Slashing the stone warrior with the five-meter blade of the raiton, I clicked my tongue in disappointment — piercing the cover, it knocked off the arm with the spear, but only carved a deep furrow across the torso, not cutting it in half.
Dodging the blow from the giant's only remaining arm, which left a decent-sized hole, I quickly delivered a second and third blow, this time splitting the enemy in two. The demonic chakra then dissipated, and cracks ran through the remains of the defeated golem, which crumbled into a pile of rubble.
A relatively good result, the amount of chakra I spent was much less than what I felt in it. Quickly looking around and making sure that the two demon worshippers had already finished off the kage bunshin, I set about extracting another test sample.
"Doton: Doruyuso (Earth Release: Earth Spikes)!
Putting a large amount of chakra into it, I simply rammed the golem out of the mud trap onto solid ground, then destroyed the ninjutsu so that the others couldn't climb out.
Unfortunately, despite the enormous force of the blow, the stone colossus was unharmed, except for a broken spear, which had been damaged by the weight of its master landing on top of it, confirming the uselessness of Doton ninjutsu against them. Shrugging my shoulders, I formed several seals and exhaled a stream of fire from my mouth.
"Katon: Gokaku no Jutsu (Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique)."
A huge ball of fire slammed into the giant heading towards me, exploding in a cloud of flames that momentarily obscured him, and I had to look away.
"Boss!" the kage bunshin nearby warned, but I already felt the source of demonic chakra approaching from behind.
"Die!"
Turning sideways to the approaching shinobi, I crouched slightly, letting the enemy's kunai pass over my head and grabbing his arm, then brought my right elbow down on his chest with a swing. Ribs cracked, the man gasped and twitched in a death spasm, but I paid no attention to it, freezing and looking behind me in confusion.
"What the...?"
Behind him stuck a pointed bone stake that had pierced his body and, judging by its position, shattered his spine. The stake had grown out of my elbow during the blow, acting on pure instinct, and had torn through clothing reinforced with seals from the inside, no less reliable than the human body.
Surprised, I half-closed my eyes and with a single effort of will pulled the bone out and threw the dying shinobi aside, but I didn't have long to wonder at Shikotsumyaku's (Dead Bone Pulse) unusual behavior. The momentarily forgotten golem emerged from the clouds of smoke and flame unharmed and, swinging powerfully, hurled a piece of spear at me.
"Shit!"
Crouching down and forming a shield of golden chakra with my left hand, I swayed as a stone pillar grazed it. If I hadn't been fixed to the ground, I would have been thrown back — these golems have monstrous strength, and it's best not to expose yourself to their blows, otherwise even an S-rank will suffer serious damage, despite their enormous reserves and corresponding body reinforcement.
After deflecting the projectile, I easily closed the distance with the giant and quickly examined my elbow, surprised to find clean, smooth skin with only a few traces of blood on the torn fabric. A few drops, no more. But I hadn't healed anything and hadn't even transformed medical chakra at the site of the injury. Frowning and leaving this question for later, I focused on the task at hand.
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