The taunting tone enraged the Branch Family members.
Before the clan head, Otsutsuki Ikki, could give an order, a burly, simple-minded member of the Branch Family could no longer hold back and charged at Aoike.
"Damn Main House brat, stop talking big!" His chakra-coated fist slammed toward Aoike.
Aoike's Sharingan watched his wide, sweeping movements, riddled with openings, without a flicker of emotion.
When they were close enough, Aoike planted a simple kick in his gut and sent him flying back even faster.
Though it lacked the astonishing spectacle of Lightning Style, the cracks in the stone wall behind the Branch Family member showed that Aoike's kick had packed a serious punch.
Especially the charred footprint on his chest, which gave off the smell of roasted meat.
"Too weak." Aoike jumped down from above and landed steadily on the ground.
"You shouldn't come out and embarrass yourself if that's all you've got."
Otsutsuki Ikki held back his clan members who wanted to rush forward.
He studied Aoike's blood-red eyes, his face clouded with doubt.
"Uchiha?"
At his words, many members of the Branch Family froze and began to murmur among themselves.
"Is he from that evil Uchiha Clan on Earth?"
"Why is he wearing the Main House's clothes?"
"I heard an elder say they were the strongest in that failed world..."
"How did he get up here?"
"Who knows? We've been busy wiping out the Main House lately. Once we have a bigger Tenseigan, who'd care about the clans on Earth?"
"..."
As an Ōtsutsuki who aspired to destroy Earth, Ikki knew far more about the Uchiha than the other Branch Family members did.
If he were alone, it might be hard to say who would win against a Mangekyō Sharingan. But with over a thousand elite members of the Branch Family here, could they really fail to take down one Uchiha?
"Brat, I'll show you how false the courage your Mangekyō Sharingan gives you really is!"
Then he ordered coldly, "Kill him."
Because of their isolated environment on the moon and their separation from Earth, the Ōtsutsuki Clan's ninjutsu style was relatively limited.
At their clan head's command, the Ōtsutsuki all unleashed ninjutsu together.
"Earth Release: Swamp Flow Technique!"
The rocky ground in front of Aoike instantly turned into a swamp. Driven by chakra, it surged into a wave of earth dozens of meters high and crashed down toward him.
Facing the immense pressure of more than a thousand people alone, Aoike felt a surge of excitement he hadn't experienced in a long time.
His pace quickened with each beat of his heart. Before the wave of earth crashed down, he took a deep breath, expanding his lungs to their limit.
"Fire Style: Great Dragon Fire Technique!"
The snarling dragon's head met the swamp head-on. The intense heat baked the flowing mud until it hardened. To the Ōtsutsuki's astonishment, the dragon burst through the Earth Release and burned a charred track through it, as if a nail had punched a hole in a fan.
After sliding some distance, the fiery dragon head exploded with a roar. The residual heat left the Ōtsutsuki standing at the front feeling scorched.
"Is this guy really human?" The Branch Family members behind them watched Aoike charge into the front ranks as if no one could stop him, and no longer dared to use wide-area ninjutsu.
As his Mangekyō Sharingan continued to exert its power, Aoike always reacted before danger could reach him.
He grabbed the arm of someone trying to sneak up behind him and used the man's body to block an attack from the front. Before the attacker's companion could pull back, Aoike seized his head and smashed it into the ground, killing another.
He darted through the crowd like a ghost dancing in the flames. Bodies and wounded Ōtsutsuki kept flying out of the melee, bearing not only the marks of fists and feet but also varying degrees of burns.
Aoike's basic attacks came with an added fiery punch, and every strike was lethal. Otsutsuki Ikki hurriedly held back his clan members, who were throwing themselves into the fight without fear of death. He no longer dared to wear Aoike down at the cost of their lives.
Watching the enemy try to put some distance between them, Aoike curled his lips into a smile. He used the nearest person as a springboard and leaped out of the encirclement.
Then, before they could attack, he settled into a bow stance and aimed toward the densest part of the crowd.
"Flame Fist!"
Blazing flames burst from Aoike's fist, swallowing dozens of people along a straight path.
The Ōtsutsuki's tight formation meant they took the full force of the attack. If Flame Fist had been any stronger, it could have doubled the damage with that single strike.
In less than ten minutes, Aoike had killed nearly a hundred members of the Ōtsutsuki Branch Family.
The remaining Branch Family members stared in horror at their disfigured comrades after the flames passed. Whether from the heat or fear, sweat trickled down their cheeks.
"Use the puppets to hold him back! Prepare the combined ninjutsu!"
Under Otsutsuki Ikki's direction, more than two hundred puppets that could still move launched themselves at Aoike in suicidal attacks, slowing his advance.
Aoike smashed a puppet blocking his path with a single Flame Fist. Looking at the iron lumps swarming like flies and the Ōtsutsuki Branch Family behind them preparing a large-scale ninjutsu, he decided to stop holding back.
He tore open his damaged sleeve and said in a low voice, "Puppets can't feel pain."
Otsutsuki Ikki was still trying to understand what he meant when Aoike pulled a Ninja Blade from a scroll. The chakra in his body surged continuously into the blade.
Under the relentless flow of chakra, the blade turned red-hot in an instant.
The puppets were now less than a centimeter away from Aoike.
"Breath of Fire: Fourth Form: Winding Flame!"
In an instant, an orange-red sun burst into being!
Flames swirled around Aoike and drew everything nearby into the inferno.
The scorching heat seared everyone's faces.
Dozens of Ōtsutsuki Branch Family members controlling puppets nearby were flung away and reduced to charred corpses before they could even cry out.
The flames went out. With a huge amount of chakra suddenly drained from him, Aoike dropped to one knee. His Fire Release Chakra Mode was forcibly dispelled, and his disintegrating Chakra Cloak scattered across the ground in bright red particles.
The battlefield looked as if it had been wiped clean with a single click. Only now did the people on the moon fully understand what kind of opponent they were facing.
Aoike had copied the Breath of Fire technique by adapting his Fire Release Chakra Mode. Both its defense and the inherent offensive properties of its flames were formidable. Its one weakness was how much chakra it consumed.
The Ōtsutsuki recognized this weakness. Taking advantage of this rare opportunity, they refused to give Aoike any time to recover.
"Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique!"
"Lightning Style: Earth Walk!"
"Lightning Style: Lightning Fang!"
"Fire Style: Explosive Bomb!"