The Gillian, attacking once again, was clearly enraged. It swatted down with its hand just like before, but at more than double the speed.
To Kōe, however, it was still far too slow. He casually grabbed a nearby Hollow and tossed it under the descending giant hand, turning it into a scapegoat. Without any visible movement of his feet, his figure blurred, reappearing a few steps away beside another Hollow that was merely watching the show.
The furious Gillian felt no remorse for 'accidentally' killing its own kind. Right now, its eyes were solely locked onto Kōe, who was darting around like a flea. Wherever Kōe ran, its massive palm would smash down a second later.
This spelled absolute disaster for the ordinary Hollows on the field. Faced with the mindless Gillian, they wanted to flee, but Kōe wasn't about to let that happen.
Some were tossed into the line of fire just like the first, while others had their legs brutally swept and broken by him, leaving them to wait in despair for the Gillian's giant palm to crush them and snuff out their lives.
Kōe systematically thwarted every single escape attempt. For a time, dust billowed across the battlefield, accompanied by an endless chorus of agonized wails. Every gust of turbulent wind signaled the erasure of another Hollow. The sheer brutality of it made even Uesawa wince with pity.
Under Kōe's deliberate guidance, the ordinary Hollows on the field were quickly wiped clean by the Gillian.
With the small fry cleared out, Kōe had no intention of dodging anymore. He sprinted straight up the Gillian's arm toward its comical face. The giant wasn't entirely stupid, though; it raised its arm, attempting to fling Kōe right off.
Kōe didn't panic. Bending his knees slightly, he rode the upward momentum and kicked off, launching himself like a rocket. If he didn't miss, his fist would make intimate contact with the Gillian's forehead in the very next second.
At this speed, the Gillian had no time to mount a defense. It was guaranteed to take the hit! But just as Kōe was brimming with confidence, the massive creature did something that completely caught him off guard.
Its smooth, pale forehead suddenly shifted upward, then peeled backward, revealing a bottomless, pitch-black abyss out of thin air. It was the Gillian's mouth, now gaping wide like an open box, waiting for him.
Uesawa was still searching for Kōe's figure. When his gaze shifted upward, he saw the Gillian snap its mouth shut. *'Was he eaten?'* Uesawa was startled by his own sudden thought.
"Impossible. Someone with such beautiful Shunpo couldn't possibly get eaten," Uesawa muttered to himself, beginning to scan every direction for Kōe. But it was destined to be a futile effort, because Kōe was, in fact, inside the Gillian's mouth.
It wasn't exactly comfortable inside a Hollow's mouth, and even if it were, Kōe had no intention of staying. He had only ended up in here because he couldn't hit the brakes in time, not because he had some bizarre desire to reenact a myth about being swallowed alive!
It was pitch-black all around him. Even though he released his Reiryoku, his own light couldn't pierce the darkness at all, leaving him completely unable to determine his direction.
However, Kōe knew very well that the exit was right behind him. He turned around, ran two steps in the dark, and bumped into a solid wall. Unsurprisingly, these were the Gillian's teeth.
Clenching his fists and gathering his energy, he rapidly threw a left and right hook in quick succession. These two near-full-power punches did the trick: the first shattered the Gillian's front teeth, and the second blasted the tooth entirely out of sight. Seeing this, Kōe held back his intended third punch, activated Shunpo, and hurriedly escaped.
After searching around and finding no trace of him, Uesawa had started to feel a bit of despair. But then, Kōe abruptly appeared right beside him. At the exact same moment, the Gillian suddenly clutched its mouth and let out a deafening shriek, twisting its body left and right in sheer agony.
"Where did you just go?" Uesawa asked, his face blank with shock. He pointed at the Gillian in the distance and continued, "And what the hell happened to it?"
"I accidentally ran into its mouth." Kōe let out a heavy breath, turning his head with a grin. "Knocked out one of its teeth on my way out."
Uesawa was left speechless. It was clearly a terrifyingly close call, yet Kōe made it sound like he had just gone for a casual stroll. Was this the kind of confidence that came with true strength?
But Uesawa was overthinking it. Although Kōe was smiling on the outside, he was actually panicking internally.
Old Man Yama had never taught him what to do if he ended up inside a Hollow's stomach! It was a good thing the creature's biology was somewhat normal. If it had some sort of pocket dimension inside its body, he would have been dead meat.
The Gillian, however, had no idea what a monumental feat it had just accomplished. Its most important feature—its mask—had been damaged, sending it into a state of absolute frenzy. A red sphere slowly began to form in front of its missing front tooth, growing larger by the second.
Cero—a technique that involved highly compressing Reiryoku and releasing it in an instant. It was a signature ability exclusive to Menos-class Hollows. Although the Gillian hadn't lowered its head, Kōe could tell from the way its eyes were locked onto him that the attack was meant for him.
He was well aware of this technique. Its advantages were its fast projectile speed, immense power, and devastating destructive force. Its disadvantages were equally obvious: the wind-up was too conspicuous, the preparation time was long, and the lower the class of the Menos, the longer it took to charge!
Charging straight into its mouth earlier was stupid enough. If he let it successfully fire off a Cero now, Kōe felt he might as well just end his own life!
"If you like keeping your mouth shut, I'll make sure it stays that way!"
Kōe moved, scaling all the way up the Gillian's massive body. He was going to hit this idiot where it hurt! But Kōe wasn't the only one taking action. From somewhere far in the distance, a blue arrow suddenly shot out, hurtling straight toward the side of the Gillian's face.
Immediately after, the pitiful giant's lower jaw was forced shut, causing its mouthful of teeth to smash against each other and shatter into pieces. The blue arrow arrived right on time, violently twisting the creature's head ninety degrees. The red Cero was passively discharged, sweeping through nothing but empty air.
"Did those guys rush over here too?"
As if to confirm his words, a rain of blue arrows, identical to the first, came hurtling down once more. Seeing this, Kōe first delivered a punch that spun the already dazed Gillian's head back around. Then, leaping onto its long nose, he pushed backward with all his might, forcefully shoving the overwhelming barrage of blue arrows straight into its mouth without missing a single one.
Boom! Boom! Boom!...
Continuous explosions erupted from within the Gillian's mouth. Its eyes rolled back, showing only the whites, as its massive body slowly toppled backward. The once smooth, pristine white mask was now riddled with holes and slowly peeling away. The mask was the very core of a Hollow; for it to be reduced to this state meant the Gillian was dead beyond any doubt.
Having already returned to Uesawa's side, Kōe couldn't help but rub his own mouth as he watched the scene unfold. Just looking at it made his teeth ache!
"You guys are way too ruthless!" Kōe turned to his left, baring his teeth as he spoke. "Couldn't you be a little gentler?"
"Don't go framing us. We were aiming for the head. As for how it ended up like this... I suppose you could say everything went exactly as you wished?"
Under Kōe's gaze, a dozen or so figures dressed in white suddenly appeared in the previously empty space. The young man leading them wore a bright smile; he was the one who had just spoken.
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