Muttering to Himself!

"Quicksand!!!"

Suddenly, a shriek rang out from within the Cloud-Hidden ranks.

This person had been the first to notice that the layer of sand beneath his feet was softening, while his feet themselves were sinking down.

One stone stirred a thousand waves.

A large number of Cloud-Hidden shinobi hurriedly leaped into the air, but who could have expected the sand beneath them to shoot upward like yellow snakes made of sand, wrapping around their calves and dragging them down?

"Ah, what is this?!"

"Cut them apart!"

Some of the smarter shinobi tried to use the kunai in their hands to sever the "sand snakes" coiling around them, only for even more "sand snakes" to surge up and wrap around their arms.

"Use Lightning Release!"

As one Jonin loudly warned the surrounding shinobi, he coated his kunai with Lightning Release Chakra.

Everyone knew that Lightning Release countered Earth Release, and the essence of sand manipulation was also Earth Release. Therefore, once the "sand snakes" were cut apart by Lightning Release Chakra, they should lose their power and turn back into ordinary grains of sand.

[Whoosh—]

The kunai crackling with electricity pierced fiercely into the quicksand beneath his feet with a sharp whistle.

At once.

Blue currents crackled and spread in every direction.

But a shocking sight appeared before all the Cloud-Hidden shinobi attempting this.

Nothing changed.

"Huh?"

"How is that possible?!"

Everyone was dumbfounded. Lightning Release countering Earth Release was practically a Truth in the Shinobi World, so why was it ineffective now?

As a result.

Other than a small number of luckier shinobi, most were completely wrapped up by the spreading "sand snakes" and swallowed by the quicksand beneath their feet.

However, their opponent did not seem intent on slaughtering them.

The sand merely buried their bodies up to their