[The scene continued.]
["Do you still not understand that this is completely meaningless?"]
[Rui grabbed the threads with both hands, crossed them left and right, then violently yanked them back. The threads spread across the ground once again came alive, attacking Tanjiro as he charged forward.]
[A streak of blue water cut across the black night sky.]
[This time, with the flowing water clinging to his broken blade, Tanjiro actually managed to withstand the threads' assault. Using Water Breathing, he drew closer and closer to Rui.]
[Seeing Tanjiro's unstoppable momentum, Rui unconsciously took half a step back.]
["Water Breathing… Tenth Form!"]
["Constant Flux!"]
[While blocking the incoming threads with his broken blade, Tanjiro spun his body. The water flowing along the blade spun with him, and in the end, it formed into a roaring azure water dragon that instantly severed the three threads blocking his path.]
["I cut them! I actually cut the threads!"]
[Tanjiro was momentarily shocked by the power of the Tenth Form, but he quickly steadied himself again. Maintaining the rotational force of Constant Flux, he continued charging toward Rui.]
"OOOOHHHH!!!"
"So cool!!!"
"What a gorgeous slash!!!"
"Zoro! Zoro! Do that move too! Show us a slash that makes a water dragon!"
The moment Tanjiro finally cut through the threads, the Thousand Sunny exploded into cheers.
Luffy, Chopper, and Usopp, their eyes sparkling, immediately crowded around Zoro and begged him to perform a water-dragon slash too.
"Shut up! You're so damn annoying! I can't do that kind of slash!"
Zoro irritably shoved away the two humans and one reindeer clinging to him.
"But you use swords too," Luffy said with innocent deadliness.
"And he's using a broken sword," Usopp added, twisting the knife deeper.
"And you use three swords, so shouldn't you be even better than him?" Chopper followed up with yet another stab.
"My, my… and his slash is prettier and flashier than yours too…" Robin added with a smile—the final, fatal blow.
The lost swordsman was completely defeated.
Unlike the noisy trio, Sanji was still deeply worried about Nezuko hanging in midair.
[The scene continued.]
[When he saw Tanjiro cut through the threads, Rui's brows twitched slightly. At last, a faint change appeared on his usually expressionless face.]
["Each rotation increases the power… this is getting a little troublesome."]
[On the other side, after realizing that Tenth Form: Constant Flux could cut through the threads, Tanjiro's momentum only grew stronger. While continuously slicing apart the threads wrapping toward him, he sped up his charge toward Rui.]
["I can win!"]
["If I keep closing the distance like this, I can win!"]
[The azure current twisted and surged through the pitch-black forest, rising and dipping like a brilliant blue stroke painted across a dark canvas.]
["Hey…"]
["Do you really think this is the limit of my threads' strength?"]
[Suddenly, Rui spoke again, coldly.]
[On screen, Rui spread both hands and crossed them over his chest. Each fingertip was connected to a crystalline thread.]
[As he spoke, his originally pale, sickly hands were suddenly dyed red.]
[First, a bloody color seeped across the backs of his hands. Then that vivid crimson spread outward as if alive, staining his entire arms before crawling along the threads extending from his fingertips.]
[In only a few moments, every thread extending from Rui's hands had been dyed a deep blood-red.]
["Blood Demon Art!"]
["Cutting Thread Prison!"]
[Rui violently spread his blood-red hands backward, pulling the crimson threads taut.]
[Several ominous red spiderwebs, glowing with a sinister scarlet light, closed in on Tanjiro from all directions, trapping both him and the water dragon he had summoned within them.]
["That's enough."]
["Now then… goodbye."]
[After murmuring softly, Rui pulled the threads back once more.]
[The red spiderwebs surrounding Tanjiro instantly tightened inward.]
[As the crimson webs closed in from every side, Tanjiro was once again driven into a desperate corner.]
["No… I can't cut these threads!"]
[He hadn't even made contact yet, but just from their aura alone, Tanjiro could already tell that these red threads were vastly tougher than the ordinary ones from before.]
[A bead of cold sweat slid from his forehead to his chin.]
["The number of rotations still isn't enough… their scent is completely different from the normal threads…"]
["I absolutely cannot lose!"]
["Am I going to die? Am I going to lose?!"]
[The eerie red glow emanating from the spiderwebs surrounding him dyed even Tanjiro's eyes crimson.]
"Move! Hurry and dodge!!! What are you standing there for?!"
Just as everyone was holding their breath in tension at Tanjiro's dire situation, a deafening roar suddenly exploded in their ears.
In the deathly silence where even breathing could hardly be heard, that shout was like a thunderclap out of nowhere.
The members of the Black Bulls nearly died on the spot from fright.
"Asta! Why are you shouting so loud?!" ×N
Once they recovered, they immediately pinned down the "Roaring Emperor" and gave him a merciless beating.
At the Ninja Academy in Konoha, Naruto and Kiba were just as loud, yelling encouragement for Tanjiro at the top of their lungs.
"Fuffuffuffuffu!!!"
Unlike the nervous atmosphere among the heroic viewers, the scene atop the King's Plateau in Dressrosa was filled with delighted laughter.
"This is interesting… no… this is too interesting…"
Watching Rui weave his threads into a spiderweb prison and trap Tanjiro within it completely, Doflamingo's eyes glinted behind his sunglasses.
Almost unconsciously, he licked his lips.
In his mind, he was already starting to work out how to modify the String-String Fruit to create a spiderweb prison like that.
It didn't have the sheer scale of his Birdcage, and it couldn't trap as many people—
But it was far faster to deploy, and far harder to escape from.
(Once again, thanks to OneForAll for the monthly tickets, and to everyone for the flowers and review tickets! orz!)