Feint East Attack West, Create Afterimages; Fire Escape Tests, Igniting Crisis

Inside the buffer zone, the air was as stagnant as a massive, frigid slab of iron.

Three hours had passed, each minute and second dripping by like icy water—long and agonizing. Captain Hozuki sat cross-legged on the Basalt Throne, maintaining his initial posture, eyes closed, motionless as a stone Buddha merged with the darkness.

Yet, Mizuki Han knew that beneath this stone Buddha lurked an ancient beast ready to strike and devour at any moment. The gemstone embedded in the center of his brow, pulsing with a rhythmic, scarlet light, was the beast's single open eye, mercilessly monitoring every speck of dust in the space.

This was a death game of patience, perseverance, and, above all, who would make the first mistake.

Mizuki Han hid deep within the shadows of a weapon rack, his body long since assimilated to the cold of the environment, even his breath carrying a trace of frost. He could wait no longer. Prolonged chakra consumption and intense mental focus had pushed his body to its limit. More importantly, the seventy-two-hour death countdown hanging over his head did not allow him to waste any more time here.

He had to make him move.

Mizuki Han lowered his eyelids slightly, reaching his uninjured right hand deeper into the drainage slot beneath him. A trace of imperceptible chakra flowed from his fingertips into the network of ice threads that already permeated the entire space.

"Ding."

An extremely faint, metallic clinking sound echoed from far away, near the ventilation duct exit. The sound was like a small pebble dropped into a deep, ancient well, sending a negligible ripple through the deathly silent space.

This was the signal he had agreed upon with Haku.

Inside the ventilation duct, Haku, who had been curled up in the darkness, felt her tense body shudder violently upon hearing the familiar, faint resonance of ice crystals. Following Mizuki Han's orders, she pulled a cold kunai from her ninja pouch and, with all her might, scraped it hard against the rough inner wall of the iron duct!

"Skree—!"

A sharp, piercing screech of metal on metal erupted without warning from the upper left of the buffer zone!

This sound was completely different from any previous subtle movement. It was filled with deliberation and provocation, like a rat frantically scratching at an iron cage with its claws, trying to attract the hunter's attention.

On the throne, the eyelids of the closed-eyed Captain Hozuki twitched imperceptibly.

He did not move.

But through the ice-thread network connected to him, Mizuki Han clearly "sensed" that the frequency of the man's chakra flow had experienced a momentary acceleration.

He had taken the bait.

An experienced ninja would never easily shift position because of a suspicious sound. He would analyze, he would judge. The sound came from the upper left, where the ventilation ducts were dense. Was the intruder bluffing, or was this a diversion?

In the half-second that Captain Hozuki's attention was drawn by the sound and his brain began high-speed analysis, Mizuki Han's second step followed seamlessly.

He manipulated another ice thread connected to a ceiling beam, gently nudging an ice mirror he had pre-positioned at a tricky angle.

The palm-sized ice mirror shifted at an extremely slight angle under the pull of the thread. This deflection precisely captured a sliver of cold light spilling from the Moonlight Stone on the dome, reflecting it onto an empty wall on the right side of the buffer zone!

"Whoosh!"

A blurry, humanoid afterimage of white light flashed across that wall and vanished!

Sound on the left, shadow on the right!

A feint to the east, an attack in the west!

This was the most classic and fundamental tactical deception. But when applied with such extreme detail and timing, it was enough to shake the rock-solid resolve of an elite Chunin.

"Hmph..."

A cold snort of extreme disdain escaped Captain Hozuki's nostrils.

He finally moved.

He did not stand up; instead, maintaining his cross-legged posture, his entire body—along with the Basalt Throne beneath him—slowly levitated! Half a meter off the ground, silent as a ghost!

The scarlet gem on his brow flared with sudden, intense light! A surge of chakra, far more massive and violent than before, erupted from his body!

"Playing tricks, you little rat..."

Captain Hozuki's voice was cold and raspy, filled with the fury and cruelty of a superior being provoked. He had lost the patience to play hide-and-seek with the intruder. Since you refuse to come out, I will burn everything you might be hiding in, along with this entire space, to ash!

He slowly raised his right hand, his hands beginning to weave seals at a dazzling speed!

Rat-Tiger-Dog-Ox-Rabbit-Tiger!

These were not standard Water or Earth style hand seals! Mizuki Han's pupils contracted to the size of pinpricks at that moment!

A scorching energy, hot enough to distort the air, gathered rapidly in his palm. The surrounding temperature climbed at a terrifying speed! The thin layer of frost on the ground evaporated instantly, turning into wisps of white steam.

The transparent ice threads Mizuki Han had laid out began to emit "crackling" sounds of unbearable strain, melting and snapping one by one from the outermost perimeter!

His trap network was being physically destroyed by high heat!

"Fire Style..."

Captain Hozuki spat out two syllables laden with the scent of destruction.

"...Flame Wave Burning Kill!"

He thrust his right hand, now gathering terrifying energy, violently forward!

"BOOM—!!!"

There was no earth-shattering explosion; instead, a fan-shaped, overwhelming wave of orange-red fire swept across the room! The fire wave, like a breached tsunami of magma, hugged the ground and spread wildly in all directions with an unstoppable, violent force!

The firelight swallowed all darkness in an instant!

It illuminated the entire buffer zone into a burning hell!

The weapon rack ignited, emitting "crackling" pops! Shuriken hanging from the ceiling were scorched red-hot, falling like raindrops with a clatter!

The twelve-part chain trap Mizuki Han had meticulously laid out appeared so laughable and fragile in the face of such absolute power! The moment the tricky ice mirrors touched the fire wave, they hissed and, failing to hold for even a second, melted completely into water vapor!

A lethal crisis descended with a suddenness that defied all expectations!

Mizuki Han's Ice Release was countered perfectly by the elemental properties of Fire Release.

The scorching wave of heat surged toward him, instantly igniting the weapon rack he had been hiding behind. The rolling heat threatened to evaporate the very blood in his veins. His skin stung with sharp pain, and even his breath turned searing hot.

All his plans and calculations were utterly pulverized in the face of this unreasonable, wide-range, indiscriminate attack!

Captain Hozuki hovered in mid-air, his single scarlet eye scanning the sea of flames with cold indifference. In his view, that scurrying rat was either charred to a crisp by now, or would inevitably flee his hiding spot in a pathetic panic, only to be easily crushed to death.

The waves of fire rolled and roared, driven by a will to incinerate everything in their path, and they had already reached Mizuki Han.

The weapon rack he had been using for cover collapsed with a crash, leaving him with nothing to shield himself.

His Ice Release was suppressed to the extreme by the Fire Release, his traps were instantly destroyed, and his hiding spot was completely exposed.

Faced with this overwhelming, all-consuming inferno, how would he respond?