Flames furiously consumed the Wood Release vines, generating suffocating heat.
Raito and the others at the center of the battlefield felt as though the air around them had grown extremely thin.
The ambient temperature was soaring at an astonishing rate.
Raito watched Nagato, who had begun sweating all over and breathing hard, and the corners of his mouth lifted slightly.
"Can't take it already?"
Raito raised his hand with a smile. Cool water appeared out of thin air, flowing around his body to cool him down.
Hashirama watched this fine control over chakra nature transformation and thought that perhaps even his younger brother Tobirama could not reach Raito's almost miraculous level of skill!
"Hmph!"
Suddenly, Nagato gave a heavy snort, clearly enraged.
Shinra Tensei erupted again in an instant, its terrifying wave of repulsion spreading rapidly in every direction.
The domineering force crushed all the burning Wood Release vines around him and blasted them away.
Even the flames filling the air were forcibly extinguished by the repulsive force.
The crater at the center of the battlefield grew even larger and deeper, creating a vast open area where the three could fight without restraint.
Raito's body slowly returned from his elementalized light form to its normal, solid state.
"Not bad!"
"Your Shinra Tensei seems a lot stronger than before. Is that because you absorbed the Eight-Tails' chakra?"
Nagato wore a gloomy expression and did not answer Raito's question.
Nearby, Hashirama leaped out of a pile of embers. Scattered flames still burned on his body, but they gradually died out.
As he was a body reanimated through Impure World Reincarnation, the charred, injured parts of his body began rapidly flaking away and regenerating.
"Let's keep going!"
"Those last few exchanges barely counted as a warm-up for me!"
Raito grinned, his eyes filled