A spat out a mouthful of blood, his entire body reeling as though a train at full speed had struck him head-on.
He flew backward, coughing blood, even faster than he had charged in! His arm twisted at an unnatural angle, its bones clearly shattered.
"Lord Raikage!"
"A!"
Darui, Shi, and the others stared in anguish and fury, rushing to rescue him or attack Liuyu.
But just then, Ulquiorra and the three Uchiha Arrancar behind Liuyu moved.
"His Majesty has commanded," Ulquiorra's hollow voice rang out, the emerald tear streaks on his pale mask gleaming coldly, "that we test the results."
"Yes!"
The scarlet three tomoe in Steel Bone's, Swift Shadow's, and Fortress's eyes spun wildly.
Purple-black energy, a mixture of chakra and Hollow reiatsu, erupted around them. They shot forward like lightning, charging at Darui, Shi, and the other elite Kumogakure jonin respectively.
"Uchiha traitors! Die!" Darui roared, swinging his lightning-wreathed sword at the charging Steel Bone.
Steel Bone neither dodged nor retreated. The three tomoe in his eyes tracked the blade's trajectory, and the Hollow Hole in his chest glowed faintly.
A layer of hard, pale bone armor, like an exoskeleton, instantly covered his right arm, and he punched straight at the blade!
Clang!
Bone armor collided with the lightning blade in a shower of dazzling sparks.
Darui felt an overwhelmingly brutal force surge through him, numbing the web of his hand and nearly knocking the sword from his grip.
Yet only a shallow white mark remained on Steel Bone's armor.
"So hard!" Darui's pupils contracted.
Elsewhere, Swift Shadow moved like a phantom, leaving several afterimages in the air as he instantly circled behind Shi, his bone-armored claws stabbing at Shi's back.
Shi's keen sensory abilities allowed him to twist aside by the narrowest margin, and he fired