"Kill!"
Just as the ninja on both sides were facing off, someone shouted, and the battle erupted in an instant.
First, several dozen Leaf ninja close to the Rock Ninja force threw the Kunai in their hands, but because there was no element of surprise, the Rock Ninja dodged them with ease, and they failed to inflict any effective casualties.
Immediately after that came the Rock Ninja's counterattack.
They completed their hand seals at high speed, opened their mouths, and spat out pebble after pebble.
The stones were still relatively small at first, but as they flew farther, they grew larger and larger, and before long they had become solid cannonballs that smashed toward the gathered Leaf ninja.
This technique was called Earth Release: Rock Iron Gun Technique. It was a fairly basic ninjutsu, and when used by one person, its power might not amount to much.
But once enough people used it, it was like a meteor shower, and its threat increased dramatically.
Fortunately, the Leaf ninja assigned to the forward defense sector were all quite capable, and no one suffered serious injuries because of it.
After one exchange, both sides confirmed that the other was not easy prey, so they simply gave up on meaningless attrition and began close-quarters slaughter.
Before long, the field had descended into chaos. Explosions, battle cries, screams, the clash of weapons—all kinds of sounds rang out without end.
Qian was still watching the battle up ahead.
Suddenly, a buzzing sound came over, like bees beating their wings.
"Bees?"
Qian's heart tightened, and he quickly looked in the direction the sound had come from.
He saw a bee the size of a human head flying rapidly over from the distance, with a large swarm of slightly smaller bees trailing behind it.
Almost without thinking,