Warm-up: The Five Elements' Offensive and Defensive Properties

The dust that had originally drifted through the air in the arena had already settled, and Orochimaru's figure became clear once more.

Extinguishing the Fireball Jutsu with a flick of his finger was enough to show that, as one of Konoha's former Sannin, his mastery of ninjutsu was truly formidable.

However, Qi's Fire Style attack had merely been the beginning. The moment Orochimaru shattered it, before he could finish what he was saying, Qi raised a hand and unleashed a second ninjutsu.

Just as with his earlier Fire Style release, this time he used a Wind Release technique.

The advanced Wind Release technique—Pressure Damage—operated on principles similar to Vacuum Sphere, but it concentrated all its power into a single attack, granting it destructive force far beyond that of Vacuum Sphere.

Martial-Type Ninja Arts were cast with astonishing speed. A piercing sonic boom rang out as a powerful wave of compressed air formed in an instant and crushed toward Orochimaru.

As the air churned violently, the entire training ground seemed to tremble.

Though the entire process might have taken only an instant to an ordinary person, to people like Qi and Orochimaru, that was more than enough time to respond.

"Heh heh, interesting."

With a light chuckle, Orochimaru formed hand seals at an astonishing speed once more, then assumed the same casting posture Qi had used.

"Fire Style: Searing Migraine."

The principle of Fire overcoming Wind in chakra nature transformation was actually simple—high-temperature flames created from chakra did not follow the rules of natural fire. They could burn most kinds of matter, and air, composed of various gases, was one of them.

With Orochimaru's strength, even ordinary Fire Style techniques possessed tremendous incinerating power. While they could not compare to Zhao's power, burning away the air was more than easy enough.