"Raaahhh!!!"
The Third Raikage roared, swinging his arm like a long blade in a sweeping slash, instantly cutting two Hidden Stone Village ninjas charging at him clean in half.
But the moment they fell, more ninjas surged forward again. The Third Raikage had no choice but to keep swinging his arm.
At that moment, several more ninjutsu struck him. Although his Lightning Release Armor protected him, it only granted extremely high defense—not true invincibility.
Caught off guard, the Third Raikage's body tilted from the impact. His attack failed to go through, and in the next instant, he was swallowed once more by the onrushing Hidden Stone Village forces.
From a distance, Akashō watched as the Third Raikage's lightning-clad figure flickered in and out of the tide-like army—appearing for a moment, then vanishing beneath the swarm, over and over.
"In this kind of situation, his attack methods just can't be properly utilized."
Clearly, a close-combat fighter like the Third Raikage would struggle somewhat when facing overwhelming numbers in a human wave tactic.
If it were Orochimaru or Rasa in this situation, they would probably handle it far more easily.
Akashō recalled his own previous battles. Though he had also fought countless enemies alone, in truth, aside from that time on the Wind-Fire battlefield when he was surrounded by over a hundred Sand Village elites, he had never truly been submerged by a human wave on this scale.
Back on the Wind-Fire battlefield, when Akashō broke into the Sand Village camp, he only briefly clashed with the Magnet Release duo. As for the later Earth-Fire battlefield, whether in the Hidden Leaf Village camp or the Hidden Stone Village camp, those ninjas had mostly retreated under orders and out of fear, rarely launching coordinated attacks against him.
Of course, that was also because Han and Orochimaru understood that Akashō possessed a form of immortality—human wave tactics would be useless and only lead to unnecessary casualties.
Then there was the large-scale battle where both sides gathered. Because of the Colossal Titan, the ninjas' morale collapsed extremely quickly.
And again, as before, it was also because the commanders on both sides knew that even four or five thousand people wouldn't make much difference against something of that size.
In short, for various reasons, Akashō had never truly faced a force of over a thousand—or even five hundred—ninjas alone.
If he were to fight these ten thousand now in his Kokushibo state… well, in his own estimation, he could still win—it would just be troublesome.
After all, with ten thousand enemies, attacks would come nonstop. As for whether he could keep killing until dawn without finishing them all…
If it really came to that, he could simply withdraw at dawn and continue the slaughter the next day. No one could stop him anyway.
In the end, the outcome of this battle depended on whether the Third Raikage could endure long enough—whether he could last until Akashō wiped out all ten thousand ninjas.
If he held on, they would win. If not, he would die a suffocating, miserable death at the hands of these cannon fodder.
"Hm?"
As Akashō's thoughts flowed, he suddenly noticed that the lightning around the Third Raikage, who had just burst out of the crowd again, had dimmed significantly.
Clearly, he had withdrawn his Lightning Release Armor, maintaining only a basic Lightning Release chakra mode.
What's going on? It's only been half an hour, and he's already running out?
Akashō frowned. No—that wasn't it. The Raikage was deliberately reducing his chakra output.
Makes sense. While the Lightning Release Armor had extremely high defense, it must also consume a huge amount of chakra.
And against this kind of cannon fodder army, very few attacks were strong enough to require his strongest shield. Conserving chakra was indeed the correct choice.
Use the right amount of strength for the right enemy—but even so, in such chaotic conditions, could he really distinguish accurately? And even if he could, would his mental endurance be enough to sustain it?
Standing coldly atop a rock wall, Akashō watched as the Third Raikage was battered and fought back again and again.
With this "power-saving" approach, the Raikage's killing speed dropped even further—good news for Akashō.
Another hour passed. Night had completely fallen. After more than an hour of fighting, the Hidden Stone Village army had already lost several hundred men.
But compared to those killed by the Third Raikage, even more had been injured by their own allies' ninjutsu. Some had it worse—under such conditions, the concept of the "wounded" no longer existed. Unless the injury was minor, anyone who fell would be trampled to death by the frenzied crowd.
Akashō licked his lips. Logically, continuing to wait until the Third Raikage's chakra was further depleted would be the smarter choice.
But… he couldn't wait any longer.
He stopped watching from afar. Finding a random corner, he took out several storage scrolls and put them down, then began walking toward the edge of the Hidden Stone Village army hundreds of meters away.
As he walked, Akashō transformed into Kokushibo. A cold wind swept past, sending his reddish-brown hair into a wild dance.
"Blood Demon Art."
A Blade of Living Flesh extended from his palm. He stopped just outside the surging mass of cannon fodder, yet for a moment, not a single person noticed this outsider.
Akashō thought for a moment, then suddenly leapt into the air, preparing to dive into the sea of enemies from above.
"I am Upper Rank One of the Twelve Demon Moons—the Moon Sword Demon, Kokushibo! Today, I have come under orders to break your formation!!!"
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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