Ignition!
He slammed the button.
Boom—! The missile silo cover exploded open, and blazing white exhaust erupted from the launch tube, illuminating the entire forest.
The West Wind hypersonic ballistic missile rose from the forests of the Land of Iron, trailing a long tail of flame as it pierced the heavens.
The missile rapidly climbed through the night sky, accelerating faster and faster.
Ten seconds later, the first-stage booster ran out of fuel. The missile body separated from the propulsion unit, and the booster wreckage fell toward the ground with its last flickers of fire.
It continued climbing, passing through the troposphere and the stratosphere. The warhead separated from the missile body.
The wave-rider glider unfolded, slicing into the edge of the atmosphere like a sharp blade.
It began gliding through near space, with no parabola and no predictable trajectory.
The wave-rider skipped and glided along the edge of the atmosphere like a stone skimming across water, rising and falling, veering left and right.
Terminal guidance activated. The glider lowered its angle, the warhead aimed at the ground, and it began its dive.
Its speed increased further—Mach 8, Mach 9, Mach 10—
The air before it compressed into plasma, wrapping around the warhead and turning into a blinding red streak as it descended from the sky.
Above the battlefield, Tianyi floated in the air with his hands pressed together, chakra surging from his body like a tsunami.
"Magnet Release: Metal Storm!"
The earth began to tremble. Kunai, shuriken, shattered ninja tools scattered across the battlefield, iron ore veins deep underground, trace metal elements within the rocks—all iron objects, all metal, answered his summons.
They rose from the ground, surged from beneath the earth, and converged from every direction like countless rivers flowing into the sea, forming a massive metal ring