As soon as they came out of the cave passage, the three saw a gigantic tentacle smashing down toward them.
Maki immediately let go of the katana in her left hand.
The katana, with a blade length of only sixty centimeters and a very narrow blade, was clearly not suited for cutting through a tentacle dozens of meters long with a diameter of more than one meter at the end.
She adjusted her grip with her right hand, grabbed the middle and lower umbrella disks with her left, and pulled down hard. The Thousand Machine Umbrella transformed from its battle spear form into a massive double-edged greatsword.
"Haaah!"
Maki roared as she swung the greatsword horizontally with both hands.
The enormous tentacle crashing down toward them was instantly severed.
The next second, several more tentacles lashed toward the three of them.
"Explode."
"Fire!"
Even faster than the tentacles were Toge's Cursed Speech and Panda's rocket launcher.
After Maki cut through the first attacking tentacle, the scene inside the cave unfolded before their eyes.
Toge and Panda immediately locked onto the Cursed Spirit, which was unfurling its massive octopus-like body.
Then, according to their plan, they attacked at the same time.
Splat.
Boom.
Under the effect of Cursed Speech, the Cursed Spirit's rising upper body suddenly exploded.
Its upper body instantly turned into a bloody mess.
Soon after, the rocket fired by Panda detonated inside the Cursed Spirit's wound.
A large hole was blasted into the Cursed Spirit's body.
"It worked."
Seeing the huge wound in the Cursed Spirit's body, Panda immediately pulled out several more rockets, ready to continue the attack.
"Cough, cough."
Behind him, a dry, unpleasant cough rang out.
Panda turned around and saw Toge clutching his throat with one hand while pulling out a throat lozenge with the other and putting it into his mouth.
Such a huge side effect?
Panda was surprised.
Toge was a Semi-Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer. Even a Grade 1 Cursed Spirit would not be able to withstand more than a few words of his Cursed Speech.
However, Panda had not expected that a single highly aggressive use of Cursed Speech would cause Toge such a severe backlash.
Is it because it accumulated from when he woke us up in the dream? Or is it...
Panda's expression turned serious as he looked at the massive figure inside the cave.
"Is this Cursed Spirit a Special Grade?"
The Cursed Spirit's injuries were rapidly recovering.
A large hole through the body would be a fatal wound for an ordinary creature.
But for a Cursed Spirit, an existence made of Cursed Energy, it was not a serious injury.
Carefully sensing the increasingly immense Cursed Energy emanating from the Cursed Spirit,
Panda confirmed his judgment.
He had not noticed it before because the Cursed Spirit had seemed to be in a deep sleep, with its Cursed Energy relatively contained.
Now, the continuous injuries had awakened the Cursed Spirit's ferocity, and its vast Cursed Energy began pressing down on them.
"At this point, we can only go all in."
Panda left the rockets to Toge, then quickly moved forward to join up with Maki.
"The support is up to you."
After saying that, Panda immediately activated the Gorilla Core within him.
Panda's entire body instantly became extremely ferocious.
"Vibrating Palm!"
Panda's enlarged palm slammed heavily into a tentacle.
The tentacle that had been attacking Maki was instantly knocked away.
Panda was also forced backward by the tentacle's overwhelming force.
"It's so slippery."
Panda carefully recalled the feeling of that brief clash, then made his judgment.
"Maki, I'll hold it off from the front. You and Inumaki find an opening to take it down."
After speaking, Panda directly faced the incoming tentacles.
Panda already knew that he was not well matched against this enemy.
Perhaps it was because he was a Cursed Corpse.
The mental haziness and drowsiness that Maki and Toge occasionally felt had never appeared in him.
Moreover, the symptoms of being cursed that Maki and Inoue had experienced after being affected by the enemy's Technique had also never appeared in him.
Therefore, Panda felt that this Cthulhu-like Special Grade imaginary Cursed Spirit, as Inoue had described it, was exactly the kind of enemy he could counter.
So even though his rank as a Jujutsu Sorcerer was only Semi-Grade 2,
and he was still far from being a Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer, which was comparable to a Special Grade Cursed Spirit,
Panda still felt that he could handle the task of directly holding this Cursed Spirit back.
"Alright."
Maki did not waste words. She nodded at Panda and began circling the Cursed Spirit.
This battle against the Cursed Spirit made Maki feel extremely stifled.
After understanding this Cursed Spirit's characteristics, Maki had deliberately avoided looking directly at the Octopus People and at this gigantic Cursed Spirit, which was half-human and half-octopus.
For example, when fighting the Octopus People, Maki would only glance at their feet before closing her eyes.
Then, based on her past combat experience, she would instinctively thrust out her battle spear.
She killed the Octopus People by relying on the reach advantage of her battle spear.
In this way, she avoided further infection and curses from the enemy.
And the slight curse Maki had previously suffered had already been dispelled by the Technique resistance and recovery ability brought by her reverse Heavenly Restriction.
Therefore, Maki was now fighting in perfect condition.
But even so, Maki was still having an extremely hard time.
Whoosh.
A huge tentacle lashed toward Maki.
The air roared as the tentacle whipped through it.
Hearing the sound, Maki immediately leaped up and dodged the tentacle's attack.
Whoosh.
Another whipping sound followed.
Suspended in midair, Maki could not use her eyes to observe this Cthulhu-like Cursed Spirit, so as to avoid being cursed.
Nor could she accurately form the Cursed Spirit's image in her mind.
This made it impossible for Maki to respond precisely.
So Maki could only raise her greatsword vertically to block at her side.
Thud.
Maki was sent flying by the tentacle. The immense force slammed her directly into the cave wall.
"Maki!"
Panda glanced at Maki in worry, then immediately focused completely on holding off the Cursed Spirit.
Panda realized that this Special Grade Cursed Spirit was clearly more interested in Toge.
Although Panda was already going all out, the enormous gap in strength made it seem as though he was the one being restrained.
As a result, with their movements restricted and their hands tied, their battle against the Special Grade Cursed Spirit fell into a crushing disadvantage.
"Stop."
Toge, who had only just recovered a little, saw the Special Grade Cursed Spirit attacking Maki, who was embedded in the wall, and immediately used Cursed Speech to stop it.
The three tentacles stabbing toward the wall halted in place.
With fury burning in her eyes, Maki immediately rushed out and cut off the three tentacles.
"Damn it."
The moment her blade cut through the first tentacle, Maki felt that familiar dizzying sensation.
That made Maki immediately close her eyes and focus all her attention on the double-edged greatsword in her hands.
Fortunately, those three tentacles had already been stopped by Toge's Cursed Speech.
So even with her eyes closed, Maki still managed to cut them apart.
After landing, Maki nimbly dodged the tentacles attacking from every direction while thinking of a way to break the deadlock.
This battle was probably the most frustrating one Maki had ever fought.
She could not use her eyes to see, and she could not even clearly imagine the enemy's form in her mind.
How was she supposed to fight like this?
If it were an ordinary person, they might already be thinking about retreating.
But Maki did not. This stubborn and rebellious girl would always keep moving forward, no matter what kind of difficulty stood before her.
Even if it meant being badly injured.
(To be continued.)