"Crack... crack-crack...
At last, after enduring who knew how many hundreds of heavy blows, a massive crack suddenly appeared in the center of the shield.
Almost at the same moment, an enormous tentacle, thicker than the others and infused with more of Gyuki's chakra and fury, lashed viciously against the edge of the bone shield from an oblique angle above.
"Boom—!!!"
This explosion was especially muffled.
The enormous white bone shield exploded in response, turning into a sky full of shooting bone fragments and splinters!
Namikaze Yoru's figure was revealed behind the shield. His left arm, from the shoulder down, had completely vanished along with the bone shield.
There was no blood at the severed end, only a smooth, jade-white cross-section of bone.
His body was smashed downward by the remaining force of the impact, toward the storm vortex below.
Fortunately, before he was swallowed by countless flying rocks, his right foot lightly tapped a passing boulder, and his body drifted through several elusive turns like willow catkins.
By the narrowest margin, he escaped the core zone of destruction and landed atop a rock pillar at the edge of the storm that had not yet completely collapsed.
As the storm gradually subsided, the dust slowly settled.
Gyuki stopped spinning, its eight tentacles crashing heavily onto the ground with dull booms.
It panted heavily, its eight enormous eyes fixed on the somewhat "incomplete" figure atop the rock pillar, yet it did not feel the slightest relief.
Within the storm's range, the terrain across several kilometers had been completely transformed, as if a giant had viciously scooped out a chunk with a spoon. All that remained was a terrifying crater covered in spiraling ravines.
Atop the rock pillar, Namikaze Yoru stood quietly.
His body, missing its left arm, looked somewhat thin. The