"Vzzzz!"
The very air split apart, ripples racing outward like shattered glass. Hawkeye's piercing gaze narrowed to deadly slits as he witnessed the impossible speed before him.
Black Blade Yoru sang through the air, its black edge cutting toward the tip of Qin Yi's blazing sword with surgical precision.
Steel met steel in a clash that shook the heavens.
"Shhhk!"
What happened next defied all reason, golden lightning erupted from both blade tips, crackling and dancing between them like living serpents. A whirlwind born of pure force spiraled outward, tearing at the frozen battlefield. The ice beneath their feet didn't just crack, it screamed, fissures racing in every direction as the ground itself recoiled from their power.
The two warriors stood locked, eyes burning with intensity, neither giving an inch.
Three heartbeats passed. The sword tips hummed with resonant energy, a sound that made every soul on the battlefield hold their breath.
Then,
"BOOM!"
The shockwave exploded outward like a bomb. Ice shattered for thousands of meters in every direction, the entire frozen sea convulsing as if struck by an earthquake.
"The ice... they've carved it apart with just the aftershock!" a Marine gasped, his voice barely a whisper.
This was merely the residual force of a single clash, yet it had reshaped the battlefield itself.
But the storm was far from over.
"Ssshhh! Flip Flap!"
Thunderfire roared to life, flames and lightning fusing into a torrent of destruction that surged toward Qin Yi's blade.
Hawkeye's golden eyes sharpened. His grip on Yoru tightened.
"Slash!"
He stepped back with fluid grace, his right foot finding perfect balance as he drew an arc through the air, not just cutting space, but commanding it.
"Wuuuuu!"
The very wind wept as his blade passed through it. The charging thunderfire, all that fury and elemental chaos, split cleanly down the middle like it was nothing more than morning mist. The severed flames collapsed, powerless.
"He cut through thunderfire itself..." Qin Yi's eyes gleamed with genuine respect. "Truly worthy of the title 'World's Greatest Swordsman.'"
A smile touched his lips, cold and predatory.
"But swordsmanship was never my greatest weapon."
One of the ten spectral tails behind him snapped forward like a striking viper, its tip aimed directly at Hawkeye's heart.
"BOOM!"
Hawkeye moved, not just fast, but with the fluid certainty of a master. When the dust settled, a massive crater marked where he had stood mere moments before.
"Exceptional reflexes," Qin Yi acknowledged, his voice carrying a note of dark amusement. "But tell me, can you dodge nine more?"
His remaining tails rose into the sky like the heads of a hydra, then bent downward with predatory intent. They struck with the speed of falling meteors.
"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!"
The ice exploded around Hawkeye in a symphony of destruction, each impact creating craters deep enough to swallow buildings. Yet somehow, impossibly, he danced between them, until the fifth tail reached him.
There was nowhere left to run.
"BANG!"
He raised Yoru, the black blade catching the tail's strike. The impact sent shockwaves through his entire frame, muscles straining against divine force.
"Not finished yet," Qin Yi said, his voice carrying across the chaos like a death knell.
The remaining five tails descended as one, a rain of annihilation.
"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!"
Each strike was like being hit by a falling mountain. Hawkeye's body shuddered under the assault, his feet sliding hundreds of meters across the ice. Blood ran from the corner of his mouth as both hands gripped his sword, the single-handed stance no longer sufficient.
"This power…"
Hawkeye's eyes widened, a rare flicker of shock breaking through his usual composure.
The ten tails behind Qin Yi were not flesh and bone, they were pure, condensed energy, yet each strike landed with the crushing weight of reality itself. For one man to manifest such force… it was like watching a god walk among mortals.
"You cannot match me," Qin Yi's voice rang out over the screams of battle. His gaze burned as he added coldly, "So let's see how you survive something greater."
With a subtle shift of his stance, the ten tails withdrew, hovering for the briefest moment… before lashing out again in a sweeping arc that ripped through the world.
The battlefield dissolved into chaos. Marines stumbled, cried out, and were flung aside like leaves in a storm.
One strike, hundreds gone. No rank, no shield, no defense mattered to the deadly sweep of those tails.
"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"
The energy constructs coiled back, then planted deep into the ice, lifting Qin Yi high above the field like some monstrous spider god. His shadow stretched across friend and foe alike.
"Let's make this… interesting," he murmured, a cruel smile playing on his lips.
Three tails shifted beneath him, their tips glowing with gathering energy.
"Pop!"
A sphere of darkness bloomed, first the size of a basketball, then swelling larger, pulsing with chaotic light that twisted the air.
"Super Bijūdama…"
His eyes swept over the sea of enemies below, cold and without mercy. In the blink of an eye, the first sphere swelled again, ten meters wide, radiating death. Reality itself seemed to warp around it.
"Taste it."
The three tails jerked, hurling the massive Bijūdama forward.
"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"
They cut through the air with a sound sharp enough to flay ear and soul alike. Wind spiraled into a cyclone, ice shattered beneath the pressure, and even the atmosphere seemed to dent under their passage.
On the field, countless Marines froze, caught in the moment before annihilation.
"Not good!" Sengoku's voice thundered, his expression hard as stone.
The three spheres split, hanging ominously over three separate clusters of soldiers, then fell.
"BOOM!"
The world erupted. Black light flashed, turning crimson as multicolored sparks burst from the impact. Shockwaves screamed outward, tearing ice, buildings, and bodies apart.
"AAAAAH!" The cries were swallowed by the storm. Soldiers were lifted into the sky, armor shredded, lives erased in an instant by a tide of ruin.
The black light devoured everything in a radius of hundreds of meters before flickering away into eerie silence.
"Huff… huff…"
When the dust cleared, the battlefield was unrecognizable, craters, jagged ice slabs, bodies strewn like discarded chess pieces.
"Damn it," One Admiral muttered, fists clenched. None could mask their fury at the massacre.
Qin Yi tilted his head, voice calm but slicing through the air like a blade.
"The Marines… weaker than I thought."
A disappointed shake of his head followed. "Not nearly worth my full strength."
He inhaled once, sharply, and the nine remaining tails shifted forward.
"Pop."
Dark spheres shimmered into being, ten meters wide, each radiating a suffocating light of destruction.
"Ten Super Bijūdama… let's see you survive this."
He raised his gaze to the trembling opposition, a faint smile touching his lips.
"I hope this teaches you exactly who I am."
Sengoku's face twisted, rage, disbelief, and the realization of how thin the line between survival and annihilation had become.
(End of Chapter)
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