Chapter 134: Earth Release: Opening the Earth Spikes
As Orochimaru prepared to drive the Earth Dragon to attack again, he suddenly noticed a vast, dark, overwhelming shadow cast from above, and a great sense of crisis surged within him.
Ignoring the Earth Dragon beneath him, he shot into the air like a fired bullet, leaving a black line as he violently flew to the side to dodge.
He had barely flashed ten meters away when a tremendous, explosive roar blasted into his ears.
Immediately after, the powerful air current generated by the blast caught him, and he was flung far away like a leaf in a gale.
Orochimaru tumbled several times in the air before finally stabilizing his body, landing and standing on the branch of a large tree to survey the immense commotion.
He looked intently and saw that where the water cube had been, a tall, brawny, deep-blue water giant now stood. Its muscles bulged, and it was covered in what looked like fish-scale armor.
The water giant, towering like a skyscraper, had its enormous, acre-sized right hand pressed heavily onto the ground.
The dozens-of-meters-long Earth Dragon Orochimaru had summoned was instantly smashed to smithereens by this pillar-like water giant, which seemed to view it as nothing more than a thick snake.
The sheer force of the palm had even pressed a shocking, half-meter-deep pit into the ground, a sight that instilled fear.
Swoosh! A faint sound of air being sliced through occurred.
Orochimaru clearly saw a small figure appear atop the water giant's head: the completely unharmed Hanzō of the Salamander.
Orochimaru let out a faint, wry smile. It seems my current strength is still far below the Kage level!
The bitter smile lasted only an instant before being replaced by a more wicked, unbridled, and extravagant cold sneer. His dark-golden eyes betrayed an intense mixture of excitement and madness.
Staring at the colossal deep-blue water giant, Orochimaru licked his lips and murmured: "Then, it's time to use the final jutsu to bring this to an end!"
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh! A low, choked, raspy sound of wind began to stir around Orochimaru.
"Wind Release Ninjutsu?" Hanzō observed Orochimaru, speaking with uncertainty.
Suddenly, a chakra fluctuation that was in no way weaker than Hanzō's Descent of the Water God jutsu violently radiated from Orochimaru's body.
Hanzō could no longer maintain his calm and indifferent composure. He was utterly shocked and instinctively said: "How is that possible? No, it's impossible! How can there be such an intense chakra fluctuation? He's only Jōnin level, a brat who hasn't mastered an ultimate Release or even touched the Kage threshold. How can a jutsu he performs have this level of chakra fluctuation? Damn it!"
Finally, unable to conceive of a reason, Hanzō cursed in frustration.
What Hanzō had not accounted for were Orochimaru's incredible experience as a reincarnated soul and his extremely high level of understanding of Ninjutsu.
The violently surging chakra fluctuation stirred the surrounding air currents into fierce gusts, echoing the low, choked wind howl.
The chakra fluctuation on Orochimaru's body grew stronger and stronger, and the hand signs in his hands became more numerous and complex.
A look of brutality flashed in Hanzō's eyes.
The tall, mighty deep-blue water giant suddenly turned its head, fixed its gaze on Orochimaru's tiny figure, and began striding toward him.
The ground-shaking footsteps grew closer, and the sense of crisis in Orochimaru's heart intensified. However, he did not stop weaving the hand signs. The dancing afterimages of his hands were continuous, tracing intricate, profound, and mesmerizing trajectories.
Finally, with the completion of the last hand sign, the turbulent, terrifying chakra fluctuation abruptly solidified.
Earth Release: Opening the Earth Spikes Technique!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
As if the end of the world had arrived, the ground within several hundred meters suddenly fractured. Long, terrifying fissures crisscrossed and multiplied. Countless towering trees snapped and fell, dropping into the deep earth cracks.
Following this, the outer ring of the fractured ground suddenly collapsed, while the center section abruptly began to jut out and rise.
Intensely hot air began to emanate from the ground fissures.
Hanzō clearly saw blinding red light quickly permeating through the intersecting fissures in the ground.
The ground beneath Hanzō shook, and even the water giant was affected by the dramatically changing environment.
The continuously spreading and intersecting fissures caused the water giant's colossal body to shake violently. The gradually rising heat in the surroundings also made the water giant's surface unstable, causing ripples to propagate across its body.
Before Hanzō could control the water giant to escape Orochimaru's jutsu range, he was horrified to see a nearly hundred-meter-tall magma volcano suddenly erupt from the ground beneath his feet.
The spewed volcanic ash floated high into the air with the currents, making the entire sky hazy and obscuring most of the sunlight.
Orange, high-temperature magma flowed continuously from the crater, coalescing into a scorching orange magma river. Under Orochimaru's control, the superheated magma flow formed a roaring, growling magma tiger that flew toward Hanzō and the water giant.
Roar! The fierce tiger roared and violently collided with the water giant.
The two colossal energies of opposing nature clashed intensely, generating a thunderous explosion that sounded like lightning and fire tearing across the sky.
Dense, snow-white clouds of steam billowed out, more pervasive than before, enveloping the entire battlefield in a hazy white mist.
The fierce chakra fluctuations slowly dissipated. As a gentle breeze began to pick up, the thick, white steam rapidly cleared with the gusts of north wind, revealing a vast battlefield that looked utterly transformed into a desolate ruin for ten miles around.
The erupted volcano and the crisscrossing ground fissures had closed up and disappeared when the jutsu ended.
However, the large and small shattered rocks littering the ground, and the towering trees—every single one broken, snapped, and scattered—all testified to the ferocity and terror of the ninja battle that had taken place in this ruin.
Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh! Figures rushed in. They were the Jōnin of Amegakure. Seeing the battle had ended, they immediately rushed over to check the situation and support Hanzō of the Salamander.
Seeing the aftermath of the battle, a chill swept through the hearts of the Rain Ninja. The thought that they had been searching for such a terrifying figure over the past few days sent shivers from their feet to their heads, filling them with utter dread.
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