The dark red cloud of energy dissipated, revealing Haotian's cold, impassive figure.
He slowly walked up to the struggling Aburame Shikuroo and looked down at him.
Shikuroo's body was already disfigured. His skin was ulcerated, his muscles atrophied, and his bones deformed, making him look like a corpse in the early stages of decay.
He writhed on the ground in agony, letting out a hair-raising wail like a demon from hell.
The air was thick with the stench of charred flesh and nauseating rot, making it hard to breathe.
"You... what kind of monster are you..." Shikuroo struggled to lift his head and look at Haotian. His voice was hoarse, like a broken bellows, filled with pain and despair.
Haotian sighed and shook his head helplessly.
"Monster? I was just defending myself." He gestured around them. "You attacked me with those dangerous Nano Poison Insects. Didn't you expect to pay the price?"
Haotian remembered all too clearly the agony of being gnawed by countless tiny insects. They had burrowed into every opening, trying to crawl into every pore and devour his flesh.
It had felt like a thousand ants devouring his heart, sending a chill through him.
If Ghidorah's power hadn't erupted in time, he would probably have been nothing but an empty shell by now.
"Cough, cough..." Shikuroo coughed violently, spitting out black blood mixed with the corpses of tiny insects.
He struggled to get up, only to realize that his body no longer obeyed him at all.
His legs lay limp on the ground, and his body collapsed like a puddle of mud.
"I... I have to complete the mission..." Shikuroo's voice was faint, almost inaudible.
Yet his gaze was unusually resolute, as if he held some unshakable conviction.
"The mission?" Haotian frowned, a trace of doubt rising in his heart.
"What mission is more important than your life?"
"Cough, cough... It's Lord Danzo's orders..." Shikuroo struggled to force out a few words, his voice growing weaker, as though he could stop breathing at any moment.
"Danzo..." Haotian's heart tightened. He knew that name well.
Danzo was the darkness within Konoha, the leader of Root, and a ruthless man who would stop at nothing for the village.
"I... I have to finish..." Shikuroo's voice grew fainter and fainter, until his words became an almost inaudible mumble.
His eyes were wide open, fixed on Haotian, filled with resentment and madness...
Shikuroo's eyes seemed ready to burst from their sockets. His bloodshot whites were webbed with veins, making his expression look grotesque.
His hoarse voice sounded like a cracked gong, filled with a chilling resolve. "For Lord Danzo... for Root... even if I die... I'll complete the mission..."
He suddenly sucked in a breath, his chest heaving violently as if it were about to burst.
A strange surge of Chakra burst from within him. The air around him began to warp, and a nauseating, fishy stench spread through the area.
"Vase Poison Technique!" Shikuroo roared, his voice tinged with crazed triumph.
Haotian's heart tightened as he recognized the Forbidden Technique.
It was the most terrifying secret technique of the Aburame Clan: turning oneself into a source of deadly poison and releasing toxic gas capable of corroding anything.
A cloud of dark green gas gushed from Shikuroo's mouth like a poisonous snake, rapidly spreading and staining the air around it a sinister green.
The air filled with a suffocating stench, as if rotting corpses had been mixed with poison. It was nauseating.
The grass and trees on the ground withered instantly, turning into black ash.
Haotian held his breath, not daring to inhale even a trace of the poison.
A stinging sensation spread across his skin, as if countless tiny needles were pricking him.
He knew that even through his clothes, the gas could seep in and corrode his body.
"Hmph. A last-ditch struggle." Haotian sneered and formed Hand Seals. Ghidorah's power surged through him once more, and a dark red barrier of energy formed around him, keeping the poison at bay.
The dark green gas kept striking the dark red barrier, hissing as it corroded the energy like sulfuric acid dripping onto metal.
Haotian could feel his energy rapidly draining, but his expression didn't change, and his gaze remained resolute.
He knew that if he held on, Shikuroo would run out of Chakra, and he would win the battle.
Shikuroo's body grew more and more shriveled, like a deflated ball.
His eyes gradually dimmed as his life ebbed away.
But he continued to stare fixedly at Haotian,
"I... won't let you get away with this..." Shikuroo forced out a few words with the last of his strength.
His voice was so faint it was almost inaudible, but it brimmed with deep-seated hatred.
His body began to tremble violently, as if something were about to burst out of him...
Shikuroo's body suddenly swelled, his skin stretched taut like a balloon about to burst.
A bestial roar tore from his mouth, sending a chill down the spine.
"Swarm... devour..." He managed to mumble a few words, his voice hoarse and twisted, like a demon from hell.
"Bang!" A muffled thud sounded as a gaping hole burst open in Shikuroo's abdomen. Countless black insects poured out like a tidal wave, packed so densely they made one's scalp crawl.
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