Seeing his comrade blasted away, the Black Hoe Raiga—who hadn't defected yet—immediately launched an attack.
"Lightning Style: Thunder Fangs!"
Dazzling lightning burst from the twin swords in his hands.
Rei glanced at the pool of water beneath his feet.
Trying to amplify Lightning Style with water? Not a bad idea, he thought.
The electricity crackled across the water, surging directly toward Rei.
The thunderlight enveloped Rei's large frame.
But Rei only sneered.
"Do you think I'll just stand here and take it?"
As the lightning flashed wildly, a golden light exploded outward.
Rei's massive form vanished in a flash of golden light—only to reappear instantly in front of Raiga.
The Eight Trigrams Mace in his hand came crashing down.
But the Mist Shinobi seemed well prepared.
Ripples spread across the water beneath Raiga's feet.
A smirk formed on his face. "Got you!"
From within the water, another figure emerged—Jinpachi Munashi, one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen.
He wielded the Explosive Blade: Blastsword Shibuki—a massive scroll-like weapon lined with countless explosive tags and a sharpened edge.
The wielder could release and detonate the tags at will, requiring fine chakra control and sword mastery. Mishandling it could just as easily result in self-destruction.
Before fully surfacing, Jinpachi flung water from his scroll, scattering dozens of tags onto Rei's body.
But Rei remained unfazed.
Without bothering to remove the explosive tags, he brought his mace down hard on Raiga.
Raiga's eyes widened in shock.
Everyone else froze.
They thought this monster would retreat in the face of explosive tags.
They never expected him to be such a lunatic!
Raiga turned pale.
At such close range, with Rei's attack bearing down on him, there was no time to escape.
He could only fight to the death.
Pouring all his Lightning Chakra into his Thunder Fangs, he stabbed forward with everything he had.
Blue lightning erupted like a dragon.
But Rei didn't dodge.
He slammed down the Eight Trigrams Mace.
The dark red thunder clashed with the blue electric dragon.
"Thunder Eight Trigrams!"
It was a pure, crushing force—tearing the electric dragon apart like heavy rain against paper.
Lightning arcs collapsed helplessly in the air.
The Eight Trigrams Mace roared like a primordial beast, completely obliterating everything in its path.
Raiga paid the price under the light of that thunderous blow.
Watching Rei kill his comrade, Jinpachi's face twisted in fury.
Without hesitation, he activated all the explosive tags wrapped around Rei.
BOOM!
A thunderous explosion echoed across the battlefield like a string of firecrackers.
The area where Rei stood was instantly consumed in flames.
Even the pool of water beneath his feet couldn't contain the spread.
"Be careful. That might not be enough to take him down," Loquat Jūzō said grimly, gripping his beheading sword.
As the smoke finally cleared...
Rei was still standing.
The violent explosion had left charred wounds across his body—but he remained unbroken.
This sight restored some confidence to the Mist Shinobi.
We've finally wounded the monster…
Under the watchful gaze of dozens of eyes, Rei slowly raised the Eight Trigrams Mace from the ground.
The horns on his head twitched slightly.
Then he grinned.
"Not enough. Far from enough!"
"Come on, come at me!"
A crushing aura filled the battlefield.
To everyone present, it felt like they were facing a god of destruction.
"Damn…"
Loquat Jūzō appeared beside Rei in a flash.
He swung his beheading sword with all his speed and strength—aiming straight for Rei's neck.
But Rei was just as fast.
He swung his mace sideways.
The thick iron mace clashed with the giant blade, sending sparks flying.
Jūzō used his smaller frame and Body Flicker Technique to zip around Rei, launching attacks from every direction.
But to everyone's shock, despite his massive build, Rei was no slow brute.
His movements were sharp, fast—and each time, he blocked Jūzō's attacks.
Doctor Ao could no longer stand idle.
"Water Style: Water Severing Wave!"
He spat out a razor-thin stream of compressed water—a high-pressure jet.
Jūzō quickly used Body Flicker to evade.
Rei raised his mace in defense.
The water jet clashed against the mace, spraying sparks as it scraped across the surface.
Then it veered off, slicing into Rei's arm—drawing blood.
Even his proud dragon-scale-like skin couldn't stop such a precise and deadly strike.
"He's injured!"
Ao's pupils shrank.
If they could pierce his defenses—then there was hope.
They could kill Rei.
The corners of Simu's mouth twitched slightly.
He looked at Rokusho.
"That's the only way to make fighting fun like this!"
Simu wore a very confident smile.
Then his whole body began to swell, finally transforming into a hundreds-of-meters-long dragon entrenched in the sky.
A huge black shadow enveloped everyone below.
All the surrounding natural energy converged into Simu's mouth.
"Immortal Art — Flame Tide Purgatory!"
Simu opened his mouth, and a raging torrent of crimson flames poured out.
The flames illuminated the gloomy sky over the Land of Water.
The sharply rising temperature made all the Mist Shinobi feel the threat of death looming.
Looking at the flames filling the sky, the ninjas below were all stunned.
"Is this really something a human can do?"
Someone muttered while staring at the giant dragon in the sky:
"This guy is no longer human."
Feeling the drop in morale around them, Cangya and Rokusho took the lead and responded:
"Let's all use Water Style ninjutsu to stop it!"
Huge streams of water rose from the ground.
Under Aoya's reminder, other ninjas also released their Water Style techniques.
The combined Water Style ninjutsu from hundreds of shinobi finally neutralized the flames that Simu had spat out.
The entire battlefield was shrouded in a thick mist formed by the evaporating water.
Aoya's face was extremely grim.
Before he could react further, the dragon in the sky had already made a new move.
The airflow above was violently sucked into the dragon's mouth, compressed within.
The clouds above began to swirl, forming a terrifying Uzumaki vortex large enough to cover everyone.
"Stop him!"
Rokusho already felt the premonition of death approaching.
If this attack wasn't interrupted, they would definitely suffer heavy casualties.
But the problem was...
Kirigakure didn't have any means of flight at all.
Not to mention interrupting Simu, it was even hard to get close to him.
After all, Simu was now hundreds of meters in the sky.
That was beyond the reach of ordinary ninjutsu.
However, the tailed beasts in the distance reacted.
The Three Tails opened its mouth in the midst of battle.
A massive Tailed Beast Bomb condensed inside, filled with both yin and yang Chakra.
It aimed at Hanyu Simu high in the sky.
But other tailed beasts would not allow this to happen.
The loyal Two Tails lightly jumped onto the Three Tails' shell.
It stretched out two claws and struck the Three Tails' head.
At that moment, a large number of spores suddenly hatched from the Three Tails' shell.
The swollen White Zetsu wrapped around the Two Tails like a giant tree.
"I got you, Ni!"
White Zetsu emerged from the white tree.
Ni grinned, and just as he cut off a branch with his claws, he saw the Sharingan slowly spinning in White Zetsu's palm.
The pupil power contained within quickly dissipated.
The illusion was successfully activated.
Ni's eyes became blurred, and he loosened his grip on the Two Tails' head.
The Three Tails took this opportunity to launch the Tailed Beast Bomb.
But Simu arrived first, compressing a hurricane to its ultimate and descending upon the battlefield.
"Immortal Technique — Ten Thousand Rens Tornado!"
Millions of sharp air currents raged wildly.
The ground was smashed to pieces, along with everything on it, including the Mist Shinobi.
No matter how they tried to resist with various ninjutsu, it was useless.
The earth was torn apart, the water cut, the trees sliced.
People were also cut open.
The entire battlefield was turned into a massive slaughterhouse.
Simu, having done all this, looked away.
The pitch-black Tailed Beast Bomb was approaching him.
"Boom!"
Dazzling light and turbulent energy exploded in front of Simu!
A huge blast engulfed the giant dragon entrenched in the sky.
The force of the explosion even tore a hole through the clouds.
Simu's hundreds-of-meters-long black shadow fell heavily to the ground.
The already devastated battlefield became even more chaotic.
In the distance, Minato's face was filled with anxiety.
Si Caidi — the Fourth Hokage — if he falls here, the consequences will be catastrophic.
Not to mention, Simu was his most important partner.
Minato struggled to throw his Flying Thunder God Kunai toward the battlefield.
He instantly followed up with another Kunai after teleporting.
Minato kept flying, rushing to the battlefield as fast as possible.
As for the Four Tails and Five Tails, they looked at Ni, caught in the illusion, with shock.
"Sharingan? Tricky..."
Lava flowed from the Four Tails.
With so many Mist Shinobi under siege, their situation was extremely dire.
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