"Crackle..."
At the bottom of the deep crater, amid the standing earth and stone, a pebble rolled hurriedly down from an unremarkable protruding rock among the stone forest.
"Crackle... crackle..."
Then, as if at some signal, a second pebble, a third... and finally, clusters of small stones came rustling down the relatively smooth earthen rock face.
"Hmph..."
This was followed by a faint groan of pain.
At the same time came another cascade of crushed stones and dirt.
"Clack!"
After that groan, a broken rock spike stained with a trace of blood fell from above and landed with a crisp sound.
"Clack, clack... thunk, thunk... clack..."
Then several more bloodstained Rock Spikes fell, some landing flat, others embedding themselves in the ground.
"Tap!"
After that, a foot lightly stepped down among those Rock Spikes, followed by another foot touching the ground.
"Whew..."
As his black robe fell and covered both feet, the Masked Man let out a muffled breath. In the reflection of his slowly spinning Three Tomoe Sharingan, several holes in his black robe were visible, and a trace of lingering alarm flashed across his eye.
Beneath the mask, the Masked Man's face was slightly stiff as well.
One punch...
Was that really a fist? As he raised his head and swept his gaze across the deep crater, the standing earthen boulders of various sizes around it, the rock ahead that had been smashed through with a human-shaped hole, the next rock visible through that hole that had also been smashed through in the shape of a person, and the human-shaped indentation in the rock behind him, his stiff face beneath the mask twitched slightly.
A faint sheen of sweat seeped from his temples.
Even with his exceptional calm and composure, a chill ran down his spine, and cold