Boom—!
Three specially made Explosive Tags detonated simultaneously at point-blank range.
The deafening roar thundered back and forth through the narrow Canyon, while the berserk flames instantly swallowed the tall, lanky man's upper body. The scorching blast of air brutally tore a huge hole through the surrounding gray miasma.
There was no scream.
Before his vocal cords could vibrate, the lanky man's chest, along with the hands forming seals, had already been blasted into minced flesh.
Charred limbs mixed with dark-red blood rained down onto the murky swamp, splashing up rings of turbid ripples. The thick smell of gunpowder mingled with the stench of burning organs and furiously drilled into the nostrils of everyone present.
"Fuma!"
The Iwagakure Jonin's eyes nearly split with rage, his rough features twisted in fury. He stared fixedly at the still-burning flames, unable to believe that the only Wind Release expert on his team, the one capable of countering Lightning Release, had been blown to pieces in the blink of an eye.
"Bastard! Kill that rat!"
The remaining Iwagakure elites were completely enraged. Two taijutsu-type Chunin charged out, one from each side, splashing through the muddy water. Their short blades flashed from their sheaths, coated in a thin layer of Earth Release Chakra, and they lunged straight into the billowing smoke from the explosion with crushing force.
They intended to take advantage of the opening after the enemy had finished setting off the trap and hack him to pieces.
However, there was not even a sound of breathing from within the smoke.
Baishi's real body was nowhere near the center of the explosion.
A tenth of a second before the lanky man stabbed the wooden post, Baishi had already used the extreme speed granted by Lightning Release: Cell Activation to slide away along the surface of the swamp.
At that moment, he was like a gecko crawling along the ground, silently lying in ambush within the shadow of a raised rock on the right.
His black ANBU uniform blended perfectly into the dim light. Beneath his cold Mask, his unruffled eyes remained fixed on the two taijutsu Chunin charging into the smoke.
"Chakra consumption: seven percent."
"Explosive Tags remaining: twenty-one."
"Wind Release threat eliminated."
Baishi rapidly calculated his resources. Against enemies of this level, using Max-Level Lightning Release to blast them to death would certainly be satisfying, but in this perilous border forest, exhausting his Chakra was equivalent to washing his neck and handing it to someone else.
Killing people did not require flashy finishing moves.
The most basic ninjutsu, combined with extreme calculation, was enough.
Baishi slipped both hands into his Ninja Tool Pouch, instantly pinching eight Shuriken between his fingers. His wrists flicked sharply.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
The eight Shuriken tore through the air with sharp whistles and shot into the smoke.
"Watch out for hidden weapons!"
The two taijutsu Chunin who had charged into the smoke reacted extremely quickly. They lowered their centers of gravity, their legs sinking into the swamp like tree roots, and swung their Short Blades to weave an impenetrable web of steel before them.
Clang-clang-clang-clang!
Sparks burst in every direction through the smoke. Every Shuriken was deflected.
"Is that all you've got? You Konoha trash!" one of the Iwagakure Chunin sneered, raising his blade to continue advancing.
But he failed to notice that the deflected Shuriken had not scattered randomly. Two of them had precisely severed several extremely fine steel wires hanging in midair.
Those were the load-bearing points of the deadly web Baishi had laid with Kunai earlier!
The moment a node snapped, the steel wires that had been forcibly pulled taut instantly lost their balance. A terrifying recoil suddenly erupted.
Twang—!
The sound of steel wires slicing through the air was like the Death God's summons. More than a dozen wires strung with Kunai whipped back viciously from all directions like rampaging venomous snakes, instantly wrapping around the ankles and wrists of the two taijutsu Chunin.
"What is this?!"
The two men paled in shock and instinctively tried to wrench themselves free. But the steel wires were incredibly tough; the harder they struggled, the tighter they constricted. Their sharp edges cut straight through their Iwagakure uniforms and sank deep into their flesh, sending blood spraying at once.
At that instant, when their movements stiffened.
Baishi moved.
He kicked off the rock with both legs, his entire body transforming into a black bolt of lightning as he shot forward over the muddy water. Max-Level Lightning Release Chakra surged through his body, yet not a trace of dazzling blue light escaped. It was all contained within his muscle fibers.
Fast! So fast that the naked eye could only catch a blurred afterimage!
Ten meters vanished in an instant.
Baishi appeared like a ghost beneath the two men entangled in the steel wires. He did not draw his blade; instead, he gripped two Kunai in reverse.
There was nothing fancy about his movements.
The Kunai in his left hand drove upward, following the gap beneath the left Chunin's jaw with pinpoint precision. It viciously plunged through his tongue and palate before piercing directly into his brain.
The Kunai in his right hand carried a faint glimmer of Lightning. Like a knife cutting through tofu, it ruthlessly stabbed beneath the left ribs of the Chunin on the right, its tip precisely shredding his heart.
Squish! Squish!
Two bone-chilling sounds of blades sinking into flesh overlapped.
The eyes of the two taijutsu Chunin bulged violently. They opened their mouths to scream, but all that surged from their throats was a great gush of bloody foam mixed with scraps of internal organs.
Baishi expressionlessly pulled out his Kunai.
Blood sprayed across his ANBU Mask and dripped down its cold patterns. He did not even spare the two fallen corpses a glance. Using the force of withdrawing his blades, he smoothly flipped backward and instantly widened the distance.
The entire killing process took less than two seconds.
There had been no ninjutsu bombardment and no loud roars. Only the purest, most extreme form of violent beauty.
"Bastard!"
Only after the two corpses crashed into the muddy water did the distant Iwagakure Jonin finally react.
He had watched three of his subordinates be slaughtered in the blink of an eye. And his opponent had used nothing more than a Substitution Technique, several Explosive Tags, and the most basic Kunai!
The humiliation of being toyed with like a Monkey by his prey caused this battle-hardened Iwagakure Jonin to completely lose his reason.
"Everyone, get back!"
The Jonin let out an enraged roar and abruptly crouched down. His thick hands clasped together, then slammed violently into the swamp before him.
Rumble, rumble!
An enormous, heavy surge of Earth Release Chakra poured into the ground through his palms like a volcanic eruption.
The surrounding muddy water instantly boiled and dried up. The soft ground began to tremble violently, giving off dull rumbles of earth.
"Earth Release: Rock Shelter Collapse!"
Accompanied by the Jonin's roar, the towering dark-red rock walls on both sides of the Canyon suddenly let out a deafening cracking sound.
Baishi abruptly raised his head.
Beneath his Mask, his pupils contracted sharply.
The sky above had vanished.
Hundreds of tons of massive rocks broke free from the cliffs and came crashing down over the area where he stood like a meteor shower heralding the apocalypse.
Every boulder carried lethal gravitational acceleration, compressing the surrounding air until it shrieked.
Shadows instantly engulfed Baishi completely.
The retreat route had already been sealed by Venom Fang. Sheer cliffs stood on both sides, while falling Boulders filled the space above.
Earth Release had altered the entire battlefield's terrain, forcibly driving Baishi into an absolute dead end.
"Die! Turn into meat paste with these rocks!" The Iwagakure Jonin rose to his feet, panting heavily, a vicious grin spreading across his face.
The gale whipped up Baishi's black cloak.
The largest boulder was less than three meters from his head. The intense air pressure had already crushed cracks into the ground beneath his feet.
There was nowhere to dodge.
There was nothing to block it with.