Chapter 365: Bombardment — Then It Blossomed Like a Flower!
The golden vertical pupils shrank sharply!
Faced with the fingertip piercing forward, condensed from pitch-black lightning into a single devastating point, Uchiha Ci tilted his head to the right with the smallest, fastest movement, narrowly dodging this deadly strike!
With a twist of one foot—
The immense force crushed the ground within a five-meter radius in an instant, penetrating straight down eight meters deep!
Using that momentum, he immediately lashed out with his other leg, whipping it directly against the Lightning Release Armor covering the Third Raikage A's body!
Bang!
The force, like that of a rampaging tyrannosaurus, caused even the armor of lightning to ripple!
Hooking A's inner ankle, Uchiha Ci swung himself around the Third Raikage, wrapping around his body in a flash. He then drove his elbow into the inside of A's right arm—
Forcing the Hell Stab: One-Fingered Thrust to veer violently off course and redirect… toward A himself!
"His speed is actually on par with the Hell Stab: One-Fingered Thrust!?"
The Third Raikage's eyes opened slightly in shock.
"But…"
"I'm no longer the man I once was!"
A's gaze hardened. In a split second, he forced his thrusting finger into an open palm, taking the recoil from the counter in full, then flipped his hand and slammed it viciously toward Uchiha Ci's face!
However, that momentary delay had already turned the tide.
The palm strike from the Third Raikage smashed directly into a layer of flaming rib-like armor that suddenly appeared—
With a single blow, he shattered the Susanoo skeleton enveloping Uchiha Ci!
But Uchiha Ci had already used the recoil to propel himself away, leaping sideways out of range!
In the next instant—
Spinning midair, Uchiha Ci landed and skidded across the ground, carving a mound over three meters high behind his foot.
Then, with a violent twist of his sole, he reversed direction and launched forward like a cannon blast!
Pong!!
The dirt mound exploded, and the shockwave from his foot tore backward in a ferocious gust!
During this charge, blue lightning began to radiate from Uchiha Ci's body—
Lightning Release: Chakra Mode — Activated!
He transformed into a bolt of lightning, hand gripping a trembling sword sheath, and the mysterious blade within occasionally gleamed with a flash of golden light as he shot toward the Third Raikage A!
With abundant chakra and natural energy, Uchiha Ci was no longer limited to a single type of power—he could now merge chakra and natural energy, two fundamentally different systems.
The fusion of Sage Mode and Lightning Release: Chakra Mode resulted in—
His Iai sword strike's speed skyrocketing to match even A's full-powered blitz, and more than that—his reaction time and control over his body exceeded A's!
This sword strike was unavoidable!
In this battle between gods of speed, A clearly realized this—and more than that, he was shaken to his core:
"This little brat…"
"He's using me as a practice dummy!?"
"This current form of his—he's never reached it before. He's adjusting to this speed… in real time!"
"He's growing stronger as he fights!!"
The realization darkened A's face. A violent, murderous gleam flashed in his eyes.
"In that case—"
"Seven-Tails! Hand over all your power, now!"
At that moment, the iron-willed determination A had forged through countless battles in his mental world began relentlessly hammering at Chōmei, the Seven-Tails, forcing it to submit and hand over its chakra completely.
His beast-like eyes began to change—the semi-tailed transformation caused his pupils to bulge into strange, insect-like compound eyes formed from layers of white hexagonal patterns.
In an instant, the world before him became crystal clear!
And at last, the unwilling Tailed Beast's chakra was beaten into full surrender!
The aura around the Third Raikage A shifted dramatically!
At that same moment—
Uchiha Ci flipped through the air and drew his blade.
A golden sword light wrapped in fierce winds and crackling lightning split into three petals as it cleaved through the air!
Combining Sage Mode + Lightning Release: Chakra Mode + Secret Sword: Swallow Return—
A perfect fusion of raw power and flawless technique, producing supersonic vacuum blades capable of slicing through Lightning Release Armor!
The tip of his blade swung at speeds surpassing high supersonic velocity, releasing deep, resonant shockwaves!
Three golden sword slashes blasted forward!
They collided with the increasingly crimson lightning in a single blinding point—
"——BOOM!!"
The ground within a hundred meters quaked violently, collapsing into a massive crater.
Cracks spread across the surface like a spiderweb. Trees, insects, stones—everything nearby was torn from the earth and hurled into the air by the impact!
At the moment when brilliant golden light and crimson lightning clashed—
Uchiha Ci suddenly raised his head, a fierce glint in his eye.
In his golden pupils, the three tomoe spun violently!
The ground beside the Third Raikage A exploded, and a massive Susanoo—formed from blood-red chakra—rose, gripping a thunderous greatsword!
The 18-meter-long lightning sword was swung like a club—smashed down on A's skull without mercy!
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
The Third Raikage was brutally pounded into the earth in segments by the thunder club.
But in the next instant, from beneath the ground, a terrifying aura surged upward—and a bloodied figure with seven bleeding orifices leapt from the pit, charging straight at Uchiha Ci with a savage expression!
Wrapped around A's arm was his partially tailed transformation: the seventh tail, transformed into a twenty-meter-long black lightning appendage—unyielding and terrifying.
This was a signature attack of the Seven-Tails, so powerful it could even send the living Uchiha Madara flying—
Hell Thrust: Tentacle Impact!
Yet Uchiha Ci did not dodge in the slightest. Instead, he burst into mad laughter and dove forward!
As he flew, he struck his chest, sending fiery energy coursing through his entire body—
Fire Release: Chakra Mode — Activated!
Gripping the divine Kusanagi Sword, he began pumping in torrents of natural energy and chakra, forming a forty-meter-long blade of flowing flame!
Ninjutsu, Sage Arts, Natural Energy, Tailed Beast Chakra—
Hurricane Vortex Blade,
Greatsword Barrage: Flame Dance,
Supersonic Vacuum Blade Slash…
Each type of power fused seamlessly under Sage Mode.
A divine light shone ever brighter in Uchiha Ci's eyes. He grew more attuned to this new form, able to stack and integrate all he had learned.
And finally, he grasped—
The greatest cheat-like ability granted to him by his innate talent: Heartsteel!
By layering ability upon ability—
He achieved quantitative change into qualitative transformation!
In a split second—
Dark crimson lightning collided with a radiant, multicolored blade!
Then, in the next instant, two blurs shot across the battlefield and clashed once more!
A burst of blinding light exploded at a single point—
And then—
Blossomed like a flower!
A roaring storm surged outward, sweeping everything away!
Every single clash between them obliterated everything within a hundred meters!
The earth caved in, thundered, and trembled!
In just five minutes, they had carved a path over ten kilometers long—blasting from the north end of the city all the way to the south!
Even the six-hundred-meter-tall central rock pillar that supported the main keep was blown through and collapsed under the force of their exchange!
From a god's-eye view—
The entire city now resembled a withered field of blossoms—a hollow, lifeless sea of destruction.