Chapter 74: Humans Have Their Limits
"So fast!"
Nagato startled in alarm, immediately abandoning his contemptuous attitude. His black rods danced impenetrably, weaving a net before him that deflected each incoming air-flame shockwave. Every collision sparked brilliant flashes.
But this time Guy's attack speed was simply too fast. Punch shadows poured down like a torrential downpour.
Nagato's eyes could keep up, but his body couldn't quite match the pace. While blocking, he had to continuously retreat and evade, allowing those flame shockwaves to bombard the ground, blasting the earth into fragments and raising clouds of dust.
The two advanced and retreated, trailing a streak of dust across the ground. In mere moments they'd crossed several hundred meters, leaving only a deep trench behind. The trench's edges still smoked with searing heat, as if plowed by bombs.
Five seconds passed in a flash. Nagato's wrist flipped once more.
"Shinra Tensei!"
An invisible force field erupted with Nagato at its center. The massive repulsive force struck again, colliding head-on with Guy's Morning Peacock.
BOOM BOOM BOOM...
Violent explosions rang out continuously in the air, leaving trails of blazing fire suspended in midair like a string of fireworks.
But these explosions couldn't shake Shinra Tensei's repulsive force in the slightest. The sky full of flames was forcibly compressed into a flattened shape, steadfastly rebounding rapidly into the distance.
"Ahhh..."
Guy roared desperately, attacking with even greater strength and speed, even as his skin began cracking and bleeding, even as his bones creaked and groaned throughout his body.
But willpower couldn't change the balance of power. Before Shinra Tensei's overwhelming repulsive force, no amount of explosive effort from Guy made any difference.
The repulsive force slammed heavily into Guy. Airborne and powerless to resist, he was instantly blasted away.
His body flew through the air like a kite with a severed string, tracing an arc before being hurled far away. He crashed to the ground and skipped across it like a stone on water, bouncing repeatedly over a long distance, smashing through countless rocks and trees before finally coming to a stop.
"Huff... huff..."
Guy gasped for breath, his lungs burning as if seared by fire.
He struggled up from the ground, blood streaming from his entire body, bones crackling. His stance was unsteady, swaying, the ground beneath his feet stained dark red by dripping blood.
But the fighting spirit in his eyes hadn't diminished in the slightest—it burned even more fiercely.
"What a powerful enemy!"
Guy wiped the blood from his mouth, revealing a brilliant, blood-stained smile.
"Just the Gate of View and Morning Peacock can't break through his defense at all!"
"Then I have no choice but to go further beyond!"
He glanced down at his fists, which had begun distorting and deforming. The chakra around his body started surging violently once more.
"For my comrades!"
"For the village!"
"Burn, youth!"
Shouting these inexplicable words, Guy suddenly ignited. The green chakra flames around him surged dramatically higher, as if someone had dumped a massive barrel of oil on them.
Massive amounts of sweat poured from Guy's body, instantly vaporized by the violent chakra currents, forming blue steam that spiraled and rose around him.
At this moment, Guy's eyes were bloodshot red, pupils contracted to pinpoints. His entire body resembled a steamed lobster, his skin an unnatural crimson—looking as though he might drop dead at any moment.
But Guy didn't care in the slightest. The pain only made his smile more wild.
His face filled with fervent zeal as he shouted with unwavering determination:
"Eight Gates! Seventh Gate, Gate of Wonder, Open!"
With that furious roar, blue steam exploded outward. The shockwave blasted several meters of ground into the air. Chunks of earth and debris floated weightlessly, then flowed upward against gravity, forming an exaggerated pillar of dust.
"This guy..."
For the first time, Nagato's Rinnegan showed a solemn expression. He looked at Guy with some surprise, seeing in him a reflection of his own resolute determination.
This was the power of conviction!
He slowly elevated his body upward.
The Gate of View's Morning Peacock had already pushed his taijutsu to its limits. The Guy before him was clearly even stronger now. He could no longer treat him with the same disdain as before.
"The reputation of the strongest taijutsu in the shinobi world is indeed well-deserved. But unfortunately... your strength is limited to taijutsu alone!"
"Humans have their limits, after all!"
Nagato hovered in midair, gazing down at Guy with detachment, his voice carrying a rare note of appreciation.
Though he regarded Guy with more seriousness now, he still felt no apprehension whatsoever.
As a god, he had the right to such confidence!
Watching Nagato take flight again, Guy showed no concern. Instead, he flashed his teeth and raised a thumbs-up.
"Flying in the air is indeed an excellent tactic. It practically guarantees an undefeated position."
"But you're flying..."
"Not quite high enough!"
Before his words finished, the ground beneath Guy's feet exploded. His figure vanished instantly, appearing as if by teleportation directly above Nagato. His leg raised high, chakra condensing into a blue blade of light. From above, like a battle axe, it came crashing down.
Nagato hastily gripped his black rod in reverse, combining it with his forearm, crossing them above his chest to block.
BOOM! The collision's shockwave expanded spherically through the air.
Nagato's body plummeted like a meteor, slamming heavily into the earth.
The entire ground instantly collapsed, forming a crater dozens of meters in diameter.
"Ata-ta-ta-ta..."
Guy dropped from midair, following Nagato's trajectory. Arms raised high, like a torrential downpour, a continuous barrage of punches hammered down.
Nagato braced his hand against the ground and leaped backward, evading Guy's attack, allowing the ground beneath to be pulverized.
But Guy followed like a shadow, pursuing almost pressed against his body, fists hammering forth again like machine-gun fire.
Nagato's footwork shifted in complex patterns. What he could dodge, he dodged. What he couldn't, he blocked with his black rods.
With solid ground as leverage, Nagato couldn't be blasted away as easily.
But facing Guy with the Gate of Wonder open, Nagato's taijutsu was vastly inferior. Before long, his defense was breached. Another punch landed on his chest, hurling him far into the distance.
Even so, Nagato persisted in using taijutsu defense without employing Shinra Tensei.
Because he'd heard from Yasushi that at the Gate of View, Guy possessed the powerful technique called Morning Peacock. At the Gate of Wonder, he similarly had an even more powerful technique called Daytime Tiger.
With the Gate of Wonder's power and speed, Guy could suppress him in taijutsu but couldn't defeat him completely. Only Daytime Tiger could potentially decide the outcome.
Therefore, Nagato was saving Shinra Tensei for Daytime Tiger.
What Nagato understood, Guy naturally understood even better.
He knew his Gate of Wonder state couldn't last long. Seeing that ordinary taijutsu attacks couldn't thoroughly defeat Nagato and couldn't lure him into using Shinra Tensei, Guy gritted his teeth and steeled his resolve. He planted himself in place, took a deep breath, and activated his most powerful attack.
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