Kisame Hoshigaki struck as swiftly as lightning. Samehada tore through the air, howling toward Ling with a ravenous hunger for chakra! Faced with a combination that had once struck terror into countless shinobi, Ling's gaze remained cold and calm.
He did not meet the attack head-on. Instead, he pushed the properties of Pure Water Release to their limit. Just as Samehada was about to reach him, his body seemed to become formless water, drifting backward along the air currents stirred by the blade with a suppleness and fluidity that defied physics-an application of Pure Water Release: Flowing Body Taijutsu.
The blade missed, and the red light in Kisame's eyes intensified. With a twist of his wrist, Samehada writhed like a living creature, turning its slash into a sweep as its massive blade swung toward Ling's waist! At the same time, he spat out:
"Water Release: Exploding Water Colliding Wave!"
An enormous wave of murky water, laden with violent chakra, surged into existence and crashed toward Ling from the side, trapping him between it and Samehada's sweeping strike!
Yet Ling's control over water had long surpassed the limits of ordinary Water Release. Facing the onrushing murky wave, he merely raised his right hand.
"Pure Water Release: Mirror Surface."
A mirror of pure water, thin as a cicada's wing yet perfectly flat and smooth, instantly formed beside him. Exploding Water Colliding Wave slammed into its surface but failed to budge it in the slightest. Instead, as though it had struck the hardest glass, most of its force was perfectly refracted and diverted, sending spray flying everywhere without harming Ling at all! As the chaotic chakra within the murky wave touched the pure water mirror, it even seemed to begin being repelled and purified!
"What?!" A flicker of disbelief crossed Kisame's savage face.