This strike naturally couldn't defeat Soul King Ichigo outright, but the black energy clung to the wound, preventing the severed body from immediately regenerating.
Ichibe controlled Soul King Ichigo and cut him open about ten centimeters below the wound, abandoning all the parts tainted by the black energy. That was the only way to recover quickly.
But Uchiha Tamaharu had already closed in again, giving him no chance to continue recovering.
Ichibe realized that Uchiha Tamaharu was strong enough to fight them head-on. He naturally wouldn't be foolish enough to keep meeting his attacks directly, so he made Soul King Ichigo's upper body teleport away.
He could still use spatial abilities, but he was nowhere near as skilled with them as Uchiha Tamaharu.
The lower half of his body turned into a mass of golden Reishi and pursued Soul King Ichigo.
"World's End!"
Uchiha Tamaharu held out a hand, and KROOM instantly expanded, intercepting the Reishi and preventing the Reishi from the lower half from returning.
He stretched the space to infinity, bringing the Reishi's movement almost to a halt.
Then he condensed a Space Cube, compressing the Reishi inside it, and struck it with a black-energy Rasengan, completely clearing away the Reishi.
"Damn it!"
Ichibe was both shocked and furious.
A moment of carelessness had led to this outcome: they had lost nearly half their Reishi.
He could keep absorbing more to recover, but that would take time. If the fight dragged on, he would be at a serious disadvantage.
He was panicking now. Even the Soul King's power couldn't resist that black energy.
But more importantly, the Soul King Ichigo they controlled couldn't display the Soul King's true strength. They were basically relying on the Soul King's own power to fight.
Uchiha Tamaharu immediately pursued them, using Spatial