"Boom—"
In just a few breaths, a dull explosion echoed from inside the Five-Tails. Sitting atop it, Akashō felt a jolt beneath him, and the wildly thrashing beast instantly went still.
"Whew…"
Akashō let go, as thick black smoke poured out from the Five-Tails' mouth.
Boom.
Watching the Five-Tails collapse to the ground with its eyes rolled back, Nara Shikaku—who had been confident things were already under control—was completely dumbfounded.
"Shi-Shikaku… the Five-Tails… looks like it lost…"
"I'm not blind…"
A bead of cold sweat slid down Nara Shikaku's forehead. That monster… had actually stuffed a Tailed Beast Bomb straight into the Five-Tails' stomach…
A Tailed Beast Bomb exploding inside its body—honestly, the fact that it didn't die on the spot was already lucky.
As expected, an incomplete full Tailed Beast transformation was nothing more than a mindless beast. No wonder it lost to that monster.
But Nara Shikaku knew this kind of thinking was just hindsight.
"Damn it, I'm an idiot. They're all from the Stone Village anyway—why the hell am I still here watching the show? Inoichi, notify everyone, we're pulling out!!"
Nara Shikaku stopped looking at the crimson monster and shouted to Yamanaka Inoichi before turning and running.
...
At the retreat point of the Stone Village shinobi, Rōshi stood with a grim expression, staring at the fallen Five-Tails.
Even Han, in full Tailed Beast form, had lost. There was no hope left in this battle.
"Full retreat. Scatter and escape. Pray your luck is good enough."
Rōshi issued his final order coldly, then turned to leave.
As for Han—despite both being jinchūriki and shinobi of the same village, that didn't mean he'd risk his life for him.
Meanwhile, Akashō looked at the fallen Five-Tails but made no move to continue attacking.
Both sides had already begun retreating. It seemed there were no more tricks left.
Well, this plan could be considered a perfect conclusion.
Standing in place at sixty meters in the air, Akashō watched as the shinobi from both sides scattered and fled.
There was no point in continuing the fight. Everything worth harvesting had already been taken—better to end it here.
Once both sides had completely disappeared from sight, Akashō controlled the Colossal Titan to collapse onto the ground. Then he climbed out from the nape, glancing at the one he had summoned earlier—it had already completely dissipated, and the one he had just exited was also beginning to vanish more rapidly.
"The Colossal Titan is even more effective in situations like this than I imagined."
If not for the presence of their respective forces nearby, just Han in a half-Tailed Beast state would have been enough to give him a serious headache.
Akashō rolled his neck, his entire body aching. Intense fatigue and hunger surged through him, urging him to immediately find something to eat and collapse into sleep.
"Transforming twice in such a short time really does take a toll."
Fortunately, everyone believed the Colossal Titan was his true body, and none of them knew his real body was located in the nape after transformation. Otherwise, the outcome of this battle might have been very different.
That was exactly why Bertholdt Hoover was suited for the battlefield—not just because of the Colossal Titan's massive size, but because it wasn't his real body. Even if it was focused down and riddled with attacks, as long as the main body remained intact, it didn't matter.
In a sense, this was one of Bertholdt Hoover's trump cards—but also his weakness. If necessary, when separating the main body for a second transformation, it would be best to use steam to block others' vision.
"Next, I should head to the Wind-Water battlefield… and after that, swing by the Wind-Fire battlefield to harvest some more."
"Sigh, my schedule's packed… but I'd better hurry. Who knows when this 'harvest' will stop being possible."
After confirming his direction, Akashō quickly moved, leaving behind the land that looked as if it had been bombarded by artillery.
He first found a concealed cave based on experience, then pulled up Bertholdt Hoover's template.
"Seven hundred thousand… not bad."
Looking at the reputation value under Bertholdt Hoover's template, Akashō's eyes lit up, and he grinned.
"Adding Kokushibo's reputation, that's over 1.2 million—more than double the minimum requirement to unlock a new template. Maybe I can try unlocking one now?"
If he unlocked a new template now, there'd be no need to rush leaving. He could even harvest the Earth-Fire battlefield one more time.
Akashō summoned the system. "Open the third Villain Template for me."
"Ding. Current total template reputation is 1,263,000. Would you like to spend 600,000 reputation to unlock the third Villain Template?"
"600,000?"
Akashō froze for a moment. "Wait, what? The total is over a million—shouldn't unlocking a new template consume all of it?"
"Ding. Because the host's total template reputation has exceeded 600,000, reaching the upper limit of an S−-rank template, but has not yet reached the requirement for the next tier, at most 600,000 reputation can be consumed to unlock the third Villain Template."
"The upper limit for an S− template is 600,000?"
Akashō frowned, rubbing his chin. "Then if I've exceeded that, shouldn't I directly unlock the next-tier template? Why isn't there a seamless transition between tiers? Why didn't you tell me this earlier?"
"And I've already doubled 600,000 but still haven't reached the minimum for the next tier… the next rank should be S, right? Is S really that much stronger than S−?"
Faced with his barrage of questions, the system fell silent for a moment before replying:
"The host did not ask previously. Further details must be explored by the host."
"Explore my ass!"