Sea of Explosive Tags and the Killing Barrier

The flames dispersed, and thick smoke billowed.

The once-steel factory was now nothing but a massive circular crater, its edges still continuously melting. At the bottom of the crater, surging, boiling magma constantly evaporated the cold rainwater, creating vast clouds of scorching white steam.

Yan stood at the center of the crater, completely unharmed.

That Great Eruption had not only swallowed dozens of incoming ninja along with their ninjutsu, but had also utterly reshaped the terrain.

His Observation Haki swept the surroundings. More than ninety percent of the "little rats" lurking in the shadows had already vanished.

Those remaining were all tough opponents.

"As expected of 'Lava.' You truly live up to your name."

A steady voice came from the edge of the crater.

Dozens of figures slowly emerged from the swirling steam, surrounding Yan on all sides.

At their head was an Iwagakure jonin with a scar across his face and eyes as sharp as an eagle's. He wore an Amegakure forehead protector, and the chakra fluctuations emanating from his body were far stronger than those small fry from earlier.

Behind him stood members of the Iwagakure Demolition Corps, along with several Amegakure jonin whose auras were cold and sinister.

"Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Rock, captain of the Iwagakure Demolition Corps." The scar-faced man looked at Yan, his eyes holding no fear, only the excitement of a hunter spotting prey. "We've been waiting for you for a long time, Konoha's 'Humanoid Natural Disaster.'"

"So those earlier ones were merely appetizers." Yan's tone remained calm. "Is the main course finally being served?"

"You could put it that way." Rock grinned, baring a mouthful of pale teeth. "To entertain such an honored guest, we've prepared a grand gift."

He abruptly brought his hands together.

"Earth Style: Earth Core!"

As he formed the hand seals, the ground beneath Yan began to quake violently.

The magma crater he stood in, along with the ground for several hundred meters around it, suddenly collapsed downward!

Yan's body sank as the scenery around him rapidly rose.

In mere seconds, he fell from an open stretch of ruins into a massive abyss-like canyon over a hundred meters deep.

Steep rock walls rose on both sides of the canyon, while the only exit had been completely sealed off by enormous boulders.

"Catching a turtle in a jar. A very stale tactic." Yan looked up at Rock and the others standing at the canyon's edge, gazing down at him like gods, his voice laced with mockery.

"Against a monster like you, stale but effective." Rock sneered and made a gesture.

The next second, countless points of light suddenly lit up across the rock walls on both sides of the canyon.

They were explosive tags activated by chakra.

Countless explosive tags covered every inch of visible rock wall like grotesque vines. From the canyon floor to its peak, they formed a scalp-numbing white ocean of paper talismans.

"Thirteen thousand seven hundred specially made explosive tags." Rock's voice echoed through the canyon, carrying a trace of cruel delight. "Each one is powerful enough to level a house. They're connected by special chakra threads and can all be detonated at once, with an error margin of one hundredth of a second."

"We've studied your ability, 'Lava.' Your body can become elemental and is immune to physical attacks. Your extreme heat can evaporate ninjutsu. But..."

Rock's expression became incomparably savage.

"Even an elemental body is still, at its core, a collection of energy and matter! It still exists within this space! We don't expect the flames of the explosions to burn you to death. We'll use the purest, most primal—shockwaves generated by detonating tens of thousands of explosive tags at once—to crush you, along with the space you occupy, into powder!"

"To enhance the effect, we've prepared another gift at the top of the canyon."

As his words fell, dozens of Iwagakure and Amegakure ninja appeared at the canyon's edge at the same time, their hands forming seals.

"Earth Style: Earth Flow River!"

"Water Style: Great Waterfall Technique!"

A torrent of mud and a towering deluge poured down from above, cascading toward the bottom of the canyon.

Their purpose was not to attack, but to "fill."

They would fill the entire canyon with mud, sand, and water, making the shockwaves denser and more inescapable!

This was a killing setup.

A three-dimensional death trap with no blind spots, meticulously designed to counter Yan's elemental form.

In their eyes, even a true Kage-level powerhouse would have only one path before this disaster-class attack capable of instantly reshaping the terrain: death.

Yan stood at the canyon floor, looking up at the mudslide and waterfall crashing down from above as he sensed the increasingly violent chakra fluctuations coming from the surrounding rock walls.

His Observation Haki clearly "saw" that the energy within every explosive tag had reached its critical point.

The air grew thick and oppressive.

At this moment, time seemed to slow infinitely.

"They really do think highly of me..."

Yan muttered under his breath. It was impossible to tell whether there was admiration or disdain in his voice.

He slowly raised his hands.

He formed no seals, nor did he show any sign of preparing a large-scale ninjutsu.

He merely raised his hands before his chest, interlocked his fingers, and slowly clenched them.

A black substance with the cold sheen of metal emerged over the surface of his fists.

Armament Haki: Hardening!

The black armor spread up his arms, covering his shoulders, chest, and neck before finally enveloping his entire body.

He became a pitch-black demonic statue, as though carved from obsidian from the deepest depths of hell.

"Naive."

The two words came from beneath the black faceplate, his voice muffled yet carrying an arrogance that could look down upon all things.

"You think numbers can overwhelm quality?"

"You think this is what you call a 'desperate situation'?"

"Today, I'll show you..."

"What truly defies reason."

Yan spread his feet slightly, lowered his body, and assumed a solid horse stance.

His fists, covered in black armor, drew back to his waist as a power far more terrifying and condensed than magma frantically gathered and compressed within them.

"Rock, detonate them!" An Amegakure jonin shouted urgently from above the canyon. He could feel the terror of the power below.

"You don't need to tell me!" Cold sweat beaded on Rock's forehead as well. He no longer hesitated and viciously crushed the detonation tag in his hand!

"Die! Lava!!!"

"BOOM—!!!!!!!!!"

All thirteen thousand seven hundred explosive tags along both sides of the canyon detonated at the same instant.

The world lost its sound.

And its color.

Only white remained.

A pure, destructive white light powerful enough to burn straight through the retina.

An indescribably terrifying shockwave compressed inward at the speed of light from every direction toward the black figure at the center of the canyon.

Even space let out a groan of unbearable strain before that power.

Energy capable of leveling mountain ranges converged upon a single point.

Yet at the very instant that destructive white light was about to swallow everything—

A deep roar, like the awakening bellow of an ancient demon god, resounded from the center of the white light and shook heaven and earth.

"Armament Haki: Impact... Armor!"

A black, visible ring-shaped shockwave made entirely of pure Haki exploded outward from Yan, spreading in every direction!

Black and white.

The impact of Haki and the impact of explosions.

Two utterly different destructive forces collided violently in the cramped canyon in the most brutal, primal manner possible!

There was no earth-shattering explosion.

Only an instant of eerie silence.

Then the entire canyon, along with the land for thousands of meters around it, was silently, completely... annihilated, like a cookie crushed by an invisible hand.