The Uchiha Brat Who Wouldn't Burn to Death

That dark-red pillar of light was not pure energy.

It was liquid, boiling Lava compressed to the absolute limit.

The instant the pillar shot a hundred meters into the sky, it exploded with a thunderous boom!

"Meteor Volcano: Revised!"

Yan's voice echoed through the entire basin like a god's judgment.

The exploding Lava did not scatter in every direction like a true volcanic eruption. Instead, it condensed in midair into countless fist-sized Lava bombs burning with dark-red flames.

Then, like the densest torrential rain, they poured down upon the black ocean of snakes below!

This was not a battle.

It was a natural disaster.

A one-sided, utterly unreasonable—purge.

"Hiss—!!"

"Sizzle—!!"

Shrieks so miserable that no living creature should have been capable of making them rang throughout the space sealed by the barrier.

Tens of thousands of venomous snakes could not last even a second beneath that Lava rain. Their scales, flesh, and bones were instantly vaporized and evaporated the moment they touched the Lava.

That writhing sea of snakes, a symbol of death and venom, became a sea of burning charcoal billowing thick black smoke in just a few seconds.

The air was filled with the nauseating, pungent stench of completely charred protein.

Orochimaru stood there blankly. His pride and joy, the Myriad Snake Array—the war machine capable of destroying an army—was just... gone?

Washed away by a "rainstorm"?

He could even feel the chakra connections between himself and those summoned snakes snapping and vanishing in patches at an avalanche-like pace.

In the instant he lost focus, a black figure wrapped in scorching heat waves emerged step by step from the center of that sea of charcoal.

Uchiha En.

Not a speck of dust clung to him. Under the reflection of the surrounding dark-red Lava, his black Shadow Guard uniform looked like armor forged from obsidian.

"The warm-up is over." Yan rolled his neck, producing a crisp crack. "Now it's your turn."

Orochimaru suddenly came back to his senses. The sickly fervor in his golden slit pupils had been replaced by a deeper gravity.

"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"

He opened his mouth and spat out a violent gale, trying to disperse the suffocating heat.

Yet when that wind touched the air distorted by the high temperature around Yan's body, not only did it accomplish nothing, it was like adding firewood to a furnace, making the heat wave even more violent.

Yan's figure did not sway in the slightest within the gale.

"Cheap trick."

He stomped down, turning into a cannonball launched from its barrel. In an instant, he crossed dozens of meters and appeared before Orochimaru.

His right fist, wrapped in flowing dark-red Lava, shot straight toward Orochimaru's face.

"Hidden Shadow Snake Hands!"

Orochimaru's reaction was incomparably fast. Dozens of venomous snakes as thick as arms burst from his sleeves, winding around Yan's arm and body like ropes in an attempt to stop his attack.

However, the moment those snakes touched Yan's Lava-transformed arm, they met the same fate as their kin buried beneath Meteor Volcano.

They were burned directly into ash.

Seeing that fist, capable of melting steel, about to smash into his face, Orochimaru bent his neck backward at an unbelievable angle and narrowly dodged the blow.

At the same time, a flash of silver shot from his mouth!

"Kusanagi Sword: Sky Blade!"

The legendary divine weapon, the Kusanagi Sword, shot from his mouth like a snake's tongue, piercing through the air with a shrill whistle as it accurately stabbed toward Yan's heart!

This strike was fast, precise, and vicious! It could pierce any known defensive ninjutsu!

Yet Yan could not even be bothered to dodge this fatal blow.

"Clang—!"

A crisp metallic sound rang out.

The Kusanagi Sword's tip struck Yan squarely in the chest.

Then... it passed through.

As if it had pierced a phantom with no physical form.

Orochimaru's pupils shrank to pinpoints.

He clearly saw that the space around the portion of the sword passing through Yan's body was distorted by that terrifying heat.

Elementalization!

This was an ability he had never seen before, one that completely exceeded the scope of the ninjutsu system!

"Your toy... doesn't seem very heat-resistant."

Yan's low voice sounded beside Orochimaru's ear.

Orochimaru instinctively looked down and saw that the part of the Kusanagi Sword's blade passing through Yan's body was turning red at a visible speed. It was even beginning to melt, drops of molten iron falling to the ground with sizzling sounds.

A chill from the depths of his soul instantly swept through Orochimaru's entire body.

This divine weapon that could cut through iron like mud and sever anything was actually... going to melt?!

He wanted to pull back the Kusanagi Sword immediately, but it was already too late.

Yan's left hand had risen at some point and seized the blade.

"Sizzle—!"

White smoke rose.

That legendary divine sword rapidly softened and deformed in Yan's Lava-transformed palm like a candle, finally becoming a worthless puddle of molten iron that dripped through his fingers.

"No!!!"

Orochimaru let out a shrill scream.

It was not because he had lost a weapon. It was because his understanding of this world's system of power, which he had painstakingly built, had been completely and mercilessly crushed at this moment.

His pride, his confidence, his superiority as a "scientist"—before this utterly unreasonable monster that existed outside the rules, all of it seemed so laughable, so utterly fragile.

"Since you like snakes so much..."

Yan's voice was like Death's whisper.

His left hand, clutching that puddle of scorching molten iron, suddenly swung forward!

"Then try this."

"Dog-Bite Crimson Lotus!"

Under his control, that molten iron instantly transformed into a Lava snake burning with dark-red flames. It opened its gaping jaws and savagely bit toward Orochimaru, who had stiffened for an instant in shock!

Orochimaru was, after all, one of the Three Ninja. His combat experience was immensely rich. At the moment of life and death, he forcibly suppressed the horror in his heart and bent backward as though he had no bones, narrowly evading the Lava snake's bite in a bridge position.

However, Yan's attack was hardly that simple.

The instant Orochimaru dodged, Yan's real body had already followed close behind, appearing before him like a shadow.

"It's over."

Yan's right fist was no longer simply transformed into Lava. It had condensed into a rapidly spinning dark-red drill radiating an aura of destruction.

Hell Hound: Revised!

"Splat!"

There was no sound of bones shattering, nor any dull sound of flesh being torn apart.

There was only a short, muffled sound, like a red-hot iron rod thrust into snow.

Orochimaru's body froze in place.

Slowly and with difficulty, he lowered his head and looked at his abdomen.

A hole the size of a bowl had appeared there, piercing straight through his body from front to back.

The flesh around the hole had been completely carbonized. Not even a trace of blood flowed out.

Through that hole, he could clearly see the ground behind him, scorched black by Lava.

"You..."

He opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but all that came out was a cloud of black smoke carrying a burnt smell.

"I told you," Yan said as he slowly withdrew his right fist, not even a trace of blood staining it, "I hate reptiles."

Orochimaru's body swayed, then fell straight backward.

[ Ding— ]

[ S-rank achievement attained: Shame of the Three Ninja! ]

[ Description: The host used overwhelming power to defeat Orochimaru, one of the legendary Three Ninja, head-on, completely shattering his fighting spirit and understanding of the power system. ]

[ Reward: Magma-Magma Fruit evolution +15%! ]

[ Current evolution: 75%! ]

[ New ability unlocked: Armament Haki (Beginner)—can cover the body's surface with an invisible, hardened armor capable of attacking elementalized ability users and greatly increasing defense. ]

[ System notification: Armament Haki has awakened! The condition "withstand attacks beyond one's own level using the physical body" has been fulfilled! ]

Yan stood before Orochimaru's "corpse," looking at the information displayed on the system panel.

75%.

Armament Haki... it had finally arrived.

He knew Orochimaru would not die so easily.

Sure enough, the "corpse" on the ground suddenly shed its skin like a snake, "spitting" out a brand-new Orochimaru covered in mucus from its mouth.

The reborn Orochimaru's face was as pale as paper, and his aura had weakened to the extreme. There was no longer even a trace of greed in the way he looked at Yan—only the purest fear, etched into his bones.

"Monster... you monster!!"

He roared, then turned without hesitation into a streak of white light and crashed toward the basin's barrier, attempting to flee.

Yan did not pursue him.

He merely watched Orochimaru's fleeing figure in silence and slowly raised his right hand.

A black substance with a metallic sheen rapidly spread across his entire arm like ink.

Armament Haki.

"Orochimaru," Yan's voice rang calmly through the basin, yet clearly reached Orochimaru's ears even as he fled to the edge of the barrier, "next time we meet, remember to wash your neck."

"Because I'll twist it off with my own hands."