Deliberate Blast Punch!

"They've got a death wish, daring to compete with Lord Han in taijutsu!"

"After all, this is Lord Han, the Steam Ninja. How could these idiots with nothing but muscles in their heads possibly compare to him?"

"Tremble beneath the immense power of boiling steam!"

The surrounding Hidden Stone ninja burst into laughter. They could already foresee what would happen next.

This reckless, ignorant, utterly foolish arrogant fool would be torn to pieces beneath Lord Han's savage charge!

Samui was equally worried.

She was especially shocked by Han's strength.

These past few days, this was the first time she had seen someone capable of sending Sora flying in a direct clash of strength.

Most Hidden Cloud ninja specialized in ninjutsu-enhanced taijutsu, and this was most evident in the Yotsuki clan. Nearly all the techniques they excelled at, as well as their greatest strength, lay in ninjutsu-enhanced taijutsu.

No one could clash with a member of the Yotsuki clan in ninjutsu-enhanced taijutsu. Their bodies had been tempered to the extreme, developed to their utmost limits!

If he was at a disadvantage even in a physical clash...

Then this battle would likely...

"Wait."

The concern in Samui's eyes suddenly froze.

She sensed something different from Sora.

He was clearly being attacked by Han, clearly trapped within Boil Release, and looked utterly disheveled.

Yet at this moment, an aura no weaker than before emanated from Sora's body!

Violent, tyrannical, frenzied.

And...

Bestial!

Surging waves of blood-gold energy roiled without end, even eclipsing the brilliance of the strongest Lightning Release Armor bursting from Sora's body.

In the distance, Han seemed to sense something unimaginably terrifying. His eyes widened abruptly as he continuously retreated.

At the same time, the steam and chakra within his body intertwined into scorching, distorted [Heat Haze], making him appear as though he were covered in magma.

This was clearly an even higher-level method of boosting his steam-powered combat strength!

Yet after using this move, Han retreated instead of advancing, leaving everyone around him dumbfounded.

This Hidden Cloud ninja had already been beaten into such a miserable state. Why weren't you pressing your advantage? Why were you running backward instead?

"All ninja, withdraw immediately!!" Han shouted.

"Withdraw?"

A bloodthirsty smile appeared at the corner of Sora's lips. "Where do you think you're withdrawing to?"

Over the years, as his strength had continuously grown, Sora had not felt the fighting spirit within him surge so fiercely in a very, very long time.

It was impassioned battle intent, dopamine and adrenaline flooding through his body!

It was the bloodlust of a monster born from the fusion of Vastaya bloodline and Six Paths bloodline, upon finding prey worthy of being hunted!

Sora's body began to move slowly.

His palm, wreathed in bloodfire and lightning, clenched into a fist. The muscles across his body, already swollen and engorged, expanded once more, as though some unimaginable monster were about to burst forth from within.

—That was fighting spirit compressed to the absolute extreme!

Then—

He threw a punch!

"BOOM!!!"

The explosive air silenced the entire world.

Enormous blood-gold fighting spirit erupted like a storm, and everything in its path crumbled.

The remaining clouds in the sky were swept away by the raging shockwaves, while everything around them was ground directly into dust!

Houses collapsed, and the earth split apart.

The instant the blood-gold torrent of energy erupted, a nuclear-explosion-like blaze forced everyone present to close their eyes. Everything before the torrent—people, buildings, all things—was completely annihilated by that power.

It was too fast.

This punch, this strike, had been far, far too fast.

As the deafening roar faded, the survivors outside the torrent were completely stunned.

Before their eyes, before Yotsuki Sora, over half of Rock Town Village had completely vanished.

For more than a hundred meters, the ground was utterly empty. Only a hundred-meter-long ravine remained.

There were no corpses in the ravine, nor were there any broken walls or rubble. There was only one battered, gravely wounded figure.

"You bastard..."

The steam armor on his body had been completely wrecked. Blood streamed all over him, exposing torn flesh and muscle, yet those injuries quickly began healing at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Not only that.

As his body repaired itself, red, sinister chakra continuously spilled from his skin. Within a few breaths, the human body was entirely covered in tailed beast chakra, and several tails rose one after another behind him!

"It's finally coming!"

As Han's skin continuously split, burned, and peeled away, gradually transforming him into a blood-red half-man, half-beast, the light in Sora's eyes grew ever more fervent.

This was the kind of enemy he wanted—an opponent on this level!

Only by snapping the neck of someone like this, only by defeating something truly worth defeating, could he feel enough satisfaction and accomplishment in his heart!

"I really love punching bags like you that can take a beating!"

"Roar!!"

Perhaps sensing Sora's surging battle intent and fighting spirit, the blood-red monster let out a shriek toward the sky.

The explosive aura produced by that vast mass of condensed chakra made everyone present feel as though they were suffocating.

"Retreat! Lord Han has entered tailed beast transformation!"

"That guy actually forced Lord Han to this point?!"

"Don't joke around! That Cloud ninja is a monster too! Could an ordinary person really unleash attacks on that level?"

"Everyone, fall back ten li! No, twenty li!"

The Hidden Stone shinobi around them began retreating like mad.

Tailed beasts were walking natural disasters. Their battles could casually reshape the entire terrain, and a single technique could even destroy a whole city.

If they got too close and were caught up in it, they would be finished.

Samui, standing beside Kitsuchi, could not help swallowing.

Facing a monster on the level of a natural disaster, merely feeling its chakra filled her with terror and dread.

Tailed beasts were the most evil beings in the world, the embodiment of endless negative emotions.

Any living creature would feel fear in the presence of such an existence.

"Is that Han?"

Kitsuchi slowly regained consciousness, his brows tightly furrowed as he looked at everything before him.

Han, in partial tailed beast transformation.

Yotsuki Sora, his face brimming with madness.

And more than half of Rock Town Village, destroyed!

He knew that his capture would inevitably cause a chain of consequences, but he had never expected things to escalate this far.

Even the jinchuriki had been deployed, and the battle had reached such a level.

Samui took a deep breath, then grabbed Kitsuchi's arm, preparing to move away with her protective charm to avoid being caught up in the battle between the two monsters.

But Sora's indifferent voice interrupted her.

"No need to retreat."

"Huh?"

Samui looked somewhat dazed.

Looking at the monster before her, roaring and howling as it radiated a suffocating aura—

They still were not running, boss?

"Stay right there."

"My battle needs someone to cheer for it!"