flared with cursed energy and armament haki, and he uppercut the curse clean in the chin, snapping its head back violently and launching it skyward.
"YEEEEEET!"
He jumped after it, muscles protesting, aura burning. As he passed the rising spirit mid-air, he raised his leg high, preparing a downward axe kick that could split a mountain—
But the cursed spirit spun in the air like a damn Beyblade, grabbed his leg, and twisted. Riku's eyes widened.
"Oh, COME ON—"
SLAM!
The curse flipped him and drove him like a stake straight into the ground. A plume of dirt and rock exploded upward from the crater.
Riku groaned, barely rolling to the side before another bone lance impaled the space where his head had been. He rose shakily, clutching his ribs.
"...Yep. That hurt. That definitely broke something. Probably like four somethings."
The cursed spirit hissed with a feral grin. But Riku wasn't done.
'Shit… Kaioken x2 is draining me faster than I thought. My stamina's bleeding out. I need to finish this before I burn myself out completely.'
He flexed his fists, blood dripping from his knuckles.
'But even now, I can feel it. I'm adapting. Every punch, every dodge... I'm getting faster. Smarter. Stronger.'
Accelerated Development wasn't just working—it was thriving. The longer the fight went, the sharper his instincts became. Movements he barely understood an hour ago now flowed like second nature.
He was gone again.
He appeared above the curse and rained down a flurry of blows in a seamless mix of Wing Chun, Boxing, and Aikido, his fists moving like a blur—jabs, redirects, traps.
But the cursed spirit had Multi-Layer Perception. It twisted with him, ducking and slashing back with reactive strikes, dodging with fluid adaptive counter-striker. Their fight became a dance of blades and fists and raw violence.
It grabbed his head mid-spin, roared, and dragged his face through the dirt, grinding him like sandpaper against the forest floor before flinging him like a shotput into a boulder.
"RRAGHHHH—!"
'Okay, definitely five broken somethings now.'
He tried to stand—and the curse was already there.
It grabbed his leg, lifted him like a toy, and whipped him side-to-side, slamming him into the earth again and again like he owed it money.
"You've been watching too many Hulk movies!" Riku spat blood as he was finally flung across the clearing.
He hit the dirt, bounced, rolled, and skidded to a stop. The Kaioken flickered—unstable. Every breath came with fire in his lungs.
But he stood. Slowly. Wobbly. Grinning.
"You hit like my ex. I mean, I never had one, but I assume she'd be just as petty."
The cursed spirit twitched.
Riku vanished and reappeared above the curse, his fists clenched and coated in cursed energy and armament haki. He unleashed a rapid barrage of Eskrima-style strikes, mimicking baton techniques with his bare hands. His blows came down in blinding flurries—chopping at the curse's shoulders, smashing its jaw, and hammering its collarbone with brutal precision, each hit cracking the air like thunder.
The cursed spirit snapped a bone lance from its elbow and parried—deflecting the blows before ramming the lance into Riku's shoulder. Riku screamed and twisted away, then spun into a Capoeira sweep, knocking the curse's legs out.
They clashed again—Jeet Kune Do, Krav Maga, Kickboxing, Judo, Silat—a blur of fighting styles flowed from him like an endless river.
Still, the curse learned. Dodging quicker. Countering more violently.
'It's adapting fast—but so am I.'
He coated both his hands in a thick shell of Haki and Cursed Energy, forming a double-layered gauntlet. His Cursed Technique activated—Mirrorbound Domain—just in time to bounce back a lance that would've pierced his gut.
Then he threw a low feint, baited the spirit forward, and spun backward, driving a heel kick into its neck. He followed up with a vicious combo of Taekwondo high kicks that shattered the air.
The cursed spirit finally screamed, blood spurting from its mouth. Its body flickered with instability.
I'm wearing it down… It's losing focus. It's not smiling anymore.
Then Riku dropped to one knee, panting, Kaioken barely holding.
He activated Inspect one last time.
Target: Cursed SpiritGrade: Special Grade 1Height: 7'9"Weight: 322 lbsCursed Energy Output: ExtremeAbilities:• Hyper-Speed Movement• Bone Lance Generation• Multi-Layer Cursed Perception• Enhanced Durability• Shadow Stitching• Reverse TrackingWeaknesses:
–Limited defense when caught off guard from above
– Core located in the lower chest, behind the sternum
Behavior: Predatory, sadistic, enjoys psychological dominanceCombat Style: Reactive, adaptive counter-striker
He looked at his fists.
'...Then that's how I'll finish it.'
He channeled everything—every drop of cursed energy, every ounce of armament haki—into his right fist. His Kaioken flared red-hot, sparking off his skin like magma.
His body felt like it was tearing apart.
"Time for you to fuck off back to the Hell Dropbox."
Riku appeared in front of the cursed spirit faster than it could blink.
His arm was cocked back, aura surging like a tidal wave.
"FUCK. YOU."
He drove his fist into the curse's gut—directly into its core—with an earth-shattering boom. The cursed spirit's eyes widened, its mouth opened in a silent scream, and its body glowed with cracks of red light.
Then—
BOOM.
The cursed spirit exploded into particles of ash, dissolving into the air like dust on fire.
Silence returned to the clearing
Riku stood, trembling, then collapsed to one knee, breathing ragged.
"…Okay… okay… that might've been overkill. And I think I just popped a lung. Or two."
He let out a pained laugh, the Kaioken finally breaking off with a dying flicker.
But he was alive.
He won.
And for the first time… the forest was quiet.
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Okay I know it's late but here is another chapter. Let me know if I forgot to add anything or made any mistakes I'll try and fix it as fast as possible. Also I thought that regeneration would still level up and that only his ability to draw and get draws would be taken away.