"Fight!"
Akuma's eyes were filled with the desire to battle, while in Ryuji's eyes was the desire to live better and stronger.
Their fists struck each other's faces at the same time. These two men, who in the eyes of others were powerful beyond human, now seemed like children who had just learned martial arts, completely unable to clearly see the opponent's moves.
Neither of them had expected this to happen, so both were blasted flying backward. Ryuji was sent flying straight toward the mountaintop, while Akuma crashed down into the city, smashing through walls and flying farther and farther away.
Explosions and crashing sounds echoed around them. By the time Ryuji reacted, he had already reached the mountain peak, smashing through large number of rocks.
"Cough… damn, that was intense."
Ryuji wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and spat out a mouthful of blood foam. He kept panting, trying to recover his stamina as quickly as possible. But when he reached out to grab a rock to stand up, his hand suddenly touched something familiar.
He froze for a moment, then stared in astonishment at the object in his hand that was constantly humming. Only then did he realize it was his Demon Slayer sword, vibrating nonstop, wanting to fight alongside him.
Meanwhile, the Kuroinu sword lay on the ground, faint light constantly radiating from it, but…
It somehow gave off a feeling of grievance?
As if it had been beaten up by someone.
"What the…"
Ryuji's confusion interrupted the battle frenzy in his heart. And the moment that desire was broken, Ryuji suddenly felt all the strength drain from his body. The aura around him and the black-and-red lightning wrapped around him all vanished without a trace.
The vortex in the sky began to disperse and that feeling of being omnipotent completely faded away.
Ryuji then saw the small mountain that he and Akuma had nearly plowed flat, as well as Hanzo in the distance, leaning against a tree and coughing up blood. Only then did he realize that their earlier clash had lowered the peak of the mountain by more than ten meters.
And this wasn't the result of deliberately destroying things with qi attacks, it was merely the aftermath of their blows while they tried their best to control their power and direct it at each other. If they had fought with pure destructive intent, the Shiranui family's mountain would already have become a meteor crater.
I'm actually this awesome?
Looking at the scene around him, this thought flashed through Ryuji's mind.
It wasn't that he couldn't cause such destruction normally, but that would be with dragon fire or sword aura, which naturally caused destruction. This time, it was just the aftermath of battle.
The combat power he had displayed just now was far beyond his actual strength.
"When I fought Akuma, my combat power was at least ten times my normal level… Is this the Satsui no Hado? No wonder it's the strongest power in the Street Fighter world. The amplification is almost like a Super Saiyan transformation… no, more like the Kaio-ken."
Ryuji raised his hand and activated his blood energy. The next moment, as the blood energy surged through his body, a red glow appeared around him.
This was precisely the power of the Satsui no Hado.
A violent urge to kill surged into Ryuji's brain. He let out a low roar, instinctively wanting to rush over and kill Hanzo in the distance, rip out his organs, drink his blood, then tear apart Mai and Tifa, and crush Chun-Li's bones one by one.
"Those weaklings don't deserve to live in this world! Using their blood to please me is the right..."
Halfway through the sentence, Ryuji clutched his head in pain. The Demon Slayer sword in his hand vibrated faster and faster, growing increasingly excited.
Meanwhile, the divine sword on the ground flashed again, resonating with the power inside Ryuji's body. It activated the power that had once fallen dormant again, sending a cool sensation through Ryuji's head and easing the headache caused by suppressing the killing intent of the Satsui no Hado.
"Damn it… the Satsui no Hado really isn't something you can just casually use!"
Breaking free from the Satsui no Hado, Ryuji held his head, feeling somewhat numb.
When his will had clashed with Akuma's and resonated with his fighting spirit, using the Satsui no Hado had been completely different.
When he resonated with Akuma's fighting spirit, the Satsui no Hado made him want to fight Akuma, but it didn't make him want to kill people. He only wanted to fight to his heart's content. But once that resonance ended and he used the Satsui no Hado on his own, even when he merely activated it, he couldn't stop the urge for indiscriminate slaughter.
"My willpower really isn't on the same level…"
Shaking his head, Ryuji suppressed his blood energy, and the power of the Satsui no Hado disappeared with it. But Ryuji wasn't particularly happy.
Unlike Akuma's Satsui no Hado, his seemed to have completely integrated with his blood energy. As long as he activated his blood qi secret technique, the power of killing intent would emerge from his entire body, as if he and the Satsui no Hado had become one.
However, there was also a benefit. Even without consciously activating the blood qi secret technique, it had begun circulating automatically, continuously repairing and tempering his body without requiring his deliberate control.
Feeling the mutated Satsui no Hado inside his body and the increasingly powerful blood energy, Ryuji clenched his fist, pondering as he walked down the mountain.
He wanted to see what state Akuma was in.
But before he even descended the mountain, Ryuji recalled the final strike between him and Akuma.
At that moment, neither of them had actually reached their limits. If they had continued fighting, they could have kept going, at least for three days and three nights. Their power would have continued multiplying just like before.
As for how much his combat strength would ultimately increase, even Ryuji himself didn't know.
"But something was very wrong with that state."
~~~~~~~~~~
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