The fight had reached a point where, under normal circumstances, one side would start considering retreat.
For Hane Genma, however, retreat was never an option—not when he was being pummeled like a stray dog earlier, and certainly not now, when the tide of battle was finally turning in his favor. Withdrawing at this moment would mean all the hits he took were for nothing.
He had no reason to back down.
More importantly, Genma's purpose for coming here remained unfulfilled. The figure before him, Jigo Yurei, cloaked in the grotesque power of the Earth Grudge Fear, didn't seem inclined to let him have a friendly chat with the daimyo of Kikyo Castle, Date Toyosaka.
Jigo, too, had no intention of pulling back. Despite losing several of his masks, he didn't believe he could lose. His combat strength remained intact, while his opponent was already half-broken.
There was another reason Jigo wouldn't let this chance slip away: Genma's body was a rare and exceptional prize. Jigo coveted Genma's heart, and he wasn't about to abandon such a valuable opportunity.
But there was an even more personal motivation fueling Jigo's fighting spirit.
It was almost laughable, but Jigo was a man of his word. He lived by a creed: always take responsibility for the paycheck.
At the top of the castle's keep, the water Genma had summoned was rapidly draining away. A fierce night wind roared through the massive hole in the wall, scattering the lingering dust and scalding steam in an instant.
Jigo's form reemerged. But compared to his earlier controlled appearance, his body had now swollen dramatically, his height exceeding three meters.
The black tendrils of the Earth Grudge Fear poured from old wounds across his body, making him look massive, grotesque, and overwhelmingly menacing—like a scarecrow from a horror tale.
Jigo had fully activated his Earth Grudge Fear Mode.
Seeing him like this, Genma instantly realized his earlier kick had done little real damage. The Earth Grudge Fear technique granted its user extraordinary resilience. Smashing Jigo into the wall might have looked impressive, but it was no different from kicking a rubber ball.
From the stump of Jigo's severed arm, countless black tendrils writhed, swiftly coalescing into a thick, whip-like appendage to replace his lost limb. At the same time, the three masks on his back squirmed and burrowed into this new "arm."
Lightning crackled across Jigo's body as he darted through the spacious room, his position shifting rapidly.
The lightning scattered across the remnants of water on the floor. In a flash, Jigo halted at Genma's side.
Whoosh!
Jigo's arm lashed out like a whip, the massive tendril swinging with brutal force.
Genma reacted swiftly, sidestepping several paces to evade the strike. The attack missed, merely adding more cracks to the already battered floor of the keep's upper level.
But in the next moment, the giant tendril that had struck beside Genma suddenly bloomed. Its center split open, unfurling like a massive black umbrella, enveloping nearly half the spherical space around Genma and trapping him within.
At the heart of the umbrella's inner surface, three elemental masks opened their mouths wide.
Three streams of ultra-dense chakra—Wind, Lightning, and Fire—began to converge, brewing a terrifying aura of destruction.
A chakra cannon…
Genma instantly understood Jigo's plan. His body tensed, his heart skipping a beat.
This was no small move—Jigo was unleashing a massive attack. The sheer volume of chakra being gathered made it clear how devastating the next strike would be.
But after a split-second of racing thoughts, Genma's response was startlingly simple and brutal…
He stomped the floor.
His eyes locked onto the flickering chakra orb forming in front of Jigo's masks. Suddenly, the flickering stopped, the orb's surface trembling violently as if it could no longer contain the energy within.
In the next instant, blinding light flooded Genma's vision.
Jigo's chakra cannon erupted!
Now!
At that exact moment, Genma raised one foot, his chakra surging to its maximum output, his entire body radiating explosive power. Then…
He slammed his foot down.
With a thunderous boom, the floor, already battered beyond endurance, gave way in a violent collapse.
Jigo's chakra cannon could adjust its trajectory, but Genma had timed his move perfectly. The sudden shift threw Jigo off balance, leaving him no time to redirect the cannon's aim.
The abrupt sensation of weightlessness sent Jigo plummeting, his body tilting uncontrollably. The "muzzle" of the tendril-wrapped cannon, caught by inertia and tugged backward, angled slightly upward.
BOOM!
A dazzling beam of light shot upward, piercing the night sky. Half of the keep's roof was obliterated in an instant, sending a torrent of debris soaring into the air before raining down like scattered blossoms onto the castle town below.
The attack's power was staggering—but it missed.
Missing such a massive technique was a heavy blow, even for someone like Jigo, who had chakra to spare.
As he fell to the lower level, Jigo's eyes darted through the cascade of falling rubble, searching for Genma. The moment the chakra cannon went off-target, Genma's presence vanished.
Jigo, falling face-up, instinctively scanned the area above him, where his three masks were positioned and where Genma, theoretically, should have been targeted.
But in the next moment, a thin blade of water sliced through a large slab of stone below, its arc extending and rising.
Taking advantage of Jigo's momentary lapse in focus, Genma's Water Severing Wave struck the center of the Earth Grudge Fear's "arm."
A strange, sluggish resistance hampered the water blade's advance. The Water Release technique, which had always cut through effortlessly before, felt like a dull knife—a sensation Genma had never encountered. The tendrils of the Earth Grudge Fear were obstructing the blade.
In a sense, this was overcoming hardness with softness.
Yet, despite the less-than-smooth cutting process, this was merely Genma's subjective feeling. In reality, the Water Severing Wave lived up to its reputation, severing the thick tendril. It just took a fraction longer than usual.
The three chakra masks were forcibly torn from Jigo's body. Genma landed on a falling chunk of wall, using the massive recoil to propel himself upward. In the blink of an eye, he closed in on the masks.
In that fleeting moment, the tendrils forming the "black umbrella" morphed into a snapping "carnivorous flower." Its "petals" closed rapidly, while countless black threads shot toward Genma like arrows at point-blank range.
Thud, thud. The sound of piercing flesh echoed as Genma shielded only his head, his body lunging forward heedlessly…
Until his hand, sharp as a blade, pierced each of the three masks in succession.
The Earth Grudge Fear's tendrils froze, standing rigid like bristling fur before wilting rapidly, their energy source severed.
With a resounding crash, they smashed into the next level below.
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