The pain was excruciating, like a red-hot iron rod boring through every inch of the meridians in Mizuki Han's left arm and deep into his brain.
It wasn't mere pain. It was a primal wail, born from having his very nature forcibly twisted. He could clearly "hear" his cells freezing and shattering in the extreme cold, his flesh and tissue irreversibly transforming into cold, inorganic matter. His left arm was "dying."
Outside, the physical pressure unleashed by Earth Core Movement had reached its peak.
"Crack... Boom!"
The ice-crystal hemisphere, bought with half his arm's life, held for only a few dozen seconds before finally reaching its limit. With a deafening crash, the entire ice-blue shelter shattered apart like a glass sculpture smashed by a hammer!
Ice shards of all sizes, caught in a violent gale, shot in every direction.
With the last barrier gone, the grotesquely twisted rock walls and the destructive force of Earth Release bore down on Han at the storm's center without restraint!
The shadow of death had never been so clear, so tangible.
Yet at the very brink, as pain and despair threatened to consume his consciousness, an extraordinarily rational flame ignited in Mizuki Han's dim eyes.
His persecutory delusion and overwhelming fear of death now became the most powerful sedative imaginable, forcibly locking every chaotic emotion and physical agony away in an isolated "cage."
His brain became a precision machine running at incredible speed, with nothing left but logic and calculation.
[Analysis:]
[Enemy: Elite jōnin, specializes in Earth Release, possesses the nearly unbreakable Armor of Rock Body, and can use the large-scale terrain-manipulation ninjutsu Earth Core Movement.]
[Ally: Chūnin-level chakra, Ice Release kekkei genkai. Left arm has crystallized from overuse, lost its combat ability, and become a burden.]
[Battleground: Terrain completely destroyed, room to dodge reduced to a minimum, conventional attacks ineffective, defensive measures collapsed.]
[Probability of victory: Approaching zero.]
A string of cold data flashed through his mind.
But the calculations didn't stop.
[Opening: Out of jōnin arrogance and absolute confidence in his defenses, the enemy favors the most direct, brutal way of ending a fight. He... wants to finish this quickly.]
[Usable factors: My "dying" state, and this "useless" left arm.]
A plan, mad to the extreme, took shape in Han's mind in an instant.
If he couldn't defeat his enemy, he would deceive him.
If he couldn't escape, then... he would lure him in!
He would use his own flesh and blood—this already useless arm—as the final bait to lure a tiger into a trap!
"Rumble—"
The moment the ice sphere shattered, Mizuki Han's body seemed to be swept away by the violent shock wave. He staggered backward, his face showing just the right amount of shock and horror at the shelter's destruction. Clutching his left arm, now completely transformed into blue crystal, his body convulsed violently with "pain," and muffled groans escaped his lips.
Every glance, every breath, every twitch of a muscle distorted by "pain"—it was all part of a flawless, textbook performance.
He made himself look like a cornered beast that had exhausted every last card and had nothing left but a death struggle.
Just as expected, the jōnin in his rock armor stopped sustaining Earth Core Movement.
As far as he was concerned, the fight was over.
He had crushed the boy's final, life-burning struggle with overwhelming force. All that remained was to walk over and snap his neck like he was crushing a bug.
"It's over." The jōnin's hoarse voice carried the teasing air of a cat playing with a mouse, along with a note of finality.
He abandoned his control over the earth. It was too slow, and far too much effort for a target that could no longer fight back.
He stamped his right foot hard against the shifting rocky ground. His body shot forward like a cannonball, charging straight at Mizuki Han. As he lunged, he thrust out his rock-encased right hand. The stone before his palm writhed, reshaped itself, and sharpened!
"Earth Release: Earth Spear!"
A one-meter-long rock spear, gleaming with a hard sheen, extended from his arm, its tip aimed at Mizuki Han's chest!
No, more precisely, it was aimed at Han's crystallized left arm, the one he held tightly against his chest!
In the jōnin's judgment, that strange arm was the source of the boy's Ice Release. Destroy it completely, and all his hope would be gone.
Watching the rock spearhead rapidly grow larger, Mizuki Han's pupils showed the utmost "fear" and "despair." He seemed to try to dodge, but his body was stiff with "injury" and "shock," and his movement came half a beat too late. He seemed to raise his good right hand to block, but the arm only lifted halfway before drooping limply.
He looked like a deer caught in headlights, frozen with terror.
Everything pointed to one conclusion—he was beyond saving.
Seeing this, the jōnin's mouth curled into a cruel smile beneath his stone mask.
He could already see the next moment: the unstoppable Earth Spear would pierce that eyesore of a crystal arm and the boy's heart in one thrust!
Closer!
The spearhead sliced through the air, its shrill whistle right at hand!
"Shhk—!!!"
The sound of a blade piercing flesh rang out, but it was duller and harsher than expected!
It wasn't the sound of a weapon piercing warm flesh. It was the brittle crack of a hard crystal being forcibly pierced and shattered!
Without a doubt, the rock spear drove deep into Mizuki Han's completely crystallized left arm!
The terrifying force of the thrust drove his whole body backward. The spearhead entered at his elbow, pierced all the way up through his crystal forearm, and finally burst out below his shoulder!
Blue crystal fragments and dark red blood, frozen into icy shards, flew in every direction!
An indescribable agony, like the most violent lightning, struck Mizuki Han's nervous system in an instant! This time, even his brilliant rationality couldn't shut it all out. His body arched sharply, his face turning paper-white from the extreme pain.
A victor's grin spread across the jōnin's face.
He was about to put more force into it, grinding the Earth Spear through and pinning Han's body to the wall.
But at that moment—
Everything changed!
The boy, who should have been screaming and collapsing from pain, had eyes that had gone unfocused with agony. In an instant, they sharpened again!
The pain, despair, and fear receded like a tide, replaced by a madness and resolve so ice-cold that even the jōnin felt his soul tremble!
"Got you."
Mizuki Han's lips barely moved. His voice came out hoarse and faint, yet it wormed into the jōnin's ears like a curse from hell.
He hadn't been forced back by the Earth Spear's power!
Instead, with his good right hand, he seized the rock spear piercing his left arm like an iron clamp!
Then he braced his abdomen and kicked off hard against the ground!
In a posture that was practically self-mutilation, with no regard for his own life, he charged straight into the Earth Spear that had pierced him and hurled himself toward the jōnin with all his strength!
The jōnin's pupils shrank to pinpoints!
At last, he understood!
This wasn't the death throes of a dying man! It was a trap! A trap whose bait and price were his own flesh, bones, and life—the most mad, vicious trap imaginable!
He tried to pull back the Earth Spear and put some distance between them.
But it was too late!
Mizuki Han was too fast, too determined!
In a brutal instant, the distance between them closed completely!
Point-blank!
The jōnin could even make out his own shocked, bewildered face reflected in the boy's dark eyes.
And at that very moment, he saw it with horror: deep inside the boy's left arm, pierced by the Earth Spear and completely crystallized, a destructive mass of extreme cold chakra, compressed to its very limit, blazed to life like a volcano about to erupt!
From the very beginning, this arm hadn't been a burden. It was... a time bomb he had personally delivered into his own arms!
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