"Lightning Release Unit! Volley!"
Following the hoarse roar of an elite jonin, over a hundred Kumogakure ninjas completed their hand seals simultaneously.
Zzzzt—!!!
Blinding blue light illuminated the dim snowy plains.
Dozens of "Lightning Release: Wave of Inspiration" and "Lightning Release: False Darkness" converged, forming a torrent of lightning capable of leveling a mountain peak.
A concentrated barrage of this scale was enough to instantly evaporate a small lake.
However.
Jugo, charging at the very front, did not slow down.
Instead, he accelerated!
From the reserved gaps in Jugo's heavy shoulder and back armor, several grey-brown horny tubes suddenly sprouted.
That was the ability of his Cursed Seal Sage Transformation—chakra jet ports.
Boom!
A violent surge of chakra airflow erupted instantly, providing a powerful thrust.
Jugo's multi-ton body instantly broke the sound barrier, dragging a white sonic boom cloud behind him as he headed straight into the lightning torrent.
"Is he crazy?"
The Kumogakure ninjas' eyes widened.
The next second.
The giant blade in Jugo's hand lit up with a dazzling white radiance, and he slashed fiercely at the lightning torrent.
Rumble!
That imposing combined Lightning Release was actually split in two by this giant blade, which had been infused with high-purity chakra metal!
The remaining scattered lightning struck Jugo's armor like torrential rain.
However, it was like raindrops hitting a raincoat, having no effect whatsoever.
All the lightning was absorbed and deflected by the chakra shield on the surface of the armor.
Even if stray currents penetrated the shield, they were resisted by the thick horny layer inside his armor.
He was unscathed.
Even the chakra engine on his back suffered no overheating or damage.
"How is this possible—"
Before the Kumogakure ninjas could organize a second wave of attacks, that steel demon had already broken through the lightning torrent and slammed heavily into the crowd.
Thud!
A loud noise echoed.
The earth cracked, and the shockwave sent the surrounding snow flying.
There was a moment of silence on the battlefield.
Then.
It became a one-sided, horrifying massacre.
If ninja combat is a game of skill and deception...
Then what Jugo was displaying at this moment was pure stats and overwhelming force.
A Kumogakure jonin attempted to ambush him from behind, stabbing a kunai fiercely into the gap in Jugo's neck armor.
Clang!
The kunai shattered.
Before the jonin could even show a look of horror, Jugo, without even looking, revealed five small jet ports on his fist.
Bang!
Leveraging the thrust from the ports, Jugo's elbow instantly broke the sound barrier, delivering a heavy blow backward.
There was no suspense.
The jonin couldn't even let out a scream.
His upper body exploded into a mist of blood, and bits of flesh mixed with bone fragments splattered onto the white snow like blooming roses.
"Mo-Monster!" someone exclaimed.
Two special jonin roared, rushing up from the left and right, attempting to sever Jugo's arm with their exquisite swordsmanship.
However, the giant blade in Jugo's hand traced a strange arc.
The moment he swung the blade, jet ports grew simultaneously on his shoulder and wrist, using reverse thrust to change the blade's inertial trajectory.
Even though it was a heavy greatsword, it was as agile as a dagger in this moment.
The two special jonin only saw a white line flash past.
The next second, their bodies, along with their ninja swords, were sliced in half at the waist.
"Too slow."
Jugo's voice sounded cold and muffled from beneath his helmet.
He rampaged through the crowd.
The jet ports on his body opened and closed constantly, allowing his massive steel body to perform various sudden stops, direction changes, and drifts that defied physical inertia.
Every swing of the blade claimed several lives.
Every collision turned a ninja into a pulp of flesh and blood mist.
Efficient, cruel, and unstoppable.
"Stop it!"
Yugito Nii finally arrived.
Her body was wrapped in blue chakra flames, with a blue chakra tail lashing behind her.
Sharp cat claws extended from her fingertips.
With a shrill whistle that tore through the air, she stabbed fiercely toward his weak joint points.
This strike was extremely fast and launched from a tricky angle.
However, Jugo merely leaned slightly to the side, fine-tuning his jet ports, and dodged her attack by a hair's breadth.
Subsequently, three jet ports on his left arm erupted simultaneously.
Blast Smash!
This punch landed solidly on Yugito's abdomen.
Even with the Tailed Beast Cloak protecting her, Yugito felt as if her internal organs were about to be displaced.
Boom!
Her entire body was blasted into the sky like a cannonball.
She smashed through three ice rocks in succession before finally sinking deep into the snow.
"Cough, cough—"
Gasping for a moment, Yugito struggled to stand up, spitting out a large mouthful of blood mixed with fragments of internal organs.
In that instant, she truly felt the fear of death.
If she didn't fight with her life on the line—she might be killed in seconds!
A massive amount of chakra surged from within her.
"Roar!!"
With a roar, Yugito, wrapped in a crimson Tailed Beast Cloak, leaped out of the pit.
Partial Tailed Beast Transformation.
This time, facing Yugito's rapid cat claws, Jugo did not take them head-on.
The jet ports on his back opened fully, and his body instantly shifted several meters sideways, dodging the strike.
Rumble!
The spot where he had just been standing instantly collapsed into a giant crater.
The human and the beast engaged in a thrilling duel on the snowy plains.
Facing the agile Partial Tailed Beast Transformation, Jugo actually managed to hold Yugito at bay by relying on various incomprehensibly flexible movements.
Just as the strongest combatant of Kumogakure was being held back...
The trembling of the earth grew closer.
The remaining twenty-three "Destroyer" warriors, wearing mass-produced chakra armor, finally stormed onto the battlefield.
They did not have the flashy jet techniques of Jugo, nor the enhancement of the Sage Transformation.
But they possessed the terrifying combat instincts brought by the first stage of the Gene Lock.
They possessed terrifying superhuman strength after the drug enhancement.
And they possessed that thick armor that only the Lightning Release ninjutsu of an elite jonin could barely penetrate.
In terms of combat power, the average combat strength of the Destroyers was around that of an elite jonin.
They were the hardest type of opponent to deal with: high attack, high defense, and huge health pools.
This wasn't a battle at all; it was more like a harvest.
A Kumogakure ninja roared in despair.
With the acceleration of Lightning Release, he stabbed the kunai in his hand, which was coated with Lightning Release, fiercely at a warrior's chest armor.
Clang!
Sparks flew, leaving only a shallow white mark on the chest armor.
The warrior looked down at the mark on his chest.
The red light behind his mask flickered, seemingly out of relief.
Subsequently, he slashed down with his blade.
Pfft.
That Kumogakure ninja was sliced in half, along with his weapon.
This was a completely unequal slaughter.
Kumogakure's Lightning Release ninjutsu had little effect in the face of this thick armor and chakra shield.
Their taijutsu, which they had painstakingly cultivated for years, was no match for the warriors who had opened the first stage of the Gene Lock.
And their fragile bodies would end up with broken bones and tendons just by taking a single punch or kick from these steel giants.
If they tried to turn and run, they would get hit in the back by an Ice Crystal Blast, instantly turning into an ice hedgehog.
Blood stained the white snowy plains red.
In just a few minutes, more than half of these hundred-plus Kumogakure elites had already fallen.
"No—No!"
Yugito, who was entangled in a fight with Jugo, caught a glimpse of this scene out of the corner of her eye.
She saw her subordinates, whom she regarded as brothers and sisters, being slaughtered like chickens by those steel monsters.
She saw the comrades she had spent every day with turn into pieces of flesh on the snow.
She saw the glory of Kumogakure being ruthlessly trampled into the snow with a single foot.
"You—you bastards!!"
"I'm going to kill you!!"
"Kill you, ahhhhh!!!"
Boom!!
Terrifying chakra fluctuations surged again, and Yugito's sanity was completely swallowed by the brutality of the Tailed Beast.
She let out a heaven-shaking roar.
The blue flames instantly erupted and expanded.