Chapter 332

After setting Kagura and Kanna down, Haruto fixed his gaze on the Breath Brachiosaurus and warned them in a low voice.

"Stay safe. I’ll deal with this thing."

Without waiting for a response, he blurred into motion and charged straight toward the enormous beast.

Seeing its first attack miss—and Haruto actually rushing toward it instead of fleeing—the Breath Brachiosaurus immediately became enraged.

It released a deafening roar before firing compressed air cannons from its nostrils in rapid succession. The blasts poured out like a storm, forming a dense barrage that covered Haruto from every direction.

Against him, however, the attack was practically useless.

The instant he began his charge, Haruto had already expanded his En to cover a radius of five hundred meters.

Every air cannon’s trajectory appeared with perfect clarity in his mind.

His footwork shifted constantly as he used Shave, weaving through the bombardment with such speed that blurred afterimages remained behind him.

Within only a few breaths, Haruto had closed the distance to less than a hundred meters.

"ROAR!"

The Breath Brachiosaurus became even more furious when it saw him break through its barrage.

It suddenly raised its two massive front legs, each as thick as a stone pillar, rearing upright on its hind legs before bringing both feet crashing down with tremendous force.

BOOOOM—!

The earth shook violently.

A powerful shock wave spread outward from the Breath Brachiosaurus, instantly splitting the ground within three hundred meters. Huge cracks spread like a spiderweb beneath the forest.

Trees toppled one after another as dust and debris surged into the air, blotting out the surrounding landscape.

Haruto leapt upward to avoid the violent tremors.

The Breath Brachiosaurus had been waiting for exactly that.

The instant Haruto left the ground and seemingly lost anything to brace himself against, dozens of compressed air cannons erupted toward him at once, surrounding him in midair.

Haruto showed no panic.

Instead, he gave a cold laugh.

"Heh. Didn’t expect an animal to set a trap."

It might have worked against an ordinary opponent.

Against him, it was nowhere near enough.

Haruto immediately activated his flight magic and shifted sideways through the air, narrowly slipping between the incoming blasts.

The Breath Brachiosaurus clearly had not expected him to be capable of flying.

Surprise flashed through its enormous eyes.

That single moment of hesitation was enough.

Haruto accelerated sharply and appeared directly in front of its chest.

"Go down!"

He gathered a massive amount of Nen into his right fist and drove it forward with all his strength.

BOOM!

The impact echoed through the forest.

The Breath Brachiosaurus’s thick hide split beneath Haruto’s fist, and the tremendous force sent its body—several hundred tons of muscle and bone—staggering backward several steps.

Haruto, however, frowned.

The result was less impressive than he had expected.

The beast was even tougher than it looked.

"ROOOAR—!"

The Breath Brachiosaurus roared in pain, its eyes turning bloodshot as fury completely overtook it.

It whipped its long neck around and opened its jaws wide, revealing rows of sharp teeth before lunging toward Haruto with a blast of rancid breath.

"Perfect!"

Haruto did not retreat.

He gathered Nen into his fist again and met the incoming head with a full-force punch.

The two collided in midair.

CRACK!

The sound of breaking bone rang out clearly.

The Breath Brachiosaurus’s head snapped violently to one side, several bloodstained teeth flying from its mouth.

Haruto was also thrown backward by the tremendous recoil. He flipped more than a dozen times through the air before using flight magic to stabilize himself.

He shook out his numb right arm, admiration flickering through his eyes.

"Big body, big strength. Not bad."

His arm tingled from the impact, but the smile on his face only grew wider.

In the world of Toriko, stronger creatures were usually more delicious.

Haruto licked his dry lips and charged again.

Today, he was eating this Breath Brachiosaurus.

Although the beast had come off worse in their last exchange, the pain only drove it deeper into a frenzy. Its crimson eyes burned with murderous violence.

As Haruto approached, it swung its head again, using its long neck like an enormous whip.

The sheer force of the movement made the air explode around it.

Haruto’s gaze sharpened.

He abruptly climbed higher, narrowly avoiding the strike.

At the same time, he flicked his right hand.

Several kitchen knives formed entirely from Nen shot forward toward the Breath Brachiosaurus’s eyes.

No matter how durable a creature was, its eyes remained vulnerable.

The beast instinctively closed them.

Its thick eyelids came down like slabs of iron and blocked the flying knives.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

The Nen blades struck the hardened eyelids before dispersing into the air.

But that had never been Haruto’s real attack.

The instant the Breath Brachiosaurus closed its eyes, Haruto accelerated again and slipped beneath its neck.

A massive amount of Nen gathered around his right hand, condensing into a kitchen knife almost identical in shape to Myriad Worlds, except this one stretched more than three meters in length.

Cold light rippled across the blade as it emitted a faint hum.

Haruto turned his wrist.

The Nen knife carved a brilliant arc through the air and slashed across the Breath Brachiosaurus’s neck.

Shhk!

The razor-sharp edge tore through hide and flesh.

Dark red, scalding blood erupted like a fountain and splashed across the ground.

"ROOOAAAR—!"

The Breath Brachiosaurus screamed in agony.

It thrashed its neck wildly while raising its front legs and repeatedly stomping down at Haruto.

Haruto had already anticipated the reaction.

He slipped between the descending feet and swung the Nen knife several more times.

Flashes of blade light cut across the beast’s neck.

Several deep wounds appeared, some reaching all the way to bone.

Blood poured more heavily with every second.

The Breath Brachiosaurus’s breathing became increasingly labored, and its movements noticeably slowed.

But rather than weaken its aggression, the injuries pushed its ferocity to the absolute limit.

It suddenly lowered its head and aimed its nostrils directly toward Haruto, its enormous chest expanding and contracting violently.

Haruto’s instincts screamed a warning.

Without hesitation, he began moving constantly, refusing to let the creature lock onto him.

The surrounding air suddenly rushed toward the Breath Brachiosaurus’s nostrils.

A colossal vortex formed around its head.

Wind howled through the forest as dirt, leaves, and stones were dragged into the swirling current.

Haruto’s expression became serious.

The beast was preparing a final, desperate attack.

VMMMM—!

A piercing hum tore through the air.

A gigantic compressed air cannon, dozens of meters across, erupted from the Breath Brachiosaurus’s nostrils.

It was not only vastly larger than the previous blasts, but incomparably faster.

Almost the instant it was fired, it was already directly in front of Haruto.

The enormous projectile compressed the surrounding atmosphere into near-vacuum conditions as it traveled, producing a shrill explosive howl.

Haruto inhaled sharply.

In that instant, he understood that there was no time to dodge.

He would have to take it head-on.

The Nen forming his giant kitchen knife immediately flowed back across his body.

Haruto activated Ken, concentrating his aura around himself to maximize his defense as every muscle tightened.

"Iron Body: Ken!"

The giant air cannon struck him.

BOOOOOOM—!!!

The explosion dwarfed everything that had come before it.

A massive shock wave erupted in every direction.

Trees within several hundred meters were ripped from the ground, while the earth itself was stripped away layer by layer beneath the force.

Far in the distance, the wind barrier Kagura had created was instantly torn apart by the blast.

Fortunately, Kanna reacted at the critical moment and used the Mirror of Death to absorb the shock wave heading toward them, preventing either of them from being injured.

Haruto endured the searing pain running through his body and looked toward the Breath Brachiosaurus.

Blood was now pouring from the beast’s nostrils.

Clearly, producing such an enormous air cannon had exceeded even its own limits.

Haruto gave it no chance to recover.

He immediately launched another assault.

A short while later, the Breath Brachiosaurus released one final agonized scream.

Its enormous body convulsed violently before its legs finally gave out.

BOOOOM!

Several hundred tons of flesh crashed into the ground, shaking the entire forest.

The Breath Brachiosaurus struggled weakly, trying to rise again, but its body no longer responded.

Blood continued pouring from the wounds across its neck.

The light in its eyes gradually faded.

Its limbs twitched several times before finally going still.

Haruto stared at the lifeless beast and slowly exhaled.

Finally.

"Haruto!"

Kagura and Kanna flew over.

Seeing that he was all right, both of them visibly relaxed.

That final air cannon had been terrifyingly powerful.

"I’m fine."

Haruto smiled and gently ruffled Kanna’s hair before turning toward the fallen Breath Brachiosaurus.

Excitement entered his eyes.

"More importantly, looks like dinner is taken care of."

Haruto drew Myriad Worlds and approached the massive carcass.

He slowly circled the Breath Brachiosaurus, carefully studying its anatomy while occasionally raising the knife toward different sections of its body, mentally planning his cuts with complete concentration.

For Haruto, capturing the Breath Brachiosaurus was only the first step.

The truly important part was figuring out how to bring out every last bit of its delicious potential.