At this stage of battle, under normal circumstances, one side should be considering retreat.
However, for Yūshin, when he was being beaten like a dog earlier, he didn't have the opportunity to retreat. Now that the tide was gradually turning in his favor, choosing to withdraw would mean all his previous suffering was for nothing.
He had no reason to retreat.
Moreover, Yūshin's purpose for coming here remained unfulfilled. This Ryo of the Earth Grudge Fear before him certainly didn't look like someone who would allow him a friendly meeting with the Kikyō Castle daimyo.
Ryo of the Earth Grudge Fear likewise had no intention of withdrawing. Though several of his masks had been destroyed, he didn't believe he would lose... He still maintained complete combat effectiveness, while his opponent was already half-crippled.
Additionally, in Ryo's view, Yūshin's body was extremely rare and excellent material—he wouldn't easily abandon this opportunity... He wanted to seize Yūshin's heart.
More importantly, a deeply personal reason fueled Ryo's fighting spirit...
Touching, really—he was a man of integrity who always remembered the principle of "earning his wages."
On the keep's upper floor, the water Yūshin had created was rapidly draining away, while night wind poured violently through the massive wall breach into the room.
The lingering smoke and superheated steam were quickly blown away.
Ryo of the Earth Grudge Fear's form emerged once more, but compared to his previous appearance, his body had swollen dramatically—his height now exceeded three meters...
All the Earth Grudge Fear "tendrils" surged from various "old wounds" across his body, making him appear massive, grotesque, and oppressive—very much like a scarecrow from horror tales.
Ryo of the Earth Grudge Fear had activated Earth Grudge Fear Mode.
Seeing this transformation, Yūshin immediately realized his earlier kick had achieved little actual damage.
The Earth Grudge Fear secret technique granted its user tremendous resistance to physical attacks. Yūshin slamming Ryo into the wall looked impressive, but in reality was no different from violently kicking a rubber ball.
Masses of black tendrils writhed continuously at Ryo's severed arm, quickly coalescing into a thick, powerful black whip to replace the lost limb's function. Simultaneously, three masks on his back wriggled and quietly burrowed into this new "arm."
Then lightning erupted repeatedly from Ryo's body as he continuously shifted positions throughout the spacious room.
Lightning scattered across the remaining water on the floor, and in an instant, Ryo suddenly appeared at Yūshin's side.
Whoosh!
Ryo swung his arm like a whip, the massive tendril lashing out violently.
Yūshin's reaction was perfectly timed—he immediately sidestepped several paces, causing the opponent's strike to miss.
Ryo's attack merely added more damage to the building's already battered upper floor.
But the next moment, the massive tendril that struck beside Yūshin suddenly "bloomed" at its center. The middle section rapidly expanded like a gigantic black umbrella, instantly covering most of a spherical area and nearly trapping Yūshin within.
At the center of the black "umbrella's" inner surface, three attribute masks gaped wide.
Three streams of different-natured, ultra-high-density chakra continuously gathered.
Wind, Lightning, Fire—three chakra natures immediately brewed a terrifying aura of destruction.
A chakra cannon...
Yūshin instantly understood his opponent's intention, his body tensing as his heart seemed to skip a beat.
The enemy was unleashing a ultimate technique. Just from the chakra quantity being prepared, he could judge how devastating the next attack would be.
Yet after a split-second of frantic thinking, Yūshin's response was remarkably simple and brutal...
Just "stomp the floor."
He stared intently at the low-frequency flickering chakra energy sphere before the Earth Grudge Fear masks. Suddenly, the flickering ceased, and the sphere's surface began trembling violently, as if unable to contain the internal energy.
The next moment, brilliant light flooded Yūshin's vision.
Ryo's chakra cannon erupted!
Now!
Almost simultaneously, Yūshin lifted one foot high, unleashing his chakra at full power, his strength exploding to its absolute limit, then—
He stomped down with everything he had!
With a thunderous crash, the floor below—unable to withstand the continuous devastation—began collapsing in an extremely violent manner.
Ryo's chakra cannon naturally possessed trajectory adjustment capability, but Yūshin's timing was perfectly precise. The sudden change threw Ryo off balance, leaving no time to adjust the cannon's direction.
The abrupt weightlessness sent his body sinking uncontrollably, while the "cannon barrel" wrapped in Earth Grudge Fear tendrils tilted slightly upward due to inertia and backward drag.
BOOM!
A dazzling beam shot obliquely into the night sky, instantly blasting away half the keep's roof. Massive amounts of debris were first hurled into the air by the tremendous shockwave, then scattered down into the castle town like falling blossoms.
The power was staggering, but it missed completely.
Even for a chakra-abundant ninja like Ryo of the Earth Grudge Fear, missing with such an ultimate technique was deeply damaging.
During his fall to the next level, his eyes continuously scanned among the building fragments tumbling alongside him... Just as the chakra cannon lost its aim, he suddenly couldn't locate Yūshin's whereabouts.
Ryo was now falling face-up, instinctively searching the diagonal area above.
His three masks were in that direction, and theoretically, Yūshin—originally targeted by the cannon—should be there as well.
But the next moment, a slender water blade split a particularly large stone slab in two, its trajectory extending and rising.
Taking advantage of Ryo's momentary misdirection, Yūshin's Water Severing Wave struck the middle section of the Earth Grudge Fear "arm."
A strange, grinding resistance interfered with the water blade's advance—his previously unstoppable Water Release technique felt like a dulled knife. Yūshin had never encountered this before... The Earth Grudge Fear tendrils were obstructing the water blade.
In a sense, this could be considered "softness overcoming hardness."
Even though the cutting process wasn't as smooth—that was merely Yūshin's subjective experience. In reality, the Water Severing Wave still lived up to expectations, severing the thick tendril, just consuming slightly more time than usual.
The three chakra masks were forcibly separated from the main body. Yūshin landed on a falling wall fragment, using the massive recoil to propel himself upward, instantly closing in on the three masks.
In this extremely brief moment, the Earth Grudge Fear tendril "black umbrella" transformed into an opening "man-eating flower." Its "petals" rapidly closed while countless black threads shot at Yūshin's body like arrows at point-blank range.
The sound of flesh being pierced rang out continuously. Yūshin protected only his head, lunging forward regardless of the damage to his body...
Until he pierced through all three masks with hand strikes.
The Earth Grudge Fear tendrils stiffened like bristling fur, then quickly withered after losing energy support.
With rumbling crashes, they all plummeted into the space below.
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