Meanwhile, I looked directly at the Nine-Tails, and the giant beast stared back at me as well. Its massive eyes remained fixed on me, clearly watching the person who had just emerged almost completely unharmed after enduring one of its strongest attacks. After tearing away the ruined upper half of my kimono, I reached down and grabbed Shusui, which I had stabbed into the ground moments earlier. The familiar weight of the blade settled comfortably in my hand. I rolled my shoulder once before pointing my blade directly at the Nine-Tails. Then I smirked.
"Well, is this all you've got?" My voice carried clearly across the battlefield as I slowly raised my swords. "Come on. Give me something good."
The moment those words reached the Nine-Tails, its already furious expression twisted even further. Its enormous eyes widened, its lips pulled back, and a thunderous roar erupted from its mouth.
"ROAAAAAR!"
The sound alone shook the surrounding area. The Nine-Tails was completely enraged. Without hesitation, it swung its massive left claw toward me. The gigantic claw tore through the air with terrifying speed, annihilating everything in its path. Buildings shattered, walls exploded, trees were uprooted, and the ground itself was ripped apart as the claw advanced toward me. It wasn't just the claw that was dangerous. As it tore through the village, countless chunks of debris were launched forward. Broken sections of houses, massive wooden beams, stone fragments, and entire chunks of earth ripped from the ground all became deadly projectiles flying toward me alongside the claw itself. It was essentially a multi-layered attack combining the claw, the shockwave, and countless projectiles all arriving simultaneously.
But I wasn't intimidated in the slightest; on the contrary, my eyes sharpened as Observation Haki instantly spread outward. The incoming claw, the debris, the shifting trajectories, and the changing angles all entered my perception. To me, the battlefield seemed to become clearer and more predictable. I immediately moved. A large chunk of stone flew toward my head, but I jumped, letting the projectile pass beneath me. Before I even landed, my foot touched another flying piece of debris, and using it as a stepping stone, I pushed off again. A shattered beam came spinning toward me. Slash! One sword flashed, splitting the beam apart instantly. I landed on another flying chunk of rubble and jumped again.
My movements flowed continuously from one projectile to another. Each leap was perfectly timed, each step was deliberate, and each movement brought me closer to the Nine-Tails. As more debris flew toward me, I cut some apart, dodged others, and used several as temporary footholds. From the perspective of the surrounding shinobi, it looked as though I was dancing through a storm of destruction, yet none of it was random. Every movement was calculated, and every jump had a purpose. Not only was I avoiding the countless projectiles, but I was also steadily advancing toward the Nine-Tails while positioning myself to evade the incoming claw at the perfect moment.
The distance between us shrank rapidly, and the closer I got, the more dangerous my smile became. Finally, the opportunity I had been waiting for arrived. By now, most of the debris launched by the Nine-Tails had already been dealt with. Some had been cut apart by my swords, some had been dodged entirely, and others had served as temporary footholds that I used to advance. The battlefield around me was littered with shattered rubble. At this point, only the massive claw of the Nine-Tails remained as the true threat directly in front of me.
The gigantic claw descended toward me, carrying enough force to flatten buildings, and that was exactly the moment I had been waiting for. It was a moment calculated through Observation Haki, where the Nine-Tails had already committed to its attack and could no longer stop the momentum of its claw. More importantly, it was a moment where the beast wouldn't have enough time to launch another defensive move before I reached it. The instant my feet touched the ground, I crouched and tightened my muscles, gathering every ounce of strength in my legs like a compressed spring.
Then, boom!
The ground beneath me exploded. The earth within nearly a two-meter radius shattered instantly, creating a large crater as countless cracks spread outward, blasting chunks of stone and dirt into the air. Using the tremendous force generated by my legs, I launched myself diagonally upward, my body becoming a blur. The descending claw swept through the space where I had been standing a fraction of a second earlier. A deafening impact echoed behind me as the claw struck the ground, but by then, I was already gone. The wind screamed past my ears as I shot toward the Nine-Tails at incredible speed. Within moments, I had crossed the distance between us, moving so fast that the surrounding shinobi could barely follow my movement. To them, it looked as though a streak had suddenly appeared near the Nine-Tails. In the blink of an eye, I was already within ten to twenty meters of the gigantic beast. Directly ahead of me was the exposed left side of its upper body, including its shoulder, chest, and front leg.
The Nine-Tails had only just realized what I was doing. Its massive eyes widened slightly, but it was already too late. Suspended in mid-air, I instantly shifted into a proper stance. My left arm moved backward, and my right-hand sword was drawn back as well, parallel to the movement of my arm. The second sword mirrored the position, and the blade clenched between my teeth aligned perfectly with the other two. For a brief moment, all three swords seemed to become one as the surrounding air trembled and the pressure around the blades intensified. Then, I spoke.
"Three Sword Style..."
A powerful surge of force gathered around me.
"1080 Pound Ho!"
The moment the words left my mouth, I twisted my body, swinging all three swords simultaneously. Slash! Three massive sword slashes erupted forward at the same time, immediately merging together into a single overwhelming flying slash. A brilliant white flash illuminated the battlefield. The compressed force tore through the air with astonishing speed, creating a visible shockwave in its wake. Before the Nine-Tails could react, the attack struck. For a brief second, everything seemed to freeze before the flying slash carved directly through the Nine-Tails' left shoulder and continued diagonally downward toward its stomach.
The enormous body of the beast shuddered violently as a glowing line appeared across its flesh. Then, blood erupted. A massive spray of blood burst into the air from the wound as the line rapidly widened, revealing the full effect of the attack. The surrounding shinobi stared in complete disbelief because what they were witnessing was something they never thought possible. The Nine-Tails had been cut. It was not merely wounded or scratched, but completely cut. A clean diagonal line extended from its left shoulder all the way down toward its stomach.
In the next moment, the severed section began to separate. The entire left shoulder, the left front leg, and the enormous chunk of flesh connected between them and the stomach area all detached from the Nine-Tails' body. The gigantic severed mass crashed toward the ground.
Boom!
The impact shook the surrounding area as the earth trembled beneath the sheer weight of the fallen flesh. The Nine-Tails itself let out a roar filled with pain and fury.
"ROOOOOAAARRR!"
Having suddenly lost a massive portion of its body, the giant beast immediately lost its balance. Its enormous frame tilted before it crashed heavily onto the ground.
Boom!
The impact was so powerful that the surrounding earth shook like an earthquake, exploding dust outward in every direction.
Meanwhile, after releasing my attack, I descended calmly from the air and landed lightly on the ground several dozen meters away from the fallen beast. My swords remained firmly in my hands. The wind blew through the battlefield as dust and blood filled the air. In front of me lay the fallen Nine-Tails, a huge portion of its left side severed and lying separately on the battlefield. For the first time since this battle had begun, the monstrous beast had been forced to the ground by my attack.
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