A pillar of black light shot into the sky.
The golden pyramid-shaped sand seal created by Rasa crumbled in an instant.
Golden sand burst outward like a violent sandstorm, scattering in all directions.
The surrounding air suddenly became cold and heavy.
Floating in the sky, directly facing the humanoid Hollow, Rasa felt an immense weight press down on his body.
Even his consciousness was struck by an overwhelming pressure, shaking his focus and causing him to stagger in mid-air.
Blood trickled from the corner of his lips.
But the sharp pain jolted his hazy mind back to clarity.
Oppressive force.
A powerful Hollow naturally exudes a terrifying aura, similar to how elite shinobi can paralyze Genin with just their killing intent, mimicking the effects of genjutsu.
Since Hollows exist in spiritual form, the pressure they exert on the mind and soul is even more intense.
For ordinary genin, facing a Menos-level Hollow can lead to total mental collapse — unable to dodge, unable to think, lost in blank terror.
But Rasa had seen the horrors of war. He had fought in countless battles. His willpower was unshakable, and his soul resilient.
Yet even he was secretly alarmed by the crushing pressure radiating from this suddenly awakened Hollow.
It meant this Hollow's power might be far greater than anyone expected.
A violent surge of spiritual energy roared beneath the swirling sand mist.
Rasa's expression darkened. He thrust his hands forward and swept them to both sides with force.
The scattered gold sand responded instantly.
Under his control, the grains gathered together, forming two massive arms of sand and gold — like Shukaku's limbs — suspended in midair.
With a sweeping motion, the arms lunged downward, aiming straight at the Hollow whose presence blazed like a black flame in Rasa's spiritual perception.
As fast as Rasa was, the giant Hollow moved even faster.
A thicker, darker black energy beam tore through the barrier created by his sand-gold arm and shot directly at Rasa's floating body in mid-air.
Even though Rasa shifted and dodged using the golden sand rock beneath his feet, the beam still grazed his body.
In an instant, one of Rasa's arms and his shoulder were disintegrated by the beam.
Shock was still visible on Rasa's face, but the next moment, the figure on the sand-rock platform crumbled into a pile of glittering sand.
A sand-gold clone!
Rasa reappeared in another location, his heart still pounding as he felt the tremors from the approaching impact on the ground.
Dust and sand exploded into the air!
Within the shifting sands, a monstrous figure took shape — a humanoid upper body combined with a lower body resembling a giant centipede.
Under Rasa's watchful gaze, the creature leapt high into the air and came crashing down toward him.
Iron Sand Prison!
Rasa quickly formed hand seals, then crouched and slammed his hands onto the ground, channeling chakra through his palms into the sea of sand beneath him.
All around him, massive black iron-sand pillars shot up from the ground. Their tops were sharp like spearheads, each slightly tilted like javelins mid-throw.
The pillars rose to shield Rasa while simultaneously hurling themselves toward the charging Hollow.
The monster's body slammed into the spiked pillars without restraint.
As the sharp tips collided with its flesh, a sharp, screeching sound echoed out — like metal grinding against metal.
Rasa, hands still pressed to the ground, was forced to increase his chakra output in an instant to keep the technique from collapsing under the pressure.
Even so, the seemingly indestructible forest of iron pillars began to bend one by one under the Hollow's weight.
The creature twisted with the crumbling pillars, crashing heavily to the ground, kicking up another massive wave of sand and dust.
Wounds pierced by the sharp tower tips appeared all over the Hollow's body.
It looked like a mess — bloodied and pitiful — but Rasa didn't let his guard down for even a second.
Hollows were monsters that defied a shinobi's typical combat logic.
Many times, a ninja would think they had landed a fatal blow, only to get counterattacked and killed by the Hollow the moment they relaxed.
These Hollows didn't seem to have any real weak spots. Ninjutsu could hurt them, but the effect was minimal.
Except for genjutsu, which could still affect them, other techniques like taijutsu and puppet attacks had little lasting impact.
Any damage the Hollows took could be quickly recovered by consuming spirit energy.
Especially troubling was that the special poisons carefully developed by Sunagakure had no effect on Hollows at all.
This greatly reduced the combat effectiveness of puppet users who relied on poison as their primary method of attack.
To put it simply, everything about a ninja's arsenal was designed to kill physical, living beings.
But these Hollows were different—monsters seemingly born from mutated souls.
Against such enemies, many ninjutsus became almost powerless.
That's why Rasa didn't let his guard down, even after seriously injuring the giant Hollow. His first thought was to seal it immediately.
Suddenly, a scythe-shaped appendage came crashing down from above, forcing Rasa to retreat several steps. He quickly summoned his gold dust and shot into the sky.
But the next moment, a massive black energy beam slammed into the rock beneath him, forcing him to create a new platform of hardened sand mid-air to land safely.
The energy condensed and fired out in an instant, reaching its target faster than even Lightning Release techniques.
Though it required time to charge, a sharp and alert ninja could avoid being hit head-on.
But getting hit directly wasn't necessary!
This Hollow's Cero attack—while not as powerful as a Tailed Beast Bomb—still caused massive area damage wherever it struck.
Against such destructive power, unless one had the incredible speed of someone like Minato Namikaze or the Raikage, dodging was meaningless once the attack began.
The Cero burst in a cone-shaped blast. While the Hollow could take multiple hits and recover quickly, a regular ninja—fragile in comparison—only needed to be grazed once to be killed.
Rasa was getting a headache.
There was no way he could drag this fight out. Any jutsu that could hurt a Hollow consumed a lot of chakra. And ordinary jutsu couldn't even pierce the Hollow's steel-like skin.
As the giant Hollow's wounds rapidly healed and it regained its energy, Rasa glanced toward the oasis in the distance.
Originally, he had planned to lure out this most dangerous and powerful Hollow.
After dealing with the remaining intruding Hollows inside the Oasis, he intended to return and help seal this one.
But from what he could sense, the intense battle and surging chakra within the Oasis meant that the fight there was still raging on.
The only thing he could be thankful for right now was that this massive Hollow didn't seem very intelligent—its attention was completely locked on him.
Since he couldn't wait for his subordinates to arrive, he had no choice but to find a way to deal with it himself.
First, he needed to restrict its movements and buy time to perform the sealing.
Feeling the remaining chakra within his body, Rasa confirmed he still had enough.
He quickly formed hand seals with both hands, and a clone made of gold sand appeared beside him, mirroring his hand signs.
With a sweeping motion of his arm, multiple golden sand arms surged from the desert like waves, rising one after another to grab the rampaging Hollow.
That massive body was finally caught and tightly bound by the countless sand arms.
At the same time, Rasa's clone completed its own set of hand seals.
A pyramid-shaped structure made of gold sand rose up, completely enclosing and sealing the restrained Hollow within.
****
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