Chapter 154: Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals - Phase Two
"Huh? It didn't explode?"
Kidōmaru was stunned.
Something that he had expected from the beginning didn't happen in the end. This feeling of disappointed expectation would suddenly make one's heart feel empty.
And just as Kidōmaru's heart suddenly sank, a gust of wind suddenly came from behind his head—
The cat-faced girl that Kidōmaru was most wary of, in the instant he was hesitating, had used a block of ice dart under his feet as a medium for the Body Flicker to cast "Ice Style - Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals," and had appeared behind him in a flash!
After incorporating the Snow Ninja's Ice Body Flicker, Haruno Sakura's "Ice Style - Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals" had entered the level of Phase Two.
The Phase Two Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals not only increased the speed of the Body Flicker and reduced the sense of imbalance after the flicker ended, but more importantly, the medium for the flicker was no longer limited to the specially made ice mirrors of the ninjutsu...
Instead, like the Ice Body Flicker, as long as a special Ice Style chakra was attached to a sufficiently large block of ice, it could be used as a medium to cast the Body Flicker jutsu!
Therefore, the Ice Style - Swallow Snowstorm that Sakura had cast at the beginning was actually just to lay down the coordinates for the Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals. Of course, she would not follow it up with the Dart Explosion Technique and clear away the Body Flicker medium she had just laid down herself...
Kidōmaru had no idea that Haruno Sakura's ninjutsu could be played in such a way. By the time he discovered that the cat-faced girl had already flickered behind him, it was too late to react.
"Nin-taijutsu - Star Cannon Hammer!"
Sakura's merciless punch sent the unprepared Kidōmaru flying!
However, this one punch actually did not directly kill Kidōmaru.
"Hmph... a mistake!" Sakura retracted her fist. There were some scraped skin on her knuckles, which stung with a fiery pain. "Let's try again!"
This was the result of the Monstrous Strength Technique not being fully unleashed. It lacked a layer of chakra for physical protection, and its power was not fully brought out.
This was the first time Sakura had used a Body Flicker plus a Monstrous Strength Technique attack. To activate Sakura Rush - Phase Two, Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals - Phase Two, and the Monstrous Strength Technique at the same time—each of these three ninjutsu required an extremely high level of chakra control. An ordinary person would find it very difficult to use even one of them, so even a person like Haruno Sakura could not successfully bring out the effect of this combo on her first try!
Sure enough, practicing on them first was the right choice. Sakura couldn't imagine what would have happened if that mistake had occurred during a battle with Orochimaru...
The punch just now had not concentrated its force into one point on the fist, but had dispersed it. The Star Cannon Hammer had converted most of the energy into Kidōmaru's kinetic and potential energy. Under normal circumstances, it should have been one punch that blasted a small hole through Kidōmaru's Sticky Gold Armor along with his physical body.
So Kidōmaru, who was hit by this punch, had most of the damage absorbed by the Sticky Gold Armor. Although he was sent flying in a sorry state, he still had the leeway to launch a counterattack!
"Secret Technique - Spider Web Snare!"
A giant spider web, Tayuya's corpse puppets, and the giant rock lifted by Jirōbō all smashed down towards the cat-faced ninja at the same time!
Such an attack was, of course, meaningless.
Swish! Sakura used a Body Flicker to return to the ice mirror above the Sound ninja's heads. The Sound ninja's combined attack, as expected, missed its mark.
A Body Flicker jutsu that uses ice as a medium? Kidōmaru thought to himself as he landed on the ground, looking at the girl in the sky.
No wonder she used that ice dart ninjutsu and didn't let them explode...
He glanced at the ground out of the corner of his eye, and his expression immediately changed slightly. "Fatso, quickly destroy the ice darts next to you!"
Jirōbō was a little confused when he heard this.
The two exchanges between Haruno Sakura and Kidōmaru just now had been a bit dazzling for him.
Jirōbō's reaction was not fast. He hadn't seen at all how the cat-faced girl had appeared behind Kidōmaru. If not for Kidōmaru being sent flying, this fatso, who only had brute strength, would probably still be looking for where the enemy who had disappeared from the ice mirror had gone.
Although he didn't understand Kidōmaru's meaning, he was used to obeying orders and didn't ask any more questions.
"Hah!" He condensed a large amount of chakra in his hand. Jirōbō let out an angry shout and slammed it down on the ground.
The power of this punch was enough to shatter the nearby ice darts along with the ground. This was the only thing Jirōbō, who was full of shortcomings, was proud of—his unbeatable strength!
But in the next moment, all of Jirōbō's pride was completely shattered by a small fist—
"Nin-taijutsu - Star Cannon Hammer!"
The fatso's punching speed was too slow. The girl, in her Sakura Rush state, had more than enough time to react.
Body Flicker, stabilize, twist the waist, and punch!
This time, she had learned from her experience and lessons just now and made no mistake.
The surging chakra, under Sakura's exquisite control, like the most precise machinery, circulated to every part of her body, each performing its own function. The power of the Monstrous Strength Technique was thus fully brought out.
The next moment the two fists met, Jirōbō's face suddenly changed color.
The fatso's fist had thick knuckles, a thick and strong bone structure, and the muscles on his arm were bulging, gnarled like old tree roots.
The girl's fist was as fair as snow, her wrist exquisite and round, her arm slender and straight. Her muscles were only hidden under her smooth skin, nimble and light.
Jirōbō in State Two, his grinding-bowl-sized fist was a full three times larger than Sakura's.
A huge contrast.
But the result was a complete victory for the latter's fist!
If Jirōbō's fist was like a rampaging rhinoceros, which even jackals and fierce tigers would find hard to face and could only avoid its edge;
Then the ferocious might of the Monstrous Strength Technique was like a tyrannical Tyrannosaurus rex. A fierce rhinoceros was nothing more than an ant in front of it. It could easily be bitten in one bite and snapped in two at the waist!
Crack, crack—
Jirōbō heard the sound of his bones breaking.
The moment their fists met, an overwhelming force was transmitted from the small ninja opposite him. His fist, in front of this immense force, was like a small wave in front of a monstrous one!
Jirōbō's bones shattered section by section. His knuckles, wrist, arm bones, and elbow, all the way up to his shoulder, ribs, and spine.
Bones breaking, muscles collapsing, nerves dying.
He finally understood why Sakon had been beaten to the point of near death with just one punch.
I really want to eat another potato chip...
This was his last thought.
Then, his vision went black, his eyes rolled back, and he collapsed to the ground in a coma.
Taking a full-power Monstrous Strength punch head-on, for Jirōbō to only be seriously injured and near death was already considered his good fortune.
However, at this very moment, Tayuya and Kidōmaru had also finally organized a threatening attack!
From under Jirōbō's body, a strange, long-snake-like creature suddenly emerged and bit at Haruno Sakura.
The girl subconsciously kicked up, wanting to kick away that white creature that was both like a long snake and a worm, but she found that her foot had kicked empty air. The other party was like a cloud of smoke without a physical body, completely unaffected by the force.
What was even stranger was that the white, worm-like creature had bitten her leg, and she felt as if a bit of the chakra on her leg had been bitten off by it!
"Hmph... a ninjutsu of Yin Release?" Sakura leaped up, dodging the attack of two other white worms.
Is this Tayuya's jutsu...? Sakura had noticed that there was something wrong with those summons before, but she had never expected such a change. These worms only had form but no mass, and were composed of very crude Yin Release chakra. Ordinary physical attacks were ineffective against them. They should have been extended from the brains of the corpse puppets, and their vital point was on the corpse puppet...
Tayuya's use of Yin Release was a little better than Jirōbō's. That worm could really bite off her chakra, although it was just a tiny bit.
"But to be bitten to death by them would also be a not-so-small trouble," the girl thought calmly, looking at the long white worm that had brushed past her feet. "And that guy Kidōmaru is also up to some tricks..."
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