The massive mech was forced up from beneath the earth by Earth Release, the energy reactor in its chest lighting up.
Just as Neji's Star-Shattering Strike was about to hit its chest armor, the energy matrix's circuitry had already been completed.
The blue puppet mech's vector nozzles on its left side ignited instantly. After sacrificing a piece of chest armor, it dodged Neji's preemptive strike.
Neji circled the hundred-meter-tall mech as he attacked. Star-Shattering Strike collided head-on with the puppet mech's Chakra cannons, but the mech simply had too many gun barrels, bombarding Neji until he was in a sorry state.
If he had not alternated between the Body Flicker Technique and the Substitution Jutsu, Neji would have already taken several shots by now.
"There's a trap! Get out of here!"
Seeing the Konoha forces charging up behind him, Neji shouted for them to retreat.
"Trying to run? Too late. We've been lying in ambush for so long—we have to kill enough to make it worthwhile! Cangming Puppet Mech! Open the killing field! Hahaha..."
"Bzzzz—"
The Cangming Puppet Mech instantly rose into the air. A cannon barrel extended from beneath its chest armor, and a colossal pillar of energy blasted from it toward Tobirama and Konoha's strongest fighters at the front.
The roar of the Chakra cannon tore through the sky. A destructive torrent of energy poured down like heavenly punishment, and the ground beneath the Konoha forces cracked apart inch by inch beneath the shockwave.
The Sarutobi Clan's Earth Release: Ten-Thousand-Li Earth-Flow Wall was crushed to dust the moment it rose.
The Uchiha Clan's sea of flames was forcibly suppressed, while even Tobirama's Water Formation Wall vaporized into white mist upon contact.
"Damn it... there isn't even time to form hand seals!"
The Nara Clan head's eyes darted wildly,