Chapter 126: Way Out
Sensing the state of his own body, Dodai knew his plan to capture Kael Cross was impossible to achieve.
He glanced out of the corner of his eye at the crimson magma beast hovering in the distance, and a final resolve settled in his heart.
"Then let's die together!"
With a look of madness on his face, he commanded the magma beast to dive straight at himself.
"This guy..."
Kael gritted his teeth.
Surging magma instantly flooded the broken earth. Even though much of it flowed into the deep fissures in the ground, a massive river of lava still rushed toward where the two men stood.
Glug, glug!
Endless, bubbling magma instantly covered the entire battlefield. At this moment, the ground and the air seemed to evaporate, leaving only a scorching scent, as if everything between heaven and earth was being incinerated by the ultra-high temperature.
In this hollowed-out world, just as Kael and Dodai were about to be completely swallowed by the rolling river of lava...
Hum!
A barely audible hum rang out in the noisy, crimson world.
The next moment, a circular ring of starlight burst from around Kael, forcibly pushing back the surging river of lava.
It was like a mouse meeting a cat, or fire meeting water; there was no room for struggle or resistance.
The rolling magma was pushed back a hundred meters, and the world seemed to return to the cold of the night, with only the red-stained ground testifying that this place had just been covered by extremely hot lava.
Kael took a light breath, a lingering palpitation filling his heart. Although he had been engulfed by the lava for only a split second, it had still shaken him greatly.
The fact that his body had nearly melted was only one part of it; that just proved the power of Dodai's Lava Release.
What shocked him most was Dodai's resolve to perish together.
In the moment before being swallowed, Kael had felt suffocated, yet Dodai had remained indifferent, as if he didn't care about his own life or death at all.
"Who gave you such courage..."
Kael gritted his teeth secretly.
By now, under the Earth Dragon's Earthquake Wave, the ground within a thousand-meter radius had completely collapsed and lost its shape. Large swathes of soil had caved in, revealing bottomless pits. The few remaining patches of ground were covered in cracks and crisscrossing ravines.
The cries of the Cloud ninja that could be faintly heard before had now vanished completely.
Although Kael's summons had struggled against Dodai's Lava Release, against those ordinary Chunin and Jonin of the Cloud, both Goldie and the Void Mantis were terrifyingly dangerous existences.
Kael looked at Dodai, whose face was now gray with death, and sighed slightly.
"You were a good man, but you chose the wrong side!"
With a shift in thought, Kael moved like the wind, swinging the wind-enhanced kunai in his hand once more.
The night passed, and dawn arrived.
The mountain forest behind the Hidden Frost Village, thick with the smell of smoke, finally revealed its horrific state under the morning sun.
The once-modest mountain had terrifyingly collapsed halfway, as if a storm of bombs had rained down upon it.
The lush, green trees were now a bare, barren wasteland. Aside from the charred blackness that still emitted smoke and ash, there was no other color to be seen in this part of the world.
Only when the noise had completely ceased did the villagers of the Hidden Frost Village dare to come and check. They were all stunned by the tragic scene.
Yesterday, the area behind the village had been a lush hill and forest. Now, there was not a trace of life, only a dead, broken land. Fear and terror appeared on their faces.
"The Mountain God is angry! The Mountain God is angry!"
Someone shouted in panic, hurriedly kneeling and kowtowing. The surrounding villagers were jolted awake and knelt en masse, creating quite a spectacle.
In their limited understanding, a scene that could change the heavens and earth in an instant must be the result of something angering the gods above, causing them to send down their wrath upon the Hidden Frost Village.
The few people still standing in the crowd had ashen faces, looking at the scene with terrified eyes.
"How could ninja of such power be fighting behind our tiny Hidden Frost Village?"
These Hidden Frost ninja were completely baffled.
Only an old man in his fifties at the back of the crowd showed a hint of panic in his eyes. He was surrounded by several people dressed as ninja.
"If the Cloud ninja met with an accident here, then my Hidden Frost Village is finished..."
At this moment, to the northeast of the Hidden Frost Village, a figure was rushing toward the scene.
The morning sun was just beginning to warm up, its light gently caressing the slender figure moving through the yellow sand.
If a powerful ninja looked closely, they would see that this high-speed figure was a tall woman.
Her long hair was tied in a braid behind her head, her eyebrows were sharp like willow leaves, and her face was cold and beautiful.
But right now, there was a faint look of anxiety in her eyes.
She was the Cloud's Two-Tails Jinchuriki—Yugito Nii!
She was an even more perfect Jinchuriki than the current Killer B. Unlike Killer B, who occasionally lost control due to the Eight-Tails' immense power, Yugito Nii got along extremely well with the Two-Tails inside her, even though she was only in her teens.
Therefore, the village felt safe sending her out alone, whereas Killer B was mostly kept under semi-house arrest in the Cloud Gorge, bored and practicing his rap.
Half an hour later!
Behind the Hidden Frost Village.
"Matatabi says... the chakra signatures of Dodai and the two squads disappeared right here in the Hidden Frost Village..."
Yugito looked down at the broken, unrecognizable earth, her eyes filled with deep shock.
Dodai was highly valued by the Third Raikage. As a famous genius of the village's younger generation who mastered the highly offensive Lava Release, Yugito knew exactly how strong he was.
As a fellow Cloud genius, she knew that unless she underwent full Tailed Beast Transformation, she might not be Dodai's match.
But someone had fought him to this extent, practically destroying the terrain here!
Destruction on this scale was something even Dodai couldn't achieve. It felt to her like the aftermath of a Tailed Beast rampage!