[Mystic-Rank High-Level Combat Technique: Eight Extremes Collapse]
A close-combat skills famed for its explosive power. Once mastered, each strike carries eight layers of internal force, stacked one over another. At full strength, its destructive capacity rivals that of an mid to high rank technique!
Kirito carefully read through the scroll's explanation and couldn't help but take a sharp breath.
As for all the stuff about "Mystic-Rank High-Level," etc. etc. and other seemingly out-of-place elements… well, let's not over-explain those here. If you get it, you get it. If not, just keep reading, you'll understand soon enough.
Unlike attribute points or conceptual armaments that instantly boosted combat power, and unlike new weapons, this Combat Technique, had to be studied, practiced, and trained to be understood. Its true power could only be unleashed based on how deeply one had mastered it.
This wasn't power handed to you on a silver platter.
Hard work and training? Of course. That was only natural.
Eight Extremes Collapse placed heavy demands on the user's physical strength. It was a pure, close-quarters melee art. If you had a thin frame and weak limbs, the first thing to collapse wouldn't be your opponent, but your own muscles.
With his current Endurance stat, Kirito barely met the minimum threshold to start training it. But that brought up another issue, stamina.
Eight Extremes Collapse consumed massive physical energy in battle.
And Kirito… had never invested a single point into stamina.
Sure, the Phantom Cloak provided a small stamina boost to its host, but still, it wasn't nearly enough.
After obtaining Sode no Shirayuki, Kirito had already made up his mind to shift from stealth assassin to a more direct combatant. He had just invested attribute points into Strength to reflect that. But now, he clearly realized that in head-on battles, stamina was an essential combat trait.
Looks like he'd have to start specialized stamina training next.
The second round of the Chūnin Exams, the Forest of Death, had officially ended.
Up next was the Preliminaries, leading into the individual tournament battles.
After the prelims, candidates were granted a full week of rest and training. Then, once the dignitaries and nobles from across the nations arrived, the final tournament would begin.
On the surface, the exams were progressing smoothly and in perfect order.
The eight finalists were all scrambling to squeeze in their last-minute breakthrough training during the week.
But beneath the surface… Sound and Sand had already begun their secret alliance. Covert troop movements. Tactical arrangements. Konoha's own countermeasures in place. A brewing storm. The calm before the clash of titans.
Yet whether it was the storm above ground or the shadow moves beneath it…
Kirito had nothing to do with any of it.
"Hey, hey. Are you seriously going through with this Rock Lee nonsense?"
Inside the weapons shop, Tenten, recently defeated by the Sand kunoichi Temari in the third-round prelims, had recovered from her injuries after a few days' rest. Wearing casual clothes, she leaned against the shop's front and watched Kirito fiddling with something.
Curious, she walked over, and when she found out what he was doing, her jaw dropped.
Kirito was making custom weighted gear, for himself.
Weighted training for shinobi wasn't rare. But if he was copying Rock Lee, wearing weights that were over ten times his own body weight, then that was a different level of crazy.
"I mean, if Rock Lee can do it," Kirito replied coolly, "why can't I?"
Tenten shook her head. "I just… this doesn't seem like something you'd do. You've never been the type to voluntarily choose something this annoying."
"You're right. I don't like annoying things. But right now, I need this," Kirito said, offering no further explanation.
Tenten, tactful as always, didn't press the issue.
"Oh, by the way, did you hear? Lee lost in the prelims."
Tenten sighed. "Even someone like him, who trains so hard, still lost in the end. But his opponent, some Sand guy, collapsed right after the match too. If Lee had just held out a little longer, he might've won. It's such a shame…"
She stopped, then added, "They say the guy fought that match injured. The wounds must've been from the second round. But who the heck could've hurt someone that strong in the Forest of Death…?"
Kirito blinked.
Then he realized, Konoha's higher-ups had sealed the information.
Naturally so. The princess of the Land of Fire had nearly gotten injured under their protection. If that news got out, it'd be a diplomatic nightmare. As for the Sand Village? They had their own skeletons in the closet and weren't about to reveal anything either.
"…So Gaara still won, huh," Kirito muttered, eyes narrowing.
"Tailed Beast regeneration really is no joke. I guess I held back too much."
He smirked coldly.
"But next time… there won't be a next time."
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