The fire-red sword ki grazed Killer Bee's back as it tore forward!
In an instant, a massive, 40-meter-long crescent moon of flaming energy manifested between heaven and earth. A violent gale erupted, heavy enough to feel like a collapsing skyscraper or the sky itself tilting, crushing everything in its wake.
The sword ki swept across the landscape, sizzling through the air, igniting the canopy of the forest, and cleaving through the mountain woods before carving a diagonal scar deep into the earth.
—BOOM!!
Soil and stone disintegrated. Blackened sand and ash rose like a tidal wave before crashing back down. The forest within the path of the strike was instantly transformed into a sea of fire. Trees were uprooted and incinerated, and birds scattered in terror.
A bottomless, massive trench appeared on the surface of the earth, stretching as far as the eye could see!
Standing at the edge of this newly formed abyss, Old Man Chen shielded his face against the storm. He stared blankly at the apocalyptic scene—a display of power that seemed attainable only by a god. His mustache trembled uncontrollably.
"This... how is this possible?!"
"That kid... he's actually this strong!"
"Is this... Konoha's Ace?"
At that moment, the immense recoil generated by the blast of sword ki propelled Ren Uchiha even higher into the sky!
The reason the Halo Dance was called a "Dance" lay in its core mechanic: utilizing the thrust generated after the Sword Leap Flame!
Without a doubt, this was a sword style capable of soaring amidst the heavens, the clouds, and the brilliant sun. In other words, Ren had to master the propulsion from the strike to truly begin the "dance."
He immediately focused his mind, struggling to control his body as it was catapulted into the high-pressure atmosphere!
The high-level taijutsu principles Chen had demonstrated flashed through his mind. Complex data intertwined and calculated in his brain, eventually distilling into one concept:
Centrifugal Force!
Imagine I am a disk rotating around a center with angular velocity ω. The white-hot sword in my hand is a block of mass m on the disk, connected by a rope of length r... If I factor in the friction of the shinobi world and the acceleration a=ω²r...
"Dammit, there's no way I can understand something this complicated!!"
Ren shook his head violently in mid-air. Looking at the rapidly receding ground and the shrinking figure of Killer Bee, he gritted his teeth.
"Basically, I just need to spin!"
"Rotate, rotate—keep rotating!"
In the next heartbeat, using the perfect bodily control granted by the Heaven's Cursed Seal Stage 2, Ren's expression turned fierce. He gripped the hilt with both hands and forced his body to flip downward!
"Halo Dance... SPIN FOR ME!!!"
Suddenly, a massive orb of white-hot fire plummeted from the night sky!
Like a grand display of fireworks exploding, the black-haired, red-eyed boy leaped from the flames, dancing with his longsword in a blur of motion!
He soared across the horizon, then pulled his blade back to unleash arcs of sword ki that resembled falling spider lily petals. He glided like a bird of prey, transforming into a streak of fire nearly invisible to the naked eye.
He warped, jumped, spun, and lunged through the air! Each swing of his blade sent out a fire-red crescent, similar to the first. Long and short arcs of energy crisscrossed the sky and earth, instantly turning the entire mountain range into an inferno!
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Amidst the roar of the earth being torn asunder by countless sword strikes, Ren's eyes grew brighter and more fervent, like bougainvillea blooming brilliantly in a fire!
A system notification suddenly popped up:
[You have mastered: Uchiha Style: Halo Dance (Transcended Complete Version, S+ Rank, Entry)!]
In the gloomy night sky, the streak of fire flickered. After crossing nearly a thousand meters in mid-air, Ren suddenly banked!
He dove straight down toward Killer Bee, who was staring upward, frozen in speechless shock.
Inside Killer Bee, the Eight-Tails felt its scalp go numb as it watched Ren Uchiha charging down. It roared in horror:
"Dammit!"
"Dammit all! This is impossible!"
"Why can this kid ignore the price of this technique? Why is he completely fine?!"
"How can such a person exist? To take a power that ordinary people trade their lives for and turn it into a casual, cost-free strike?!"
"He is even more of a genius than Naka Uchiha was back then!!"
Killer Bee nodded, watching the fire line grow brighter as it approached.
"Burning heart, scorched feathers, white flame of nirvana! Yo!"
"What a... soul-stirringly gorgeous sword style!"
Bee took a deep breath, his eyes narrowing as he locked onto the incoming Ren. His mouth curled into a grin, revealing his white teeth. A burning battle intent erupted in his eyes!
He gripped his dual blades tight as lightning flared.
"But when it comes to 'gorgeous,' this Master won't lose to you!"
In the mental world, the Eight-Tails was horrified. "Bee, what are you doing?!"
"Use the Tailed Beast Bomb to blast him! Stop trying to match him in swordsmanship!"
"That sword will melt your blades the moment they touch!"
"It's impossible to beat an Uchiha who has surpassed his ancestors in the domain of the sword!"
However, Bee looked exhilarated. He stared at the spinning, leaping Ren. "That means... uh-huh... that means I have seven or eight chances to strike and challenge this art!!"
The Eight-Tails was utterly shocked. "Are you insane?! That eighth strike is—"
Bee lifted his chin confidently. "That's enough!"
Before the Eight-Tails could argue further, lightning coiled around Bee's hands and flowed into his blades. In his half-tailed beast form, he resumed the Acrobat stance!
This time, he was challenging a level he hadn't fully mastered:
Version 2: Super-Vibrating Lightning Style: Acrobat!!
Bee suddenly thrust one hand toward the sky, flashing a 'six' sign, and roared:
"HACHI, LET'S GO!!!"
The moment his voice fell, Bee twisted his feet. His entire body was wrapped in violent lightning and the dark-red, wicked chakra of the Tailed Beast!
The terrifying force of his step exploded the ground into dust, spider-web cracks spreading wildly. In this savage burst of power, Bee turned into a beam of mixed blue, white, black, and red light, launching himself directly at Ren Uchiha!
At this moment, both their speeds had escalated beyond human perception.
In a single, fleeting thought, the brilliant crimson solar ray and the four-colored beam of lightning collided head-on—
Like a needle against a whetstone!
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